The Lake

There will always be those simple things or ideas that fill each of us with dread. To others they seem inconsequential, not menacing in the least. On the surface they may even seem that way to us, but just below the surface lurks something that provokes an ancient and inexplicable terror. The kind that expresses itself in nightmares and quickened heartbeats, waking you up in dark of the night just to remind you that even when in the waking world nothing can shelter you from those primal feelings. Of course, when I speak of this it is quite apparent I make reference to my own experience. Unlike the majority, however, I have discovered my terror to be more than an unexplainable feeling. I have discovered my fears to be founded, and this has increased them tenfold, skewing my perceptions in a darker direction. Since those days in which my horrifying discovery took place, I have been unable to so much as entertain the idea of going near any body of water. The oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers of the world are all forbidden to me now by that survival instinct rooted deep within us all. I often wonder why my dread is not shared by all, but I suppose if the world felt as I do it would cease to exist in its current state. It seems ignorance is for the best, and it is because of this that I have failed to speak of these events prior to the current time. But these dark secrets eat away at what sanity I have left. My survival instinct once again drives my actions, and it now pushes me to divulge, to anyone and everyone who will listen, the history and events of the days leading up to the loss of my ignorance and what occurred that brought about that loss.