"Help Me!"

Life is full of situations that are difficult for one to explain. Even if they are able to bring themselves to explain it, they themselves can't wrap their minds around it. At one point it might feel so unreal to them that they can't trust their own minds, believing that it must have all been some kind of vivid dream. But sometimes, reality can be stranger than fiction.

Arguing with my wife is often the most troubling thing I face these days. She'll get upset with me over something small and drag it out into something much bigger than it truly is. Is it because that's how her brain is wired? Is it because she wants some kind of attention and that's the only way she can get it? Either way, I'm careful about the way I word things. I don't want the wrong thing to slip out and have her completely walk out of my life. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something like that happened.
But here I sat, out on my porch. I looked up at the still, starry night sky as I took another puff of my cigarette. It's nights like these that I'm glad I'm where I'm at today. I could almost fall asleep here.
And in fact, I did begin to drift off, but the sound of someone crying out in the distance quickly drew me out of my slumber. I sat up and leaned forward in my rocking chair, hoping to hear it again.
"Help me!" is what I was able to make out. It was a higher pitched voice, could be coming from a kid or a woman. The one thing I knew for certain was I needed to get over there and help someone. I ran inside to tell my wife, but the lights were already out. She was probably asleep. I didn't want to wake her. So I grabbed my flashlight and began to walk toward the noise.
I pushed through dozens of thin trees as the voice drew closer. I tried calling out to her.
"Hello?" I shouted, cupping my hands around my mouth. "Can you hear me?"
"Hello?" the voice replied back. "I can hear you! Help me!"
"Where are you?" I called back to her.
"I don't know!" they replied. "It's so dark!"
I asked her to keep calling out so I could find her, and continued making my way through the dense forest to find her. I figured it was a woman at this point, now that I could hear her a little clearer. But even still, as I approached I realized the calls for help were still muffled.
A light coming on suddenly in the distance caught me by surprise. And as soon as the bright white light appeared, her voice became clearer and a little more panicked. What was going on? Was there someone else out there searching for her?
I used my hand to shield my eyes from the light as I made my way closer to it. Before I realized it, I came to a clearing at the end of the woods. There lay in front of me a massive body of water. A lake.
"Hello?" I called out. "Can you see me?"
"I can!" she shouted back. "Come closer!"
I did as she said, and though I couldn't see because of the blinding white light, I made my way closer to the water.
"Are you in the water?" I called out to her. There was a lingering silence for nearly a minute. Then I heard a noise from behind me. Was it the crunching of leaves beneath someone's feet, or was it the sound of a branch breaking? It was hard to tell from it catching me by surprise. The one thing I knew for sure was someone was behind me.
"Who's there?" I asked.
"You found me!" said the familiar voice. The light turned off abruptly, leaving me blind to the night. I could feel her cold, wet hands on my back.