The water was calm and clear. Lorelei Lahey, an insignificant sixteen year old girl sitting in her tube on the expansive lake, had never seen water so calm or so clear. It felt unnatural. She was overcome with the feeling that she was seeing something false—seeing things the way someone (or something) wanted her to see them. Like if she looked long enough the facade would ripple. She was waiting for that ripple.

The sun beat down, and she could distantly hear her friends telling her to hurry up, but she caught hold of a gnarled tree branch and stayed in place, transfixed on a pale brown pebble at the bottom of the lake. 

For a moment she thought she saw it move. 

Her eyes widened as she leaned forward, letting go of the branch—and just like that Lorelei Lahey was no longer in her tube. She was in the frigid water, much colder than it should’ve been for such a hot July day, staring into the eyes of the most beautiful boy she’d ever seen. His eyes were green and blue. The colors moved seamlessly in and out of each other, in a hypnotic dance. For a moment Lorelei didn’t notice his razor sharp teeth. Just for a moment. 

Thrashing in his grip, Lorelei kicked and screamed but the sound garbled in her throat, lost under the surface of the placid water. His touch sent a series of prophetic images flashing through her mind, and she fleetingly wondered if her eyes looked like his. She imagined her friends looking back for her and finding an empty tube. She imagined the police dragging the river in search of her body and never finding it—not until this boy wanted them to. Everyone would wonder where she went, and she’d be right there under the water, stuck halfway between alive and dead, swimming against her will, hand in hand with this boy: a faerie circle at the bottom of the lake, a never-ending dance. 

Lorelei imagined her lungs bursting and her skin pruning. She knew the blood vessels in her eyes would dilate and spread their red, spidery-limbs, just as she knew a blue tinge would creep over her mouth before it spread to the rest of her body. Lorelei imagined that when she was no longer prettier than the girls up above, he’d let her go. Lorelei fought for her life.

Neither ripple nor air bubble betrayed the struggle beneath the surface of the lake. The water was calm and clear.