I was dreaming of the day he died. Again.

Diamonds shimmered across the unnaturally blue surface of the old rock quarry that had filled up with rainwater and underground aquifers over the years that it had been abandoned.

No one in the quaint town of Bauxite in small town America had ever questioned its striking hue, most simply chalking up the mystery of its color to the abundance of minerals of the town's namesake coursing through the currents hidden below that had been stirred up during the rock mining process.

"Come on Ray-Ray, you can't seriously chicken out after we walked all this way through the woods!"

Adam Anderson, the better half of the Anderson twins, shouted across the sparkling surface towards my shaking body, taunting me to follow in his adventurous ways and dive off of the rock feature and into the deep blue below.

"It's not called chickening out if I never agreed to this in the first place! I just wanted to go swimming!"

My voice escaped me in a high pitched whine and although I knew I was being a bit of a 'chicken' about it as he had put it, there was just something about the deep water staring back at me that had me on edge.

The humid summer breeze tickled my skin and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on edge as the trees to my left began rustling with an ominous song that forced my heart to skip in my chest.

There was a thickening in the atmosphere that set my nerves alight with anticipation of something dark and powerful, a beautifully dangerous premonition of a fierce storm about to make its presence known.

I made my decision the second the first sprinkling rain hit my flushed skin, and then I was flying high, a bird breaking free across the murky shadowed clouds in a dive that would penetrate the still and cool waters below.

I tensed up as my body descended into the swimming hole as if I weighed nothing-the frigid water cooling off my temperature from the late August heat.

A stray beam of remaining sunshine slithered through the barrier of the water and lit up the murky depths below me as I attempted to slow myself down from the steep dive that I had just completed. With eyes wide open, there was no end in sight to the blue hole underneath me, the only other thing visible in the old rock quarry being that of the body of my best friend.

At first, I thought he was just playing around with me and at any moment would regain his rigidity and come swimming right for me, but his body was still and flowing with the strong undercurrent of the deep waters, a sure sign that he was unconscious.

I immediately swam with all of my might towards his fading body as it quickly sunk down ten feet, then fifteen.

I could feel the oxygen deprivation begin to affect my senses as everything became murky and blurry, the disorientation only pushing me further on to save my best friend from the treacherous mysterious current.

Minerals infecting the water created swirling orbs of light in my line of vision combining with my swirling black hair around my face and in my incapacitated state I focused too much of my attention on a larger speck of rock that managed to swim directly into my line of sight and suddenly I lost all sight of Adam.

His chestnut brown hair and eyes as deep blue as the swimming hole he was dying in invaded my mind and despair clutched me with a force I couldn't comprehend fully in that moment.

It was only when a strong, painful iron grip wrapped around my forearm did the sense of pure, unadulterated terror consume me with a disgusting need to die along with Adam if I couldn't save him.

I tried to look up at my savior only to tell them that they were making a mistake, to tell them that they were saving the wrong person ,but they were wearing an oxygen mask so I couldn't make out their features.

I had no energy left to fight the person saving my life but failing to save Adam's, and the grief that swam around me like the bauxite minerals in the water was overwhelming and all consuming.

It wasn't until I caught my last glimpse of Adam's water swollen, pale face sinking further and further away from me did I realize that I had killed my best friend.

***

I awoke in a panicked sweat as I always did when I dreamt of the day that Adam died nearly nine months ago, the hairs on the back of my neck standing at attention and the prickling sense that someone was watching me became overwhelming enough for me to sit upright in bed and flip on the lamp on my bedside table.

My black as night hair stuck to the back of my neck in a wet and clumpy disarray, my eyes still attempting to adjust to the blinding light sending warmth throughout the room however in the same breath adding an eerie quality to the black night.

Gone were the nights where I could sleep through them without being awoken by a terror filled dream, the trauma something out of a broken nightmare.

Agitated and unable to go back to sleep, I threw the duvet off of my sweat slicked body and immediately invited the cool air to cling to my skin as I traipsed to the ensuite bathroom, checking the time on my way.

Four in the morning.  The sound of my mother's car door slamming shut outside my bedroom window alerted me to her presence and I rolled my eyes in contempt. 

'Working late' never used to mean staying out until almost dawn, but that was before her daughter turned into the town's freak show that no one believed.

With her late 'working hours' I was starting to believe she was more than likely having an affair rather than doing any actual work considering she was a college professor.

The cool metal of the faucet handle sent shivers flitting down my spine and I welcomed them, eager to rinse away the sweat from my nightmare that left me feeling parched for sleep from only half a night's rest.

I slipped into the large clawfoot bathtub while the water was still filling up and allowed myself to be cold, not caring about the goosebumps trailing up and down my arms like tiny soldiers lined up one by one.

Images entered my head of the nightmare that always seemed to haunt me during the witching hours of the night: the mysterious blue hole that was always so beautiful on the surface with creepy and terrifying secrets below it, the minerals sparkling in the water like forbidden gems never to be attained.

It all came back to me in a harrowing force and then I could see his face.  I could see that one freckle right below his left eye that always made him stand apart from his twin brother.  I could see the burning blue of his eyes, an intensity in them so great I almost began crying then and there at the thought of never being able to see those exact eyes ever again.

A gurgling sound came from the bathtub and I was pulled out of my emotional reverie only to come face to face with those exact eyes that had been haunting me for the past nine months.

I had dreamt of them and I had imagined them so many times in my daydreams but never in my wildest imaginations had I ever thought that I would ever see them again in person.

He was staring back at me through his reflection in the mirror that I could just barely glimpse over the top of the bathtub.  He was standing in the doorway and my back was to him but I didn't dare turn around in fear that he wouldn't really be there, that his presence would be a sure sign that I was going crazy.

I shut my eyes with a sickening force, hard enough for me to see spots in my vision and a petrifying fear paralyzed my insides and I had to physically make myself open them up again, one eye at a time.

He was gone.

The breath I had been holding released me in a staggering wheeze and the tears came trickling one by one at first but then became a waterfall of pent up emotions and pain.

I submerged myself in the scalding hot water and opened my eyes once I was under the surface, wondering if that was the same type of fear he'd endured, white hot and burning, when he found himself drowning under the water and unable to save himself.

I wondered if Adam had noticed me swimming towards him before the rescuer had swept me up and away from him.

I wondered if maybe he thought that I was going to save him, too.

***

A/N:

This story is becoming part of Wattpad Originals September 14th, 2022!