I woke up on something hard and rough... did I fall off my bed while I was sleeping...? I haven't done that since I was just a kid... I could hear something... waves...? Yeah... gentle lapping waves, like you'd hear at a lake... but... I didn't have my TV on. I slowly sat up and rubbed the bleariness from my eyes and gazed around me. "W-What...?" This... most definitely was not my bedroom. I appeared to be lying on a small hill.
The last thing I remembered was getting home very late from my part time job... I was exhausted, I didn't even take my shoes off. I just made sure that everything was locked, tossed my phone somewhere, and passed out on my bed. I was still wearing the clothes that I had been wearing last night. I checked my pockets and the only thing in them was my wallet, just a simple brown leather wallet. Nothing appeared to be missing, my cash and cards were still inside. So whoever did this... just dropped me off in the middle of nowhere, and didn't steal from me... Strange. At least I wasn't tied up in someone's basement. Not surprisingly my phone wasn't with my possessions, however I still had my pocket knife, so that's a plus. If someone tries to attack me here, I'll be able to at least try and fight them off.
I got up off of the hill and brushed the grass off of my clothing and looked around. I noticed a lake shore not too far from me. The lake looked black, it was actually pretty dark out, the moon was completely covered by clouds, so not a lot of natural light to help me see. I decided that maybe if there was a lake, there were some tourist attractions nearby, somewhere for people to park, buy some concessions, or maybe rent a boat to take out onto the lake. Maybe there'd be a working phone there. I'd just have to follow the shore and I'd end up there, then I could make my way home. No big deal... hopefully my apartment is still in one piece.
I walked to the sandy shore and cast my gaze out towards the water. I used to love coming to the lake when I was younger. We'd always rent a boat and take it out on the water. I'd sometimes pilot the boat, it was pretty fun. Though... something seemed... off. The lake, it smelled terrible. Like something was rotting... was... this lake really polluted or something...? Or is there something rotting around here...? I could distinctly smell the scent of rust as well. I'd just have to deal with it... if it was no longer a tourist attraction, I could always just follow the road to the nearest town if there wasn't one settled near the shore.
I walked for a while, but the smell just wouldn't go away... the sand was pretty sticky too, now that I was really thinking about it. It was sticking and clumping to the bottom of my shoes. What the hell is up with this lake...? The water seemed... sluggish. Like it was far thicker than it should be, and the color, it was far too dark and opaque... it seemed like it was staining the sand. The moon... it was starting to come out from behind the cover of clouds.
That's... when I saw it. The real color of the lake... red. Crimson red. My breath caught in my throat and I backed away from the lake. "W-What...? N-No... T-This is... this is impossible..." I could feel the bile rising from my stomach and into my throat. The water... it was... it was blood. Not blood in the water itself... but... the whole lake was filled with blood. I was hoping that it wasn't human. That... one small detail... no matter how impossible and twisted of a situation this was... if it was animal blood... then it would have brought some cold comfort to me.
However, I wasn't that lucky. A pale body floated to the surface of the lake. Just it's chest at first... but then its head surfaced. An eyeless gaze seemed to bore into the very depths of my soul. It's skin was sunken, its mouth was open, blood dribbling out of it... and... its eyes had been clearly gouged out. The tears around its eyes spoke to that one cruel and twisted fact. Someone had killed this person, gouged out their eyes, and threw them into this lake of human blood, undoubtedly filled with more dead bodies.
I wish that I could say that I had run away at that point. But... I just stared. Stared into that eyeless gaze. At what may very well be my future. I was overcome with nausea, I fell to my knees and began vomiting. I could no longer stand the sight, my body and brain began to function once more, and I threw up the contents of my stomach. Even after I could no longer vomit... I heaved, my body seeming to want to rid itself of my stomach altogether. I eventually managed to gain control and stand up, taking one more look at the body... I let out a bloodcurdling scream and ran away from the horrific sight.
I kept running and running, my mind going into overdrive of the possible ways they were going to kill me. I didn't know who "they" were exactly... but "they" had filled the lake with blood, "they" had thrown many corpses into the lake, "they" were going to kill me and I was going to join the rest of the corpses resting at the bottom. I just needed to keep running, running as fast and as far as I could... even if my lungs burst, even if my legs break... I needed to get as far away as possible.
