Northern_Lights_2021

39 And then Ike Chizoba was pulled violently below the surface of the water with a choked yelp. The silence of the lake was nearly absolute; even Willow’s swaying had stopped dead-still, and the only ambience was the soft rustling of the pine trees, unafraid, and the small ripples that had lapped at the sand of the lake’s shore as Dee stood in shock, unable to make a noise, unsure if Ike was making a joke or actually drowning. And then a violent splash as Ike resurfaced, gulping air into his burning lungs and crying out as he lunged toward the shore of the lake, clawing at the dirt there as he tried to pull himself out. Dee finally jumped into action, screaming Ike’s name as he was pulled back into the water and below its surface before she could grab hold of his hand. Dee rushed to wade in after him, trying desperately to peer through the pitch blackness of the lake for Ike’s form. She was left screaming his name, hands immersed in the water as she searched for him. Fearful tears trailing down her face as everything went still, calling his name quietly now. And then she was pulled into the water, vocalizing only a cut-off gasp of air and leaving no trace but a small disturbance in the water’s surface. The nearly full moon illuminated this scene from its ambiguous place in the twilit sky, and the reflective surface of the lake was still once more. Willow was motionless, rooted quite literally in place after watching the lovers disappear beneath the mirror-esque surface of the Cooper’s Rock lake. There was no noise that she could make, save for the soft shuddering of her foliage. On the lake’s edge, Willow lived naively. She didn’t have to look inward at the forest’s creatures of the night, each one more than willing to drag you further into the tree line lest you lower your guard for more than a second. This was what the trees whispered to her as she shook in what she would discover to be . . . fear. Dee Robins and Ike Chizoba never did resurface, or even wash up on the edge of the shore. Their belongings had lain there, goading Willow until two days later—when the Cooper’s Rock park rangers had found them. Those park rangers never did see the two red eyes that peered out from the depths of the lake at night. They had only assumed that Dee Robins and Ike Chizoba had drowned. It wasn’t until four years later that Gerad Herelsdon would fish up a skull from the bottom of the Cooper’s Rock National Lake.