Black Water

Discovery II

The next morning, Jared was nowhere to be found. He left a note on the living room counter, which said that he was driving down to Albion to spend some time alone. Jenny didn't try to stop him. After all, these were stressful times.

School was going to begin for Branden and Lisa next week - Jenny drove them to Albion elementary school, for the orientation that they would be receiving. While she was there, she was greeted by a familiar face. The only neighbour she had - Shelby was her name - turned out to also be Lisa's teacher. When she greeted Jenny, she looked a little odd - almost cautious, to a certain extent. She told Jenny that Lisa looked like a wonderful child.

The two had a brief exchange of words, which remained quite professional, before the principal came over and told Shelby that she had to go and prepare her classroom. "I've got to go," said Shelby, "nice talking to you, Mrs. Irwin."

Jenny smiled, "nice talking to you too." she said. Shelby soon vanished from sight, her footsteps disappearing from her field of hearing.

Orientation would take a few hours, so Jenny didn't bother to stay in the school. She had other things to do. Arriving back home at 9:30 AM, she made her way upstairs and into the bedroom. Downstairs, voices could be heard from the guest bedroom.

"Jared?" Jenny opened the door to the bedroom, and poked her head through - sure enough, her husband still wasn't back. She frowned. Where could he be going in a time like this? She was under the impression that Jared wanted to continue the exploration of the well.

But whatever he was doing, it must've been important to him, so Jenny wouldn't interfere. She passed by his laptop, which was still running on his desk. On the screen, she read out the title of the message: Kalyke Satellite destroyed on 2nd ignition.

How strange. Jared never failed at his job at NASA. This must've been a first.

Jenny walked over to the children's rooms, which were now empty. Lisa's side of the room was painted pink, with discarded legos scattering the ground, and a small bed sitting in the corner. A bunch of dolls and other toys were stuffed in the closet. In the corner of her vision, Jenny caught a lining of dust which ran around the ear of a teddy bear. 

And, sitting on top of one of the pillows was none else than Lisa's green notebook. It was closed, with three broken pencils lying on the blanket right next to it.

Jenny didn't know why she did it - she thought that she was a good mother. She promised her children that she would never intrude upon their privacy. She always told them that they could trust her. But this time around, Jenny didn't seem to care about the rules she set up for herself. She walked over, and opened the notebook. Curiosity is what drove her steps. Mainly curiosity.

What was inside struck her as odd.

A single black circle. It was drawn perfectly - an ideal circle, its dimensions pure and unobstructed. Colored in with pencil to such an extent that not even the smallest trickle of white could show through. On the corners of the page, pencil shavings and the remnants of broken graphite could be seen.

On the next page, the exact same image could be seen. Except this time, it was perhaps half a centimeter larger in diameter. Page three showed the same, except, once again, it seemed to grow by half a centimeter. She began to flip through the book - the circles began to grow larger and larger, never faltering in their darkness or perfection. Constantly expanding, eating up the last bit of white from the page, consuming the college ruled paper with that graphite-grey color, until it finally took over the entire page in a singular sea of nothingness on the last page.

No, not the last page. The second to last page.

Jenny turned the notebook around, and was shocked to see a startlingly familiar drawing - there, in front of her, was a near-perfect rendition of two scuba divers. One of them was holding a camera, and the other one had a line of string going from his waist into the darkness. A constant sea of graphite surrounded the two divers. It was a strikingly realistic drawing as well - every detail, every intricate fold and curve seemed to be made with an eye for accuracy. And behind those goggles, Jenny was able to easily make out Evan's and Allen's eyes. This wasn't a drawing from the imagination. No, that was not it...