Extend the Story - Add a Room

You start towards the lake. The path is paved, though there are many pot holes which show how unused the area is. You are surprised that the grass isn't longer. It's still green and hasn't started dying yet, but honestly? It looks like it was cut little less than a month ago.

Maybe your sources are wrong, perhaps the city hires some unknowing out of town company to at least do some maintenance? Mow the grass, and keep up the sprinkler system, that sort of thing. The thought that this "haunted" place has regular visitors dampens your spirits a bit. The biggest thrill of the Lake Side Cemetery story was that aside from those kids a few years back no one has been in here in six years. The lock didn't seem to be regularly opened, but perhaps there is a maintenance area that you had't discovered?

"Or ghosts do it!" You tell yourself allowing a small laugh.

You're getting closer to the lake, you can hear it's water lapping at the shore. The sun is desperately trying to burn away the fog rolling in from Anise Lake- so named for the licorice stink that blows into town whenever there is a storm. You can smell it now, the faint smell of fennel and water.

As you get closer the graves thin out so only small white headstones dot the green grass. They didn't bury too close to the lake because it eroded the stone faster. Only the very poor and neglected had this view. The grass stops and there's 30 feet of rocky sand and the lake begins. The fog is thicker now, you can see the sun still, but it's just a hazy orange ball high above you now.

Your visibility is only a few feet and a chill sweeps over you as the moist tendrils of fog touch your hands and face. Opening your bag you take out your video camera and set it up. It's a powerful hand held and the sound recording is great too. Turning it on you records everything.

You're looking for something specific. Deadman's Tree- a local legend of an evil tree. As you walk a dark shape comes into view, a large looming blackness in the grey landscape.

You've found the tree. As you walk closer your heart beats faster. It's a huge black thing with claw like branches reaching for the sky. The wind sounds like the whispers of the dead through it's gnarled and barren off shoots.

A bench is next to the tree. Local legend says girls came out here and the tree told them to commit suicide. if you sit there and close your eyes a spirit will appear to you. You looked, but you couldn't find any proof to back this up.

This whole area is ripe for ghost stories, the lake, the fog- it's almost too good to be true. However you do feel an inkling of fear. Swinging your camera around you get the impression something is watching you, from just outside the fog. Stalking you. The back of your neck is tingling and you don't feel alone. Instinct fills you up, fight or flight. Do you push past it and sit on the bench? This is what you came here for after all? Or should you leave and retreat to a possibly less scary and safer section of the cemetery?

Sit on the bench