Casting Shadows

his shoulders. He went into the living room and sat down on the sofa with a sigh. Then he sat forwards and took his own phone from his back pocket. "Oh yeah, a message," he said. "What was it?" He looked at Elle expectantly.

  She was still brandishing the knife, she realised, and she shoved it back through her belt impatiently. "There is a monster," she said slowly, "In the lake. Listen to me! I know it sounds crazy, ok? But I saw it... it didn't have any eyes, Alec!"

  "Not eyes again," Alec said, leaning forwards to take the TV remote from the coffee table.

  Elle snatched it out of his hand and tossed it into the armchair. "I saw it!" she said, angry that he dismissed what she said so easily. "I saw it!"

  Alec sighed, scratched his head. He shrugged. "Ok," he said. "You saw it. A monster in the lake. And what is the monster doing in the lake?"

  "Don't," Elle growled at him. "Don't humour me!" She shook her head at him and left the room.

  ?

  That night Elle sat by the window, peering out at the lake while she toyed with the kitchen knife. Alec lay in bed watching her. "I hope you are coming to bed tonight?" he asked.

  "How can I sleep?" she asked. "That thing is out there!" She heard Alec sigh but she didn't turn to look at him. "It could get in," she continued. "I heard something on the radio about a body..."

  "We moved here so that you'd get over all this," Alec said quietly. "It's peaceful here. No stress." He was quiet for a little while and she said nothing. "I'm going to sleep," Alec said, and he turned away from her and turned his bedside light off.

  Elle stayed by the window. When they had first moved to the house, Elle thought the lake looked most beautiful at night when the moonlight reflected silver on its surface. Now she thought it looked dark and sinister. Now she knew what lurked beneath its surface.

  She got up from the window seat and went to the bed. Alec was snoring softly so she leaned over and kissed him gently. "I'm going out," she told him quietly.

  She headed downstairs in the near darkness and then flicked on the light as she entered the kitchen. The cat was standing on the draining board, licking moisture from the bottom of the sink. It looked up and mewed at her. The tip of its tail flicked and then it jumped down off the side and ran past her.

  Elle moved quickly and snatched the cat up into her arms; she cradled it as she went to the back door. With a deep breath to calm her nerves, and a kiss to the top of the cat's head, Elle stepped out onto the porch. The security light came on and lit up the area, the lake beyond the light's reach was still and dark, but she could see ripples on the surface closest to the house.

  "Tell me if it's close, ok?" she whispered to the cat.

  Elle moved down to the edge of the lake, peering suspiciously into the dark as she walked. The cat was purring steadily in her arms and sent vibrations through her chest. It calmed her and she ventured further from the house.

  From the lakeside... No body found at all... Officers have confirmed that... only the eyes...

  Elle gasped and looked back towards the house. The radio was crackling and sending out white noise and snatches of some news channel. The security light was still on and the porch was empty.

  The cat squirmed suddenly in her arms and Elle tightened her grip and turned back to the lake. She could see nothing, hear nothing but the sound of the radio... The cat hissed and leapt from her grasp before racing into the trees nearby.

  Eats all of its victims but the eyes... Nobody who has seen it...

  Elle felt her heart racing. She looked desperately from the trees, to the lake, back to the house again. She felt for the knife and drew it from her belt, watching, waiting... She didn't know what made her look down.

  A single eyeball rested in the mud by her feet, its blue iris looking sightlessly to the night sky, as she stared at it another was gently pushed to shore by the water, offered up to her from the lake.

  Elle let out a strangled sob, raised a trembling hand to her lips, and stared at the eyes. They stared back at her.

  With a click, the security light went out and Elle froze in terror, cloaked in darkness. She blinked and when her eyes adjusted to the moonlight she saw it.

  The monster was pulling a body from the lake, dragging it like a lion would drag a deer, its needle teeth sank into the... Elle couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman... its teeth were buried in the victim's neck as it pulled it out of the water. Elle watched as it stopped and then tore chunks of flesh from the corpse, gulping them back in great mouthfuls. She watched in morbid fascination, hardly daring to breathe.

  Please, she thought, please don't notice me...

  "Elle? What are you doing out here?!"

  For a moment the monster carried on feeding. It didn't seem to notice the security light had come on. Elle tore her gaze away from the creature and looked back to Alec on the porch.

  "Run!" she cried, or tried to. Her voice came out in a breathy whisper. Then she sucked in a lungful of air. "Run!" she screamed.

  Alec cursed loudly and bolted back into the house. Elle ran, not daring to look back. She cried out as Alec grabbed her arm and pulled her into the house, slamming the door closed as soon as she was inside and locking it.

  "You saw?!" she asked. "You saw it! I told you!"

  "What the hell were you doing out there?!" Alec asked, pulling the kitchen blinds and then dragging Elle from the kitchen. "What the hell was that thing?!"

  "I don't know! We need to call the cops or something," Elle said urgently. "We need to kill it!"

  "We don't need to do anything," Alec said, heading upstairs. Elle ran after him and stood in the doorway as he pulled a suitcase from the wardrobe and started throwing clothes into it.

  "It's killing people!" Elle cried. "Killing them and eating them... in our lake!"

  "It's not our lake, Elle," Alec said, "Not our problem. We just need to get the hell away."

  "We can't leave that thing," Elle growled, going to the suitcase and unpacking all the things Alec had just packed. "I am not running away again!" Her voice broke on the last word and she covered her face with her hands and fought back tears.

  Alec went to her and put his arms around her, holding her close. She cried as he ran his fingers through her hair. "We have to stop it," she sobbed.

  "It's probably gonna eat us," Alec said resignedly.

  Elle looked up at him triumphantly. "But we can stay?!" she asked. She hugged Alec tighter. "We have to kill it," she said. "Stop it from hurting anybody else, stop it from..."

  Elle ran from the bedroom into the ensuite. She just managed to get the toilet seat up in time before she was violently sick. The memory of two blue eyes staring up at her from the mud turned her stomach and she retched again.

  Alec came to her and rubbed her back. She heard him heave a sigh. "I just... I don't want anybody else to get hurt," she explained. She wiped her mouth, flushed the toilet, and then got to her feet and went to the sink, cupping some water in her hands and taking a drink.

  "Alright?" Alec asked.

  Elle nodded. "Yeah," she said. "This creature, it kills people, eats them... but it doesn't eat their eyes..." She shook her head. "Somebody must know about this thing. We need to find somebody who knows about it, they might know where to find it..."

  "It's in the lake," Alec said. "We just need to kill it."

  Elle ran a hand through her hair and then felt for the knife in her belt. She looked at Alec. "We should get back out there," she said. "It would've gone back to the body, we could kill it while it's... feeding."

  "I still think we should leave," Alec muttered.

  Elle moved past him back into the bedroom, pulling the knife from her belt as she went. She went back down the stairs and then determinedly into the kitchen. She opened up the back door, the security light came on and Elle gasped.

  The monster was standing on the porch, dripping wet. In the light it looked almost human, for a split second she wondered if it had been once... It was naked, and with the light shining she saw that
its skin wasn't grey, but silver and scaled, like that of a fish. Its eyeless sockets stared at her.

  "Jesus, Elle, shut the door!" Alec yelled.

  Elle slammed the door in the monster's face just as Alec grabbed her by the arm and pulled her backwards. She turned to him urgently and then jumped as the creature threw itself at the back door.

  "We need to get out of here!" Alec cried, "Out the front door, away from the damn lake!"

  Elle hesitated as Alec tugged at her arm. The creature let out a forlorn wail and then hurled itself at the door again. Elle turned and ran with Alec, running for the front door. They pulled it open together and ran out into the night.

  ?

  Elle stared out of the passenger window, watching the darkened countryside pass by. She pulled her gaze away and looked over at Alec. His knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel and he had a frown on his face. "Where are we going?" she asked.

  "I don't know," Alec said shortly. "Away."

  "Are we ever going back?" Elle asked quietly. "We can't..."

  "We're not running away," Alec said, glancing at her briefly before turning his attention back to the road. "We're just..."

  Elle waited for a