Hidden Secrets - Motherland: Fort Salem

#20 - My little girl's grown up

Dayton, Ohio

Ohio, not much to it really, a normal day people going about their routines, for some that led them to the local Dayton swimming pool. There's a water aerobics session happening in one end of the pool, mainly full of older people holding small rubber rings, some people practicing laps at the other end and a small slide for the younger few. The pool really was alive and buzzing today.

A lifeguard watches over all the pool-users, his blue eyes darting around and surveying the area with a deadpan look on his face.

"Nice and high." The female Aerobics instructor shouts from the poolside.

Splashing, chatter and laughter echoes around, the atmosphere fitting for the place. Strangely, the lifeguard halts his duties, stopping and starring at one spot in the room. He starts to whisper something under his breath.

No one around notices the odd behaviour, all too invested in their own activities.

One older gentlemen sporting a blue swim cap and a hot pink rubber ring is starting to struggle with his water aerobics, doing more splashing than anything. And still the concept becomes even harder when his pink inflatable seems to acquire a mind of its own.

The object drifting away from him slightly and growing in size as though air was being pumped into it.

"Whoa! There's something wrong with this one." The old man backs away from the growing inflatable, it now three times the size it was it almost bursting at the seams. Those around watch on in confusion until eventually the object is too hard to ignore, the stretching and squeaking now filling the room. The once small rubber ring stands at an alarming height, its durability unbelievable.

That's when it pops. At first it seems nothing happens, the high pitched sound hurting the old man's ears but not causing any visible injury.

A small crackling sound slowly makes it way through the room, the sound getting louder and louder. Suddenly ice erupts up onto the surfaces of the pool. It grabs the old man first, trapping his hand and rendering it useless before quickly travelling his torso, freezing him.

Screams and shouts echo from every inch, swimmers clamouring over each out in attempt to get out of the water.

"Oh, my God! Get out of the pool!" The Aerobics instructor shouts, she rushes forward to offer help to a woman climbing out of the pool, the ice chasing after her, but she is too late. The ice traps the woman from the waist down, paralysing her before travelling up her body and into the instructor who holds her hand, her attempt to help dooming them both. The two stay frozen in this position.

The ice satisfied with its result it rushes down the length of the pool, towards its victims who are still trying to swim to safety. One man makes it out of the pool and makes a run towards the door but the ice is smart and uses the puddles of pool water along the side the travel through, capturing his foot and holding him on the spot.

Another reaches for a low hanging diving board but his attempt to pull himself up and onto it is futile as the ice gets him also.

Below the surface some swimmers lay stuck, the ice catching them before they even knew what was happening. One girl tries to out swim the sheet of ice forming over the top of her but isn't fast enough, suffering an even worser fate as she attempts to break through but to no avail, she too was caught within the ice.

The once chattery, happy atmosphere in the Dayton swimming pool now rested in silence. No splashing, not even a drop of water to be heard.

There's small pattering of footsteps, the lifeguard having now left his chair, walking down along the frozen graveyard. He spares no glance towards the horrific scene as he leaves the premises.