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.