We're Coming For You

“Come here, swim with me.”

Darioush smiled suggestively at Emily as he stripped off his clothes.

“But we just ate! What if we get a cramp?”

“If you get a cramp, I can fix it for you.” He waggled his eyebrows.

“Darioush!”

Emily threw her napkin at him and laughed.

“Seriously, let’s swim, Em. The water’s perfect.”

He turned around and dove in without waiting for her to respond.

Emily sighed and began to strip down.

It seems I can’t deny him whatever he wants, no matter how hard I try.

She smiled to herself as she quickly admired her naked reflection on the surface of the water.

Then again, he has a hard time saying no to me as well.

She dove neatly into the deep waters below and quickly returned to the surface, sputtering.

“I thought you said the water was perfect!”

Darioush laughed.

“It is. You just have to swim in it for a few minutes first.”

“You jerk! You know I hate cold water. I’ll get you for this!”

“You have to catch me first!”

Darioush turned away from her and started swimming to the other side of the lake.

“Darioush! Darioush, stop! It’s not safe to swim far like that, we just ate!”

She watched for a minute as his head moved further and further away from her.

Darioush, please.

She gave it a few more minutes before she realized he wasn’t coming back. Despite her misgivings, Emily started after him.

The water did start to feel warmer as she swam. She alternated strokes every few minutes to reduce her chances of cramping. Backstroke, sidestroke on the left, breaststroke, then sidestroke on the right. At this point, Darioush was so far away that his head was barely visible in the distance.

He knows he’s a faster swimmer than I am, and stronger. It’s so dangerous for us to be swimming so far from each other like this.

Backstroke, sidestroke on the left, breaststroke, sidestroke on the right.

The water kept getting warmer and warmer. Almost unnaturally so. She looked ahead and realized she couldn’t see Darioush anymore.

Where did he go?

She was beginning to feel like she was swimming in a hot tub instead of a lake.

“Darioush? Where are you? Something’s wrong. The water, it’s hot. We need to go back.”

She turned around to start swimming back. When she did, Darioush was directly behind her, silently treading water with most of his face below the surface. She shrieked.

“What the hell, Darioush! Not funny!”

He didn’t respond, didn’t even blink his eyes. That was when she realized he was covered in blood.

She recoiled in horror.

“Darioush…”

Emily looked down and realized that it wasn’t just Darioush who was covered in blood. She was too. The water in the lake was gone, replaced by blood.

“Darioush, what’s happening? What’s going on?”

He didn’t respond.

“Darioush, please! You’re scaring me. Why does it look like we’re swimming in blood? What’s going on?”

“It’s all your fault, Emily.”

She jumped at the creepy, disembodied, female voice.

“Who was that! Where are you!”

“You helped him kill us, and now we’re coming for you.”

“Darioush? What’s going on? If this is a joke - “

“It’s not a joke, Emily. You helped him kill us, and now we’re coming for you.”

This time it was a different voice. More male, but it was hard to tell because the voices seemed to be coming from far away. Were they coming from under the water?

“You helped him kill us, and now we’re coming for you.”

More voices, speaking all at once and all around her. Terrified, Emily began to swim back to shore, making a wide circle around Darioush, who was still watching her creepily, covered in blood, with most of his head under the water. His eyes floated just above the surface.

How is he breathing?

The voices continued to swell, repeating the same thing over and over.

“You helped him kill us, and now we’re coming for you.”

I didn’t kill anyone!

“Yes, you did.”

She shrieked again as she turned and saw Darioush was once again right next to her.

“You helped me kill them, Emily. You may think that forgetting what you did will help you prove your innocence. But they remember you. And they’re coming.”

“No! It’s a lie! I didn’t kill anyone! I didn’t do it! They set me up! YOU set me up!”

Emily started to swim away again. A hand brushed against her foot, trying to grab it and she screamed. Then another, and another. The voices started again, all around her.

“You helped him kill us, and now we’re coming for you.”

Suddenly, she was surrounded by body parts, floating in the blood. The hands grabbed at her. They pulled at her naked body. She kicked and fought them off, but there were too many. Too many hands.

“Too many! It’s too many! Darioush, please! Help me! Make it stop!”

“I can’t. Only you can. You have to tell the truth.”

“What truth?”

“You have to admit to killing them. Only then can they let go.”

“Darioush, I didn’t kill anyone!”

Then, a new voice came from behind her.

“Oh, but you did, Emily. You killed all of us.”

Emily turned to the voice. A girl in a white nightgown, dripping with blood, floated above the surface of the water with her head tilted at an unnatural angle.

“You killed me. Don’t you remember?”

Emily shrieked again.

“No! No! I didn’t do it! I didn’t kill anyone!”

“Emily! Emily, wake up! It’s just a dream! Emily, wake up!”

Emly shot up in bed, drenched in sweat. Her mother sat next to her and her father stood in the doorway to her childhood bedroom.

“Emily, it’s okay. You had another bad dream, but it’s just a dream.”

“I didn’t kill anyone. I didn’t.”

Her mother shot a worried glance at her father before turning back to Emily.

“Of course dear. We know you didn’t kill anyone. It’s those awful pictures they’re showing in court. Those horrible things they’re accusing you of. That’s what’s causing your nightmares. We know you didn’t have anything to do with it. That horrible Darioush did it all and now he’s trying to take you down with him from the grave.”

“Then why do they keep coming for me?”

“Who?”

“The people he killed. They’re coming for me.”

“Now, now, none of that. Here, have some water and go back to sleep. I’ll sit here with you.”

Emily took a sip of water before resting her head on the pillow again.

“There was a girl. A young girl. Her neck was broken and she wore a white nightgown. I’ve never seen her before.”

Her mother tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and gently stroked her cheek.

“Well, that settles it then. There isn’t anything in the court documents about a young girl having her neck broken. It’s just your imagination getting fueled by the horror of what’s happening in court. No more. Now, get some rest. I’m right here.”

As Emily drifted off to sleep, she thought she saw her mother give another worried look to her father.

I thought she said I didn’t have to worry. Why is she so worried?

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