The Pieces of Vengeance

The Pool Room pt1

I hear Ethan sigh as we enter yet another room. Is this just an endless sequence of rooms we have to escape? This room is the polar opposite of the chess room. Where the chess room is cosy and comfortable, this room is stony and frigid. A pool lies in the centre of the room with filthy water and cracked tiles. Grimy white pillars struggle under the weight of the ceiling, their backs bent and fissured. Moss peeks out from under the tiles, adding to the sliminess of the floor. It smells like stale chlorine, as if this pool has been abandoned for a long time.

"Is that a pool?" asks Lydia. Oh. My. God. These people. Honestly.

"No," I drawl, "It's a supermarket. See look," I point to the pillars. "There are all the shoppers".

Lydia blushes and stares at her feet. I grin at her, the superiority flooding into my veins. She shuffles over to the pool and begins to inspect it. Ethan follows suit, his face contorting as he stares into the dark murky depths. I move next to stand next to him, but he takes a few steps back. Weird. Do I smell? I self-consciously sniff my armpits. Nope, not me. I stare at the water, careful not to lean too far over. It laps at my sneakers, turning the blinding white into a drab grey. The tiles appear to be 30 centimetres, and it is a sixty by twelve-tile-sized pool.

"I estimate it to be thirty metres long, and at least six metres deep. We better hope that key isn't at the bottom. The average depth a human being can dive is approximately six point zero nine metres, and that's for the average American adult." Everyone stares at me. "What? I have a good memory and-"

"Okay. This conversation isn't going to get us anywhere." Eloise interrupts. I glower at her, but she turns away from me.

"Do we have to swim?" Ethan wonders. I notice Jasmine had stopped, but I ignore her. Not now. I examine the pool, watching the beams of sunlight dance on the water. The rest of the room was shrouded in darkness.

"Hey, what is that?" I turned around to see Eloise with her hand outstretched to something in the pool. I follow her gaze and notice something glinting at the bottom of the dark pool. I shudder. I don't even want to think about all the bacteria floating about in there. That is like an ear infection just waiting to happen.

"Is that... a key?" says Ethan, squinting his eyes. Honestly, this guy. Yes, we can all see that it is a key. We are not blind like you are, Ethan.

"Well done four eyes, you can see" I mumble. He turns to me sharply and looks me in the eye.

"What did you just say?" he snarled at me his eyes as hard as steel under his glasses.

"I'm just pointing out that we know it's a key. The real question is how we get it. That water's gotta be like 3 metres deep, or something crazy like that, and I don't know about any of you guys, but I suck at swimming." I answer, trying to act like he didn't scare me. He wasn't fooled and raised an eyebrow at me.

"So, how do we get it?" wondered Lydia.

"Dibs not" I declare, looking at everyone's faces for their reaction. They were not impressed. "What?"

"Oh my god. Grow up Sam," Jasmine shoots at me.

"Sor-ry," I put my hands up defensively.

Ethan glares at me. What is this guy's deal?

"Let's come up with a plan first," said Lydia, distracting me from Ethan.

We all huddle together in a corner of the room, except for Ethan who just stand there with his hands in his pockets. He kinda looks like a penguin with his slightly hunched posture. I snigger.

"What." Ethan snarls, turning to face me. His eyes are narrowed into slits. Well, what we can see of his eyes behind his thick glasses.

"You look like a penguin all hunched over there by yourself." I tell him. I can feel the other shifting uneasily, but I honestly don't care. "Don't you think Glasses over there should join in, instead of standing around doing nothing?" I ask them.