Novel / YA cosmic horror

Night Swimming

Christmas Eve, 1999, in Ocala, Florida: a teenage pot dealer watches the shadows in his pool hall start moving on their own, and has one week to turn his crew of misfits into the only thing standing between his town and something very old waiting in the springs for midnight.

A long swimming pool lit up at night, lined with palm trees.

Status: Complete draft, revising
Length: 84,395 words · about 6 hours
This draft: Revised draft, April 2026

Jason Amano is seventeen, sells weed out of the back room at Qball's Pool Hall, and knows every exit in every room he walks into. On Christmas Eve the lights die, a shadow peels itself off the wall and stands up, and the only thing that keeps his crew alive is a handful of flashlights. The trail leads to Silver Springs, where Katie, the girl who swims in December and lives in a motel room, goes under the water and comes back up with a message from something that has been sitting in Florida's limestone for longer than there's been a Florida.

It wants the people, not the planet, and it's picked the stroke of Y2K to take them. So Jason does the only thing he's good at. He works his network: a chemist with a broken heart, a swimmer who hears the wrong frequencies at warehouse raves, a girl looking after her little sister while their mother works nights, a burned-out veteran in a swamp cabin who's been watching the shadows for twenty-five years. Six days, a lot of batteries, and a question none of them can answer yet: is a crew of kids nobody wanted enough to hold back the dark?

Heads up: this one deals with drug use and dealing, violence, the death of a friend, child abuse, homelessness and foster care, strong language.

Start reading: Chapter 1 Story guide · 43 cards Notes on the book

CONTENTS27 chapters

Chapter 1First Sparks - The Tripearlier draft
Chapter 2Swimming with Demonsearlier draft
Chapter 3The Morning After
Chapter 4Pool Hall Businessearlier draft
Chapter 5Late Night Expeditionsearlier draft
Chapter 6Government Static
Chapter 7Underground Connectionsearlier draft
Chapter 8Research Beginsearlier draft
Chapter 9Network Expansionearlier draft
Chapter 10Network Voices
Chapter 11Warning Signsearlier draft
Chapter 12Forest Navigationearlier draft
Chapter 13What We're Fighting For
Chapter 14The Veteran's Taleearlier draft
Chapter 15The Prophet's Historyearlier draft
Chapter 16The Convergenceearlier draft
Chapter 17Shadow Warearlier draft
Chapter 18Other Fronts
Chapter 19Aquatic Preparationearlier draft
Chapter 20The Integrationearlier draft
Chapter 21Final Preparationsearlier draft
Chapter 22Reality Stormearlier draft
Chapter 23The Ancient Presenceearlier draft
Chapter 24Light Warearlier draft
Chapter 25Sparks and Staticearlier draft
Chapter 26Reality Stormearlier draft
Chapter 27New Dawnearlier draft

Revision notes10 open

The to-do list for the next draft: places where the book contradicts itself, where it drifted from the plan, and real-history slips. They get checked off here as they're fixed.

continuityJosh
Taken in ch 17 (the bible says 18). In ch 25-26 he's "Josh Thompson" and remembered as an artist, not a chemist.
Chapter 17 Chapter 25 Chapter 26
continuityMickey
Martinez, then Nguyen (ch 15) and Chen (ch 16). A mid-twenties DJ from Orlando (ch 7) and a Vietnam vet (ch 14). His war dates and the soldier he lost change (ch 18). Ch 25 calls him a "missing teenager".
Chapter 7 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 18 Chapter 25
continuityCrystal
"Crystal Wu" in ch 16. Her family is estranged (ch 13), supportive (ch 19), and furious (ch 27).
Chapter 13 Chapter 16 Chapter 19 Chapter 27
continuityMelissa and Flick
Melissa is Faldone, Rodriguez (ch 11) and Whitford (ch 24). Flick is a Martinez (ch 11) but a Faldone sibling (ch 13), and 15 (ch 8) then 18 (ch 13).
Chapter 8 Chapter 11 Chapter 13 Chapter 24
continuityAmanda's family
Her mother works a hospital cafeteria (ch 5), a horse farm as Carmen Diaz, 34 (ch 20), and as a nurse at Ocala Regional, 43 (ch 21). Maria is twelve but "five years old" (ch 20, 22). Ch 11 is narrated as Amanda with Katie's backstory.
Chapter 5 Chapter 11 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22
continuityDom and Katie
Dom is Italian or Puerto Rican (ch 26), with a Marine background (ch 12), and drives a van, a Civic or a Ford pickup. Katie lives in motel rooms, but a trailer in ch 24, and "fifteen foster homes" in ch 25.
Chapter 12 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26
continuityTimeline
Ch 16 and 20 are set "three weeks after the forest" and read like post-Y2K material placed mid-book. Ch 18's city battles happen before the final night. Ch 22's dashboard reads December 21st, 1999. Jason is 17 (ch 1) and 18 (ch 18). Ch 22 and 26 are both titled "Reality Storm".
Chapter 1 Chapter 16 Chapter 18 Chapter 20 Chapter 22 Chapter 26
continuitySmaller slips
The phosphate mine is Amanda's team (ch 25) or Dom's crew (ch 27). Dolores works at Waffle House and Mel's Diner. Ch 8 has a doubled line of dialogue.
Chapter 8 Chapter 25 Chapter 27
historyReal-world slips
Mosaic (the phosphate company) didn't exist until 2004. The Hardback Café ran until 1999, not closed for years (ch 18). Cassadaga was chartered in 1894, not founded in 1875 (ch 22).
Chapter 18 Chapter 22
structurePlanned restructure
The revision roadmap plans a cut from 27 chapters to 21, a midpoint crisis, a bigger climax and strict Jason/Katie first person. None of that is in the draft yet.

Version history2 drafts

Current · April 2026

Revised draft

Tightened from about 103,000 words to about 84,000 and rebuilt as 27 chapters. Five new chapters give more room to the crew and the rest of Florida, the swamp chapter became The Veteran's Tale, and the endgame chapters were rewritten.

Earlier · July 2025

Expanded draft

The earlier full draft in 22 chapters, grown out of a shorter first draft. Same story from the pool hall to the six-months-later ending, told at greater length and in a more explanatory style.

22 chapters · 103,204 words. Where a chapter survived into the current draft, its earlier version sits in an accordion at the bottom of that chapter's page.