i never knew what a bloodbath would look like. at first i wasn't entirely convinced i was dreaming. floating up to the surface of the swimming pool, long, wide ribbons of red viscous fluid drifting over my eyes and nose, my hands swirling through the lifeblood of the people that had been swimming there before me. and my children, unconcious, their limp bodies surfacing with me, and me not sure if they are still living, either.

it began as a normal afternoon, me taking my children, and mother, and old highschool friend, shaminder, to an indoor swimming pool. it was almost unbearably crowded. i felt panicked from the start, trying to keep an eye on my kids in seething mass of people. but everything soon took on a very disturbing tone. the light changed from bright, shiny sunlight beaming in on us through the skylights above the water to something sickly. the colour of dying flourescents. the colour of seeping urine. it became night instantaneously. my heart froze in my chest and although the rest of the pool's patrons continued to splash and play, i felt evil coming and knew there was only one way to escape it. i gathered my children to my damp chest, my heart thudding within, and told them to take deep breaths, because we had to hide under the water until whatever evil was coming, had passed. they both looked terrified. i cannot forget the look in their bright blue eyes as i swam down to the bottom of the deep end of the pool with them. we sank. i waited. i tried to convey calm and rationality to them but they quickly became panicked for air. it was heartbreaking, holding them down there as they struggled against me, as they tried to climb up through the suffocation to the surface. but i could look up and see how the water was roiling. i could look up and see body parts flying and sinking and spinning through the pool. great gouts of blood sprayed across my field of vision. i could not imagine what thing it was that had attacked the pool-goers. and soon my children were still in my arms, and soon i had lost conciousness as well.

i came to as we nearly broke the surface. my children would not wake and i shook them and screamed. the gore was painted evenly across the cement landscape that surrounded us. people lay, dead, across every inch of dry surface, and pieces of them floated around us. i screamed and shook my babies and tried to breathe life back into them. they began to stir. their faces were blue and smeared with other people's blood. i cried and cried and tried to pick our way out of the pool without touching too many pieces of corpses. on the stairs lay my friend, shaminder, her face nearly chewed off and her hands missing. she was awake and in shock. "help me," she said, pitifully. "i cannot lift your mother." she motioned to the side of the pool where my mother lay on her stomach. at first i thought she was half in the water because i could not see her legs. then it came to me: i could not see her legs because she no longer had legs. the stumps that once were her thighs were ripped and raw. blood was pumping from arteries into the pool. i did not scream out loud but my mind was reeling and i rushed to her. she did not move when i touched her and spoke to her. shaminder tried to pull herself up to a standing position, but she fell. my children were coughing up pool water tinged pink with the blood of a hundred strangers. i was ready to give up. too many loved ones needed me to save them.

cut to several days later. still there is no understanding on my behalf of what exactly happened at the pool, but all the survivors had been moved into an abandoned high school. i was wandering the halls, looking for the room where my mother and shaminder were being cared for. i found shaminder first. she was reclining on a couch. she would not speak to me. she was angry that i had not forced her to the bottom of the pool with the children and that she had ended up with a mutilated face and no hands as a result. i wept, kneeling at her feet, begging her forgiveness. she would not look at me. i was dead to her. i crawled out of the room on all fours, wishing i could go back in time. in the next room my mother reclined on a sofa. a blanket covered up her lack of legs. she was pale but not angry. i tried to curl up against her but the lack of form beneath the blanket horrified me and i ended up in the same position i had been in with shaminder, on the floor, kneeling. i grasped my mother's hands and poured tears onto it. she did not ignore me. she placed her hand on my head and said that she forgave me for not warning everyone. that it was understandable that i was focused on saving my babies. that she would never blame her loss of limbs on me. that i could not be held responsible for the actions of demons. none of this consoled me. i sobbed until i thought i would throw up.