11:13PM

“Pete? Pete?!?”
Annabelle kept screaming his name, trying to figure out where he went.
The lights were flickering on and off and an electrostatic buzzing accompanied them, making this whole scene even more creepy…
She was turning, from left to right, looking around to see if she could catch a glimpse of him in between the moments of complete darkness. The flickering of the light bulbs did not help to see straight; it was making her dizzy. But how well she tried scanning the living room, it looked like he disappeared into thin air.
Terrified she started to walk past the coffee table, touching it with her fingertips as if she was caressing it. “Pete!!”
Her voice was trembling and she felt like she was choking. With every scream, her voice started to wear thinner.
A tear was slowly making its way down her cheek as she was starting to feel completely helpless.
Where did he go?
One second ago he was standing right there next to her, holding her wrist.
The next, when the lights went off for like one or two seconds tops, he was gone. Vanished, just like that. The only thing that was left of him was the blood stain on the floor where he stood before he was gone.
Disoriented and confused, Annabelle passed the La-Z-Boy recliner that she hated so much. But Pete wanted it so bad so she gave in and they bought it. It was completely out-of-place in their beachy interior, but ever since he saw it, he had to have it. And even the despicable blue led lights in the beer can holder were going on and off with every other light in the room. Gave this ugly chair even more reason to be thrown out with the garbage.

Her heart was empty, but getting heavier at the same time. A nauseating feeling in her stomach almost made her vomit. While she held one hand in front of her mouth, she stumbled further across the room. But she had no idea where to go. The doors were still closed and Pete did not have time to leave the room. He had to be somewhere. It was all so confusing. “Pete! Where are you!! Say something!”
Then all of a sudden the lights stayed out for a few seconds. Then they seemed to all be burning just a little bit and getting brighter slowly. Annabelle took a deep, shaking breath and stared at the four fixtures above the coffee table. They were getting to the point of burning like normal. But… They didn’t seem to stop and became brighter and brighter.
Until the point that she had to turn away and close her eyes. All the lights in the room were now so bright, it was impossible to see anything, to even open your eyes.
With her eyes closed, the pinkish view she had from the light shining through her eyelids became so intense, she had to put her arm over her eyes.
The electrostatic buzz was pitching higher and after a loud bang, it was completely silent and dark again.

One hour earlier.
Pete was stumbling towards the front door. It was so freezing cold he could hardly feel the huge, deep wounds on his right leg anymore, but it was still too difficult to lean on it.
His face was a pale blueish grey and frostnip was already setting in on his lips and nose.
The jeans were stuck to his leg where the wound was, the enormous amount of blood that spilled out was already frozen.
He had been out in this cold forever it seemed.
With all of his strength he tried to reach the front porch, leaning on the branch he broke off of a dead tree in the forest.
Looking over his shoulder, he didn’t see anything, but he could still hear the heavy breathing closing in.
What was that?
Just a few more steps and he would be inside. Hopefully Annabelle was safe.
He opened the door and closed it right behind him. “Annabelle! You in here?”
“Pete? Is everything alright? Where have you been?”
“Babe, I need you to lock up the back door and every fucking window in the house. Now.”
“Pete?!? You’re bleeding! What… What happened to your leg? You need to go to the hospital!”
“There’s no time for that now, do as I told you right now. I’ll explain it in a few. He’s after me! Lock everything up! Hurry! And go get me some towels and some clothes. Please.”
Annabelle ran to the kitchen and locked up the door. She went to see if there were any windows unlocked.
Pete closed the curtains in the front room and peeked through them to see if he could see anything coming.
“Are you gonna tell me now what the hell has happened to you?!?”
“Okay. Get into the living room and I’ll explain.”
The two entered the living room after turning off the lights in the other room.
“Honey, I’ll get you something for your leg.. We need stop the bleeding”
“Sit down. It’s already stopped. It’s frozen”
“That doesn’t do anything…”
“Just listen… I’m alright for now”
“Stubborn as ever…”, she whispered.
“I followed him through the woods. And when he stopped by the lake there was something… I don’t know… This… this… Bright orange light came out of the lake and rose up to the sky and he started to chant this weird thing. I… I haven’t seen anything like it. When he stopped chanting, he held his cane high up in the air and then smashed it back down on the ground and some sort of steps seemed to appear into the water. It was like they were made of water… He walked down them and I decided to follow him down… But halfway through he turned around, but it wasn’t him… It was… like a monster… Like, it’s head was all fucked up, and when he noticed me he jumped right at me with a crazy roar. I turned around and started running, but I was too late and the fucker grabbed me. I think he bit me. I kicked him in the face and then I saw the water closing above me. I knew had to get the hell out of there, so I rolled over and somehow I ended up in the freezing water. No steps to be found anymore, just the lake and fuck, it was freezing. When I got out, I looked around if he was there, but couldn’t see anything. My leg started hurting and burning, but the snow and ice helped… Then I tried getting back home and that’s it. I’m here now. Haven’t seen him following me, but I could feel he’s out there. I could hear him breathe, but…”
“Let me see this…”. Annabelle helped him out of his jeans and looked at his gnawed up leg.
“You look like shit… We really need to have this checked out, pronto.”
“Yeah. But this fucker is still out there… Wrap some bandage around it or something. I don’t know, just hand me one of them towels right there.”
“I’ll just get you some bandages, hold on.”
She went to the kitchen and got her first aid kit.
“Here, honey. Let me…”
The warmth in the living room slowly started to melt the frozen blood and it dripped on the floor. The wounds now started to hurt more and more. It stung like hell.
Pete told Annabelle to get some supplies and his gun, while he would clean up and slip into his dry clothes. When she brought everything into the living room, she sat down next to him.
“So what’s the idea of all this?”
“We need weapons. And I have no clue how many bullets we need. If we run out, we need to able to defend ourselves with whatever we have.”
He grabbed his hammer and a piece of wood and jammed some nails into it, creating a drum beat to the whistle of the old Willie Clock. It was eleven o’clock.
“Here. This should do some damage…”

A loud bang on the front door made Annabelle jump up. “What the.. Is that him?!”
Pete got up and grabbed her wrist. “Easy babe… I don’t know… Here, grab this.”
He gave her the redneck Morgenstern and took his gun.
The lights went off and the front door slammed open.
A thundering roar almost blew them off their feet… The lights went back on for a second.
Then they went back off as the front door slammed shut again.
It was pitch dark and a terrible stench filled the living room. Pete squeezed Annabelle’s wrist tighter as she grabbed his shoulder and crawled behind him.
All the lights in the room started to flicker on and off and when Pete looked towards the hallway, the door seemed to disappear and appear on and off. Every time the door was gone, he saw a strange creature staring him straight in the eyes, standing upside down on the ceiling. And with every flicker of the lights it seemed to move closer.
Pete raised his gun and pointed in the direction of the creature. The next moment the lights went on, the creature had his hand on the gun and opened his slimy, terrifying mouth which twisted into a mirthless grin. Pete looked at, what seemed like hundred fangs, and just before the lights went out he yelled: “Annab….”

“Pete? Pete?!?”
He was gone…

In the distance she could hear a fading roar leave her.
All the lights in the house were broken.
Annabelle fell to the floor and all the emotions came out…
She started crying and mumbling. Was this really happening? What just happened anyway?…
Pete disappeared and he’s hurt… Is he still alive?
She looked around, confusion was taking over. She tried to get up, but the knot in her gut started to twist and turn and it made her sick to her stomach.
“Pete…”
Why was this happening to them? Why now? Who was behind this? Who took Pete? Was this even real?
All these questions and so much more ran through Annabelle’s mind.

They had lived in New York City for 7 years and that is where they started their business that made it possible to buy this dream house up north. They had to, though.
This is where the problems started.
And with their business, or rather little scam, they made their fair share of enemies.
People who they made deals with and never got their products, wanted their money back. Usually small mom & pop stores, small businesses, but they also did business with the kind of people you rather walk away from. And these were not the kind you messed around with, because they weren’t afraid to just put a bullet between your eyes.
But the money came in like water from a new well and the more Pete and Annabelle got, the more they wanted. It all seemed so easy, until they screwed over the Marcesi family business. The Marcesis put a price on their heads, so they had to run.
Now they have been living here for a little over a year now. Off the grid, no one around for miles and no one knew where they were. Or so they thought.
Was it the Marcesis? Was it someone they owed money?
But what had Pete said about the lake? About what he had seen? If all of that was real, it couldn’t have had anything to do with New York…

Annabelle gathered her thoughts and got back on her feet and walked to the hallway.
In the drawer of her old cabinet she found a flashlight and turned it on.
She could see some sort of dark footprints, or rather claw-like, in sets of two: on the floor, on the wall and even the ceiling. Like they were burnt into it. They ended in the hallway, though. It’s like they didn’t leave through the front door. The last pair of prints were in the middle of the hallway and next to that was a puddle of rusty-brown goo…
Annabelle shone her flashlight on it and kneeled down. She took the front door key out of her pocket and stirred the brown mess with it… The slime dripped down like melting cheese, it was disgusting. It even smelled disgusting…
She stood up and wondered if she should go outside and see what was out there… Should she go out to the lake? Is that where he went? Annabelle grabbed her winter coat from the rack.

She slowly opened the front door and looked through the opening.
The snow seemed green from the lantern outside and the porch looked flaming red like it was on fire. It was a creepy sight, against the pitch dark night sky and the gloomy outline of the black trees in the forest. Other than that she saw nothing… No sign of Pete.

Annabelle decided to go outside and look for Pete.
The further she walked into the woods, the less green and more white the snow became.
There were no footprints in the snow, no sign of anything. Just the white snow drawn into a black background of nothingness. The only light was that of the moon, but it was too cloudy for it to come through and be of any use to her.
Then all of a sudden she heard the sound of a snapping twig just 10 feet away.
Her heart pounded out of her chest while she held her wooden weapon in the air, ready to strike. But she saw nothing. She turned around and started swinging her bat all around her, scared as she was.
In the distance she heard the roar again. She stopped swinging and started to breathe again, thinking to herself “Thank god, he’s not here with me…”
But she had to go on. She had to find Pete.
Behind those rocks she would be able to see the lake. She started walking faster until she was able to see the moon shine in its reflection on the water.
What now?…
She walked up and down the shore to see if she could see anything that would remotely resemble an entrance. But it was just the lake. Just water. As far as she could see, it was just the still water without any ripple.
Annabelle started to feel completely lost. Where did he go? Why was there no trace of him?
How was she going to be able to find him?
Again she walked along the shore. First to the left, scanning the ground, the water… Nothing…
She wanted to scream, she wanted to just run into the water and start bashing.
Confusion, anger, despair, sadness… So many emotions at once…
And just when she wanted to give up she saw something…
She walked towards a rock sticking out of the water. It looked like it had part of a handprint on it. When she got closer she saw it was indeed the bloody print of someone’s hand. It had to be Pete’s…
She started to scream his name: “Pete!!! Where are you?!? Peeeete!!”
No response.
“Pete!! Say something! It’s me! I’m here!! Pete!”
Her terrified scream echoed across the lake, fading into the night…

Tears were starting to blur her vision. She slowly started to lose her grip on the piece of wood she was desperately holding on to ever since Pete gave it to her. Her knuckles started to hurt, her fingers were feeling the cold and it was an impossible task to straighten them.
The Morgenstern fell to the ground and hit the water. The splash made her jeans wet, but she didn’t feel it at all. She was already cold all over and the pain in her hands and in her heart was already dominating everything else.
Screaming Pete’s name started to fade into oblivion until she was just whispering it.
She fell to her knees in the water and started sobbing. Was she ever going to see him again?
Was he still alive?…
As if things weren’t bad enough, it started to snow again and the cold wind felt like it was cutting her face. The water started to move back and forth over her legs and feet. The cold was starting to burn and sting.

As she tried to get up, her heart sunk down deeper. Although she was determined to find him, she knew it would be impossible too. Was she supposed to just walk through the water? Go in deeper, hoping she would find the stairs? But what if there was nothing out there to find? She really didn’t want to think about it, but what if Pete was already dead?
No… She couldn’t believe that. She couldn’t just give up on him like that.
She had to go and find him. Or she would never be able to forgive herself.
Through the stinging pain of the freezing water and her breaking heart she lifted her head up and started walking further into the water. She regained her strength and ignored everything that was hurting her.
Deeper and deeper she walked into the lake.
“Pete!!”
As the wind was blowing harder, the water was hitting her in the face.
Not thinking about how she was going to survive this, she moved on yelling his name.
Then, right in front of her, the water started to bubble, like it was boiling.
Slowly the water started to rise into a wave. A wave that was not moving, only growing taller. Annabelle looked at it, confused. What was happening? Within seconds the pillar of water was towering above her like a threatening guardian of the lake, ready to strike down on her.
She slowly walked backwards, not diverting her eyes from the rising giant.
What was this??
The piece of wood she dropped earlier drifted towards her and bumped against her leg.
Without looking at it she knew it was her weapon and grabbed it. Its sharp nails were penetrating the wet skin of her right hand and when she quickly lifted her hand, the Morgenstern, heavy from the water, ripped her flesh. She cried out in pain and saw the blood flowing out, mixing in with the lake.
Another try at the Morgenstern with her left hand while she clenched her right fist, holding it against her chest. The warm blood was starting to run down her arm.

She swung her weapon out to hit the colossus, but it went right through and didn’t seem to do anything.
Instead the huge watery wall grew two arms with fists and they came crashing down with a terrible speed down towards her.
Annabelle’s eyes widened from disbelief, she instinctively turned around and started  running back to the forest.
Before she could reach the shoreline, the two enormous fists crashed down right into the very spot she was standing just a second ago and the ground started shaking. An explosive tidal wave began to move its way to her and in the blink of an eye, it reached her, lifted her in the air and threw Annabelle into a tree. All the air escaped her lungs from the force she was thrown into it. As if she wasn’t already in excruciating pain, this made it even worse.
She felt her ribs crack and just before she thought she was going to pass out, she fell down to the ground on her back. This prevented her from losing consciousness.
She tried to move, but nothing cooperated.
Her eyes turned to the back of her head, realizing she was no match for this monstrosity.
Slowly she started wishing she was dead, or that it was her who had been taken instead of Pete. Slowly she was giving up.
What more could she do?
There was no way she would get out of this alive if she was going to keep fighting, even if that was possible, the way she was feeling right now.
Her whole body seemed lifeless, except her eyes, looking left and right and up to see if she could figure out what was going to happen next. But the way she was lying there, she could hardly see anything but the dark sky and the tree she was thrown into.
Her lungs were fighting to start breathing again, but it was so painful.
A faint cough here and there was as good as it would get.
The tree above her was still dripping water on her, from the enormous amount that splashed onto it.
A thundering roar startled her and made her head turn a little to the side. She could see the creature flowing back into the lake and become one with it.
Then a deep sigh followed by a gurgling cough escaped her. A calm came over her and she finally passed out.

3:29AM
A foul stench that resembled rotting meat and sulfur slowly woke her up. She opened her eyes and looked up at a bright red sky. She moved her head and saw she was still at the lake shore, on the ground, next to the tree.
It was difficult but she managed to get up.
The whole forest had a dark red glow over it. She turned around towards the lake and to her surprise it seemed gone…
Where the lake used to be was just big deep crater. She walked towards the ridge to see what was down there.
It seemed like there was some kind of stairway down, carved out, starting just four feet from the shore and going all the way to the middle of the lake, but it was too deep and far and dark to see where it would end.

Annabelle debated if she would go down and see what was at the bottom of the stairway.
It all seemed so unreal. Would there still be a chance Pete would be down there? Or if he would still be alive? She gathered all her courage and decided to go on and follow the stairway to the middle of the lake.
The sand around the whole lake looked like it was dark red. And why was the sky so red?
She looked up again and it hadn’t changed. Really everything had a red glow, as far as she could see. What was happening?
She looked back to see how far she had gotten already and the shore seemed miles away above her. Still a long way down, though.
The further she went down, the more pungent the stench became. It was terrible. She didn’t know if she would be able to take much more, if it got even worse. This was not the kind of smell that you would even start to get used to in time. This was beyond nasty and unbearable.

After what felt like hours, she seemed to be closing in towards the end of the stairs. She looked up the never-ending orange pit she was in and the opening on top had become so small, it seemed like a tiny hole in the sky.
Down, at the bottom there was a door.
Annabelle opened it slowly and looked inside. There was a long dark hallway with a light at the end.
Determined but still scared she went inside and walked towards the end.
She entered a strange room, with a high ceiling. A massive chandelier hung down from it, lighting up the room. The walls had paintings all over them. Demons, dragon-like monsters destroying cities. It was a bloody display of brutally murdering mankind. What was this room?!? There were no doors. Nothing that indicated even another exit than the entrance she came in.
In the middle of this room, which actually looked more like a crypt, was an altar with a big, red diamond on display.
What was she supposed to do? Where was this monster? Where was Pete?
She walked up to the altar.
It looked like the diamond was moving.. Shaking even. But faster than she had seen anything move before. It was unreal.

Dare she touch it?…
She looked around. Nothing but the terrifying painted walls and that one door opening through which she came. Leading back to the pit.
Then she noticed something on the wall.
It was a depiction of the altar in the room. Annabelle moved closer to look at it.
Eleven demons were surrounding it, on their knees, like they were worshiping it. And one creature was standing next to it, with a long cape. The shadow of a hood made it impossible to see its face, but two red eyes were visible from underneath it. Was this their demon leader?
She walked around and saw six more representations of this dark creature on the walls.
On the opposite part of the wall she saw that in the last one he was holding the diamond in one hand. The glow almost revealed its face. It was white-grey and wrinkly, but it was kinda familiar, like she had seen it before.

Annabelle walked back to the diamond. Slowly she moved her hand towards it.
The closer she came, the more and faster it seemed to vibrate. Should she touch it?
Her hand got closer and closer until she almost touched it. She hesitated for a second.
Then all of a sudden the diamond jumped up and touched her hand, and she couldn’t do anything but hold on to it.
She was paralyzed.
She felt like the diamond flew upwards, taking her with it, through the ceiling in a dizzying speed. Blackness all around her as she went faster and faster, higher and higher. She couldn’t even keep her eyes open.
Then an explosion and in midair and mid-explosion, time stood still.
The diamond was shattered in a million pieces everywhere, as far as she could see. Just like heavy rain that had somehow stopped in time.
Two red lights in the distance came closer.
They looked like eyes. No. They didn’t look like eyes.. They were eyes!
Was it the dark creature from the paintings on the wall??
The eyes came closer, burning a hole through her soul.
She could almost see its distorted face. It was too horrible to look at, but she couldn’t look away.
It was terrifying..
It was gruesome..
It was…
…Pete?

And one more terrified scream echoed across the lake, fading into the night…