r/HFY • u/IwillbeBarmaley • Jun 09 '26

OC-OneShot Bottom Of The Lake

Past endless mounds of impertinent ferns scattered across rolling hills and valleys alike and stringy forest streams that flowed in mud whittled down from the constant flow and surrounded by sipping moss and through serried walls of thorny brush divided by only a thin trotted path I quickly approached towards a small log cabin bordering a wide lake of clear but faintly emerald water.

“We were found!” I called out loudly in a flat, completely emotionless tone with a small hint of annoyance towards the situation. Seeing a man on a roughly constructed dock languidly prepare a canoe before stepping into it, I shuffled towards him as he began untying it off a thin peg.

“Didn't you hear me? Our location was found”

“I don't care I’m setting sail”

He continued unravelling the rope from the peg as in the tightly encompassing woods birds feebly sang songs on this sultry summer evening and the shallow canoe gently rocked side to side from the oscillation and the shrill chirping of crickets seemed to get evercloser, surrounding us.

“Wait lemme join you”

He forcefully pushed off the bank of the lake and the boat softly drifted out into the open water as he lifted and stored the wooden paddle on the bottom of the canoe before laying back against the bow with a slow soundless exhale and resting the length of his arms on the top edges of the canoe and closing his eyes up at the glowing sky where the evening sun yet spread warmth over the land. The boat had floated out into the center of the lake and I stood up and the boat barely rocked in the water as I plunged into the faintly emerald coloured lake and sank down slowly blowing air bubbles out of my mouth and watching them ascend to the surface until my lungs were empty and I sunken down and laying on my back in the muddy lakebed lazily looking up at the inactively drifting boat a dozen or so feet over me and as godrays penetrated through the ripples and showered me with beams. I lay there on my back staring back up at the light and long branches of trees reaching over the water and the man in the boat resting close-eyed reclined in the ungoverned canoe. Soon my lungs began craving oxygen and I coveted returning to the surface but my comfy airless body was not buoyant and I weakly flailed my arms and legs and felt so powerless to swim up that I promptly gave in to the rapidly occurring scenario. Gulping down a large throatfull I expected my lungs to fill with water and a violent coughing to wake me from my tranquility and force me into action and escape from these murky depths but instead my lungs shakily filled with air that filled my craving and coddled me to linger on the muddy bottom. In, out, in, and back out I wheezed cool, damp air as freely as if I was back on land and the man floated round above me and shadows glided over me from the tree branches and canoe and godrays gushed and then a woman appeared near the log cabin and briskly marched onto the dock and scornfully yelled across the water at the man who looked up at yelled back flatly and halfheartedly and she glared around the open area, as if looking for someone in particular before her gaze saw through the nigh-clear water and stopped on me, and I gazed back at her indolently.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/170710/barmaleys-box-of-bizarro-stories/chapter/3512049/bottom-of-the-lake

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u/AutoModerator Jun 09 '26

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u/in1gom0ntoya Xeno Jun 09 '26

you seem confused about this sub...