Author’s note:
This is the first time I’m letting anyone but myself read a story I have written. I love writing and making up stories, but I am by no means a genius at it. It’s the process that’s most important to me and hopefully I will get better when I write more. I do appreciate feedback so don’t be afraid to say your thing!
The story was written for Halloween and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
It was the perfect day for a morning swim. Not a single cloud was visible in the sky and the sun was not yet at its highest point. It all seemed perfect.
But arriving at the pool put a damper on his mood. There were too many people, again… But that was probably to be excepted since the swimming pool was owned by the hotel. Although he still had hoped there would be less people in the morning. After all, wasn’t the point of a holiday to sleep in?
The little boy stood at the edge of the pool with a pink towel in his right hand and his dark blue goggles in his other hand. He just stared at the water as he tried to make a decision. Every now and then a shape in the water passed him by. He could see vague colours of red, brown and soft pink, the colour of skin. It seemed to be a middle aged man swimming from one side of the pool to the other again and again. Every time he came at the short edge of the pool he put his head above the water to take a deep breath before he was off again. The man was considerably faster than any of the other guests who where in the swimming pool. Some people just didn’t put any effort into it and just floated around in the pool with their useless limbs hanging there.
“Denis!”
He seemed to hear his name in the distance but wasn’t sure if it was real. He had been deceived by his ears too many times.
“Denis…”
Now the voice seemed to be closer. Could it be?
He slowly turned his head to see his mother standing next to him at the edge of the pool. He couldn’t quite make up the emotion on her face.
“Denis, you know you can’t go to the swimming pool on your own.” said his mother as if she was stating an obvious fact. The obvious fact that he wasn’t old enough to be on his own, which he found stupid.
His mother took him back to their hotel room. It was a spacious place with a beige couch in the middle and two separate sleeping rooms. His father was sitting on the couch looking concentrated at the phone in his hands. Even on holidays you couldn’t get that thing away from him. What his father did on that thing was a mystery to Denis. He never really saw the point of waisting your time with such electronics. But maybe that had again something to do with his age.
“Can you put that phone down for one minute.” said his mother with an agitated voice, “I found Denis, he was down by the pool again.”
He hated it when they talked about him as if he wasn’t in the room even though he was. It made no sense.
His father just shrugged as he kept staring at his phone. Now Denis could see the anger in his mothers eyes. It was slowly but surely building up, but his mother chose not to act on it. Probably because it was a holiday and it would be a shame to argue when the point of a holiday was to relax. So, his mother acted as if nothing had happened and said to Denis: “Today we had planned to go see the famous caves in the area nearby. Sounds good?” She was smiling and trying to convince herself that she was actually happy even though everyone could see past that.
“Sure” answered Denis.
To be honest, it didn’t sound like the worst thing to do. Caves could be quite interesting because they were dark and mysterious, but Denis had also been looking forward to swimming in the pool. That is, if there wouldn’t have been other people in the pool.
After they got ready, his parents locked the door of their room and took Denis to the car. It was a big red car that they had rented since they had come here by plane. He liked this car more than the one at home, because that car was just an old, small thing. But on holidays his parents could all of a sudden pretend like they were moderately rich, as if that was the only purpose of their money. To go on luxury holidays to later brag about.
When they arrived at the caves there was already a line of people waiting to go inside. Denis and his parents had to wait 23 minutes before they could actually enter one of the caves and by then Denis was already bored and his father had given up on keeping his phone in his pocket. His mother tried to stay positive but was noticeably on edge. When they entered the caves they were swallowed by darkness. There was a string of lights along the path so that they could see were they were going. It was a guided tour with a group of about 30 people and a guide called Fredric who was talking very enthusiastically about how the cave was formed and all the different types of rocks. Denis wasn’t really interested in listening to Fredric but just enjoyed how dark and cold it was inside the cave. Sometimes they stopped at certain places were a special rock formation was put in the spotlight. At one moment they stopped by a steep abyss with green-looking water at the bottom. It reminded Denis of the swimming pool at the hotel and he wished he could swim in this cave instead.
When the group stopped another time there lay bits of rock on the side but the guide reassured everyone that the cave was safe and wouldn’t collapse. The pieces of rock had actually lain there for quit a long time. Denis saw a beautiful rock laying among them and picked it up. Everyone else was focused on what Frederic was saying. The rock shimmered in the light and had one sharp edge. It seemed almost unnatural that this rock could be so sharp. It wasn’t too heavy or to big so Denis put it in his pocket without anyone noticing. Now he would have a unique souvenir from his holiday.
When they came out of the cave, the sunlight was almost blinding.
Shortly afterwards they went back to the hotel. Denis still had an urge to go swimming, but he didn’t really want to ask his parents to go with him. Fortunately something happened that made it possible for him to sneak out. His mother finely couldn’t keep her thoughts to herself anymore. It started with a simple comment but eventually became a heated discussion. Whilst his parents kept on arguing about useless things, Denis took his swimming equipment and went outside.
Regrettably there were still quit a lot of people in the pool. But there probably wouldn’t come a better occasion. In his pocket he could feel the sharp edge of the rock he had taken from the cave. He slowly walked towards an empty chair and put his pink towel and his dark blue goggles down. He would not be needing those.
“Denis…”
He wasn’t sure how much time it had taken his parents to realise that he was gone, but by now there wasn’t anything either of them could do. The water had already turned red as Denis stoot at the edge of the pool.
He had blood all over his clothes but didn’t seem to notice. The sharp rock dripped with blood but Denis kept it firmly in his hands. When he turned his head to look at his parents, he could see the horror in their eyes. They had never looked at him this way and it almost felt exciting.
The little boy turned his head again to look at the beautiful red pool whilst a smile appeared on his face.
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