That day, I went to the pool with my friends. Usually, I didn't go, but today was different. Something about my dream convinced me to go.

"Lexi, come on!" My friend Ashe said. "We're gonna miss the bus!" She hurried me forward and we barely got onto the bus in time.

"Jeez," I said, panting. "All this for a pool."

"Hey, you didn't have to come," Ashe said. "You're the one who never goes to the pool. I thought you were afraid of the water."

"I'm afraid of the deep ocean," I corrected. "And I'm doing things to work on it."

By having weird nightmares, I thought.

We rode the bus to the massive building that housed the pool. We went inside and got some lockers before changing into our swimsuits. Ashe, for some reason, always wore quite revealing swimsuits. I had a simple swimsuit that wasn't too revealing but also wasn't ridiculous.

We went into the pool room, where some of my other friends were already hanging out.

Dane, my only guy friend, Kaya, and Lilani, my sister, were all near one end of the pool. They were almost directly in between the deep end and the shallow end.

"Let's go!" Ashe said. She pulled me forward toward the others.

"Hey, Ashe!" Kaya said. "Lexi? You're here? I thought you were scared of water?"

"Of the deep sea," I said. "Not water. I wanted to come today."

"Oh," Kaya said. "Well, let's hop in." She dove into the pool, with Lilani and Ashe diving in right after her.

I hesitantly entered the water as well. Then, as I was floating, all of the light suddenly went out. We entered complete darkness.

I let go of the pool's edge in surprise. Then I started to sink. I flailed around, trying to catch my friend's attention, but they couldn't hear me over the chaos that was ensuing.

I sank deeper, the water closing over my head.

No, no, no, no, no, no! I tried to swim to the surface but couldn't. Then I felt a burning along my legs and on the sides of my neck. I opened my mouth to scream and water rushed into my mouth.

But just like my nightmare, it seemed to flow through me. I could breathe.

Then a light appeared, illuminating me. I had the same strange tail in place of my legs from my nightmare, complete with the webbed hands and lure on my head. I took a deep breath (as well as I could with gills). I was okay.

I looked up to see mostly darkness with blobs of black moving around. I realized that these were other people, still in the pool. Then I vaguely heard a yell and all the people started flailing around. I blinked off my lure and found that I could also turn off the lights running down my tail's side.

I swam upward, my head popping up out of the water near where I had sunk.

"Where's Alexis?" Lilani was asking. "She can't swim well!"

"I don't know!" Ashe said. "I can't see!"

"I'm right here," I said.

"Where!?" Dane yelled. "I can't fucking see!"

I realized I could help with that. Although I wasn't sure what my friend's reactions would be.

"I can help," I said. "But try not to freak out, will you?"

"Why would we-," Kaya started. She was cut off when I flicked on my lure's light. Almost immediately after, I turned it off again so no one else would see.

"What the fu-!" Dane started to yell. Ashe covered his mouth with her hand.

"Not so loud," She scolded quietly.

"What the hell happened to you?" Lilani asked.

"That's. . . a long story," I said. "Recently, I've been having nightmares where I'm stuck in a tiny submarine that is sinking into the deep ocean, and there's also a weird monster that swims around. Then, last night, I was the monster in the dream, and I looked like this. And just now, I couldn't swim and then ended up changing into this again."

"That's. . ." Lilani said. "I don't know. Crazy."

"Yeah," I agreed.

"How do you think you change back to normal?" Kaya asked. "We don't want anyone else seeing you like this." I saw some phones turning on their lights around the pool room.

"Probably get out of the water?" Dane suggested. "Here, I'll help you get out." He held out a hand above the pool. I grabbed on and he hauled me out of the water. I flopped onto the stone. I couldn't even sit up with this tail.

Then a sharp pain started along my tail. I almost cried out but managed to stay silent. The pain faded quickly. In the very dim light that was there, I saw that I had my legs back. I felt the side of my neck and found the gills gone.

I had changed back just in time. The overhead lights flared on, illuminating the pool with near-blinding light.

"We should probably go," Kaya said. "I have a small pool in my backyard."

"Let's go to your house then," Ashe said.

All five of us got our stuff from the lockers and then left. We took the bus to Kaya's house.

Once we got to the backyard, something came over me, and I dropped all my stuff. I ran forward and jumped into the small, three-foot-high aboveground pool. Right after I touched the water, a sharp shock of pain shot over me as my body changed again.

"Uh, Alexis?" Ashe asked.

"What?" I asked, popping out of the water again.

"Why did you just jump in the pool?" Lilani asked.

"I. . . I don't know," I said.

"Well, now that you've changed to this," Lilani said. "Can I look at you?"

"Sure," I said. I held mostly still in the pool so Lilani could see me better.

"Hmm," She said. "You heavily resemble a dragonfish."

"Oh, those things?" Dane asked. "Creepy fuckers."

"They are a little creepy," Lilani said. "And you can turn the lights on and off at will?"

"Yes," I said, demonstrating by blinking the lights on my tail on and off. "And the lure, too." Here, I turned on the lure. It wasn't quite as bright in the sunlight, but it still illuminated the entire backyard.

"That's very bright," Kaya commented.

"Most deep-sea fish have really bright lures," Lilani said.

"How did this even happen?" Ashe asked.

"I don't know," Lilani answered. "I think. . ."

"What?" I asked.

"We're going to have to ask Mom," Lilani said.

Smiles

The next chapter will probably be the last one. I'm thinking of turning this into a series, where each one is based on a different phobia. Thoughts?