Rhett McLaughlin - The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek

“I don’t know,” Wayne said. “I’m not sure I believe in that sorta thing.”

“Wayne, there’s a lot out there that don’t fit into our boxes, you know?” Hank said. “Just because I can’t explain it don’t mean it ain’t true.”

“Okay, I guess. But if this spring can work so many miracles, then how come it’s closed?” Wayne asked.

“Well,” Hank said, finishing off his beer and placing it with a dramatic thunk onto the coffee table. “The owners of that resort, the Bleak family, one of their kids drowned in it. About fifteen years ago. A four-year-old boy. He and his twin brother were playin’ around and…Well, one of ’em went too deep. The Bleaks shut it down after that.”

Wayne nodded and took a gulp of his beer. “But the spring’s still there…”

—

“COME ON, BABY,” Wayne said, gently shaking Ruby awake in the back seat. He’d intentionally left Plumland at bedtime, knowing she’d sleep the four or so hours it would take to drive to Bleak Creek. Either way, arriving at night was a necessity, since they were technically about to trespass.

“Where are we, Daddy?” Ruby asked, her eyes not yet fully open.

“Remember I told you we were gonna have a fun adventure? Goin’ swimmin’ at night?”

Ruby closed her eyes. “I don’t want to do that anymore, Daddy. I’m tired.”

“I know you are, Ruby Jane,” he said, brushing blond strands of hair away from her face. “That’s why we have to do it. But don’t you worry—I’ll carry you over there.” He scooped her into his arms and shut the car door with his hip.

He’d had to drive around for at least half an hour before he even figured out how to gain access to the spring; the main entrance was gated and locked up with heavy chains, more than the simple wire-cutters he’d brought could handle. Eventually, he’d off-roaded his beige Ford Fairmont, slowly cutting across a tobacco field with his headlights off and parking near a chain-link fence that, if he could cut through it, seemed to offer a clear path to the spring.

He bent with Ruby in his arms and grabbed the wire-cutters from the trunk of the car along with a flashlight, which he flicked on as he walked toward the fence. It was a warm May night, and for that he was grateful.

“All right, Ruby-girl, gonna put you down for a seco—”

“No, Daddy, no!”

“Shhh!” Wayne said. “We can’t be loud, baby. Please don’t be loud.”

“I don’t want you to put me down.”

“But…” Dammit, Wayne thought, nervous enough breaking the law on his own, let alone with his kid. “Okay, here, let’s do piggy.” He readjusted his daughter in his arms and hoisted her onto his back, a move he’d taken pride in perfecting over the past few years. “There we go.”

“Thanks, Daddy.”

He positioned the flashlight near his feet, pointing it upward at the fence, and began to cut the first link, which was challenging with a forty-pound human on his back. By the time he’d cut two links, he was sweating bullets. What the hell am I doing here? Wayne thought, suddenly regretting every stupid hoop he’d forced his unwell daughter to jump through. He’d come this far, though.

After a minute, he’d cut a large enough gap in the fence for him and Ruby to awkwardly slide through. From there, it was a short walk through the woods, and then: There it was.

The moonlight shone down on the spring invitingly, and Wayne’s doubts began to melt away. This was right. He could feel it.

“Doesn’t it look fun, baby?” he asked Ruby.

“I don’t know.”

He walked across the dirt and stopped about ten steps from the water. “I’m gonna put you down now, darlin’, and please don’t argue with me.” Wayne gently set down Ruby, who decided not to protest. He undressed himself down to the blue swim trunks he wore under his slacks. Before leaving, he’d convinced Ruby to put on her green one-piece underneath her dress. “Okay, honey, now you get down into your bathin’ suit and we’ll go swim. How does that sound?”

“I don’t wanna take off my dress,” Ruby said.

“But you’ll get it all wet.”

“I don’t wanna, Daddy!”

“Okay, you can keep the dress on,” Wayne said, guessing that agreeing to her request would get her in the water. “When do you ever get to swim at night in your clothes, right?” he asked, unable to hide how truly hopeful he was. Tonight might change everything.

“You’re a goofus,” Ruby said.

Wayne laughed, a little louder than he’d intended. “I am, baby. I sure am.” He took her hand and they took a few steps toward the spring, placing their feet into the shallow water along the bank.

“It feels nice,” Ruby said.

“I think so too,” Wayne said, already imagining the water working its miracles.

In his overexcitement, he took a few more quick steps to go deeper.

“Daddy, slow down!” Ruby yelled. “Owww!” She’d clipped her heel on a rock. “I hurt my foot!”

“Shit!” Wayne said, a rare moment when he was unable to catch the swear before it left his mouth.

“Bad word, Daddy!” Ruby said, as Wayne lifted her foot out of the water, the moon illuminating a thin stream of blood.

“You’re right, Rubes. I’m sorry. And I’m sorry about your foot, baby. That was my fault.”

“It’s okay.” Ruby had grown so used to little cuts like this that she rarely cried over them anymore. She gave her father one of her classic slightly crooked smiles, and it just about melted his heart.

Wayne took her hand again, and they walked forward more slowly, the water now at Ruby’s waist.

“Look, Daddy!”

Beneath the water, there was a blue glow, pale at first, then steadily brighter as it spread throughout the spring.

“Oh my Lord!” Wayne said. It was working. The water all around them began to bubble. Wayne began to laugh, unconcerned about disturbing anyone who might be within earshot.

Ruby laughed too. “This really is fun!”

She pushed off the bottom, beginning to swim. Wayne was careful not to let go of her hand.

That didn’t matter, though.

As soon as she dropped her face below the surface, Ruby was violently sucked down into the water.

Her hand slipped from her father’s.

“Ruby!” he yelled. “Baby!”

He frantically dove after her.

The moment he went under, he could feel water forcefully pressing on his mouth and nose. Like the spring itself was trying to invade him.

He watched through the blur as Ruby spun away from him, as if she was being pulled by an invisible chain. She was yanked to the side of the spring, which seemed to come to life, a layer of dirt and rocks creeping across her body, trapping her.

Horrified, Wayne swam toward the wall, but he could no longer resist the water, now streaming powerfully into his nose and pushing apart his lips, filling his lungs. Drowning him.

As his field of vision began to darken, the end almost near, he was wildly catapulted out of the water—as if by a dozen invisible hands—soaring through the air and landing on the dirt.

Then he began to retch.

Violent, full-body spasms as he vomited up water, so much water.

When—five or ten minutes later—his body seemed to have finished, Wayne rolled over onto his back, utterly spent. Ruby, he thought, as he passed out.

—

IT WAS APPROXIMATELY three seconds after he felt the sun on his eyelids that Wayne began to panic.

He jumped to his feet and ran into the now-sunlit water, madly swimming down to where he remembered seeing his daughter get trapped. There was only a bare wall, just rocks and dirt. Was it all a bad dream? Had he really seen Ruby pulled into the rocky wall?