Page 1 of Someone in the Water

It’s dark.

More than dark. Pure, perfect blackness, the type that makes you wonder if you really exist. Whether you might be floating in space, or some other unknown dimension.

A noise pulls Lola back to the room. Rustling.

She imagines rats scurrying across the floor.

Spiders crawling.

She closes her eyes, feels the slow trickle of salty tears down her face.

Why didn’t she listen? Trust her mum’s judgement?

In her black hole, the images come for her. Dead strangers. Grieving mothers. Wild animals being chased through forests by hooded warriors.

A faceless killer.

And him.

There’s that noise again but coming from a different direction. Or is it a different noise? Rustling, yes, but louder now, like a person.

‘Hello?’ she calls out, her voice breaking in that one word. ‘Who’s there?’