Other side

Ch 10// Breakfast and lake

"Wow, so delicious," Lisa said when she eated last bite of baked Monte Cristo toaster bread.

"I'm happy that you liked it!" Kerry smiled.

"But really, this is wonderful!" l*****g his fingers, Philip agreed," where did you got the recipe?

"Ask Edwin."

All looked at Edwin, he was washing the pan. He didn't turn at them but said:

"Found it in the old magazine. But I cook poorly so I entrusted this task to Kerry."

"Why are you lying. You cook great! I have tasted your meals, they are fantastic! Who just few minutes ago said that at this morning is too lazy for that?"

Caught in a lie, however, the guy turned to the others, but also did not leave an answer in debt and said:

"Okey, okey. I can cook. But you also good at that. Look, Philip still is l*****g his fingers and Eloisa's eyes are shining, if they could speak they would say " Edwin smirked at those words.

Philip and Eloisa looked at each other when they heard their names. Then Eloisa smiled tricky:

"So.. you mentioned my eyes, do you want to tell me that you watched me?"

"Wait... what is point of that...?" Edwin looked at her with confusion. All started to laugh. Eloisa saw that he didn't understand that.

"Dude, I am just messing with you"

Everyone was laughing except Edwin.

"Come on, dude! That was just a joke. When you became so serious?" Kerry admitted.

He looked at everyone and smiled. And laugh a bit.

"Yea.. usually you are the one who is messing up with everyone. But it looks like he wasn't prepared this time and got it on merit," said Lisa.

"And from the girl though" saying that Philip laughed out loud.

"Ha ha ha! Very funny!" sarcastically answered Edwin now more relaxed than a moment ago.

Now everyone laugh again, it was easy atmosphere in there. Only Kerry was thinking about what was going on in her life that friends even didn't notice. But she will not worry them, they would not believe her too. Kerry just smiled and laughed if there was no such thing to worry about.

*************

"All ready?" from veranda exclaimed Edwin.

After breakfast they cleaned up everything in the house. 

"Yes, one moment!" somewhere from the second floor call out Lisa's voice. 

All where standing in front of the house. The wether was clear and shiny now, so they decided to walk around in the forest for a while.

"Okey, now we can go." Lise locked house and enjoyed others. 

Everyone put their bags on their shoulders and went towards the forest. They continued along the path that led deeper into the woods. It was bright and quite cool. Kerry put on her hat and closed the jacket all the way to the top. Lisa put on a scarf and put her frozen nose in it. The boys went ahead, the girls behind. Everyone tried to avoid touching anything because everything was still wet. Over time they had traveled about three to for kilometres. The paths made several turns, split and reunited. They had marked arrow signs on the ground to find their way back. Edwin had a pocket knife with him, and he, without anyone noticing, engraved the instructions on the trunks of the tree, because, in his opinion, it could rain again and the arrows on the ground could not be seen at all. As always Edwin had a plan "b"."Look!"

"What is it, Lisa?" Kerry asked.

"What? Ou.. it is nothing, I just.. there is mushroom, see!?"

"Wow indeed. And the big one."

Edwin got closer and with his knife checked it

"Yes, but unfortunately it got warms in it." he said and threw it away.

They went further. For about ten, maybe fifteen minutes, they bumped into something unexpected. They came out of the trees in the open area. And a few tens of meters away, there was a small lake. No one knew where they were, because there should have been no lake in the area. Everyone was quite surprised, could not understand how it arose. However, this could not suppress the desire to get closer and look closer at this water. The surface of the water moved easily when even a small wind flow blew, it shone easily. In the sunlight, it might have seemed that the place had a special strength, that is, the lake talked to them, more precisely, attracted these guys. The place was very calming, slipping into their feelings of freedom, relief and an influx of energy.

“Do I just think this place is weird?” Philip asked.

The others nodded in silence, they felt the same way.

- You feel weird, don't you? As if something is filling from the inside. Noticeably, slowly, but strong enough," Lisa discussed.

“A magical place, isn’t it?” Edwin admitted.

From the words "magical place," Kerry's head twisted a little. Without anyone noticing, she shrugged and stepped back a few steps. Meanwhile, the others were enchanted, looking at the miraculous view. The water was greenish blue, intersecting browns and reds. In the distance, which was actually much closer than it seemed, the forest was visible. In fact, the forest surrounded them from all sides, around the whole lake. The sand on the shore of the lake was gray, the colored stones revived it. Kerry straightened and inhaled slowly. Soon her heart stopped beating so much fast. Then she also turned to the opening view.

"Water is so clear! All the details can be seen even from here," started Kerry, "so beautiful!"

"Yes. I have never seen anything like it," Eloisa agreed.

"I have to agree with that, but I have never heard of a lake in this area. I see this for the first time. Where from? This is definitely not marked on the map, I am 100% sure," said Edwin.

"Maybe miss it?" Philip doubted.

"No, it is impossible, I have lived here since childhood, I know the neighbourhood as my five fingers. I know the map well, and there has never been a tiny point of reference for the lake in this area."

"It even seems to me that there is no life in this lake," said Kerry, who was closer to the lake, right on the shore.

"What do you mean - no life in this lake?" Lisa asked and came closer to the lake.

"I tried to see at least one fish in the lake, I watched all this time, but nothing, not the slightest movements, except for the small waves. Besides, didn't you notice? There is no reed or greenery around the lake. Only water and sand and those rocks.

Nothing really grew on the shores of the lake. There were no signs of life, nothing had overgrown, or even begun to overgrow. As if a lake suddenly appeared on Earth, life there did not exist and the surroundings were gloomy and frightening. If at first the view captivated, then looking at the lake for a long time, it seemed more scary. Clouds stood in front of the sun, everything turned a little grey, a strange wind began to blow, much stronger than before.

"Guys? Looks like a thunderstorm is approaching. Maybe we need go back?” Lisa worried.

"Yea, I think we should," Edwin agreed, "let's go?"

"Okey!" said Kerry, "was it this way?"

"Yes!" Eloisa confirm.

They walked away. In the forest, they quickly walked the paths away from the lake. Everything was darker among the trees, the busy tops of the trees covered the sky. The birds were silent as were they. As they walked, no one said a word, they were silent. Everyone was derailed by a mysterious lake.

Now, remembering the feelings by the lake, they were overwhelmed with doubts and worries. They did not notice that feelings of fear slowly flowed into them. Looking at the marked signs on the ground, they walked smoothly along the paths. After walking the paths for about fifteen minutes, they were already a little hesitant to go in the right direction. Lisa didn't leave the feeling that they were lost until a meadow stretched in the distance, which showed that the road had brought her back to the right place, the house. Going out of the woods, they slowed down. Everyone felt a little relief. The young people gathered in the hallway, only Kerry hesitated a bit. She looked back and watched the forest for a moment, looking deep down as if trying to see something. Philip's sneezed.

"Bless you," said Kerry turning away from the forest.

"Thank you. So... now we can go home, do we?"

"It looks like that" Lisa admitted.

"Hey Lisa. Who owns this house though?" asked Kerry.

"This was my grandparents' summer house. Nobody has lived here for a long time. The grandmother gave the house to her mother earlier this summer, but she wanted to sell it. I objected, I said I might find it useful. There is not much to pay for it, because no one stays here on his own. There is nothing to do here in the winter, and I don't come here in the winter either, the building is completely empty all winter. Only this year my grandparents thought that they would probably not return here, so the building was given to my mother.  I really like here. There is even a first aid kit, so everything for an emergency is on site."

"So cool. It looks like this house basically belongs to you," said Philip.

"Informally - yes. Dad also supported me, agreed to keep the house for the time being, so it was only thanks to him that my mother did not sell the property."

"Strange that there is no fence."

"It is not necessary yet. This is a fairly distant corner from more populated areas. And you don't have to worry about theft here either, because there's nothing to steal there either. The nearest neighbors are outside the forest, about a kilometer and a half from here on their way. In other directions there is only a forest. Of course, there are some houses on the other side, but they are quite far from here."

“But you have an alarm system, don't you?” Kerry asked.

"Well.. no. Not yet. We plan to put it in the winter. Somewhere in December, at the latest in early January."

"Yes, you should. Well, then let's go," Philip said.

Everyone turned to the side of the road and went in that direction. Along the way, Eloisa talked to Kerry about staying with Kerry until the evening. After going on a normal asphalt road, friends parted ways. Lisa and Edwin went straight, because then they had a shorter way to go. But Kerry, Eloisa, and Philip went home on the left side of the road. After crossing the intersection, two minutes later they saw the apartment houses.