Lake Effect

Pete had seen the house, but he hadn’t paid any attention to it. Not, that is, until he heard familiar sounds. He swam closer to it and saw Patrick, Joe and Andy, moving stuff in. From what he over heard, he’d been missing for a month.

A whole month!

But he’d only been out in the lake for what seemed like a few weeks. Was there some sort of freaky time thing going on as well?

He swam closer, staying hidden from Patrick’s view. He’d heard the call from Andy, the frustration in his voice when he spoke about Pete.

He only wished that he could talk to him. But he couldn’t talk to any one like this. He’d been thinking it over and he didn’t want to talk to anyone like this.

He swam back underwater and towards the cave he’d found and had been staying in. He got out of the water and laid down on the rock, staring at the ceiling of the cave. He punched the rock repeatedly.

“Why the fuck did this happen to me!?” He yelled, his voice echoing through the cave. “Why me!?”

He fell asleep, tears running down his face onto the wet rock.

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It was almost a week later, after Pete had been watching Patrick almost all day every day (because hey, he didn‘t have anything better to do), that it happened.

Patrick had walked to the end of the short pier, which led to deeper water, and was just standing on the end. Pete watched with just his eyes above the water. He stayed where Patrick wouldn’t see him, or that he could hide quickly without Patrick actually seeing him. He didn’t need Patrick to see him, he didn’t need anyone to see him.

But then Hemingway started barking, and it startled Patrick. He let out a yelp and he fell into the water.

Pete wasn’t too concerned, he knew Patrick could swim. But when he didn’t emerge, Pete started to get worried. He ducked under the water and saw Patrick sinking, his arms flailing all over the place, trying to get to the surface.

“Patrick!” He shouted, swimming over to the shorter man as fast as he could. Patrick had stopped trying to get to the surface, going limp.

Pete got to him and started swimming up to the surface. Then he swam as quick as he could to the beach. He managed with difficulty to drag him up to the beach.

“Patrick, breathe, come on.” Pete pushed down against his chest 5 times and then breathed into his mouth.

Patrick sat up, gasping.

That was when Pete started to panic. Patrick shouldn’t see him, not until he was back to normal. He tried to get back to the lake as quick as possible but he didn’t get in quick enough before he heard Patrick call out his name.

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“Pete?!” Patrick said, shocked.

Ok, it must have been something from almost drowning because he did not just see Pete with a tail and fin?

But he looked around quickly, and Patrick knew it was Pete for sure. Then he disappeared under the waves.

“PETE!” He shouted, before coughing again.

He sat up and looked across the water. It was impossible, what he’d seen, but it couldn’t just be a figment of his imagination. He knew it was Pete. He ran a hand through his hair and realised that he had lost his hat. He sighed. It was one of his favourites.

He got up and walked towards the house, Hemingway running over to him, and when he got in, he changed into dry clothes and sat down on the couch with a hot cup of coffee.

Then he picked up the phone. He had to tell Joe and Andy about Pete.

Which, after being laughed at for 10 minutes, turned out to be a pretty bad idea.

But he knew what he saw.

He knew he had seen Pete.