{Lake Mungho} By {Nancy Collins} About “who the fuck knows” words {Author Surname} / {Title Keyword} / 1 Chapter {#Prologue} {A little inside before the storm} The terror began — as far as I know — on December 13 of 1986, when a small mansion by the side of Lake Pascal burned to the ground. There wasn’t any sign or some kind of warning before, it just happen. There were no storm clouds blocking the sun, death fish floating in the calm waters of the lake, or ravens flying over the house like a swarm of bees. It was like a casual occurrence, as normal as someone waking in the morning and going to bed in the night, or the Sun rising in the east and setting in the west — it was completely different at how the Karras family would later face their own horror when they eventually moved into the property almost forty years later. The incident in question was declared a total loss. The investigation of the local authorities ruled that the cause was a {Author Surname} / {Title Keyword} / 2 short circuit in the chandelier that hung in the main room. In the house there were about fifteen people who were attending a social event. Two survived. The owner of the house and the grounds of Lake Pascal, Elias Mungho, died in the unsuccessful attempt to lead his guests through the intricate corridors to the only doors of the house. The two survivors were his wife and daughter, who were on the second floor of the property and escaped through a window when the situation escalated. The five-year-old girl apparently had insisted her mother stay in her room on the aforementioned second floor because, in her own words, a "white-faced monster" was in the room with the rest of the guests. The two survivors were slightly injured. At least physically. 1 A year after the house fire, the small town of Starville where Lake Pascal was located, held a commemoration for the deceased and those who survived. The mayor declared that from now on, Lake Pascal would be renamed Lake Mungho, in honor of the late Elias, for his financing of the textile factory "Genco", one of the symbols of the city and that also helped it survive the disappearance in 1968; as well as his widow Marian, who helped Genco expand and become a national corporation, which transformed the then town of Starville into what it is now. Two bronze busts were manufactured in honor of the couple, {Author Surname} / {Title Keyword} / 3 which will be exhibited in the history museum of the city and in addition to fourteen plaques with the names of the other victims of the incident that would be displayed in a monument in their honor near the lake. It is said that the idea of celebrating the marriage for their contribution was always on the table and that the incident only accelerated the plans, but you are never sure with the rumors of the people. Both Marian and her daughter were present at the ceremony, but left the venue shortly after due to the little girl having a fever and headaches, although some of the guests noted that the girl looked quite healthy throughout the day and only began to complain of discomfort when the busts were revealed. During the ceremony, Marian Mungho spoke about the future of Genco and stated that she would take the place of her late husband as the new president of the company, but that she would sell the land of the newly named Lake Mungho and move closer to the city, hoping to leave the shadow of tragedy behind and start a new life with her daughter. 2 The little girl wake up exactly at one and forty-five in the morning, as she had done every night for the past year. Outside of her house, the wind was blowing strongly and moving the branches of the trees, causing them to hit the wall of her room. It almost sounded like someone was hitting the wall with its {Author Surname} / {Title Keyword} / 4 clenched fist. Dead people , she thought. No, she told herself that it couldn't be like that, that nobody could reach her there, because she had never seen a dead fly and she slept on the second floor of the house that her mother had just bought. She used to see them walking, sitting or just standing, but never flying. She knew that wasn't possible, or to her six-year-old mind that accepts everything she sees, at least that was her understanding. But with the things she had seen, it might as well be. Another hit. No, it had to be the wind and the branches. Just like her mother told her so many times after waking her up in the middle of the night because there was a monster under her bed, or in her closet, or outside her window, or even standing by her bed. She pulled the sheets up to her head, hugged her legs and tried to calm herself. It wasn't the first time she found herself in a similar situation and it would not be the last one. The girl did n’t remember exactly when she began to see the "dead people" as she called them, she only knew it was before her old house burned down. At first they were only shapeless shadows or whispers that came from the walls and that she could barely hear, then those shadows began to take shape, they were not just barely visible, now they were people and the voices were now clear and understandable. {Author Surname} / {Title Keyword} / 5 She heard steps outside of her room. Mom... It wasn’t possible, but it was the first think that crossed her mind. But she knew her mother had been drinking until late afternoon, though not in the large amounts she used to after the fire. The probability that she was awake was low, very low, and the girl knew it, but she needed to be sure. She got off the bed and her little bare feet hit the cold floor. She walked to the door, opened it and poked her head looking both ways as when crossing the street, only that inside the house there were no cars, there were other things. Things that made her heart race and her skin crawl. Things she thought shouldn't be real, things everyone told her weren't real, but they were, because she saw them. She saw them every day in the park, on the street, in the kindergarten yards, and especially at the hospital when the little girl and her mother passed nearby on their way home. She saw them everywhere and they saw her directly in th e eyes and spoke to her... but she did not answer them, fear paralyzed her. The fear of their pale faces, their sunken eyes, their decomposed purple fingers with their flesh open enough to see their white bones and bleeding veins. Some didn't even have fingers, or arms, or legs; others had no meat and she saw nothing but walking skeletons, like in those old pirate movies that Lorelai, her babysitter, loves to watch. Turns out, there was nothing on the hallway ... at the moment. The little girl sighed in relief, after a year seeing and hearing {Author Surname} / {Title Keyword} / 6 dead people she was probably starting to hear things when there were none. She wished Lorelai was there. Lorelai was like a big sister to her. She was always watching horror movies after she tucked her in and thought the little girl was sleeping. But she wasn't sleeping, she could never sleep well. One time, the girl slipped away to the living room when Lorelai was watching a movie in which a burned man with a glove- claw in one of his hands killed people in their dreams. She remembered the man very well, because he was identical to the people who were in her old house when it burned down and now came to visit her on occasions. Another thing she remembered from that movie was the young girl who fought fearlessly against the burned man and won, a girl named Nancy. The girl liked the name and wished she had been called that, deep down because she would like to have the strength to face dead people in the same way that Nancy faced the burned man. The little girl decide to return to sleep... but suddenly, she froze in place w hen she heard a step behind her... inside of her room. Her eyes widened in dread and she felt her heart jump from her chest to her throat. She didn't even dare to look back to confirm it, she knew something was there. She jump into the hallway, crossing it with great strides, then she went down the stairs to the ground floor with such speed that she almost tripped on the first steps, that could have been another tragedy {Author Surname} / {Title Keyword} / 7 and even with the mind of a six-year-old girl that she possessed she understood perfectly what were the consequences of such an accident. When she reached the last step she turned around and in the darkness of the night she could still make out something: a very tall shadow, almost six feet tall, standing in the hallway just in front of the stairs. The girl couldn't make out what shape it had, if it had one. She also did not have time to take a better look, because at the moment the shadow came down a step, the girl ran straight to her mother's room. The bedroom was in a corridor identical to the one on the second floor, just below to be exact, the difference is that this also connected with the kitchen and this in turn connected with another corridor that led directly to the staircase forming a large "U". She thought that if her mother was too asleep to listen to her, then she would run down the hall and go back to her room as fast a she could, hoping that whatever the shadow was couldn't open doors. She knocked on her mother's door once. “Mom.” Nothing. Not a noise. She looked up the stairs. The shadow was already right on the middle step. She knocked on the door again, this time harder. “Mom.” Again, nothing. She looked up the ladder again. The shadow was already on the {Author Surname} / {Title Keyword} / 8 first floor, and in the moonlight through the window she could see that the tip of its head was crowned with a deer-like antler and she could also see its eyes, a pair of yellow spheres that stared directly at her. Her heart raced in dread once again. She heard flickering sounds followed by static. At her right, a green dim light caught her attention for just a split second, but it was enough time for her to know it was her mother’s old radio that just had turned himself on. From it, a distortioned and corrupted haunting voice emanated, singing its own version of once a beautiful song her descended father used to sing to her mother, but this voice wasn’t her father’s because he was no more. This voice was something else, somehow human and somehow not, and it wasn’t singing to her mo ther... deep down the girl knew that the voice was singing to her. ‘ You're mine! And we belong together! ’ ‘ Yes, we belong together!! For eternity! ...’ The shadow reached out its hand, took a step towards her and the girl slammed on the door with all her strength. “Mom!” This time she didn't wait for an answer, she ran down the hall and could hear the footsteps of the thing behind her, now heavier... and faster. She turned into the kitchen and ran down the hallway straight to the staircase, jumping the steps two at a time without {Author Surname} / {Title Keyword} / 9 thinking for a single moment to look back. Is different She thought. It's like the one in the old house. She went into her room and closed the door behind her. She ran up to her bed, grabbed a small lamp that she kept under her pillow and stared at the door. Her body tensed. A couple of seconds passed and the heavy footsteps were heard again outside in the hallway, just on the other side of her door. Whatever it was knocked on the door twice. The doorknob turned right, then left, then right again and stopped. The footsteps were heard again, traveling from her door to the end of the hallway and then all the way back to the staircase, as if the shadow was walking while thinking. It cannot enter She told herself, almost with an air of certainty. The steps creaked top to bottom, then bottom to top and again stopped at her door. The girl tensed again. The doorknob moved once more, this time only to the right with an almost full turn... He cannot enter. She thought again, now trying to convince herself. A " Click " was heard. The door creaked as it began to open ... He cannot enter! The girl covered herself with the sheets, the steps traveled from her door to the side of her bed and stopped. Her heart was {Author Surname} / {Title Keyword} / 10 beating so fast she felt like it was about to explode. She closed her eyes, expecting the worst. One hand pulled the sheets off the girl. And her mother's voice calling her name suddenly drove her worries away. “ Danielle, honey. What’s wrong?! ” She opened her eyes and there she was, her eyes narrowed and red from the abrupt awakening she'd just had, and her blonde hair a complete mess. She smelled of alcohol, but there was not a hint of dizziness in her voice. “ Are you okay, baby ? I heard you scream at my door.” The girl did not respond, just lunged towards her and hugged her tightly. The wind blew once more and, just like before, another blow was heard outside. "Did the wind scare you again?" Danielle nodded quickly without taking her face off her mother's chest. “It’s ok, honey It scares me sometimes too. Do you want me to stay with you tonight? “ Yes. ” Marian Mungho lay down on the bed next to her daughter, who was clinging to her with all force. “ What if tomorrow we go for a walk, just you and me? ” "But, now it's just you and me, Mom." Her mother responded with almost a whisper, “ Yes, you're right, honey. It's just you and me now. ” {Author Surname} / {Title Keyword} / 11 They spent about ten minutes hugging each other, without saying a single word. Danielle knew that dead people didn't come near her when she was around her mother. It was like a mosquito repellent to them. The footsteps of the shadow were not heard again in the corridors, or on the stairs. Just the hit on her wall that came from outside the house, but it was okay. She knew that before it could be a spirit, or the branch of a tree, but now with her mother lying next to her she was sure that it was a branch, so she fell asleep peacefully a couple of minutes after her mother did. Danielle Mungho couldn't hear it, but around two fifteen in the morning, there was another blow, but no wind outside.