Chapter 1 – Chap 1

This summer, I’ll be staying at my uncle’s lake house.

My parents decided it’d be good for my sister and I to ‘escape technology for a bit’ – experience the outdoors and whatnot. So, they’re sending us to my uncle’s. Despite not wanting to go, I’m actually fine with staying at the lake house; judging by the pictures it’s beautiful there, and I’ll get to explore the surrounding woods which really appeals to me. It’s just, my uncle – Uncle Curtis.

He’s my dad’s older brother. He’s in his 70’s, and I’ve only met him a handful of times. He tends to keep to himself at family gatherings, that’s if he turns up, and always seems on edge. My sister, Natasha, finds Uncle Curtis scary. Natasha is younger than me; she’s 11 and I’m 15. She’s also mute. She doesn’t speak to anyone, not even to me despite how close we are. She’s never spoken. Nobody knows why, they could never figure it out. But she relies on me, my little sister.

My eyes drift onto her as she stares out the car window wide-eyed. She’s nervous. I’ve begged my parents for them to stay with us at the lake house, but they’re having none of it.

“Uncle Curtis has agreed to host you girls, not us!” is my dad’s favourite excuse, laughing as we drive through the gates which signal our arrival to the house. The driveway leading up to it is long; I start to feel a degree of nausea the closer we get; I hide this from my sister.

“Emily, make sure you’re watching over your sister. She might be a bit nervous, and – ” my mum begins.

“Natasha? Nervous?” my dad bellows from behind the steering wheel, “only thing Natasha should be nervous of is us replacing her with an even cooler kid whilst she’s away!”

Natasha stifles a smile; dad is always so good at calming her, something that I’ll have to learn to do at the lake house.

“Gonna replace me too, dad?” I ask.

“Couldn’t replace you, Em,” he responds, a giant smile on his face, “who else would I smash at chess without you around?”

“Emily,” my mother turns to face me as the lake house comes into view, “be nice to your uncle. He’s different, yes, but he’s family. Alright?”

I nod as the car stops.

We’ve arrived.

We file out and dad starts to pull our suitcases out the back. The lake house looks even prettier than in the pictures. Enshrouded by surrounding woods, the tall wooden house stretches high and wide. Three rows of large windows trail up above the front door; three stories. The front entrance leads out onto a small porch, which we step onto as dad approaches the door and rattles his knuckles against it.

The door slowly opens and we are greeted by the familiar face of our uncle. His grey beard strews down his neck, casting a shadow wherever it decides to jut out. His eyes, still sad; just as I remember them. He is a tall man, towering over Natasha and me. His white hair is ruffled.

“Hello, Curt!” dad laughs as we all go inside and begin the formalities of a long-winded catch up.

–

As my parents drive off the reality that I’ll be here for the entirety of summer dawns on me. It’s intimidating, but I’ll make the most of it. As for Uncle Curtis, I’m not sure where he’s gone; I think he went downstairs after showing us where we’ll be sleeping.

Natasha and I are sharing a room on the third floor; which also hosts a bathroom and a small lounge area. We each have our own bed on opposite sides of the large bedroom. The room is mostly empty; its defining feature being the oversized windows that overlook the lake out the back of the house. The lake stretches far and has houses dotted along its shores. I’ll explore the lake soon; first, I turn to Natasha who sits on her bed rummaging through her suitcase.

“You know Tash,” I say, “I don’t think Uncle C stands for Uncle Curtis. I think it stands for Uncle Creepy.”

A smile slowly creeps across her face as she shakes her head and continues to unpack. She’s such a sweet girl. I often wonder why she doesn’t talk.

–

Dinner was strange. Uncle Curtis had called our names from downstairs and left food for us on the table but he didn’t sit with us to eat. Instead, he shut himself in his office adjacent to the dining table. We could see him through the glass door; he was writing profusely. Occasionally, he would look up and smile at us or give us a thumbs up. I thought that was quite sweet, actually.

Now, Natasha and I are in our bedroom once more. Uncle Curtis said we could go to sleep whenever we want, which is really cool. He also said that tomorrow we would all go down to the lake and he’d show us his boat. I’m actually really excited about that. The more I think about it, the more I feel I’m actually warming to my uncle. He’s odd, sure, but he seems sweet.

Natasha leaves the room, I’m assuming to use the bathroom.

A few minutes later, she returns holding something. She walks over to me and offers it to me, her arm outstretched.

“What’s that?” I lazily ask as I glance to and from the pages of my book. It looks like an old piece of paper that’s been rolled up and tied with a small black ribbon.

Natasha holds her arm in place; outstretched, still offering me the paper.

Sighing, I rest my open book on my chest and take the paper from Natasha’s hand.

As I untie the ribbon, I feel a strange sense that I am making a mistake by doing so; as if something bad will happen, something wrong.

I stop untying it and look up at Natasha, who still holds out an outstretched, although now empty, hand.

“Tash, where did you get this?” I warily ask. She stares blankly at me.

“Tash, nod or shake your head, okay?” I ask.

She nods her head.

“Did you find this in the lake house?” I say.

She nods her head.

“Did you find it in our room?”

She shakes her head. I notice her outstretched hand now hosts a slight tremble.

“Do you know what it is?”

She shakes her head once more. The house feels darker with every question I ask.

“Tash,” I quietly say, “should I open it?”

She stares expressionlessly at me, neither shaking nor nodding her head.

“Is something bad going to happen if I open it?”

Her extended arm quickly lowers, snapping to the side of her body. She blinks, the first in a while, and starts to laugh.

“Tash are you just fucking with me?”

She nods, still laughing. I scoff, embarrassed at how uneasy I had felt. I untie the ribbon.

The paper rolls out, revealing what appears to be a drawing. I stare at it for a few seconds before realising it’s a map of the lake house! The map is portrayed as a birds eye view of the house; similar to blueprints except these have been hand-drawn quite poorly. The lines that signify walls are not straight, are faded, and appear to have been rushed.

There are six sections on the map; each individually separated from another.

The bottom right section; an array of rooms I don’t recognise. A basement, perhaps?

Following from that though, in the section next to it, I recognise the layout of the entire ground floor. I recognise where the dining table sits, the kitchen, the front entrance hall, Uncle Curtis’ study.

On the left of that, I recognise the first floor, and above that, the second. Uncle Curtis uses the first floor for storage, mostly. It’s also where he keeps all his knick-knacks, art, and a lot of his files. On the second floor; Uncle Curtis’ room, his bathroom, and his second study. In this study, there is a small ‘x’ pencilled into one of the corners.

The next section of the map is the third floor; me and Natasha’s room, our bathroom, and the small lounge opposite.

The final section of the map is another series of rooms that I don’t recognise. An attic?

I look up, scanning the ceiling before taking note of an attic door that sits on the ceiling above Natasha’s bed.

“Tash, look”, I say to her as I begin to talk her through the map. Her eyes widen with excitement as I explain that it’s a map of the house.

“What do you think that ‘x’ is?” I ask. Natasha looks up at me with a big grin on her face. I know what she wants to hear next.

“Should we try and find out?” I say, “maybe when Uncle Curtis has gone to sleep?”

Her smile beams wide, and so does mine. This might just be a fun summer after all.

–

I check my phone; 12:13am.

“Oi”, I hiss to Natasha, “Tash, it’s been a few hours. If we’re gonna do this, let’s do it now.”

She sits up instantly, jumping to her feet and landing with a silent trod. Her excitement makes me happy; I just want her to have a good summer.

I leave my bed, and soundlessly pave my way to the bedroom door before opening it with a creak. The corridor outside is dark, but I’m not afraid. I lead Natasha toward the spiral staircase that will take us to the floor below.

Before we descend, I quickly refer back to the map, asking Natasha to hold it whilst I use the flashlight on my phone to determine the exact location of the ‘x’.

“Okay”, I whisper, “it’s the far right corner when we go in. Cool?”

She nods before rolling the map up and taking the first step.

The staircase creaks and groans each time we plant our feet, but that doesn’t stop us. Soon, we’re in the dark corridor of the floor below. The study is the first door on the right. It’s opposite Uncle Curtis’ room which is thankfully shut.

The office door is unlocked as we pass through it and quietly shut it behind us.

My eyes take a second to adjust to the darkness. As they do, I make out large bookshelves either side of the room. At the far end there is a desk with a monitor on it. An assortment of paper, folders, and files rest on the same surface.

“Come on,” I whisper, “quick.”

Natasha follows as I pace toward the far right corner of the room.

We reach it, passing the tall bookcases.

The corner doesn’t seem to be of any significance. There isn’t even anything here, just a small paper shredder. Despite my doubt, I want to keep Natasha’s excitement alive.

“Look for something”, I say, “anything.”

No sooner than I say that, I feel profuse tapping on my shoulder.

I turn and see Natasha pointing at a piece of wooden flooring that sits slightly higher than its surrounding counterparts.

“Huh,” I murmur, “interesting.”

I kneel down and grip the sides of the slightly elevated piece of wood. It’s loose.

I pull it open, revealing a small, brown leather pouch beneath it. I pick it up and something rattles within.

“Come on”, I whisper, “let’s bring this up to our room and open it up.”

–

Natasha and I sit on her bed as I fumble with the bag.

“Look, it’s tied up. There’s something inside it,” I say as I begin to untie the tight string. I’m sweating, so is Natasha; the excitement is too much. I didn’t expect to find anything, if I’m honest, so I’m curious as to what this is.

I pull the string loose and drop it onto the mattress. As I open the bag, the contents within rattle some more. I clear a space on her mattress and tip the bag upside down.

Hundreds of small, flaky objects fall onto the mattress. I let out a whimper and drop the bag; both Natasha and I stand up and move away from the bed. I stare at the pile of the bag’s contents; each piece looks inconsistent, transparent, dry. It’s only as I approach the bed once more that I realise what they are.

They’re nails. Human nails.

Hundreds of them. Hundreds of fingernails, toenails, scattered all over the mattress. Nausea hits me; the dusty smell of fingernails proves too much for Natasha as she takes more steps back and covers her face.

“Tash, I – ” I stammer, before noticing something resting by the leather pouch I had dropped. A small piece of paper, carefully folded.

I reach down and pick it up, unfolding it to see what it contains.

It reads:

You’re here in this house

But soon you’ll join us in this pouch

Unless you’re careful, watch your back

Follow the clues, follow the track

The hint that I provide to you

Shine a light on the map, a light that is blue