Late Night Pool

It was Saturday night, and the pool sat in a kind of dead silence that felt unnatural. No music. No voices. No splashing water. Just the low mechanical hum of the vents breathing through the building like something asleep in the walls.

Cheryl had gone home over an hour ago after another exhausting shift of cleaning bathrooms and mopping the changerooms. The entire recreation center was empty now.

Just me, and the mess of wires beneath the front desk. I crouched under it with my cellphone flashlight clenched between my teeth, trying to make sense of the spaghetti tangle Stanley had apparently considered “organized.” Dust coated my hands as I followed one cable after another.

Then suddenly, goosebumps erupted across my arms. Sharp. Instant, it created my body to shudder. I froze beneath the desk. Someone else was here. The feeling hit me so hard it made my stomach tighten. Slowly, I pulled the flashlight from my mouth and listened. Nothing. The lobby wasn’t even dark. The overhead lights buzzed softly above me, reflecting off the polished tile floors and glass windows. Everything was perfectly visible. So why did it suddenly feel like something was standing right behind me?

“Hello?” I called out.

My voice sounded small almost non-existent. The building swallowed it whole. No answer.

I let out a nervous breath through my nose. Okay. Calm down. You’re alone. You’re tired. Your imagination’s running wild because it’s midnight and you’ve been staring at wires for forty minutes. I reached for a thick grey cable. Why was this even plugged in? I yanked it free. At that exact moment, a cold breeze swept across the lobby. Not a weak draft- A distinct rush of cold air. Like a door opening.

I nearly slammed my head against the underside of the desk as I jerked upright and peered into the lobby. Empty. The front doors remained tightly shut. No movement. No sound. My pulse thudded unevenly in my throat. Okay. Weird. I swallowed hard and ducked back under the desk, forcing myself to focus. One cable at a time. Okay, this one doesn’t need to be plugged in either...Stanley seriously should’ve retired years before he actually did. Half the setup looked like he’d connected random wires just to make himself feel busy. I grabbed a blue cable attached to the monitor and traced it with my fingers through the darkness beneath the desk. It didn’t connect to anything. It just ended. Nowhere.

“Damn it, Stanley...” I muttered under my breath.

Then, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Every single strand. A slow, icy feeling crawled down my spine. I wasn’t alone. The certainty of it crashed over me so suddenly I stopped breathing. There’s no one here. I repeated it in my head like a prayer or lyrics of a song. There’s no one here. But my body didn’t believe me. My arms prickled causing goosebumps. My chest felt tight. Every instinct screamed at me to look behind myself. I grabbed the useless wires and shoved them into the box on top of the desk.

Clink.

The sound snapped through the silence. Metal hitting tile. I froze. My heartbeat hammered so loudly it almost drowned everything else out. That was real. I know that was real. I stood and stepped out from behind the desk. The hallway leading toward the changerooms stretched ahead in dim yellow light. Empty. But as I stared toward the glass doors leading onto the pool deck. I peered in and there something moved. A reflection. Standing motionless near the water. I blinked hard. Gone. The hallway was empty again. “Nope,” I whispered instantly, though my feet stayed planted.

My mouth had gone dry. “H-Hello?” My voice cracked embarrassingly.

Clink.

Closer this time. My entire body tensed. Okay. Someone was here. Someone was watching me.

“I’m serious,” I called, trying and failing to sound confident. “Can you stop?"

Nothing. The pool lights shimmered faintly beyond the glass doors, throwing pale blue reflections through the darkness.

Against every survival instinct screaming in my brain, I stepped onto the pool deck.

The air immediately felt colder.

The underwater lights made the surface ripple with distorted patterns that slithered across the ceiling and walls like moving shadows. Every tiny wave transformed into something alive. The entire room felt wrong now. Too quiet...Too still. I could hear my own breathing. Then that feeling hit me again. Not fear. Not nerves. Presence. Like someone standing inches behind me. I spun around.

Nobody. But the deep end—My eyes locked onto the water. The surface trembled gently. And deep beneath it, swallowed by blue light and darkness, I could’ve sworn there was a person standing upright at the bottom of the pool. Watching me. Smiling. It was Stanley, he arose to the surface of the water breaking it. I could see his yellow hospital band. I exhaled laughing and he too was laughing hysterically.

"You shudda seen your face Newbie!" he hollered laughing.

"Okay Stanley, you've had your fun. Let's get you home," i told him. He nodded and started to get out and then he started screaming

"Don't make me go back!" he screamed at me so loud his voice echoed throughout the pool.

"Whoe, Stanley!" I said holding up my hands in defense. "let's just sit down, can we do that?" I asked him, his demnetia was bad reminded me of my aunt and grandmother who had gone through it. He agreed and sat down quietly. I called 911.

"Who you callin?" he asked confused.

"Just some friends." I responded. "Hi, are you guys looking for Stanley, yes he's here. I've calmed him down now, He's safe." I could hear my voice louder than I wanted it to.

"Newbie?" he asked me.

"Yes Stanley?" i asked.

"Are we here to fix the computers?"

"Yes, we are come on," i said. I took his arm and took him down the hallway where the lobby was, he was soaked in his nightgown from the pool water. He had coins in his hand and dropped one and would laugh as it hit the floor. The ambulance arrived and they took him by the arm. He looked at the them, I was worried he was going to start screaming again, but he cooperated easily.

"Oh, hi friends" he said as the back of the ambulance closed.

"Stanley." I murmured to myself and went back to the jumbled cables.