The Boy on the Lake

“I had that dream again last night—you know, the one I told you about when we were kids.”

“What, the one about the giant spiders? Or the one about driving through a mall being chased by a serial killer?”

“Not those!” She gave her friend a none-too-gentle smack in the shoulder. From the way Dani was smiling, she knew the other girl was being obtuse on purpose. Sometimes she wondered why they were still friends when all Dani did was tease her.

“Oh, I know!” Dani exclaimed with the look of someone having an epiphany. “It’s the one with your secret dream boyfriend.” Face heating at the grossly inaccurate statement, she smacked Dani again in retaliation for the embarrassment.

“Ouch! You know you’re stronger than you look, Zainab. My arms are very delicate and can only take so much—”

“Will you just hear me out for a second?” Thankfully, Dani reigned herself in. A rowdy group of students exited the building behind them, no doubt headed to the Student Union to grab a bite to eat before club activities started. Zainab waited for them to pass by. “So this dream,” she began. “It was about that boy again, the one who said he lost his light. He was dressed a little differently, but otherwise looked exactly the same. I swear to you, even his voice was the same, and I remember it quite vividly.”

“And?” Dani asked expectantly.

Zainab stared at her friend incredulously, even as she distractedly fumbled for her keys into the dorms. “Dani, it’s been what, ten years? At least? Why would it come back now, out of the blue, unless it meant something? You remember what happened last time.”

“Of course I remember. I’ve never been more scared in my entire life than I was then. But Zainab,” the other girl reached to take one of her hands and hold it between her own. “You’re my best friend, and I love you very dearly, but you need to take a step back. Sometimes dreams are just dreams. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

Heaving a sigh, she conceded to her friend’s point. “Maybe you’re right. It’s probably nothing—just the stress from upcoming midterms.” Tension she hadn’t even been aware of weighing her down all day eased. That’s right, she told herself, it could just be a one-off. Nothing to worry about.

The two made the trek up three flights of stairs to their shared dorm room, a spacious place with a full wall of windows and a private bathroom. It was well worth the extra expense to avoid the feeling of living in a broom closet. Zainab set her bookbag at the foot of her bed and made ready for her afternoon round of prayer, putting all thoughts of the dream out of her mind. Her focus was better spent on prepping for the biology study session planned in the library that evening.

...

She stood barefoot, water lapping at her ankles and soaking the edges of her long skirt. A driving wind from over the lake buffeted the shore and she had to adjust her hijab to prevent it from blowing away. On the surface of the water stood the boy. More accurately, his lean—if short—frame and the bit of sharpness to his jaw put him in his late teens, dark hair artfully mussed and light eyes burning intensely. Against the darkness of his hair and the black coat he wore, his face almost glowed, like the pale moon in the night sky above.

He was closer now. Close enough that Zainab could start to make out the detailed stitching and little silver embellishments on his jacket. His lips were moving, but all she could hear aside from the rushing wind was the rhythmic thumping of her own heartbeat. Without thought, she took a step towards him.

The air went still as the wind suddenly stopped. Curling tendrils of inky blackness suffused the water, quickly turning the whole lake into a murky void. The boy sank into the dark depths and was gone.

Zainab whipped around frantically. The lakeshore had vanished, as had the moonlight and the entire night sky too. Everything was the same uniform blackness, as though she had been the one swallowed by the lake.

A shiver crawled up her spine as a warm breath caressed her ear.

“Help me find my light.”

She awoke gasping for air, heart pounding furiously. Around her were the familiar eggshell white walls of her dorm room. A few feet away lay Dani, still sleeping undisturbed. Taking a series of slow, deep breaths, Zainab did her best to calm her racing heart. It felt so real. Even now she could still feel the sharp points where rocks had dug into her bare feet, and she could smell the tell-tale fishy scent of lake water.

A glance at the clock showed it to be barely past four in the morning. She decided to get up anyway. After a dream like that, there was no way she’d be able to get back to sleep.

So much for her hope of a one-off.

...

Explaining this to her roommate when she woke did not go over well. There were very few things the two friends didn’t see eye to eye on, and this was one of them.

“He needs help,” Zainab insisted.

“But—”

“It is my civil duty to alleviate suffering where I can.” She understood Dani’s concern. After the last time, and the strange illness she had nearly succumbed to, she was a bit worried herself. She wasn’t exactly looking for a repeat performance. Even so, this was something she felt she had to do.

Dani’s eyes glistened with the beginnings of tears, a worried frown fixed on her face. “Just promise me you’ll be careful, okay? For all you know he could be a jinni or something. I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”

“I don’t get the feeling that he’s in any way evil. Just...lost. But, I promise.” She didn’t like upsetting Dani. However, this was important. Both of them had had enough brushes with the supernatural to know better than to dismiss these dreams as mere fantasy. With only one more day of midterm exams, they would soon be returning home for the holidays. She’d wait until then.

...

The scent of sandalwood wafted through the dimly lit room from the oil diffuser in the corner. Dani and Zainab knelt on the plush carpet facing each other. The air felt electrically charged with the feelings of nervousness and anticipation. Dani peered at her friend closely, probably looking for any signs of hesitation or doubt. She wouldn’t find any. “Are you sure you’re ready?

“I am.” Her voice was steady. It would be incorrect to say that Zainab didn’t feel the slightest twinge of fear; in fact, her heart was already beginning to flutter like a trapped bird. But all the same, she was confident. Her heart told her this was the right course of action.

“Alright. Okay.” The girl clenched her hands briefly, then consciously let all of the tension in her body ease away. “Close your eyes. I’ll lead you into the trance.” Zainab complied. Deepening her breathing as instructed, she let Dani’s voice wash over her and let everything else drift further and further away.

For a few long moments that seemed to stretch on forever, she floated in blackness, until—almost without realizing—she found herself by the lake once more. It was darker, the moon a slim crescent as compared to the gibbous it had been in the last dream. After a couple seconds of searching, she finally made out the figure of the boy.

“Please, tell me how I can help you,” Zainab called out to him, remaining stationary lest she trigger the same reaction as before.

“I need my light. Without my light I can’t be whole.” The words were the same ones he had spoken ten years ago. She had been just a kid then and hadn’t really understood what it was he was looking for. Since she’d had a nightlight she was fond of, she’d thought that maybe that was what he was looking for and had offered to share hers with him. It was after that dream that she got sick.

Being older now and having more experience under her belt, it seemed clear that the light he was searching for was more spiritual in nature. “How do I find it? Where do I look?”

“My other half.”

Zainab wracked her brain. Was he talking about a soulmate? Or something else? She asked him.

“My brother,” he said.

A twin maybe? Extending her senses out, she tried to get a read on his spiritual signature. Dark energy oozed out of him and she almost flinched back at it’s icy touch. There was something else there too. Something buried underneath it all. The faintest glimmer of light—of hope. It shone resolutely through the darkness. That’s the connection.

An ache started to build behind her eyes as she strained her senses to their limits, seeking out the other end of the connection, the one that would lead to the boy’s brother. Where is it? She squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating past the creeping feeling of nausea. Come on, you can do this!

On the verge of passing out, an image came to her: a boy, much like the one she was attempting to help, with ocean blue eyes and a smile as bright as the midday sun. I can see why he called him his light, was her last thought before giving in to the sweet embrace of nothingness.

...

Besides a lingering sense of exhaustion, there were no other side effects from her spiritual excursion. A week passed by lazily, no strange occurances, no more dreams. Zainab took that as a sign that she had accomplished something, although the whole event felt strangely unresolved.

She was on her way over to see Dani for some normal girl-talk and relaxation. Just another movie night. Pulling to a stop at a traffic light, something caught the corner of her eye and she did a double take, sucking in a harsh gasp.

There he stood, just at the edge of the trees. Zainab was confident that she had to be awake—that this couldn’t be a dream. She pinched her arm just to be sure. He was still there. The corner of his mouth quirked up in what could almost be called a smile.

“Thank you.” Despite being no more than a whisper, the words were carried to her on the breeze. She blinked, and like a mirage, he was gone. She blinked again, suddenly confused. What had she been looking at just now? She couldn’t recall. Brushing it off as a momentary lapse in attention, Zainab continued on her way to Dani’s.