Peter said he visited it at least once a month, and he must have been scrupulous with its maintenance. Sam dropped her bag beside the open door and marvelled at how clean the room was. A stairway above the kitchen led to the upper level. A polished wood table and chairs sat to Sam’s left, near the kitchenette that took up the back part of the room. Two stuffed armchairs stood on thick animal furs, facing the fireplace. A fireplace sat to her right a stack of kindling waited for her near the soot-blackened hole, with a bracket holding aged firewood and an axe beside it. The cabin’s lower level was a single large room. Her key fit into the lock and turned easily, and a grin grew across her face as the door creaked open.

Sam shifted the luggage bag to her left hand and approached the front door. The cabin looked as natural as the rocks, as though it could have sprouted out of the ground fully formed. He was proud of it, and rightfully so Sam knew Peter made his living as a woodworker, but she hadn’t expected him to be so proficient at it. Peter had built the cabin nearly a decade before as a hobby to keep himself occupied on the weekends. The rocky embankment rising behind it merged directly into the mountains, which grew more than a kilometre into the sky. It sat as close to the water as it could without compromising its foundations, and a balcony overlooked the lake.

The sun caught on the rough-hewn wood, making it almost seem to glow. Only a colony of birds fluttering around a nearby conifer and the steady drone of insects broke the silence. Her Uncle Peter had said hiking paths snaked through the forest, but only a couple of them came near his part of the lake, and they weren’t used often.ĭespite that, Sam couldn’t stop herself from running her eyes over the dense pine trees and shrubs that grew along the rocky incline.

Nestled deep in Harob Forest and situated at the edge of a large lake, her uncle’s property was a two-hour drive from the nearest town. The lakeside cabin was the furthest from civilisation Sam had ever been. The strangest sensation had crawled over her, as if she were being watched. Sam’s breath caught as she stepped back from the car, jacket in one hand and a luggage bag in the other, and turned to face the densely wooded hills behind her.

Dead Lake by Darcy Coates