Sweat poured down my temples and began dripping from my chin. I didn’t realize how sweaty I was until I felt my T-shirt sticking to my lower back. I was done, for now, and all that was left to do was arguably the worst part about moving.
The procrastinator in me searched for something else to do other than root through the towers of cardboard boxes and seek out where I should place everything now that I had the deed in hand. I was well and truly a homeowner now. Nothing short of a miracle in this day and age.
This would be the perfect time to try out the new bathtub, I thought.
The towels were unpacked, at least.
When I had originally scoped out the home I had seen that the previous owners had hauled out almost everything. They took the furniture, curtains, and even the appliances.
Everything except this bathtub.
The massive claw foot bathtub. It was porcelain white and bright enough that it appeared to be glowing when I did the initial walk-throughs. The end of it was large and wide enough to resemble the mouth of a pitcher plant. The edges of the tub even resembled lips. My imagination pictured an enormous toad making his home there.
I enjoyed its presence. It made the home feel more rustic and added a bit of personality to the home.
Steam misted out into the hallway and fogged up the medicine cabinet mirror as I laid my weary body down in the tub. Warm water coated my muscles and soothed my lower back and legs. Despite how good I felt right now, my mind drifted towards acknowledging how sore I was going to feel tomorrow.
My mind wandered elsewhere. What was I going to do with all this room now? I had all this space and no one to share it with. Distractions began dogpiling onto me, so I submerged myself beneath the surface.
My ear canals filled with water and all sound became the sloshing of the water and the steady drumming of my heartbeat. The easy thumping began calming me and I closed my eyes.
Then I felt a strange cool sensation on the top of my head. At first, it felt like someone had placed an ice-cold washcloth on me and then increased in pressure.
I tried to rise back up.
My heart beat faster when I realized what was happening. Someone had placed their hand on the top of my head. A firm grip grabbed my forehead and pushed my head down further into the water. My eyes shot open but all I could see was sloshing water.
I yelled out at whoever was pushing me down, but all that emerged was a gargled mess.
I clawed outwards and my hands grasped onto a long sinewy arm. The arm was so thin yet didn’t budge at all when my fingernails ripped at the skin. The hand rebelled by pushing my head down further, hard enough that the back of my head thumped against the tub and throbbed painfully. Now I felt like I was in a vice. I felt the hand’s fingernails dig into the top of my forehead and felt sharp wounds opening up. There were thin strips of red that started appearing in the tornado of water I was lost in.
My lungs burned. Water leaked into my nose and filled my throat with salty bath water and my eyes felt like they were going to explode. The entire periphery of my vision became red and pounding. Just when I couldn’t take anymore. Just when I was about to inhale and fill my lungs with that last fatal gasp, the hand let go.
I raised my head and gasped deeply. I leaned over the edge and coughed till I vomited out the gulps of water I had taken. I frantically scanned around for who did this to me, the person who snuck in to try and drown me in my own bathtub.
There was a trickle of water droplets that had led from the tub to the bathroom door and into the sliver of darkness of the hallway. When I looked up my body froze with terror.
When I stared into the darkness I caught a faint orb of white reflecting the light from the bathroom.
I realized the shape was that of an eyeball. Bloodshot, a sickly yellow, and crouching down to peek through the slit in the door frame.
A dirty fanged smile appeared below it.