August 2025 Winner: When the Water Answered

Jonah wrote letters to the drowned village beneath the reservoir: apologies folded small as minnows. Every evening, he scattered them on the moonlit water, waiting.

Then, a message floated back.

Unfolded, it read: Come down.

The lake trembled like a held breath. He stepped in, clothes drinking the cold. Depths widened to a stair of light.

At the bottom, the village burned with impossible lamps, its people waiting in their Sunday best.

“Stay,” they chorused.

Morning found only a hat on the bank; brim upturned like a question.

The water lay smooth, reflecting a church bell that no one had rung.