Swimming Pool

Just need to preface this with the following:

• This is a work of fiction, inspired by a nightmare.

• Please take care, it has themes of violence, both physical and sexual.

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The halls ring with whistles and shouts,

Chlorine becomes my new perfume as,

I launch myself into the cool depths.

Surrounded by my shoal, garbed in lycra,

I breach the surface, inhaling sweet air,

Before returning to the water, reaching.

I find the end, and pause, chest heaving.

From afar, our eyes meet, heart faltering, as

Your stare, laser focused, burns my skin,

Dark with a sick obsession. Your wink turns,

My stomach, as I remember the cracked

Tile, the crushing lips, bruising hands on

Gentle parts, how my back arched,

Electricity pulsing, before you growled,

Ignored my cries and swallowed me whole.

So, tell me, my friend titters, catching

Up in the next lane, he’s giving you those

Come hither eyes, it must have been a

Dream date. My eyes scream, throat dry,

The words to explain lost, my mouth closed,

Then opened, still feeling the shape of

His probing fingers, pulling my jaw askew.

I just nod, his burning scrutiny blistering,

Swallowing past the silencing lump before

Pushing off, racing away, mixing salt with

Chlorine, losing myself in the repeated laps,

Up, down, arms and legs burning, until the pool,

Empties, leaving me to purge my thoughts.

I surface, and you are there, scowling, grabbing,

“You thought you could escape me? You are mine.”

He holds me tight and we sink, hitting the tile,

The stones in his pockets clanging down as

He bruises my mouth, no dignity in death.