The Ripple Effect

Water is the source of all life on earth. Without water, everything would cease into nothingness. Earth would be the same as every other planet in its solar system. Dull. Bleak. Worthless. People say a trip to the ocean will free your soul of worries. A splash in the pool will cool the fire in your head. If you dance in the rain, it will wash you clean of your problems. The rush of the river’s rapids will spark an adrenaline in you unknown to man. Water is the perfect duality. It sooths and excites. There are many lakes in the world but the one they visited was picturesque. Surrounded by a cool forest and watched by a grey sky. The landscape remained undisturbed on the surface of the until they arrived. They shattered the image with their clumsy steps and sent it splashing against the rocks. There was no purpose to them being there. All they did was laugh. Noisy. Destructive. Worthless. Everything they touched was marred even after they left. Branches lay broken and snapped on the floor. Crushed by an uncaring foot. Plastic littered the floor, tempting any creature to die a painfilled and undeserving death. The lake’s surface was no longer serene. The reflection had been shattered into a thousand pieces, unable to be whole again. They dropped him off outside his house. He was smiling. Pleased with the destruction he had caused in the name of entertainment. He brushed his parents off when they asked how it had been. As if they couldn’t smell. He didn’t shower before going to bed. The next day, he complained about work and relationships. All he ever did was complain. He didn’t shower that morning either. Dirty. Unkempt. Worthless. He was confused by his reflection that morning. What he saw in the mirror wasn’t right. His eyes were the baby blue colour that girls and adults swooned over. They had been that colour since he was born. He believed his reflection to be lying to him and, once his mother confirmed that they looked blue to her, he claimed it was a trick of the light. His eyes were not actually black. He kept checking routinely throughout the day but his mirror still lied to him. Still told him that his eyes were unusual. He didn’t drink water much. Preferred sodas and alcohol that were too dark to show a reflection. His mother cooked with water when she made pasta. Later, she would scream and the pot would clatter on the floor. Crash. Smash. When they asked her, she would claim she had seen his face in the reflection of the water. Dead. They laughed. The surface hadn’t recovered when they returned to the lake. It could not have healed so quickly. They smashed it up again and left more waste than before. He didn’t tell anybody. They would not have believed him. The face he saw right below the water’s surface was not a reflection. It had moved and smiled up at him. He had jumped and it had left. They would have laughed if he told them, so he forgot it. Foolish. Useless. Worthless. They returned to the lake after but he was never with them. He spent hours in front of the mirror. They all believed in a developed vanity but it wasn’t for appearance’s sake. He was scared now. Scared by the soulless black eyes of his reflection. They weren’t his, he knew that now. The face in the lake had them. Nobody understood what he meant. His parents grew worried the more he spoke about the eyes. Their threats of medication made him turn silent. It was two weeks after his final visit to the lake when his reflection changed once more. His skin turned to a grey pallor. One only seen on that of a dead body. He saw it in the reflection but not on his own body. He began to believe he was going crazy. In water he saw the face. The macabre grin danced below the surface, close enough to touch if only he tried. He had broken the water’s surface so many time before. Why did it bother him to do it again? It would be so easy to destroy this reflection. Not with the hammer that he took to the mirror but with a simple ripple. His fear engulfed him. Desperate. Scared. Worthless. He grew dehydrated and they took him to the hospital. The doctor’s grew worried when he refused any water. His mother dreaded an insanity. His father believed in possession. For their sake, he tried to act. He made them believe that he was hallucinating from the dehydration. Forced himself to drink from the water glass with the face floating in it. He vomited at the taste. They presumed it was nausea and treated his stomach. More pills, more water. They discharged him on the same day that his reflection grew claws. He tried cutting his nails but it didn’t affect his reflection. He wasn’t sleeping anymore. Nightmares haunted his unconscious moments. It was coming for him – slowly and surely. He believed himself to be cursed. Haunted for a transgression he didn’t understand. Ignorant. Selfish. Worthless. The reflection continued to change. It grew scales around the back of its body. The features became sharper. A swirling mist surrounded it. The hair became black and swirled in the air as though suspended in water. He cried every time he saw it. It was my face. The same one he saw in fountains and pools. One that inhabited his dreams and made him run away from home in the dead of night screaming. They were going to have him admitted. I heard them talking about it one night. Soft and worried for the son. They didn’t understand. They would never understand. I warned him about their intentions. Whispered in his ears when there was a reflective surface. Chilled all the water near him and corrupted it with the taste of blood. I intended for him to listen to my signs but he ignored them and whimpered into a pillow. Pathetic. Stupid. Worthless. So I let them take him. He welcomed the asylum with open arms. Begged them to help him. They promised they would do what they could. I merely watched. There were no mirrors in his room so I appeared in the metal utensils he ate with. They started giving him plastic stuff after that. Nothing he could see his reflection in. The medicine they gave him was useless. I am not one that can be chased by a doctor. Until he had fixed what he had broken, I would not leave. My image had ripples in it from his reckless actions. He needed to repair it. Every time they would check his progress, I would be there. Watching. He lied. They let him out. He climbed in a car and drove. They didn’t know where he was hiking to. He hadn’t been to the lake in a year and almost got lost. I waited for him out of the water. Standing in the middle of the lake when he appeared. He wasn’t surprised. He was desperate. Broken. Defeated. Worthless. He screamed at me as loud as he could. I mimicked every one of his gestures. Followed his actions exactly. He was unstable. Angry. Depressed. Worthless. When he slumped to his knees by the side of the lake, I remained standing. He dug his nails so deeply into his arms that blood spilled onto the rocks. The scream he released scared all the birds from the trees. Worthless. I said his name and he came to me. Walked into the water until it was over his head. There was no struggle. He began to look like his reflection. The ripples he caused were fixed with every bubble of air he gave. The surface of the lake was flawless once more. Perfect. Glorious. Worthwhile.