A Waking Nightmare
Or Just Your Imagination?
I can feel it looking at me. Its eyes are wide, bloodshot, red-rimmed. At least, that’s how its gaze feels on my skin. The hairs on my arms stand on end.
It had been a long day. My throat was raw from speaking all day in meetings I didn’t care about with people I didn’t like. So when I finally stepped into the hot steam of my shower, I put a mud mask over my entire face, including my eyes.
At first, it was nice. Soothing, even. Like a pine spa mask.
But then I felt it.
It’s a woman. I don’t know how I know, but I do. She’s my height, staring at me through the fogged glass, lips parted in a silent snarl.
I fight to keep my breath even. She hasn’t pushed her way into the shower yet, so maybe she doesn’t know I know she’s there. Maybe I have a chance to fight.
But there’s no way I can overpower her. She’s inhuman, demon, other, and I don’t stand a chance.
If I scrape away the mud mask to see her, she’ll launch through the glass at me. I’ll fall back, maybe bruise my back on the shower’s ledge and shampoo bottles. Maybe worse.
That won’t work.
If I push the shower door open suddenly, maybe I can startle her. Maybe I can get an advantage. But that advantage won’t matter because I can’t see.
Not an option either.
Can I scream for help? Will anyone hear me?
Nope. No one for miles.
I need to see. There’s no way around it.
I make to wash off the mud mask as normally as I can, my breath high and tight in my throat.
I can sense her reaching for the shower door. Any moment I’m going to feel her claws in my skin.
I open my eyes, the remnants of the mud mask be damned. I have to see…
Nothing. There’s no one there.
It was only my imagination.
Prompted by Thursday’s Thoughts | Promptly Written | Ravyne Hawke
Chelsea Brown, 2023
