Chapter 1: Chapter 1
I was stupid.
I was on my last delivery run before I was supposed to go home. I was supposed to have been off by now, but I hadn't made it home yet. It was getting late, and I still had a mile to go. My feet hurt, and my back hurt, and every part of me hurt.I was a mess.
I was supposed to deliver a pizza to this house, but I didn't know the address. The guy who hired me --Frank--"had said something about a lake, but I never got the chance to ask him what it was in reference to. All I knew was that it was somewhere in this godforsaken town.I was running late because I'd gotten stuck in a traffic jam on the main road into town. The place was so damn small that the only road into town had one lane in each direction. There were stoplights every few feet, but nobody used them. Everybody drove like hell to get ahead of each other. It was a miracle I was still alive.As I was pulling into the driveway of this random house, I saw a car parked in front of it. It was a cop car. The blue and white lights were flashing, and the officer inside was writing something on a clipboard. He looked like he might be sick. His hair was streaked with sweat, and he had a pungent smell about him.I hoped he wasn't sick. I didn't want to get sick.
"Hey, Frank! How's the lake?" I asked, making my way to the porch. The steps were creaky, and I wondered what kind of animal lived in this house. A raccoon? A skunk? Something that squirmed and hissed?