Shade's Creek

Many years have passed since I used to spend my summers down by Shade’s Creek, but I can recall those childhood memories like they happened just yesterday. You see, Shade’s Creek is a small stream that runs through my hometown. The name supposedly comes from how trees have grown around the creek, leaving a constant shadow over it. Not that that matters, I’m not here to tell you the story of how it came to be named. I’m just writing down my memories from that last summer I spent in the woods by the creek. Ever since I was little I’ve enjoyed the forest. To this day, I’m an avid hiker, but that’s not the point; the point is that I used to explore woodlands around the town, all alone. It runs outward for miles, so I didn’t run out of things to explore, and I’ve found my fair share of interesting and scary things, but this particular summer I decided to follow Shade’s Creek to see where it led. Every day I’d walk along the Shade until I had to start running home, and the next day I’d run back to where I’d gotten the day before to continue walking. Of course I could have run as far as possible to begin with, but what would have been the point of that? I should probably take the time to mention that the Shade is far deeper than it appears, due to its dark, murky water, and that it through the years has taken many a life from those unfortunate enough fall in. It’s funny. Thinking about it in hindsight, I’m certain that I spent hours upon hours just walking along that brook, but I was always back home in time for dinner. As if time passed slower along the Shade. One day, I went out towards the woods like any other day. Nothing seemed particular about that day, but afterwards I’d come to see it as the day I stopped hiking in the forest of Shade’s Creek. It was also the first time I was out in the woods after dark. This was as I had started thinking it was time to turn back. I hadn’t found anything interesting that day, but as I looked into the distance I saw what seemed to be a glade. A place where the sun’s rays reached the creek. I decided that I’d go to the glade, check it out, and then start running back home. Sure, I’d be a bit later than usual, but it should be alright. It’s not like I’d be staying the night in the forest. What I noticed first was the stench. It was like the time our electricity had gone out while we were away for a couple weeks during the warmest part of the year, and the fridge has smelled worse than anything else I’d ever had my nose experience. The closer I got to the glade, the stronger that stench got, and I had to hold my nose shut to bear it. By this point I must have been frowning. It wasn’t voluntary, the stench just made me scrunch my face, and by the point I took my other hand to hold my nose I finally saw what was in the glade: A lake. Apparently, Shade’s Creek ended by pouring straight into a lake, which seemed to be the source of the stench. However, there was a very specific detail about the lake that will never leave my mind: It was red. Not “brown red” because of mud. It was a deep wine red, and light didn’t seem able to penetrate its surface. That sight is definitely the most marvellous thing I’ve seen in my life, and I must have stood there, staring at it for minutes. Smile with me.

Those are the words that brought me out my trance. It felt like someone had said it straight into my ear. A raspy voice, like sandpaper against steel. “Smile with me.” I turned around to face whoever was talking to me. He stood in the shade, right by the creek. It hid his details, as I was standing in the light and he in the shadow, but what’s stuck to my corneas to this very day is his smile. That smile, like a predator about to pounce its prey. The sky was red, as if reflecting the lake, the sun about to leave for the night. The man tilted his head. “Why don’t you smile with me?” My head was aching, as if someone was pounding a hammer against it. The stench of the lake, the man’s voice, closer than my own mouth, and his impossibly sharp smile, like a sword cutting my eyes. I’m not sure what I said, something about not feeling well. Why did it stink so bad? His grin grew wider, and thinking about it now I’m sure it must have reached up to and beyond his ears. His teeth were definitely sharp, like those of a shark. “They smile with me.” How long did I stand there, petrified yet enchanted by that smile of his? It was growing darker, the shadows from the trees growing closer and closer, the man doing likewise. “Smile. With. Me.” I couldn’t – why couldn’t I think? I was stuck there his smile the stench his smile a man his smile rot his smile teeth his smile Shade’s Creek his smile smile smile smile with me – Finally the shadow of the closest tree hit my feet, and I regained my sense of self just in time to see that unexplainable smile right in front of my eyes. I ran. I don’t even remember starting running, suddenly I just was. I must have been walking for hours upon hours to get to the lake, but I definitely ran for many times longer to get away from there. Get away from the lake. But I couldn’t get away from the man. That voice, that gravelly hoarse voice, as if his voice was a creature in and of itself constantly trying to pass through his inconceivably sharp teeth, it was constantly on my shoulder, just by my ear. I didn’t dare look back, couldn’t even consider thinking it, I just continued running next to the creek. The creek – that was the answer. Of course. If I were to just jump into Shade’s Creek, the man couldn’t reach me – but something stopped me. The colour. The consistency. The stench – the stench, of course a child wouldn’t understand it, to me then it was just the stench of spoiled food, but it’s obvious it was the stench of rot. Lots and lots of rot. So I continued running, and I must have continued running for days, yet night didn’t pass, the sun didn’t rise. I ran. “Smile with me.” Smile with me. Finally, after what felt like several eternities of sprinting, I saw the edge of town – the first streetlight – and I don’t know how I did it, but I mustered up the energy to sprint the fastest I ever could, my feet aching, my body pounding and my heart ready to give in but not yet, and finally –

Light. Safety. I fell down there and then, in the circle of light given by the streetlight. My safe cage. I still don’t know why, but I had to look back. I had to see him one last time. I could see even less of him now than I could before, but still, that smile shined like a star in the night sky. He was angry. And sad. I could hear it in his voice, just as I could see it in his now sad smile. He stood there. Watching me. Smiling. “Why don’t you smile with me?” – smile with me I stood up and left. His voice disappeared, but I didn’t look back again. When I had to walk through shadows, I closed my eyes. When I got home, my parents had been worried sick. Apparently, I had been gone until the minutes before sunrise, and just as I entered my own home the sun was on the edge of the horizon. For the rest of the summer, I had to be home before dusk. I didn’t complain. It’s been many, many years since then. I’ve checked all maps of the local area available, but none of them show any lake. Apparently, Shade’s Creek grows thinner and thinner until it just stops completely. Its water isn’t red, just a very dirty brown. And there are no records of a man living alongside it. However, every summer, a body or two are found in it, having fallen in. Always facing towards the town. And every summer, I find a note on my porch, just at the edge of the reach of the lamp by my door. On it, written in dried, red text, are three words – Smile with me.