Into the Night
It was dark that night, almost too dark to see anything, and yet as she stopped to catch her breath she turned to look back at me. Trevor was already gone by then, running for help as I drifted farther and farther away from the shore. Nobody would ever know that she had left me here. Nobody but me.
“I’m sorry,” she had said, grabbing her coat. “I’m so sorry.”
But she wasn’t.
Everything was blurry now. The waves had knocked my glasses off, pushing them downstream with the current as I struggled to stay above the water. It had been a long time since Trevor had left to go get help, and still nobody had come. I tried to float, but the waves kept pushing me under. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could take it.
That’s when I woke up. I didn’t remember getting out of the water, or even falling asleep, but all of a sudden I was awake by the riverbank, the waves lapping gently at my feet. “I’m alive,” I said aloud, shocked. “I’m alive!” Then I remembered.
We had gone swimming. It was almost midnight, but we were already deep in the forest, running barefoot along the river. We were laughing about something, I don’t remember what it was, but we were too out of breath to run any longer. So we stopped. Three barefoot teenagers, laughing and throwing rocks at each other. That was what we were before.
I was tired, but Mal wasn’t. “Let’s go swimming.” she said, eyeing the river. “It’ll be fun. I promise.” Trevor laughed and dove in, clothes and all.
“Come on in!” he yelled. “The water’s warm!”
“I’m cold!” I said hesitantly. “Let’s go back!” Mal shook her head at me, her long ponytail swinging behind her.
“I’m going in!” she declared.
They swam for a bit, laughing and splashing each other happily. I wandered down the shore for a bit and sat down near the water, drawing letters in the sand with a stick. “I’m here,” I wrote. That was the last thing I saw.
I felt something grab me, I’m sure of it. A rusty claw or a hand or something, someone. Next thing I know I’m in the water and all of a sudden I can’t breathe. It was deeper than I anticipated, the water dark and murky. I couldn’t see the bottom. All I could see was the shore and the water, pushing me back every time I tried to swim against it.
Trevor was running at this point. “Stay here!” He told Mal. “Make sure she keeps her head above the water!” Mal nodded, shaking. She had gotten out of the water already, her clothes dripping wet. They were too far away to try and help me. Even I knew that. I could see her shivering from the cold and I realised that Trevor had lied. The water wasn’t warm at all.
Eventually Mal gave up on me. She left me alone in the water, drifting away into the night. I hated her for it. But I survived.
After washing up on shore I walked into the woods, trying to find my way back home. I saw lights up ahead and followed them, curious. That’s when I saw it.
Mal and Trevor stood together along the shore, trembling from the cold. Six police cars surrounded them, tired policemen getting out of their cars and sipping coffee to fight the cold. There, next to the words “I’m here”, lay my dead body.