The Drowned Woman's Lake

There's a lake not far from our village. At first glance, it's an ordinary body of water, but my grandmother told a strange story about it. When she was young, she and a friend overheard a woman drowning in the lake. The woman was very beautiful, but unhappy. She had no luck with men—everyone left her. That, they say, is why she drowned. Her soul then settled in the lake, making the girls who swam there more beautiful, but they never become happy.

Meanwhile, my grandmother's friend liked a guy. He was a real sight for sore eyes, all the girls were flirting with him. But her friend, frankly, wasn't the most beautiful. She convinced my grandmother to go swimming in the lake at night—to ask the drowned woman for her beauty.

They went out to the lake that night and went swimming. Nothing happened—the girls laughed and went home. The next night, my grandmother's friend called my grandmother again. They had just reached the road leading to the lake when my friend remarked on the beautiful moon and the bright night—she thought it wouldn't be scary at all.

They undressed and went splashing around in the water. Then my grandmother felt something cold swim beneath her feet. She thought it was a fish, but behind it, a light streak passed across the water, like a white dress underwater. My grandmother was frightened and ran out of the water screaming. My friend laughed at her, saying she was a coward and was afraid of the fish. My grandmother was about to go back into the water when she saw that white streak again...

The streak was heading straight for her friend, but she couldn't see anything—she just laughed. My grandmother started calling her name, but she didn't hear. And then something incredible happened. A white trail swirled around her friend and seemed to wrap itself around her. But my friend wasn't afraid at all—on the contrary, she seemed to want it and was enjoying it. The plume rose, enveloping her friend's body: first just her legs, then rising higher and higher, growing brighter with each passing second. Her friend raised her hands and laughed. The grandmother was terrified, covering her face with her hands, so she didn't see what happened next, only hearing the loud roar of the water, like a waterfall somewhere nearby.

After a while, everything quieted down. But the grandmother was afraid to open her eyes until her friend called out to her. Her friend ran up to her and began asking what it was. But the grandmother simply threw up her hands and said she'd imagined it all, and that she'd just been swimming, and then got ready to go home.

Maybe the grandmother had imagined it all, but a week later, her friend started dating that guy, and it was as if she'd changed—something had changed in her. Her happiness didn't last long; the guy died, and she left the village. After that, the grandmother never saw her friend again.