Hotel at the Edge

Chapter 2: The Pool

There is something in the pool.

They are absolutely certain of it, without a doubt, that there is something lurky in the eerily dark blue depths of the pool in the hotel. 

The first time that they had stumbled upon the pool, the first thing that they had noticed was the smell. The overwhelming and unmistakable scent of chlorine that had seeped into every inch of the wet tiles in the room. As far as indoor pools went, the smell of chlorine wasn’t that odd, it was needed to keep the pool clean and swimmable. But the smell of this kind was absolutely unheard of, the stench of the chlorine reeked and burned the inside of their nose even after they had fled the pool room for the first time. They could smell it well after they had left, as if the chlorine had clung to their clothes, hair, and skin, unable to be shaken off.  

Ordinarily under much more common circumstances they had loved the smell of chlorine, and the way that it had made their hair smell after a good long swim. They had loved the way that it had made their hair dry all stiffly, so that they could swipe it up into a makeshift mohawk for a few seconds before it flopped back down into their face. They had so many good memories that involved the smell of chlorine, and jumping into the deep end of a pool with friends and family. 

They’d once heard a fact that said smell was the most powerful thing for jogging memories, and letting you relive them again. 

Now…

Each inhale of the stuffy pool room felt like it was stripping them all away, so that the only memories they had left was of this room and whatever had lurked in the water beneath.

It felt like one more punch to the gut, like not even the memories that they’d held most dear were safe from this place. 

The smell of chlorine now made them want to vomit. 

But even that didn’t distract them for long, from the thing that was in the water. 

The surface of the midnight blue water rippled without touch, unbroken rings forming at the very center and echoing out until it hit the sides of the pool. The tiny waves that it had made lapping against the stairs that led into those depths, if they closed their eyes they could almost pretend that those tiny waves were that of the ocean and not the stinky room that they were sat in now. But there was no pretending when the wet muffled slaps sounded from under the water, the noise of something hitting the sides of the pool walls again and again. That alone shattered any kind of illusion that they could conjure in this place, as if happiness could not be allowed to linger in any kind of way here. 

It was cruel, and the mere thought of it made them want to bury their face into their knees and cry. 

But they couldn’t. 

Not here. 

They had seen the receptionists leading people to this room, they had requested a swim and it was a policy that was upheld to the highest degree. But they knew why people really really requested to come here, and it wasn’t to swim.

They were all so thirsty. 

The lack of water hit their tongue like a twist of a knife, and the chemical in the room stung their eyes. 

 They highly doubted that the knobs of the shower would even turn, age and a lack of use having taken that away from it. The head of the shower had rusted over, all the way to the pipe connecting to the wall.   

After all, what use would a shower have… if people never left the pool? 

So many people had come to this room looking for water, either from the pool right before them or the shower that was supposed to be used to clean off the chlorine filled water. But everyone knew that it had never once been used, not even once. The pool was there, like an oasis in a desert. Plenty of water for whoever should need it. Many people had drunk from it, regardless of the chlorine so concentrated that it stung on their tongue like alcohol on a fresh cut. It blistered their mouths, making them run a deep red, the color hardly changing the deep due of the pool. They were always so busy pawing at the open wounds in their mouth that they never even saw what would come next.

How their bodies would be dragged into the pool and never seen again, their futile struggles useless as their wet hands slapped furiously against the edge of the pool trying to pull themselves up as the burning water scorched their skin and they were dragged in even deeper.

Never to be seen again. 

“Drowning is one of the most painful ways to go, you know…” They conversationally said to the thing in the pool, their knees were curled up tight to their chest as they looked into the rippling water from the safe distance of their pool chair. “And with this awful chlorine… it's probably even more painful now thanks to you. It probably burns, especially once they can’t hold their breath any longer. Instead of burning their mouth, it's going to burn their lungs from the inside out.” 

Only silence answered them, but that was okay… they honestly weren’t hoping for a response from it. 

They rested their chin atop their knees, just watching the methodical motion of the pool waves lapping against the stairs. 

“I wonder what you look like…” 

Neither hide nor head of the creature had ever been seen, at least not by them in all of the times they had peeped into the pool room. There had been no flash of claws dragging down the unsuspecting guests, no teeth gleaming in the pale yellow lighting as it tore out someone’s throat. Not even so much as a scream was ever heard inside the walls of the pool room, and they had the feeling that there never would be.

Whatever was in that pool, waiting so patiently… it always went right for the source. 

The bleeding tongue, and the blistered mouth that caused the guests so much agony.   

No matter how many people they had seen disappear into the waters, they were never able to see what had taken them. It was fast, faster than their exhausted and tired eyes could track in the pale yellow lighting of the pool room. It was always warm in the room, and on more than one occasion they had almost been tempted to fall asleep there curled up on one of the lounging chairs. 

Just an arm’s length away from the edge of the pool…

Even now it felt almost impossible to drag themselves away from the almost cozy nostalgic warmth of the room that almost seemed to lull them into a false sense of comfort and memories of what once was. It was like pulling teeth trying to force themselves back into the cold endless hallways, and back to the ambling people in them. But really, anything was better than being in there, and the feeling as if they were just a hair's breadth away from whatever lurked in the rippling waters. 

They couldn’t sleep, not yet.

Not until they found their room.