I am a widowed father of a beautiful 8-year-old girl named Page, she’s incredibly sweet, intelligent and she rises above her classmates in school with academics. All of that went down a slope when her mother, Sarah, had passed unexpectedly in a car accident that drove her vehicle of a bridge and into the water, the vehicle was never located. I feel sorry for her, losing a mother figure at such a young age, strangely enough, I lost my mother at a young age too and I couldn’t help feel her pain and understand what she’s going through.
Page has grown very quiet these past weeks and it kills me to see her that way, so I rummaged through a box with her mother’s belongings and found an emerald ring and thought I might give it to her, I knew it wouldn’t fit her yet but it was the closest thing to a mother’s love I could find.
I walked up to her room that night and before I knocked on her door, I heard her giggle, which was confusing to me as I haven’t heard her laugh in a long time, it felt familiar yet I could not recognize her feelings. I knocked once and her no reply as I was getting ready to knock the second time, Page came out of the bathroom behind me. I nearly had a heart attack but braved up and stormed into her room with no warning, there was nothing, Page stared at me as I exited the room but not with a confused expression on her face, the best I could describe was a sense of nervousness. I asked her if anyone else was in the house and as expected she didn’t say anything.
I shrugged it off as I was very exhausted from work, but it was not long before the next strange thing happened. I woke up one morning at 03:00 AM because I had to use the bathroom, as I left my room I saw page standing all the way at the end of the hall with her back facing towards me, looking out the window, I slowly walked towards her and asked, “Page? What are you doing up so late sweetie? You’ve got school tomorrow,” no response, as I got closer an intense feeling of unease ran down my spine, I put my hand on her shoulder and it was as if she just awoke from a thunder-storm, she spun around and said, “How did I get here?” It was not long before my unease grow as I heard the same words come out in a whisper from her room. I took Page to my room and let her rest with me for the night, nothing else happened.
When I woke up Page had already gotten dressed for school and I met her in the bathroom, brushing her teeth, I went to stand next to her because I needed to shave and get ready for work as well, and for some strange reason my shaving blade had been misplaced, I found it inside of the bathtub already wet, and before I could let a word out Page said under her breath, “I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” as I turned around my unease had returned as Page was still busy brushing her teeth and had a mouthful of toothpaste.
I started feeling discomfort in my home and Page did not even seem to notice anything, that very same day, everything went sideways and the s**t hit the fan. I picked Page up from school after work and asked her how her day was at school she replied with, “It was alright,” and before I could mutter a word, water started pouring slightly from my mouth, Page turned to me with a blank expression and out of nowhere she screamed at the top of her lungs but no sound resonated from her, just a faint white noise. I got home as quickly as I could and as I wanted to go inside, I stopped at the front door as it would seem like there was water coming out from underneath the doorway, I opened the door and the floorboards were dry, I felt like I was losing my mind. Page followed me inside not saying anything she went upstairs and directly into her room as if she was furious with me.
That night, as I was laying in my bed, nearly asleep I heard Page screaming from her room, “Daddy!” And almost immediately I stormed out of my room finding Page the same way I found her the previous morning, back towards me at the end of the hallway, but something was different, she was soaking wet, a water puddle formed around her, with the same feeling of unease I crept closer, aware of my surroundings, I asked Page with exhaustion in my voice, “What is going on?!” Page turned around and looked at me with anger in her eyes. She said softly but clearly in a hurt way, “You did this…” as I took a step back I could feel hands gripping both of my shoulders slightly pulling me back and followed with a woman shouting in my ear from behind, “THIS WAS YOUR FAULT!” I stumbled backwards losing my balance and falling to the ground, my eyes were forced shut as my heart was pounding throughout my body. I opened my eyes to find that Page was nowhere to be found.
As I stood up finding myself in the position I found Page, staring out the window I could see Page standing next to the swimming pool and almost out of sight I saw someone else standing next to her as I moved to get a better view, my heart sunk to the floor as I saw my wife, Sarah, looking right at me with water covering almost every inch of her body as well as water pouring violently out of her mouth, I could make out a villainous grin on her face as she started walking Page towards the pool, my instinct was to turn around and run but it felt like my body was locked into one place, I could not move, I could only watch as my daughter and my wife disappeared under the water and after a few minutes, floating in the water the lake of my daughter.
The feeling of unease was replaced with guilt and pain, my body loosened up and I ran downstairs with all the strength I had toward the backyard to save Page, but as I got to the pool, there was nothing.