We All Jumped

A Short Horror Story

Jun 17, 2025

"Ready to jump?" Amanda said, joining hands with her three best friends so she stood at the dock overlooking the lake.

Amanda, Lana, Maddison, and I had just graduated from high school three months prior. We had all been accepted into different colleges in different parts of the country. This was the last summer we would spend together, and though we promised with everything we had that we would stay in touch, we had no idea when we would see each other again.

Our town used to have a tradition. Once summer began to come to a close, the graduating class would throw on their bathing suits, join hands, and jump into the depths of the lake known as Greenman's Lake.

However, this tradition stopped almost a decade ago. Greenman's Lake was now fenced up and the park that surrounded it was left to fall into disrepair. No trespassing signs were now scattered around by the decaying wooden picnic tables.

No one knew why Greenman's Lake was closed off. The town officials never made that information available to the public, but rumors quickly began to circulate.

Some claimed that a brain eating parasite was found in the waters of the lake. Some say a drugged-out serial killer was stalking the park, butchering unsuspecting young girls. Some say there was an ancient man eating sea monster lurking in its depths.

Whatever the reason, as far as anyone was aware, no one had dared to venture into Greenman's Lake in nearly a decade.

That was, until Amanda decided it was a good idea for our little friend group to sneak in and revive the old tradition.

"Just trust me, guys, it will be fun." She assumed before we scaled the fence in our bikinis and cutoff shorts. "It's the only way to have a proper send off, just like the old days."

"I don't know, Amanda," Maddison said, her voice nervous. 'We could get in pretty big trouble if anyone catches us doing this."

"Come on, what happened to you guy's sense of adventure?" Amanda continued to urge out. "This is our last summer together and quite possibly the last time we're going to see each other. Don't you want to make one final memory together? To go out with a bang?"

The other girls and I exchanged looks. None of us could argue with that, and we knew Amanda well enough to know that when she set her mind on something there was no convincing her otherwise.

So we all climbed the fence that surrounded the park and went straight to the dock overlooking Greenman's Lake.

The lake seemed unremarkable, like any other lake in any other park. At least to me, this was a comfort in this. The ordinary appearance of the lake is what led me to a false sense of security,

We all slipped off our shoes and stood side by side at the edge of the dock, gazing out into the crystal blue water of the lake.

"Let's hold hands," Amanda said, reaching out a hand. "That's how they did it in the past. They all held hands before jumping into the lake."

So we all joined hands, forming a chain that at that moment felt unbreakable.

"Okay, we jump at the count of three," Amanda said. "One..two,.."

"Wait!" I blurted out, panic rising up in me "I can't do this."

All three of the other girls stopped to stare at me as if I had grown a second head,

"What do you mean you can't do this?" Amanda demanded. "We made plans for this weeks ago"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," I said. "It's just, now that we're actually here and I'm actually looking out into the lake, something doesn't seem right. I have a bad feeling about this that I don't think I can ignore."

Amanda scoffed. "Fine. Be a killjoy and sit this out. No one is going to stop you. But know that you're going to regret this for the rest of your life. You're wasting your last memory with your best friends."

"Amanda," Lana said, gently grasping Amanda by the arm. "Don't you think you're being a little too harsh?"

"No. It's fine. Don't worry about it." I said. "I'll just watch you guys from the sidelines. It will be good to have someone on the lookout to make sure no one catches us."

Lana cast a sad glance at me over her shoulder.

"If you say so," she said before turning back to the lake.

This time without me, the girls got in formation again, side by side with joined hands.

"Okay, guys, Jump at the count of three.' Amanda said. "One..two..three.."

As soon as she said "three" all three girls jumped into the water in perfect unison, disappearing beneath the blue green of the lake."

I waited for them to surface for thirty seconds, then a whole minute, then five minutes. With every passing second, I grew more and more panicked.

I rushed to the end of the doc, straining desperately into the water of the lake for any sign of my friends in its depths.

But I still found no sign of any of my friends.

What should I do? Call an ambulance? The police? Who can I call for help when I'm not even allowed to be here?

That's where I saw it, the scalp full of slick inky black hair just barely poking out from the depths of the water in the distance.

My heart skipped a beat. The hair looked to be the same color as Amanda's. Were my friends finally starting to surface?

I outstretched a hand to help Amanda back onto the dock as she floated towards me, but something didn't seem quite right.

I found it strange that Amanda's face never surfaced; the only part of her that was visible under the water was her hair. But despite this, I was so desperate for my friend to be okay that I was willing to overlook any suspension.

Just as I reached out a hand to pull Amanda up onto the dock, a pale, crack skinned hand shot up from the water, threatening to pull me under.

As I struggled to release myself from the hand's grasp, a small, sharp toothed mouth revealed itself from the water, just familiar enough to strike me as Amanda liked.

As I struggled, three more clumps of hair and sharp toothed mouths I could just barely recognize as belonging to my friends, even if they were distorted.

A set of sharp teeth sank into the soft flesh of my arm. I screamed out in pain as ribbons of my blood dripped down onto the wood of the deck.

One after another, my friends sank their teeth into me, taking out fleshy chunks of my body and dragging me into the water.

As my consciousness slipped away from me, I still couldn't help but think, "I told you so."

Grace’s Spook Show

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