The DarkDeep

The woods began to thin as they followed the stream. Nico caught up to Opal on a rocky crease poking above the treeline. He nodded to her awkwardly, then glanced away, gazing back the way they’d come. He could see only misty treetops, with glimpses of the beach below.
Without a word, Opal resumed climbing. Together they scrambled over broken boulders covered in wet pine needles, cursing scrapes and a skinned knee. Nico ripped off his hoodie and left it on a moss-covered rock. At the top of the ridge, Opal wobbled upright, peering down at the other side. Her eyes widened and she gasped.
Nico joined her, following her line of sight. “Oh, wow.”
In the center of the island was a pond – a blue-black circle of darkness that swallowed the light around it. Nothing reflected off its surface. The water lay flat and still. The pond was unsettling. It looked like a hole in the world.
And there was something floating *on* the pond.
“It’s a … house,” Opal said, at the exact moment Nico asked, “Is that a boat?”
The grey-planked structure rose two stories, with grimy windows and a wide front porch. It looked regal and dilapidated at the same time, as if the fancy hotel had grown from the water and been left to rot.
The ancient houseboat – for Nico abruptly realized that’s what it was – seemed both dead and … strangely alive. As if it waited for something.
Emma and Tyler clambered up next to them and the foursome clustered atop the same flat rock.
The pull Nico felt earlier returned.
*come inside*, the building seemed to whisper.
*come and see what I have for you*