New Jeti Short Story

Jessica gasped as she broke surface, her arms and legs flailing about, mouth wide open. Panic still seized her blood and muscles. Her mind was desperately taking everything in and yet nothing at all. It wasn’t until she realized that she was no longer in danger of drowning, did she start to calm down.

Laughter rang in her ears. Still breathing heavily, she focused on the many bodies standing by the edge of the lake, their bodies bent over in laughter. Their eyes were mocking.

Jessica briefly wondered if it would’ve been better if she just drowned.

Her eyes swept over to who she knew was the ringleader and her heart skipped a beat much to her mind’s annoyance. Despite her cruel jokes and mocking eyes, Tiffany Hwang was flawlessly, breathtakingly, otherworldly gorgeous.

She was also the reason of Jessica’s tears at night for more reasons than one.

“You look pitiful Jung. Only your clumsy could fall in,” Tiffany smirked. Her thin seductive lips curled up into a taunting a smile. Jessica hated that she found it attractive. Without another word, she turned, shooting Jessica one last haughty glance, and left. The crowd dispersed soon after she was gone.

Taking a deep breath, Jessica forced her anger down. She wouldn’t lose herself like this. She had more self control than this. She would not be defined by her anger.

Once she was sure she was calm, she slowly swam to shore. As she reached the edge of the lake, she was surprised to see hand offered in front of her. She looked up.

“Taeyeon.”

Taeyeon smiled sympathetically down at her friend. “What did you do to piss of the Queen Bee this time?”

Jessica snorted in dry humor as she grasped Taeyeon’s outreached hand and pulled herself out of the water. Instantly, she felt her body grow heavy with gravity and her clothes stuck to her like a second skin.

“Like I have to do anything. She hated me since I confessed to her last year in freshman year,” Jessica commented dryly, trying her best to wring the water out of her clothes.

Taeyeon patted her friend on the back comfortingly. “She’s usually not that bad,” she offered unhelpfully. “I don’t know why she doesn’t like you. She’s usually pretty nice.”

Jessica scoffed. “I forget that you guys were friends. Remind me how you know her?”

Taeyeon averted her eyes. “We, uh, we met at a summer camp.”

Jessica narrowed her eyes at her best friend. When she moved to high schools two years ago, Taeyeon became her first friend. They were both sort of outsiders who didn’t belong in any clique, just two ADHD mischievous little high schoolers.

It surprised her really, when she saw Tiffany Hwang, the prettiest most popular girl in the school talking to Taeyeon one day after school was over. Whenever Jessica asked Taeyeon about it, the girl was always very tight lipped. She only mentioned that they went to the same summer camp and that was it. Jessica eventually stopped asking about it but she always did wonder what sort of relationship the two had. They seemed close yet they rarely ever interacted with each other during school.

Maybe they dated once and broke up.

“Come on. Let’s go to the bathroom. I am not riding the bus home in my wet clothes,” Jessica mumbled. “I hate school field trips.”

“Maybe we can check out the souvenir shop for some t-shirts or something,” Taeyeon offered helpfully, though she was very obviously trying and failing to hide her growing smile.

“I am not wearing a bright orange Lake Mohonk t-shirt,” Jessica stated, her tone making it very clear she was against the idea.

“Hey! I rather like the color orange,” Taeyeon laughed. “The camp I mentioned made all the campers wear orange t-shirts. It grew on me.”

Jessica made a face. “I can’t imagine Tiffany Hwang ever wearing orange.”

“I can’t believe you still like her,” Taeyeon gave a big exasperated sigh.

“Yeah well, I can’t believe you like orange,” Jessica shot back.

The two girls were just about to head back to catch up with the other students when suddenly the water behind them exploded. Jessica felt slimy something grab her by the ankle. Before she could react, she was yanked backwards.

Screaming, Jessica’s survival instincts kicked in and she managed to take one last breath before she was submerged into the icy cold waters once more.

“Jessica!” Taeyeon screamed. She rushed to the lake side, desperately searching the waters for any sign of her friend. “Di immortales!”

Taeyeon shuffled on her feet in desperation. Does she jump in to save Jessica or does she run and go find Tiffany so that they would have a better chance at fighting the monster together?

Taeyeon watched as an air bubble floated to the surface of the lake and popped. She couldn’t wait any longer. Her friend was in trouble.

Taeyeon took three steps back before running off the edge and jumping high into the air. She willed the winds to aid her and she slammed down into the water, shooting nearly twenty feet down. The air bubble she created would allow her to breathe and see but not for long. Her air was limited.

She frantically searched the dark waters for some sort of monster. She sensed movement to her right and whirled around desperately, but it was just a fish.

Panic started to take over. She knew that Jessica h