Jane let out a tired sigh of contentment when she finally got back into her own home. Work had been a bitch today, and she was bushed. Now, it was time to run herself a hot bath and relax.1
Jane stood next to the tub in her birthday suit as it filled with water. She poured Epsom salts into the water, and then slid into her long-awaited bath. Jane lived alone in her apartment, but she could never shake the habit of closing the textured glass shower doors.2
The warm water soothed her tired body. She laid her head back against her bath pillow and let another content sigh escape her pretty mouth as she felt the days tension slip away into the water.3
A moments curiosity struck Jane while she was drifting off towards sleep. She glanced towards her digital watch, which laid on the vanity only a few feet away. It was just 8:34 pm – a good time for a nice hot bath on a Friday night.4
It took only another moment for Jane to slip into a still sleep. She hadn’t planned on taking a nap, of course, but it was a hard day and she wasn’t about to fight it.5
Jane was wrenched from her sleep by the sound of the telephone ringing in her conjoined bedroom. She sat up quickly in the water, and looked around the dark room. Strange… she didn’t remember leaving the lights off.6
Quickly, Jane slid the door open and stepped out of the bathtub. She wrapped a towel around herself, and then lifted her watch. A button on the side provided light for her to see the time: 9:35 pm. Good, she had only dozed off for a minute – or so her sleep-foggy brain told her.7
Again, the phone rang and Jane hurried off to answer it.8
Due to the darkness of the bathroom, it was impossible for Jane to see the many three-fingered handprints which covered her steam-fogged shower doors.9
What did you think? Please comment!
Comments
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I agree with DiamondOnMyTongue (about your story and also about the compulsive commenting - I think rather it's about time I place you on my favourites list and just be done with it) - this is quite terrifying. I can only just begin to draw conclusions (many of them at once) but each are so scary and disturbing I can hardly hold onto one or the next before I let it go for want of never having thought it in the first place. You're right: allowing a reader's own conclusions is often a very useful tool and you use it well here (my mind I find so disturbing and eager to frighten me you need not much space for influence!).
I'll tell you this: I'll never, ever have a bath in the dark again.
Fabulous job, as always. -
Thanks once again. I'm over-joyed that you've returned once again to read another of my stories.
I didn't want to give too much away in this story, indeed just enough to allow you to draw your own terrifying conclusions. Most times, what people form in their mind is a scarier thing than what appears on paper. -
Hmm (I'm probobly weirding you out with my compulsive comments on your work) ... really puzzling but nonetheless creepy piece. Enough can be drawn from this to get the idea and be really frightened. But the things like the hour of lost time, the ringing phone, and the 3-fingered handprints are truly scary and mystifying. Awesome write.
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