Scary Stories, Rituals, and Urban Legends

Theres something wrong with my town

We lived in this small town all our lives. So much has happened to everyone here, and we don't know how to explain it. No one can.

Actually

There are a few who can. They just won't, nor will they admit what they know.

I'm getting too far ahead of myself.

As a child, I would have horrible nightmares. I dreamt of emaciated figures with long, sharp, claw like nails and rows of sharp teeth stained with blood. They had black eyes, and the water dwellers had yellow eyes. Every night I would wake up screaming and crying. My parents hadn't a clue what to do, so they took me to a therapist. I was 6.

"I know it must be scary, Kimber, but can you tell me what happens in the nightmares?"

"No."

"And why is that?"

"They'll go after you too."

Eventually I ended up telling her I just saw dogs chasing me and attacking me. She bought it and seemed to think she could cure my nonexistent fear of dogs. I hugged a puppy and that was the end of that.

I met him a few months later. It's so cliche; the whole small town boy and girl story. But that was how this all got started for me . He was 6'1", a little lanky, stereotypical loser, some may say "emo" kid. His name was Declan. He had a mess of black hair and his eyes were brown, but not your average brown. They were so pretty. The way the sun hit them as we would walk home together to our little cul-de-sac ... they were absolutely mesmerizing.

We lived next to each other all our lives, and even he was a bit strange. He was always quiet when we were kids. He would never run around playing pretend in our circle neighborhood. He just sat inside or on the porch of his house by himself. Little 6 year old me decided to walk up to 7 year old him, place her hands on her hips, and demand he come play . I did this every day for 3 months before he told me to come sit with him instead. We sat there for hours, him showing me what he was doing. He was playing with wires to build little figures. He mostly made bugs. I thought that was disgusting, but was intrigued.

Every day from then on, I would go over and watch him build different figures. On my 15th birthday, he gave me a new wire figure. A heart. We were dating ever since then.

When people would make fun of him, he would just take it. But never me. I remember having most of the neighborhood kids afraid of me by the time I was 13 because I would get in their faces for being rude to my friend, and later boyfriend.

He took it when he was picked on. Not when I was. God forbid anyone ever touch me. He protected me. He kept me safe.

He can't keep me safe from this though.

It was summer time, and my small town has a lake. My parents and Declan's parents had decided to take us to the lake. It wasn't this huge lake, but it wasn't small either. You could see to the other side, but it was about a 5 minute walk to the opposite side.

Declan was 8, and I was 7. My mother had warned us both to stay on the particular side of the lake we were on. We were confused, but tried to listen. The other side was deep, and I was not a particularly good swimmer.

That was, until I saw something move in the water on the deeper end of the lake. I was curious. It looked.. strange. To this day I still do not know how to describe what I saw.

"I wanna go over there," I told Declan.

"Our parents said no." He responded.

"But I saw a mermaid."

"Mermaids aren't real."

"Shut up! Yes they are!"

"...I'm sorry."