Raft

The Raft is a scary story about four college students who go swimming at a lake. It’s based on a segment of the horror movie Creepshow 2 which, in turn, is based on a short story by Stephen King.

A group of college students are driving out to a remote lake to go swimming. It’s the the end of summer and nobody is around. They have the place to themselves.

There are two guys and two girls. Randy is the nerd, Deke is the jock, Rachel is the nice girl and LaVerne is the hot girl. They park their car on the beach and run down to the water’s edge.

There’s a raft in the middle of the lake. Deke and Randy dive into the water and start swimming towards it. They shout at the girls to follow them. While they are swimming, Randy notices a black patch on the water. It looks like an oil slick.

Deke is a fast swimmer and he reaches the raft first. When Randy climbs up the ladder onto the raft, he looks at the black thing again. It seems to be moving towards them. Something about it scares him.

“Swim!” he yells to the girls. “LaVerne! Swim!”

When Rachel reaches the raft, the guys quickly pull her up. They grab LaVerne and drag her onboard just seconds before the black thing sweeps past the ladder.

“Have you gone crazy?” LaVerne gasps.

“That thing,” Randy said, pointing at the black patch. “What is it?”

“It’s an oil slick, I guess,” says Deke.

“It’s not an oil slick,” Randy says. “Did you ever see a perfectly round oil slick before? That thing doesn’t look like an accident. It looks like it’s on purpose. I think it was after the girls.”

Deke and LaVerne just laugh. Rachel kneels down and stares at the oil slick. She reaches out to touch it.

All of a sudden, the black slime surges up her arm like mud. She lets out a terrified scream.

Before Randy has a chance to react, the black slime pulls her off the raft and she falls into the water with a splash.

“What happened?” LaVerne laughs. “Did she fall in?”

Rachel comes back to the surface. Her arms are flailing and she is covered in black slime. It’s dissolving her skin like acid.

“Help!” she screams. “Help it hurts! IT HURTS! IT HURRRRRTS!”

Randy is about to dive in to save her, but Deke grabs him and holds him back.

“No, Randy, no!” he says. “She’s dead. Can’t you see that?”

The three of them can only watch in horror as the black slime drags Rachel back down and she disappears.

“It ate her!” Deke shouts. “Did you see that? It ate her! What is it?”

“I don’t know,” Randy mutters.

“It looks like it’s going under the raft,” says Deke. “I’m going to swim for it.”

“No!” LaVerne cries. “Don’t leave us here.”

“I’m fast and I can make it,” Deke insists. “We’ve got to go while it’s under the raft.”

All of a sudden, there’s a gurgling sound and Deke starts screaming.

The Black slime comes up through the gaps between the boards. It wraps itself around his foot and starts dragging him down.

Randy and laVerne try to pull him back, but it’s no use.

They watch helplessly as his leg snaps in half. The boards crack and splinter. Deke’s body is pulled apart like a wishbone and the black slime drags him down into the depths.

LaVerne is hysterical. She can’t stop crying.

“Stand on the boards,” Randy tells her. “It can’t get you if you stand on the boards.”

They stand there for hours, trembling with fear and shivering with the cold. The black slime circles around the raft and they take turns standing watch.

“Randy, I’m freezing,” LaVerne says. “You’ve got to hold me. We’ll hold each other. We can both sit down and keep watch together.”

As it gets dark, Laverne lies down and goes to sleep while Randy watches over her. He’s so tired that he starts nodding off himself.

He is awoken by the sound of LaVerne screaming. When she turns over, one side of her face is covered in black slime.

Before Randy can do anything to help her, the slime has covered her head and her face starts to melt.

It drags her to the edge of the raft and she goes flopping and tumbling over the side.

While the black slime is busy eating LaVerne, Randy dives into the water and starts swimming towards the shore.

LaVerne’s body comes back to the surface, but she’s little more than a skeleton.

Randy swims as fast as he can.

The black slime is right behind him, gaining on him.

Eventually, he manages to reach the shore. He pulls himself up on the beach, gasping for breath.

“I beat you!” he shouts. “I beat you!”

All of a sudden, the slime rears up out of the water like a wave.

Randy turns to run, but it’s too late. The slime covers him in it’s icy blackness and drags him back into the water.

Somewhere, far across the empty lake, a loon screams.

Somewhere nearby, hidden by the overgrown bushes, there is an old, wooden sign.