Lights in the Lake

Panting from his sprint from his home, he stares across the water to see an ethereal figure clad in white. She almost seems to glow in the moonlight. As he continues to stare, spellbound, she turns towards the inky water of the lake. From his place on the opposite shore, he can't make out any of her features as she crouched in front of the water and stared at her reflection.

As the girl lowered her fingertips to the surface of the water, the ripples seemed to glow with her touch and little lights rose steadily from the water. It was mesmerizing to watch those little white specs of lights rise from the depths of the murky, inky lake and float into the air. Beginning their ascent from the dark surface of the water, the little lights began to change form from spheres of light to... butterflies.

They glowed a soft but radiant light blue, almost white, light. His heart, which had been pounding since the moment he'd stopped on the shore of the lake after sprinting to it, suddenly began to slow and his mind became calm. Sinking to the sand, he stared in silent amazement at the spectacle.

There were thousands of the little white lights, now butterflies, in the sky. They hovered silently just above the pitch-black water, now a delicate pale color, and the woman on the opposite rose to a standing position to marvel them as well. The woman, glowing the same faint blue as the butterflies hovering over the water, began walking closer to the water as it lapped at the sandy shore of the lake.

She enchanted him with her movements as she stepped onto the surface of the water, the little butterflies clearing a path for her as she walked closer and closer to the center of the lake. As she stood silently in the center of the lake, the glowing butterflies began to flutter gently around her.

As the little butterflies continued to flap their wings, her silvery-white hair rose slightly, the wind casting it upward. Now that she was closer to him, he could just barely make out the gentle features of her delicate face. She was so pale that she seemed like an apparition. Her eyes fluttered open to reveal pale blue irises that captivated him in a way nothing else had ever done.

When she lifted her hand and one of the thousands of mystical butterflies landed in her palm, he held his breath, unsure of what to expect. The woman smiled kindly at the butterfly in her hand before gently curling her fingers around it. He squinted, wondering what she was doing with it.

Turning her head upwards towards the starry sky above the lake, the woman lifted her closed palm high above her head. Once she unfurled her fingers, a flurry of what seemed to be millions of minuscule orbs of golden light exploded from her palm. Her hair was blown back from the rush of wind released from it as the lights wound there way high into the dark sky and out of their sight.

The wind blew the hair off of his brow and made goosebumps sprout across his arms as he continued to stare into the sky long after the golden lights had disappeared from view. Now that the lights had disappeared from sight, the thousands of pale blue butterflies began to drift away from the woman on the water. He watched, mesmerized, as all of the many butterflies returned to being little orbs of lights before sinking back into the dark depths of the water.

It was completely dark around him apart from the woman standing on the water. She didn't move from her spot on the water as she lowered her outstretched hand back to her side. As he continued to stare at her, bewitched, she turned her head to stare at him too with a gentle look on her face.

The moment seemed over far too soon as she turned away and began crossing back to her shore. Ripples from her steps made their way to his shore and glowed faintly. As the glowing water seeped into the sand, it too seemed to give off a new light.

He lifted his eyes from the glowing shore he stood upon and watched as she stepped off of the water, taking all of the light her steps had brought to the lake with her. The shore's light faded and receded back in the woman's direction, following her, searching. His eyes wouldn't even blink as the woman's light illuminated the path she took into the forest. Finally, after a long while of staring ahead towards the lasting light, the woman and her light disappeared from sight, swallowed by the darkness of the forest surrounding them.