The Undercurrent

Tulsa, a vibrant city, had traditionally prospered beside the banks of the Arkansas River, where its waters gave its residents both beauty and utility. But behind its calm flow was a sinister mystery lurking in the shadow of local mythology.

Every few years, the river claimed victims, whispered among the people. Not by mishaps or drownings, but by strange disappearances that froze the hearts of people living nearby. Emily Green, a lively young woman well-known for her passion of kayaking along the river's edge, was the most recent of them. Tulsa was left in panic and doubt by her unexpected disappearance.

Assigned to the confusing case was seasoned investigator with pragmatic view Detective Sam Harding. Though stories of mystical undercurrents abound, Sam tackled the research using a logical head. He painstakingly went over Emily's life, interrogating acquaintances, relatives, and everyone else who might know where she was going.

Witnesses said Emily was last seen kayaking close to a quiet river bend. Some claimed to have seen a man staring her from the tree line, while others spoke of an unusual mist hovering low over the river that day. Sam couldn't get rid of the sensation of being watched himself as he went back along the riverbank. Usually a comfort, the river now appeared to throb with a strange intensity that made his skin crawl.

Late one night, Sam was sorting case files in his office when the room shivered. He looked up to see Emily's picture looking back at him from the pinboard as shadows moved on the walls. Trying to make sense of the unexplainable, he stroked his temples, but his ideas were disturbed by a gentle, eerie tune that appeared to drift in from nowhere.

Sam was standing at the edge of the sea once more in his nightmares that evening. The surface of the river seemed unusually calm, reflecting a moonless sky devoid of any light. Whispers of old secrets buried beneath the river's depths softly but forebingly whispered in his ear.

Sam woke up sweating, his mind racing with bits of a past he had forgotten. He understood then that the answers he was looking for lied in the muddy waters hiding centuries-old secrets, not in reason.

As Sam dug farther into Tulsa's past and unearthed stories of people who considered the river holy ground, weeks became months. He chatted with local historians who related tales of spirits caught in the undercurrent, restless and hungry, passed down through the years.

Sam came found a dusty notebook from the early 1900s one evening while searching an old library buried in the center of Tulsa. Its pages were full with stories of vanished events remarkably like Emily's, all connected to the river and its mysterious undercurrents. Witnesses reported ghostly beings that tormented the edge of the lake, their presence as transient as the morning mist.

Equipped with this fresh understanding, Sam went back to the riverbed at dusk. Anticipation permeated the air, and he could feel history weight down on him. He waded into the lake, the chill enveloping him like a second skin, and for a brief instant he felt he saw a glimmer under the surface—a glimpse of something old and incomprehensible.

Sam was breathless as a strong current grabbed his legs and pulled him down into the sea. Fighting to release himself from the invisible grip holding him hostage, he battled the constant draw. But a figure materialized from the shadows as he thrashed and kicked—a shadow with eyes burned with an alien light.

It was the same figure spoken among witnesses, the one who had observed Emily from a distance. Sam's mind echoed its voice, a melancholic song expressing longing and grief. And Sam battled for his life, he knew with a terrible clarity that he had come upon something beyond his grasp—a power hungry for souls lost to the depths of the river rather than for flesh.

Sam pulled free from the undercurrent's hold with a burst of will and staggered onto the riverbank, gasping for oxygen as the figure melted into the darkness. His heart racing with adrenaline and the weight of fresh information, he fell to the muddy ground.

The river ran on as morning broke over Tulsa, its surface glittering in the early light. But for Sam Harding and those who knew the truth, the undercurrents of the Arkansas River flowed deeper than anybody dared to imagine—a terrible, ravenous power haunting the past and threatening the present. And long as the river meandered through Tulsa, its secrets would call to anyone courageous or stupid enough to pay attention.