I never liked my family’s lake behind our ranch. It always gave me a strange sense of fear whenever I’d look at it. Even for just a second. I’m not really sure why or what reason I had to be so afraid of it but, nonetheless I was. I remember how my father would always try reassuring me and telling me it was fine. No matter how much he told me though… I never did end up believing him. The older I got the more I thought it was just because of some phobia I had. However… this seemed more serious than some phobia. I started having nightmares every single night of something or someone pulling me into the water, and killing me. Other times I’d dream of someone simply holding my head down into the water… and every single dream, I could feel the pain. The pain of my head bursting with an intense pulsating sensation that my heads exploding. It wasn’t until one night… my cat, Mr Crumbs, went down to the lake. I saw him on the edge of the lake from my window… and then I saw him fall in. My whole body froze, becoming cold and I was having cold sweats. It felt like the world around me slowed down, and my heart stopped for a second. I quickly ran outside from my bedroom window towards Mr.Crumbles… I quickly walked into the water, picked him up and walked back to the surface. As I stood there holding him and shivering with him.. I fell asleep with him in my arms on the ground. Then, the next coming morning, I heard crying and screaming. It woke me up immediately. My eyes shot open, I quickly looked around me. Only to see my family in front of me closer to the edge of the lake. My father and mother along with my grandparents. They all seemed so sad and upset. I couldn’t figure out why so I went up to them. “Mommy? Daddy? Why are you crying?” I asked, when I got no response, I asked again. This time.. my father looks at me and smiles. This wasn’t a happy smile though. This was a smile of pure malice. I grew scared and hugged Mr crumbles tightly. My father slowly moved out of the way so I could see what they were all crying for. That’s when I saw it… it was my body, laying down on the cold icy ground along the lakeside. I was holding a stuffed cat… the same color as my cat in my arms… I was confused and scared. I looked so pale and weak. I wasn’t moving or breathing either… I turned to look at my family. They were gone, I looked back at my body, it was also gone. Now feeling completely afraid and scared, I turned back around to run home. Only to be stopped by my dead body. The eyes were sunken in and full of blood, some of it leaking out and down the face. Her hair wet and bloody as well. Her white dress covered in blood stains and dirt. Her stuffed cat that she held in her left hand was also stain with blood, and ripped in a few places. She stared at me for a good minute before grabbing me by the hair and dragging me to the lake. I tried to struggle against her.. my cat jumping out of my hands and hissing at the dead version of me from the shore. It wasn’t until I couldn’t hear the hissing anymore that I realized she was submerging me into the water… I couldn’t feel anything.. or hear anything all that well. I was too focused on trying to free myself. I wasn’t moving full of fear and panic. My breathing rapid and labored. Until she dragged me under, and I couldn’t breathe. The ice cold water surrounding my whole body, I wanted to scream but couldn’t. She was scratching my body all over the deeper she dragged me under. My worst fear was coming true… and I couldn’t do anything about it. My weak little arms just couldn’t fight her, by the time she let go, I was too weak to swim back up. In that moment when I thought I was dead… I opened my eyes in my bed. I turn to see my husband next to me, and my cat on my lap. He was purring and sound asleep. I looked up at the ceiling as I processed what just happened. “Strange…” I mumbled, “I don’t remember having a lake behind our house as a kid.”