I climbed closer, lowering myself down the rock, reaching out to the edge. ‘I’m coming,’ I said. A fresh wave of despair passed over me, convulsing in my chest and blurring my vision. I hated being right about this. I didn’t want this for Dylan, and even my certainty of his fate, the dreams and visions, didn’t protect me from the shock of actually seeing him there. I lowered myself further down the rock and there, beneath the surface, I saw something white, gently waving. You cannot mistake the translucent quality of human skin under water. There was Dylan’s hand beckoning me in a chilling command.
‘I can see you,’ I called out. ‘I can see you.’
The rain was so heavy and the creek so loud I couldn’t hear anything else. So, when the hand grabbed my shoulder from behind, my heart nearly stopped. I twisted around and found myself face to face with Gary Koslovski.
‘What are you doing?’ he asked, not letting go of my raincoat. Rain ran in rivulets down his face. I was so close to him I could smell his warm, smoky breath.
He pulled me to my feet and I braced myself as best I could on the huge grey boulder, not wanting to slip into the chaotic waterhole, not wanting to fall in with Dylan.
‘I, I see him.’ I pointed to the swirling shirt. The sound of the water ceased and I heard only the sound of my own heart thudding in my ears.
Gary looked past me into the pool. He face stiffened and drained of colour. A small groan escaped his mouth, but this was not the noise of grief or shock that I had expected. This noise betrayed him. He waited another heartbeat then pulled me closer. ‘You don’t understand,’ he said. His breath warmed my ear.
I tried to pull away. ‘Why are you here?’ My voice was weak and tremulous.
He didn’t reply but the answer was already forming in my head. His face told the whole story. He had done it. He had killed his own son.
‘It was an accident,’ he said.
I backed away, my sneaker slipping on the sloping edge of the rock, but Gary still had hold of my raincoat.
His eyes darted around and his breathing grew rapid. ‘I didn’t mean to kill him,’ he said. ‘We never shoulda gone on that hunt. Dylan never had the backbone for killing. But he had a big mouth on him, didn’t know when to shut up. It was just one punch. He must’ve hit his head or something.’
I tore my eyes from Gary’s and tried to look behind me. He shook my collar hard.
‘But no-one’s gonna believe that, are they?’ He pushed past me to get a closer look at the water, loosening his grip on my raincoat.
I saw my chance, yanking myself away and scampering across the boulder, but I only went one step before I felt his hand clamp down on my shoulder once more.
‘Let me go!’ I fell to my knees, trying to pull away, but Gary flipped me onto my back and pinned me down onto the hard surface of the rock.
‘Shut up!’ he said, shaking me until I lay still. ‘I can’t go to prison. Do you understand?’ Water dripped from his dark hair, down his nose and onto my face. His eyes were bloodshot and glassy. He was justifying what he was about to do. If he wanted to stay out of prison, Dylan’s body must never be found.
‘I should never have put him in the waterhole,’ he said. ‘I panicked. I thought I could weigh him down with rocks and he’d get stuck in the channels down there. That’s where they all get stuck. That’s where all the bodies … They never come up.’
I tried to move but he was crushing me, his heavy arm across my chest. ‘Your own son. How could you do that?’
He ignored me. ‘But then I didn’t think about the rains, did I? Stupid.’ His head flicked from side to side.
I struggled under his weight. ‘Get off me!’
‘You shouldn’t have come here,’ he said.
I twisted under him as hard as I could, but his strength was too much. My arms flailed about, looking for some sort of weapon, but the rock was bare. I knew, then, something very bad was about to happen to me. Time stood still as I wracked my brain for a way to escape. I arched my body and as our weight shifted on the slippery surface he lost his balance and lurched sideways, then we both fell between two boulders. Gary’s larger body wedged above me and I managed to crawl out from underneath, even as he swiped at me with his arm. Adrenaline coursed through me as I scrambled to the next boulder. Gary was right behind me. He grabbed at my foot and I flipped myself, planted my foot squarely in his chest and pushed with all my strength.
Halfway up the rock he was off balance and his arms windmilled for a second. Then he fell backward and the whitewater swallowed him, just down from where Dylan’s shirt swirled and billowed.
I crawled to the edge, panicking. He was gone. Just like that. I looked around. I was completely alone. My mind whirred with the options. Jump in after him? Leave him to drown?
Then suddenly his head popped up. And an arm reached toward the rock. His face was contorted, his mouth twisted and blue, gasping for air. I shrugged off my raincoat and, lying across the rock for balance, threw it toward him. He grasped at it, managing to get a grip. I hauled the coat toward me and dragged him close enough to the edge so that he could get a hold on the rock. He pulled himself up the side of the boulder, clinging to it with every sinew in his arms.
He positioned himself across the rock next to me and lay face down, his
