Everlast

Chapter 1; When swimming in lakes goes very wrong.

Ajay Kumar was not what someone would call "adventurous". Of course, unless you counted the fact that he and his family had moved all the way from India to the quiet countryside of Yorkshire, England. But even then his parents had done all the adventuring bits and Ajay had simply been dragged along much like an extra suitcase. A very grumpy extra suitcase.

Ever since then-- 'then' being about thirteen years ago, when he was four, and not too grown up for adventures--he HAD wanted an adventure filled with magic and monsters. But now Ajay considered those sorts of things to be bothersome and were better left in books. To be sure, he enjoyed READING about the adventures and misadventures of folk such as Bilbo Baggins and Lucy Pevensie, but adventures are much more easily accepted when one is curled up all warm and cozy with a blanket rather than in the adventure itself.

In fact, right at the time that this story begins, that was just what Ajay was doing; sitting and reading. Unfortunately, he never really did get to enjoy much of what he was reading, for at that moment his mother burst into his room completely uninvited. And had Ajay even bothered to look up, he would have seen his mother giving him a concerned look. The sort of look that parents give their children that lets them know that they ought to be outside with friends rather than reading 'Lord of the Rings' for the eight-hundredth time that summer. 

"Why don't you go to the lake," Ajay's mother suggested helpfully. And of course by suggest, that meant a direct order given nicely. "I heard Thomas and a few of your friends would be going there today."

Sighing, Ajay set down his book reluctantly. "Why on earth would I want to spend time at the lake?"

"Lake or no lake, the point is to meet with people your own age."

That pretty much settled it and Ajay didn't much feel like arguing further. 

Now from this you may be thinking that Ajay was not a social creature... and you'd be right. 

He didn't like adventures, he didn't like people, and he didn't like swimming in cold, dark lakes that you couldn't see the bottom of. But he did like making his mother happy and if going swimming for a few hours would do that, then he would go. Albeit reluctantly.

Once he was dressed and had grabbed a towel, he left the wonderful sanctuary of his home and made his way toward the woods behind his house, enjoying the solitude of nature.

These woods had always seemed magical to him; when he was little, he used to pretend that he was a forest wizard, bending the elements to his will and taming the wild creatures to be his friends. Still, those memories of magic-filled afternoons of laying in the sunlight, or chasing butterflies, or wading through the creek had been pleasant indeed. But that was when Ajay had not been too old for adventures; he was practically an adult now. And adults did not go on adventures or play in the woods... unless they do and no one really knows about it, which is understandable.

Ducking under a low hanging tree branch, Ajay let the sounds and smells of the forest soak in; the richness of it all. The scent of summer and life.

Finally, he came into view of the lake and, sure enough, all his friends were there. The silence of the forest was shattered by their screams of delight as they plunged into the water or pushed one another in, laughing.

As he approached, his friend Thomas spotted him and waved him over. "Well, look who decided to come to the land of the living today!"

Ajay snorted, "Don't get too excited. I wouldn't have come if my mum hadn't made me." 

Thomas shook his head. "Always so serious! Come, mate, have some fun for once. Get your head out of those books an live in the real world."

Normally, this would have annoyed Ajay, but this time he simply shrugged it off and dove into the lake after his friend, gasping as the cold water hit his body, enveloping him.

Resurfacing, he smiled slightly as Thomas cheered and he proceeded to chase after his friend, shouting in mock-anger, "I'll show you serious!"

The others joined in, and soon they were all laughing and chasing one another and Ajay forgot to be awkward or quiet and he was simply...him. 'Him' being a less awkward and quiet version of himself, but still with the longing to go back to his books. Not a huge improvement, but he'd take what he could get.

Holding his nose, Ajay dove under the water as Thomas came at him again and swam toward the bottom of the lake. Down here, the sunlight barely shone through the murky water, and it was not long before it grew too dark for him to see.

Soon, his head began to feel compressed and his ears popped. His lungs burned for want of air, and while Ajay was curious to touch the bottom of the lake-- mostly for bragging rights-- he didn't see the point in DROWNING over it, so he headed back up toward the light.

But there was something different about the way the light shone down. It was not the glow of a warm summer sun. Instead, it was harsher, colder and cast a grey look through the rippling water.

How odd...

Surfacing, Ajay gasped as icy air suddenly stabbed at his cheeks and he blinked before wildly looking around. There was snow on the lake shore. The trees were leafless. His friends had disappeared, their merry shouting gone, replaced by the mournful whistling of a bitter winter wind.

Ajay swam in place, his mouth agape. 

Was this some sort of joke? No. He was hallucinating or...something. Maybe he was dead and this was the afterlife.

Well, if this was it then it appeared to be a pretty sucky afterlife, but he supposed there could be worse.

He shook his head; there must be some mistake. Diving under the water once more, he swam toward the bottom, figuring he'd leave the way he came. But when he came back up, winter was still there, cold as ever. He tried again, swimming farther down this time until he felt something brush against his leg.

Peering around in the greying water, he thought he saw two sightless, pale eyes staring back at him. Looking closer, he saw hair, long and silver flowing around a face.

A very dead face.

The skin was ghostly white and was stretched thin over a skull-like face. The face's lips were pulled back to reveal a mouth with four rows of jagged teeth, sharp as razors. The thing had only a gaping hole for a nose. Its body was more bone than flesh, skeletal, starving, and while it was terrifying, Ajay forced himself to calm down and be reasonable. It was obviously dead. It couldn't hurt him. He moved closer, wondering who or what is had been before decay had worked its grisly magic on the creature. Staring at it, Ajay frowned, a slow feeling of dread running its fingers up his back. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong...

And that was when those sightless, pale eyes blinked.

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