The laughs of teenagers bounced around the spacious room as they pushed each other around, jumping and splashing in the pool and dunking each other under as they played their boisterous games. They had been anticipating tonight for over a month now- ever since Danny's older brother got a shift once or twice a week as a lifeguard. The position came with his very own key to the community swimming pool (to lock up after he cleaned up the filth in the changing rooms), which the teens planned to extort as often as they could.

Empty beer cans and bottles of vodka- courtesy of their parents liquor cabinet- were littered along the pool edge and the inebriated teens were having the best night of their lives. The seven teens- four girls and three boys- hadn't noticed that two of them were missing. Danny and Rose had slipped away from others. They'd been dating for almost a year now and for the last month or so, Danny had had only one thing on his mind- and tonight he planned on taking it.

Danny led her into one of the various storage rooms; he had dumped a duffle bag in there previously in anticipation. He'd packed a large blanket to lay out on the cold, slightly damp, concrete floor. Alongside that, he'd packed some other things- including a bottle of his mother's good wine and some protection he'd stolen from his older brother's bedside table. He was secretly nervous about the consequences of that, but he thought it would be worth it if tonight went as planned. The damp room smelt strongly of chemicals- the stench from the chlorine bottles lining the storage cabinet next to them was overwhelming. He knew it wasn't really romantic, but he was hoping she'd see past it. He had, after all, gone through the effort of at least trying to make it a little bit better.

He pulled out the blanket, fumbling with the tricky zip, as he laid it out across the floor. Nervously turning around and looking Rose once over, he scanned her face to judge her response to his gestures. He was incredibly nervous at this point, the not so subtle suggestion of what he wanted to do with her in the storage closet of a pool could make or break his relationship with her. Rose scrunched her nose up slightly, the smell of the chemicals stinging a little. She loves Danny- she really does, but is this where she wants to go through with losing it? She thought it was absolutely disgusting in here but when she looked into Danny's eyes and felt the overwhelming feeling she got, it was reassurance enough; anywhere is fine as long as it's with Danny, as cheesy as that sounds.

Danny sat down and Rose followed suit. Danny gingerly rested his hand behind Rose's head and leant in, Rose lying down as they embraced. They were completely oblivious to the outside world, the only thing that mattered to the two of them was what was happening inside the chemical store room at this moment. Meanwhile, the drunken teens were still splashing around in the dimly lit pool, except now they had moved along to play 'chicken'. One of the teens had left to go find any pizzeria that happened to be open at three in the morning to get food for everyone and, possibly, more beer if his fake ID could pass by the grumpy owner of the liquor store.

"Is Brandon back already? I thought he just left?" one of the girls on the side of the pool asked another of the teens, the clanging footsteps coming from the corridor echoing around the pool room.

"That's not Brandon" The other replied, scrunching up their brows and swimming up to the poolside to get a closer look.

A very tall figure stood in the shadows by the entrance to the pool room, looming but unmoving. It just stood there, its face masked by the shadows and body covered from head to toe in black clothing, a trench coat adorning its torso. All the laughing teens eventually joined the others with staring at the new stranger as it continued to loom in the doorway, so large it filled the doorframe. All the teens turned to each other and started to talk in hushed whispers, some panicking it was somebody's parents or even the cops, here to bust them for breaking in.

"Hey, are you the owner? We're like totally sorry, we'll leave if you want?" One of the teens moved past the rest and climbed out of the pool, approaching the looming figure, attempting a response "Hey dude? I'm sorry if you're angry, we didn't mean any harm. We're just kids you know?"

Just as the teenager was about to make contact with the figure, it raised its hand abruptly and the teenager went flying back into a concrete wall. With a sickening crunch and a piercing scream from one of the girls, all hell broke loose. The slumped body of the teenager flopped down the wall, the back of his caved-in skull spilling blood into the once clear, chlorinated water until soon it was crimson. All the teens clambered to get out of the bloodbath, trying to make a break for the emergency exit, screaming and their faces stained with tears.

One by one, they were flung across the pool room- they crashed into walls, their limbs being ripped from them. A steady river of blood ran down the walls and across the floor, flooding into the already deep red pool water. One of the teens managed to reach the exit, his arm ripped from the socket and spraying with blood as he used the other one to reach for the handle, almost flinging the door open before his entire body froze. He couldn't move. It was as if he was paralyzed. It was silent now, nobody other than him was left: other than the shadowy figure. He wanted to scream for help, yell until someone came running, but he couldn't utter a word. Footsteps started to approach him, slow and calm. They sounded out of place as they echoed around the pool room, the calm echoes contrasting the chaotic screams and pleas for help that were coming from the teens just moments before.

"Children, they annoy me. Particularly when they're screaming at all hours of the night, acting cocky and righteous about the whole ordeal." The mysterious figure spoke, circling the petrified teenager, snarking and shaking his head in disappointment. His voice was raspy, as if he hadn't spoken in a very long time, that or he smoked a thousand cigarettes a day, "Oh well."

With that, the figure flicked his hand dismissively and the teenager yelled out in excruciating pain, falling to his knees with blood pouring from his mouth, coughing and clutching his throat. He eventually rolled over and went silent as the figure continued to walk away, heading out of the pool room as he flicked his lit cigarette onto the floor outside a supply cupboard- a snap of his fingers making the fire roar and lick up the wooden door at unbelievable speed, eating it up and spreading fast. Inside the cupboard, Danny and Rose were still preoccupied, so busy in their own little bubble that they didn't even notice the smoke leaking in from under the door and the flames spreading to the rows of chemicals inside.

Rose noticed her eyes were burning, stinging so bad they started to stream with tears. She glanced up and could see the smoke drifting around the small cupboard. She shook Danny and they both frantically pulled on some clothes, reaching for the door. Twisting it, it dawned on them, with a sinking feeling in their stomach, that it was now locked. Rose hysterically began to bang on the door, yelling for help as Danny began to hyperventilate, his eyes wide as he rocked on the floor, watching Rose try to kick the door down. Then, the chemical sting in their eyes got so bad she no longer continued to kick down the door. She fell on the floor, clutching her eyes and shrieking in pain- shrieks that mingled with the chuckles from the figure watching over its work.