Page 33 of Hexes and Hiccups
The boys responsible for the find lingered at the shore, a few of them wading in as Lou Stevens disappeared beneath the waves. One of them with sandy brown hair and shimmering blue eyes looked far more intrigued than the rest.
“My dad’s gonna pull that sucker right out,” the boy said, his sharp voice ringing through the evening air. “I betcha it’ll be a mustang. Just from what I saw, it’ll be a mustang.”
Daisy watched the boy closely.Tyler.He had been on lots of townspeople’s minds recently, with the news of him finding things at the bottom of the lake. While Daisy had assumed most of the talk was nothing more than gossip, it seemed he had been diving into the lake, pulling out trinkets and whatever he could get his hands on. A car, however, was quite the find. Daisy never considered herself to be a thrill seeker or a treasure hunter, but there was something about the buzzing energy around Lake Silverpine that caught her attention and roped her in. She was just as eager to see the car as everyone else was.
Ethan tugged her forward as he drew closer to the lake. “This surely is something,” he mused. “The last time I saw something get pulled out of Silverpine was…was…”
“Have you really seen things being retrieved from the floor of the lake before?”
He smiled sheepishly. “Well, now, I don’t think I have.”
Daisy laughed and stepped closer to him, pressing against his side. He wrapped an arm tightly around her back. Without even saying a word, he left a kiss or two on the top of her head. Daisy felt utterly content at that moment, no longer remembering what sort of reality they were slowly heading back towards. The Book of Gossip and everything it entailed barely hung over her head. All she wanted to know was what would be pulled out of the lake.
Within a few minutes, Lou Stevens crashed through the surface and gave his companions a thumbs up. The hook and tether bound to one of the hummer vehicles had been connected to the car beneath the lake. All it took now was a revving engine to fully release it from the water. The man they had spoken to before quickly scurried into his car. The vehicle creaked and moaned beneath the pressure.
The boys, including Tyler, bounced up and down impatiently. Perhaps if Daisy was their age, she’d find herself doing the exact same thing. Beside her, Ethan rolled around on his heels, his tongue poking out in anticipation. She held back the urge to call him pet names, to embarrass him about how enamoured she was with his excitement.
Slowly but surely, a great mass began to break through the shore of Lake Silverpine. The hummer almost pressed onto the main road before managing to pull the entire car out of the lake. It rested against the shore as water began to surge out from the cracks in the doors and windows.
“Blessed be,” Daisy murmured. “That’s quite the car.”
The boys were whooping and hollering at the sight of their prize. Claps resonated through the evening, corralling Ethan forward with the rest of the men, despite not having a child amongst them. He held his hands on his hips as he overlooked the vehicle.
“Must be at least a couple decades old,” Ethan said. “Not in terrible shape, though.” He clapped a hand over Lou Stevens’s wet shirt. “Smart kid you’ve got there.”
Lou’s face burnt red from exhaustion and pride. “You got that right. At least he called instead of doing somethin’ foolish, like tryin’ to haul it out himself.”
“Well,” Ethan teased, “I’m sure kids his age could have worse hobbies, right?”
The group of men laughed as they watched the water slowly drain out. It was practically impossible to see through the windshield, which was still covered with moss and underwater vegetation. Everything about the car looked rather untouched - something that clung to Daisy’s mind for a reason she could not understand. Even the paint on the outside, a deep navy blue, remained as bright as it would’ve been if it hadn’t been deep within the water. While everyone reveled in their accomplishment, determined to see what the engine and parts looked like, Daisy couldn’t help but wonder how the car got to the bottom of Lake Silverpine in the first place. Who did it belong to? Why had it been left there? How long had it been sitting on the quiet floor?
Tyler jogged towards the car as the water pressure dwindled. He grasped the slimy handle to the driver’s seat, and jerked it a few times, his lips pressed together confidently. After a few unsuccessful tugs, Tyler raised his head towards the adults.
Ethan held a hand up. “Lou’s done enough work today,” he said, earning a smile from the tired-looking father. “We can get it together, can’t we, Tyler?”
The boy nodded rapidly, already making room for help. Ethan stood alongside him, planting his feet in the ground. They gripped onto the handle together, pulling it at the same time, and as hard as they could.
There was a sharp sound, one of air pressure being released, and the door popped open like a suction.
Pop!
Water gushed out over their feet, the last few bits of Lake Silverpine finally leaving the old vehicle. The other kids began to rush forward, followed by the influx of adults. Ethan reached to retrieve a flashlight from Lou, knocking it against his palm a few times before it shone brightly into the early evening. Daisy approached with the rest of them, her arms wrapped across her torso as a cold chill came off the surface of the lake. Owls hooted in the distance, their caws growing sharper and louder as she stepped forward.
Ethan raised the light to the driver’s seat.
A scream, boyish and young, ripped through the air.
The adults rushed forward, Daisy’s heart already racing. She pushed through the kids, desperate to grab onto Ethan’s hand. She’d lost him in the rushing crowd, as the parents hoisted their children up and dragged them away from the vehicle. In the end, only Ethan remained, his figure as still as a statue as he stared down at the seat, where the light trembled and wavered. Daisy touched his hand and it was ice cold, still damp from the door handle. What her eyes saw next was something she had never seen before, something she wished to erase from her mind and forget ever happened.
The joys of their find were lost in the wind. No longer were the teens thrilled to have dove into Lake Silverpine, no longer were they eager to get back in the water. There was only an eerie stillness, an enveloping silence, shrouded by whimpersand relentless tears. Trauma, Daisy realized, beginning to strike upon their young minds.
Ethan held onto her hand fervently. “I-I need to call the Sheriff.”
There was a dead body in the driver's seat. But that was hardly the most terrifying thing about it all. What was once a girl, Daisy believed, was now mangled and tainted by the water. To describe it further would’ve caused permanent damage on Daisy’s head, she realized, so she focused on the leather within the car, a piece of jewelry dangling from the cracked mirror. There was a photograph stuck to the dash, only a mesh of color by that point. There was once life in that car, once a story to be told.
Daisy tried to look away, but was only met with the teens’ cries, the shouts and scared whispers of the parents. The ones who were meant to know what to do were entirely at a loss. Ethan, who remained the strongest out of them all, had the phone pressed to his ear and was already pulling everyone together and being a commanding presence.
Daisy held her hands over her heart, the moon shining down overhead. The prayer to Hecate came in waves, the whispers leaving her lips before she ever realized she had been talking.
