#t.jack.one

He’d had to see it for himself. Once those Watchers were done poking around, when everything was misty and still and quiet again. He hadn’t asked anybody from home if they wanted to come. Didn’t expect a yes. Wouldn’t blame them, exactly. Maybe the boy hadn’t been one of theirs, maybe they didn’t care much about anybody from above the water, but… they still felt it, the wrongness of a kid dying like that. In their lake. Their home.

Which was why Ollie couldn’t stay away. Even if he wanted to, if it had made his fins curl, just being in there. A dark, dank place. He’d held out, though, searched the grotto as far as he could. Nothing much to see. Old, broken toys. Scraps of mildewed cloth. The news had called it accidental, but… that might be for the paper, who knew. Had to assume the Watch would be suspicious. Given how he’d been found, like that - wrapped in a blanket. The lake hadn’t done that on its own. Some sick kind of tenderness, or something, there. Made his stomach churn. Poor Sabine. She’d stayed home from school for days after. Hadn’t come back to swim team. Oliver hadn’t asked about that, yet. Made sense.

He hadn’t known what he was looking for, and he hadn’t found it. So. Time to head back. His head broke water, gills folding away as he took a big, deep breath. Had to time it right, or the turn could really sting. A flick of the tail, a shape-sliding step, another, and he was walking out of the shallows. Tugging his trunks on - still damp from swim practice, he’d come right from the pool - Ollie took a seat on the hanging fir he had left his stuff stacked up against and started to dry off. Or, almost did, freezing, towel in hand. Blinking water out of his eyes, heart kicking hard in his chest. Branches, breaking underfoot, had cracked through the quiet. Up the bank. Sounded like it, anyway. He turned, slowly. Who’d be out here, now? “Hey?” Oliver called over, cautiously. At nothing, maybe. Hopefully. Who’d be out here, now, applied to him just as easily. “Nice, uh... night for a walk...”