After a near drowning awakens an ability to commune with evil spirits, (12) a cowardly teenager must struggle to resist when a bushfire causes unbearably hot summer nights. (27)

When I said, you can skip the drowning, I just meant in the logline, not the story as a whole. What sets the story in motion is the avoidant teen forced to leave his hideout. Now the action actually begins.

"When a brush fire forces him to evacuate his spiritually protected hide out, a teen with avoidant personality disorder must discover a way to defeat the evil spirit that is stalking him."

I'm giving up on this story until I can get something normal right. This thing has been a pain in the ass for 10 years now.

Moving on to something with more action.