I remember waking up on that day, full of excitement. Our family lived almost an hour out of town, so any time we made the trip there we had a blast. Today was a special occasion though, we were going to go swimming at the city pool center. I had been there many times, as the facility had been built before I was even born. But even so, my brothers and I had insane amount of fun any time we visited the place. It was over twenty years old now, and the city was planning on closing it and constructing a new Aquatic center. This was the last chance we would have to go there, so we planned to stay the whole day. The drive into town felt so much longer this time. Every billboard that passed by brought a pang of excitement up in my chest. I knew them all by heart, and once you saw the Arby’s billboard, it was only ten more minutes to town. After what felt like hours, we finally arrived. The sun was baking down on the parking lot, it was nearly forty degrees out. I raced my brothers to the pool center door, ignoring the calls from our mother to slow down. We ran passed the girl at the desk and into the men’s lockers. She barely glanced up, minimum wage was not enough to chase us down. Besides, she knew our mother would be in shortly to pay the fee for us. We did not even stop to shower like they sign said, we just ran pell mell through the lockers and into the pool area. The familiar feeling of the tiles on our feet, the wet smell of chlorine in the air, nothing smelt better to us then.
The day itself was filled with all the classic fun kids could have in the pool. Swimming races, splashing contests, ridding the slides over and over. I even jumped off the second highest diving board, although most of my bothers were too scared to jump that one. All too soon the day came to and end. An employee spoke over the intercom, saying that the pool was closing soon. Our mother put her book away and called for us to get ready to leave. Nobody likes that heave feeling as you try to get out of the pool after a long time. Clothes soaking wet, feel like they weigh 1000 pounds. Grumbling about the cold, we all slowly left the water, and slopped our way towards the lockers where we left the towels. I was exhausted, so I sat down for a second, just to let the water drain off for a bit. When I looked up everyone else had gone. My mother peaked out from the door, and called to me. Get over here now, we are leaving! Then I was alone. I got up to go join them, but something stopped me. I looked back, the tall winding tube slide called to me. One more ride, it was the last time we would be here after all. I succumbed to the temptation and ran over to the ladder. It felt so much harder to climb it now, I was cold and wet from being out of the water for so long. Then a loud noise echoed out, almost making me loose my grip. The giant florescence lights were turning off, one at a time. Bang, bang, bang, they went, as the rows of them powered off. I looked down, I was closer to the top now, so it still made sense to take the slide down. I quickly climbed the last few rungs, and positioned my self at the top of the slide.
It was so dark now, a yawning black mouth twisting away into nothingness. I closed my eyes, and pushed down. Down and down I went, turn after turn, sending me spiraling along. I lost all sense of direction as I tumbled through the darkness. I did not remember the slide being this long, it felt like it was going on forever. Finally I saw light shining from the bottom, then I popped out, falling a few meters into the water bellow. Coughing up a bit of water I had swallowed, I pulled myself upright and went to head out of the pool for the final time. However, after looking around for a solid minute, I could not see the way out. There was no pool ledge, no doorway leading to the locker rooms. All I could see were several winding poolways, leading away. I was confused, I did not remember this part of the pool center. I started walking through the waist high water, seeing if maybe the door was around one of the corners. However, each corner I rounded just revealed more twisting hallways, paths that lead in all directions. I must have taken the wrong slide, ended up in some other section of the pool centre.
I called out as I trudged through the luke warm water. My mother’s name echoed for a long time thorough the halls, but there was no response. I kept moving, surely if I walked for long enough I would come to some entrance to this place. Ten minutes passed, then thirty, then an hour. The winding poolways just kept going, all the same, lit with the glow of humming fluorescent lights on the ceiling. I was glad that at least the lights in this area remained on. The place I had taken the slide from had already been turned off. As if reading my mind, there was a loud bang as a light just out of my view went off. Like dominoes they all began to turn off, one by one. Bang, bang, bang, the darkness snaked its way toward me, then consumed me, leaving me in udder and total blackness. I was terrified now, not only because I was lost, but because I knew I would be grounded for taking so long to get back to the others. I started yelling out my family’s names, sloshing through the water as fast as I could. I banged into a wall, then another one, before I finally got accustomed to the darkness. As soon as I could make the walls out, I came to a stop to get my bearings. As the sound of the water around me quieted, a cold feeling came over me.
I could here other water splashes coming to a stop behind me, maybe twenty or thirty meters back. It could easily just be some employee closing up, but for some reason the hairs on my arm and neck were all on end. I slowly turned my head back, squinting out into the darkness behind me. At first I could not see anything, but as I looked around carefully, I was able to make out a humanoid figure peering from around a corner all the way at the end of the poolway. It stood stalk still, not making a sound. I was frozen there for minutes, staring at it. Was it real? Did I actually see a figure? Yes, it was defiantly there. My mind was filled with horrifying ideas before the rational side of my brain took over. This was just the pool centre I had been to many times, that was probably just Mr Bear, the cleaning guy. This was good, he could help me find the exit. I mustered my courage and called out to the figure. My voice came out as a squeak, not sounding like me at all, “Is that you Mr Bear?” Despite how quiet I was, my voice echoed over and over again, asking the question. In differing tones, “Is that you Mr Bear?” The figure did not respond, but instead it pulled away, out of view. That simple action shook me to my core, that was definitely not Mr Bear.
Shivers winding through my body, trying to make as little noise as possible, I began to move away from where the figure had vanished. Much slower now, I made my way down the dark poolways. Hardly daring to breathe as I walked, I tried to listen for the tell tale splashing from behind me. I would glance back often, but thankfully did not see anything in the darkness besides the blue and white tiles. I had no way to measure the actual time, but my legs burned from walking through the water. I had to have been moving through the dark poolways for at least a few hours. Then I saw a faint red glow come into view down one of the poolways to my left. That had to be the way out! I began to move toward the light as fast as I could, no longer caring about the splashing I was making. The red light grew stronger until a ledge came into view. I climbed out of the water and fell back onto the cold blue tile. Gasping for breath, finally, somewhere to rest. After a few minutes of catching my breath, I took a look around. There were several pipes leading from the ceiling to the floor, with valves on them and such. But what caught my eye was a door in the wall there, a sign above it prominently displaying the words EXIT in a deep red glow.
Yes! This was the way out! I must have been going in circles or something and missed it. I struggled to stand up, and painfully made my way to the door. As I reached it, I heard the soft slap of wet skin against tile from behind me. I spun around, to see a dark humanoid figure crawling along the ceiling of the poolway I had emerged from. It did not freeze as I looked at it this time, instead it moved lightning fast toward me along the red lit tile of the roof. I turned away in udder terror, wrenching the door open I ran through it into the darkness beyond. I fell down a flight of stairs, banging my way to the bottom where I landed on some rough carpeting. I lay there for a second, by heart pounding. There you are! Called a loud angry voice. I looked up to see my father striding toward me, his face flushed with frustration. We have been all been looking for you for hours! Where have you been? I saw the pool staff emerging from where they had been searching, watching us in relief. My mother ran over and hugged me, her face white. I thought you were kidnapped! She said, we were so worried! I was in shock, not sure what to say, but relieved that I was out of the poolways. My father thanked the staff and we left for the car. I tried to explain what happened, but my parents though I was lying, trying to cover up my misdeeds. My father told me I was grounded for a month, however, the warmth of the car and the safely of towel wrapped around me was worth being grounded for a lifetime. As we took the hour long trip home, I swore to myself never swim in a pool centre near closing time again.