My Last Day As A Lifeguard

My last day as a lifeguard

I never thought I'd ever write this down, as the lack of evidence and knowledge surrounding the incident prevented this story from having a proper conclusion.

However, I now have a ending that will at least partially explain the events that I am about to relate to you so you will have a proper ending.

It began, as far as I can tell, on a Tuesday morning.

Business was slow, as it usually was at the pool on a weekday, and there was only a handful of people to keep my eyes on.

The only trouble I was having was keeping these three brothers from fighting and yelling.

Of course, it was my duty to ensure the safety of all the patrons but it can get to be a extremely boring job at times. However I continued my shift, eagerly waiting for when I could trade places with another lifeguard.

I finished my shift and went to the office to take a well deserved nap.

I was awoken around 20 minutes later by a angry mother with a sobbing small child clinging to her leg.

She explained to me in a ticked offed voice that her child had seen a skeletal hand in the pool... Or not the pool, my bad, you see there was a ring of passageways that were located under and around the pool, and for whatever reason they had windows in the pool that would allow you to view the inside of these dusty small passageways. The only entrance was a closed off vent that was located in the floor of the pool.

The little girl had seen a skeletal hand in one of the windows.

The mother demanded why we were playing a prank on her daughter.

I stammered, trying to explain that, to the best of my knowledge there was no such thing in place.

She was a regular problem, always blaming everyone else for problems that were her own, and she must've have detected the anger in my voice, because she stomped out of the building rather quickly after my rushed attempt at pointing out it was not our fault her child had seen a 'hand' in the passageways.

I didn't think much about it after that.

However the next Saturday... That's when things really hit the roof.

I was on my shift again and watching the crowded pool with limbs flapping and shouts flying through the air.

It was the busiest day I had witnessed in the last few months, so I was on my toes to make sure that no one was breaking the rules, when a sharp cry rang out.

I jumped and looked to where the cry was coming from, and saw it was a elderly woman screaming 'My grandson! My grandson!' With a shrill voice of fear.

I looked to where she was pointing and saw ripples on the surface of the water indicating that something had just gone under.

That was what brought my lifeguard training senses into play and I dived into the water without hesitation.

There was no one under the water. Everyone had come up form beneath the water to investigate what the yelling was about so the only one that should be under was the boy that had disappeared.

The grate that led to the passageways was open.

I went up immediately and informed everyone that they would have to get out of the pool.

There was no collective groan of disappointment, only a silent tension. All the people began exiting the pool in a calm fashion.

The other lifeguards that were on duty as well came over and asked me what was going on.

I told them the grate at the bottom was open and there was no sign of the boy.

The water level was slowly decreasing as the passageways underneath the pool began to fill.

That was when one of the kids went under the water with a PLOP!

I immediately dived into the water again to save the child.

I looked around feverishly for the child but the choline stung my eyes and it took a awhile to adjust.

My eyes adjusted finally and I could now hear distorted screams as my eyes met with the child's.

She was screaming as something dragged she into the opening of the grate with a lot of force.

I stood there paralyzed in fear as I watched the innocent child disappear into the blackness.

I couldn't even save her as I was to far away and besides, if anyone could pull open that grate that weighed at least a hundred pounds, it was definitely not something I wanted to mess with.

So I just stared in horror I was forced to realize what was happening.

Finally the urge to breath was to much to handle I swam above to the surface.

The police arrived 12 minutes later.

The police in my town have a habit of being sloppy and this case was no exception to that rule.

I tried explaining to them that the children who had gone missing were indeed beneath the pool and they needed to check there.

The officer I was talking to told me to piss off and said that they had it under control.

Of course. They didn't even bother with checking the grate or the passageways.

With the pool's reputation six feet under, it took about a week to close.

I of course, lost my job then and carried on with other things in my life.

It wasn't until years later that I stumbled across the old building while driving home from work.

I had gotten lost in the dark as I was just new to the job and I had a poor knowledge of how the route to my house went.

Just by luck I stumbled across the old pool.

I parked the car on the side of the road and took the mini flashlight I had with me at all times and investigated the property.

I had to ignore a bright red sign that blared NO TRESPASSERS but besides that, I had no trouble getting into the place.

I looked around, my beam shining across the dusty withered old tables and floors.

However I did not come back to relive my college days, I had come back to solve a mystery that even the city 'police' could not solve.

I found the giant drained pool with ease and stared at the hollow shell that had once held so many happy memories. It still smelled vaguely of choline.

I jumped in and located the grate that led down to the passageways that had caused me all my troubles.

It was heavy and extremely difficult to lift, but after twenty minutes of the labour I managed to take it off.

The passageways weren't to deep so I could climb easily in and out.

I jumped and recoiled at the smell of mold, rot and that generally old smell of neglect and abandonment.

I continued to crawl until my flashlight beam met with the skeletons of two small children. Their skeletons were both complete with not a single bone missing.

The only thing had was unusual about the skeletons was one of them appeared to be grasping at his neck. I moved my flashlight slightly to get a better look.

I left in a hurry after my flashlight beam fell across a shrivelled skeletal hand, which appeared to be strangling one of the skeletons.