Riddles at the Midnight Pool

Maya's iPhone buzzed in her hand, the screen illuminating the darkness with another notification she couldn't bring herself to check. 2:47 AM. She'd been scrolling for hours, her eyes burning, her brain feeling like it had been replaced with cotton candy.

"You look like a zombie," said a voice from the shadows.

Maya jumped. Marcus stood there, leaning against the pool fence, his silhouette backlit by the moon. He was the new kid—the one everyone whispered about but nobody actually knew. He had this way of looking at people like he was solving them, piece by piece.

"Rough night?" he asked.

"Could say that." Maya shoved her phone in her pocket. "What are you doing out here?"

"Couldn't sleep." He nodded toward the pool behind him. "Water's supposed to be calming, right?"

The pool gleamed like liquid mercury, perfectly still. Maya hadn't been in it since last summer's incident—the diving board, the backflip, the collective gasp of everyone she'd been trying so hard to impress. Three months of physical therapy and zero Instagram posts later, she still couldn't think about it without her stomach twisting.

"You know," Marcus said, "the Sphinx asked riddles because she wanted to know who was worthy of passing."

"Random?" Maya raised an eyebrow.

"Is it?" He stepped closer. "Or are you just another person who's scared they'll get the answer wrong?"

Maya's throat tightened. How did he—

"Here's a riddle for you," Marcus said. "What has wings but cannot fly, holds everything but cannot lift anything, and shows you everything you're afraid to see?"

Maya stared at him. Her pocket buzzed again.

"Your reflection," she said softly.

Marcus smiled. "Exactly. But the thing about reflections? You can change them. You just have to stop being scared to dive in."

He walked away, leaving Maya standing at the edge of the pool. Her phone buzzed again. This time, she didn't check it.

She kicked off her sandals.

The water was colder than she remembered. But as she broke the surface, gasping, something inside her loosened. The zombie feeling faded. The sphinx's riddle made sense now.

Some answers aren't found on screens. Some answers are found in the deep end, when you finally stop being afraid to make waves.