I’ve always been afraid of the water, something about its mysterious depths obscuring the unknown has always left me feeling uneasy, in fact for this reason I’ve never learned how to swim. My father tried to teach me once, we were at our local lake enjoying a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the sun shined bright bathing us in it’s warmth as I innocently dipped my feet into the water, smiles and jovial laughter fluttered in the air.
“It’s time for you to learn how to swim” my father told me.
I gleefully giggled, happy to the revelation that my dad was finally going to show me how to swim. I retreated my feet out of the shore line and followed him to the edge of the dock, he jumped in and remained submerged for several seconds, my eyes fixated on the rippling current waiting for my dad to come back up. Time slowed to an excruciating pace as my patience grew into concern.
‘splash’
“Okay son, you’re turn, jump in and I’ll catch you” my father said as he surprised me with a heavy splash.
My smile returned as I saw him and all confidence was restored knowing that nothing bad could ever happen as long my dad was around. So I took a deep breath and gripped my nose shut with my fingers as I aimed carefully to land into my father’s open arms. The most odd feeling inundated my senses as my feet lifted off the ground, anxiety shot across my mind as my eyes remained on my fathers gaze, I saw his smile slowly morph into the most hideous frown.
“arghhh” my father yelped out.
By the time I landed in the water my dad had disappeared out of sight, I kicked and thrashed as I called out for him, I could feel my body getting more heavy as I began to sink. I screamed and pleaded for help not knowing what had happened to my father and within seconds; I descended into the abyss of emptiness, the world above cautiously fading away as darkness engulfed me.
I don’t know how long I was in the water for, I woke up with an audience overlooking my small body, a man hovered above asking if I was alright; I wanted to respond but the only words that escaped my mouth were,
“Where’s my dad?”
Everyone’s eyes slowly dipped down, as they all did their best not to make eye contact and that’s when I saw him in the corner of my eye, he was merely 20 feet away; he laid unmoved and dormant; he was dead. Apparently it was a water snake, I didn’t even know those things existed, but the creature bit him and unfortunately that’s all it took for my father to drown. Ever since that day I have been terrified of the water, doing my best to avoid it if possible, even when I shower I can feel my blood pressure spike.
So I moved out into the middle of nowhere far away from any lakes or coasts deep into the heartland surrounded by a vastness of tree line. I lived in newly built apartment complex, it was surrounded by a beautiful vibrate forest. Each morning I would get up and serve my self a cup of coffee and walk over to my balcony mesmerized by the enchantment of nature, it was truly a wonderment, the only issue I had was this new construction next door. They had already cut down several trees excavating the land, apparently they were going to build some gas station and for now all I saw was one giant empty hole, I guess that’s where they put the gas lines for the pumps. I did my best to ignore the eye soar only knowing it was going to get worse, I’ve even thought off different ways of how I could get the construction to stop but never really acted out on any of the ideas, just knowing more that it was a fantasy to do such a thing.
I worked from home and each day I would hear the drilling and the pounding coming from the site, I would shut my eyes tightly doing my best to drown out the sound, so when a heavy storm came to town I was elated knowing that they would have to halt construction. The rain was relentless, I hid in my closet like some child as the ponderous raindrops bombarded my windows; the thunderous clash terrifying me. The next day to my delight the storm clouds had dissipated and all that remained were puddles of water as the sun blessed me with it’s glow. I smiled knowing that the construction crew would wait for the site to dry which could be days.
So I walked over to my kitchen as I have always done and poured myself a fresh cup of coffee, practically giggling with the pleasure of my new found solitude, I couldn’t hear a sound just pure silence, well, other than the birds chirping. I walked over to my balcony to over look the tree line, I inhaled deeply savoring the scent of pine and that’s when I looked down at that once massive hole, no longer was it empty, rather, it was now a pond of mud.
“Eww” I whimpered out at such a sight.
But that’s when I saw it, I couldn’t believe my eyes, there was something moving in the water.
“Wait, what the hell is that” I asked myself with complete befuddlement.
Whatever it was, the thing was enormous practically taking up the entire pond, I couldn’t make out the shape and all I could do was stare on with disbelief as this thing thrashed around.
“Maybe it’s a flock of birds” I rationalized to myself.
I could feel my skin begin to crawl as beads of sweat formed on my brow, my breathing became heavy and I knew I had to step away from the balcony, I ran back to my closet and curled up into a fetal position as I counted backwards from ten trying to calm myself. After about 30 minutes I cautiously left the solace of my small closet and went back to my desk to work; trying my best to ignore the anomaly that laid in the depths of that pond, but that thrashing; sounds of water splashing around inundated my hearing. I did my best to drown out the sounds, my anxiety was at an all time high and I did the only thing I could think of, I took a heavy dose of my sleeping medicine and slept in my closet.
The next morning I woke up feeling a bit silly, knowing that I had over reacted. The mysterious encounter surely had a reasonable explanation and of course I’m no zoologist so with reassurance protruding from my gut I stepped towards my balcony, feeling the most brave I’ve ever had. As always I inhaled deeply and closed my eyes for several seconds as I prepared myself to look down into that muddy pond and as my eyes cautiously opened I saw nothing, that pond was gone just an empty hole as before it dried up. I almost felt like jumping in celebration but suppressed the urge, rather I went to pour myself my a fresh cup, all while I smiled. As the bitterness engulfed my taste buds I heard the most dreadful sound I couldn’t believe it and I ran back to the balcony looking above; it was thunder.
“No!” I exclaimed, not understanding where the hell the storm cloud came from.
To my nightmare the forecast was grim, somehow we were going to be consumed by a terrible thunderstorm for the next several days.
As the night progressed I tried my best to ignore the storm that encapsulated my apartment building, I stayed away as far as I could from the windows and especially the balcony; though I wasn’t going to hide in the closet like some coward anymore and I would just think of my father anytime I felt that tingling sensation of fear try to creep it’s way into my mind. I honestly did pretty good, I spent most of the night watching movies completely immersed into the reality of entertainment and soon I fell asleep.
That night I dreamt of my father, me and him back at that dreadful lake; him calling out to me to jump into his arms but this time I could clearly see that beast behind him, well, I could see the thrashing of the currents as something ghastly revealed itself, it was as if it was a tentacle and I couldn’t stop looking at.
“Jump son, jump son, jump, jump, JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!”
and with that I woke up, but to my horror I could still hear my father calling out to me to; jump. The voice was coming from outside and I could feel all the blood leave my body as I froze in utter terror. The rain continued to poor down but even with all the thunder I could still hear the voice.
“Dad?” I whimpered out.
I had to been going crazy, perhaps this was some feverish induced nightmare and I coward underneath my covers like some frighten child hiding from the monster in his closet. I even covered my ears but some that voice, it was still coming through like if was broadcasting into my mind, finally a bit of courage erupted inside me or maybe it was just frustration but I decided to confront the voice so I walked towards the balcony. I slid open the glass door and stepped out into the waterfall of rain and stared down into that chasm of water, before even looking I could hear the thrashing and to my horror there it was that creature, I couldn’t see the entire beast all I saw was tentacles.
“What do you want!” I shouted.
“jump, jump, jump, jump” is all I heard as I looked around in utter disbelief that no one else was seeing this.
I thrusted my body back into the apartment sheltering away from that demon and I collapsed to the floor, my heart virtually escaping my chest as I did everything in my power to calm down, I looked towards my closet and I was tempted to hide like I have always done but I was too weak to move so I crawled. As I squirmed across my hardwood floors the voice only became more thunderous breaking through the deluge of the storm and before I could make it to my closet I had passed out.
I woke up the next day my clothes completely drenched but not in rain water, rather, my own sweat and my headed throbbed as if I was hungover. I carefully got up from off the floor looking around with absolute bewilderment and that’s when I remembered the creature, I couldn’t hear the voice anymore and I sighed out in relief. I also noticed it stopped raining, though the dark mischievous clouds still hovered above with malice leaving me utterly angst. I contemplated the idea of just leaving but I knew I had to conquer my fears, there was no monster in the water; that would be impossible and with trepidation protruding from my very soul I stuck my chin up in the air with ambition, I decided to stay; no hiding in the closet no breathing heavy instead, I was going to confront this nightmare.
As the night approached extinguishing any lustrous sun that might of been out I poor myself a tall glass of wine while I sat in the dark waiting for the voice to call out to me. As before the rain stormed down with vigorous intent as I waited patiently, taking a sip of my wine each time thunder burst around me. I waited and drank, sitting there hoping to hear it, I would occasionally get up and walk over to the balcony thinking I would say those horrid tentacles; but nothing. Eventually I fell asleep in my accent chair, alcohol simmering on my breath as an empty wine bottle laid tilted over next to me and that’s when I heard it. A monstrous roar engulfed my apartment practically shaking the walls, I jumped out of my chair mesmerized to the sound, I looked around confused and then ran towards the balcony and there it was the tentacles thrashing around. I needed to know what this thing was, why did it sound like my father, I charged down the stairs sprinting towards this beast. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I got there I just knew I needed to see what this thing wanted with me.
I stood next to the small pond, those tentacles still sputtering around the thing was massive up close and I looked into the water trying to see what this thing was and that’s when I saw an eye, it was beneath the slithering tentacles and it was staring at me, I froze with disbelief I couldn’t look away almost as if this creature possessed my body.
“Jump, jump, jump, jump”
My fathers voice calling out to me once again, maybe he was down there, maybe somehow he survived I needed to know, so; I jumped in. I couldn’t see anything just darkness and disquietude surrounded me, I couldn’t even see the tentacles anymore, I just began to sink. I carelessly drifted further down into the abyss not able to hear my father anymore and I could slowly feel my mind begin to drift into obscurity, I think I was dying and that’s when an arm from above grabbed me and pulled me back up. I was barely lucid, I couldn’t see who saved me and as lay on the muddy shore line of the pond practically unconscious I heard mysterious person tell me
“I’ll catch you”
and then I passed out.
I awoke to the sounds of construction machinery firing all around me while the sun shined down on my face. I looked around and saw that the pond was gone, dried up only leaving an empty hole as before and as I stood to my feet trying have resolve over my senses I smiled understanding who saved me. I don’t know of that monster was real or if any of it had happened but I’m no longer scared of the water, even if that beast would to come back I now know that my father will be there to save me.