Chapter 1

A young man lies in a rickety, wooden boat, a pair of sunglasses resting comfortably in front of his eyes, despite the dark and gloomy weather. One of his hands rests on his stomach while the other lies rather lifelessly to his side. If anyone were to pass by, they'd probably assume him dead. This spell of stillness is broken as the boy suddenly decides to scratch his midriff as he yawns and removes shades to stare blankly at the dark clouds, hovering over him.

Well, here you are, Dave Strider, he thinks to himself bitterly, in a death trap of a boat in the middle of a huge goddamn lake, dressed in twenty sweaters, on a Saturday while all your friends are doing something fun.

This is sort of pathetic.

Dave sat up and growled in frustration at nothing. What was he even doing here—he should be with his friends getting drunk and watching stupid movies, not sitting in the middle of a lake being all depressed about an artist's block for crying out loud. He didn't even know how to swim very well, this was dangerous business. He should just row back now before he drowned or died from the sheer boredom of staring into the deep, murky waters.

Yet, he could hear Rose's voice in the back of his head: "Dave, I assure you wholeheartedly that if you'd just get out and appreciate nature and relax, things would be so much easier to deal with," she told him when he visited her at the library. "Why don't you go to the lake this weekend? I'm sure you'll find some sort of inspiration there."

"Nobody fucking goes to the lake, Rose," Dave would argue with her as he looked up at her putting away books on the high shelves. "That's some sentimental romantic drama shit right there."

"Dave, how could you possibly know this if you don't even try," Rose frowned at him from atop the ladder. "Push me a bit that way, won't you?"

And Dave would pout and push the ladder accordingly as Rose shuffled the books around. "This is fucking-"

And Rose would put a finger to her lip and hush him. "Lower your voice, Strider," and she would climb down from the ladder and smirk at him. "I know you, Dave—you can complain and whine all you want, but we both know you're going to do what I advise in the end."

"Like hell I am," Dave would frown before she laughed and shuffled away to rearrange some of the DVDs.

And yet here he was, taking Rose's advice, and regretting it deeply. Nothing, nothing here is going to help him pay his goddamn bills. Relaxing

Dave leaned over the side, staring into the murky lake and seeing the layers of moss that floated on the surface, blocking any view he had of the depths of the waters. There could be a crapload of fish down there, or the lochness monster! A picture of that will certainly help him pay his bills!

Dave waved his hand above the water, watching its shadow wave back at him as a clump of moss floated by. His waving hand was soon met by an identical reflection as the moss floated away. He sighed as he lowered his hand, submerging it in the water and splashing around in his boredom. As he swished his hand back and forth, staring blankly at the rings forming on the surface of the water, his fingers tingled as they grazed another object.

Dave's blood went cold and a chill went up his spine as he jerked back and yanked his hand out of the water. In his panic, the boat almost tipped over as his back crashed into the other side of the boat. His shades were askew and hands were at his sides, clutching the floorboards of the boat as if clinging for his life. His chest heaved up and down with every heavy breath. Dave felt goosebumps form on his arms, and it definitely wasn't from dipping his hand in the water.

He took a deep breath, attempting to relieve himself from the shock. His breathing slowed and he slowly lifted his hand in front of his face. Drops of water rolled down his fingertips, clinging to his skin and falling into the sleeve, causing discomfort, but he didn't care at this point. He flipped his hand back and forth only to find that it was perfectly normal, not counting the tingling feeling that still lingered on his fingertips.

Now, Dave was not one for fantasies. Hell, even as a young child, he'd laugh out loud at fairytales of brave knights and mythical heroes. Whenever he and Rose had some free time in the library, Rose would drag him to the mythology section where she'd read to him the stories of magical beasts and he'd scoff at the tales.

Yet he could've sworn, despite all his skepticism, for just a second, his fingers had brushed against a human hand.

The thought made Dave's blood run cold at the thought that there could be some mysterious creature lurking down there with a human hand that clutched his fingers and tried to pull him down. The dark and gloomy mood that resulted from the weather only made this thought seem even more terrifying. If this is what Rose meant when she thought that the lake would be a change, she was definitely right.

Dave hastily made a grab for the oar, only to drop it with a loud clunk! several times as he fumbled with the handle. When he finally got a firm grip, he dipped the paddle into the water and rowed with all the strength he could muster towards the dock. As he began rowing, the sky suddenly darkened, much to Dave's despair, and the raindrops gradually dotted his clothing and hair.

Dave bit his lip in his nervousness and repeated over and over in his head: I'm just imagining there's nothing down there, nothing at all. Yet he couldn't help but feel that there was something pulling at the paddle, making it harder for him to row. His arm muscles ached and begged for a break with every stroke he made, but a sort of thumping that came from the bottom of his boat caused his paranoia caused him to keep rowing.

During this time of panic, Dave couldn't help but feel like he was in a horror movie—a cool protagonist alone in a rickety boat in the middle of a mysterious lake, dark and gloom weather, thunder booming miles away in the background, a mysterious human hand (possibly some weird human-fish corpse), and an ominous thumping nose at the door (or bottom of the boat, same thing). A nagging curiosity at the back of his head wanted him to stop and stare into the lake's watery abyss to see what sort of terrifying creature would reach up from the depths and drag him down to his soaking death.

Lightning lit up the dark skies and thunder boomed, closer than before. In that second of light, Dave saw the dock, closer than he thought. He sighed in relief and began to slow down his rowing, but as the waves threatened to overturn his boat, he picked up the pace.

Dave rowed through the lake, its waves threatening to devour his rickety little boat, thunder booming in the distance, and some unknown lake monster threatening to capsize him. At this moment, Dave figured that he might as well be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean during a storm and get the same conditions.

As the dock came within the oar's length, Dave reached out to grab it. Lightning struck dangerously close and Dave's boat rocked violently. Dave's oar slipped out of his hand and Dave reached over to grab it, cursing his luck with every second. The boat rocked towards the left as Dave leaned over to grab the oar and the mystery creature took this to its advantage and knocked the bottom right of the little row boat. Before he knew it, his face was slapped by the icy waters and his entire body found itself weighed down by his soaked clothes. Dave flailed in the water and his shades floated off of his face. His blond hair swirled before his eyes, blocking his vision, and he suddenly regretted not getting that haircut like his friends advised him to.

Dave's arms displaced the water as he swam towards what looked like one of the legs of the dock. He made a grab for it and hoisted himself up, heavy sweaters and all, towards the top of the dock. His hands met the sturdy wooden boards and he began to push himself up when something twirled around his ankle.

There it was—that human hand that terrified Dave just a while ago had grabbed his thin ankles and was planning on dragging him down. Dave opened his mouth in a scream, but only bubbles erupted and Dave felt his life force draining with every second without air. Dave kicked with all his might, but the creature persisted. Dave felt his fingers slipping and slammed his eyes, stinging from the dirty water, shut.

Shit, this is it, Strider, he thought, this is your end—death by drowning of some mysterious, humanoid, lake monster. Fuck, this can't be the end!

Dave threw one last kick and, to his surprise, the creature released his ankle and let out a screech. Dave pulled himself up and scrambled onto the dock, rolling onto his back and letting the rain fall on his face. His clothes stuck to his body and flattened out against the dock.

He still felt as if that weird, webbed hand was still wrapped around his ankle, pulling him down to meet his demise. The creature's screech still rang in his ears, but the more he thought about it, the less it seemed like an animalistic screech and more like a human scream of surprise.

The human scream of… a girl.

Before Dave could ponder over this more, a loud thump right beside him pulled him out of his thoughts and back into the real world. Dave looked to his side to see the hand clinging onto the surface. Dave's face went pale and he lifted himself up, with much difficulty, and ran for it, getting as far away as he could and back to the parking lot just a bit away.

Dave threw his car door open and sat inside, very aware that he was getting the seat soaking wet, and slammed the door. He jammed the key into ignition and turned on the windshield wiper. His hands gripped the steering wheel and water rolled off his sleeve and dripped onto his knees. The windshield wipers swayed furiously as Dave backed out of the parking lot in an adrenaline-powered panic. As Dave exited the lot, he saw a flash of jade green from the corner of his eye and stopped cold. He stopped the car and did a double take, only to see the lake, devoid of any sort of presence other than some rather deadly bolts of lightning, and heavy drops of rain. Dave faced ahead and drove home, his mind racing.

With today's events, he felt that he couldn't really trust his better judgment. Pondering it over some more, it was dark and his bangs were too long for him to properly see anything. He probably imagined the hand out of some weird paranoia and he was probably just trapped by a large clump of seaweed that wrapped itself around his ankle (what seaweed was doing in a lake was beyond him).

Nevertheless, that scream of surprise and pain still rang in his ears and he couldn't help but feel that, as he left the lake, he had seen a long mop of raven hair and a large, green, fish tail dive into the water.

When Dave drove to work in the morning, he found it hard to focus and ended up almost backing up into a couple cars, veering onto the (luckily empty) sidewalk and nearly crashing into a street lamp, and missing several turns. Somehow, he managed to survive the drive and parked in his usual parking space at the coffee shop (with some difficulty). He swore under his breath as he saw the lights on and the sign on the double doors flipped to the "open" side. He slipped through the doors with haste and checked in, throwing on a blue apron messily and washing his hands in a frenzy.

"Yer late!" the cashier yelled at him as he fumbled with his name tag.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry," Dave took his place at the cash register and adjusted his replacement shades, which were sliding down the bridge of his nose. When he got his station all set up, he looked up to see that the coffee shop was still pretty empty and no one was impatiently spitting out their order at him in early-morning gibberish.

Dave drummed his fingers on the counter, trying to match the beat of a new tune he was working on, but he found it difficult to think. The hairs on the back of his neck still stood up when he thought about what happened yesterday. He had spent a majority of the night imagining what the creature had looked like: huge, webbed hands; massive, muscular frog arms; pointy teeth that would rip him apart in seconds; a large, squid-like body, with extra tentacles to match.

Dave closed his eyes and tilted his head back as his imagination wandered. The more he thought about this mysterious and terrifying creature, the more terrified, yet curious, he became. It was a feeling not different from watching an insanely terrifying movie and telling yourself over and over to just switch off the television and go to bed, yet continuing to watch it despite your internal screaming.

"Hello?"

There was probably a reason that not many people ventured to the lake, despite it being quite a interesting place in such a small town.

"Excuse me?"

Maybe there was some mystery behind it—a myth? Some thrilling historical battle? Maybe a murder?

"Dave!"

Dave was yanked away from his thoughts to see a young, black-haired man gazing at him with his blue eyes, which sat behind a pair of square glasses. The man raised his eyebrows at him, and the corner of his mouth twitched, emphasizing the awkwardness of his buckteeth.

"Wow, Dave, you look a bit distracted, that's a first," the man leaned on the counter.

"Yeah, I just couldn't stop thinking about your ass, John," Dave punched in John's usual order and smirked at him. His smirk was returned by a 'guffaw' as John pulled his money out of his wallet.

"It's a shame that you have to work on a Saturday, I was just going to ask you and Rose if you guys wanted to go sailing in ye ol' lake later, you know, since Rose has been nagging you about for years, what with you complaining about your broke, artist-blocked ass all the time," John said as Dave took his money.

Dave froze for a second at John's request. He let out a nervous laugh as he gave John his receipt.

"Rose has work today, too, you know," Dave said, trying to change the subject.

"Well, yeah, I know that," John peeked over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't holding up a line. When he made sure that it was too early for there to be a line in the first place, he stayed in his place, talking to Dave as he wrote his order on a cup. "We should go tomorrow or something—sailing on the wide open water, me rowing the boat, Rose sitting at the end with a parasol in hand, and you singing in Italian. It'll be great!"

"I'll have to pass on that," Dave said as he prepared John's coffee.

"Dude, what's up? You're pretty quiet today. Normally, you would jump on a chance to humiliate me and Rose in public," John frowned at him.

"That place's a huge load of trouble," Dave said as he prepared John's coffee. "I mean, do you ever wonder why people don't go there very often. It's like a fucking abyss of deep, watery doom. Going there would be like Jaws, except it's a freshwater lake and it's some weird fucking lake monster, not a shark."

Well he wasn't lying.

"Alright, suit yourself," John pouted as Dave handed him his coffee. "See you on Monday?"

"Yeah," Dave smirked and jerked his head in John's direction.

John did a mini salute before leaving Dave to an approaching customer.

Dave bit his lip. "Wait, John!"

John turned to face him as he was about to walk out the door.

"So," Dave gulped nervously, "what do you know about lake monsters, anyway?"

John raised a curious eyebrow at him, but didn't question him further. "I'm pretty sure that's strictly insightful-Rose-Lalonde territory. I don't know anything about this stuff," John raised a hand in farewell and walked out the door.

As soon as the clock struck 12:17, Dave dashed out of the coffee shop for his lunch break, speed walking towards the library just a few blocks down the street. He pushed past the crowds of people out on a Saturday lunch excursion and narrowly avoided being run over by a group of children on bikes. Within a couple of minutes, Dave approached a large building that was 60% glass windows. The doors slid open for him and he looked up and up and down the lobby. When he didn't find who he was looking for, he took to striding along the shelves, calling her name.

"Rooooooooose," Dave whispered loudly as he looked up and down the aisles of books and movies, wandering from section to section of the library, climbing up stairs and getting looks from the various others at the library. "Rose, I need youuuuuu!"

"Strider, hush!"

Dave turned to see Rose looking at him sternly, blond hair looking slightly windswept, despite being tucked under her headband from chasing after him. She held a small pile of books in her arms and was tapping her foot impatiently at him.

"You could have just asked the front desk for me, for goodness sakes," Rose scolded him quietly, beckoning him to follow her.

"Please, Rose," Dave scoffed, "we've known each other for over eight years and you're still embarrassed by my antics, I'm astonished. I'm offended. I don't think we can be friends anymore."

Rose chuckled and walked between two shelves with Dave close on her heels. She began reassembling books before continuing their conversation, "What is it that you want?"

Dave's mood suddenly changed from cheerful to anxious as the conversation rammed right into the main subject. "I… was actually wondering if you knew anything about… lake monsters or weird half-fish, half-godzilla-esque creatures… possibly ones that inhabit the lake near ours?"

Rose suddenly stopped replacing a book and gazed at Dave in surprise. "Our lake? "Nixe lake? The one that I've been telling you to visit?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

Rose stared at him in confusion before her lips slowly curved into a smile. "You followed my advice, didn't you?"

Dave felt a heat rising in his face and scoffed. "Rose, please, I was just curious. God, can't a guy get curious about mysterious lake monsters for once, Jesus."

"Sure, Dave," Rose giggled, continuing her shelving. "Well, if my memory serves me, I remember reading up a bit on Nixe Lake a few months back, much to your convenience."

"Nike what?"

"Nixe Lake," Rose corrected him, lightly tapping his head with a book. "It's one of the largest lakes in the county, maybe 600 meters deep, and consists of a rather large number of aquatic species. Most of them are native to the lake and are rather mysterious."

"You don't say," Dave said, mostly to himself, as he remembered the creature that lurked in his mind the entire morning.

"It's a bit of a shame, but because Nixe Lake doesn't have many visitors, as you've probably noticed. I mean, sure there are the occasional licensed fishermen and an adventurous few, but there have been quite a few myths and rumors about the lake that has been keeping people away," Rose said. "Could you bring me that stool over there?"

"What sort of rumors are we talking about here?" Dave asked as he carried the stool over to her and set it at her feet. "Are we talking about like dead body in a lake or…?"

"Oh you know, the usual supernatural terror: lochness monsters, mutated gators, giant freshwater slugs, and so on. Actually, there have been an unusual amount of mermaid sightings, which I guess is rather fitting, considering the name," Rose said as she climbed onto the stool and finished her book shelving. Her fingers ran through the books' spines once again before she suddenly stopped and stared at the book for a moment. Dave saw a small, amused smile come onto her face and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

Rose pulled out a medium-sized book and gazed at the back before rifling through the pages. "What a coincidence," she said as she handed Dave the book.

"What's this for?" Dave held the book in his hand, gazing at its ornately decorated cover. The title of the book read "Tales of the Deep" and a beautiful and rather detailed illustration of a bare-chested woman with a fish's tail sitting on a rock.

"I thought with your sudden spark of curiosity with Nixe Lake, you might appreciate it," she said, getting down from the stool and gazing at Dave with amusement as he read the first page with surprising focus. Rose looked down at a silver watch that decorated her wrist. "Dave, isn't it time for you to get back to work?"

Dave peeled his eyes from the book to look at Rose's watch, which she held in front of him. Dave swore under his breath before taking his leave, thanking Rose as he made his way to the check-out counter. After checking out his book, he jogged back to the coffee shop and spent the rest of his workday sneaking his book around and reading passages whenever he could, finding himself more and more intrigued with the possibilities of the lake.

Eventually, Dave found himself sitting in his car, in the same parking space, two hours after his shift ended early in the afternoon, his eyes glued to the last page of the book, his mind filled with stories of aquatic mythology. He read the last word, and closed the book, sitting back for a moment as he digested everything he just read. Before he realized it, the key was in the ignition, his hands were on the steering wheel, and he was driving away from the coffee shop and towards Nixe Lake.

A/N: And that concludes the first chapter of my installment of this fic! In the next chapter, a suspenseful meeting between Dave and Jade, oh my! *fans self*

Also, credit for this fic's cover art goes to nhiwi on tumblr! Go check out her stuff, she's absolutely amazing! I don't know what I'd do without her Q u Q

Thank you for reading! Please leave a review! UwU