The Shadow in the Shower

By: Ash Cinder

            “Do I really have to stay at Grandma’s till tomorrow?” I asked my mom on the car ride there.

            “I’m sorry sweetie, but your dad and I are going to a concert and we’re staying at a hotel overnight.” My mom explained. “I know you’d rather be at home, but hey, your cousin Linda will be there too. I’m sure you can have some fun playing with her.”

            “Yeah, I guess.” I said.

            “Don’t worry, we’ll be back for you in the morning.” She said.

            We arrived outside of Grandma’s house and got out. Grandma was there at the front door, ready to greet us as we walked out of the car.

            “Hi mom.” My mom said to grandma. “Thanks for watching Ashes until tomorrow.

            “No problem.” Grandma said, hugging me close. “Now go have fun.”

            “Thanks mom.” She said, giving Grandma a kiss before turning her attention to me. “Be a good boy Ashes, I’ll see you tomorrow!”

            “Bye mom.” I gave her a kiss.

            I went inside and sat on the couch next to Linda, my coyote cousin, who was watching TV in the living room.

            “Hey, Ash!” She said.

            “Hey.” I replied back.

            The first hour of the time at Grandma’s house was pretty mundane. Me and Linda just watched Cartoon Network for a while, didn’t chat too much. I busted out my GameBoy and played some Pokémon Yellow for a little while.

            Grandma got dinner ready and Grandpa left to go run an errand. The old coyote had been working on his truck and had to go to the hardware store to get some parts for it.

            A few minutes after he left I was starting to get bored and decided to make a suggestion to Linda.

            “Why don’t we play hide and seek?” I asked.

            “Alright.” She said, getting up from the couch. “Who’s going to be the seeker first?”

            “I guess I will.” I said.

            “Alright. Start counting.”

            I lay down on the couch, covering my face.

            “One, two, three…” I started, my tail swishing back and forth with each number. “Four, five, six…” I got closer to ten. “Seven, eight, nine, ten! Ready or not, here I come!”

            I started sneaking around the house looking for her. I checked my grandparent’s room, under the bed, but she wasn’t there. I checked the closet in the guest room, still not there.

            “Hm.” I thought about where else she could be.

            I walked back to the living room and then thought maybe she was in the pantry. I tiptoed over to the pantry and slowly opened the door. I slowly stepped to the far end of it and turned on the light before jumping around the corner at her, making her jump a little.

            “Dang it!” She said.

            “Got you!” I said, moving out of the pantry so she could get out.

            “Alright, well now it’s my turn.” She said as we moved back to the living room.

            “Yup, bet you can’t find me.”

            “Bet I will!” She said, getting on the couch and closing her eyes. “One, two…” She started.

            I moved out of the living room and headed for the staircase. I slowly snuck upstairs trying my best to be light on my paws so that Linda wouldn’t hear me go up.

            Once I got upstairs I proceeded to the bathroom. I had a feeling this would be a good hiding place since we hardly ever went upstairs. I carefully slid open the shower and stepped inside before closing it again. I sat down in the tub and held my legs against my chest waiting patiently for her to come look for me.

            I hoped she wouldn’t see me when she came up, the shower door was pretty blurry, but you could still see enough out of it to make out shapes of stuff in the bathroom.

            Suddenly I noticed someone coming into the bathroom. I held my breath and waited, hoping she wouldn’t open the shower. I stared up at her, wide-eyed waiting for her to do something… but, she didn’t. She didn’t do anything. Just stood there for about a full minute.

            What is she waiting for? I thought to myself.

[img]https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/preview?page=1382189&filename=Ash+Cinder+-+The+Shadow+in+the+Shower+%28no+title%29+-+small.jpg[/img]

            Then as quickly as she walked in, she walked right back out of the bathroom. I breathed a small sigh of relief. Yes, I thought to myself, I’m still in the game. And after that I waited, and waited… and waited… and waited for her to either find me or say she gave up. I laid in the bathtub, my tail swishing back and forth impatiently.

            “Jeez.” I said, rolling my eyes and opening up the shower and closing it. “Is she really still looking for me?”

            I started walking down the stairs and made it to the living room, only to find Linda sitting on the couch watching TV.

            “Uh, hello?” I asked, a bit indignantly.

            She turned her head and looked at me.

            “Oh, hey Ash, there you are.”

            “You didn’t want to tell me you’d given up?” I asked.

            “You figured it out, didn’t you?” She giggled, flipping the channel.

            “Ugh, well it would have been nice to not be sitting upstairs in the bathtub for like 30 minutes!”

            “Oh, so that was where you were.”

            “You were so close, seriously.” I gloated a bit.

            “Hm?” She looked a bit confused.

            “You were right next to me! I saw you come into the bathroom and just stand by the shower. You almost found me, but you walked out.” I explained.

            She just looked at me blankly, her light brown ears twitching in a confused fashion.

            “I never went upstairs.” She said.

            “Yeah you did, I saw you come in.”

            “No, I only looked for you down here,” she clarified, “I didn’t go upstairs.”

            “You’re messing with me, I know you were upstairs.”

            “Maybe it was grandma?” She said.

            “You’re just trying to play a joke on me! I know it, you always do! I’ll go ask grandma.” I said, heading to the kitchen.

            “Go ahead, she’ll tell you what I did.”

            I walked over to my grandma in the kitchen who was making dinner on the stove.

            “Grandma?” I asked.

            “Yes, Ashes?” She asked, chopping some chive onions.

            “Me and Linda were playing hide and seek, and I hid upstairs, and I know I saw her go upstairs and she’s lying and saying she didn’t. You saw her go upstairs right?”

            “Hm, I’m sorry Ashes, but I’m sure I only heard you go up the stairs and come back down a few minutes later, I don’t think anyone else went upstairs.”

            “Wait, so you didn’t go upstairs either?” I asked.

            “No, I’ve been down here cooking the whole time.” She said. “I think your mind was just playing tricks on you.” She patted my head.

            “Uh, okay Grandma…” I said, suddenly feeling a little uneasy.

            “Don’t worry about it, dinner will be ready in a little while, by then Grandpa should be done with those errands he went to go run.” She said before going back to making dinner.

            I walked back to the living room where Linda was and had a seat on the other couch opposite of her, and she looked over at me.

            “So?”

            “I guess you were telling the truth…” I said.

            “You’re not the one playing a joke are you?” She asked.

            “No, I swear I saw someone come in the bathroom!” I said.

            “Well, it couldn’t have been grandma cause she was down here the whole time I was looking for you.”

            “And she told me she didn’t go up there.” I added.

            “And it wasn’t Grandpa cause he’s been at the store while we were playing.”

            “So… Who did I see up there?” I asked ominously.

            “What did they look like?” She asked.

            “Well… I couldn’t see them very well cause I was sitting in the bathtub and only saw them through the glass door.”

            “Wow…” She said. “What do you think it was?”

            “I… um, I don’t know.” I said.

            “Do you think that means someone’s hiding up there?”

            “Grandma told me I was probably just imagining things, but I know what I saw, it was real.”

            “Maybe we should go upstairs and look…” She suggested.

            “I don’t know…” I said.

            “Scared?”

            “I mean, yeah, a little.” I admitted. “I don’t know what I saw up there, how do you think you’d feel?”

            “Let’s go upstairs and look.” She said, getting up. “I dare you to come with me!”

            “Ugh…” I said, sliding into the couch and looking up at her, “Fine.” I rolled my eyes and got up.

            We both headed towards the staircase. I was really nervous about going up there again, what if someone was hiding up there, like they broke in or something? But being the dumb pup that I was, I didn’t want to look like a chicken to my cousin, so I started climbing up the stairs. We both slowly made our way up, my ears twitched as I listened for anything that might have been upstairs.

Once we got to the top of the stairs we moved over to the bathroom. No one was in there, and the shower was still open.

“So, you saw it in here?” Linda asked.

“Yeah, just walked in and stood right there, a little bit in front of the mirror and walked out.”

“Hm,” Linda pondered, looking into the hallway from the bathroom, “did you hear which way it went?”

“I don’t know?” I shrugged. “Probably into the bedroom over there, down the hall.”

We both walked silently over to the bedroom. I looked around, the lights were out, but I didn’t see anyone. Linda tried turning on the light, but it was out. Not surprising considering no one really used this room.

“Well, great now we can barely see anything.” I groaned.

“Don’t be such a wimp.” Linda said as we walked into the room. “Let’s see if anyone’s in here.”

I reluctantly checked under the bed, there was nothing but a couple of shoeboxes under there. Linda moved toward the closet. She put the side of her head up to it and listened to see if anything was inside. I waited in anticipation as she reached for the handle and slowly pulled open the closet.

“AAAAAAHHHHHH!” She screamed, her arm suddenly getting pulled in the closet.

“Oh my god, Linda!” I shouted, running over and pulling her other arm.

“It’s got me! Help Ash! Help!” She called.

I pulled on her arm until the two of us went flying onto the bed. I looked over at her and she just smirked at me and held up a scarf from the closet.

“Wow, you’re a little stronger than you look.” She teased.

“You jerk!” I whacked her with a pillow.

She just laughed and got up.

“Sorry Ash, it was just too tempting.” She said, holding her arms up while I kept whacking her with the pillow.

“Ash, Linda! Dinner’s ready!” We heard Grandma call from downstairs.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry.” She said, getting up off the bed.

“Let’s just go eat.” I rolled my eyes.

We both walked back downstairs, before I did though I looked back at the bathroom, I was sure I saw something, where the hell could it have gone?

Once we finished dinner me and Linda played a few videogames for a little while before we had to get ready for bed. Me and Linda had to share the futon in the TV room. But as I got my pajamas on and got ready for bed I didn’t really feel like sleeping as I kept thinking about what happened upstairs.

“Are you still freaking out about earlier?” Linda asked.

“Uh, yeah, I know I saw someone up there!”

“Well there was nothing up there, so I don’t know what it was.” She said, getting under the covers.

“Yeah, I don’t either.” I said. “That’s why it freaks me out.”

“Just get some sleep, we’ll go home tomorrow, and you’ll forget all about it.” She said.

“I hope we make it till tomorrow…” I said, laying down on the futon next to her.

That night, I had a dream where I was walking around in some sort of forest. It was really dark, but the light of the full moon made it easier to see. I wandered around, trying to find the edge of the forest and get out. As I kept moving in between the trees I suddenly heard what sounded like crying.

I decided to look for whoever it was that was crying, sounded like an older woman. I moved closer to the source of the crying, the increase in volume and intensity told me I was getting closer. The crying was almost hysterical now, the woman was screaming and sobbing uncontrollably.

Soon I came upon the source of the crying, a woman by a creek, she looked like she was some sort of canine dressed in a white cloak, holding something. I don’t know why but I kept getting closer to the weeping woman, everything in my head was telling me not to get any closer to her, but I just kept moving forward.

“A-Are you okay?” I asked.

“¿P-P-Por qué lo hice?” She sobbed.

I understood it as, “why did I do it?”

“What did you do?”

Suddenly it became clear what she was holding, as she moved slightly, and it got more into view. It was the body of a dead coyote pup in her arms. She was cradling it and sobbing, rocking back and forth.

“Oh my god…” I said, starting to back away.

Then she looked up at me and I’m pretty sure the only reason my fur didn’t turn white was because I was dreaming because holy shit her face. She had no eyes, just two empty black sockets! Pieces of her fur had fallen off and revealed patches of emptiness just like her eyes! I could see the streaks from the tears on her cheeks as she suddenly smiled at me and reached out her paws towards me.

I was petrified as she moved towards me slowly, arms outstretched. I wanted to run but my legs froze in place.

“Mi niño.” She said.

“N-No!” I cried.

She wrapped her arms around me and started dragging me towards the creek. I looked at the lifeless corpse of the pup she’d been previously holding, laying on the ground next to the edge of the creek.

“HELP!” I cried out as we both plunged into the water.

I woke up in a cold sweat, thrashing around in the sheets. I looked around and realized I was back in the TV room, still on the futon. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Just a dream…”

But then I looked over and noticed Linda was gone…

She probably just went to the bathroom, I thought to myself. But then I looked at the floor and noticed something that made the grey fur of my back stand on end, there were wet paw prints on the wood floor leading out the now wide-open door into the dark hallway.

“Linda?” I called out. “If you’re trying to scare me again, I swear to god…”

I slowly got out of bed and tiptoed over to the door. I looked out into the hall, my grandparents’ bedroom was still closed and the pawprints led into the living room. I followed them, my body shaking as I wondered where the hell Linda could have gone or if this was just her being a jerk and trying to scare me.

I moved into the living room and followed the pawprints into the kitchen. I looked up and saw they led outside to the backyard, and I realized why they must have been wet.

“The pool!” I said to myself, my eyes going wide.

I ran over to the back door and looked out to see something walking out there, and it was carrying someone! I quickly opened the back door, ran over to the figure, picked up a potted plant and threw it at it.

“Let her go!” I ordered.

Then my blood ran cold when it turned around, it was her! The woman from my dreams, here completely black eyes stared right through me, the pieces of her face were missing, revealing nothing but more empty blackness behind it. She gave me a smile and started moving toward me.

“L-L-Lin…” I tried to say, but I was too scared as I stared up at the woman.

“Mi niño.” She said, just like in my dream.

“L-L-LINDA WAKE UP!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, just as the empty-eyed woman grabbed my arm with her boney hand.

Linda heard me and let out the loudest scream I’d ever heard from her and actually managed to break free of the woman’s grasp while she was distracted with me. The woman let out a mournful cry as Linda broke away, but continued to pull me towards the pool with her.

“Linda, help! She’s still got me!” I cried.

“Hold on Ash!”

Suddenly she came back out with one of her old baby dolls.

“Hey! I have your baby!” She called to the woman.

The woman suddenly turned her attention to the doll, and I felt her grip loosen. I took the opportunity and broke free, running for my life into the kitchen. Linda hurled the doll at the ghost and followed me inside, locking the door.

“What if she can still come inside?” I asked.

“I don’t think she can.” She pointed out. “Not if the door is locked.”

And sure enough, we stared out and she just stood there by the pool just looking back at us, black tears streaming down her mangled face.

“Let’s go back to the room…” I said, pulling her away from the door and walking quietly back to the room and sitting down on the bed.

“So, what was that thing?” I asked.

“I-I think it was La Llorona…” Linda whispered.

“La Llorona?” I asked.

“The ghost that takes kids and drowns them trying to take them to the afterlife with her?” She explained. “My dad used to tell me that scary story every Halloween.”

“So, it’s real?!” I asked in disbelief.

“I guess!”

“Told you I saw something upstairs!” I gloated a bit.

“But how could she have gotten into the house? In the story she’s supposed to walk the streets looking for kids out late at night!” Linda pointed out.

“I guess maybe Grandpa left the back door open while he was working in the backyard and she walked in and went upstairs?” I suggested. “I don’t know.”

“Well, I don’t think I’ll be going back to sleep tonight.” She said.

“Yeah, me neither.”

“I’m just glad we’ll be going home tomorrow.”

“Me too.”

“Thanks for waking me up back there, by the way.” Linda said.

“Thanks for distracting her for me so I could get away.”

“No problem.”

I glanced over at the door.

“Man, Grandma and Grandpa are still asleep, they seriously didn’t hear us screaming out there?” I said.

“Well, they’re old.” Linda said jokingly.

“Yeah.” I laughed.

Grandma came in, in the morning and woke us up. We could smell chorizo tacos that she’d just finished cooking.

“Breakfast is ready, you two.” She said.

“Thanks Grandma…” I yawned. “We’ll be over in a minute.”

“Okay.” But before she left she stopped and looked back at us both. “Did you two switch places on the futon last night?” Noticing we weren’t in the same spots as we were when we went to bed.

Me and Linda just looked at each other before turning back to Grandma.

“Nope!” I said quickly.

“Yeah, we were like this when we went to bed.”

Grandma just looked at us suspiciously before heading back to the kitchen. We both breathed a sigh of relief and started getting dressed.

“That was a close one.” I said.

“Yeah.” I agreed. “Hope my mom doesn’t take too long picking me up, I want to go home where I don’t have to worry about whatever that thing was last night.”

“Me too.” She said. “Now let’s get to the kitchen, I want tacos!”

A few minutes after we finished our breakfast tacos our moms arrived to pick us both up. I said goodbye to Linda, Grandma, and Grandpa and got into the car with my mom.

“So, did you have a good time at Grandma’s?” Mom asked as she started the car.

“Uh, yeah it was fun, me and Linda played a lot of games.” I lied.

“That’s good.” She said, driving around the corner.

But just as we rounded the side of Grandma’s house I noticed something. A woman in a white cloak standing by the gate to their backyard staring at me as we proceeded onto the main road. My fur stood on end as I watched La Llorona fade from sight while we proceeded home.

My Patreon Editors

Michael E. Dunlop

SekkeAnubis

Vitamin B.o.B.