Eerie, Indiana fanfiction: Swimming Pool

[froodle]

The Eerie Municipal Swimming Pool and Centre for Aquatic Life squatted behind the fleshy behemoth that was City Hall. The windows that weren’t boarded up gaped emptily, the jagged remnants of their smashed panes a vicious glitter framing the blackness that loomed just beyond the warped wooden frames. It had shut its doors long before Simon was born, and yet the smell of salt water and fish lingered in the streets surrounding it.

Now, two yellow-white flashlight beams cut twin swathes of brightness through the long-lying murk. The tiled corridors were covered in spreading patches of algae, and the unsteady light made monstrous forms from their lumping irregularity. Stagnating pools of sea water lay reeking and treacherous beneath scummy layers of mould, and footprints left behind by a careless step dissipated slowly in the thick ooze.

In the darkness up ahead, something was chittering. Several somethings, in fact, in a chirping, clickety babble that rose and fell like voices in conversation.

In the washed-out illumination cast by their torches, Simon and Marshall exchanged an excited glance. Mars gave a thumbs-up gesture complicated by his tight grip on a bright blue shrimping net. Simon, who was holding a large sun-yellow plastic sand pail in one hand and a spray can filled with the World o’ Stuff’s own-brand shark repellent in the other, nodded vigorously in response. The glow from his helmet-mounted flashlight jounced madly as he did so.

Round recessed windows lined the full length of the corridor, the thick glass smeared with dust and drooping grey cobwebs that swayed in the wake of the boys’ passage. Shadows danced across the opaque surfaces, though whether they came from the miners’ lamps shining off the dirty panes or something in the drained tanks that lay beyond was anyone’s guess.

Marshall produced a yellowing brochure from his coat pocket, consulting the faded map on the back.

“The lap pool should be up ahead on the right,” he whispered, shining his torch along the furry wall until it picked out a heavy set of double doors. One sagged half-off its top hinges, hanging partially ajar. The narrow opening that resulted was limed in an azure blue light that flickered on the grubby floor tiles beyond, and the smell of the sea, cold and clean, drifted out into the stagnant air of the hallway.

Simon gave the shark repellent a quick shake, took a deep breath, and edged through the gap between the two doors. Marshall followed, using the shrimp net to lever the opening wider in order to avoid touching the fuzzy mould growing across the finger plates.

The lap pool had been dry longer than Simon had been alive, but now it brimmed with a glowing liquescence in a deep aquamarine from thousands of spectral sea creatures.

A sea serpent as thick around as a Greyhound bus raised a spiny crested head and glowered at them with three slit-pupilled eyes. The far wall was visible through its long equine face and the humped coils of its vast body disappeared away into the ceiling without leaving a trace of its passage. Around and through the entirety of its snaky length, dead-eyed ghost sharks and selkies caught half in and half out of their human guise swam in the long-gone memory of the water.

Marshall shrugged off his rucksack and removed a safety harness from it. Simon pulled a length of rope from inside the yellow beach bucket, looking around until he spotted the heavy metal rail that ran the length of the pool. Tossing one end to Marshall, he crossed the wide room, his footsteps echoing on the tiled floor, the shining rope of fish-breath and mountain root unspooling behind him, and tied the other end securely to the base of the railing.

“You sure about this?” Simon called, his voice strangely flat in that vast empty space. Marshall nodded, and began to climb the rusted ladder that led to the high dive board. Spectral octopi drew their translucent tentacles back as he passed, their bulbous eyes narrowed in irritation at the disruption to their lounging.

At the top, he paused for a long moment, suspended high above the churning pool. The rope rasped against the soft skin of his palms, bird spittle making it slippery as he wound it around the ladder he’d just climbed. Around his neck a heavy lanyard clattered and swung with a dozen disposable cameras, pink and white party favours left over from a celebrity wedding that never happened. The scrape and click as he photographed and wound his way through a hundred exposures boomed in his ears. Far below, the ghostly sea creatures ignored him.

When he had exhausted all but the very last of his exclusively monogrammed Julia and Kiefer giveaways, he flashed the headlamp on his thermally-insulated bobble hat twice. A returning flash at ground level signalled that Simon had seen him. Marshall took a firm grip on the rope around his waist in one hand and gripped the raised handle of the ladder with the other. There was a whine of static feedback as Simon turned on the megaphone. Marshall heard the amplified intact of breath, inhaling sharply in unison with his trusted associate somewhere down in the dark.

“Attention, members of the Aquatic Afterlife,” Simon boomed through the loud speaker. “Please note you have five minutes remaining on your allotted Haunting. Please make your way to the exits in good time for the next group to enjoy the pool, remembering to remove any personal belongings or shipwrecks when you leave.”

Dark patches appeared along the edges of the pool, the black waters of the River Styx opening to grant passage in and out of the underworld. Gaunt, pale, humanoid faces in rubber caps and goggles peered anxiously out of the gloaming, clutching towels and novelty floats in the shape of ducks or dolphins.

Simon spotted a few of them thrusting their way into the bright blue of the pool and cleared his throat.

“Could the Drowner’s Society please keep back from the doorways until all patrons have exited the pool?” he asked.

A bolshy spectre in a wetsuit ignored him, shouldering it’s way through into the pool. A ghostly Great White, bristling with the broken-off hafts of the harpoons that eventually killed it, swooped down through the liquescent blue, seized the interloper, and shook it like a terrier breaking the neck of a captured rat.

Simon’s exasperated sigh shushed through the wall mounted speakers. High up on the diving board, Marshall picked up the last camera and snapped off a quick succession of photographs documenting the carnage.

“Always one,” muttered Simon, and the megaphone bounced his irritation across the room.





Trusted Associates, Inc.

Halloween by froodle, in which Mars and Simon celebrate a Von Orloff-free All Hallows Eve

Surprise by froodle, in which Mars tries to make sure Simon's birthday goes a little better this year

The Glade by froodle, in which Simon and Mars visit a place that only exists on February 29th

Egg Hunt by froodle, in which Simon and Mars partake of some traditional Easter activities

Boardwalk by froodle, in which Simon and Mars are swayed by radio advertising

Lady in Red by froodle, in which Simon experiments on the old-fashioned radio in the Secret Spot, and horror ensues

Waiting In by froodle, in which there is an ice-storm and a handyman does not arrive

Seafoam by froodle, in which Simon and Marshall go to the seaside

A Night at the Circus by froodle, in which a carnivale comes to town, and Marshall and Simon do not enjoy themselves

Taking a Break by froodle, in which Simon and Marshall enjoy some much-needed R&R

Model Railway by froodle, in which a new business prepares to open in Eerie

Shoreline by froodle, in which Simon and Marshall investigate strange happenings on the shores of Lake Eerie

Parade by froodle, in which Mars takes issue with the Eerie Beekeepers Association's choice of mascot

Homestead by froodle, in which Marshall finally gets something useful out of shop class

Hound by froodle, in which Simon makes a friend

Errands by froodle, in which Simon has a to-do list

Slyboots by froodle, in which a certain corporal of the infernal regions comes to Eerie. Crossover with Johannes Cabal the Necromancer.

Waterlogged by froodle, in which Eerie experiences heavy rainfall

Festival by froodle, in which Eerie's local businesses celebrate the summer

Strawberry by froodle, in which there is unauthorised hubbub in Eerie

Wildlife by froodle, in which Simon and Marshall go to the beach

Facilities by froodle, in which the Eerie Bus Station and Supper Club has a problem with the men's toilet

Anticipation by froodle, in which Simon and Harley look forward to the Equinox

Castle by froodle, in which there is unexpected architecture in Eerie

Visitor in which Marshall's grandma comes to stay

Euclid by froodle, in which Marshall and Simon investigate strange events at the Eerie Cemetery

The Hut by froodle, in which Simon takes on the forces of Eerie solo

Comments

[deifire]

Bwahaha! This is wonderful!

I love that the World O' Stuff has its own brand of shark repellant. And the return of Julia and Kiefer!

[froodle]

WOS brand shark repellent is just as good as the adam west kind but a third of the price.

it would occur to me to wonder why the leftovers from a called off celebrity wedding in la ended up in a small shop in indiana, but radfords supply network is probably like three times the size of the bureau of lost

[deifire]

The World O' Stuff was the real "everything store" long before Amazon even existed.

[eviinsanemonkey.livejournal.com]

wait

was Amazon created by Radfords?

[froodle]

that makes so much sense!!

[deifire]

That totally explains everything!

[froodle]

Right?!

[froodle]

man i would so love to get packages with the world o stuff logo rather than amazon on it

[eviinsanemonkey.livejournal.com]

this is adorable

[froodle]

thank you :D