Aaron was swimming in the middle of a vast body of water which stretched endlessly in all directions.
He would have thought it an ocean were the water salty.
However, it was freshwater, and that meant a lake. But it was the biggest lake he had ever seen in his life.
The sky was purple-gray with a hint of fading orange off in the distance--dusk. Night would fall soon and that meant Aaron would be swimming in darkness. He didn't like that. How would he ever find the shore if he couldn't see where he was going? Not, he told himself, that it would matter. He couldn't see the shore now, could he? He began swimming in the direction of the light, for no other reason than it was a way to go, and he couldn't expect to get to the shore by treading water.
The lake was cold. Not ice cold, but a subtle cold.
The kind that stole the warmth from the body slowly, bit by bit, until before you knew it, your limbs were numb and heavy and you couldn't make them keep pulling you through the water. Aaron forced himself not to think about the cold and the approaching darkness. Instead, he thought of drying off before a warm, cozy, and most importantly safe campfire.
But he still felt the water's cold seeping through his skin.
Aaron wasn't the world's greatest swimmer and before long he found himself beginning to tire. The cold, and his lack of practice swimming, were taking their toll. His lungs ached and his muscles burned. But still he kept moving his arms and legs, stroke after stroke, for if he didn't, he knew what would happen, knew he would sink, would drown. Would die.
Still no hint of shore in sight and what little light there had been was nearly gone.
Aaron.
He told himself that he hadn't heard the watery whisper, that it was just his imagination, or fatigue.
Aaron...
Adrenaline shot through him and the pain in his muscles momentarily faded and he surged through the water like a torpedo, desperate to put distance between himself and the voice he was sure he hadn't really heard.
Aaron! Louder now, far more than a whisper, almost a shout. Wait!
And Aaron felt a slimy cold something--something that felt an awful lot like a hand--brush his foot.
He screamed.
)
Aaron's friend drowned one year ago, and now he's returned. But has he come back for revenge ... or something else?
