Adventure of the drowning one 1

The lake lies beneath a colorless sky, its beach empty except for three teenage girls. They leave towels and bags on the sand, then approach the shallows together, laughing softly.

The drowning one arrives at the reed-choked edge. His pale, sightless eyes catch no reflection, yet the water dimples around him as if recognizing something buried.

A name whispers from nowhere between the reeds. It is old, nearly forgotten, and the sound travels across the lake without disturbing a single blade of grass.

All three stop at the waterline and stare at one another. Beneath the dark surface, something answers with a slow, heavy knock against the lakebed.

A sudden wind sweeps across the lake, driving a sheet of cold mist over the shallows. The girls turn from the water toward the empty beach, but their footprints are already filling with black water.

They grab one another's hands and hurry uphill. Behind them, the lake releases three soft knocks, matching the rhythm of their running steps.

The red towel lifts from the sand without wind and skims toward the water. Under it, a child's small handprint appears, pressing outward through the cloth.

At the edge of the trees, the girls reach the narrow path leading to the road. The mist follows only as far as the first roots, where it gathers and waits.

The drowning one releases his siren call across the mist. It is soft at first, a submerged melody threading through the girls’ joined hands and pulling their attention lakeward.

The lure catches them for one faltering step, but the shortest girl drags the others beyond the first roots. There, the song breaks against the trees and falls silent.

The failed melody rebounds through the bank instead, revealing a narrow, dry drainage cut beneath the roots. It slopes toward the road, hidden from the lake and open enough for the girls to follow.

The drowning one sends the melody again, not across the lake this time, but down the dry drainage cut. The notes curl beneath the roots, leading away from the water.

The three girls turn together. The shortest girl keeps their hands linked, but the song draws them into the narrow cut, toward the road and beyond the lake’s reach.

They enter the drainage cut. The drowning one’s call guides them safely through the roots, but its strain cracks the silence, and a thread of black water spills from his mouth into the reeds.

The girls press deeper into the drainage cut, fully dressed in damp casual clothes. Their shoes slip on the packed earth, but the passage remains open toward the road.

The tallest girl’s sweatshirt clings at the sleeves, while the girl with the red towel keeps her shorts and bright jacket close against the cold. Nothing follows them beneath the roots.

The melody thins behind them, fading into the reeds. Ahead, gray daylight widens between the trees, and the three linked figures climb toward safety.

The three girls crest the rise and spill onto the roadside, still gripping one another’s hands. Gray daylight settles over them, ordinary and thin.

They hurry along the shoulder, damp clothes clinging from the mist and their shoes marked with mud. Behind them, the drainage cut darkens beneath the roots.

At the bend, the lake disappears behind the trees. The melody does not follow. Only three sets of hurried footsteps remain, fading toward the road.