The Dead in the Pool

I was housesitting for my boss. She was a best-selling author of horror stories. She wrote of ghosts, primarily, and their phantasmal interactions with the living. I had been looking forward to this housesitting job for weeks, not just for what she said she’d pay me, but I wanted to see inside her house. Her home was built against a hillside in a modern, simple style. It’s mostly concrete and glass, quite plain, really, but it has a large atrium in the middle of it and a swimming pool was installed there.

I clicked off the house alarm and went to the guest room to set down my things. I then went to the wall-size glass doors and pulled them open. The pool was surrounded by lush, fragrant tropical plants and trees. The pool itself was shaped like the number “8” with a white cement pathway running along its outer curves. On the far side of the pool, I spied a large redwood gate mostly hidden behind palm fronds and foliage. Sunlight beamed down and sparkled upon the little waves in the pool. I liked this place, it made me feel I was a million miles away from reality.

Later that night, after I had gone for a swim and ate my dinner at one of the little bistro tables poolside, I went up to my room and climbed into the enormous guest bed. The pool lights reflected blue and silver upon the walls and ceiling of my room making me feel I was a mermaid dwelling in a serene underwater realm. I fell asleep. When I next opened my eyes, I found myself in the atrium standing at the head of the pool and gazing down into the water. The pool was different now, it wasn’t just the light that was different, but the whole “feel” of the space. The water was darker and its surface smooth as glass. The silence enveloping me grew heavier against my every breath. I took a step forward, and then another, never taking my eyes off the water. I stopped and rubbed my eyes, I thought I saw something in the pool, floating along the bottom- a dark, blurry mass. I squinted my eyes and looked closer. The dark mass was gathering into the shape of a body, a woman’s body. It appeared to be covered in a hooded cloak and as it turned toward me, a bony white face gleamed within the folds of its hood. I could not move my feet. I was forced to stand there and watch as more bodies revealed themselves in the water, barely visible in the dim pool lights. One by one they rolled around, some dressed in clothing clinging to their bones, or floating away in frayed stands. I still couldn’t move, I was screaming, but no sounds came from me. Their eyes…they still had eyes, these bleached white skulls, eyes that stared at nothingness; they held no spark, no glimpse of recognition or light. I tried to turn toward the gate I had seen earlier in the day. With all my might I worked my body to turn and run and just as I felt my muscles begin to finally twitch, I felt two heavy hands clamp down on my shoulders holding me in place. My heart raced into a speeding whirl and I was about to lose consciousness. Right before I went under, a male voice from behind brought me back to my present horrified state. In a calm, even tone he said, “Be still. All is well and you are safe.” What? What did he say to me? All is well? I couldn’t make myself understand and the voice terrifed me further. “Be calm, Melissa,” he directed and then nudged me forward. He lightly pressed his fingers into my shoulders and gently pushed me toward the gate. I started to walk. As we walked along the pool, the bodies floating within it turned and moved toward us, piling up against the side. “Those are the ones who could not see and now they are trapped here,” he said. “I am showing them to you so you will see.” I saw a man’s forearm reach over my shoulder toward the gate. He unlatched it. And I opened my eyes and saw.