For the last few months since I had moved into my new apartment, I had been having bad drainage in my bathtub. There are literally globs of black hair blocking the drain. That’s where this takes a turn for disgusting, it’s not my hair. Let me explain, I have short not even shoulder worthy hair, so the hair I am pulling out of my drain is none other, then the grudge’s hair. You know the long black hair that seems to be coming out of the drain with no rhyme or reason.
Naturally, I think it’s my neighbor’s hair, right? Wrong. My neighbor has thick red curly hair, and she now thinks I’m a creep for asking if she had black hair. This mystery honestly doesn’t frighten me as much as the wailing in the laundry room in the basement. I had launched into a full investigation to see whose hair it was, although in all honesty I really didn’t want to know who’s losing that much hair. Each day differs. One day it would be a few black strands in the bathtub, other times it’s a handful or two stuck in the drain.
Usually, I would put on my bathroom rubber gloves, you know the ones I’m talking about that go all the way up your elbow, so you can scrub the toilet. Well as per usual, it became my routine before taking a shower, if I don’t take the hair out, my bathtub fills up while I’m taking a shower and I can see the hair floating there and I am too afraid to get to the knob to turn the water off. Sliding that familiar rubber gloves on, and sighing, I am reaching in and grabbed the first handful of hair.
From a standpoint it looked wiry, and yet it shined in the bathroom light, I dropped it into my bathroom waste basket. Then turned to grab the next handful, but as I grabbed it, I felt some resistance, this usually doesn’t happen. So, I yanked again. and again, I felt some resistance, I joked to myself that it must be still attached to the girl who this belongs to. putting my foot on the lip of the bathtub and pulled as hard as I could screaming out every swearword I’ve learned since I was six years old from my Nona. And suddenly it gave away, that’s when I heard it.
Banging sounds in the pipes, as if someone dropped a marble in the pipes and it banged each side, causing that rolling sound before it hit the bottom. I stood there holding the glob of hair, my heart beating fast. and out of breath, I was way out of shape, I had been meaning to get in shape, but you know laziness is very contagious. I stood there thinking how odd that sound was, expecting the pipes to burst open and water shooting up out of my toilet or something, but nothing happened. Slowly I put the glob of hair in the garbage.
I took my gloves off and set them back underneath the sink, I was ready to turn on the shower first and let the water warm up before I undressed. I reached over to turn the knob on my shower. Ever got that feeling you were being watched by someone? A chill run through your body, and you know, you KNOW you are being watched and you look around. Until you catch someone just staring at you, giving you the creepy crawlies, they look like you’re a-typical serial killer. Well in that exact moment I reached for that knob, that was the feeling I had. my chest tightened; my lips went dry instantly. My throat squeezed; I could feel it in the air. I wasn’t alone.
I was frozen reaching over my bathtub for the knob, I didn’t want to breath, I didn’t even want to move. But I knew that was impossible, I live alone, and I know I was alone in that moment. So why did I have that feeling I wasn’t alone?
Something compelled me to look down in the drain, my brain was telling me someone was watching me through the drain. Of course, this had to be impossible, how would anyone fit down there? a smurf? But I couldn’t shake that very feeling I wasn’t alone. so, I went back to the living room grabbed my phone, because unlike some insane people I don’t shower with my phone. I flicked the flashlight on my phone, my anxiety got worse as I approached the bathtub yet again. Slowly I pointed my phone down the drain, typically I know what I would be seeing, a dark drain with nothing inside.
Unfortunately, that’s not what I saw. I can say for certain this probably is the reason why I don’t take showers, I don’t even get in my bathtub anymore, and why I sponge bath. I peered down the drain, there an eye, one eye was peering up at me. it was a woman’s eye, or I assumed it was. white, and the iris was a dark brown, the pupil dilated as I shined my phone light into its eye. I heard a scream so loud it rang in my ears.
Until I realized it was me. I was screaming, I fumbled with my phone, nearly dropping it, but I caught it before it fell into the bathtub. I rechecked the drain and the eye was gone, it was now a normal drain, nothing there. I was convinced that the grudge lived in my drain.
I frantically texted my building manager about it, that there was something in my drain, I’m not telling him I saw an eye looking back at me. I’m not stupid, I might be going crazy but I’m not stupid. I went to work without a shower, I went into the bathroom with a washcloth to work and washed myself in the sink, my hands wouldn’t stop shaking all day long. And whenever someone came into my office I would jump and gasp. My boss saw how pale and clammy I was, and asked if I was okay, I told him, “Oh nothing just found out the Grudge is living in my drain, that’s all.” he laughed it off and walked away. I’m terrified to go home.