Chapter 6 : 'LAKE OF THE WOODS'
CHARACTERS : *PRESENT- Fedrick Brown ; *Mark ; *Max ; *Felix -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Lake of the woods' had been one of the most beautiful spots in LA city during the age 1960s and 70s. It was at the heart of the city and attracted many. This place was filled with tall yellow, orange, and red sugar maple trees on wet green patches of land, and the atmosphere was convent quiet. The leaves of these trees are crispy and silk-soft. People visiting love to sit under these trees and gaze up at the lace of leaves and listen to caroling birds singing from the treetop. In autumn trees burn in bonfire red and sun flame gold. Its center part had a lake that was teardrop-silver in color and was shaped like a perfectly flat disc of metal. The lake was shrine still and duck-pond rounded. Speckled fish flip-flopping in the crystalline lake and an army of flies buzzed over the heart of the lake. Carved stone seats were seen scattered over the green landscape. A broad span of cloudless blue sky was slashed above it, making it appear like nature's amphitheater. The blue sky seemed to be engraved onto the pane clear lake. It gave a pleasant atmosphere to visitors. Its ambient was alike on that day too, but gradually it changed after the occurrence of the tragic event. It became a red zone and people started referring to it as a haunted lake area, death zone, cursed zone, etc. Gradually chit chat sounds of people disappeared, joyful screaming of kids were not heard, green grass and plants dried, paradise green land turned into an abandoned dry island. What would have happened?
APRIL 23, 2021:-
AT THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY - ENGINEERING SECTION :
"Nothing has changed for the past eight months. People are still discussing the incident that took place at woods a few months ago. They are horrified to even step into the zone. Still, there are lots of mysteries that are yet to be revealed. Cops are still investigating the mystery case. City people likely believe they would have found some pieces of evidence after a long investigation.
In April month a tragic event occurred at the heart of the LA city. This was an unexpected one. This changed the life of many even changed the whole city. What was that about?? That was a tragic act that shook the whole media and channels. Two dead bodies were found at the lake of the woods. The faces of the dead bodies were destroyed and their entire body has been found burnt. Cops had found that these are the bodies of Leninian Mafia head Daemon Valentino and his son Henry Valentino. This crime occurred a month after the sudden disappearance of his younger son Richard Valentino. Cops suspect that the offender of these two acts might be the same person. The investigation is still taking place. Where is Richard Valentino? who killed Daemon Valentino and his son Henry Valentino? Answers to these are yet to be found.", Mark was reading the article 'Mystery of woods' that was featured in 'The Times magazine' that was published on 25th December 1978 along with Max.
**MESSAGE RINGTONE**
"Fedrick just now messaged me asking where we are", Max said to Mark.
He continued, "I am going to ask him to join us here."
"Yeah ask him to be quick", Mark replied.
Mark was continuously reading the article, within a second he heard Fedrick's loud voice. Both Mark and Max simultaneously turned to their right and saw Fedrick speeding towards them.
"Hey, Mark! Max! where is Felix? Did you guys see him?", Fedrick asked anxiously.
"Why? What happened? Why are you so nervous?", Mark asked worriedly.
"Is everything fine?", Max was confused too.
Fedrick replied with a sigh of agony, "No nothing is good right now. We need to find Felix as soon as possible. I think he is in danger. Yesterday he sent a voice note. I felt something wrong after listening. I tried calling him but he didn't pick my call. From yesterday I am trying to contact him but he is not answering. Did you guys tried calling him before?"
Mark was dumbfounded after hearing Fedrick, "What are you saying Fedrick? I think you misunderstood. Nothing would have happened to Felix."
Instantly Max's face changed, as he remembered something, "Oh.. god!! I too feel something is strange. I tried calling Felix on my way to university, but he didn't answer. He use to call me every day after university classes, but yesterday he didn't." Fedrick panicked, "Oh damn! Where is he? He didn't arrive still. I think we need to find him without delay."
Mark's face lightened gradually and his eyes widened in relief, "Relax! I said nothing wrong would happen to him. See he is here."
Hearing his words Max and Fedrick turned back with curiosity, they saw Felix walking towards them with a smile, "Good morning!! What happened? Why are you guys staring at me? Do I look like a ghost?", he said jokingly.
"Felix??... Are you ok? I thought you were in danger", Fedrick said with concern.
Felix replied, "Oh... Yeah, I am good. Why? Did anything happen?"
"Nothing happened, we thought you were at some risk. Why didn't to answer our calls? We were trying to contact you since yesterday. Fedrick said you sent him a creepy voice note last night.", Max said in a deep tone.
"Yeah, why did you send me that? I was really worried about you.", Fedrick said with a sigh.
Mark proceeded, "Felix why aren't you answering? Did you send that voice note?"
**PAUSE**
Felix couldn't figure out what was going on and he gave a confused look, "It can't happen. I am just confused about what you guys are saying. What voice note? I didn't send any voice note to Fedrick.", he replied.
FEDRICK: **DEATH GLARE**
MAX: **KILLER LOOK**
MARK: **PUZZLED LOOK**
"What do you mean by that? Are you playing with me?", Fedrick asked angrily.
Felix left a sigh and said, "No I am serious. I didn't send any messages last night. How I could have sent a voice note from my phone when I don't have one? My phone was already broken two days back. I can't fix that anymore, I need to buy a new one. How can a person send a message using a dead phone? Isn't that funny....haha."
"Then what's this? Isn't this your number?", Fedrick showed the voice note to Felix, Mark, and Max.
[ RECORDING: "I have nothing else to live for. I can't go on. Sorry, Fedrick... sorry for everything I have done for you. I can't live anymore..." **GUNSHOT** ]
A while after hearing the audio their was a sign of nervousness on Felix's face. His actions were obvious that he is trying to cover up something.
"What?? How can this happen?..... This is creepy. Wait, I am really confused now.", Felix said with a straight and confused face.
After hearing this, Felix wondered if he should disclose the truth to his friends. It would be a risky move. Yes, the truth would make things a lot easier if they all stayed on the same page, but the truth might fracture the group leaving everything in even more of a mess than it was not telling the truth. So he decided not to reveal the truth.
"Are you sure about this? If you want to say anything just tell don't hesitate", Mark said to Felix.
"Yeah, I am sure about this. I don't have any clue how this happened", Felix replied.
"Then.... who would have done this??", Max mumbled.
"Well, I don't know either. It's creepy.." Fedrick said, turned, and walked to the window side.
All of a sudden Fedrick heard the crack echo in the library about a few distances away. His heart started racing and he bolted into a full sprint. "It wasn't a gunshot, it wasn't a gunshot", he repeated under his breathlessness as he continued to sprint and sat down closing his ears.
"Fedrick!! What happened?", Mark comforted him, he hugged him gently.
Then Max and Felix patted him and helped him to relax. "Fedrick drinks some water", Felix said.
"It's nothing. I think that sound was from a nearby table. They were just playing nothing serious.", Max said this to Fedrick and soothed him.
Fedrick Brown hates these explosive sounds. He has a fear of sounds like gunshots, fireworks right from a young age. He often becomes nervous, sometimes collapses, and suffers from breathlessness by hearing these sounds. He even tried to control himself from overreacting but nothing changed.
FEDRICK BROWN'S POV - "Ah... I know this will be funny to others but it's not the same for me. Like I said before this is one of my issues. These are the two main problems I am facing, one is Schizophrenia / Automatonophobia and the other is fear of explosion. I am almost done with this. I don't know why I feel this way while hearing these but I am sure that there is a reason for everything. But I could not able to find that. Will I be able to overcome these issues? Ah, I don't know, but I want to."
"Fedrick are you fine now? Just calm yourself.", Mark said to Fedrick after a while.
"Yeah, I am fine now. It is just that I got blanked out after hearing that sound. This happens quite often.", Fedrick replied.
He continued to talk while facing down, "We need to find some clue about that audio. I feel that this is not normal."
"Ok don't worry we can find as quickly as possible", Max replied followed by Felix, "Yes don't overthink."
"Yeah, we are with you let's just relax.", Mark said while holding Fedrick's hand.
The place was filled with silence and suddenly it was broken by Max. "Oh, I forgot. I need to get a book from here. Anyone joining with me?", Max said.
MARK: **SILENTLY NODDING NO**
FEDRICK: **NOT EVEN LISTENING**
"Ah, these guys. No one is respecting my existence. Felix are you coming?", said Max.
"Mmm... will you buy me lunch?", Felix asked Max in an ordering tone.
"Fine fine I will", Max replied rolling his eyes.
"Then I will come with you wherever you go.", Felix said with a wide smile.
"Mmm... Ok you two just wait here we will be back after a while", Max said to Fedrick and Mark and took Felix along with him.
Within a minute after, Mark asked Fedrick that, "I feel that you act differently these days. I know you are worried about Felix and want to know more about the audio. But one thing that I can't understand is why are you concentrating more on that unknown voice note?"
Fedrick took a deep breath and looked at Mark, "It is not unknown... I have already heard that many times before."
"What??", Mark was dumbfounded.
/ DO READ CHAPTER 5 FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING /
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