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Travis pulled off his muddy shoes and set them on the porch. They were work shoes, so his mother probably wouldn’t even ask him about them. Either way, he would clean them in the morning. He still couldn’t believe what had happened out there. He knew what he saw, but if the others wanted to play dumb, he wasn’t going to argue. However, one thing was for sure, he was going to call his brother in the morning and see if he’d seen anything out there. Maybe it was just a big fish, at least that's what he’d tell people. This town was too small to go telling people you saw a damn ghost. Last thing he wanted was for people to start comparing him to Mike.
He grinned to himself upon entering his house. The sights and smells of the swamp were replaced with the familiarity of his home. The smells from dinner still lingered in the kitchen. His mom had fried up some of the catfish Chris and him had pulled out of the river a couple days ago. He was almost tempted to pull the leftovers out of the fridge. Smelling that, it was hard to think about a ghost. Misty was right he thought, after all, there were no such things as ghost. He couldn’t wait to find out who did it and even better how they had done it. His money was a college kid back home for the summer. Probably one of his brother's friends, Mikes cousin had been back for a couple weeks visiting in between semesters. Travis was never one to dwell on things he didn’t understand, so it was easy for him to push it out of his mind as he made his way up the stairs to his room.
As silently as he could he made it to his room easing the door shut and locking it. He pulled off all his clothes and buried them deep in his hamper. They reeked of mud and brackish, salt water and other swamp smells he wasn’t even going to try to identify.
He looked at his nice clean bed and realized that he had to take a shower before he got in it. He had mud up both of his arms. At least school was over with and he could sleep in now, so staying up another half hour to jump in the shower couldn’t hurt. Not, to mention thinking about it he really should check for ticks and what was the other things Misty had said? Leeches, he thought and shivered hoping he didn’t find one wriggling around on him. He walked into the shared bathroom. Well, technically shared, but with his brother gone it was all his. He made sure to lock the door connected to the other room and started up the shower. He was feeling extra paranoid tonight and locking all the doors made him feel a little better.
The hot water from the shower felt good and after finding a couple ticks, he was glad that he had decided to take it. Especially, since the water had been all but black from the swamp mud, and there was even a few twigs and leaves on the shower floor by his feet that had fallen from his hair. A soft creak like someone had walked into the bathroom echoed in the small bathroom. But, that was impossible he had locked both doors and his mother was the only other person in the house. Stop it, he told himself. After all, he was still just freaked out from the incident in the swamp. Like every house in Beacon Hills, his was old and had creaked since he was a kid. That thought made him feel better. Well, it did until the shower curtain started sliding open slowly.
At first, he didn’t realize what was happening, until he heard the scrape of the shower rings pulling along the rod. Travis felt his mouth moving but wasn’t able to get words out. He wanted to scream as he watched the curtain open itself, but couldn’t. Taking a deep breath he grasped the curtain and pulled it all the way to the side. Revealing what was on the other side.
Nothing, he was alone in the bathroom. “What the hell?” He said out loud. Popping his head out and looking around the small bathroom. The locks on both doors were still pushed in.
He slid the curtain back and decided to finish his shower and go straight to bed. He was obviously so tired he was seeing things. The curtain suddenly slid all the way open and the temperature in the room dropped. It was so cold that even with hot water shooting over him Travis still found himself shivering. Yet, not even that was as awful as thing standing in front of him. The light flickered once and when it came back on the thing was still there. Travis was scared he couldn't even move, the only sound in the bathroom was the running shower and the pounding of his heart.
If this was a joke it had officially gone way too far. Standing in front of him was a corpse. An honest to god corpse. Its milky, white eyes staring at him and it's desiccated hands reaching out towards him. “This isn’t funny!” He shouted, but if anyone heard him they didn’t answer. The corpse seemed to move towards him. Its feet unsteady as they dragged across the old, tiled floor. He could even hear the fabric from the torn dress it wore as it was pulled along. He shook his head no, but it was too late. Travis tried to fight as Mrs. Hernshaw's cold hands grabbed him. All bone and sagging flesh but strong as iron. As suddenly as she had come she was gone.
Once again, he was alone. He had never been so scared in his life. Moving slowly, he turned off the water and got out of the shower, doing his best to stop shaking. He looked around the doors were still locked. Something wasn’t right his mother should have been banging on the door after hearing him scream. But, the house was eerily silent.
“Fuck this shit.” He swore loudly, and went to walk away from the shower, but before he could even take a step bony hands dug into his shoulders and dragged him backwards. Pulling them into their owner all rags and bones. The smells of the swamp seemed to rise around him. He twisted and looked up at her lip less smile all rotted flesh and gleaming bone as she shoved his head face down into the rising puddle of water in the tub. Murky, dark swamp water rising from it's drains.. Travis struggled as the water was forced down his mouth and nose. Every time he tried to scream the brackish, salt water tore down his mouth and throat. As the world faded around him, he would have sworn the corpse was laughing.