Rhett McLaughlin - The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek

Leif skipped the countdown altogether, whacking the key’s teeth down and across Rex’s knuckles with a focus of purpose and energy not unlike his direct hit on Rex’s testicles earlier that week. Doling out this physical punishment was apparently releasing some of his anger. “Geez!” Rex said, gritting his teeth and flapping his hand wildly back and forth.

“I think that one was good,” Leif said.

Rex held his hand close to his face and identified a thin line of red along his knuckles. “I’m bleeding. I’m bleeding!” He waved his hand around triumphantly.

“Congratulations,” Janine said.

“All right, I’m gonna do this,” Rex said to himself, walking toward the water, Janine begrudgingly keeping her camera trained on him.

Donna took a few more steps away from them as Rex crouched down at the edge of the spring—trying not to shake from the combination of pain and terror still coursing through him—and dipped his hand in, just as he’d seen the robed woman do.

He stared at the water.

“Does it feel like anything’s happening?” Leif asked.

It felt like his slightly bleeding hand was surrounded by water.

“Nah,” Rex said.

He hadn’t really been expecting it to work.

Janine pulled her eye away from the viewfinder and sighed. “Not to be a buzzkill,” she said, “but I don’t think…”

“You don’t think what?” Leif asked.

“It’s working,” Janine said, her eyes glued to the middle of the spring, which had begun to light up from below just as Rex and Leif had described: a blue glow, pale at first, then brighter as it expanded outward.

“Yeah,” Rex said, still staring down at the spot where his own hand was submerged. “I don’t think this is how it works.”

“No,” Leif said. “Look.”

The bubbles had started, and within ten seconds, the entire spring was at full gurgle, illuminating a bright, otherworldly blue.

Rex jerked his hand out of the water.

“Wow,” Janine said. “This is…wow.”

“Shouldn’t you be filming this?” Leif asked.

“Oh, right. My bad.” Janine hastily pulled the camera back to her eye.

Rex was shocked, his mind racing to find a logical explanation for what had just transpired. But from this close, he couldn’t see any sources of light in the spring. It was like the glow was coming from the water itself.

This wasn’t just a cult with fancy technology. This was something bigger. Something unknowable.

There was a stifled sob from behind them, and they all turned to see Donna stumbling back toward the woods. “Oh, shit,” Janine said. “I should…Yeah, I should go check on her.” She started to run before remembering what was in her hand. “Watch this for me for a second,” she said, handing the pole and camcorder over to Rex. “Just keep rolling!” She ran after Donna.

Leif looked to Rex, who continued to stare at the water in disbelief.

“Do you…” Leif began. “Do you think we should start filming under the water?”

“Sure,” Rex said, shaking his head like he’d just been awakened from a dream.

He turned the pole over, the camera now upside down, just off the ground. He leaned over the edge of the water and dipped it below the surface. It hit bottom before the lens was even submerged.

“I think you’re gonna have to get in the water,” Leif said. “Take it a little deeper.”

Rex looked at him, his face a portrait of dread.

Leif had never seen Rex like this before. If he was scared to get back in the water, then Leif definitely didn’t want to go in.

But then he remembered Alicia. They were here to make sense of her death, to potentially save other kids. And, at this moment, with his normally brave best friend paralyzed with fear, he was the only one left to do anything about it.

“I’ll go,” he said, surprising himself. “Gimme the camera.”

Rex looked at Leif, wide-eyed. “Really?” he asked.

“Yes.” Leif reached down to take the camera pole.

“Okay, yeah. All right,” Rex said, handing it over. “Just…be careful.”

Leif didn’t like the sound of that, but he took a step into the bubbling spring without looking back. He lowered the camera into the water, barely a foot deep. He pivoted it around in a half circle, doubting that he was filming anything other than bubbles, seeing as he was still so far from the middle of the spring, where Whitewood had descended. He decided to walk farther out, slowly and methodically panning the camcorder back and forth like he was operating a metal detector, the muscle memory kicking in from the many hours he’d spent doing just that during the lonely summer before seventh grade.

I can’t believe I’m doing this, he thought as the water reached his chest. But somehow he wasn’t that scared. He bounced off the bottom of the spring, only a few yards from where they’d seen Whitewood disappear. Soon his feet moved freely through the water. Too deep to touch. He hadn’t thought through how he would swim while holding the camera pole, but the rising bubbles made it relatively easy to float in place. Relieved he wasn’t sinking, he swiveled the camera around in a slow circle. I’m gonna be the one who captures the game-changing footag—

He felt a tug at the camera.

Startled, Leif pulled at the pole for a few seconds, and it loosened up. He exhaled. Maybe it had just gotten caught on some underwater plants or something. He pulled the camera higher, then started another swivel.

“Everything okay?” Rex shouted, sounding far away as he competed with the gurgle of the bubbles.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Leif shouted. “I think the camera just got caught on some—”

He screamed as something yanked the camera pole down sharply, nearly pulling him underwater.

It was no plant.

Rex stood frozen in terror as he watched Leif struggling in the water.

He was snapped out of it by an owl hoot.

Then another one.

Ben. Signaling them.

Rex looked over to the school, where a light had turned on in a first-floor window. “Oh crap,” he said. “Somebody’s coming! Leif, somebody’s coming!”

Leif heard Rex shouting something but he had no idea what. He was somehow still holding on to the camera pole, barely keeping his head above water as he played tug-of-war with this invisible force.

He had to hold on. He could almost hear Alicia telling him not to let go.

There was a sharp tug, and the pole was pulled completely out of his hand.

“We gotta get out of here!” Rex yelled from the shore.

“But…the camera!” Leif said between heaving breaths.

“Forget about it!” Rex said. “We got bigger problems!”

There was another owl hoot. Then three more in quick succession.

Leif looked toward the school, where he saw a figure, holding a torch, steadily walking in their direction. He began a mad paddle back to shore.

“What’s happening?” Janine asked in a panic as she returned from the woods without Donna. “And where the hell is my camera?”

Leif tumbled out of the water onto the muddy bank. “I’m sorry,” he said, catching his breath. “I—”

There was a violent splash from the center of the spring as the camera pole, with camera still attached, shot out of the water and landed nearby in the shallows.

“There it is,” Rex said.

“Fuck,” said Janine, her astonished mouth hanging open.

Rex saw the person was about fifty yards away, now trotting and closing the distance quickly.

Janine grabbed her camera from the water, and the three of them sprinted back to the woods.

“What’s the rush?” a voice shouted from behind them.

Rex burned forward, the first to make it to the woods, where he shouted ahead to a petrified Donna: “Go! Go! Go!”