The Legend Of Lyre

“Man I can’t believe grandpa lived here!” I say to Elliot as we walk up the stairs to the cabin. 

“The man must have been so lonely. I mean no cell service out here? The dude didn’t even have internet.” 

“I wonder how he even survived!” I say.

“Old people, their wack man,” Elliot responds

We walk into the logged wooden cabin. A spacious room greeted us. It had a blue couch with a plad blanket on it, a huge fireplace with a painting of a brunette, brown-eyed and skinned little girl playing amongst the flowers in a pink dress, there was a lamp on a side table next to the couch, and bookshelves filled with books were near the fireplace and it had huge windows with plaid green curtains.

“The man did seem like a minimalist” Elliot says. 

“Well, there could always be more,” I say

We walked into the kitchen, it had a 1950’s look. With horrible floor tile and a baby blue color that was everywhere that diffidently didn’t match the house. The fridge was rounded and didn't have multiple chores, an oven that looked like it would explode at any moment. The counters had gray tiling that was peeling but it had a very spacious space. Next to the fridge was a little table with two chairs, one on the end and the other on the side.

We walk around to find that we had two rooms, one was grandpa’s and one seemed to be a guest room for a little girl. Maybe he had a friend that he would babysit grandchildren for? 

We never really knew the man. He appeared very frequently at holiday parties when we were little but he stopped coming out of the blue. We haven’t seen or heard from him since until we got a letter to go to court to read his will. The Will wanted his grandchildren to clean out his house in the middle of nowhere, keep his books and a painting which I presume is the girl over the fireplace but to sell everything else if we so desired. We got a few grand from him which was nice.

“It’s so cold. See if we can turn on the heater.” I say.

Elliot began to scan the walls for a thermostat, he found one but it wasn’t on. 

“Huh. Did the old man not use electricity?” He asked. “It’s getting dark to see if you can turn the lights on.”

I flipped the light switch nothing happened. 

“Seems like we have no power, cell service, and no internet.” Elliot proclaims.

“How do we get warm? It is snowing outside.” I ask.

“It seems we live cavemen and start a fire!” 

“Ugh”

Elliot goes outside and sees if any firewood resides in the little shack that was outside. I explore further, with this living the old dude has to have something hidden. I go into the little girl’s room. It had a bed with a light pink canopy. The floor had a pink circular rug with a little table and chair with dolls scattered around it. There was a white dresser, it reminded me of beauty and the best. A chest that I presumed was more toys. I wonder why he has this room in this since all of his children had moved out so long ago.

It piqued my interest a bit. I walked to the dresser.

“Get out” I hear a whisper in my ear. I got startled and ran straight to the living room, swearing I heard the door slam behind me. 

Elliot was walking to the room with a load of firewood in his hand. 

“Found some!” He yells. He makes direct eye contact with me, it seemed he saw my terrified face. “Becca? What wrong Bec?”

“I heard a voice telling me to get out when I went into the girl's room,” I say. 

“Probably just your imagination, I shouldn’t worry about it.”

“Whatever you say,” I say.

Elliot starts a fire. He takes off his shoes but keeps his coat on, it was cold. He says we should read books since there was nothing else we could do. I pick up the book “Coraline” By Neil Gaiman. Elliot decides to read “The series of Unfortunate Events” By Lemony Snicket. We join each other on the couch and read, showing each other passages and plot twists until we decided to head in for bed. Elliot gets grandpa’s room and I got the strange Little girl's room.

To my surprise, I wake up in the morning without incident. I see a tea set on the table and the dolls on chairs...staring at me. I could have sworn they weren't there before but I decided I was tired and it was fine.

I see Elliot in the living huddle near the fire. A frying pan in the fireplace or attempting it more or less.

“What I wanted hashbrowns and we have no electricity!” Elliot says.

“I'm not judging, just tell me you brought ketchup!”

“Yes, I did Bec.”

“Good.”

I begin to read Coraline while he attempted to cook. We had to be here for a week so we had plenty of time to pack up the five things Grandpa owns. 

Elliot had managed to cook the hashbrown, soft and crunchy just how I liked it. We ate and talked. Theories about the girl’s room and what if Grandpa was a murderer living with guilt, we found that obscene but we never knew.

Elliot decided to continue his book and I went to explore, avoiding the girl's room. I entered grandpa’s room and found the bathroom, that would have been nice to know before I went on the trip to pee in the woods last night, curse my goal to drink so much water. I rummaged through his closet, wanting to see if I could find anything interesting. It was mostly collard shirts, jackets, boots with a few tennis shoes. I found a radio on the top shelf. I wanted to see if it worked.

 I went back to Elliot. “Look at what I found!”

“ A radio? Bec we have nothing a single out here. Not even a wave of something is out here.”

“Let’s see”

I turned on the radio and was greeted with white noise. I flipped the dial seeing if one radio station was out there. I heard some voices and stopped there, the voices got stronger and you could make out “Cause we could stay at home and watch the sunset but I can’t help but wonder are you bored yet?” With an upbeat beat playing along with it.

“Boom see!” I jump with joy.

“Whatever. It shouldn’t even work.” and Elliot went back to reading his book and I joined him too. We stayed there practically all day, too cold to move more and also too lazy. Nighttime fell again and Elliot was attempting to cook brats this time. 

We ate and we went to bed sometime later. I had a dream. The little girl in the painting and my Grandpa? The girl was angry and Grandpa was trying to calm her down.

“They won’t leave!” The girl screams.

“I know I know..just wait one week and they will be gone soon and no-one will bother us ever again Lyre,” Grandpa says.

“I want them gone now! They are going to take away everything!” She screams.

“Why don’t you tell them that you are mad? Use the radio see I told you they would find it, that's how you talked to me! Just tell them!” 

“Fine.” The girl finally turns her face around and I can see her skin is blue, and she has ice on her eyelashes. She has a displeased look on her face.

I wake up in a cold sweat. I walk to Elliot’s room.

“Bec? What’s wrong?” He asked sleepily. 

“Can I just sleep on the floor, I don't like staying in that room,” I ask.

“Uhh sure. It might be cold.” 

“That’s fine.”

I fall back asleep. I wake up in the morning, mostly forgetting about the dream I had. Elliot once again had beat me to the living room, he was chowing down on the donuts we brought and I once again joined him.

“I had a weird dream,” I say.

“Was it about grandpa?” He asks

“Yes, how did you know?”

“Had a dream where he was fighting with a girl..said to contact us through the radio.”

“You had it too!?” I ask him.

Just at that moment the radio once again sprung to life, all on its own. A small voice “Leave!! Leave Leave Leave Leave Leave!” Was repeated over and over again. 

Elliot and I promptly did so. We got our stuff on and raced the car down to the nearest town, which was like 30 minutes away. We sat in a gas station parking lot and connected to their free wif-fi.

“Alright so we are dealing with a ghost, and it’s angry,” Elliot says.

“Well, we need to find a way out to banish it. I don’t know let it move on or some shit.” I say.

“We also need to find out who the girl is. It might help us.”

“Wasn’t the girl name Lyre?”

“Right, that was what grandpa called her. She had blue skin...Look for a little girl near here that either froze to death or drowned.” I say.

“Right.” Elliot opened google and began to type in the girl’s name. What popped up was a missing person post. “Lyre Haynes, Age 10, Last seen, In the forest near Pinedale, supposedly snuck off in the middle of the night while her parents were sleeping. Description: 4-5 foot Girl, Round face, brown eyes, long curly brown hair, last seen in a pink dress, and a blue winter coat.”

“Oh god says this was in 2006...it’s been fourteen years.”

“Wasn’t 2008 the last time we saw grandpa?” I asked.

“So he has been tormented by her for so long”.

“So how do we get her to move on or whatever it is people do!”

“I have no idea..wait a minute... This looks interesting.” Elliot clicked on a link.

“The legend of Lyre. Many people who have gone fishing in the lake around the town of Pinedale, Oregon have stated seeing a little girl. She wears a pink dress and seemed to have white specks in her eyelashes and always asked if they could help her to the other side of the lake to where her parents are. Few have invited her on their boat but when they get halfway through she seems to disappear always. Some people have suspected she is the little girl who disappeared from their town years earlier. The ghost seemed to appear most in the winter and few have spotted her in the summer, but it’s rare. The ghost showing in winter was when the girl in questioned went missing. Although she has not been seen for many years, people seem to think her ghost still lingers, trying to make it across the lake.”

“So we have to get her ghost to get across the lake,” Elliot says.

“No, not her ghost..people have tried it never worked,” I say.

“Then what bec?” Elliot asks.

“Her body...She wants her body to make it across the lake! That’s why she disappears halfway through...I think she was trying to tell them that’s where her body is.” I say.

“So what do we do?”

“We go back to the house, we ask her to show us where she is. If we find her we call the police and they can take her body across the lake and she might finally move on!” I say.

“And what would we tell the police? Oh, don’t mind us officer we calling about a ghost who wants her body found, and hey we found it can you please take it out?” Elliot asked.

“Well, why don’t we just make up some story that we went to look for a said ghost since I'm a medium and through a dream, she told us where it was since we could properly talk to her?” I say.

“You think the police would believe such a bullshit story?”

“Hey, many mediums have helped families with such a thing!”

“Whatever you say.” Elliot begins to back out of the lot and we begin the journey back to the house. After a while, we arrive.

We step and the radio screams “WHY ARE YOU BACK!”

“Hey Lyre! Please calm yourself down and let us explain ourselves.”

“How do You know my name?” The radio asked Quitely.´

“We did research. We just went to the town over to get some wi-fi. Are you Lyre Haynes?” I ask.

“Yes”

“We think we might be able to help you across the lake,” I say.

“You think you can? I've tried but people have always failed!” 

“You’ve always shown people when the water wasn’t frozen but the lake is frozen and you can show us where you died. We can wait for the police to get your body and they can get you across the lake.” I say.

“You...You think that would work?”

“Yes, if you appear or something you can lead us.”

“Ok.”

Lyre appeared in front of us. Her eyebrows furrowed. The radio sang “Take me with you so I can speak.” I grabbed the radio and Lyre walks out the door. She waited outside the car door.

“Get in.”

We did. Lyre was in the back telling us how to get to the lake. At a certain point, she tells us to stop. We stop and pull over the car. We walk down the hill and trees until we get to the shore of the lake. I step testing the ice, not a single crack. We tread carefully just in case there was any thin part. 

Lyre leads the pack, I could tell she was uncomfortable she knew she couldn’t fall into the ice again but she was still cautious.

Lyre stopped. “Here it is.” the radio says and lyre stares at us. We were in the middle of the lake and we had at least one bar..enough to get a call through.

I call and explain that we were walking across the lake since we like a little adrenaline and we think we found a body. We wait until we hear sirens. The polices and the corner find a body. I hear the radio “thank you” lyre says.

The police get the body and it’s identified as the missing Lyre Haynes. We pack up the rest of grandpa’s stuff. We get invited by Lyre’s mom to go to her burial, as a thank you for giving her peace. We go and bring the radio just in case Lyre has something to say.

We hear her say “I love you mom..ill see you soon..goodbye” and we hear white noise play. 

In the end, Lyre Haynes was able to move on and we hope grandpa was too. As he Wished I kept his books but I gave the painting to her mom. I kept the blankets and the fridge it was cool. I sold everything else and the cabin hasn’t been sold yet guess none finds the life in nowhere interesting.