I glanced down at the puddle.
“You sure you saw it coming from here?”
The farmer scratched his chin while his pipe hung loosely between his teeth.
“Yep, as sure as my maam's name day.”
I looked up at the scrawny man.
“I dunno, Terrence,” I said, shaking my head. “It just doesn't seem plausible.”
“I thought so too, honest. Tested it out myself before coming to you. It's deeper than you think.”
“How deep?”
“Deep enough that I stuck a 10ft pole in it and couldn't feel the bottom.”
I was skeptical about that. He was known in town for his tendency to drink. Not to mention I had several witnesses stating he'd been out of it the previous night. His tale was just too outlandish to be real.
“I want to believe you Terrence, it's just…”
He squinted at me in a challenging manner.
I looked at him and shrugged. “You're not the most reliable person when you've been drinking, you know…”
He scowled. “Now that's just downright mean, Mic. Of all the people, I thought, you'd be the one to believe me. Because of your wife n all.”
That was a wound I didn't want to reopen. It had taken a lot of therapy to put the incident behind me.
I sighed and stood, brushing dust from my uniform. “Alright Terrence, I'll bite. Prove to me it's as deep as you claim.”
His face lit up, and he scuttled off to fetch the pole he'd used. I watched him disappear around the corner before turning my attention back to the puddle. A stray breeze blew through the farmstead, tussling my hair before subsiding.
Short-lived yet welcoming in this summer’s heat.
It suddenly struck me. The water gathered in the puddle had not moved at all. Not a single ripple as the wind passed by. Its surface remained clear as glass, a perfect reflection of the sky above.
Another slight breeze sighed by and I hurriedly glanced at the puddle. As if by some trick, the water remained still.
What in the gods…
Terrence’s return cut off my train of thought.
“Pass it over,” I said, and took the pole from him.
“Why the sudden change of heart?” he asked, moving to stand on the opposite side of the puddle.
“I noticed the water doesn't move when the wind blows.”
I lowered the pole into the puddle and gasped. Just like with the wind, the pole did not cause a single ripple, but it passed through seamlessly.
“I got a bad feeling about this Mic,” Terrence said, eyeing the puddle. “Maybe we should just leave it alone.”
I wasn't listening. All my attention was on the pole, disappearing inch by inch into the puddle. My instincts screamed that something was wrong, but I couldn't stop. How deep did it actually go? I was at the end of the pole on my knees, a hand's breadth away from touching the water, when Terrence pulled me away. I dropped the pole in surprise and we both watched it sink beneath the surface.
I reeled on Terrace, a sudden rage engulfing me. “Why did you do that?”
He backed away, his arms up in peace. “You wouldn’t answer me when I was trying to speak to you. No matter what I said, you just wouldn’t respond. It looked to me as if you were about to follow that pole if I hadn’t pulled you away.”
“What are you talking about, Terrence? How could I have been ignoring you? It’s only been a minute since I started.”
Terrence shook his head. “No, Mic. It’s been much longer than that. At first I thought you were just messing around, but then… well, I’ve already told you.”
My rage vanished just as quickly as it had come, and I looked back at the puddle with its mysterious crystalline surface.
I ran my fingers through my hair and exhaled deeply. “Sorry about that, Terrence. I don’t know what came over me.”
“It’s alright Mic, no harm done,” Terrence said as he followed my gaze. “So what are we gonna do about that puddle? It ain’t natural, Mic.”
I shook my head. “You got that right, Terrance. I’m going to be honest with you. I didn’t think you were thinking straight earlier, but now… Now I think we need to set up a watch. We can’t let whatever you saw last night roam the area. It could be dangerous.”
He nodded in agreement.
“But I don’t want this to reach the wrong ears. We could have the Armed Guard descending on our small town and that would cause mass panic, and I don’t want that.”
“What you suggesting, then? Just the two of us keep watch?”
“Yup, just the two of us,” I said and smiled. “I’m sure we can handle whatever it is.”
He looked doubtful, but didn’t argue. “Whatever you say, Mic. You’re the boss.”
"It's settled then. We'll take it in turns. I've got other things I need to attend to, but I'll be back at dusk to take over from you."
"Sounds good to me Mic, I've already done all that needed doing before you arrived."
"Good man. Till dusk," I said as I left the farmstead. Terrence waved farewell.
The rest of the day went by in a blur and I found myself back at the farm, with the sun on my back and the night’s long dark fingers stretching out before me. Terrance was staring into the puddle, and I called out to him.
"Alright right there, Terrance?"
He jumped a little in fright. "By the gods Mic! You almost went and gave me a heart attack." He said as he turned towards me.
I was mid chuckle when I saw it. A gnarled black hand with unnaturally long fingers emerging from the puddle. I froze, not knowing what to do. I needed to warn Terrance, but I couldn't seem to get the words out.
Terrance noticed the look in my eyes, but before he could react, the hand lunged for his leg and, with unnatural strength, yanked him off his feet. He hit the ground with a sickening crunch, and I gasped. The hand did not wait, immediately dragging him into the puddle.
"Mic help me!"
I jumped to action, grabbing his hands, and dug in with my heels. But try as I might, both myself and Terrance were being overpowered as both his feet disappeared into the puddle. Terrance’s eyes bulged in terror, and he screamed. I cringed at the sound. The man was in utter anguish.
“It’s got both my legs, Mic!” He said as his nails dug into my forearms, causing small rivulets of blood to fall.
Panic.
I couldn't decide whether to hold on and be dragged into the puddle with him, facing the unknown horror that lurked in those depths, or let go, abandoning him to certain death. In that moment of indecision, time seemed to stretch for eternity.
What should I do?
Terrance was now waist deep, his face drawn taut, his eyes rolled back in their sockets. Something in me snapped and my courage failed me. I…I let go.
Terrance, too far gone, didn't even notice. I watched numbly as he slowly slipped beneath the still waters, his arms outstretched.
And then he was gone.
I shuddered uncontrollably. Both in self-disgust and terror at what I’d just been part of. Night had fallen, and I gazed at the puddle, its stars the perfect reflections of the night sky above.
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