The Strange Encounter

Welcome to all my new followers!

I saw this and decided to write a story around it:

WARNING: THIS STORY IS NOT FOR CHILDREN, PRE-TEENS OR EARLY TEENS AND POSSIBLY FOR MIDTEENS, THOUGH IT COULD BE SAFE FOR AT LEAST 15 YR OLDS. ONLY LATE TEENS AND ADULTS.

REPEAT: DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE BELOW 15.

Hope you enjoy. On with the story.

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Rian looked at the man, startled. “Wh…what do you say?” she asked incredulously. He simply looked at her with an unreadable face. He nodded towards the large lake. “You want me to go in there?” Rian said, staring at the lake, her hands beginning to shake. No…no. Anything but that.

“Yes,” he said, warmth coming from his voice.

“Why?” she said, her voice coming out as nothing but a hoarse whisper.

In answer, he turned and stretched his arm out towards the lake. Following his pointing finger, she turned back towards the lake. A terrified gasp escaped her lips.

A little girl was in the very middle of the lake. She was splashing around, trying to swim, screaming for help.

Anger welled up inside Rian. “You’re so powerful, why don’t you d-” she whirled around as she spoke and found that the man had disappeared. Rian broke out into a cold sweat as she slowly turned back towards the lake.

“HE-” water swamped into the girl’s mouth, chillingly cutting her off. Her head disappeared below the water. Came back up again. Rian breathed a sigh of relief. Come on! Move you stupid limbs.

They wouldn’t move.

“MUMMY!!!!”

Oh, shit…

Something flashed before her eyes.

***

Her head broke the surface of the water. Hands roughly pushed her back down again. Water filled her nostrils. She was yanked up out of the water. Water spewed out of her, burning her nostrils. “MU-” her cry was cut off as she was ducked underneath again.

Gasping and trembling, a harsh voice snarled in her ear: “Promise and we’ll stop. Your choice.”

***

Rian found herself on her hands and knees, gasping for air, bile rising up in her throat. Another scream for help shattered her memory. Move, damn you! She pushed herself to her feet and – thank God – her feet moved. She forced herself to take one step after the other towards the water’s edge.

Her toes touched the water.

Punching her anxiety down, she kept going further in. The girl had probably seen her because she tried to swim in Rian’s direction. The girl disappeared below the water. Rian gasped and dived in, swimming towards her. “Stop thrashing!” she shouted to the girl. “Breathe! I’m coming! Lie on your back and DON’T. MOVE!!”

“Okay…” the girl whimpered, sounding strangely familiar. Rian was nearly there. “It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m here,” she said soothingly as she reached forward. “I’m -”

She saw her face. Rian froze.

It was her own face staring straight back at her with red, puffy eyes.

Rian couldn’t help but look at the outfit that the girl was wearing – the part of it that she could see, anyway.

A torn red dress.

My dress. The one I was wearing when I almost drown-

The girl’s scream suddenly cut her off as the child was suddenly yanked below the waves.

“RIAN!!!” Rian screamed and dove under to find her. The water was very dark. Rian – the older one – could barely see her hand in front of her. Where is she? Where is she? There! A flash of movement to her left.

Swimming forward, something flashed past her.

It had scales.

Sharp teeth lashed out at her.

She gasped and managed to dart out of the way. She swam to the surface and coughed out the water. Something sharp dug into her calf. Dragged her down. She managed to take a breath before being submerged, though she didn’t think that it would last her very long.

She managed to make the silhouette of a head. It was elongated and it’s jaws were wrapped around her leg. Something red was leaking out. She instantly thought of all the conspiracy theories about Loch Ness and other mysterious sea creatures which she thought was whacked-out nuts.

Her chest felt like it was on fire as she struggled not to open her mouth.

Suddenly, it let go of her, freeing her leg. She saw it inching towards her. It’s head came into the light that was filtered down from up above.

It’s face suddenly vanished and was replaced with the face of her brother, Jake.

Fear stabbed her chest. She screamed, bubbles of air spewing out of her mouth. But somehow…no water was rushing in. Darting her head around, Rian saw that she was no longer underwater, but standing by her brother’s hospitable bed. He was a lot older now and his skin was a sickly yellow. Apparently fatal. How…? And where’s the younger me?

“Forgive him.”

What? Looking around, she couldn’t not see him – the man that had transported her to the river of her night terrors. Yet, she had heard his voice as clearly as if he was right there next to her.

Rian scowled. “You’ve got to be bloody kidding me!” she shouted, stabbing a finger at the face of her brother. “Do you except me to forgive the one person who was supposed to care for me!!! Do you know what he did to me???!!!”

Hot tears were running down her face.

“Do you know what he did?” she continued without waiting for a response. “He brought his friends over one night. They were all drunk after the harvest. All feeling horny. I was the only person in the house. Mum and Dad, the bastard parents that they were, were off somewhere celebrating.” Taking a shaky breath to pull the widening cracks inside her together, Rian continued. “I was only four. Four. After their little fun, they took me from my room to that river and attempted to drown me to force my silence. Terrified and only four, I of course agreed.”

She lashed out and kicked the bed. Her foot went through it. Not caring to think, Rian slammed her fist into her brother’s face. Again. Again. And again. She kept trying, hoping that her hand would actually hit him and break his nose. Or worse.

“And what did you do? Nothing!” she spat out the words like they were venom. “That’s when I realised…that you had betrayed me, too.”

Her energy suddenly dissipated and she slumped to the floor, sobs racking her body.

“I didn’t want that to happen.”

Her head shot up. “Then why the hell didn’t you do something?!”

“For the same reason I didn’t do anything when my son was killed. I felt his pain, like I feel yours. I wept with you. Bled with you. I was the man who found you lying by the river after they had all scattered.” Rian fell silent as she listened to his words. “Sometimes, the dark sneaks in and wrecks havoc where I meant to have harmony.”

She thought about what he said for a minute. “But why don’t you stop it?”

“Sometimes, I have to make choices that I don’t want to make – like allowing my son to die. For you.”

Swallowing tightly, Rian wiped her cheeks. Despite herself, she sensed that what he was saying was true. And it was making sense.

“So, what am I doing here?” she rasped.

“To glue together the broken pieces.” Rian sat there in shock for a few moments before pulling herself together. So that’s why I saw my younger self in the river. “There’s something I need you to do. Forgive him.”

“WTF!?!”

“Forgive him.”

“Why don’t you effin’ kill him?”

“He’s going to die soon.”

“Good.”

“I want to save him.”

Okay, I must be having a nightmare.

“And for me to do that, you have to forgive him.”

“I-I can’t.”

“You can. I’ll be here. With you. Please.”

“Why?” Rian asked in a choked whisper.

“For the same reason that I want to save you.”

“How do I?”

“Just say it. It won’t be easy -”

“No shit.”

“- but if you keep saying it, you will find that it does get easier.”

Rian took a deep breath and blurted out her thoughts. “Can’t you save the guy WITHOUT me saying…you know?”

“No. I need you to forgive him so that I can save him.”

Rian rested her forehead against the wall. She slammed her fist a couple times into the wall as she fought against what the man had told her. No. Nope. Sorry. No can-do. Is he crazy?

“Please.”

Gritting her teeth, she turned and stared at her brother’s face and for the first time saw remorse…guilt? on his face. Jake opened his eyes and seemed to be staring straight at her.

Her skin crawled.

He stretched out his hand weakly. She jerked away, taking a step back and bumped into the wall. Disappointment filled his eyes as well as tears. His hand dropped. “I-I…sorry. So, so sorry,” he whispered hoarsely as he closed his eyes.

She closed her eyes and found herself opening her mouth. No! Shut up right now. “I-” she squeezed her eyes shut to stop herself from breaking down crying. “I forgive you.”

Suddenly she felt herself falling. Wind whipped around her, cracking her hair everywhere.

Her eyes jerked open.

She shot up.

Her legs were tangled in something. Screaming, she tried to kick it off. Oh. My quilt.

Hang on.

I’m in my bedroom. My present bedroom.

Relief soared through her as she looked around her apartment. She stretched and stood up. What a weird dream, she thought as she shuffled towards to the door to check to see if there was any morning mail. Opening the door, she blinked and shielded her eyes from the bright sunlight. Stepping off of her front porch, she went over to her mailbox and opened it.

There was a pile of letters.

On top was one from her.

Frowning, Rian opened it and pulled out the letter. Reading through it, she gasped and dropped the letter. No! Just a dream. It was just a DREAM.

But, according to the letter, it wasn’t.

Her brother had been hospitalised a month ago and was going to die soon and her mother wanted her to come and see him before Jake died.

No bloody way.

The man’s words echoed around in her mind. I forgive you. I forgive you, she kept repeating to herself. Her fists slowly unclenched. She bent down and picked up the letter, smoothing it out.

Alright, she silently agreed. I’ll go.

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I’m sorry if the way I wrote it was cheesy, cliched and I really hope that the way I wrote it wasn’t unbelievable or stupid or anything. This is my first time writing anything like this and I wanted to experiment. Hope you enjoyed.

Don’t forget, my new book My Cracks and Crevices: A Collection of Poetry is available for pre-order. If you want to check it out, click here.

Have a great day/night!

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