the Tale of The Dead Man's Float
The tale of the dead man's float is creature made by Trevor Henderson
Introedit | edit source
The night begins with Gary lighting a match to get the campfire going. He mentions that tonight is one of those meetings he always has mixed feelings about. He says that it's sad because Frank's family moved away, and now they've lost one of their members. Also it's exciting because now the Midnight Society must find a new member.
Hearing this Betty Ann is very excited and asks Gary who he brought, Tucker says he's the one who brought someone and comes in with a person in burlap sack bag on their head, saying that he's a friend of his. Kiki a little intrigued comes over to them up close to ask who the new guy is. Tucker takes off the burlap sack and a guy with greasy black hair named Stig says to Kiki "Hi babe!" and kisses her on the cheek.
Kiki backs away in absolute disgust and annoyance, just as all the other members do, too. Repulsed by him, she says; “No, no, anyone but stig.”. Sam is also disgusted and turned off by him. So she asks Kiki if she already knows the guy. Kiki says yes she does and that he’s “a total virus and if he gets to close to the fire he will explode”. Gary, considering how the girls are all feeling, expresses his concern to Tucker telling him he is not so sure about him. Tucker stands up for him and asks them all to give him a chance. Stig asks him if this is about telling a good story or winning a popularity contest.
All of them realizing he has a point, decides to let him take his chance. When Stig sits down next to Tucker, he is about to use Sam's sweater on the log to keep his bottom dry, but she protests and stops him. He defends himself saying the log was wet. She calls him grungy boy and tells him not to push it. Then she, Kiki and Betty Ann are all disgusted.
Stig says that since he figures he must impress them, he will take his best shot at it with his story. Stig says that many people do not like the way he is, and they always tell him to clean up his act, but that sometimes things are the way they are for a reason, and that making changes that shouldn't be made can lead to a whole mess of trouble.
Tucker takes the Non-Dairy Creamer dust and throws it into the fire to make the fire more intense, while Stig submits his story for approval of The Midnight Society. Calling the story "The Tale of the Dead Man's Float", and begins.
Storyedit | edit source
Stig tells the story. The story first tales place in 1954. One afternoon a young boy named Joe is about to go swimming in the school pool. Before he does, he asks the lifeguard Charlie Dempster if the pool is safe. Charlie says it is and to call him if he needs anything. Charlie instead is more focused on making out with his girlfriend Cindy who happens to be Joe's older sister. Joe is having a fun and relaxing time swimming. Then at the bottom of the pool, something unseen notices Joe swimming above and comes after him.
Joe suddenly smells the most disgusting and unpleasant smell in the air. Then suddenly the unseen creature grabs him underwater to drown and kill him. Joe panics and keeps trying to swim back up. He coughs and chokes and begins screaming at the top of his lungs for Charlie to help him. Hearing his screaming calls for help, Charlie and Cindy rush right over to the pool. Cindy is horrified to see her brother in the process of being drowned. Charlie grabs a lifebuoy and jumps in to rescue him, but it's too late and Joe is pulled under and drowns.
The story then goes forward in time to about 1994, in a science class, the school's smartest loser Zeke Matthews has just made a mess. His experimental volcano has exploded and there is foul smelling smoke and slime everywhere. The teacher Mr. Brooks asks him what went wrong? Zeke says he miscalculated his experiment. Mr. Brooks goes to get the Custodian. Two girls in his class Greta and Clorice who are both on the school's swim team, have a little crush on him. Greta says he's cute like a little puppy, Though Clorice sort of does too she also thinks he's a geek and annoying. She tells Greta yeah like a puppy you need to clean up after. As if to say he's a pain in the neck. Also Zeke had a crush on Clorice too.
Greta and Clorice go over to him and ask him what went wrong with volcano experiment. He tells them if you mix Mangenite with water the reaction is always same. you get lava surprise as in a really big exploding mess. He just made a mistake and put in too much at one time. Clorice coldly leaves him and takes off with Greta back to their seats. Mr. Brooks comes back and dismisses the class and the custodian comes in to clean the mess Zeke made. The Custodian is none other than Charlie Dempster who grew up to become the school's custodian. He gives Zeke a response as if to say "Really Zeke, another mess?" As the class is being dismissed Zeke waits for Clorice and tells her that since she is on the swim team he has a surprise to show her. One that she might finding really interesting. She asks her to just tell him, he says he can't just tell her then it wouldn't be any fun. Feeling intrigued she agrees to let him show her the surprise the next morning before school starts.
The next morning before school starts, Zeke and Clorice meet and leads her to the Boys' Change room. Feeling a little annoyed about where they are, she just wants to leave. Then Zeke is shown trying to open a panel at the corner of the lockers on the opposite wall. Clorice asks him what he is doing. He tells her that a week ago he calculated the entire mass of the school and found out that there are more rooms in the school then there seems to be. Then Zeke pulls the wall of lockers away from the wall, like a false wall and there is a door that says "To Pool". Clorice is just amazed and she and Zeke enter the Pool House. The Pool House is a mess there are old boxes and clutter everywhere and the pool is drained and covered by huge black tarps.
Clorice says that she never knew it was there, Zeke tells her he read up about it. The pool was used shortly in the 1950's but was then closed off for some reason and he doesn't know why it was closed. Clorice thinks she can get the school to open it up again, because there is no point for her team having to take a one hour bus ride to another town if there is a pool right in the school. She thanks him for the really cool thing he did and he asks her maybe if they can go out sometime, but she tells him not to push it. Then after they leave, Charlie passes by and can see at the bottom of the pool the form of a human body rising into part of the tarp. This makes him really nervous, because he just knows that history is going repeat itself if the pool re opens.
Clorice wasn't kidding, she spoke to everyone at school. Then in a few weeks time the pool was good as new and re opened. One afternoon, Clorice and Greta were practicing. They stopped at the end of the pool to catch their breath/ There they reflect on how great it is that she got the school to have re opened the pool. As Clorice and Greta are talking, at the bottom of the pool something unseen is shown quickly closing in on them. As whatever it is gets closer, it lets off a terrible smell. Greta covering her noise complains asking what the horrible smell is. Clorice thinks it might just be from the pipes still being dirty. Luckily Clorice and Greta get out of the swimming pool before the whatever it is can grab them.
Then later in Mr. Brooks' science class, Clorice is pretty down in the dumps because she just got a C- on her exam. Zeke asks her what the problem is. She says if she doesn't get her science grades up, she will be kicked off the swim team. He decides to help tutor her, and in return if she'll teach him how to swim. They meet later at the school pool to relax and study and swim. Zeke is afraid to get into the water so she goes through it slowly with him. They float in the pool in an inflatable raft, and she tells him slowly to first try putting his hand into the water. Zeke is too nervous to even do this. She asks him what it is that scares him so much about being in the water?
He tells her that when he was a kid he was swimming in a pond. Then he got his foot tangled in some underwater plants and he couldn't get loose. The harder he tried, the worse it got and he almost drowned. Thankfully his brother saw him and cut him loose, but ever since then he had a feeling like there is something down in the water waiting to get him. Because he cheated death once and it wants another chance at him. Clorice in her swimsuit jumps into the pool to show him that a pool is safe and there is nothing in it that will harm him. Then she encourages him to put his hand into the water and he does. Then Suddenly she panics and something starts pulling her under the water. She swims back up gasping for air and coughing. Then on the other side of the raft Greta pops up from the water yelling BOO! she pulled Clorice under the water as joke.
She swims out and exits the Pool. Greta says to Clorice I though you didn't like puppies? This is if to say she is jealous because she liked Zeke and Clorice took her chance. She tells Greta that he's just helping her with science, she doesn't believe her and says yeah right and leaves. Zeke wants to know what she meant by puppies? She tells him to never mind, and she wants to continue to try and help him overcome his fear. She once again tells him nothing is down there. Just as Clorice says this the presence of something at the bottom of pool closes in on their raft. Then as Zeke puts his hand into the water, a horrible smell fills the Pool House, according to Zeke it smells like acid.
Then suddenly Zeke is pulled by the hand, head first into the water. Clorice panics and screams his name over and over again. Zeke swims back up and Clorice grabs him by the hand and helps him back into the raft. This time they know for sure something is done there and it's no joke! They have no paddles and they can't row so they'll need to wait for someone else to come and help them. Suddenly the acid smell is back and something begins shaking their raft and they're both dunked into the pool. Something begins drowning the both of them, until Charlie comes over and hands them a long net and they grab onto it and he pulls them both out.
Then a little later in the locker room, they're both drying off and having warm drinks. Zeke asks Charlie what it is ? With a look of guilt and upset on his face, he tells them both then when the school's pool first opened he was the lifeguard. Also during his watch his girlfriend Cindy's little brother Joe drowned, But it was not an accident. He says he tried to save the boy but the creature wouldn't let him. He pulled him away and then drowned him and he was gone. Charlie is really upset and is about to cry now, when he says that nobody believed him until three more people drowned. Then finally, they shut down the swimming pool, and soon it was all forgotten.. until now.
Clorice asks Charlie what it is? Charlie says that to build the pool they had to remove an old cemetery first and moved all the bodies, and he figures they forgot one of the bodies. Therefore the spirit is angry and wants revenge on anyone who dare disturbs it's eternal sleep. Clorice thinks that the same thing is going to happen all over again and no one will believe them until someone is hurt. Zeke has a plan to defeat the creature, the three of them head to the science room. Zeke explains since it's invisible, so no one is ever going to believe them. But if they can see it maybe they can stop it. Since it's part acid Zeke plans to douse it with Methyl Orange, because when methyl orange reacts to something acidic it turns it red.
Zeke puts on gloves and safety googles and pours some Methyl Orange into the pool. The red ooze slowly begins to take shape. Then suddenly emerging from the water is a hideous and terrifying zombie, that is a partially decomposing, part skeleton and all colored red. Clorice screams and Charlie seeing it for the first time after all this years begins to go into shock. The corpse comes towards them and Zeke tries to whack it witch the handle of the net, but it just splashes right through it like it's nothing. Zeke runs off to the change room where Clorice is treating Charlie who is lying down in shook. Zeke explains that since The Corpse is now visible, it can't hide anymore and now roams freely. Also since it's made of water it can travel through pipes and drains and instantly appears in the change room through the drain on the floor. They run off screaming.
Zeke doesn't know how to stop it but Clorice has an idea. Since The Corpse is water based, She says she'll douse it with Mangenite since it's water based it'll explode. Zeke applauds her for remembering his experimental volcano and says she is brilliant. Clorice is about to open the container, when Zeke slaps it away and it sinks to the bottom of the pool. Zeke did this because her hands were wet and if she opened it the chemical would burn her skin.
Clorice decided to swim in after it, she swims to the bottom of the pool to retrieve it. Then The Corpse slimes back into the pool and begins to move towards her. Zeke screams her name to her and warns her to get out. She sees it moving in on her and she is frozen in fear and shock and can't move. Zeke jumps in to save her and when he does she snaps out of it. The Corpse is now after him and he begins to swim away, not very quickly since he isn't an experienced swimmer. Clorice makes it out if the pool with the chemical and puts on the safety gloves.
Zeke is about to get out but seeing The Corpse he almost goes into shock and can't move. then Charlie returns and pulls him out of the pool. Then Clorice calls out to The Corpse and douses it with the Mangenite. The Corpse loudly and violently screams and moans as it bubbles and oozes and sizzles and smokes and steams and evaporates away into nothing. Zeke applauds her for defeating it and they smile in their victory and Charlie looks on in relief because finally after all these years the nightmare is finally over and gratefully thanks them.
Endingedit | edit source
As the story ends, Stig tells the viewers that the evil spirit never bothered anyone ever again. Also Charlie was no longer tortured by his memories. Also Zeke and Clorice do end up together. They are seen cuddling together lying down on the raft in the pool. Clorice figured it was okay to be science geek after all. Also Clorice showed Zeke that there were a lot more fun things to do besides study all the time such as spending time with a girlfriend. Although Zeke still didn't care much for the water.
Tucker asks if that wasn't the best, and the group huddles together to vote. While they do this, Stig takes some of the Non-Dairy Creamer dust, and tastes it to the disgust of the society. Sam then says that he told a great story, but that the vote must be unanimous, and that it wasn't. Tucker declares that it isn't fair, Stig then thanks them for the shot, and starts to walk way, but Betty Ann tells him to wait, and says they are giving him another chance. Gary then says that if he comes to couple more meetings and tells another story, and Kiki interrupts and says "If we don't think you're a total puke", and Gary finishes saying that he will be in. Stig says he can handle that, and Kiki tells him to handle a shower and puts the burlap sack back on his head so he doesn't know where the place is yet. Gary extinguishes the fire, and the group walks away.