Thalasso

“I had the dream again.”

My mom stopped in her tracks and turned to look at me.

“The dream? The same one?” She asked me with what looked like concern in her eyes.

“Yep the very same one. I’m still drowning…still dying.” I tell her nonchalantly as I take another bite of my pancakes.

We both stayed quiet for a while. I probably shouldn’t have told her, but I’ve become so used to this dream it almost feels like second nature discussing it. It’s almost as if I’ve lived it or something.

I’ve had the dream for years now. It’s always the same, never changing. I’m in deep water, sinking, drowning. I keep trying to swim toward the surface, but it’s as if someone or something is pulling me down. I’m desperate for oxygen, but my lungs fill with nothing but burning saltwater. I can feel myself slipping, and as soon as I feel myself fall into darkness, I wake up coughing and gasping for air. It’s the most terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced in my life, feeling myself die.

Just like I almost did fifteen years ago, or so I’ve been told. I should’ve died. To this day, no one knows how I survived.

“Mom, what happened that day?” I asked my mom almost hesitantly. She never liked to talk about it, but I always insisted since I could never remember.

“Valeria, no. You don’t need to know. You’re here now and that’s what matters.” She always said that to shut me up.

“But that’s not fair! I was only five! I can’t remember anything and it’s been years. Mom, I need to know.”

She stared at me for a good while until she let out a sigh of defeat and sat down next to me and held my hand.

“Okay.” Her eyes were already glistening over with the tears she was trying to hold back. I spent years wondering what happened to me the October of 2006.

“We had all gone on a trip, you, your father, and myself. We decided to take a small cruise to Alaska, but we hadn’t even arrived before it happened. You were only five and you were fascinated by the blue ocean. You spent hours leaning over the edge of the ship staring down at the choppy water, but one day there was a storm on the horizon. We could see the grey clouds moving closer. I was trying to get you to come inside because it was getting colder outside, but suddenly a giant gust of wind blew over the ship and everyone started stumbling on their feet trying to stay upright. I looked up just in time to see you fall over and roll off the ship and into the water. I screamed and your father jumped in after you, but you were nowhere to be found. The coast guard was called and search parties went out day and night searching, but you never rose out of the water.”

The tears were rolling down her face and there was no stopping them. I’m sure it must be hard for her to relive that terrifying day, but I needed to know what happened to me. After all these years it’s as if everyone around was keeping this huge secret from me and I could never figure it out.

“We never even found a body. It’s like you had just vanished. You disappeared and we couldn’t figure out what happened. There were teams of divers swimming to the bottom trying to find your body, but there was nothing. I had honestly given up hope. I saw you fall and you never came back. The ship docked in Alaska, but we were devastated. Then two days later we got a call saying the coast guard had found a little girl floating off the coast of Kodiak…and that she was alive…and that her name was Valeria.”

My mom broke down wailing in pain remembering those painful two days thinking her little girl was dead and never coming back. She couldn’t look at me because every time she looked up and saw my face, her tears would fall once again.

“I remember waking up in a boat soaking wet, but I couldn’t remember how I got in the water. I remember I was freezing, and I remember you and dad hugged me like you hadn’t seen me in years, but that’s it.”

I felt tears welling up in my own eyes. I was obviously there but I was so saddened for that little girl that was lost. It felt like another life. I couldn’t believe that my five year old self was forced to endure such a traumatic experience at such a young age. My heart hurt for her. It almost seemed unfair to me that I couldn’t remember anything before my rescue.

I developed a terrifying fear of deep water after that incident. We had to fly back home because I couldn’t step foot on another ship. I couldn’t go swimming after that or fishing. I couldn’t go to beaches or aquariums. I was absolutely terrified of water and I could never explain why, but now I know why.

“There’s something else.” My mom said almost hesitantly. I looked at her in utter confusion. What else could there possibly to this story?

“That scar on your ankle. You didn’t have it before you disappeared.”

I looked down at my foot and analyzed the swirling pattern of scar tissue that wrapped around my ankle. I always thought somehow I was born with it because I’ve had it for as long as I could remember. But now, I could only imagine what horror that little girl…I had gone through to have been scarred so viciously.

“What do you mean I didn’t have it before? How could a scar like this just appear after two days!?” I was absolutely horrified. The worst part was that to this day, this is the one thing nobody could figure out.

That night I fell asleep still thinking about everything my mom had told me. Fifteen years later and I was still full of questions. How did I drown? I was a good swimmer. How did I not die after two days of being lost in the ocean?

As I drifted off to sleep I was in the dream again, still in the water, yet something was different. I could still feel it, but this time I was watching it happen. I saw her. Me. She fell in the water, but she tried to swim up and then something wrapped around her ankle! I could feel it too. I felt the burning on my skin. I could taste the blood in the water. My blood. It was dragging her down. She was screaming! I saw the life leave her eyes as she blacked out and fell into the depths of the dark water. I could still feel the water in my lungs as I tried to gasp for air, but this time I wasn’t dying. And then I saw her slowly floating back to the surface, completely unconscious and blue in the face. And that’s when I woke up gasping and crying.

I remember everything! I didn’t drown. Something pulled me down! I fought with all my might, but it was too strong. How am I alive? There’s something down there, in the water. Something monstrous.

As these words flowed through my head I felt a pang of fear in my chest. I shouldn’t be alive right now. Whatever dragged me down meant to kill me.

The next day I was still remembering my dream, or better yet my nightmarish memory. I thought it best not to tell my parents. They’ve suffered enough. This is one dream I decided to keep to myself.

The sound of the TV snapped me back to reality. The news was reporting on the latest murder. The Davey Jones Killer they called him. He’s a serial killer they’ve been profiling for a while now. Every year on the same day a body is washed up on the shore completely dehydrated of all liquid. The body is mangled and decrepit after being tossed around in the ocean and left to float back to land. The police have never been able to figure out how or why he’s been killing people. Each attack seems almost random. The only lead anyone has is the approximate date of each murder and the fact that somehow each victim is out on the ocean at the exact same time. Some of his victims have been fishermen, some tourists, some even scuba divers.

“The Davey Jones Killer has claimed his latest victim. The body of forty-three year old Adam Cooper was found washed ashore early this morning. Authorities estimate he was killed around two days prior to his body’s discovery.”

“This is terrible,” my mom said with sadness in her eyes. “Every year without fail and they still can’t catch him.”

“I can’t believe we still have serial killers to this day. No one deserves to die in that way,” my dad said shaking his head as he sipped his coffee.

I was still watching the news when an image of the victims body appeared. They blurred out his face, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. At the edge of the frame I caught a glimpse of this man’s foot and what I saw caused a knot to form in my stomach. Right there on his ankle, clear as day, was a scar that looked frighteningly familiar.

As the wheels in my head began to turn, I looked at the date on the news report. October 31, 2021. The reporter had said that the victim had been killed two days before. That’s when I felt a cold sweat begin to cover my body.

“Mom?” I called aloud, my voice shaky. “When did I disappear?”

She turned to look at me. “October, why?”

“What date?” I said, my eyes never leaving the television.

“October 29th.”

Two days ago.

I turned to look at both my parents, the color leaving my face. They both looked at me as the realization appeared in both of their eyes.

“Impossible…” my dad whispered. He looked back and forth between me and the television.

“I didn’t drown. I remember.” I had wanted to keep my memory a secret, but there were too many coincidences now.

“What do you mean you remember?” My mom was frantic with worry.

“I didn’t want to tell you guys, but I had a dream last night. I remember everything. I didn’t drown. I was dragged down. Something wrapped around my ankle and dragged my down. That’s how I got the scar. The exact same scar that the man who died has on his ankle.”

They both turned to look at the news report and sure enough, they saw what I saw.

“What was it? What dragged you down?” My dad was beyond furious at this point.

“I have no idea. I couldn’t see it, but it was strong. I couldn’t fight it off. I honestly don’t know how I survived. I blacked out and somehow floated to the surface.”

We were all filled with more and more questions. Why me? Why the exact same date every year? Did I survive by mistake? Or did it let me go? I may never figure out the answers.

That evening I decided to muster up my courage and drive down to the beach. It had been a long time since I was brave enough to be near water, especially with this new revelation, but I somehow felt called to the sea. I walked up to the edge of the water and stared at the waves as they crashed back and forth, darkening with the setting sun.

Something is out there, something dark and malicious. Almost as if the ocean heard my thoughts, an enormous wave rose and crashed right at my feet. This creature, whatever it is, will surely claim another victim soon enough. I’m still terrified, but at least now I know.