Tʜᴇ Fʟᴀʀᴇ ꕥ Lɪᴢᴢɪᴇ Jᴏʜɴsᴏɴ

sᴇʀɪᴇs ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ ꕥ 5

The pool. That was the next stop, as which ever lifeguard was missing, whether it was Billy or that girl Lizzie and El had seen him with in the void, hopefully, the pool workers would know. And they were going to hand in the lifeguard pack. Hopefully find out more that way as well.

After they stopped off to get raincoats as it was pouring down by now (Lizzie's was blue, El's red and Max's yellow) they biked to the pool (El on the back of Lizzie's) and dumped their bikes in the rack, running to the information desk.

"Excuse me?" Max asked.

"No swimming until thirty minutes after the last strike, don't try and argue with me," the man behind the desk said in a monotone. "You wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree."

"Yeah, we don't give a shit, we're not here to swim, or get electrocuted," Lizzie took over.

"We found... this," El said shyly, taking the lifeguard pack out of her pocket and showing it to the guy.

"Does that belong to anybody here?" Lizzie asked evasively.

"Oh yeah," the guy said. "That's Heather's. I'll get it back to her."

"We... could- get it back to her," El said, and Lizzie was proud of her initiative.

"Yeah, except, she's not here. Bailed on me today," the guy said with a hint of annoyance.

Lizzie and Max turned to each other. So this... Heather, was who they were looking for?

"What is this?" He asked ignorantly. "You girls want a reward or something?"

Lizzie shrugged. "Nope, no reward please."

Max nodded. "We're just... good Samaritans."

Lizzie had to really try to hide a giggle as a cough.

Then she thought.

All we would need for El to find her would be a look at her or a photo or-

A photo.

Right there, underneath a heading: YOUR '85 SWIM SEASON LIFEGUARDS was a picture of her. Lizzie rushed over to the board to see it more clearly. It was even captioned HEATHER so they didn't even need to guess.

"Heather," Max said, as she and El joined Lizzie. "You think... El can find her?"

El nodded, giving the picture a sharp tug and pulling it off its pin.

They went to the showers - water could substitute for static if it really had to - and turned every single one on. Lizzie had borrowed swim goggles which she duct taped, then handed to El.

Finally, the photo of Heather was layed down, and El, who was sat behind it, held the goggles and turned to Lizzie.

"I- don't think you should come in this time," she said, protecting her friend. "Just in case."

Lizzie nodded. She had wanted to exercise her new powers a bit more, but she didn't want to worry El, who now put the goggles on.

Then everything was silent.

"What do you see?" Max asked, after thirty seconds of El being in.

"A- door," El answered. "A red door."

A minute passed and El was silent.

Then she ripped the goggles off, gasping and panting.

"What happened?" Lizzie asked sharply. "El? El!"

She lay a hand on the girl's shoulder, not trying to get into her mind, for once, but trying to calm her down. Then, once El's breath had finally returned, she put her head in her hands.