Chapter 11 : The Girl In The Water
983 Words
Nobody slept.
Not really.
Aaron spent most of the night staring at the photographs taken at Ashmere Reservoir.
Every image showed the same impossible thing.
Amelia Carter.
Standing in the middle of the water.
Half a mile from shore.
Motionless.
Watching.
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The police drone footage was even worse.
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The drone had circled her three times.
Its cameras captured every angle.
Every detail.
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Amelia wasn't floating.
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She wasn't standing on a hidden platform.
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She wasn't supported by wires.
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She simply stood on the surface.
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As though the laws of reality had quietly stopped applying to her.
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And in every image she was smiling.
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By sunrise, Aaron, Maya, and Eleanor were standing beside the reservoir.
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The water stretched endlessly before them.
Grey.
Still.
Silent.
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The weather had changed overnight.
A thick blanket of fog drifted across the surface.
Reducing visibility to mere metres.
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The world felt smaller.
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Claustrophobic.
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Wrong.
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"Tell me this is a terrible idea."
Aaron adjusted his jacket.
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"This is a terrible idea."
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"Good."
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"Are we doing it anyway?"
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"Unfortunately."
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Maya barely heard them.
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She was staring into the fog.
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Something moved out there.
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She could feel it.
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Not Amelia.
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Something deeper.
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Something beneath the water.
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Watching.
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Waiting.
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Dreaming.
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The rescue boat cut slowly across the reservoir.
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Its engine sounded unnaturally loud.
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Every noise seemed amplified.
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Every movement disturbed a silence that shouldn't exist.
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The fog thickened.
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Soon the shoreline vanished completely.
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Only water remained.
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Water and mist.
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An endless grey void.
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Then Maya saw her.
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A shape ahead.
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Standing perfectly still.
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Aaron reduced speed.
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Nobody spoke.
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Nobody needed to.
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Amelia Carter stood exactly where the photographs had shown.
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Barefoot.
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Arms hanging loosely at her sides.
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Head slightly tilted.
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The same pose as the Hollowed.
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The same terrible stillness.
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The same smile.
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She appeared unharmed.
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No injuries.
No signs of exposure.
No evidence she'd spent weeks missing.
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Only the eyes betrayed something was wrong.
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They seemed too dark.
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Too deep.
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As though something stared through them.
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"Amelia?"
Aaron called.
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The girl didn't move.
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"Amelia Carter?"
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Nothing.
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The boat drifted closer.
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Thirty feet.
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Twenty.
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Ten.
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Maya's stomach tightened.
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Because Amelia wasn't standing on the water anymore.
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Not exactly.
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The closer they got, the clearer it became.
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Something was supporting her.
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Something just beneath the surface.
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Dark shapes.
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Moving.
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Writhing.
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Countless shapes.
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Human-shaped.
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Maya's blood turned to ice.
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"No..."
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Eleanor saw them too.
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"Oh God."
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The water beneath Amelia wasn't empty.
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Faces floated below the surface.
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Hundreds of them.
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Pale.
Distorted.
Silent.
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Eyes open.
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Watching.
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The missing.
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The taken.
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The absorbed.
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Every victim the Dreamer had ever claimed.
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Holding Amelia above the water like an offering.
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Then Amelia blinked.
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The first movement they'd seen.
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Slowly her head turned.
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The motion produced a soft cracking sound.
Like joints unused for a very long time.
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Her eyes locked onto Maya.
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Not Aaron.
Not Eleanor.
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Maya.
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The smile widened.
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Then Amelia spoke.
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Her voice sounded normal.
At first.
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"Maya."
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The young woman froze.
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"How do you know my name?"
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Amelia's smile grew wider.
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Far wider than a human mouth should allow.
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Then other voices emerged beneath hers.
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Dozens.
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Hundreds.
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Layered together.
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The same impossible chorus Maya had heard in Blackwater.
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"We know you."
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The boat rocked violently.
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Aaron grabbed the rail.
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Eleanor stumbled backward.
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The fog thickened further.
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Something enormous shifted beneath the reservoir.
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A movement so vast it displaced thousands of gallons of water.
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The surface rippled outward.
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And every face beneath Amelia suddenly opened its eyes.
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Every single one.
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Hundreds of pairs of eyes staring upward.
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Staring at Maya.
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"We remember you."
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The voices echoed across the water.
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"We remember the fire."
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Maya felt her heart stop.
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The fire.
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Blackwater.
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The Dreamer remembered.
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Everything remembered.
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Then Amelia raised one hand.
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Pointing beyond the fog.
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Toward something hidden deeper within the reservoir.
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A shape slowly emerged.
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At first Maya thought it was an island.
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Then she realised it was moving.
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And islands don't move.
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The fog peeled away.
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Revealing something impossibly large beneath the water.
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A shadow.
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Miles long.
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Sleeping below the reservoir.
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The sight lasted only seconds.
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Yet it felt like eternity.
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Then the shadow opened a single eye.
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Far below the surface.
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And looked directly at Maya.
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The world exploded into white light.
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When Maya opened her eyes again she was lying in the rescue boat.
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Aaron knelt beside her.
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Blood streamed from his nose.
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Eleanor sat trembling against the hull.
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The fog was gone.
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Amelia was gone.
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The faces were gone.
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Only the reservoir remained.
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Silent.
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Still.
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As though none of it had happened.
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Then Maya noticed something clenched in her hand.
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A small object.
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Cold.
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Wet.
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Ancient.
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She slowly opened her fingers.
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Inside rested a stone disk.
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Carved into its surface was a familiar symbol.
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The spiral eye.
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And beneath it, a map.
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A map leading somewhere.
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Somewhere important.
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Somewhere the Dreamer wanted her to find.
- Writer
