Beneath the Moonlit Lake

Prologue: Darkness at Shiragane

There’s a saying in Shiragane—never look into the water after midnight. But sixteen-year-old Yukio Kimura never cared much for old tales.

On the night the old temple bell stopped ringing, the air was cold. Leaves stuck to his shoes as Yukio and his half-sister, Mika, headed to the lake. They tried to ignore the village warnings. Have you ever seen fog curl above black water like it’s alive? Each step closer, their fear grew. Was it the wind, or did they hear someone whisper?

Act 1: Unsettling Ripples

Yukio’s only real goal this summer? Find his missing friend, Haruto, who vanished by the shore last week. Mika wants to protect Yukio, but hides her fear—she saw eyes in the reeds.

“We’ll just check for clues. If we see anything crazy, we go home right away, okay?” Yukio’s voice sounded sure, but he gripped a charm tight. Mika slid her hand in his. Water lapped at the stone wall and something strange moved far out—a hand? A shape?


That’s when an old woman appeared near the torii gate. Her face looked cut from the same mist that haunted their dreams. She hissed, “Step back or it’ll want you too.” Why do elders say such cryptic things, you think?

Yukio asked, “Do you mean Haruto? Did you see him—please—tell us!”

She only pointed at lilies crowding the shore. “Listen to the lake and you’ll find the truth.” Before he could stop her, she was gone.

Act 2: Echoes and Revelations

Haruto’s shoe floats up, caught in lilies. There’s a mark burned into the mud near it—an odd, spiral symbol no one in Shiragane draws anymore. Mika shivers as drops of black water stain her sleeve.

As night falls, ripples start in the center of the lake, moving even though no one is near. Yukio stiffens. Eyes rise to the top of the water. Fingernails, slender and blue, scratch at his shoes. How do you react if something grabs your foot under water?

They reel back. The legend isn’t just a ghost tale now. Yukio and Mika realize the missing aren’t lost—they’re held by something alive.


“Yukio, let’s go!” Mika pleads, but he hesitates. His drive keeps him rooted for another look. This costs him. A thin, round face breaks the water. It almost looks human. Its mouth, though, runs ear to ear—a black void with needlelike teeth. Its arms wave slow and long, each finger curled in anger or hunger. The kids run. The shape behind them blurs, arms dragging back into the dark surface, hungry still.

Nearby, a group of older boys—locals shown laughing earlier—aren’t scared. Their drunken laughter draws out a second shape. A chorus of screams rips the night air. Water draws arms and legs down, down…

Act 3: Under The Lilies

Yukio refuses to give up on Haruto. Frustrated but feeling brave, Mika comes up with the truth she found hidden in old drawings at the shrine: Only by giving back what the monster lost can the curse break.

“We need a piece of her—something she owned.”
“What do you mean by her?” Yukio asks.
“I saw her. She wore the hairpin lady Saeko found last year. Remember the drownings? The one item left at every scene?”
The pair understand their enemy is the river’s ‘drowned bride’—kept here because her hairpin isn’t with her but in the hands of men who mock her story.

That jaw—they saw it again. It’s rising, close to the temple’s dry path. Moonlight glows on black hair caught in the reeds. The voice, wet like weeds and wind together: “Bring back what’s mine—and I’ll free your friend. Oppose me…and join him.”

“Let’s go. Sunrise isn’t far. If we make a mistake, we join them. I’m scared, Yukio.” Mika is learning to fight panic. Are you sensing the fear, or is it more hope?

Cliffhanger: Bargain in the Dark

At moon’s peak, Yukio and Mika return to the temple, hairpin in hand. They see shapes sliding in with the mists. No one else in town stirs.

A new chant starts, low just under the water. Eyes open in the lake by the dozen. The monster waits. Mika clings to Yukio, uncertain if the bargain will hold. Yukio lifts the hairpin. Will he dare approach the water at night, when so many never returned?

The answer is a single wet gasp—in the silence. And a hand clamps down on Yukio’s arm. Was it Haruto, or was it the monster itself?

Next time—Will Yukio escape or does Shiragane lose another child? Are old traditions the only shield against what’s waiting in the water?