Missing You Comes in Waves

“Hello darling. I miss you more than you could ever know. It’s been two years and I still think about you every day. Some days are better than others. There are times when I can go out and laugh and finally live again. Then there are days where it takes everything I’ve got just to get out of bed.” I stared out across the empty, gray lake which expanded nearly as far as the eye could see. The faint outline of the pines was barely visible on the horizon. Despite the howling wind, the water appeared motionless. It was eerie how dead the lake felt, but I guess that was fitting in a way. I wiped another tear from my cheek.

“It’s been hard, but I’ve managed thanks to everything you’ve taught me. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?” I chuckled softly. Laughter was often the only medicine for the pain I felt. Something else I learned from her. She had this way of seeing the bright side of every situation, even when no one else could. When everyone else would mope about, she would be the one to just jump out of her chair and start dancing without any music. She was the light that we were all drawn to, like moths to a flame. The world became a truly darker place when she was taken out of it two years ago.

“So much has happened since you left. I’m not even sure where I should begin. Believe it or not, Todd and Mary have been going steady for a while now. I guess I never should have doubted you when you said those two brought out the best in each other. All I ever saw was the bickering and sneering, but you could always see it. Guess you were the matchmaker afterall, though if that was the case, I don’t know what you ever saw in me.”

I sat there for hours, talking until the sun was hidden behind the pines and darkness began to creep in. As much as I wished there was a way for me to stay with her here forever, I knew I had my own life to get back to. With a tear in my eye and a tremble in my voice, I said my goodbyes to the love of my life and turned away from the dreaded lake.

The already howling wind began to screech even louder. I drew my jacket tighter around me. The temperatures had been gradually dropping as September neared its end, but today it seemed to plummet. Cold or not, I marched headfirst into the gale.

I fumbled with the keys in my pocket. The chill from the late night air was starting to make my fingers go numb. Why didn’t I bring any gloves with me? As per usual, as soon as I got my keys out of my pocket, I dropped them straight on the ground.

As I was bending to pick up my fallen keys, I heard the snap of a twig from directly behind me. I whirled around to see a young boy, no more than seven or eight, standing only six feet away. The boy was drenched from head to toe. His sandy blonde hair appeared much darker, plastered to his face, and his soggy clothes clung to his bone thin body. There was something unsettlingly familiar about the boy’s face, but I couldn’t place him. It was a small town afterall, perhaps I had just seen him around the store some time. That must’ve been it.

Upon further inspection of the boy, I saw how impossibly pale his skin was. He was shivering from the cold. He needed my help.

“Hey there bud, what are you doing out here? Are your parents somewhere nearby?” There was no response from the boy. He just stood there, a blank expression on his face.

“You must be freezing out here like this. Here, let me help.” I removed my jacket and wrapped it around the young boy’s shoulders. It was much too long and nearly touched the ground around his feet. I guess my jacket had become more of a trench coat, but it got the job done nonetheless. “There, that should help a bit. Now then, how about we get you back to your family? First off, what’s your name?”

The little boy merely shook his head, not saying a word.

“I take it you’re not much of a talker then. Okay, how about this one, do you have any idea where your parents might be?”

This time, the boy pointed back the way I had just come from. Back towards the lake. It wasn’t much but at least it was a start. I stood up and extended my hand towards the little boy to walk him back towards where his parents were supposedly at, but he just turned away and walked on his own. Admittedly, I was a little uncomfortable about the situation, but there was no way I was going to leave a child alone in the woods like this, so I made my way after him.

During the walk back to the lake, the boy never said a word. I was too uneasy to ask him any more questions, and I didn’t think he’d bother to answer any of them anyway. We walked in silence until the lake came into view and the boy quickened his pace. I matched his pace until we made it to the shoreline, but he didn’t even slow down. He continued walking straight into the lake.

“Hey kid, I don’t think your parents are in there. I don’t see anybody out there. Why don’t you come on out and we can walk around, see if they might be on the other side?” I called out to him.

He stopped for a moment before turning around, causing me to gasp and stumble backwards as soon as I saw his face. The already pale boy had turned somewhat translucent, similar to the water he was standing in. His eyes were nearly indistinguishable from his skin, but I could see they were devoid of emotion.

“What the hell? Wh-what are you?” I shouted. Once again, the boy didn’t answer me. Instead, he began walking towards me.

“Stay away from me!” I took a few steps back, fear gripping me. I was preparing to run when I noticed several ripples in the water around the boy. In each location, the water rose to varying heights until each one of them morphed into the form of another aqueous humanoid creature. There must have been at least half a dozen of them coming towards me. One of them, a woman that appeared to be about seventeen I had recognized from a story on the news about three years ago. She had come out to this lake with a group of classmates. The news reporter said that she had been swimming in the lake when she suddenly went under. Her friends went after her, but her body was never found.

That was when I remembered where I had seen the young boy’s face before. It was the same face I had seen on the missing posters plastered around my town when I was only a few years older than he was. But that was decades ago, how come the boy hasn’t aged a day since then? I didn’t have time to think it over though. The creatures had made their way to dry land, turning into solid but pale versions of themselves as soon as they stepped out of the water.

With the distance between us closing, I turned and ran back to my car as fast as my legs could carry me. I couldn’t hear if those things were chasing me and I didn’t dare to turn back and check. I just kept running, swatting the branches out of my face as fallen pine needles crunched beneath my feet.

I was out of breath by the time I could see my car. I reached in my pocket and with a sickening realization, I remembered that I had dropped my keys earlier and was distracted before I could pick them up. It was already getting dark, so I dropped to my knees and began searching for my lost keys. I risked a glance back towards the lake and couldn’t see any of those monsters but I wasn’t going to take any chances. After what felt like the longest minute of my life, my fingers curled around the cold metal of my keys. I whirled around towards my car and saw the teenager that drowned only a few inches away from my face.

I let out a shriek and stumbled back. I looked around and saw that I was surrounded by the pale creatures. “Please, don’t hurt me,” I begged. “I don’t want to cause you any harm. Please just let me go home.” My pleas fell on deaf ears as they each lurched towards me, knocking me to the ground. Each of them grabbed me and started to drag me back in the direction of the lake. I struggled against their grasp, but it felt as though I was wrestling with the ocean itself. Despite their solid hold on me, I couldn’t get a grip on any of them. They glided along the trail through the woods at an astounding pace and I could soon see the lake before me.

I continued to beg for my life as I felt the cold water splash over me. The creatures, once again translucent now that they were in contact with the water again, pulled me under the surface. I tried to keep my mouth closed as they dragged me deeper into the lake, but the water burned as it made its way into my nasal passage. Between the fear and confusion, I couldn’t hold my breath for long and began gasping for air, but I was met with gallons of lake water instead. It rushed into my mouth and down my throat. In an instant, I could feel it filling my lungs, replacing the oxygen.

I thought we should have reached the bottom of the lake by now, but somehow the creatures continued dragging me farther below the surface. I continued to fight them even though I knew it was hopeless. Even if I somehow managed to break free, the water was filling my lungs at an alarming rate. I would surely drown before I managed to swim back to the surface.

In my final moments, I thought of her. I thought of her smile, her laugh, her eyes, even the way she would drool in her sleep. Had it not been mere moments ago that I had wished for a way to spend forever here with her? Maybe this was the universe’s way of granting me my wish. Just when I had given up fighting, I saw a pale glow emanating from beneath me.

I wondered if this was what people meant when they say they saw the light. It wasn’t a blinding radiance like I had imagined, but rather a faint bluish luminescence. I began to feel oddly calm despite my situation as I watched the glow approach me. It wasn’t until it had gotten much closer that I noticed the glow was emanating from a figure in the middle of the glow.

I noticed the light was coming from another one of the creatures like the ones pulling me into the depths of the lake. She had the same watery appearance and slightly translucent form like the rest, but she was also remarkably different. Her once blonde hair was now white like the frost on an icy lake. Her body was slim yet muscular, like a swimmer’s. The part that drew my attention the most was her face. Her full lips and button nose gave her an almost pure and innocent appearance, but her eyes told a different story. They were the same sea green color that I remembered from all those times I would stare into those same eyes. They had always been so full of love, but now they were filled with a vicious ferocity that sent chills down my spine.

My thoughts were sluggish as I drowned. Before I could even make sense of what I was seeing, she raised one hand and a ripple of bubbles surrounded me. For a moment, I thought I was trapped in the roaring rapids instead of the motionless lake. I could feel the currents pushing against me. The monsters that had a hold of me were pushed with the flow too. They made a gurgling sound that was muffled by the water surrounding us. They dug their nails deeper into my skin, but even they could not maintain their ironlike grasp on my body. One by one, they lost their grip and sank deeper as the current took them to the bottom of the seemingly endless lake. Now I was alone with the luminescent figure floating there before me.

The anger vanished from her eyes in an instant. Replacing it was that same love that I had come to associate with those eyes. The corners of her mouth raised into a smile. She reached out and cupped my cheek with her hand. It was an odd feeling as her form was made of water and we were underwater. I saw what I thought was a tear roll down her face, though I couldn’t be sure how a creature made of water could cry while already underwater.

I extended my arm towards her to rest my hand on her cheek as well, but before I could make contact, she flicked her wrist and the current that had dragged my attackers to the depths of the lake now carried me to the top. I cried out, trying to remain close to my savior, but the water filling my throat prevented any sound from escaping my lips. The bubbles surrounding me cut off my view of the glowing woman until I broke through the surface of the lake.

The current continued to push me to the shoreline where I weakly crawled out, coughing and sputtering. I expelled as much water from my lungs as I could. I laid there for a moment, trying to fill the space in my lungs that was recently filled with water with oxygen.

I tried to make sense of what I had just seen, but no matter how I tried to piece the events together, I just couldn’t wrap my head around it all. I was sure of one thing however. Though I was still weak, I managed to mutter a single word.

“Maya.”