The Depths

As I stare down into the murky depth of the lake and shiver. It's the only way, the only way to end it. End the voices, the only way to silence the evil of the world. I step into the grimy waters, sludge worming through my toes. After a couple of seconds they start to go numb. Tears start to stream from my eyes. Why did it have to happen this way?

"Morning me" I say to my reflection in the mirror to the bathroom. Nobody wakes up with me in the mornings so I've developed a way to not be too lonely. I make some coffee and slump down on the couch to watch some TV before school. School is such a pain in the butt. In school you're either somebody or you're a nobody. I'm a nobody at school, that one kid that gets marked absent by their teachers because they're super invisible. I can't help it. I have social anxiety and abandonment issues, I'm a freaking walking contradiction! I want to be left alone, but I don't want to be alone.

I'm forgetting something..... What am I forgetting...

I shrug off my unease, sling my backpack over my shoulders, and head to my bus. I plug in my ear buds and crank up the volume to drown out everything. I load onto the bus and pick a seat in the back where nobody else sits. After the bus drops me off at school I head to the cafeteria to chow down on some breakfast.
Classes pass in a blur and I'm back at home. I throw myself on my bed and curl up into a ball.

What am I doing... I can't remember...

"WORTHLESS"
"STUPID HAG"
"YOUR FAULT"
"IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU"
"YOUR FORGETTING WHAT YOU DID"
"YOU KILLED HIM"

"Shut up shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP!!!!!!!" I cover my ears and start to cry. "Leave me alone!" I sob.

"YOU ALREADY ARE"

"What did I do to deserve this?" I cry out to nobody.

"You can make it stop~"

I raise my head, "How?"

"Go to the lake and remember"

"THE LAKE"
"THE LAKE WILL END IT ALL"
"WE'LL BE QUIET WHEN YOU GO THE LAKE"

"B-but I can't go there, you know what happened last time." What happened there.... everything's so fuzzy....

"WE REMBER WHAT YOU'VE FORGOT YOU OLD HAG! IT'S YOUR FAULT AND IT'S TIME TO GO BACK AND PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE"

"I can't face him! I couldn't save him! It's my fault! It's my fault! All my fault!"

"THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE TO GO"

That's why I'm here. I remember now.

"I'm here Jason! Jason I came back for you! I'm so sorry, it's mommy's fault. I couldn't save you after you saved me."

I look out to the water, my legs now going numb from the ice cold lake. I start to see something move in the water. The water ripples in a straight path towards me. A head rises out of the water.

"Jason?! Jason! I'm here baby, I'm here! My poor baby, my poor poor baby."

He smiles at me warmly and wraps his strong arms around my frail old body. I put my withered hands on his face.

"Is it really you?"

He nods and tears pour down my face.

"I thought I lost you. After I started to forget things I wandered here one night and almost drowned. You saved me, your father was so scared. But then as you were swimming back your foot got caught on something and you.... you.... you were just gone."

My shoulders shake as choked sobs tear out of me.

"I didn't understand how you were just gone. You were just starting to be an adult. Your young life was taken by my diseased mind. I wandered on this shore looking for you so many times. I... I... I love you Jason. As your mother I should've protected you always. Now I'm constantly in a state of confusion I forget so many things sweetie."

He softly kisses me on the forehead and starts to slip back into the inky water.

"Wait! Take me with you!"

He looks back to me with shining eyes glistening with tears and holds out his hand. I take it.

"I forgive you mother"

*Breaking News*

An elderly woman was found drowned in the local lake this morning. She had been committed to an elderly home for three years due to her dementia. It's suspected that she snuck out sometime in the night and went to the local lake. Yesterday marked the day of her son's death and it happened at the very same lake where she drowned. Her husband and son had kept her at home during her early days of the disease but after she wandered out one night into the lake and almost drowned, she was committed to a home by her husband. Her son saved her at the cost of his life that night. It would seem she has joined him in the afterlife.