I'm busy enough that I don't write much fanfic anymore, but this summer I made a secret pact with Ryan Boyd. Pursuant to our pact, I wrote a story idea that I've been thinking about for years. It's a crossover between two Horror icons that requires you be fairly weird to enjoy it.
Friends, I love being fairly weird.
Ahead of all the Horror movie blogging I'll be doing in October, I want to share this with you. I call it...
Never Drown Alone
She was like the revenge of all the snarls of hair stuck
in all the drains in all the world. There was more hair than skin, swirling out
at all angles as she darted through the chlorine-reeking pool. Unlike the other
students, she went lap after lap without ever coming up for air. Jason never
saw her face.
A voice behind him taunted, “You haven’t done your laps.”
Jason knew better than to turn around, and he still did
it. It was a reflex.
There was nobody there – not corporeally. How he hated
ghost bullies. A red balloon floated in front of Jason’s eyes.
Pennywise chided, “What’s wrong? Do you need your
mommy?”
Another voice said, “Don’t you know? He can’t swim.”
That one was Paimon. Pennywise and Paimon, the new
popular kids in school. The popular kids always hunted in packs. You never knew
when the next attack was coming.
They were both invisible, save for the balloon that
drifted closer to Jason.
Jason held up his hands, and tried to swat the red
balloon away. It burst, the sound echoing throughout the swimming pool, and he
lost his balance for a moment. Someone shoved him hard and he stumbled toward
the pool, careful to keep from falling in.
Pennywise asked, “Afraid you’ll drown again?”
Paimon said, “We’ll help you learn.”
Jason barely braced before the next shove came in a gust
of fetid air. It was harder than any shotgun blast he’d ever felt, and sent him
sprawling through the air. The humid warmth of the pool sprang up even before
he hit it. Then he was underwater, that chlorine sting in his eyes, and up his
nose, and filling his lungs. The water always got in Jason’s lungs.
This was drowning, and he thrashed, and in his idiot
reflexes, tried to stab the pool. Pools didn’t bleed, and waving his arms, he
barely got his nose above water, the stuff streaming through every hole in his
mask. His eyes were muddied, and he couldn’t even see the invisible figures
that blinded him.
Pennywise said, “Looks like you’re short another
lifeguard.”
Their voices always sounded the same, harmonizing into
laughter. He reached for them, and all he got was a handful of balloons. They
didn’t float down here.
Paimon shouted, “What’s she doing?”
“Hey, fuck you—”
The world filled up with the sounds of bursting
balloons, and Jason thought he went under again, but he was lifted up.
Something caught his hand, like a thousand steely strings wrapping around his
fingers. He sprawled forward onto the edge of the pool, groping for whoever had
caught him, ready to ring Pennywise’s neck if this was another game.
There were no clowns, and no invisible ghosts laughing.
There was only the sloshing of the water, and something dripping to his left.
Hair was tangled around his hand, and it writhed free,
going back to its owner. It had pulled him out of the drowning. The figure of
hair that had been swimming laps paused at the edge of the pool, and inside it,
eyes darker than coal bored into him. It was like a power drill to the mind. It
stung and was nice at the same time.
He was used to staring. He stared back. It was all he
knew how to do to thank her.
The girl and all her hair dove back into the deep end
without a word.
That was for the best. Jason had never been good at banter.
