Faces In Still Waters

Copyright © 2013 J. V. Stanley

All rights reserved.

ISBN-10: 149051130X     ISBN-13: 978-149051130

Cover Design © 2013 M. Sprouse

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without permission of the author.  Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work can be made through the author’s email: writerzblock007@gmail.com

This is a work of creative fiction.  Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imagination, or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, or events is entirely coincidental. 

Prologue: Two Years Ago:

The fireflies came together forming a singular strobe light a few yards from the stationary rowboat.  No sound of crickets, no frogs, no lapping of water against the sides of the boat.  Trapped within a soap bubble of empty silence surrounded by cumbersome trees that stood unmoving.  Everything but the scent of the lake seemed to dissolve within the quiet. 

Minutes passed before something caught his eye some feet away from the boat’s edge.  It floating just below the surface, greasy and dark. 

“Trevor!  I’m here!” Sean’s voice was stricken with panic.  “Oh, please be okay…” he reached for his brother, the lake swallowing his arm up to the elbow.  He extended his arm deeper, feeling around in the depths.  He caught hold of Trevor’s shirt, the fabric tearing as he hoisted the dead weight to the surface. 

“Trevor, Trevor!”  Wake up!  It’s me, Sean!”  he pushed Trevor’s head back.  One concave eye socket peered out from behind the curtain of his matted blonde hair, a jelly-like eye dangling from bits of shredded membrane; its retina shrinking within the glare of the flashlight.  Before he had a chance to react, one gnarly blanched hand reached above the water and grabbed his shoulder, jerking him forward.  Sean reeled backward and slammed against the other side of the boat.

He pushed against the corpse’s left shoulder when another arm shot out from below and grabbed the neck of his hooded sweatshirt.  He struggled against the entity, bracing his knees against the side while locking his foot underneath the bench seat.   A hand shot out, grabbing the opposite shoulder.   Another latched onto his wrist while one covered his open mouth as he tried to scream.   He choked on the wretched stench and recoiled from the slimy puckered feeling of the slack flesh against his exposed skin.

Sean managed to break the surface of the water one last time.   His eyes landed upon a figure twenty yards out.  A little boy, eclipsed within the shadows, backlit by the moon; hovered over the reflected light upon the water.  As an orb of fireflies danced above his upheld palm, he watched emotionlessly as Sean took his final breath before succumbing to the watery abyss of the otherworld…