Growing up in a world ending, the creature in the water became a popular myth, a way to keep children ( especially rebellious, adventurous boys ) from journeying too far from camp and into the flooded areas. Men had been known to disappear out there, boys drowned, there was so much death already, no one wanted more. Still, foolish youths still thought the stories were just urban legends. They had been too young when it all started to remember the bad days, the world was not as terrifying to them as it should’ve been.
Fox followed a group of boys into the swamps, her family had lived within them before the flooding, and even though she did not remember it, her feet found easier footing than any of those ahead of her. Eventually they’d make it to the edge of the water, some saw this as a rite of passage. Go to the edge of the water at night, near to an old, abandoned shack, jump in the water, get out, survive and become a man ( or woman, or whatever anyone wanted to be in those days ). She followed because she had a bad feeling about it all. In the end, the boys did what they wanted despite her protests, laughing and stomping around in the water. One of them, a particularly pig-faced asshole, tried to get rough with her ( he aimed to push her into the water that everyone knew she was afraid of ) and ended up with a broken nose. A small fight ensued, but most boys took Fox’s side, thankfully. Though they left her there, busted lip, bleeding nose, by the shack. She was too angry to follow, upset that something hadn’t showed up to prove to the boys that the creature in the water was real.
Wiping away salty tears, Fox sat in a patch of moonlight, listening to the sounds of the boys clambering off through the swamp back home. Then she heard it. A splash. A heart-wrenching splash. Nervously, she scanned the waterline, terrified that there would be something there in the darkness. “ -- Hello? Is s-someone there?”
