What the Water Wants

"This place doesn't ask permission. It just does things to you, and you're supposed to act like that's normal."

I reached Glenda first, my hand shooting out to help her up. She took it, grimacing as she brushed dust from her knees, but waved off my concern before I could ask if she was alright.

"I'll take him," Paul said, already moving to Joel's shoulder where Jamie was struggling to get a grip.

I positioned myself on the other side, my hands finding purchase under Joel's arm. His body was cold — not cool, but properly cold, like meat from a fridge — and the wrongness of it sent a shiver crawling up my spine despite the warmth of the afternoon.

"Where are we taking him?" I asked, keeping my voice steady through sheer force of will.

"To the lagoon," Glenda said.

I didn't ask why. Didn't have the energy for questions that probably wouldn't get answers anyway. I just tightened my grip on Joel's arm and started walking when Paul did, the two of us moving in awkward tandem while Glenda fell into step behind us and Uncle Jamie hurried ahead.

Joel's head lolled with each step, his neck bending at angles that made my stomach turn. The wound across his throat had been stitched closed — Glenda's work, neat and professional despite the circumstances — but the sight of it was still enough to make bile rise in the back of my throat. Dark thread against pale skin, holding together flesh that had been sliced clean through.

I focused on my feet. On the dust beneath them, the familiar sink and slide of the soft ground. One step, then another. Don't think about what you're carrying. Don't think about the cold seeping through his clothes into your hands. Just move.

The lagoon came into view over the crest of a dune, that impossible blue shimmering in the afternoon light. Uncle Jamie was already at the water's edge, ankle-deep, gesturing for us to hurry. His face was set with determination, a fierce intensity that I didn't understand but couldn't argue with.

We reached the shore and I kept going, the water swirling around my feet as I waded in. Cool at first, then warmer as I got deeper, the temperature nothing like what I'd expected. It felt almost tropical, like bathwater that had been sitting just long enough to lose its heat.

"Make sure he is on his back!" Glenda called from the shore, her voice sharp with urgency.

Uncle Jamie and I adjusted our grip, manoeuvring Joel's body until he was floating face-up between us, the water supporting most of his weight. His eyes were still open, still staring at nothing, that pale blue gaze fixed on the sky like he was waiting for something to happen.

And then something did happen.

It started in my legs — a tingling sensation, faint at first, like pins and needles after sitting in one position too long. I shifted my weight, trying to shake it off, but the feeling only intensified. It crawled up my calves, spread through my thighs, and then—

I sucked in a breath, my whole body going rigid.

It wasn't pain. That was the confusing part. It was the opposite of pain, a warmth spreading through my lower body that had no business being there, that made absolutely no sense given the circumstances. My skin flushed hot, my pulse quickening, and I felt a stirring in my groin that sent a spike of panic through my chest.

What the fuck?

I glanced around, my eyes darting to Paul on the shore, to Glenda beside him, searching their faces for any sign that they'd noticed. That they could see what was happening to me, the way my body was betraying me in the most humiliating way possible.

Paul had bent down, his fingers reaching for his shoelaces like he was about to wade in and help. But Uncle Jamie's voice cut through the stillness before he could start.

"No, Kain and I have got him covered."

Another wave rolled through me, stronger this time, and I had to bite down on my tongue to keep from making a sound. My jeans were getting uncomfortable, the fabric pressing against an erection I hadn't asked for and definitely didn't want. Not here. Not now. Not while I was standing waist-deep in water holding a dead man's arm.

Uncle Jamie caught my eye, and something in his expression told me he knew. Knew exactly what was happening, had maybe been expecting it.

"Just ignore it," he whispered, his voice barely audible over the gentle lap of water against our bodies. "It'll pass."

Easy for him to say. He wasn't the one standing here with a hard-on he couldn't explain, trying to focus on keeping a corpse afloat while his body decided this was apparently the perfect moment to lose its fucking mind.

"Can you see?" Glenda's voice carried across the water, tight with concern.

"No," Paul called back, frustration evident in his tone. "It would be nice if they didn't keep their backs to us. I can't see much at all."

I glanced at Uncle Jamie, a question in my eyes. He shook his head, almost imperceptibly. Whatever was about to happen, he didn't want the others watching.

Fine. I could work with that. I shifted my position slightly, angling my body away from the shore, using Joel as a screen. The movement sent another ripple of sensation through my legs, and I gritted my teeth against it, forcing myself to breathe.

Then the light appeared.

It started as a flicker, a faint shimmer beneath the surface of the water. I squinted, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. The glow intensified, spreading outward in tendrils that moved like living things, reaching toward Joel's body with what looked almost like purpose.

Bioluminescent algae? Some kind of chemical reaction? My brain scrambled for explanations, for anything that would make this fit into the world I thought I understood. But the light kept growing, kept moving, and then it was touching Joel's skin — seeping into him, disappearing through his pores like water into a sponge.

I watched, frozen, as the glow spread across his body. His throat, his chest, his face. The stitches Glenda had so carefully placed seemed to pulse with light, the wound beneath them doing something I couldn't see but could somehow sense. Healing. Knitting together. Becoming whole.

Joel gasped.

The sound was explosive in the silence — a desperate, ragged intake of breath, the noise of a drowning man breaking the surface. His eyes, which had been empty and staring, suddenly focused. Snapped to awareness. Found Uncle Jamie's face and fixed on it with an intensity that made my blood run cold.

"What's happening?" Glenda's voice cut through the charged atmosphere, sharp with alarm.

Uncle Jamie turned toward the shore, and even from behind I could see the grin spreading across his face. "He's breathing again!"

I stood rooted in the water, my senses overloaded. Joel was breathing. Joel was alive — or something close to it, something that walked and talked and looked like life even if I wasn't sure it counted. The light had faded, sinking back beneath the surface, but I could still feel its presence. Still feel the tingling in my legs, the warmth spreading through my body, the insistent pressure between my thighs that refused to fade.

Joel's arms twitched, involuntary spasms that sent ripples across the water's surface. Uncle Jamie was murmuring something to him — soft words, soothing words — and gestured for me to help hold him steady.

"Just breathe gently. It's okay. You're okay."

I pressed Joel's left arm against my stomach, providing what support I could while my own body continued its mutiny. His skin was warmer now, the deathly chill giving way to something that felt almost human. Almost normal.

Nothing about this was normal.

Joel's breathing steadied, his chest rising and falling in a rhythm that matched the gentle pulse of the water around us. I watched, transfixed, as colour crept back into his cheeks — faint, but there. Life returning to flesh that had been grey and cold mere minutes ago.

I shifted my grip on his wrist, and that's when I felt it. A flutter beneath my fingertips. Faint, irregular, but unmistakable.

"He has blood flow now?" I looked up at Uncle Jamie, disbelief and wonder warring for control of my voice.

"Of course he does," Uncle Jamie replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Like dead men came back to life every day, and I was the strange one for being surprised.

The twitching subsided, Joel's body going still in a way that looked peaceful rather than lifeless. I released his arm carefully, watching in amazement as his eyes tracked Uncle Jamie's movements through the water. Aware. Present. Alive.

"What's going on out there?" Glenda's voice again, pulling us back to reality.

"It's okay," Uncle Jamie called out, his voice steady and strong. "We've got it under control."

On the shore, I could see Glenda hesitating, her professional instincts clearly warring with something else. She wanted to come in, wanted to see for herself what had happened. But Paul was already at her elbow, murmuring something I couldn't hear, gently steering her away from the water's edge.

They retreated, their figures growing smaller against the dunes, and I felt a momentary flash of relief. Whatever was happening with my body, at least I wouldn't have an audience for it.

"I should probably leave too," I said, the words coming out strained.

"Kain, wait." Uncle Jamie's voice was urgent, almost desperate. "Please stay with me. Just for a while."

I looked at him — really looked. At the exhaustion carved into his features, the fear lurking behind his eyes, the way his hands trembled slightly as they supported Joel's shoulders. He was holding it together, but barely. The seams were showing.

Against my better judgment, I nodded.

"Thank you," Uncle Jamie whispered.

I opened my mouth to respond, but the words died in my throat as another wave of sensation crashed through me. Stronger than before. Much stronger. The tingling had become a pulse, a throb, a demand that my body seemed determined to answer whether I wanted it to or not.

My vision blurred at the edges. Heat flooded through me, concentrated and intense, building toward something I couldn't stop. I tried to breathe, tried to think, tried to do anything except stand here and let it happen—

"Get out of the fucking water!"

Uncle Jamie's voice shattered whatever control I had left. My eyes snapped open — when had I closed them? — and I lurched forward, my legs moving on pure instinct. The water dragged at me, trying to hold me back, but I pushed through it, stumbling toward the shore with all the grace of a drunk leaving a pub at closing time.

I made it three steps onto dry land before my knees buckled.

The dust was soft beneath me as I went down, my hands sinking into the fine powder. My whole body was shaking, trembling with a tension that had wound itself so tight I thought I might snap. I dug my fists into the ground, trying to anchor myself, trying to hold on—

A sound escaped me. Low, guttural, completely involuntary. My hips jerked forward of their own accord, and then I was coming — harder than I ever had in my life, wave after wave of release that tore through me like electricity, that left me gasping and shuddering and utterly, completely out of control.

I collapsed onto my back, my chest heaving, my body still twitching with aftershocks. The sky swam above me, that wrong shade of blue, and I could feel the wetness spreading in my jeans, the sticky heat of it, the absolute mortification of what had just happened.

Another tremor rolled through me, starting in my legs and working its way up, and a soft moan escaped my lips before I could stop it. The sensations were fading now, the intensity draining away, but my body wasn't done yet. Wasn't ready to let me go.

I lay there in the dust, staring at nothing, while the last echoes of whatever the hell that was slowly released their grip on me. Uncle Jamie's voice reached me from somewhere distant — the water, the shore, I couldn't tell — but the words didn't register. Nothing registered except the bone-deep exhaustion settling into my limbs, the strange and terrifying peace that followed the storm.

The warmth of the dust beneath me. The cooling air on my flushed skin. The soft hiss of wind across the dunes.

I closed my eyes and let the darkness take me.