blue thing

I dived into a pool of crystal clear, icy water. The pool was exceptionally deep and its walls and floor were made of cement that had been painted bright sky blue. The paint was peeling in places. I felt the rush of cold water as I plunged under the surface, and then I stayed up the shallow end of the pool for a short time, waiting for a group of three boys to leave the deep end of the pool. I turned in a slow backward somersault through the water, arching backward and enjoying the stretch. As the boys climbed out of the pool, I swam, freestyle, up to the deep end. I was aware of my stroke, of moving smoothly and lightly, causing minimal splashing. Once up the deep end, I paused, holding onto the edge of the pool. Something stung my finger; I looked and there was a Daddy Long Legs spider clutching the end of my index finger on my right hand. I was reasonably confident that the spider was not poisonous but I wanted to remove it urgently. I tried flicking it off but it clung to me. I then pulled at a couple of its legs which broke off and instantly it grew others. It grew more and more until it had at least twenty brittle legs. Finally, I managed to shake it off but I could see that, where it had pierced my skin, there was now another creature hiding, just under my finger nail. Tiny curling tentacles hung out of the bite, so I grabbed them and pulled; an iridescent blue creature emerged, much like a blue bottle, complete with a long trailing tail. This tail seemed to be attached to an inner coiling mechanism so that the creature could twist it inside itself at will. I tried to throw it away but its body stuck to my fingers. I tried again, this time it flew through the air and landed on the grass but its tail end stuck to my hand so that the body was still attached and it whipped back again, winding the tail back up inside itself. I repeated this a couple more times and it returned to me each time. I was now sitting on grainy yellow sand and I thought I should bury the creature so as to suffocate it, but I felt too horrible and didn’t want to hurt it. A woman sitting with me told me that it was the only way to get rid of it so I quickly dug a hole with my left hand and buried the blue thing, piling sand on top of it as fast as possible. I then pressed down on the sand, keeping it under; I could feel it struggling to burrow up to the surface and then it stopped.