While the pool room was usually well lit with a combination of overhead lighting and natural light from outside, at night, the room seemed dark, and quiet. The underwater lighting cast a beautiful shimmer through the water, as it rippled, refracting bits of light onto the walls of the room. It was an Olympic size pool, excellent for water games, relaxing, swimming laps, anything. While the pool saw plenty of activity during the day, it usually had a fairly quiet night, except when the occasional girl stopped by for a swim.

Kaori was never a very good swimmer, so when she saw the pool, she doubted she would frequent it very much. But she grew tired of running and biking to stay fit, and wanted to do some cross training. Embarrassed by her poor form, she decided to start going to the pool at night, when no one would be able to make fun of her or judge her on her deficiencies. Once she got stronger, she would go whenever she wanted, but for now, she felt like training alone. Anyways, she had had a long day, the water would certainly be a relaxing way to end it.

As she headed over to the pool, she shivered at the wind, her teeth chattering between her luscious pink lips. The night was unseasonably cold for the tropical island. Dressed only In her one piece turquoise bathing suit, and a pair of navy athletic shorts, she felt goosebumps rise on her smooth slender legs, and her nipples poke ever so slightly into the lycra of her swimsuit. She was anxious to get to the pool. She let herself into the locker room, and quickly stepped out of her navy shorts and set them in a locker. As she passed the mirror, she doubled back to pose and check out her form and figure. She turned towards the mirror with a roguish smile, and glanced approvingly up and down her own body: slender calves and thighs, shapely hips—she spun slowly as if for an audience—a well formed ass, flat stomach, and her luscious breasts, all accentuated by the form fitting suit.

Whisperer first became aware of the student when she left the dormitory building. The night breeze was unusually chilly, so he had taken shelter in the lee of the structure. A nearby vent had been emitting a stream of hot air - presumably from the laundry facility - creating an area of pleasant warmth. But then the flow had slackened. Whisperer was just about to depart when the dark-haired beauty stepped from the entrance.

Always a curious sort, the monster was immediately intrigued. What would bring such a delicious morsel out on such a cool night - especially in such light apparel? The close fitting blue-green suit did little to disguise the graceful lines of her well-formed body, and even the dark blue fabric swathing her hips weren’t particularly concealing.

The images Whisperer caught from the student’s mind seemed strange to him. Her desire to avoid ridicule was natural, of course, but the decision to swim alone at night felt dangerous somehow. The alien tried to make sense of his strange misgivings as he followed the girl.

With all his appendages tucked up inside his mushroom-cap body, Whisperer might have looked somewhat like a small flying saucer. Of course his natural transparency made it very unlikely anyone would even notice him. He floated silently behind Kaori, following at a distance of about eight feet back and ten feet up.

Soon, the alien realized his sense of foreboding came from the memories he’d absorbed from past victims. This was still a new development for him, and he was not used to it, which is why it took so long for him to pinpoint the source. ‘Never swim alone’ was the admonishment that bubbled up from the depths of those stolen memories.

The realization dawned on him just as Kaori reached the building housing the pool. As she entered the locker room, Whisperer quickly circled around to the rear entrance. He opened the door and squeezed himself through the (relatively) narrow aperture. Traversing a short hallway, the creature emerged into the pool chamber just as his target was finishing her self-appraisal.

Whisperer ascended high above the huge pool and waited for the girl to enter. His assimilated memories told him that it was dangerous for her to swim alone, so he decided to watch over her while she swam. He hid in plain sight near the ceiling, practically invisible in the darkened room. He was not particularly hungry just yet, so he planned to play the unseen lifeguard while Kaori completed her exercises. Then he would extract payment for his unsolicited services; a payment that she would undoubtedly not want to give.

Kaori was still something of a new girl on campus, at least new enough that she might not fully see why her nighttime excursion to the pool might be so dangerous. Unafraid of the emptiness and silence of the building, she finished her self-assessment, and, satisfied, went into the poolroom.

Once inside, she paused a minute, soaking in the beauty of the light shimmering off the surface of the pool, reflecting onto the dark walls. Her eyes perused the room, passing over the transparent being several times without noticing a thing. Remembering why she was here in the first place, she set her sportswatch to countdown from 40:00. She intended to swim for forty minutes in order to build her stamina. She stepped down the pool ladder, surprised at the warmth of the pool. Standing waist deep in the water, she took a couple of steps before somewhat awkwardly half submerging, half diving underwater. In a flurry of wet hair and splashing water, She quickly re-emerged, coughing, and spitting. “ack—water—up my nose!” she thought. She threw her wet hair back, and changed the time on her watch. 30 minutes would probably end up being enough. Coughing a couple more times to get the remaining liquid out of her wind pipe, she pushed a button on her watch, and began her 30 minutes swim with her breast stroke, lengthwise down the pool.

Mishaps such as accidentally breathing in water were the very things Whisperer’s stolen memories told him he needed to watch for. So he was a little worried when Kaori came up coughing so soon after going under. But, since she recovered quickly, he remained still, watching thoughtfully.

In truth, he had little knowledge of swimming. Since his own respiratory and motive systems were so different from those of a human, he never had to worry about drowning. He was only vaguely aware of the potential dangers because of the memories he had absorbed; about form and technique, he knew next to nothing.

So it should come as no surprise that Whisperer saw none of the deficiencies that Kaori was afraid others would make fun of. Except for the one slip she made on her first try at submerging, her motions seemed graceful enough. She moved steadily through the water, if not speedily. And the way her muscles flexed with the exertion was certainly very appealing. Perhaps others of her species would see differently, but it seemed doubtful.

Such idle speculations were useless, however. Whisperer focused on his quarry. He decided to continue watching as she went through her routine, listening to her thoughts. He was content to let Kaori tire herself with the exercises; it would make her all the easier to capture and he had ways of eliminating bodily fatigue. He would wait until she was about to leave the water before approaching her, unless she appeared to need help beforehand.

It was mishaps like her first submersion that kept her from coming to the pool during the day like everyone else. But for now, 10 minutes into her swim, everything was going smoothly. Some of her muscles began to feel a bit of fatigue, but she wasn’t worried. She simply rotated onto her back, and began propelling herself using the back stroke. With each stroke her chest rotated slightly, her breasts emerging through the surface of the water. She was certainly more relaxed and rhythmic once her face was out of the water. Not that she was afraid of the water, but she just preferred always having an open passage through her mouth.

10 minutes later, she was feeling strong and confident. Her freestyle swimming always gave her trouble, and she hoped to remedy that in one go. “Maybe I don’t have to worry about anyone else…” she thought. She turned over once more, and began her 10 minutes of freestyle. 8 minutes to go, and everything was going fine, easy, even. “Go faster,” she thought, “swim harder!” With 5 minutes left, she was feeling great. Mentally and emotionally charged, she pushed even harder—but her body had had enough. 30 feet from the wall, she felt a stabbing pain in both of her calves, and let out a scream that came out as a burst of bubbles. “Why didn’t I swim by the sides of the pool?” She screamed inside her head. She struggled towards the sides of the pool, like a fly in the water, the sides of the pool an arms length outside the reach of her fingers. The pain seized her hips and thighs now, making it impossible for her to kick out. She clawed the water in front of her, her hands slipping off the edge of the pool, as she sunk below the surface.

Whisperer watched attentively. He enjoyed the spectacle of Kaori’s lean and limber body slicing through the water. As she began to freestyle, he found himself silently cheering her on. The light contact he had with her mind allowed him to share in her exhilaration. It was quite addictive. Then the pain came and she began to flounder. That which his stolen memories warned against had come to pass.

Alert for just such an occurrence, Whisperer acted quickly. In a flash, he descended to just above the water’s surface. He reached Kaori just as she started to go under. Swiftly, he stabbed two of his bristly grasping tentacles into the water to coil around her outstretched arms.

This is how her life would end. She was flailing, and falling, slowly grasping at the ledge, when slowly, as if guided by god himself, something grabbed her arm and lifted her arm up to the edge of the pool. She hung there for a few moments, trying to let the pain in her legs subside. Trembling, heart pounding, and her body cold with fright, she glanced left, then right around the room, looking for her savior. "I-I-Is anyone there?," she called out.

She struggled to lift herself out of the pool with her remaining strength, in order to search for someone else in the room. She was halfway out of the pool, when she heard and felt a small breeze of air blow past her. Her reflexes sharpened by the adrenaline, she whirled her head around, but saw no one.

Whisperer guided Kaori’s hands back to the side of the pool, then repositioned his transparent tentacles behind her as she began to climb out of the water. When she turned her head at the soft swishing sound they made, she probably noticed a hazy ripple easily put down to the blear of water in her eyes.

But the monster was not really trying to hide himself. After all, the student knew someone or something had saved her. Whisperer decided to make himself known, just to see how she would react. He transmitted his call, adding a bit of extra meaning to the usual lure. The ethereal whisper like that of a trusted confidant from her own past seemed to drift down from where he was hovering a few feet directly above her.

Kaori . . . Safe . . .