Day 226

There used to be another town nearby, before the dam.
They flooded it, everyone was warned beforehand of course.
Rumour has it that some of them stayed behind though the number varied from seven to twenty.

This was fifty years ago though.

Now all that's left is the stone remains under the new lake.
The church spire sticks out of the water, the clock on the side still works.
Mohala, Alex, Di and I have planned to go inside the windows at the very top when the lake freezes.

It always freezes.

This year was no different.

We made sure to go during the early morning so there would be light but no people.
Alex tested the ice in front of us while we dragged my cousin's canoe behind.
We were totally prepared in case the ice broke but it was solid all the way there.

The closest window was about 2 meters above us, again we were prepared.
We had as much rope as we could possibly get which, thanks to the internet, was 220 meters.
It cost us all our months money but it would be worth it to see what was inside.

In all honesty we just expected water, maybe some fish or even a skeleton.
We expected to hear a splash when we threw the rope over the ledge, having used a grappling
hook to get up on there in the first place.
Di (the best climber out of the four of us) said they couldn't see anything but heard the rope hit
ground.

We tied a torch to the rope and Di pulled it up to get a better look down.
"Holy shit you guys, you've GOT to get up here. I'll meet you inside!"
And with that they climbed right down, ignoring our yells.

We couldn't just let Di go in alone, what if they drowned?
One by one we went after them, I went next as I was slow and the others were scared.
They had good reason to be, the church should have been flooded.

I could see Di waiting at the bottom, it was about 3 stories down... pretty far to fall.
It was dry inside, like bone dry.
As I got to the bottom I grabbed my torch out of my backpack and shone it around.

The stories were almost right but they got the numbers wrong.
Every pew was filled with people dressed in outdated clothing, heads all bowed.
Di, looking half-scared half-excited, went over the the closest person and knelt down.
"Oh god, they're breathing!" they frantically whispered, "They're ALIVE!"

Shaking, I knelt beside him and, sure enough, I saw the woman's breath in the cold air.
It was faint, barely there but still it was there.

We jumped at the sound of Alex's feet hitting the floor and hissed at him to be quiet.
Didn't want to think what would happen if these people woke up (if they could).
Alex looked pretty freaked out when he saw, and with good reason.

As Mohala quietly hit the floor after him she didn't even look at the people.
She went straight to the windows.
I went over to her while Di calmed Alex down near the alter.

"Can you see any fish?" she asked, not looking at me.
I peered out of the windows with Mo while she looked out, face totally blank.
There were no fish in sight, just the empty stone houses.
It was hard to see through the stone glass but I swear there was something out there.
Someone maybe.

We nearly shrieked when the congregation lifted their heads, faces sunked and faintly green.
They stood and began to sing an old hymn.
Di and Alex screamed as a priest walked over the the alter they were near.

In a panicked blur we all ran towards the rope as fast as we could.
By the time we'd scrambled back outside, still hearing the singing, it was mid morning.
We sat in the boat catching our breath when Alex asked, voice shaking, "Hey, where's Mo?"

As we looked at the church window where our rope still was, the singing stopped.
We held our breaths, Di began to cry.

A hand came over the edge, an arm followed.
It was Mohala... at least it tried to look like her.
Its' skin was faintly green and the smile was far too wide.

We jumped out of the canoe and ran, the ice cracked behind me and I heard Alex scream.
Di had fallen in and the thing pretending to be Mohala was beating their hands away with her torch.
I looked on, rooted to the spot as greenish hands began to pull Di down.

Alex snapped me out of it as "Mohala" jumped down after her, laughing.
We ran back to shore, hearing knocks on the ice underneath us the whole way.

Nobody saw either of them again.

When the police investigated the church was empty and flooded.

After we questioned them they said that yes, the church doors were wide open.

But no one was inside.