My pulse pounded in my temples and my hands shook from the adrenaline that was rushing through my body. I could see my breath in the light of the moon and there was a screech from an owl in the forest somewhere nearby. I looked deep into the pond and watched for any sign of movement. The creature would attack me at any minute, now that my arm had dripped blood into the water. I shook even harder as the cold penetrated my wet skin. I tried to be glad that I still felt cold because I did not have hypothermia. My arm ached. Why did I have to cut my arm open at a time like this? It was the last thing I needed. Water rippled to my left. The raft bobbed gently and dipped under the splashing water.

My teeth chattered from the icy water that trickled down my neck in icy droplets. My hands shook so hard that the raft began to vibrate from my constant shivering. My fingers ached from numbness and the water only made the cold worse. Suddenly the raft jerked violently and tipped sharply onto one side. I slipped and slammed my face into the wood and screamed. Blood squirted out my nose and I instinctively clung to the side of the raft that had shifted up out of the water. The raft jerked viciously and spun in a circle as it was whipped across the water. If I ever made it through this it would be a miracle.

Daytime was hours away and I was far from shallow water. Even if I was in shallow water there was no way I could slosh out of the pond and get away in time. There was a loud screeching sound, like fingernails on a chalkboard as the creature rose out of the water and dug a long fingered claw into the wood of the raft. It stared at me with dripping yellow eyes, like two sappy lumps of amber dripping out of slimy green sockets. Without consent with myself, my foot shot out and I kicked the thing in the face with a sick squishing splat. Rather than knocking it backwards, my foot sank into the moist heap of moss and algae.

“No!” I screamed as I grabbed my leg and tried to free myself. The eyes dripped and looked up at me with a feeling of death. I got my foot free and dove into the water and began to paddle furiously away from the monster. It was when I felt something soft and slimy wrap around my legs that I realized just what a stupid decision I had made to try to swim away. I was so terrified that I began to scream a child’s endless wail, floundering helplessly in the water and paddling uselessly with my arms. Every inch that I sank down lower and lower, my chest would heave harder and harder, making me more and more frantic, sicker to my stomach. When I felt as though my lungs were going to burst I screamed as hard as I could and let the water carry away my last breath to the surface where the moon glowed through the chopping sheet of glass.

Darkness grew all around me until I was completely surrounded by blackness that choked and blinded me. Just when I was sure that all was lost, I felt a hand close around my arm and jerk me stiffly upward. I broke the surface gasping and sputtering, surrounded by squishy moss.