Three years earlier...
"Don't be such a wimp!"
"But this is ridiculous!"
"You're ridiculous!"
"I am not being ridiculous! I'm being logical. Why don't we just stop for a minute and think this through!"
"What I'm about to do is swim across this lake, whether you're coming with me or not. I know for a fact that Mercy will!"
"Well now I feel obligated to swim across this deathly cold lake because I don't wanna be stuck waiting for you guys alone."
"You fuss too much. In order to get to the hiking trail, we have to swim across this lake if we don't want to get caught. Are you in or not?"
"How about we do this when the sun is up and the lake isn't 0 degrees?"
"How about you live a little?"
"Enough you two! It is taking every fiber in my body to not drown the both of you when we get to the lake! Emma, are you coming with us or are you gonna keep questioning our idiocy?"
"If you think what you're about to do in the next five minutes is idiotic, why are you doing it? Of the three us, Mercy, you never do anything without good reason."
"And of the three of us, you're the buzz kill."
The time came for the three girls to cross the lake, but the antsy one, Emma was unsure.
"Are you swimming or do I have to drag you across?"
Emma glared at Trinity, and questioned their entire friendship. Trinity had always made her do the scariest and stupidest things sometimes, and Emma always ended up doing anything Trinity wanted.
"No."
"Fine. You're on look out then, all by yourself in the dark of night, completely clueless of your surroundings..."
"Okay! I'm coming!"
Mercy was the first one to jump into the lake, seeing as she was on their high school's swim team. She successfully made it across with no problem, but the water is basically her home.
Trinity dived in next. She had no problem doing the stupidest things without thinking about the possible consequences. Trinity made it across, teeth chattering, and high fived Mercy.
"If you swim as fast as possible you won't even feel the cold," Mercy advised.
"Hurry up! Quit being such a prude! You'll be fine!" Trinity yelled.
Emma took in a deep breath, plugged her nose and cannonballed into the bone shaking lake. A minute went by, then two, then three and she hadn't resurfaced.
"Em?" Mercy called out.
"Emma!" Trinity repeated.
"If you're trying to fool us it isn't funny!"
All the way on the other side of the lake where their friend had jumped in, bubbles had surfaced.
"EMMA!?"
Nothing.
Mercy fearlessly dove back into the water in hopes of saving their friend. As she got closer and closer to where their friend had disappeared, she abruptly submerged underneath the water. Trinity let out a cry for her, but was too afraid to go in after her in fear of being snatched by whatever it was that was under there.
"Mercy!"
She waited and waited for any sign of life from her friends, but the woods fell silent. The lake settled into a calming still.
Only five minutes later did Trinity witness Mercy and Emma resurface, completely unconscious. There was no sign of life from either of them as they floated aimlessly, their faces turning pale from the lifelessness. They were gone.
She had stood there and watched her best friends' say their last words, take their last breaths, and blink their last lash. She witnessed their unexplainable falter.
Trinity whispered, "This is all my fault."
She did the first thing that she could think of. Run.
