Rhett McLaughlin - The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek

She writhed in place as C.B. and another man restrained her.

Whitewood turned to Leif, whose gag was removed as he felt his hands being untied.

I don’t want to be here I don’t want to be here I don’t want to be here, he thought, trying to imagine he was somewhere else, anywhere else, even as he felt Sheriff Lawson forcing his hand out toward Whitewood.

Leif was with Rex on their island. He was on the Small Rock, and he had a very important question: Why was all this happeni—

The pain was blinding, all-consuming.

Leif stared in shock at his hand, his poor hand, as he felt himself being walked toward the water.

This was his last chance.

He pulled his arms away from Sheriff Lawson as sharply as he could, but the man’s rough hands wouldn’t let go. Leif jabbed his knee into the other man, making solid contact with his hip.

“Dammit, boy!”

Leif heard an explosive thud as the man slapped him on the ear. It was both painful and disorienting, followed by a ringing that wouldn’t stop. The men dragged him into the spring, warm water spilling into his school-issued shoes as he stepped into the shallows. There would be no escape.

“We will immerse both at once! On my signal!” Whitewood said, and moments later Leif’s hand was underwater. The chanting got louder behind them— Ah-miss-um in-trot ah-qwam sank-tum— as Leif half noticed the start of the glowing and the bubbling, how it seemed brighter and more intense than the other two times.

Soon he was being walked deeper into the water, side by side with J.

His hand was still screaming, his ear was still ringing, and he thought he might faint.

He felt Sheriff Lawson’s hand clamp down on the back of his neck, pushing his head toward the surface.

Leif took a panicked breath before going under.

The second his face entered the spring, water began streaming into his nose and mouth, pushing its way in with undeniable force. No amount of struggling seemed to make a difference, and the discomfort of being literally filled by the spring was so much worse than his cut hand or clocked ear. The bitterly cold water coursed through his body, its icy tendrils seeming to race down his veins into his core. He was overwhelmed with the feeling that something, or some one, in the frigid water was scanning him, evaluating him.

Judging him.

He was suddenly, violently pulled toward one of the spring’s walls.

As everything around him began to blur and blacken, he knew he would be dead soon. He even thought he saw Alicia’s face sticking out from the dirt, as if waiting to greet him.

Hi, Alicia , he thought during his last few seconds of consciousness.

It was a wonderful hallucination to go out on.

—

SO THIS WAS death.

Blackness.

Nothingness.

For all time.

Or…wait.

Leif slowly began to feel his body again, at the same time that his surroundings came into view, as if someone were very gradually raising a dimmer switch.

He was in an endless ocean, where breathing didn’t seem necessary. He held his hand out in front of him. Glowing faintly in the dreamy haze, it appeared to no longer be injured.

“Hello,” a voice said from his right. Leif somehow shifted his floating body so that he was looking at a boy his age, also suspended in the water, emanating the same dull light as his hand. The boy had a hockey haircut—a mullet fanning out behind his head—and wore a jumpsuit similar to, but not quite the same, as Leif’s.

“Hey,” Leif said, discovering he could speak underwater.

“I’m Rich,” the boy said. Leif couldn’t tell if his mouth was actually moving. “Who’re you?”

“Leif.” He pronounced it Layf .

“And who’s she?” Rich asked, pointing behind him.

Leif was surprised to see J floating toward him.

“I’m Josefina,” she said.

Leif was glad to finally know her full name.

Rich narrowed his eyes. “How’d you both get here at once?”

Leif shuddered instead of responding, as he’d just made eye contact with an unsmiling little boy in a polo shirt who’d floated up next to Rich.

“What?” Rich asked, before noticing the little boy. “Oh. Timothy, don’t stare! We talked about this.”

Timothy looked down, then began to stare again.

“Is this Heaven?” Josefina asked.

“Uh, no,” Rich said. “You’re not dead. You’re in the spring.”

“What do you mean?” Leif asked, excited to not be dead but also very confused.

“We’re all in the spring. Physically, at least. Our bodies are still alive, but our minds, or souls, or whatever you want to call ’em, are here, in this place. We call it the Void. It’s actually quite extensive once you look around. You’ll meet the others eventually. They’re busy now.”

“What year is it out there?” the stone-faced little boy asked.

“It’s 1992,” Leif answered.

“Wow. Still 1992,” Rich said. “That’s the same year Alicia joined us.”

Leif’s heart—or whatever one would call it in this strange place—practically stopped.

Alicia was here.

“What— Why— How did—” Leif couldn’t make a sentence.

“What do you mean, still 1992?” Josefina interrupted. “Alicia was kill— Uh, put here, like a week ago.”

“Yeah,” Rich said. “But we don’t really have weeks here. Or days. Or years. Or even minutes. Time is sort of irrelevant.”

Leif didn’t understand, and trying to do so made his not-dead brain hurt. “Can we see her?” he asked instead. “Alicia?”

“Hold on.” Rich and Timothy appeared to dissipate into the water.

Leif found it hard to believe he might actually see Alicia again, but he couldn’t help but feel incredibly excited.

“So,” Josefina said as they floated awkwardly on their own, “this is pretty weird.”

“Yeah,” Leif agreed. “I’m, um, sorry you ended up down here with me.”

“Not your fault,” she said.

“I really appreciated how you, you know, helped me. At the school.”

Josefina shrugged. “I really appreciated that you were willing to stand up to those people.”

“Thanks,” Leif said. “I just can’t believe we’re—” He was distracted by a dissonant noise, like an incessant whirring, as he noticed a shadowy presence moving all around them. Moving wasn’t quite the right word, as it seemed almost to jump instantly from one point to the next, one moment twenty feet away, the next moment jarringly close to his face.

It gave Leif that same feeling he’d had right before he’d drowned. Like he was being judged.

Then it was gone, just as abruptly as it had appeared.

After a few moments of pure stillness, Leif saw a distant point of light moving toward them at a great speed. As it drew near, it became clear it was a person.

Alicia.

She stopped mere feet away, the soft glow surrounding her and her jumpsuit only accentuating her awesomeness, like some otherworldly version of Glamour Shots.

“Alicia!” Leif said. He’d never been happier to see someone. He wished he could hug her, but physical contact didn’t seem possible, so he just smiled as big as he could as she came closer.

Alicia seemed perplexed, her eyebrows furrowed like she was trying to solve a riddle.

Leif was seized with panic. Did she not recognize him?

“It’s me…” he said, hoping she would interrupt before he had to tell her his name. She didn’t. “Leif.”

She stared at him a few more moments—it felt like an eternity—before a twinkle of recognition finally registered in her eyes. “Leif!” she shouted.

“Yes!” he said, feeling profound relief. “I can’t believe you’re alive! This is— We all thought you were dead, and it was…I just…I missed you.” He felt his face contort into a cry, though he couldn’t feel any tears falling.