Alice nodded. “And big thanks to your help and support, I was able to find my right pace in coming out to everyone.” She said. By now Alice was so at ease with this Winona, it slipped her mind that this wasn’t the same Winona who’d done those things for her. But between the sheer affection Alice was feeling for Winona, and this Winona very clearly having memories of the past events the two had shared together as if she’d actually been there, it was frankly way too easy for Alice to forget that aforementioned truth.
However, even as Alice realized this truth for herself inside her head, she didn’t let it show. She knew better than to tactlessly say something as off-topic as that while consoling a person in need (whether or not it was occurring in some kind of magic fantasy land under a lake). And on top of that, considering Alice’s aforementioned emotions towards Winona – which only kept growing stronger with every word they exchanged together – she dared not bring herself to do anything of the sort. Instead, she continued to provide Winona with the kind supportive words she needed, “Likewise I want to do the same for you, by helping you find your own pace in coming out to everyone about ourselves…” and followed it with an equally kind and supportive pat on the hand she was holding, “…whenever you’re ready.”
Winona turned her head to stare back down at the ground with her still widened eyes. For half an uneasy second Alice thought perhaps those words might not have been the right words for Winona. But then the latter’s face brightened up in the smallest yet most wholesome smile ever before she said, “What would I do without such a wonderful person as you…”
Greatly flattered, Alice both playfully and gratefully returned those words right back at Winona, “What would I do without such a wonderful person as you?”
That exchange made them crack up with wholesome laughter together. They then followed it up with conversations about what they each looked forward to with their newly developed relationship from here on out like the typical couple of youngsters they were, until only ten minutes of lunch break remained.
Standing up from the bench so as to return in time to where each of them respectively belonged, Alice and Winona promised to meet again after school, then parted ways.
Once Alice was back in her own world, for the rest of the day at school she was visited by Winona – the one of this world, to avoid getting mixed up – during every recess. For close friends who were in separate classes, this of course wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. What did seem out of the ordinary though, was Winona noticing Alice getting glassy-eyed again in the middle of their talk, like when they were on their way home after school the other day.
Apparently Winona had bumped into Tyler in the hallways on her way to see Alice and, what with things still being rather awkward between them, she’d just rushed past him with an equally rushed “Sorry about that.” Even though the bump had resulted in Tyler dropping the textbooks he’d been carrying in his hands. Because of that, once Winona had reached Alice’s classroom and met with her, she had described the incident and was about to ask for advice on how to get over this awkwardness, not wanting it to get in the way of properly interacting with Tyler as if there was a brick wall between them. That was when she saw what seemed like a look of absent-mindedness on Alice’s face, “I mean, it’s not like I can keep avoiding him whenever I’m at school for however long it’ll take for time to help us get over it, especially when he’s in the class right next to- Alice? Alice?”
Again, the calling of her name snapped Alice out of the thoughts she’d just been lost in. She looked back at Winona properly and mumbled, “Huh?”
“You were looking distracted again like yesterday.” Winona pointed out. “What’s the matter? Is there anything bugging you?”
Alice blinked, then shook her head. To be frank, there was indeed something bugging her, which was how again (this time with insult added to the injury, because of the conversation’s topic), Winona had inadvertently become a reminder of the ugly, unavoidable truth that only the lake’s mirrored world – as well as its version of Winona – provided some form of escape from, even if for just brief periods of time. That alone was a whole different kind of ugly truth, one that Alice didn’t want Winona to know about unless she wanted to hurt her.
Silently berating herself for having such thoughts during now of all times, Alice reluctantly lied once more, “Not so much anything bugging me as it is, um… just me having a lot on my mind because of the stuff during my classes today being…” she paused for a bit to think of something convincing to say, “…kinda overwhelming.”
“Really?” Winona asked, that familiar look of mild concern visible on her face yet again. “Man, I’ve never seen you this overwhelmed even during exam periods, so it must be pretty bad for you to say something like that when we haven’t got exams until like a couple of months, huh?”
Alice nodded to that as a means to keep up the façade, to which Winona asked, “If it’s too much for you to handle on your own, want me to lend a hand with at least some of it?”
This was another thing that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for Alice and Winona. As they entered high school and saw how hard the things they learned in classes were compared to middle school, they’d sometimes helped each other with their studies, especially when the exams came around. Whether it was due to them being long-time close friends, studying the more difficult class materials somehow became much more doable when they had each other. That was how they got through their first high school year with passing grades. Therefore, Winona had figured they could do the same this year if they were to run into tricky class materials again.
So imagine Winona’s surprise when Alice’s response to her proposal was, “That’s kind of you, but I’ll be okay. I’m sure I can manage this stuff on my own.”
The look of mild concern on Winona’s face turned to one of confusion upon hearing this, and she asked, “No help? Are you sure you’ll be able to do it?”
“Don’t worry about me.” Alice replied almost flatly. “Really, you don’t have to.”
Taken aback once again, this time at Alice’s tone, Winona nodded slowly and muttered, “Alright… but in case you do need me, you know what to do.”
At that moment, the bell signaling the end of recess rang, prompting both Alice and Winona to return to their respective classrooms. However, even as she sat back down at her desk and took out her textbooks for the next class, Winona's mind raced. She couldn’t help but keep thinking about how Alice’s sudden rejection of something they’ve casually done as friends for a whole year at high school felt somewhat out of character for her. What could be on her mind for her to say the things she said?
Winona would’ve thought about the matter a bit longer, but then the teacher came in to start the class and cut that train of thought short. So she just dismissed it for now by assuming Alice might have just wanted to try studying independently for some reason.
However, that previously cut off train of thought came back in a different form later that day when school was over and Winona headed off to Alice’s classroom again to ask her to walk home with her like always.
It was when Winona first arrived at the classroom and searched amongst the few students still left in it for any sign of her friend that she noticed something a bit off, because she couldn’t find her. Winona then tried to see if Alice’s backpack was in here as proof of her presence, before she was interrupted by one student who recognized her while leaving the classroom, “If you’re looking for Alice, she’s not here.”
“What?” Winona asked in confusion, and the student spoke again, “I think I saw her heading off on her own some time ago, so I figured she was going to your classroom to meet with you. You didn’t see her on your way here?”
Winona shook her head no with more confusion. All this time she and Alice had been at school, walking home together had become just as much of a casual activity between them as helping each other study difficult class materials. And on the few occasions they couldn’t walk home together, they’d always let each other know as to why, either by telling in advance or through a text. So for Alice to just leave right out of the blue not just the classroom but school as well (assuming she had indeed gone straight home) without letting Winona know in the slightest, what gives?
***
“Hey mom, this might sound kinda strange, but can I ask you something?” Winona asked her mother on Sunday evening after being called to the kitchen for dinner.
It had been almost a week by now since Winona had been turned down by Tyler. In the few days that had followed, Winona’s parents had been very supportive in helping their daughter getting over the incident – though considering how surprisingly well Winona had handled it on day one thanks to her friend, there hadn’t been a lot for them to actually do. Not that Winona wasn’t grateful for it in the slightest; in fact, she still greatly appreciated it all.
But that wasn’t the troubling issue on her mind Winona wanted to talk about with her mother right now. As Winona’s father and younger brother made their way to the kitchen as well, they were able to overhear her saying something about weird behaviors she’d observed from Alice over the past few days – namely the out-of-nowhere act of spending less and less time with her at school.
“She’s always suddenly busy during lunch break, recess, or after school for reasons she never really explains to me in detail, if at all.” Winona continued, sitting down at the table with everyone else, “And on more than a couple of occasions she just spaced out while I’m talking to her, then either acted like she was totally fine, or said that she forgot about something.”
After hearing what she had to say, Winona’s mother, Mrs Aarons, nodded thoughtfully.
Winona looked back at her for a moment, then asked, “Am I getting way too attached to Alice? Like, obsessed to the point of making a mountain out of a molehill with these observations?”
Having known Alice for almost as long as Winona had from all the time she’d seen the two together, Mrs Aarons shook her head and replied, “No, even to me that doesn’t sound a lot like Alice.”
“She definitely comes across as someone who’s got something on her mind, based on your words.” Mr Aarons said in agreement.
“My thoughts exactly!” Said Winona. “Which is why I want to help her in any way I can with whatever that’s bothering her. But I can’t do that if she keeps doing stuff like this everytime I see her. I mean, even if it’s an issue she thinks I can’t do anything about, the least she can do is let me know even the bare minimum so that she doesn’t leave her friend hanging this badly…”
Even Winona’s brother, Marvin, felt the need to pipe up, “You don’t think she’s deliberately avoiding you… right?” due to how serious she sounded with all of this.
Winona sighed through a mouthful of pork from her plate, swallowed, and muttered, “I wish that wasn’t the case, but it sure as hell comes across like it… and that’s saying something, because I have no idea as to what could possibly be driving her to avoid me like this. Before, she never so much as went out of her way to avoid me or any of her other friends, even back when she was still a closeted-“
That was when Winona reached the most likely assumption possible and froze where she sat. Her family stared at her in confusion and concern over what it was that could’ve occurred to her, until she finally found her voice to say with nervous uncertainty, “…you don’t think all of this is because she has a crush on me or something? That she’s avoiding me because she knows she doesn’t have a ‘chance’ with me?”
Having no idea what to say about that, Winona’s family didn’t say anything. Winona didn’t either, but on the other hand her mind was swimming with all sorts of thoughts. From how terribly sorry she felt for Alice if her assumption was indeed the reason – because no doubt it would’ve given the girl so much pent-up emotions pressing down on her – to how much she wanted to let Alice know she didn’t want this to be the catalyst for something worse developing between them. What if Alice thought she couldn’t be together with Winona (assuming that was indeed what Alice had in mind) because of her one-sided feelings and continued to avoid her? What if that continued avoidance eventually had negative effects on how they felt towards each other and resulted in them possibly drifting apart?
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Yes, while it was true Winona’s feelings towards Alice weren’t the same as how Alice felt towards Winona, she didn’t want such a thing to get in the way of their years-long friendship. Whatever feelings Alice had for Winona didn’t change the fact that she was still her dearest best friend, and that true to Winona’s own words, “It’s only right for friends to look out for each other when in need” she wanted to do exactly that for Alice, like she always had.
To do that, Winona knew she had to confront Alice with a firm yet comforting mindset – one that wouldn’t take any excuses coming out of Alice’s mouth for an answer, while at the same time not putting Alice in any further unease she might already be in. Instead, she'd provide her with every bit of genuine understanding she could give to her as a friend, because she more than deserved it.
That was the mindset Winona kept up all the way over to school the next day on Monday. Sure enough, opportunities to meet with Alice were extremely scarce, and even when they did meet during lunch, right after she was done eating Alice went off somewhere on her own while telling Winona she had “something to do”.
Having not finished her own lunch just yet, Winona unfortunately had no choice but to stay where she sat as she watched Alice walk away out of sight. Regrettably thinking to herself, “I’ll catch up to her later the best I can, then have a private talk with her to settle this once and for all…” Winona turned back to the rest of her food and wolfed it down as fast as she could without choking on it.
***
As expected, Alice had gone to the mirrored world in the lake and was hanging out with the other Winona at their signature meeting spot. Today though, the latter had brought with her something of a pleasant surprise to show the former.
“Oh wow, this looks exactly like the one I have!” Alice exclaimed at the sight of what Winona held in her hand, which was a small, sparkly colorful hairpin in the shape of a butterfly. Out of instinct she reached up and touched an identical hairpin she was wearing in her hair.
Winona gave Alice a blushing grin as she said, “I just thought it’d be nice if we could have matching hairpins like this as a couple…” she took a moment to embarrassingly scratch the back of her head before continuing, “…nothing special, it’s that I’ve seen some people around me do stuff like this and I simply got the urge to, y’know…”
As if she’d gained awareness of just how sappy she was beginning to sound with all this, Winona burst into a short fit of embarrassed laughter after saying that, “Oh god, what am I saying?!”
Alice patted Winona on the back to reassure her, “Don’t be so embarrassed, I actually kinda like this matching hairpin idea of yours.”
Calming down from hearing Alice’s friendly compliment, Winona blushed again with her signature coy sideways glance, and happily muttered, “Ah, man… what can I say but deciding to come up to you and say hi on our first day at middle school really was the best thing I ever did for myself.”
By that, Alice knew Winona meant how they’d first met, known, and grown close to each other since middle school – which again, wasn’t something this Winona should’ve experienced but remembered it crystal clear all the same. Yet Alice no longer raised any questions regarding these anomalies, nor did she remotely feel like it either. From the very existence of this whole mirrored world in the lake to the things that happened before her within it, what had initially baffled and confused Alice the most had slowly but surely become the least of her concerns. All she did know about the lake’s mirrored world now was that had she never discovered it, she wouldn’t be here feeling the happiest and trouble-free she had ever been in ages. And it was all thanks to being fully embraced and appreciated by this alternate version of her best friend who loved her back in the same way she loved her. Hell, if anything, it felt more than ever as if she really was girlfriends with Winona.
Maybe this whole time she’d been just that much desperate for reciprocated love from Winona. Or maybe she was trying way too hard to justify not facing her problems out of fear of being hurt. But either way, Alice was simply grateful for everything that had happened from her discovery of all this, enough said.
Alice gave Winona a grateful smile in response, then returned to the subject of the matching hairpins. “Hey, you mind if I help you put that on? I wanna see how nice it looks on you.”
Winona nodded and inched slightly closer to Alice so she could take the hairpin and put it in her hair for her. As she did, however, the two girls’ faces also inadvertently drew closer to one another, to the point they were only a couple of inches apart from making contact.
Noticing this the moment it occurred, Alice and Winona froze still on the bench they were sitting on together. Alice’s face immediately burned up like she had a fever, while her heart beat more and more rapidly until she might as well have just finished running a mile. Yet neither of them couldn’t, or wouldn’t move away from each other to give themselves space; if anything, Alice felt a different kind of intangible sensation rise within her. One of a strong but innocent urge driving her to gradually lean closer towards Winona.
Winona also began leaning forward, allowing Alice to stare longingly at the pretty face she had admired for so long as it filled more and more of her vision. Eventually, it was all she could see. And at that moment, Alice knew to close her eyes by instinct.
Her lips softly touched Winona’s, before they moved about in a passionate gesture to return the kiss they had received from Alice's mouth.
Then Alice felt Winona’s lips move some more to whispered into hers, “I can sense that your growing desire has finally ripened you up perfectly for me to consume…”
“What?” Alice opened her eyes and asked out loud in a perplexed voice, but she didn’t hear the word she uttered come out in the way it was supposed to. Rather, it came out all muffled and bubbly, as if she was speaking in water.
Scratch that, Alice did see a series of bubbles issue out of her mouth in front of her. That wasn’t the only thing she saw before her though – seemingly everything around her, from Winona to the lakeside plants and trees, even the bench, the ground, and the sky had all vanished. In their place was what seemed to be an endless void of slightly murky, bluish-green colors enveloping her from all directions. Not just that, but Alice also felt an all too familiar sensation of cold dampness on her clothes, hair, and skin, which she realized could mean only one thing.
She was submerged underwater.
Without any time to try and make sense as to how any of this had happened, Alice looked up. There it was way above her, the surface of the water she was in glistening with midday sunlight, leading to another revelation; this was no longer the mirrored world within the lake, it was the lake itself.
Of course, Alice tried swimming upwards to reach the surface, but no sooner had she begun to move a single muscle in her limbs when she felt another sensation on her skin. This time, it was more like an irritation similar to an itch, which in no time intensified to an immense, burning pain, followed by a storm of bubbles madly fizzing all around her. It was like the lakewater had suddenly turned to Mountain Dew. But if that was the case, Alice would’ve been considered lucky.
Unable to stand the burning pain on her skin, now turning to something more like stinging, Alice took a look at her hands amidst all the fizzing bubbles. What she saw made her scream more bubbles in terror.
Not only were her clothes gradually disintegrating off her body, but her body itself looked to be disintegrating with them – more precisely, the flesh turned all red and bloody as chunks of it burned and melted off her bones. Soon after, the bones too began to follow suit with the clothes and flesh the moment they were exposed to the fizzing, bubbling water.
There was nothing else that could be done. In a matter of seconds Alice found herself only able to keep screaming at the agonizing torture of her entire body being digested alive by the lake itself. Soon she couldn’t even see the hideous process for herself as her eyeballs dissolved out of their sockets, along with all her organs, every strand of her hair, every bit of what was once Alice Gray, until all that was left behind was Alice no more, but the murky bluish-green depths of the lake that had finished consuming her… and the one thing it hadn’t managed to digest – that being the butterfly hairpin, which simply floated all the way up to the lake’s surface. A surface that looked as tranquil and pretty as it had always been… as if nothing had ever happened below it.
***
Long ago back when the lake was just known as the fine bit of natural scenery in which only few people used to come and go occasionally, as described in the beginning, there had also been a few unfortunate accidents every now and then in which people fell into it and died.
But while drowning accidents occurring in any bodies of water may be a common – albeit unpleasant – thing even today, there had always been something else about the watery deaths that had happened at this particular lake, unbeknownst to any of the people in the area.
In reality, the lake itself was just as much of a living creature as any of the animals living in the natural environment around it – a most peculiar being seeming to defy all logic known to mankind so far, like a lot of the most outlandish freaks of nature to ever exist on earth typically were. And much like how every carnivore needed prey to hunt down and consume for itself, the lake had its own way of doing so.
All sentient living beings typically have minds and lives of their own. And with those minds and lives likewise comes one of the many things that keeps any life going; desire. From fulfilling the basics such as the need to feed, or rest, or drink, and much more, to the more complex things the equally more complex living beings known as humans strive for most of the time, desire has always been part of life – which is what the lake utilized so well to its advantage in fulfilling its own desires to consume and sustain itself.
If any kind of living being (namely a human, as they always had the best ones for the lake to take advantage of) with any kind of pent-up desires buried deep within their minds was to come into any kind of physical contact with the lake’s waters, that was enough for the lake to fully recognize and understand what that person truly wanted in their lives, like a literal look into their thoughts. After that was done, similar to how pitcher plants attract insects with their nectar and looks, the lake then lured in the prey it latched onto through the use of extremely convincing visions – visions of varying subjects and nature depending on what the person’s deepest and most desperate desires were about. Once the person got hooked on the visions, the lake would continue using them over the course of long periods of time, making the person want to keep coming back for more, and thus enable their desires to grow ever greater. For the deeper the desire, the more flavorous the flesh became for the lake when it was finally time for it to stop playing with its food and get on with eating it. That was why humans were its best target, because unlike the desires of most other living beings on earth, theirs were susceptible to as much exploitation as the lake wanted for them to be delectable enough for its tastes.
That was how the lake had operated for countless ages, being able to sustain itself for many lengthy years off of even a single human consumption. However, with passing time also came change. And for the lake, said change came in the form of humans building an entire city, and eventually a school around it. A school in which despite the lack of any physical barriers, nobody ever came into even the slightest contact with the lake’s waters, very much unlike the old days.
By then, the lake had grown weary, desperate, and starved. It could only go on for so long since its last consumption before hunger got the better of it. It seemed as if the lake would never eat again and eventually wither away…
…and what should fall – or rather, accidentally walk – right into the watery grasps of the lake but a lone schoolgirl who’d been absent-mindedly walking along its shore? A schoolgirl whose desires were the perfect target for the lake to exploit the moment it sensed them through her feet entering the water – fear-fueled insecurity over what to do about the crush she had on her best friend. A deep, yet simple enough desire that the lake could easily use to its advantage through visions of the very thing this poor unfortunate new target so longed for… that being a reciprocation of love from her friend who, through a swift scan of all the girl’s memories with her, the lake also learned everything about so as to come up with the perfect image to create in its vision.
And the moment the girl tripped and fell into the water, the rest was history.
***
After asking several students out and about during lunch break whether they saw Alice passing by, and getting a sense of direction as to where she could’ve gone based on the descriptions given from the few people who did see her, Winona eventually ended up at the lakeside. But even there, Alice was nowhere to be found amongst the several other students minding their own business by the shore. Upon asking, only one of them claimed to have seen Alice walking off on her own somewhere along the lakeside path that almost nobody ever seemed to go.
Of course, Winona wasted no time in hurrying along that very path in search of her friend. Frankly, if she was to have a private talk with Alice, seeing how the student she asked did say almost nobody ever seemed to go this way, Winona felt like this could be a decent place for one.
But that was assuming she did indeed find Alice somewhere up the path. As even after several minutes of fast-walking along this unexplored part of the lakeside, Winona still couldn’t see any sign of her. How far around the lake could she have possibly gone for this to occur?
Half-exhausted from all the distance she’d walked so far, and half-exasperated at her failure to locate her friend, Winona eventually turned her gaze to the lake beside her in the hopes that the nice sight could at the very least calm her mind for a moment.
Instead, her mind was greeted with puzzled surprise when she saw something on the surface of the lake. Right at the edge of the water, floating about like a sparkly, colorful leaf that fell off one of the many trees around the area, was Alice’s butterfly hairpin. Having seen Alice wear it in her hair wherever she went ever since she bought the thing, Winona immediately recognized it.
“What’s this doing here?” She wondered aloud. Without thinking much else of it, she bent down and reached forth to retrieve it, while in the process dipping the very tips of her fingers into the lakewater awaiting a potential brand new target with brand new desires on its mind.