Scenery flies by as I run to the lake at the edge of the woods. Maybe it’s adrenaline, but I barely notice the burn in my legs or the fire in my lungs. It feels like only seconds before the suburban landscape gives way to thick trees and cold, shadowed air. And then, after stumbling through the path that led me to this nightmare, I break out into the fresh air surrounding Lake Lamont.

It’s empty.

Bradley’s boat is still floating in the middle, and even though I swear there had been other families coming to the lake when I left barely an hour ago, they aren’t here now.

No one is here.

Not even ducks swimming or fish splashing or birds flying through the sky.

The lake is eerily silent and still. If I thought the woods had been cold, the lake is downright freezing. The storm I’d seen earlier has drawn overhead, filling the sky with dark gray clouds that rumble with unspent thunder. And yet, it feels cold enough to snow. I’m honestly shocked that my breath doesn’t come out in puffs.

Clutching the sketchbook to my chest and trying not to shiver, I follow the path out to the pier, to where I found Rachel drawing the other day. There’s no one there. No boats. No nothing.

Where is she? Where are Rachel and my sister?

A terrible thought crosses my mind:

What if it’s all a trick? What if Jessica is already drowned?

“I was wondering if you would show up,” Rachel says from behind me. I gasp and turn around. The sight of her almost makes me scream.

Before, Rachel had looked mostly human. But that illusion is gone, replaced by the monster she has become.

She wears a sundress that sags in tatters off of her skin. Her flesh is bleached out, translucent, revealing gray muscle and sharp white bone beneath. Lank hair hangs in wet chunks down her bony shoulders, framing a face that looks like a deep-sea anglerfish—her face is shortened, widened, and her mouth splits it in two, her teeth long needles, her tongue a pale pink worm. Only her eyes retain a semblance of her former self—sky blue but glowingly so. Even in the dark gray sky, her eyes burn with an inner fire.

“Do you like my new look?” Rachel asks. She gestures to her face, and even her hands are transformed— her fingers are long and spindly and tipped with sharp black nails, and a thin webbing stretches between her talons. “I should thank you. It’s all because of you.”

“I’m sorry,” I say. The words come out as a sob, and I realize I truly do mean it. I hold her sketchbook to my chest like a shield. Not that I think the layers of paper would stand a chance if she chose to attack me.

“Sorry?” Rachel says. “Why should you be sorry? We should be thanking you, Samantha. After all, if it weren’t for you, we would never have become like this.” She stretches her arms out to the sides and lifts her chin to the sky. “Finally, we feel strong. We feel powerful.”

“But you’re a monster,” I whisper, even though I hadn’t really meant to say it.

Her head snaps back to me, hair slapping against her skin. “We’re a monster?” she hisses. She takes a step toward me, and her voice changes, once more sounds like multiple voices in one, all scrambling to crawl out from the bottom of a deep, dark well. “How dare you call us a monster when you are the monstrous one!”

“I know,” I say. I take a step back. “I know, and I’m sorry. I never should have been mean to you, Rachel. I never should have—”

“What is done is done,” Rachel snaps. She smiles, tilts her head like a predator examining its prey. “Rachel is no longer here, Samantha.” Her voice sends chills down my spine. I take another step and feel my foot hit the edge of the pier. If I take one more step, I’ll fall in. “We have devoured her. As we shall devour all who oppose us.”

I try not to think of what might be waiting in the water behind me, what might be reaching out with clawed hands.

“Who … who are you?” I ask.

Rachel gestures to the lake with her gnarled hand. At her beckon, the surface roils, as if there are thousands of creatures trying to get out.

“We are those who lost their voices and their lives to this lake. We are the dead. The drowned. The lake is hungry. Can you not feel it? It is cursed. It has devoured so many lives and will continue to do so. But when you gave us Rachel, we found an escape. Through her, we can walk the earth once more. Through her, we can be human.”

“What do you want?” I ask.

She reaches out and presses one long nail to my cheek.

“To be free,” she says. “To feel the sun on our skin, the air in our lungs.”

It doesn’t sound horrible. I mean, if I had been drowned, I’d want the same thing. To be alive again. Her next words chill the thought from my mind.

“That is why you will help us,” she says. “Why you will continue to help us. You will bring us more bodies. More hosts.”

“What?”

She doesn’t answer. Just smiles and points to the far edge of the lake.

And there, on the grassy shore, is Jessica. Ropes bind her tight. And behind her are three people I never thought I’d see again: Bradley, Mario, and Christina. Even from here, I can tell they’re different. The sun glints off their pallid skin and their hair hangs wet. And their eyes … their eyes burn white.

“What are you doing to her?” I yell out. I want to run over there, but there’s no way. I’m at the end of the dock and I would not only have to push past Rachel but make my way around the lake. I’d never make it.

Unless I swam.

“Don’t worry,” Rachel coos. “We won’t hurt her. Much. She will be the next vessel. You brought us so many bodies, Samantha. So many.”

“Let her go!”

“Why? You don’t care about her. Just as you didn’t care about Rachel. You wanted her gone. And you want your sister gone.” She reaches her hand out and presses that bony talon to my chest. “Deep in your heart, you want everyone gone. That is why we were able to take over Rachel’s body. She wasn’t a mistake. She didn’t fall in by accident. You pushed her in. You wanted her to disappear. Your will allowed us to inhabit her. You allowed us to take her away and make her our own. Your hatred allowed us in.”

“No, no, it’s not true,” I say. But isn’t it? I was so mad at Rachel that afternoon. So mad at everyone. The monster in front of me is right: I wanted everyone gone. And the lake gave me my wish.

Rachel laughs.

“It will all be over soon,” she says. “First, we will take over your sister. Then we will claim the lives of everyone in this town. Everyone who wronged us. Everyone who forgot about us. Just as you wanted. We will make everyone you hated disappear. You should be grateful. You are finally getting your wish—when we are through, there will be no one left to hurt you ever again.”

She cackles and stares down at the water.

There, under the placid surface, are hundreds of bodies. No longer fully human, their translucent skin and pale gray muscles sliding under the surface like eels. Eels with razor-sharp teeth and white eyes and long, spindly arms tipped with razor talons. They squirm and slip, clawing toward me. The entire lake is filled with them. So many lost souls.

So many drowned.

Rachel smiles down at them, then looks to me.

“Soon, my friends. Soon.” She looks to Jessica. “Let us begin.”

On the other shore, my sister screams.