The Mouth Beneath the Lake
Lake Orwen was quiet.
Too quiet.
Tourists never stayed long. Locals never swam.
The water was cold, still, and dark—like it was holding its breath.
They said a creature lived there.
Something old.
Older than memory.
Older than bones.
They called it "The Mouth."
---
In 1979, a family vanished while camping by the lake.
All that remained were bloody clothes,
their tent shredded from the inside—
and a trail of wet footprints leading into the water.
Every few years, it happens again.
One by one.
Always at night.
Always when the water is still.
---
Mia, a university researcher, came to disprove the legend.
She set up sonar and cameras.
Scanned the lakebed.
She found something horrific.
Beneath the lake,
the sonar revealed a perfect circle—a massive depression in the shape of a screaming face.
With rows of teeth carved into the earth.
Not a cave.
A jaw.
---
The deeper her team dove, the more unexplainable things happened.
Diver #1 returned without his fingernails.
He couldn't stop chewing them.
Even when they were gone.
Diver #2 went missing.
His camera footage showed him swimming into a cave,
only to be pulled straight up.
By something invisible.
---
They heard whispers at night.
Wet voices.
Calling each of them by name.
> "Come closer.
Be swallowed.
Be remembered."
---
Mia's final dive was live-streamed.
She wore a custom deep-sea suit.
She wasn't coming back until she had proof.
The footage went black 23 minutes in.
But the audio kept recording.
Sloshing.
Scratching.
And then a sound like hundreds of teeth grinding.
Mia's final words, before the stream cut:
> "It's not a monster…
It's a mouth.
And it's opening."
---
A week later, Lake Orwen turned red.
No fish.
No bodies.
Only one thing floated to the surface:
Mia's helmet.
Still sealed.
Inside, her face was gone—peeled off.
Replaced with another face.
Smiling.
---
Local Ranger's Warning Sign (scratched out but still visible):
> *"DO NOT SWIM.
THE WATER REMEMBERS.
IT DOESN'T HUNT.
IT WAITS TO BE FED."