Still Waters by Alex Gabriel

A redheaded, muscular young man with a short beard stands in a lake, a scraggly stand of seaweed-draped deadwood behind him and mountains in the distance. He looks directly at the viewer, wearing a neutral expression. The water comes up to just above his waist, and he is lifting a sturdy white net from the water with both hands. Story Info Genre: fantasy, paranormal Content Warnings: brief reference to suicide, deaths of non-MC, descriptions of drowning, violence Acknowledgements First of all, thank you, Kathleen, for the lovely and inspiring prompt— and for leaving so much space for the prompt to grow into a story in my mind. “Still Waters” was betaed by Sonja Cameron and Anna, both of whom helped me very much. I also owe a big debt of gratitude to my long-suffering editor Elizabetta— who patiently endured torture by semicolon— my proofreaders, and all of the organizers and participants of the "Love is an Open Road" event. Last but by no means least: S.J. Eller saved my cover and turned it into something that perfectly captures the mood of the story. Thank you again, everyone!