This story is dedicated to Darla who passed recently. She was a good fish.
Also posted on Archive our own
Act 1: Shoes
The tile on the ground of the shower was gross, it was covered in gray mold.
"I should probably clean this someday," Kairi said as she got ready for a shower. "Not today though, I got a party to prepare for." She squealed excitedly.
It was a pool party for her apartment complex and her best friend (maybe soon to be crush) Sora was going to be there, so she wanted to shave her legs.
A half hour she got out with smooth legs but a bloody ankle. She had nicked herself with the razor and it hadn't stopped bleeding. The shower looked like a crime scene, there was blood all over the floor. Red rivers flowed down the shower drain.
"Better clean that before the cops show up," She muttered to herself. Kairi dried off, put on a band-aid and got dressed.
She returned to the shower to see it was clean, even the mold was gone! Her mind though to her mom taking a nap in the bedroom. Had she cleaned it?
"Thanks, mom!" Kairi yelled toward her mom's room. She got no reply but whatever, the showers clean, who cares?
Kairi walked back to her room to put her hair up. On the way to her room, she noticed a splotch of something on the floor. She leaned closer to get a look and the mass of grey moved. She shot back at the sudden movement and the mass disappeared around the corner.
What was that!?
Kairi didn't know and Kairi didn't care, she had a party to get ready for!
After a long while of making her hair perfect and waterproofing her makeup, she left for the party. It started at 7 and it was 7:30 now, fashionably late. She didn't want to look desperate. She texted Sora she was on her way. He texted back saying he was already there eating a hot dog.
Kairi went down the hall to tell her mom she was leaving for the party.
The was a squeak behind her. She whirled around to see nothing.
She took a few more steps down the hall. There was another squeak behind her, she turned around quickly to see a shadow disappear behind the corner. "Just my imagination" she assured herself.
She told her mom she was heading out and her mom said to be home no later than 8:30.
Kairi walked back down the hall to the door to leave, again there was a squeaking noise like a towel on a mirror. She glanced behind herself to see her mom's slippers on the outside of the door.
She didn't remember seeing those there before, but it was such an ordinary scene she didn't think anything of it.
She turned away and walked towards the door, she heard a squeaking noise again. This time she didn't allow herself to look back until she made it to the door where she turned around without a warning. She saw a dark shadowy figure, it was gone before she had time to gasp.
She turned back to the door and then turned around again, a tingle crawling up her spine.
There was nothing there.
"See, nothing there," She reassured herself. "Now stop worrying, you have a party to look forward too." She smiled at the thought and headed out the door.
On the walk over, she swore she could hear the bushes rustle, but she refused to turn around because she knew it was nothing. It was windy out, and it was probably just the wind rustling the bush, nothing else.
Out the door to the apartment complexes' pool. She walked through the clubhouse. Outside there was a nice sized pool with lots of chairs and a covered pavilion for food. People of all ages in the pool, mothers, babies, teens and even an old couple relaxing in the corner.
Kairi looked over the crowd trying to find Sora. She saw a couple other kids from school in the pool, Roxas and Xion and that kid from a grade level above them, Axel. There were rumors he had been held back a couple times. Judging by his size that wasn't a shock. She wasn't particularly good friends with any of them, so she passed by them without a hello.
She finally spotted Sora on the table near the grill. He wasn't eating a hot dog anymore but there was an empty paper plate in front of him.
"Hi!" Sora said as he saw her coming.
Kairi sat down next to him, "Hey-"
Their conversation was prematurely cut off by some lady yelling "Darla! Where are you! Daaarrlaaaaaa, answer me!" She was carrying a pair of pink Velcro shoes.
"Wonder what's up with her?" Sora asked Kairi.
"I don't know, but I'm nosey as heck, so let's go see," She said getting up. Sora scrambled to catch up.
They made it up to the lady who was frantically running around asking people questions. She ran over to Kairi and Sora.
"Have you seen my daughter! She 10 and about this tall," She held her hand to her shoulder. "She went to the bathroom and hasn't come back!"
"Did you check the bathroom?" Sora asked.
"Of course, I did!" The lady yelled back, it seems she has been given this advice one too many times. "She isn't there, only her shoes and phone!" She showed the shoes and an iPhone in a Dan and Phil case. "I know Darla and she would never leave behind her phone!" The lady left Sora and went to the next person to plea for answers.
"What do you think happened," Sora asked.
"What if she was kidnapped? Maybe we should check the building for clues." Kairi suggested.
They walked around the building but didn't see anything. They decided to investigate the inside of the building too, starting with the bathroom. Kairi didn't find anything of interest in the bathroom. They moved on to the gym.
"Geeze, our parents pay high rent, and this is how they take care of the pool?" Kairi said gesturing up to the ceiling.
Sora looked up at the large mold stain. "Maybe a leak?" He suggested. "Hey look over there!" He pointed towards treadmills.
They walked over because a treadmill was still running. There was a pair of black sneakers on the floor near the end of the treadmill.
"Well this is strange," Kairi said. She rubbed her chin like the thinking statue. "Who would leave in such a hurry as too forget to turn off the treadmill and forget their shoes?"
"Someone in a rush?" Sora guessed, "Maybe they heard about Darla and rushed outside to see what was happening?"
"Well let's ask about these shoes outside before someone steals them, they look almost new," Kairi said. She turned off the treadmill and picked up the shoes. She handed them to Sora for him to hold.
"What, why are you giving me these? It was your idea to return them," Sora whined.
"Because you are a nice person who likes to carry things for me," She said with a cheeky smile before continuing. "Besides I'm Sherlock and your Watson. Learn your place."
"No!" Sora protested but she had already walked away. He quick-walked to catch up with her.
They both continued their investigation around the rest of the rooms in the clubhouse. There was a wet floor sign in the back hall, but they didn't find anything else important, so they headed back out to the pool.
On their way out, they passed the gym again. Sora glanced through the window and stopped in his tracks.
"Kairi look!" He pointed to the ceiling of the gym.
"What?"
"The mold! It's gone!" He yelled.
"You're right! Where did it go?!" She said after he pointed it out.
"I don't know, maybe it wasn't there at all in the first place?" Sora suggested.
"No, it's got to be real because we both saw it," Kairi said.
"Then what happened?" He asked.
"I don't know, I'll just log it on the mystery list in my mind palace." She said then proceeded to squint her eyes and place her hands on the side of her head for a full second.
"Since when have you had a mind palace?" He asked confusedly.
"Since I watched Sherlock."
"Ok, then." There was a pause before Sora continued. "Let's go outside, I don't think there are any more clues inside here, besides I wanted to swim a little at this party."
They headed outside to the pool deck but before they could go swimming they had to find the sneaker's owners.
"Hey!" Kairi yelled out to the crowd, "Did anyone lose a pair of black sneakers!" She pointed at Sora as he held them above his head.
A lady in the crowd came forward. She looked to be about upper 20's with long dark brown hair. "Those look like my husband's."
She came up to Sora for a closer look. He gave them to her and she confirmed they were her husband's.
"Have you seen my husband he is like this tall," She held her hand above her head, "has really spiky blond hair and is named Cloud. Oh, yea and my name's Tifa."
"Nice to meet you Tifa," Sora and Kairi say in unison, they were both taught to be polite to their elders.
"He went to the gym a bit ago and I haven't seen him since and he hasn't been answering his phone."
"Well, we found these in the gym," Kairi said. "But we didn't see anyone in there."
"Alright, thank you, kids, for your help. If you do see him tell him that I'm by the pool and he'd better have a good excuse for not answer his phone."
"Will do ma'am," Sora said.
"Don't call me ma'am! I'm not that old…" Tifa said.
"Yes sir," Sora said back without hesitation. Kairi tried her best not to laugh but couldn't help it and burst out laughing.
Luckily for Sora, Tifa was laughing too.
Their laughter was abruptly cut off by a screech.
There was a teenager screaming and frantically searching around a small bush. It was a circular bush on the perimeter of the concrete around the pool.
The three of them ran over to the girl. The rest of the pool area was silent as everyone focused their attention on the screeching teen.
"Is everything alright?" Kairi tried to ask but was ignored as the teen continued her search of the bush.
Tifa grabbed the girl's shoulder, "Calm down, tell us what is wrong," she commanded.
The girl stopped her searching she tried to speak was ended up gasping, tears on the edge of her eyes. "Well, well…"
While the girl caught her breath, Sora looked around the bush. The ground was covered in a strange gray moss and there was a pair of baby-sized pink flowery flip-flops, he bent over and picked them up.
The teen caught her breath and started to talk, "Well I'm babysitting for my cousin and I lost her!" After that, she began to cry again.
"Where did you last see her?" Kairi asked.
"We were playing hide-and-seek and…and she hid in that bush," she pointed at the bush and started to cry again.
"Are these hers?" Sora asked showing the shoes.
"Yes!" The girl choked out. "I was watching the whole time and now she's gone! She's gone!"
"It's ok, we will find her," Tifa assured her. Tifa led her over to the chairs and wrapped a towel around her.
While Tifa talked more to the girl, Kairi and Sora went back to investigating the bush.
"The moss is gone!" Sora yelped.
"Huh?"
"There was a gray moss covering the ground! I swear it was there!" He explained.
"Wait…moss, gray moss?" Kairi said in revelation. "Gray like the mold in my shower, or in the hall…"
"Or on the ceiling of the gym!" Sora interjected.
"Yes, all that gray mold disappeared…" Kairi said.
They looked at each other.
"I think we've solved it, Sherlock!" Sora said with a smile.
"Well done Watson!" Kairi said and they both busted out laughing.
"Ha ha! Could you imagine! Man-eating mold!" Sora said.
"Yea, what are we, like12?" Kairi added.
They continued to laugh at the hilarity of it.
"Ok but for real, we do need to find a real solution to what's happening," Kairi said with seriousness.
Suddenly there was terror at the pool, everyone was looking towards the back of the pool by the diving board.
Where there once stood a man, now there were only man-sized flip-flops on the ground, next to the giant gray mass of mold.
Everyone at the pool was in too much shock to move, but the mold didn't waste any time. It shot forward propelling itself off the diving board into the pool, where Roxas, Xion, and Axel were tossing a beach ball. The mold landed on top of Axel and swallowed him whole, leaving nothing behind.
Kairi saw it all, but she wasn't too concerned, she never did like that red-haired weirdo.
After the mold had swallowed its first victim it started to swim toward Roxas and Xion. After momentary shock, they swam like madmen toward the ladder. Everyone else at the pool seemed to recover from shock and ran frantically around, some ran home and a couple, including Tifa and the teen, barricaded themselves inside the clubhouse.
Kairi and Sora were too enraptured in a morbid curiosity to run.
The mold swam faster than Roxas and ate him before he could even scream. Xion at least made it to the ladder, but once again the mold was too fast and ate her before she could climb out.
Once the mold ate them it turned its attention to Sora and Kairi, the only two people who didn't run.
As soon as Sora saw it turn its attention onto them he pulled Kairi's hand and ran towards the clubhouse.
The mold was fast approaching.
Kairi running right behind Sora could see the mold, the thing they had just laughed at the possibility of, was right behind her about to eat her for real.
Sora could see Tifa through the glass door, she looked really scared. He was almost to the door when it opened and Tifa came out, she held it open for them to go inside but slammed it closed before the mold could follow.
Unfortunately, she was on the outside, the side where the mold was.
The held her fighting stance while the mold raced forward. It paused a moment before Tifa and instead of attacking it rose to about 5 ft as if to taunt her.
Tifa clenched her fist, ready to bring this monster down to size. She punched straight at the mold with all her effort but instead of doing any damage, the mold engulfed her hand and pulled the rest of her in as well!
The three of them watched from inside with a look on terror on their face as their only hope had just been eaten in front of their face.
They all took a step back in horror when they saw the mold come close to the glass door.
The mold sank down to the floor and began to slowly crawl under the glass door.
The three backed away in horror, eyes transfixed on the mold as it came closer. They wanted to run but couldn't seem to draw their eyes away from the oncoming doom.
The old shot forward once it was clear from the door and grabbed its first victim, the teen. She screamed a horrible inhuman sound as the mold engulfed her.
Kairi ran away as fast as she could, she pulled on Sora's wrist to follow her.
They ran towards the front of the clubhouse, hoping to escape through the front door.
Looking back Sora saw the mold was following closely behind. As he passed the mop and wet floor sign the mold suddenly took a sharp left to avoid it.
That's when Sora slipped.
His feet flew out from under him and he slid on the tile for a second. Kairi looked back in fear, she could see the mold was almost upon him.
"Go on without me!" Sora yelled as the moss engulfed him and ate all of him, only leaving behind his gigantic yellow banana boat shoes.
End of Act 1
How was the story? Please let me know in the comments. :)
I actually wrote the full story already, but I thought it would be more suspenseful if I split it up into two acts. So be ready, act 2 will be posted on Monday!