Mystery Lake

[26] Eugene

After this introduction, the man sniffled once and rubbed his eyes gently. He fumbled to his right and retrieved a smartphone with a case that complimented his already colorful appearance.

"Just ten minutes off. Oh, hey, mom. I guess the sign I put on the door fell off again." The man elaborated to the six of them that the shop was temporarily closed for his afternoon nap. "It's a bother to lock everything up in this building, so I usually put up a sign up saying that we're closed for an hour. I guess it didn't stick well enough… Or I forgot. Anyway, not important. How can I help?"

The man's mother puttered around behind him, picking up a broom and casually sweeping some mud away from a spot. Roxy had plenty of lingering questions about how on earth the guy could be in such a rock-heavy state of sleep and immediately bolt up at a single, specific sound. They weren't critical questions or urgent questions, but they were absolutely bugging her at the moment. It seemed that the others had similar thoughts and concerns. Miranda didn't deflect to them as she presented the key issue.

"I'm a student of Miss Clifton's at Ferris University in Grand Rapids. I found that she cited you several times as a notable local folklorist. We've run into problems where what we thought were just stories have turned into something much more serious, and we need some help."

The man's quick response caught Roxy's eye. His cheerful, light demeanor first tilted downward, his lips settling like a tiny, deflating balloon. He attempted to restore that initial level of exuberance, but it was a painful effort. He set his hands on the counter and drew in a breath as if to calm his thoughts. Roxy could tell that he knew something.

After rubbing his forehead a few times and brushing his thin beard, the man cleared his throat and properly introduced himself as Eugene Triton. "Yes, I have a very professional academic connection to Miss Alice Clifton. We communicate by email, maybe once a month. I met her a little over two years ago when she needed my help for… a local research project involving details of a lake just south of here. A place rich in folklore and legends. Our first interactions were relatively brief. I was skeptical of her claims and her overall scientific approach. But we came to an understanding."

It sounded to Roxy as if Eugene had more to say than that, but his voice trailed off. The mother gave a slight chuckle through her nostrils and continued sweeping.

Miranda took a deep breath. "Did Alice Clifton encounter any supernatural beings commonly referred to as fairies or other entities in the fairy lexicon?"

Eugene's face twisted with a wide range of emotions, most of them uncomfortable. "That is a question best addressed directly to Miss Clifton. I wouldn't want to speak for her or break confidentiality about the contents of our correspondence."

Ross asked bluntly, "What was his name before he jumped into the lake?"

Eugene's mother immediately stopped sweeping and glanced over. Eugene grimaced and brushed off his tie-dyed clothes before taking a long breath. "Sounds like you folks have some peculiar questions in mind. I don't know if I can help you with all of them, but I'd be happy to offer you what I can find out about local folklore and certain types of supposed supernatural creatures. Let me grab a few things."

As Eugene hustled over to one of the bookshelves, his mother flashed him a skeptical look before resuming her work. Ross shifted around with a clenched fist, as if he wanted to find some so-called trinket set nearby and punch it bitterly in revenge for not getting a clearer answer. Miranda squeezed her thumb against her forehead and waited warily. Layla scanned her surroundings, specifically looking for the best and most interesting toys she could discover nearby, or at least the most interesting puppets.

Chiara was existentially puzzled and deeply worried that none of them had specifically addressed the problem at hand. Jake seemed increasingly ready to find the nearest available cushion, no matter how dusty, and call it for the rest of the day. Roxy would have had no problem sharing that bounty with him.

Though it took a while, Eugene returned with several loads of specially sorted tomes. He began, "There are a variety of modern interpretations of fairy tale structures, myths, and folkloric traditions. Creatures that can turn into wolves, red dwarves, the routine Paulding light in the Upper Peninsula, and more. But specifically, to Fae matters in local folklore, I have materials related to house spirits such as Boggarts, doppelgängers, and the Hollows.

Roxy lunged forward with animated interest at this last point, while the others released murmurs and similarly encouraging notes. Eugene selected a particular item from the stack to focus on.

"The Hollows. Parasitic. Name comes from the fact that they hollow out their human victims and use them as hosts, like skins or masks. Apologies for the unsettling imagery and descriptions. What mainstream culture treats as fairy tales and what they actually are is a wide gulf between the highly sanitized and the darkly disturbing. For example, many supernatural entities often present a foul, rotten, or putrid aroma. It's the best way to distinguish them from something normal. The Hollows have no such warning signs. They can present the presence and illusion that nothing is wrong until it's too late to escape. They will feed their victims, though the food they offer has no real value, and instead starve, and it will eventually contain hypnotically powerful substances to keep their victims from ever wanting to leave. They usually inhabit abandoned human spaces and fashion them as alluringly as possible. If you ever run into one, you're advised to make yourself as disgusting as possible to their polite sensibilities. They have immense pride and a low tolerance for unclean human things. Though even that may not be enough to escape their clutches. A very dangerous species. Their taste is prideful, and they enjoy eating others of their kind who wander into their illusions."

Eugene apologized in several ways for that description, recognizing that it was a very light gloss containing unsubstantiated elements of folklore patched together succinctly. Then he focused his attention on the four ladies in the group, as if he were worried about offending their sensibilities as much as one could offend these Hollows. Like Miranda had been doing, Roxy squeezed a hand to her forehead with her fingers pressing into the skin as if she could easily peel it back to reveal something critical beneath. The common quality between that damn diner and that fucking trucker was that each of them clearly mistook the group for fairies, and she couldn't figure out why.

Miranda reassured the proprietor that all these details were immensely appreciated and quite helpful. Taking a careful breath, she relayed a physical description of these entities, which Eugene's resources were sorely lacking, aside from vague mentions of dark skin and jagged teeth. Eugene's body language made his suspicions clear. Ross looked like he just wanted to blurt out all the shit they were holding in. Roxy got there first.

"We went to this lake, and we went in it. Ever since, a bunch of unnatural creatures think we smell like a bunch of fairies. And the six of us changed physically. I don't need to know if Miss Clifton had the same experience. That's her business. If you know anything about what we do now about it and about all these monsters trying to crawl up on us, it would be greatly appreciated."

Roxy felt proud of this version of what she wanted to say, as opposed to being super nicey nice about it or being uncomfortably blunt in a way that would piss off Ross, though she suspected Ross might still find something objectionable.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Eugene gave a cough, which he promptly smothered with his elbow, and then took a few breaths to recover before answering, "I don't know the name of the lake or all that much about it. But I learned about it from Alice. She learned about it from someone else, though I was never privy to the exact details. She had an experience at the lake, which is all I would prefer to say. But the six of you probably understand what I mean if you're referring to comparable changes."

The mother set the broom down against the wall and sighed in exasperation as she broke into the conversation. "It's a fletching bit swapper lake. Ladies become gents, and gents become ladies. Alice was such a sweetie during the time she spent with us. She had quite a few troubles, too. I gave her some helpful recommendations. She's got the jumbo tabungas, as the kids might say. I can see that that's not an uncommon result for those who have been to that place." Her eyes flicked to Chiara and Miranda, who both did their best not to react with bright embarrassment and failed.

"Mom… Really...? Yeah, Alice experienced a life-changing happenstance during her time in the area. And that's as much as I'd prefer to elaborate on for the sake of personal privacy. If you're willing, I would like to interview each of you to better understand the phenomena. This would be done in a very private, comfortable, and safe setting where nothing you say to me would leave that room. I would exercise the utmost reticence and care." He cleared his throat and almost glanced behind him at his mother, who had narrowed her eyes.

Miranda responded the best to the analytical tone and decorum, wrestling with her own fortress of philosophically charged science-y words to arrive at her response, "I am delighted by your academic interest in the phenomena. I'd like to help. Maybe if it was just the lake. But we're trying to figure out what we can do to keep these Hollows and other fairy species from trying to harm us, aside from what you've already mentioned."

Eugene nodded vigorously. "Of course, of course. In fact, since Alice was here, I've actually collected a wider variety of preventative suggestions, just in case. It varies by culture and tradition, but among the key suggestions is to turn your clothes inside out. This can free you from the lure of their magic and glamour when you are in an unfamiliar place. Tokens are said to be effective—a small piece of iron, the traditional four-leaf clover, or salt. Gifts, especially clothing, can warn away some house creatures. This has been adopted by pop culture. Certain plants, such as primrose and St. John's Wort, provide protection for a home. Daisies and red berries can protect a person from being taken away. And offerings of bread and milk can appease certain fairies. Keeping lucky horseshoes seems to have grown out of the iron tradition. When encountering fairies, it's best to avoid eye contact and pretend you haven't seen them at all. Avoid fairy mounds and rings, and especially don't try to break them. Those are the big ones I know offhand, but I have a few books scattered around that go into specifics."

The mention of bread and milk immediately made Roxy think of Santa Claus.

Layla leaned forward on the counter, eyes wide, and asked curiously, "Does all that really work? I knew about turning your clothes and pockets inside out one, because I like to do that for fun anyway."

With a curious eyebrow raised in Layla's direction, Eugene cleared his throat and remarked frankly, "Interesting. I must warn you all that I honestly don't know if it will work. I've had a limited range of supernatural experiences that can't be easily explained away. These include a strange woman on the side of the road, all in white with black hair, who disappeared into the mist one evening. Walking sounds in an abandoned house not far from here. And a series of coordinated shimmering lights in the sky. Despite the time I spent talking to and helping Alice, I never came across anything undeniably unexplainable. I trusted her story and the details of her claimed....experiences. There were enough oddities to push me in certain directions, but that's all."

Layla gave a quick smile and stood up. With a swift breath, she stretched out her arms and encouraged Eugene to watch her. The gray-haired man was immensely puzzled by her display and request but did as she asked. Roxy actually had a hunch about what Layla was going for, but the others appeared thoroughly perplexed.

The contortions, stretches, and twists that Layla performed could easily be mistaken for a New Age meditation routine combined with gymnastic flourishes. Layla tensed up in several places, her closed eyelids straining as if fighting to find a certain thought. It took a good while and some relaxation, but soon she opened her eyes and Brock was back. He immediately looked uncomfortable in his Layla clothes.

Eugene staggered back from the counter with wide bug eyes and unleashed a brisk, bold torrent of unknown curses that sounded more like a gibberish foreign language than genuine swears. This wave of shock continued as he frantically panted and held out a hand at his side, reaching for something but not quite knowing what.

"… It's real. It's all… actually real. One crazy thing, one little thing, one thing... I had no idea. I had no idea. I was only hoping, only guessing, that impossible things might actually be possible. I'm gonna... I'm gonna need a minute, some coffee, and probably something else. It's real. I wonder what else is real?..." At the end of all those feelings and that multitude of words, he sagged slightly, as if whatever had been holding him up had released its hold and he needed to exert twice the effort to keep his body from sliding to the floor.

Eugene's mother, still standing behind, gave only a brief nod, as if this little display by the blonde was exactly the sort of thing that confirmed an ocean of thoughts for her. "Plenty else is real out there, Euy. I told ya. I'll be upstairs, preparing for our guests. How do you take your tea? I also have hot chocolate and spiced cider, if you prefer those. Along with sugar cookies, muffins, lemon tarts, and brownies… Not the kind you need to worry about, fortunately." Compared to the warming plated, truck stop pizza slowly sliding its way down Roxy's guts, that sounded delightful. They all passed along their drink preferences as Eugene continued to reel from the mulleted, blonde boy who looked like he was about to rip out of his clothes.

When the bulk of the shock abated for Eugene, he was still gawking at Layla's fairly altered smiling features. She gave him a double whammy, though, by casually transitioning back to her girl state to relax strained seams. The poor guy appeared just as bewildered and awed by the second round as the first. A rush of green uncertainty passed through both Layla and Eugene, albeit for vastly different reasons of threatened 'Charlieing'.

Only after provisionally accepting what he had seen did Eugene begin to ask if he could record the moment as a record of supernatural evidence. Layla was eager to offer herself up, but Ross raised the specter of this information getting out into the world and drawing attention to themselves. Eugene promised not only to keep it protected and locked away, but to make sure that their identities were obscured for their safety.

When Ross brought up the matter of the agents following them, Eugene noted that Alice had no similar experiences with supposed shadowy government officials following her. He hinted that she had stayed for a modest amount of time and reported incidents that suggested faeries, but nothing quite like that.

Letting go of his shock, Eugene paced and murmured about a particular book he wanted to find, though he didn't know where it was indexed. He would look for it and encouraged the group to head upstairs and enjoy his mother's hospitality.