I didn't know what I'd tell the police since reporting Gwen just disappeared through a puddle seemed particularly unbelievable, even if completely honest. I mean, I knew with 100% certainty that I saw her step into the puddle and vanish before my eyes, and yet I also did not believe that's what happened to her.

Of course the thought crossed my mind that perhaps I should just jump up and down on the puddle in order to prove this nonsense was in fact nonsense and that I must have suffered some head injury at some point during our walk through the park and imagined not just Gwen's disappearance, but her attendance with me that night as well. If I wanted to believe Gwen didn't fall into that puddle, then I also had to believe that she was never there in the first place, and that right there was my problem. I may have trouble accepting how her night ended, but I knew with certainty how it began.

It was a Friday night and Gwen offered to take me out for a drink after my promotion was once again denied and offered to one of the more finely dressed individuals who often looked the part more than they played it. Gwen told me it was really that I was just too good at the job I had and that it wasn't some conspiracy against me, but she may have only been saying that because it was she who had so recently swooped up my glorious chance at a corner office.

It took her several tries and the offer to purchase as many drinks as it took to get me drunk before I finally agreed to trudge off through the night towards the most expensive bar within a mile of my apartment. I then made her cut across the park with me, not because it was particularly faster, but because I took some sick pleasure in watching her have to navigate the muddied path in her designer heels. She may know how to dress and, apparently, manage our client's accounts better than me, but I, at least, had the sensibility to wear flats on a rainy day.

It was while she was offering some advice about how I could present myself with more visibility and garner notice from our superiors that she stepped right into a puddle and simply kept going. In that moment, my heart sprung into my throat and guilt seized my muscles. The vindictive little bug nipping at the back of my brain, burned to ashes and the heat of it's fire raised all the hairs along my neck and arms. I forgave her every little thing in that moment and cursed my own petty self for not having a chance to tell her so.

So there I found myself, convinced that Gwen had very much been by my side up to that point and unnaturally afraid to test the puddle myself since either of the possible outcomes of doing so may very well break my grasp on sanity. With indecision keeping me rooted in place and not running off to mumble some incoherent explanation to a police officer, I simply stared into the puddle itself, expecting Gwen to just leap out and tell me it was just a joke all along. However, all that stared back was the gleam of a hundred stars, glittering and sparkling with life. Had the circumstances been different I may have found the whole scene quite relaxing, just standing alone in the dark of the park, surrounded by a jungle of buildings and a sprinkling of lighted windows.

And that passing thought is what drew my eyes away and started the slow, creaking turn of the cogs in my rattled mind.

I did live in a city, a very brightly lit city. Stars rarely made an appearance, especially on nights where rain clouds still loomed above. And though it may have been awhile since I'd been outside the city limits and far from the reaches of even suburban light, I still knew well enough that even when you could see the sweep of the Milky Way, that the stars didn't particularly twinkle, at least not like the pleasant light show dancing inside the puddle.

Once convinced that not a single star shown above me and thus could not be reflected in the person-eating puddle, I turned my gaze back down and gasped by the change that was taking place.

A field of black creeped in along the edges of the water, closing like the iris of a camera. Again I looked around and nothing in the vicinity could possibly have caused the strange phenomena occurring before me. When I looked down again, the black engulfed more of the water and without thinking, my toe tapped the now darkened edge of the puddle. A solid, concrete, and very real park path pushed against my foot. Even though logic failed to resonate with my thoughts, I knew with as much certainty that I saw Gwen fall through that puddle, that if I let that darkness engulf it, then my chances at finding Gwen would be gone.

With nothing, but guilt and fear powering my muscles, I leapt forward and pointed my toes into the ever shrinking circle of impossible stars. This time though, no pavement met me. Only a cold embrace that squeezed my legs and ran up my torso as I slipped farther into the puddle. When the chill hit my chest, a scream pushed from my lungs, but before it made it up my throat, water filled my open mouth and drowned out my cry. The shock provoked my lungs to gasp for air, but instinct kicked in and kept myself from inhaling the icy water. However, that wouldn't last long and air would become a necessity within seconds. I kicked and reached up, searching for the edge of the puddle to pull myself out, but a hard, dark surface met my fingertips.

Lack of air fogged my vision and panic commanded my hands to beat and pound against the obstruction keeping me from returning to the quiet path in the park. I continued to pound long after the walls pulled away and my body floated back to the surface. I imagine it was only the oxygen deprivation that kept me from screaming when two men dressed in robes pulled me out of a well and laid me on the ground beneath a brilliant night sky filled with glittering stars.