The Lake

The black van drove up to the lake; turning around so that it’s back doors faced the lake. It was late, almost 3am and it was near pitch black. The van came to a stop. 2 men got out; both dressed in protective clothing. Walking to the back of the van, they opened the back doors, revealing 3 barrels, each of which that was marked with biohazard symbols. The first one turned to the second one,

"I don’t know Jack, this seems wrong. I mean what if these barrels rupture or something, if someone were to be exposed to the material, the effects would be terrible", he said.

"You worry too much Monty, these things are solid. And anyway, it’s not like were going to get caught." Jack responded, as they picked up the first barrel.

"I guess" Monty responded. "See, now lets get this over with before someone sees us" Jack responded.

The two of them loaded the barrels onto a speedboat and drove the boat into the middle of the lake, dumping all of the barrels into it, where the water was deepest. As they watched the barrels sink into the water, Jack smiled.

"There we go, now lets get out of these suits and go home", he said.

***

6 months later

***

It was a hot day and Samantha and Tracy were planning on going for a swim in a lake that was located in a forest. The lake was in a secluded spot and the trees provided plenty of shade. The forest was a short drive from their homes, and once there it would take about 20 minutes to get to the lake.

They arrived at the forest without incident and started to walk towards where the lake was in the forest. As they walked towards the lake, they discussed it.

"No one else knows about this lake?" Samantha asked.

"Not that I know of, it’s very clean and it’s neat, there is wild life all around it" Tracy responded.

"What kind of wild life?" Samantha asked.

"Lots of squirrels and chipmunks, there are mink and otters that like to play in the water" Tracy responded.

"Mink? I’ve heard that they can be vicious! What if they attack us or something," Samantha asked, getting a bit concerned.

"Na, as long as you don’t bug them or something, their fine," Tracy said.

"What’s the water temperature like?" Samantha asked.

"It’s nice, not too cold or too warm, just cold enough to be comfortable, but not so cold that you feel like your going to freeze to death" Tracy said.

"Sounds nice. But how is it that no one else knows about this place?" Samantha asked

"Well, I found it by pure luck one day while taking a walk. I’m sure others know about, but most people don’t want to be ruined by there being hundreds of people, there every day so they keep it a close kept secret." Tracy responded.

"Makes sense" Samantha said.

"We should be there in about 10 minutes" Tracy informed Samantha.

The two young women walked through the forest, and after about 10 minutes they arrived at the lake. It was beautiful. They were the only people there, they could hear the sounds of all of the wildlife and it sounded very relaxing. Samantha walked over to the lake, and took her shoes off and dipped her toe into the water.

"Wow you were right, the water temperature is perfect, not too cold, but not too warm either," she said.

"Common, lets go all the way in" Tracy said, as she removed her tee shirt and shorts, under which she had a bikini on. Quickly she ran into the water. Samantha quickly followed her.

***

Deep under the water, near the center of the lake lie the barrels. In the months that they had been down there, the effects of the water on them had been extreme. They had long since rusted. The effects of the rusting had chewed several holes in the skin the each of the barrels. The material inside of them had leaked out and had been leaking out for some time, nearly 2 months by now. A lone mink swimming underwater swims though the stream of the odd looking liquid streaming from the barrels before swimming up to the surface, where it sees the two humans playing in the water, and swims off.

***

Tracey and Samantha had been swimming for some 2 hours when they decided to swim out further into the lake. They had seen the mink there and wondered what it seemed to upset about.

As they swam towards where it had been, they discussed their theories.

"That mink seemed very upset, I wonder what was wrong?" Samantha asked

"Maybe it was afraid of us," Tracey said.

"I guess it’s possible, or maybe there’s something there that scared it!" Samantha said.

"Well if that’s the case, then maybe we shouldn’t be going there?" Tracy asked.

"I’m sure it’s nothing," Samantha said.

They both reached the center of the lake. The water there felt oddly warm. Something seemed to be going on under the water. Samantha went under water for several seconds to see what it was and when she got back up, a look of horror as on her face.

"What is it?" Tracey asked

"There’s something under there that’s leaking!" Samantha said.

"Leaking what? Sam, are you okay?" Tracey asked.

"I fine, why do you ask?" Samantha asked.

"There’s black fur growing on your chest! And on your arms and face!" Tracey said sounding horrified.

Samantha looked down and saw the fur. She reached down to touch it, and she looked at her hands in horror. Her hands were webbed! She looked at Tracey to say something and noticed that Trace’s face looked different. It looked like a mink’s! Her ears were round and furry and she had a muzzle with a little black nose at the end of it and to top it off her face was furry!

"Your face!" Samantha said.

Tracy reached up to feel her face, and gasped in horror as she felt the fur.

"What’s going on?" she asked.

The growth of black fur on Samantha’s body quickly spread, and her torso and arms were quickly covered in a black pelt, she felt her legs under the water and was shocked to feel the same fur growing on them. She watched as black fur started to grow on Tracey’s body.

"I don’t know, but I think we should get out of here!" Samantha said.

As the two of them swam back towards the shore, both of their bikinis seemed to get very big and quickly slipped off and floated away.

"Now what?" Tracy said, noticing that her voice sounded far high pitched then normal. She looked at her arms, and noticed that they were fully covered in black fur, a glimpse of her hands revealed that they were webbed. She looked over towards Samantha, whose face looked like hers, which looked like a mink’s. She was able to see something else; Samantha now had a long black tail. Her legs somehow looked different and the way she was swimming reminded her of the way the mink was swimming. Feeling very concerned for her friend, she called her name.

"Samantha?" she asked.

Samantha tried to speak, but only make chattering and growling sounds. Tracey became aware of a pulling sensation right above her rear end. She tried to feel it, but her arms had shrunk and were far too short to reach over. Not knowing what else to do, she continued to swim towards the shore with Samantha beside her. She neared the shore her legs felt a bit strange, and her throat and tongue felt strange. She tried to speak, but only the same sounds Samantha had made came out.

As they reached the shore, they got out of the water. Tracey looked at Samantha; only to see a mink standing beside her, she looked at herself as best she could, and realized that she too was a mink.

The two mink stood there very confused, trying to figure out what had happened to them and why. Tracey noticed that the same mink they had seen before was swimming towards them. It walked onto the shore and over to them. It chattered happily as if it were very happy to see them. It was then that they realized this was a male mink. They weren’t sure how to react to him. He made some chattering sounds towards them, which sounded very inviting. Running back into the water, he chattered towards them, sounds they now knew meant he wanted them to follow him. Not knowing what else to do, they did so, and swam behind him, where he led them to his den.

The 3 mink walked into the den, it was getting late and they all felt tired. Tracy and Samantha weren’t sure what to think the den seemed very nice and comfortable. This wasn’t exactly what they had in mind when they decided to go for a swim in this lake. Somehow though it seemed satisfying, after all they would be able to swim in the lake as much as they wanted now, perhaps this wasn’t so bad after all. Curling up together, the 3 of them went to sleep.