The original story can be found here.
The college I attended just happened to be an hour's drive from the cabin, so when I determined that was where I wanted to study, my father gave me a spare set of keys to the place and told me if I ever wanted to go there, maybe for some peace and quiet or as a place to take a girl on a weekend, I just had to follow his set of rules about the place, but was otherwise welcome to go anytime. Course, by then the last place I'd want to take a girl was to a run-down shack in the woods. Didn't seem like the type of locale that would put a girl in any sorta mood cept maybe afeared for her life. Needless to say, I didn't take him up on the offer.
Until...
Senior year of college, my roommate decided to ask me what the keys were for, since I always left em hangin on a hook by my desk. I told him about the cabin and he got it in his head to have a little party out there the next weekend, inviting his girl and a couple other friends along. Now I ain't no idiot, I've watched my share of horror flicks, and this scenario he had come up with screamed machete-wielding psycho murder spree to me, and I said as much. How I ended up drivin out there late that Friday night with my buddy in the navigator seat with a box of beer at his feet, two girls in the back of my car and another carload behind us, I can't rightly say, but that's how it ended up.
The cabin's set on the edge of a lake, so it wasn't long after we arrived that people were strippin down to go for a swim. I ain't keen on going in that water because of a leech incident I had when I was younger, so I just sat on the dock and dangled my feet in the water while everyone else splashed around. If you don't move, minnows'll come and nibble your toes, and I figgered that feeling plus a light buzz would get me through the night.
One couple who I didn't really know started driftin off from the rest of the group, probably to do somethin mischievous in the deeper water. I was being distracted by the girl my roommate had hooked me up with as she tried to coax me to get a little more wet. I didn't want to spoil the festivities with talk of leeches so I told her someone had to guard all the valuables because there's a high chance of wild animals sneaking around and makin off with em if nobody was watching.
That's when I realized that amid the screams of laughter and splashing was a different kinda scream. It was night, but clear, and I could see that of the couple that had drifted off, only the girl was visible, and she was not screamin in a happy way. Everyone else sorta quieted down and stopped swimmin when they realized something was wrong, but I was way ahead of em. I had already jumped in, waded out into the muck and then swam as hard as I could to where she was caterwaulin. He still wasn't anywhere in sight when I got there, but she was blubberin and waving frantically and couldn't communicate right, so I didn't stop to try to figger it out, I just went under and felt around. That water is murky as Hell and full of god knows what, so it was a blind fumblin I was doin. It didn't take long to find him though, because he was just under the surface, puttin up some sort of fight, grabbin at his leg and kicking. I reached down to see what he was caught on and I swear to God
I felt a fucking hand, cold as a witch's ass, grippin the guy's ankle.
I couldn't pry the fingers loose, so in a panic, I did the only thing I could think to do and fucking bit the thing at the wrist, gettin a mouth full of shitty lake water and the disgusting taste of that thing on my tongue. It was like bitin into a greasy chicken leg. The hand let loose and then jerked outta my grip and disappeared. I wasn't of a mind to go searchin for it and I'd kinda used up my air bitin it, so me, the guy and his girl hightailed it to shallow water so fast we probably coulda run on the surface of the lake.
When we all got to shore, I told my roommate what I'd felt holdin the guy under, and we ran to the dock, watchin the water for signs of someone swimmin off, but there wasn't nobody else out there. All fun had drained outta the group, so the rest of em went inside to dry off and try to get a fire goin. When we finally gave up and joined em, the guy showed me his leg, and there was a bruise formin around his ankle, clear as day, like a wrap of four fingers and a thumb. And if you think that's freaky, even more bizarre was that judgin from the bruise, the thumb was unnaturally long, wrappin the full length of his ankle and touchin the tips of the other fingers.
We didn't even stay the night. Everybody got dried off, warmed up and then we packed our stuff back in the cars and got the fuck outta Dodge. That was the last time I visited that cabin.
And when I got back to the campus, I found a leech in my shoe, busted on the bottom of my foot from bein stepped on.
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