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It was a normal day, just like any other; the sun shined through the leaves of the apple trees in the surrounding forest, and the lake sparkled like a million jewels, smooth as glass in the early morning stillness. It was the kind of day Felix loved, and today was no exception, as he leaned out over the wooden fencing of his front porch, facing the body of water he cared for so dearly. He took a deep, long inhale of the fresh Spring air, before exhaling contentedly. My favorite time of year, he thought to himself, best for fishing.
He grabbed his fishing rod, which he had propped next to him in preparation, stepped off his porch, and walked around the edge of the lake. Luckily, his little wood cabin, tucked away behind some of the apple trees that grew rampant around the farm, was only a few feet from the lake, so the trek to the other side where the dock was wasn’t too much of a hassle. Eventually he reached the dock, sat on the edge, and tossed his line out, hoping for a bite.
Time passed, and Felix let his mind wander; as he stared out at the sunrise, painting the sky in pink and orange, he began to think of his friends. A smile tugged on his lips as he thought of what they’d do together once everyone awoke. Would Claus finally teach him how to play chess, like he always promised? Would Andy bake them an apple pie? Would Melody write another song on her harp? Felix was never able to predict them, they never had a dull day around the farm, and that was exactly why he moved in. He loved excitement, he loved adventure.. He loved his friends.
As much as he loved them, though, he did enjoy some moments of peace and quiet. Which was why he always woke up so early, before the roosters began to crow and all the little critters began to scuttle about, and went fishing. Not only were the golden fish in the lake more active in the morning, but Felix could find some time to be alone with his thoughts. Speaking of his friends, he wondered how much time he had before they all woke up; Andy was always the first to wake, and that was usually his calling card to pack up and get ready for the day.
He lifted up the sleeve of his suit and looked at the watch on his wrist. Given to him by Claus on his birthday, it was blue and red and yellow, and read 7:30. Yep, He thought, Andy should be getting up soon.
Wait a minute.
He did a double take at the piece of glass on his wrist. He began fishing at 6:30.
“I’ve been sitting here for an hour and I haven’t gotten any bites at all?!”
He pouted in confusion. It was right around the time fish would be most active, in the middle of spring, and he was using his best bait! Why weren’t they biting?
Felix sighed in annoyance. He must’ve gotten a bad spot. Oh well, no time to recast, he’d just have to pack up and try again later. He stood up and started reeling his line back in, and he saw the bobber fly smoothly across the lake’s surface.
That was, until the line got pulled back so hard that Felix almost fell forwards into the water below.
He let out a loud yelp, and quickly tried to regain his balance, but that was difficult when whatever it was kept tugging on his rod.
“What is that?! A fish?”
He shook his head. If it was a fish, it was the biggest fish he’d ever seen! Besides himself, of course. With a newfound enthusiasm, he began fighting back, winding in the reel with all his might. But no matter how hard he pulled and warred with the thing in the water, he was barely able to bring the cast a few inches in his direction.
His strength began to wane, and he struggled to catch his breath. He paused, almost considering just letting go of the rod and letting the thing win, but in that split second of rest, the thing pulled, and he lost his footing, falling into the deep blue brine below.
The water was cold against his scales, sending a shiver down the fish’s spine, and it was so deep and dark that he couldn’t see anything below him; instead, it was nothing but a black void beneath his feet. He felt fear and panic well up inside his heart - he didn’t remember the lake being this deep.
He looked around in a paranoid hysteria, attempting to track down what had pulled him off the dock, but he saw nothing. He couldn’t even sight his rod.
He hesitated for a second, but let out a shaky sigh of relief, sending a few bubbles of air through the water. Maybe whatever it was went away?
That was what he was betting on, and he swam towards the surface as fast as his arms and legs could take him. 6 feet below. 5 feet below. 4 feet. 3. Felix could almost feel the sunlight on his scales as he neared the surface. His gills were practically flaring from him hyperventilating. One clawed hand of his breached the surface, and he thought for a moment that he’d finally be able to go home.
Something grabbed his leg.
He could feel the air get forced out of him as he was as he was dragged deeper and deeper under. What felt like claws dug into his leg, breaking through scales and skin, and he could feel the warmth of blood seeping from him into the lake, contrasting heavily with the bitter cold of the rest of his body.
Felix let out a shriek of pain, but it was just a dull noise drowned out by the sound of water in his ears, and the moment he opened his mouth, the cold liquid went down his throat, and filled his lungs.
..Lungs?
Felix clawed at his neck, feeling around desperately for the thin slits that were his gills, but all he felt were smooth scales, slimy and uncharacteristically grimy. Felix gritted his teeth and cringed at the feeling.
His gills were gone.
I can’t breathe.
Ican’tbreatheIcan’tbreatheICAN’TBREATHE-
Felix felt a rush of adrenaline course through his body, and he thrashed desperately, stomping on the claws holding him with his one free leg. But it was all in vain, the thing was just too strong, and to make things worse, the fish’s vision was starting to blur, and he knew he was going to pass out if he didn’t get away soon.
This wasn’t how he wanted to die.
He kept struggling, though he was getting weaker and weaker, until suddenly..
The thing let go?
Felix got flung upwards a bit, as he was trying to swim up and away, and was left a bit stunned for a second. He was confused, but he frankly didn’t care to understand what just happened, he just wanted to go home.
He was like a torpedo in the water, zooming to the top in a frenzy unlike any he’d ever felt before. The sun breaking through the tiny waves shone in Felix’s eyes, and he squinted a bit in pain - his eyes hadn’t adjusted to the light just yet. That didn’t matter to him though, and he continued swimming straight up to the dock, watching the piece of wood get closer and closer. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, the light was now blinding him, and once more he stuck his hand out, feeling the warmth of the sun on his scales.
The dock was right above him now, his one and only hope for escape from this hell, and he peered up to where his hand was.
Another gulp of water flooded his chest with pain, but it went unnoticed. Felix was a bit too distracted by the corpse standing over the dock, watching him with dark, hollow eyes.
From what Felix could see where he was, the corpse was that of a young boy, disheveled brown hair framing his pale, bluish face, with nearly purple lips. He wore a light blue t-shirt, worn and ripped. It stared at Felix, almost curiously, then smiled. The smile was nothing human. It stretched to the ends of his face - Felix almost thought his mouth would rip open - and revealed rows of razor sharp teeth.
Felix felt paralyzed, he couldn’t move. He could only stare above at the thing in terror. He wanted to scream, to cry out for help, but he knew it would do nothing but drown him faster. Everything was going dark..
A hand broke through the water and grabbed his wrist, pulling hard and yanking him out.
Felix hit the sand hard, gasping for air between sobs. He lied on the ground for a minute, shaken and terrified, too weak to stand on his own, and jumped involuntarily at the feeling of a gloved hand on his shoulder.
“Felix? Are.. Are you alright?”
He recognized that voice.
“Andy..?”
He turned around sluggishly, and sat face-to-face with his apple friend. He was squatting down a little, and once Felix turned, he gently took his hand off him. His eyes shone with a kind of concern that Felix saw very rarely, if ever.
Felix looked around, panicked; there was no sign of the corpse. Of the thing in the water. Nothing seemed out of place, except for him on the sand.
“Did you see it?!” Felix cried between his sobs, sitting up too fast. Andy had to catch him when he fell back to the ground, and helped him back to his feet gingerly. He threw one of Felix’s arms over his shoulder, and wrapped his own around his waist. Felix felt kind of bad for leaning all his weight on Andy, but he couldn’t help it.
“See what, Felix?”
“The-The thing! In the water!!”
“What are you talking about? You’ve just been thrashing about in the shallow end for 5 minutes. You stopped moving, so I came to check on you..”
Felix looked at Andy like he had grown two heads, and Andy returned the same stare. It couldn’t have been five minutes. It felt like thirty!
Felix’s sobs started to wane when he realized that he no longer felt the water in his lungs, there was no trail of warm blood or stinging pain coming from his leg. His one free hand flung to his neck and felt around. His gills were there, no longer sore from hyperventilating.
Have I just been hallucinating this whole time?
It seemed unbelievable to him, but it was the only way he could explain it all. I really AM going off the deep end, huh?
“M-my.. My rod..”, Felix replied quietly. “I dropped my rod in the water, so I went under looking for it. I’ll just- I’ll just get another one, though!”
God, he was an awful liar, but thankfully Andy was just as gullible as he was kind, and he believed it blindly. He just shrugged and kept walking across the lake’s beach.
“Maybe we should just get you home, let you rest for a while. You aren’t looking too hot.”
Out of curiosity, Felix looked into the water. Between the small waves, his reflection mirrored Andy’s statement. He was pale, and wet, and shivering. His irises were shrunken and made him look deranged, and his eyes were red and puffy from crying, all highlighted by huge bags underneath them. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say he looked dead.
He quickly tore his gaze away from the water. He couldn’t bear to think about it.
“Yeah.. You’re right, Andy. Maybe I just need a nap. I’ll be okay..”
He said it more to comfort himself than his friend. He’d be okay.
His cabin came back into view. He’d. Be. Okay.
He wasn’t okay. Not in the slightest.
It had been 3 days since he’d gotten back home from the incident, and everything just got worse and worse. At first it was nothing more than feeling a bit out of it, seeing things in the corner of his eye, paranoia. But.. Then the sickness started to set in.
He’d feel fine one moment, but the second he got near the lake, he felt like he was drowning again, the familiar feeling sending him into panic attacks upon panic attacks upon panic attacks. And, since the lake was right outside his house, he hadn’t left in days.
But it kept happening, no matter how much he tried to distance himself from the lake. He always felt sick, like he was dying. Then came hallucinations; the dead child always seemed to stare at him from the corner of his eye, mocking him with its horrific smile.
He was currently hunched over his toilet, hurling. His throat burned and his vision blurred with tears, and he could barely find the strength to move his aching body. At that point, all he was throwing up was water - his stomach had emptied hours ago - and, much to Felix’s terror, a concerning amount of blood, turning the water a dark shade of red.
He couldn’t stop shaking, and his breathing was quick and rapid between his moments of sickness, and all he wanted to do was cry. Cry and cry and cry.
There came a thump from beside him, of something heavy hitting the tile floor of his bathroom. Felix looked to his left slowly.
“No.. No no no, please god no..”
The dead child stared at him, smiling all the while. Taunting him. Daring him to do something.
“What do you want from me?!” Felix wailed, “WHY WON’T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!?”
He struggled in an attempt to get up off his knees, but with a whimper the fish collapsed to the ground, far too weak to try to move anymore. His consciousness faded in and out as the child got closer and closer to him, and the last thing that crossed his mind before he blacked out was a man’s voice, completely foreign and yet.. So familiar.
“Say hi, Louis. People are listening”
‘Dear Diary,’ Andy wrote in a little leather-clad journal, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. He was sitting down at his dining room table, eating his breakfast, scribbling down his thoughts and plans for the day. ‘My friends invited me out for a picnic yesterday! They said they’d be in the little clearing next to the fields and the barn. Everyone will be there - even Felix! Which is good, because I hadn’t seen him since the incident by the lake. He said he felt sick.. but I suppose he feels better now!’
Andy rested his head on his hand, thinking for a moment, before going back to writing. ‘Also, I seem to have misplaced my key. I haven’t seen it since last night. Oh well, I’m sure it’ll show up!'
He shut the book, placed it back on its spot on the shelf, finished his breakfast, and headed out the door. A sudden click when the door shut sent a small jolt of panic through Andy’s heart. He checked the door - It was locked.
“It’s gonna be a long day, huh?” Andy said out loud to himself.
He had no idea.