Short Stories

Twenty-Four: Monster

It was Halloween, but I was stuck at swim practice. The fluorescent lights overhead and below in the water lit up the pool as the red lights from the light-up board.

"Alright, grab your kickboards! We're going to do eight 25's by 1:15. Leave at the top!" The coach yelled out. We all complied, grabbing our kickboards from the pool deck and standing on the floor of the pool. Soon, we had done six 25's. We were almost done.

"Hey, is it okay if we turned off the lights?" The coach yelled out. Most of the swimmers all yelled out a form of agreement, wanting to get into the Halloween spirit. A second later, the lights flickered off. The only light in the swimming pool was the red light from the light-up board. Since it was small, it barely lit up the room and made the water appear dark red, making it seem like fresh blood. My breath hitched in my throat. I stopped kicking and clutched the kickboard tightly. The person behind crashed into my feet, only worsening my panic attack.

"Hey!" They yelled at me. I couldn't respond. The monster next to me gripped onto my heart and squeezed it tight. The dark shadowy form cackled at me. I let out a shrill scream. It was going to kill me. The scent of iron flooded my senses. The water surrounding me seemed to stick to me. Tears started leaking out my eyes and filling my goggles. It was too tight. I had to get it off. I ripped the goggles off, not feeling the hard snap of rubber against the back of my head. I threw it away, hearing the smack of plastic hitting the pool deck. The cap on my head was also too tight. I tore it off and threw it away, the sound of a surprised gurgle from an unsuspecting swimmer came from the left. But, I didn't care. The blood surrounded me, filling my nose and my mouth. I can't breathe. The shadowy figure floated below me and dragged me further down. It smiled at me. But, a hand grabbed my arm roughly and pulled me upwards. It dragged me to the end of the pool, and someone else pulled me out of the pool.

I widened my eyes the captor. I raked my nails against his face, and he let out a holler of surprise. The overhead lights flickered on. The blood in the pool replaced with clear blue water. My captor turned into my coach, who had two lines of blood running down their face. The swimmers in the pool all stared at me. I dropped to my knees, pain resonating through my tired bones. I sobbed into my hands. I couldn't handle it. It was too much. I was the monster.

"Are you okay?" A hand touched my shoulder, but I scrambled back over the edge and fell into the watery depths. I stared at the overhead lights that overcast the pool. Swimmers were trying to grab at me as I let out a breath of air from my legs. As I floated to the bottom, the monster came again. It floated into my view and smiled at me. It held out a black hand. I reached to shake its hands, but a pale hand shot through the monster, making it dissipate. It grabbed onto my outstretched arm and pulled me up. We broke through the surface as he gasped in large breaths of air. His usually pale blonde hair was dark and matted with water, and his pale blue eyes were darker than normal.

"What was that?" He screamed at me, his grip on my wrist tightening as he kept me held above the water. I stared at him blankly. Someone pulled me out the water again. The boy looked at the hand that had just grabbed me. It was covered in water-proof makeup. He looked at me, surprised, he looked at my wrist. He could see the faintest lines underneath the makeup he had just scraped off. He also slid out of the pool and before the coach could object he scraped at the wrist with his nails, uncovering dark lines littering the arms.

The boy looked at me. But, I just stared at him. I could hear the other swimmers whispering, and the coach in the background on the phone. His mouth was open. He hugged me tightly.

"People care about you! Why?" Kind words flooded out his mouth, but they were silent. The monster whispered, "I hate you." And, I finally let go. The boy also let go of me. He continued to talk to me, speaking words of encouragement. It was only he realized I had arrived at hell when I never responded to him.