Blood Pool
#1 of Horror
It stated that the Water Dwellers Center consisted of the following: A water park, many top tier restaurants, all themed around wet environments such as oceans, rainforests, wetlands and the like. They originally wanted employees to be species based on the natural environment they found themselves working in. Like otters, green anacondas, species of dolphin and whale, etc. but due to the amount of complaints by would be employees, this rule was changed so that any species could apply. However any species that were "out of place" had to wear explorer outfits to keep the immersion.
This is where I come into the picture.
When I first applied I wasn't qualified due to being a red wolf.
When I got a call back from management, they said I was able to start work due to having a change in policy and had the required qualifications.
Sure I wasn't happy about wearing an explorers outfit, but I managed to get the job.
My first year and a half was actually fun, if you ignored the snickers and little kids making fun of you and the complaint the occasional visitor had, but I managed to switch positions with enough patience from a guide in the rainforest zone to a night time security guard.
Yes, I was one of those who preferred to be awake during the night.
Before I go on, there is something you should know about this place. See a majority of the center is open to all ages. However in each different environmental zone, there is a section that is cut off that you need to be eighteen plus and either have a pass, or pay an entry fee.
If you hadn't guessed it by now, these were adult entertainment places. Each one varying in cost based on...what went on in them.
There was security at each entrance and two monitoring stations.
One for the public zones.
And one, for all the adult zones.
I worked at the monitoring station that kept an eye on the adult places.
Now before you start getting certain thoughts through your head, no I didn't see anything I wasn't supposed to or two anthros going at it after hours or anything like that.
Did I see the occasional mess that wasn't cleaned? Yes, but that was probably the worst of it.
The job was strange, I mean I can see the use of security cameras, but why have separate ones for the two types of zones?
Eh, who am I to complain? I get better pay to sit in a small locked building and watch cameras.
At least I thought it was as easy as that...
I'll just let the story speak for itself.
As I walked up to the door leading to the station I got out my keys and unlocked the door.
Stepping in and locking it behind me, I go down the small hallway and into the room with the monitors.
Looking to my right I could see the locker I put my bag into every time I walk into here.
Funny, the only time I didn't stash my bag in there was when I first walked in here.
Seems like a long time ago, even though its only been a little over two years.
Sitting down in the swivel chair I turn on the monitors and prepare myself for another uneventful night.
For the longest time I would do the same process I always did, look over each camera before going back onto my phone.
Despite nothing really happening, one camera would always make me uneasy for some reason.
It was a view of a place in the ocean adult zone called the "Trove of Pleasure". Although the name was...welcoming to certain individuals, seeing it at night freaked me out.
It was pretty much a large indoor pool.
I had also heard, from a co-worker that it was only used once a week which I found strange because a pool seemed like something that should be open to whoever could afford to enter.
Call me a pervert if you want, but I did some reading on what went on in these zones. I watched over them so curiosity got the better of me.
A well known and profitable adult entertainment company called Tails and Paws, whom were also my current employers, managed the adult zones, and from visiting their website I was able to find out just went on here.
To put it simply, if you had any kind of kink, fetish, or any kind of itch, you can bet that they had someone that could scratch it.
In regards to the Trove, it was pretty much a V.I.P experience to those who could afford it.
From what I read, when it was time, you would enter the grove, alone and several women who's species consisted of dolphin and whales would swim with you, and you would...pretty much to anything you wanted as long as it wasn't violent.
You had to pay to have an orgy with several delphinid women in a large pool. That was pretty much the gist of it.
It was creative I'll give them that, and apparently a lot of other people thought so too because it made the ocean adult zone the most popular, and most expensive zone to get into.
Still, that didn't make it less creepy, in fact I think it added to the creepy factor.
The sound of a familiar voice from the radio on my desk made me jolt from my thoughts.
Picking it up and hitting the talk button I answered him.
"What's up Cody?" I asked.
Cody was the guy who watched over the public zones, we started talking a few weeks after I started the work because he said and I quote "He needed someone to talk to to stave off the boredom."
I think his phone could do that, but I wasn't complaining, it made things a bit more amusing at times.
"Seen any ghosts yet?" He asked sarcastically.
"No, but if I do I'll be sure to let you know."
"Any women?" He asked.
"No, if I worked the dayshift then maybe." I played along.
There was a pause before we spoke about some other stuff before he went silent for the rest of the night.
"I'll radio you if something interesting happens." He said before yawning.
"Just don't fall asleep, you know how management is about that stuff."
"Now you sound like one of the management."
"Goodnight Cody." I said before the radio went silent.
The rest of the night nothing else happened, when I went out to my car I drove home on mostly empty streets.
...
For the next few hours of the night after that, nothing happened, however when I got a call from Cody on the radio.
"Hey man, listen, keep a closer eye on your cameras in the beach zone, I swear I just saw someone run out of view of one of the cameras." He said.
Picking up the radio I responded.
"Did you get a good look at them?" I asked.
"No, I could just be seeing shit, but still, just keep an eye out. Someone might have hidden themselves when we closed." He informed me.
"Right, thanks for the heads up."
For the rest of the night I kept checking the cameras more frequently in the beach zone.
Though, nothing came up.
The next night started like the last two for a few hours, however a call from Cody caused the lazy mood to shift.
"Uh, there's someone in the rainforest zone."
Pausing, I slowly took the radio and said.
"What are they doing?"
"There just standing there in the open by one of the pools, I don't know if there drunk or what but they ain't moving. I think there a canine but I can't tell what breed."
I was starting to get worried, not because of the fact that there was someone just standing by the pool, but the fact that they could fall in and drown.
"Cody, I'll notify everyone at the entrances, you go to them and I'll meet you there." I said.
"I don't know man...something doesn't seem right about them." He said.
"There probably drunk, which is why I need you to make sure they don't drown themselves." I explained.
"Well, alright, but if they start to chase me your on your own." He said.
"Thanks Cody...I can always count on you." I said sarcastically.
After notifying the gate guards I went out to where the rainforest zone was and met up with Cody where the anthro was spotted.
Only to find he wasn't there.
I couldn't smell any scents save for where the canine was standing.
No scent of alcohol.
I made it a priority to memorize the scent, that way I can make it easier to know if there near.
When I got down to smell the ground, Cody was trying to suppress his laughter.
Him being a tiger he found my canine antics amusing.
Getting up I asked him something.
"You know what I don't get, you must be the biggest guy next to Drake on shift, surely you could take on a canine smaller than you."
"Hey, you don't know if he's carrying anything. He could have a gun or a spray, or a knife." He explained.
He made a point, I would be lying if I said I didn't find this situation creepy, I mean you see a guy on the cameras and the only trace of him being his scent from where he was standing? Kind of spooky.
The only thing I can think of is this guy using a spray to mask his scent, but why would he go through all that trouble? Sure he was breaking the law by being here after hours but as long as he doesn't damage anything he would normally be let go with a warning.
The more I thought about it the less I found this situation comfortable.
I told him we needed to get back and check the cameras.
He quickly agreed and we went our separate ways.
When we got back I radioed him to make sure he made it.
"You good? Make it back?"
"Yeah, I'm checking the cameras now." Cody said.
I did the same with mine. No sign of him.
Cody said the same thing on his end.
When our shifts were over, we called our boss' and they said they will do a full search and tighten security.
Ever since that night, there has been a tension whenever I came back, I would check the cameras more frequently.
There was a few times where I swore I saw someone, but I couldn't tell if it was imagination or this guy was just really good at not being found.
When Cody confirmed that he too saw glimpses of someone, I knew I wasn't the only one.
Some of the guys at the entrances thought they saw someone stalking around their area but couldn't confirm it.
So many questions ran through my mind, was there multiple people? Did a group of homeless anthros decide to move in?
Despite the full sweep our boss' said they did and with the tighter security they never found anyone.
I'm the kind of guy that is skeptical of supernatural events, sure I believe in supernatural stuff to an extent, but I don't think ghosts leave scents.
Speaking of scents. I never managed to pick up anything remotely similar to the scent from him.
It didn't help that I didn't go outside the security office much.
Sure I wanted to do my job, but I wasn't willing to risk getting jumped or even killed for it.
It got so bad to the point where Cody and I started to keep a record of how many times we saw the guy.
We brought it up with our boss' we even showed them the footages but they essentially told us the same thing and that was to get some rest.
The same shit kept happening, and I was then convinced that maybe I was just letting that one event play with my mind. Yes there might have been someone in the park after hours and they just escaped unnoticed.
However, in the middle of the next week, something happened that instantly made me rethink that.
At first it didn't happen to me directly, but rather it happened to poor Cody.
We radioed me and told me that someone had pounded on the door to his office three times.
There wasn't much I could do. We didn't have weapons like batons or tasers, and even though he had natural weapons at his disposal he wasn't prepared to open the door to see who was out there.
Honestly? I didn't blame him. You didn't know what they could do. Like Cody said before he could have weapons with him.
The fear of not knowing what would happen if you opened the door was very strong.
I thought I could toughen up when it happened to me the next night, but I too was too scared to open the door.
Not only does this guy know were watching him, he knows where we both are.
I think he found that out a long time ago but just didn't make it apparent until last night.
It was like he was telling us that he could toy with us and there wasn't anything we could do about it.
The clearest image we got of this guy was when Cody first truly noticed him on the camera.
Pants were covering his legs and feet, so we couldn't get a fur color or pattern, all we knew is that he was a canine based on his outline.
His ears were floppy from what Cody could tell, so that narrowed down what species he was.
Based on the video, he might have been a bit shorter or just about my height.
We went over a plan with Drake, and he reluctantly agreed.
Being a polar bear he was the biggest guy we had. I would have gotten Cody to help me, but...well you know.
After the knocking incident, things were quiet. We were even not seeing signs of him on the cameras.
Of course, just when things are starting to calm down...the problem rises again...
As if it wasn't worse...it happened when Cody and Drake were off work, someone came in to fill their shifts, but I was left as the biggest guy on shift...
So when the shit hit the fan I was the one to go.
It started quiet. I was feeling pretty good about tonight. Sure I was a bit nervous about both Drake and Cody being off on the same night, but I had a feeling with how quiet recent nights were, I think it would be ok.
For most of the night, it was quiet, no signs of trouble.
I had only an hour and twenty three minutes left of my shift.
I started to cycle the cameras.
All was well.
Until I got to the ocean zone.
I almost missed it, but by the entrance I could see it on the carpet.
Blood.
My heart started to race as I cycled through the cameras.
I used the cameras to follow the trail.
It lead to the one place where I wish it didn't.
The Trove of Pleasure.
It took me a bit before I switched to the Trove's camera.
And what I saw made me freeze in place.
I saw him by the pool with a dolphin. I think it was one of the workers of the Trove. She was tied, naked and had several wounds covering her body.
I could see her pained expression as he raped her.
The camera's had night vision but no sound.
Every time she tried to move out of his grasp, he would smack her.
I didn't see any weapon but I imagined he had one.
I froze, paralyzed at what was going on.
I had to do something or she would most likely be killed.
I picked up my phone and called the police.
In typical fashion, it took them at least fifteen minutes before I saw on the camera the flashlights.
He tried to hold her hostage but was quickly shot down by the police.
By some miracle on his part he didn't fall into the pool, but he came close.
I saw the cops put him in cuffs as they got the dolphin out of the bindings.
I didn't see the rest of the footage as I heard the police knock on the door to my office.
I opened the door and they escorted me to the parking lot.
The last I saw of that guy was him being on a stretcher tied down.
Just before he vanished from my sight, he saw me and stared at me as the doors to the ambulance closed.
What was scary about it was his stare was cold, very cold. No emotion behind it.
The sex worker, whom I later found out was named Dawn, was rushed to the hospital and made a full recovery.
Though I imagine the trauma would take a long time to heal.
If ever.
As you can imagine, I quit my job, and I'm certain Dawn did to.
Hearing what happened made Cody quit as well.
In fact, due to a soured reputation, Water Dwellers Center slowly lost traffic to the point where it couldn't stay open.
It took awhile for the media to stop talking about it, I didn't have my name mentioned at the request of the interviewer. But my face was shown...
Guess you got to be specific on what you don't want the media to show...
I never told anyone about what happened.
And for the longest time, it faded into memory.
I got a new job and moved on the best I could.
The last reminder, and the reason I know Dawns name, was because she called me.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Hey, is this-"
"Yes, who is this?"
"I'm...the girl that you- saw- on-"
"Ohhh...right, yeah. How are you doing?"
"I'm hanging in there, thanks to you."
We talked for a bit, she got a job that didn't include spreading her legs for money, which was good. She was still having difficulties with what happened that night and had to get therapy and medication for night terrors, but other than that she seemed alright.
"Listen, I know its very unlikely, but if we see each other in public, don't be afraid to say hi." She said.
I blinked twice before responding with.
"Uh, yeah, sure. I'll do that if I see you."
"You take care of yourself hun." She said.
"You too." I responded before we both hung up.
I slowly lowered the phone.
Well, that was unexpected.
Though I didn't exactly charge in to save the day, it was nice to be thanked.
As I stood in my bedroom thinking, I couldn't help but notice the slight swaying of my tail.