Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Loren Rhoads @MorbidLoren @darc_nina #LoH #fiction

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Smooth as a Trout, Slippery as an Eel
by Loren Rhoads

The night had been a bust. Alondra had poked around from the highest peak in the attic to the depths of the cellar, finding no indication of a haunting whatsoever. Anyone who had died in this house had moved on and left not so much as a bloody fingerprint behind.

After everyone else wished each other good night, Alondra felt she had gone past exhaustion into some nether realm where she knew sleep would never visit. She hauled herself up the stairs once more, turned down the covers in the room she had been assigned, but there wasn’t any point in lying down. Morning would be dawning soon. With it, she would get a second wind. A long bleary day stretched ahead of her.

A bath might feel good, she decided. She hoped the pilot on the water heater was lit. She hoped the elderly pipes wouldn’t groan in protest and wake the others. Still, the thought of a warm bath was enticing. She couldn’t resist.

She helped herself to a bath sheet from the linen closet and closed the bathroom door behind her. The lock was a flimsy hook and eye. It didn’t matter. She felt like the last sentient being in the house. She set the hot tap to run and sat on the edge of the clawfoot tub, watching the water pour from the spout. It was hypnotic. She could almost nod off right here…

She shook herself awake and added some cold water to the mix, before she scalded herself. Then she peeled out of her dusty, cobweb-covered clothing and eased into the water. She adjusted the temperature – less cold, more warmth – then turned the taps off and settled back, resting her head against the tub’s rim.

Warmth seeped into her bones. This was absolutely the right choice to have made. She closed her eyes.

Something seemed to plop down into the water. Alondra felt the waves surge up and down her skin. She looked around, but saw nothing out of place. She settled back once more.

When she had almost dropped off into sleep, something grabbed hold of her ankle. It yanked her deeper into the water.

Alondra realized she wasn’t dreaming when her nose went under the surface. She shouted, but the water swallowed the sound. Something slithered past her thigh, something sinuous and heavy.

She kicked her feet, trying to gain enough purchase that she could get her face out of the water. She struggled to grasp the edge of the tub, but the invisible something grabbed her arm and pulled it back into the water.

Whatever it was moved up to her chest, pinning her down. Alondra thrashed, trying to force her way to the surface. On accident, she conked the back of her skull against the floor of the tub. Blackness flickered at the edges of her vision.

Finally, she got hold of whatever it was as it fought to force open her mouth. She caught it in both hands: smooth as a trout, slippery as an eel. She couldn’t see anything but water, but she hefted it out of the tub and whacked it as hard as she could against the tiled wall. Water splashed everywhere.

While it was stunned, Alondra scrambled out of the tub. Without reaching back into the water, she pulled the plug, then stood naked and dripping in the middle of the bathroom floor, waiting for another attack.

When it didn’t come, she didn’t relax. Instead, she toweled herself off roughly and wound the bath sheet around herself. The attacker was a water elemental, she realized. She didn’t know its kind, but she could guess that the well from which the mansion drew its water was infested with them. They were lucky no one had swallowed one today, while they were gulping tap water after their exploration.

Or maybe not so lucky, she thought. Were they all who they claimed to be, or had they ingested the elementals? She’d have to devise a test for everyone, come morning.

Alondra sighed. It was going to be a long night indeed.