Black Lake
Rating: T
Summary: Ruby and Roman recall a disturbing movie they had watched last weekend...
Notes: No longer just a oneshot story! More will follow after this...
Ruby Rose sighed as she laid down and snuggled against the legs of her boyfriend Roman Torchwick. It was eleven-fifteen on a Saturday evening and the young couple was on the couch of their apartment living room. Roman had dozed off while reading a book he had borrowed from their friend Blake; the book hadn't been boring; he was just tired. Ruby, for her part, was still awake and playing a video game she had been working on the past two days.
It was a video game adaptation of the movie The Grudge and was for the Wii console. It was also a very hard game to figure out and finish if one hadn't played it or didn't know what to do. Roman had just recently beaten it and offered to help Ruby out if she had gotten stuck.
Which is where Ruby finds herself on the second level or 'episode' of the game. She had just started it and was currently walking her character 'Miki' around the hospital unknowing what to do. She had explored some of the rooms but the only exciting thing that happened so far was the Kayako attack in the ladies bathroom. Ruby hummed in frustration and pressed the pause button.
"Roman?" She asked turning to her currently sleeping boyfriend. "Hon?"
She gently shook the leg she was leaning against and he moaned softly before waking.
"Hey, Red," he said softly, rubbing his eyes before sitting up a bit, "how's the game going? Did you rage quit yet or you still playing?"
She groaned a bit before sitting up herself and facing the screen.
"Haven't quit yet," she answered, "though I am stuck on the hospital level. I can't figure out what to do."
Roman sat up more and positioned himself so he was sitting side by side with his girlfriend and facing the screen. Ruby unpaused the game.
"Ok," Roman began, "what have you done so far?"
"I left the room I started in and walked to answer the ringing phone, but it stopped ringing, so I just started wandering around looking for batteries. Oh! And I had an encounter with the Grudge girl in the bathroom."
"K, go back to the nurses area."
"Where?"
"The area with the phone."
"Ah."
With Roman's help, Ruby was soon able to continue on and eventually beat the level. Ruby wanted to continue on, but decided against it because Roman said the third one was the longest one and the absence of a save point made Ruby want to wait.
"Well that was kinda stupid," Ruby said as she turned off the Wii while Roman looked over his book trying to figure out where he left off. He book marked his page and turned at Ruby.
"What was?"
"The ending of the level. Do they all end like that?"
"Hey, I wouldn't wanna spoil it for you, Red. Not telling."
"Oh come on! Please?"
"Nope, sorry."
Ruby groaned as she grabbed the TV remote and switched the channel to the cable channel.
"It's a good thing I love you."
Roman chuckled a bit and got up from the couch to do a quick stretch. Afterwards he walked towards her and gently pulled her head up by her chin to kissed her lips softly.
"I love you too, Red."
Ruby sighed contently after the kiss and watched as Roman headed for the bathroom to ready for bed. She looked at the clock on the wall for the time. It was twenty minutes to midnight. Definitely time to call it a night. As she was about to turn the TV off, she stopped upon seeing the movie the channel was playing. She immediately recognizing it to be the Blair Witch Project, one of her favorites. She chuckled a bit at the movie before turning the TV off and walking towards the bedroom.
Upon reaching the room, a sudden thought popped into her head. The movie had reminded her of something she had wanted to tell Roman about, but had forgotten it due to events that had gotten in the way. As she entered their bedroom and began changing into her pajamas, she remembered just how odd the thing was. Not the normal different kind of odd...but a strange kind of odd.
So far into her thoughts, Ruby didn't hear Roman exit the bathroom and enter their bedroom.
"Hey, Red? Did we-" His voice made her jump and shriek, cutting him off.
"Shit Roman!" She said, turning to look at his confused and bewildered face, "don't do that!"
"Sorry, babe," he said slowly, "didn't mean to scare you. I thought you heard me come in." Ruby blinked slowly before shaking her head.
"No, no, it's fine," she replied "you're fine. I was just thinking, that's all." She plopped down face first on their bed on top of the covers. Roman bit his lip before shrugging and lifting the blankets from underneath Ruby to join her on the bed, covering them both with the blanket.
"Is the game starting to get to you?" He asked while leaning his head on his arm facing her on his side.
"No," came her muffled reply.
"Then what's wrong? You don't normal startle easily."
It took a while for her to answer, making Roman believe she had fallen asleep. He sighed and reached over to turn on the lamp light, then got up and turn off the main light. He got back into bed and reached for his book on the nightstand. He was about to start reading when Ruby spoke up.
"Do you remember the movie we watched last weekend?" She asked slowly. Roman paused and looked over at his girlfriend to find her looking at him with a thoughtful expression.
"We watched a few of them, Red," he answered, putting his book down. "Can you be more specific?"
"The first one; the VHS tape. It was about a newly wedded couple honeymooning at some motel in the woods. We ended up stopping it cuz it got really gory towards the end."
"Oh yeah," Roman said crinkling his nose a bit upon remembering the movie she was referring to. "The couple was kidnapped and dragged out into the woods where the husband ended up being dissected, right?"
"Yeah," Ruby crinkling her own nose a bit, "that one. It was called Black Lake."
"Yes I remember it. That was the most disturbing and disgusting movie I have ever since in my entire life. And I saw Deliverance." Roman paused a brief moment to shudder at the thought of both movies before focusing on Ruby once more. "What about it?"
"Well," Ruby sat up slowly and turned to face him more, "yesterday at work, I decided to try looking it up during my lunch hour. Stuff like who made it, who starred in it, when it was made, and all that jazz. You know, cuz the tape didn't have a case to tell us." She trailed off for a second making Roman perk an eyebrow up.
"And..?"
Ruby bit her lip. "...And I couldn't find anything."
Roman furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I couldn't find anything about it. No IMDb page, no Wikipedia page, no Wiki, not even a rinky dink fan page. Absolutely nothing turned up. I tried typing it in different ways like The Black Lake, or A Black Lake, even Curse of Black Lake. I even tried searching it under different names thinking maybe 'Black Lake' wasn't the right one. I googled this movie almost ten times and nothing!"
After Ruby stopped rambling, Roman just looked at her. He wasn't too sure what to think about that. He had figured upon viewing the documentary-like movie they watched last Saturday that it had been more of a cheep budget movie or a TV special. But even those at least had a Wikipedia page that could be found about them.
He shook his head and got up from the bed.
"Where are you going?" Ruby asked.
"To grab my laptop," he answered before leaving the room. When he returned, he had his laptop in his hand and sat down on the edge of the bed. Ruby crawled over towards him and watched as he opened and started the computer up. After signing in, he clicked the Internet icon, loaded the Google page, and began typing in 'Black Lake'.
"What? Don't believe me?" Ruby huffed as she watched him.
"No, I'm just curious," he replied, keeping his green eye on the screen, "I want to see this for myself."
Upon typing in the name, a few drop boxes came down with suggested searches. Roman was about to put in the word 'movie' after the name, but accidentally clicked on the first drop down instead.
"Shit," he mumbled under his breath as he waited for the page to load. Once it had, he went back to the search box to retype his original intended. But just as he began moving the curser, Ruby grabbed his arm.
"What is it?" He asked, looking at his girlfriend only to find her silver eyes locked on the screen. He followed her gaze back to the screen. After quickly looking it over, his eyes widened slightly.
The link Roman had accidentally clicked on read 'Black Lake Inn, MI' in the search box and upon viewing the results they saw pictures of a simple motel that was surrounded by woods; the same exact motel that the newly weds had been staying in.
"So...the motel is a real place?" Roman asked as he scrolled down the page to look at some of the links. Upon viewing the last link on the screen, he froze.
BLACK LAKE INN MURDER...NEWLYWEDS FOUND DEAD IN THE WOODS
Roman and Ruby looked at one another, thinking and fearing the same thing. After a moments pause, they turned back to the laptop. Hesitantly, Roman clicked on the link. A newspaper website popped up with a newspaper dated back to the 1990's. A photograph was the first thing that caught their eyes.
It was the wedding picture of the couple Ruby and Roman recognized as the couple in the movie they had watched. The man was gray haired with brown eyes and glasses while the woman had black hair, amber eyes, and was easily twenty years younger than him. She was leaning her head on the man's shoulder and they both had bright smiles on their faces.
Scrolling down, Roman found the information about the movie Ruby had been looking for.
August 12, 1994
MISSING NEWLYWEDS FOUND MURDERED IN WOODS BEHIND INN
On the morning of Aug 9, 1994, newly wedded couple Cinder [Fall] and Ormand Ozpin were found brutally murdered in the woods behind Black Lake Inn. The couple had been staying at the motel for two weeks for their honeymoon. They left on the evening of Friday, July 15 and were to return on Sunday of August 2. On Monday, Aug 3, Mrs. Ozpin's friend and roommate reported her [Mrs. Ozpin] and her husband missing when they failed to return home. After a week's worth of searching the couple was found in an old abandoned house located in Black Lake Woods behind the motel the couple were staying in. Mr. Ozpin was found tied to a bed with his body crudely cut open and main organs removed. An autopsy later revealed he was alive during the act and had finally died from blood loss. Mrs. Ozpin was found tied to a chair beside the bed with a fatal blow to the side of her head. An autopsy revealed that she had died mere moments after her husband. Police ruled the killings a homicide and are currently investigating. Also found with the bodies was a video camera later reported belonging to the friend of Mrs. Ozpin.
'I wanted Cinder to remember her honeymoon,' said the friend, 'so I gave her my camera so she could record everything.'
Upon inspecting the camera, it was later reported that the footage was missing. Police searched the house, woods, and motel for the footage hoping it would lead them to the killer only to come up empty handed.
Roman and Ruby remained quiet after reading the article. The color had been drained from both their faces and they were both shivering like they were cold. Ruby covered her mouth, fearing she would let out a scream. Roman felt like he was going to vomit. He slowly exited out of the page and closed the laptop, setting it on the nightstand. He then grabbed his girlfriend and held her tightly. Ruby leaned against him but didn't return the embrace.
R-r-red?" Roman asked softly after a few moments.
"Hum?" She asked unable to speak.
"Do you...do you even remember where we had gotten the tape?"
Eyes widening even more, Ruby shook her head.
"N-n-n-no," she stuttered her answer. "Do y-you?"
Roman shook his head, not trusting his voice anymore.