The Midnight Pool
A Flash Fiction Story for Halloween
Happy Halloween! In this month’s post, I’m sharing a flash fiction story I wrote to celebrate the spooky season. My prompt was to write a ghost story at a public swimming pool, featuring lipstick.
I hope you enjoy!
~Elise Posledni
THE MIDNIGHT POOL
“Clara’s a witch,” Katie whispered as they crept slowly down the darkened sidewalk. She tied her loose brown curls back and shook her head. “This is stupid.”
Behind her, Lauren rolled her eyes and flipped her straight blonde hair over her shoulder. “If you mean Clara’s a bitch,” Lauren said with her voice pitched to carry, “Just say she’s a bitch.”
Leading the trio through the gloom, Clara turned to face the other two girls with a frown. “No backing out this time! You said you wanted to do this. Sorry I made you leave the party, but it’s not like Connor is that into either of you anyway.”
Lauren and Katie both glared at Clara as she turned to survey the locked gate blocking their path. Briefly testing the links, Clara crouched low and cupped her hands around the lock. Her long, jet-black hair obscured her hands from view, but after only a few moments, the mechanism sprang open. She pushed the gate and smiled archly at the other two girls in invitation.
“Are you sure about this?” Lauren swallowed nervously.
“He drowned here last summer, right?” Clara pushed.
The two high school girls shifted nervously in the darkness while the dark-haired Clara stared at them imperiously, waiting. Finally, it was Lauren, blonde and slim and frail looking, who nodded, her face set into grim lines of determination.
They followed Clara into the darkened public pool area. The empty rows of beach chairs were eerie sentinels in the night. The patio tables materialized unexpectedly in their path. Katie tripped over a chair leg in the darkness and swore.
“This is stupid,” Katie repeated to Lauren. “We barely know her. She only transferred last month. She’s weird.”
“She’s just goth,” Lauren hissed dismissively. “Besides, we tried to do a séance at our last sleepover! You didn’t have a problem with that.”
“Yeah, but why is she so obsessed with helping you see Daniel again, she barely knows you!” Katie hissed.
Her remonstrations were cut short as Clara abruptly halted at the edge of the public swimming pool, closed and dark and still for the night. There was no moon and the mirrored water was inky black. Clara crouched down and swirled her hand in the pool. Ripples expanded across the surface and caught slight gleanings of light from the distant town. Clara smiled and swirled her hand more vigorously so that the whole surface of the swimming pool roiled unnaturally.
“How are you doing that?” Lauren asked apprehensively as she watched the water lap over the pool’s edge.
When Clara pulled her arm out of the dark water it dripped down her hand like blood. Lauren took several hasty steps backwards.
Clara frowned. “You agreed last night that you would do anything to talk to Daniel one more time.”
“Lauren loved him!” Katie defended her friend. “Of course she wants to make sure he is at peace. You’re just being kind of creepy, Clara.”
The water continued to swirl strangely in the blackness. “Did either of you bring the chalk?” Clara asked. Both girls shook their heads, but Lauren pulled out the little purse she always carried and rummaged through until she found a tube of bright red lipstick.
Clara sighed in exasperation, but reached out to accept the lipstick. Kneeling over the pavement, she laboriously began to scrawl symbols near the water’s edge.
As the lipstick crumbled and broke, she bent lower over her work and resorted to smearing the lipstick with her fingers to complete the final symbol. The water in the pool was bubbling and steaming as if it was a potion in a cauldron.
Clara smiled because that was exactly what it was.
“Is Daniel’s ghost going to appear soon?” Lauren asked bravely, but could not fully hide the quaver in her voice as the water continued to steam and boil.
“Well, it’s a spell,” Clara explained as she stood up to survey the two girls. Katie’s eyes were wide and her face had gone white. Lauren was looking at Clara as if seeing her classmate for the first time. “And spells need all sorts of ingredients,” she continued ominously as she pulled a knife from her bag.
Lauren’s mouth moved wordlessly as she tried to scream. Clara grinned as she advanced on her. Katie was faster and whirled to run, but Clara flung out her hand with a muttered incantation and the girl crumpled, boneless, to the ground. Lauren finally managed to scream as she watched her friend fall.
“You really are a bitch,” Lauren growled angrily as Clara approached her with the knife.
“A witch, actually,” Clara corrected her pleasantly. “I died, and came back, many years ago. As did my sisters. Well, at least, the first part is true. They did die. I still need to bring them back.”
Clara’s voice went soft and menacing as she advanced on Lauren, who was frozen in place and shaking in fear. “Curious that you and Katie share bloodlines with them. I have been searching for their ancestors for many years now. Imagine my surprise when I find both bloodlines I need at East High,” Clara explained as she pressed the knife against the girl’s throat.
“You were never going to summon Daniel, were you?” Lauren whispered as tears formed in her eyes.
Clara smiled. “I’m a bit old for high school drama and ghost stories,” she spoke lightly as she drew the knife across Lauren’s throat, “But sacrificial resurrection spells are kind of my thing.”
Lauren’s eyes were still wide with surprise and horror as her blood gushed over the lipstick symbols. Her hands scrabbled frantically against the pavement as she fell. She tried to crawl in a desperate attempt to get away from the dark witch, but her leaking blood continued to pool on the pavement. When she was finally still, the blood-soaked symbols began to smoke and sizzle until all that remained was black ash. Unceremoniously, Clara stooped to drag Katie’s body and splash it into the dark water.
The water thrashed and churned so violently that waves came over the edge and lapped against Clara’s feet. Out of the dark pool, smoky wraiths formed on the surface. As they glided over the water, they steadily gained form and shape so that by the time they reached the cement, Clara was ready to greet her two long lost sisters come back from the dead.
“We’re going to have so much fun,” Clara said with a feral grin. The two spirits smiled. Together, the three witches, one with hair of jet black, another with loose brown curls, and the final with straight blonde strands, turned their sights towards the town.
Eerily, creepily wonderful!