Chapter 1: A lone boy
The new morning sun rose across the sky, its luminous light shining upon all that greeted its path, cleaving through the darkness and dispelling the shadows of dawn. Its radiance knew no bounds. It could not be shielded nor blocked by the myriad of thatched roofs occupying the heads of many quaint cottages that plagued the nearby town of Hogsmeade.
Light flooded the little village. It poured through the minute crevices between the wooden walls, seeping through every orifice the buildings possessed and greeting the many groggy residences with its chipper atmosphere. However, though the light seemed omnipresent and boundless to the freshly woken occupants of the strange town, its radiance did, in fact, steer away from one place, the land many villagers dared tread alone, a nearby forest that many deemed forbidden. The land was dark, distraught of light and filled with the horror of the unknown it stood undaunted beside the happy town casting an eerie shadow over the locale.
Howls of hatred emitted from the repugnant place, warning the freshly woken villagers of what would come if they dared to intrude upon the dingy forest. However, the villagers of Hogsmeade did not need this warning, for even the children knew to avoid the untamed forest that guarded their little town. Or at least they assumed everyone knew as much. They would like to believe that nobody would be foolish enough to intrude upon the unexplored land alone, even in a group venturing into the thick shrubbery of the forbidden forest was paramount to suicide.
The forest was dark, like a void. The thicket of leaves overhead consumed any light that wished to break free from its overwhelming hold. Silence permeated through the cramped space. No sounds echoed nor bounced from the packed trees that lined the area. The world was fine this way. This forest was meant to be hushed, a void, an ominous presence that all feared. Sound held no place here, especially that which belonged to a human of all creatures. However, something soon stirred amongst the untamed thickets, a steady rustling of leaves and the gentle glancing of wild grass brushing against someone or something's leg. Something was moving.
The forest was no longer silent, and all heard. The creatures' movements were slow, skittish even. They lacked the confidence befitting that of a hunter, a predator, and neither did they possess the frightful quickness of prey. Whatever was moving was different. It wasn't an animal, a creature of the night, an enchanted beast. It simply couldn't be that. No, the gait in its stride was too large, too clumsy to belong to a beast. It was something else, something none of the occupants of the little town would have guessed, for inside the forbidden forest was a child. A boy.
His steps were worrisome, his eyes, a hollow brown in colour, locked upon the ground underneath in a fruitless search of escape. You see, he was not by the border of the quiet little mystical town of Hogsmeade. No, he was in the dead centre of this forbidden forest. No one knew how he ended up here, not even the boy. In fact, he knew nothing. He possessed not a name nor a purpose in this world. He simply appeared in this place not even an hour prior to this pointless venture.
Not a single thought passed through the child's mind. He didn't even question his circumstances, he simply accepted the world around him for what it was, a dark and scary place, yet he didn't even feel fear. He didn't know that emotion. He didn't know any emotions. His childish face wore nought but a look of apathy while his feet stumbled around the boundless abyss with not a single goal in mind. Did he want to escape? His actions indicated as such, but his mind was undecided. In fact, if left to his own devices, he would likely stumble around this infinite green until his dying breath, living nothing more than a short-lived, useless life.
Still, it looked like fate had other ideas for the young boy, for his pointless wanderings finally bore fruit, though not in the form of an escape, but in that of light. A break in the darkness, a gap in the leaves, it streamed through the little crevice with infinite enthusiasm. It blinded him, it hurt the child, this new stimulus wasn't good for him. His eyes winced in pain, or at least he emulated such an action, though whether the child actually felt such feelings remained unknown. The child stumbled, he tripped, his pointless journey finally came to an abrupt end, he had stopped, and now he lay flat on the ground, his head plastered upon a cushion of grass.
The child appeared dazed. One moment he was up and about, and the next, he was frozen, forced to lay upon his back to embrace the oddly chilling feel of grass upon his exposed skin. This was all new to him, everything was new to him, or at least it felt that way, yet these feelings came with an eerie sense of nostalgia, of yearning, for example, the grass around him. Each patch was new and unique, yet for some reason, the boy couldn't shake the notion that he had observed each and every blade of grass spout from this very ground and take place upon the fertile soil of this land at least a trillion times before, everything felt that way, from the trees around him to the very actions he performed, all of it came with this weirdly unsettling freshness.
However, the boy quickly shook these emotions from his blank mind, or rather, they might have been forced out of him, and now all he was left with was wonder and intrigue. He had returned to being a blank slate. Though he lay on his back, dazed and otherwise defeated, a weird sense of yearning began to sprout in the apathetic child's heart. Pictures of light flooded his void-like mind, filling it with desire, with curiosity. This was something different, an existence unlike the patches of grass or the trees around him. It was something he hadn't seen before.
Immediately the child's dainty hands stretched to his sides. He had to know more, he had to see more, he was obsessed with this newfound stimuli, he wished to be embraced by the odd warmth that poured forth from the white radiance, and like clockwork, his body followed his wishes. His arms, though frail in stature, forced themselves against the thicket of grass, propelling the boy upwards to the point where he finally managed to regain his footing. The boy's steps were shaky at first, like his body took extra precaution to avoid yet another unjust fall, pointless protection, for it didn't matter how much the boy fell because, for this goal, he would always stand back up.
*Step, Step, Step* Soon, sound once again reigned in the child's locale. He had broken the silence as easily as before, taking no heed of the danger such a performance might attract. His steps were muffled. Whether by the padding of grass or the soft, mulchy ground that sunk underneath, they were quieter than before. The ground felt wet. It was squishy, as though drenched in the fresh morning dew or something else. The soddenness of the earth plagued the boy's exposed flesh. It was yet another new stimulus, though this was one the boy didn't immediately feel an attraction to. His mind was too preoccupied with the blinding light that his body drew ever closer to, his head hung high, too high perhaps, his gaze remained locked upon the break in the skyline, observing the light like a paranoid hawk observes its prey, he didn't want it to disappear, not before he had the chance to bask in its glory. Perhaps this obsession would be the boy's downfall, for as he drew nearer to the heavenly light, so too did his feet encroach upon a land that dared not be tread upon. One that, in fact, could not be stepped on by human feet.
*Step, Step, Squelch* Unknown to the boy, his footsteps that previously rang loud fell silent, replaced only by the sour squelching of mud. The sticky mud lingered upon the boy's flesh, clutching at his pale skin in a vain attempt to remain in this world, to not be dissolved, to not merge with what was up ahead. This was the earth's desperate attempt to warn the child, a warning anyone but him would understand, for he lacked the knowledge befitting of a boy his apparent age.
He was close now. The child could all but feel the heavenly lights' pale colouring illuminate his skin. It was within arms reach. All he had to do was put his arm out and grasp it, yet, such an action would never be performed for the moment he raised his frail arm, he found himself captured, his line of sight sank, he felt no ground underneath, only a cold, wet sensation that grasped at his very heart. The child felt weightless. He fell, though this time, he couldn't ascertain the depth nor the horror that lingered underneath. He didn't come in contact with the ground. His feet merely pressed against what was something akin to weighted air, though it felt wet. No, this wasn't air. It was water. He was sinking. With every millisecond, more of the boy's body was consumed by the horrific substance, his arms flailed about in a useless instinctual fight against the substance, though such an effort proved to be less than futile, he couldn't swim, nor he could he battle the helplessness that plagued his fresh heart that now felt cold to the touch.
*Splash**Splash* The child's arms danced in a continuation of the useless battle with the murky substance. He wasn't gaining any ground. In fact, though his futile flailing provided the child with the illusion of hope, it was nothing more than that, an illusion, a tortuous illusion that only added to the horror the deep presented the boy with. He felt his head sink, his gaze that previously remained level with the surface of the green liquid now fell below it. Water flooded his eyes. It stung. It pained the child. He wanted to cry, to let out a yelp of confusion. Everything was just so sudden. Both his body nor brain hadn't had time to process the huge change in the environment. He was at a loss as to what to do, yet, no matter how much the boy wanted to scream, to yell out for some unknown reason, his body wouldn't let him. His lips remained firmly placed against one another. No air leaked, though; in turn, none entered.
Darkness, eerie darkness, filled the child's mind. He couldn't open his eyes in fear of the water around him, but at the same time, he knew that remaining oblivious would only be detrimental to his already short-lived life. He had to risk it all. He couldn't rely on his body's signal, for even it was confused. The weightlessness and crushing chill had thrown him through a loop. Everything felt cold and weird. His body trembled while his brain felt frozen, and the air in his chest felt short. He had to do it before this little amount of air dissipated. He had to open his eyes.
Before the child could even process his decision, his eyes had opened.
It hurt. Water flushed his gaze, pressing against every millimetre of the exposed pupil the boy presented the dingy substance. It was greedy. It wanted to consume it all, to leave its mark upon the child. Still, it couldn't obscure what remained plainly in front of him, and that was darkness. His efforts had been in vain. There was no difference between the water in front of him and the void his mind presented as an escape. Whether he looked up, to the left, right, or even down, the child could see no end to the murky depths. Just how far had he sunk? How deep was this lake? Would it end up as his burial ground? He didn't want that. He wanted to live, to enjoy his time on this world though he didn't know why. This life seemed precious to him, a gift, one he had worked so hard to obtain and yet, it was about to end. He had hardly managed to experience his one opportunity to live.
And it was in these final moments that something strange happened. Something began to move in the darkness. Bubbles sprouted from within the murky green, their off colour hue quickly rising to the surface where what would greet the boy except the radiant light that had brought him to this place, though now, instead of appearing divine, like a pillar of hope, it looked devilish, it's failed attempt to reach into the lake seemed to taunt the child, mocking his failed plunge, mimicking his final moments. Still, the light wasn't the main thing that caught the child's interest but rather the thing that moved amongst the splintered beams. It wasn't human. It lacked the features he possessed. It was something different, something monstrous.
The creature's head was rounded, like that of an apple, though different than an apple were the tentacles that split forth from its sides, mimicking the hair that humans possessed. Two piercing neon green eyes with pupils like that of a goat locked with the frantic yet hollow brown of the child. However, instead of instilling hope in the young boy, they filled his heart with dread. He didn't know why, but he could sense the creature's maliciousness, its hatred for him that seemed to surpass that of usual. It wanted him gone, not just because he had intruded upon its ground, but for another reason, one neither the boy nor the monster itself could fully comprehend.
However, though the creature couldn't understand the root of its hatred towards the frantic child, it wasn't opposed to the emotion; in fact, it revelled in it. It took pride in its power over the boy. It knew he was outmatched in its territory, that the child was nothing more than free food, and it wanted to make this fact known. Soon the creature began to move. Its many-tentacled legs propelled its chubby body through the water with speed unbefitting its size, and within seconds, it was in front of the drowning child whose vision was already beginning to blur, and it was there that it gave the child its first and final taunt, with no hesitation the creature sealed mouth began to open, revealing row upon row of razor-sharp needle-like teeth, they were jagged and small, yet the child didn't doubt their capabilities when it came to chewing through flesh, the sickly green creature was displaying it's finest treasure with a bloodcurdling smile, it took pleasure in this, it found joy in the child's torment and wavering eyes, for all intents and purposes, it had won, for the moment the boy caught sight of the Grindylows horrific gesture he fell faint, the encircling darkness that he previously waged war with had won, and now its army collapsed upon his hollow eyes, embracing them with the gift of darkness, his brain shut off, and likewise so did the rest of his bodily functions. The child's legs that previously danced in a pointless battle with the water fell still, while his shaking arms lay limp, his tensed chest that once held his final breath rested, leaving in its wake a trail of bubbles and a falling boy who only sank further into the murky abyss.