The forest is humid making the heat cling to your body so you feel like you’re suffocating. We’re walking along a trail full of leaves, sticks, and who knows what else. Amber Lee keeps saying that the lake isn’t that far but I feel like we’ve been walking for hours.

See, there’s an opening right there,” Amber points out. “Told you we we’re almost there”.

“You said that twenty minutes ago”. I roll my eyes and check my phone, it says no signal. “I hope we don’t get murdered out here,” I add, “Because you don’t have a phone and I have no signal”.

“Oh, shut up Nikki. You’re always so negative”.

We reach the opening in the trees and step out into blazing sunlight. I close my eyes and lift my arms to soak up the warmth. When I open them I realize there’s a small lake house to the left, about a mile from us.

“I don’t remember that being there last time we came here,” I say.

“Yeah, well you don’t notice a lot of things, honey”.

I glare at her and turn to the water. Amber is already stripping down to her bikini so I do the same. We look at each other and then run toward the sparkling murky water before us. We splash our way to the deep part of the lake. When we’ve caught our breath we start laughing. The kind of laughing that can only happen when you’re with your best friend.

“The water feels so good,” Amber states.

“I know. It was definitely worth the 10 day hike,” I retort with a sly smile.

“Whatever!” she splashes me with water as she yells it and then we’re laughing again.

Out of nowhere there’s a scream. It’s obviously a woman’s and she sounded like she was in pain. A shiver runs up my spine as Amber and I fall silent. One look at each other and then we rush back to shore. When we arrive we find our clothes nowhere to be found.

“I think the scream came from the forest,” I try to steady my voice. “We should go to that lake house,” I suggest.

Amber takes a second to process what’s happening before nodding her head and taking off. We’re running faster that I think we ever have before and find ourselves at the door to the tiny house in no time. I knock and it opens under my knuckles.

“Hello?” I call out. “Is anyone here?” An eerie silence is the only answer I get back.

I walk in with caution and Amber follows close behind me. It’s dark despite the summer sun but there’s a cool breeze wrapping around us from the open window. There’s paper scattered everywhere and a low hum that I hadn’t noticed before.

“We should go,” Amber says with a hushed tone.

I turn around to her and open my mouth to agree when I notice something out of the corner of my eye.

“Are those our clothes?” I almost yell. I walk over and sure enough our clothes sit neatly stacked on a trunk.

Suddenly the front door slams shut and a scraggly looking man in a fisherman outfit is standing in front of us. He takes two steps forward and we move four steps back.

“It’s a nice day for fishing, huh?” he asks.

We don’t reply. He moves his hands and I notice something I didn’t before. A bloody axe is fixed in his left hand. I look for escape routes, but there’s only the window. Amber looks at me and I get distracted. She looks sympathetic and I don’t know why. Then she throws me in front of her and I hit my head on a table on my way to the floor and my vision blurs. The man lets out a string of profanities and raises his arm with the axe. As I see him bring down his arm to connect the metal blade with my body I look at the window. Amber had escaped and my last thought was not that I was happy for her, no. I wished that I would have thought of her plan sooner.