Black Water

Celestial

Jared came back from Albion right as Jenny began to cook lunch. He was in relatively high spirits, having been to Albion Tapestries to converse with Ava, and having gone to the library directly afterwards to read On the Shoulders of Giants. He knew that Endeavor III was taking place, and had entrusted Jenny to film the entire thing. So when he opened the front door, humming a tune that he heard on the radio to himself, he almost immediately noticed the dejected expressions of just about every person in the lodge. The entire investigation team, including one person he did not recognize, were sitting in the living room, eating their meals silently. Jenny was nowhere in sight.

Jared asked what had happened. Allen replied with only a few words.

"Ioeuri's dead."

Jared does not know who Ioeuri is. But even so, the word dead seems to have an adverse effect on him. He shifts uncomfortably, "What do you mean?" he asked, "who's Ioeuri? Is he one of the divers you guys were sending down?"

"Yeah. He's gone."

Yet another silence fell upon the lodge. Jared sat down, not speaking a word for a few moments, before asking, "Where's Jenny?"

"She's upstairs. She won't talk to any of us." Allen shrugged, "I can't blame her for that. Ioeuri's dead..."

Jared immediately made a beeline for the stairwell. Going into the master bedroom, he found Jenny sitting behind her desk, typing on a laptop. She noticed him entering the room, and quickly shut her computer off, "Oh, hey." she said, "did you...um...just get back?"

Her face was ghostly pale, and her eyes were bloodshot - Jared could tell that she had just been crying for an extended period of time. But even so, he tried to act as normal as possible, "I heard that a diver died in the well."

At those very words, Jenny turned back to the laptop. She began to shake her head, "I d-don't want to believe it," she muttered, "but he's dead. The audio confirms it." she pauses for a few more moments. Jared notices that her eyes are beginning to glisten with tears, "why did you...why did you go back to the city?" she muttered, "y-you should've been the one to film it all...you're the one who's obsessed with it."

"I'm sorry." Jared walked forward, sitting down next to Jenny, "I know that I've been absent recently. You just need to tell me exactly what happened down there in the well. Exactly what happened."

"I have the footage right here..." Jenny opened the video files on her laptop, and scrolled down to the most recent video which was titled "Endeavor III." She clicked on it, and hit the "play" button.

Throughout the entire footage, Jared did not utter a single word, or even react to a single thing. He watched the descent, the exploration, and the attempts at getting Ioeuri back to safety. He listened to Ioeuri's final moments before drowning, and he watched it all the way until the end, when Allen's camera breaks the surface of the water. His facial expression remained at a stony neutral, but when he spoke after the film ended, his voice was different.

"He died."

Jenny seemed puzzled at his reaction, which was far more simplistic and straightforward than what she was expecting. "Yes, he did." she muttered, "he died, and he's not coming back. Allen's postponed the rest of the investigation. He might even shut it down...he'll probably shut it down, actually."

"That's his decision." Jared didn't appear upset over the news - he turned to Jenny, and asked a surprising question then. "How are the children doing?"

Jenny blinked. "They're fine...Lisa's stopped drawing ever since she ran out of space in her notebook. Branden usually runs off into the woods, but he always returns."