Why I Don’t Turn Around in the Shower

It’s been about 3 months since I moved into my new apartment on the third floor of a friends friend’s complex. It was way cheaper than anything else on the market that a second year college student like myself could afford. Plus I figured a change in scenery from my roommate playing Soft core animated porno games and listening to loud annoying techno music was due.

Though the previous owner apparently vanished into thin air without anyone realizing. None the less, I settled in pretty fine, the only problem was that the water wasn’t working yet, so I had to go to a bath house for a couple weeks. A couple weeks seems long, I know, but they said it had something to do with an internal backup, like there was so much gunk from SOMETHING that it was backing the whole entire system up in my apartment. I figured whoever lived here before just decided to turn the sink and anything else into their own personal garbage disposal. Would kinda make the small but noticeable smell in the apartment make sense.

Anyway, fast forward a couple weeks, and it’s all fixed. Finally I got to use a shower in my own privacy, you’d be surprised how nice that feels after two weeks of feeling socially awkward and insecure. After a long day on campus I decided it was time for a nice, hot, steamy shower and then some TV, and maybe Pizza if I was feeling it.

I turned on the faucet half expecting something to ooze out thinking they hadn’t completely fixed it, but it all turned on just fine. It was actually a pretty nice bathroom, nice size, the colors didn’t look like puke, I honestly don’t understand why so many people think yellow and green in a bathroom look nice. Was also pretty clean, the only thing I noticed was, while I was in the shower I noticed something that looked like it was painted over. Whoever did it didn’t do a good job, because it was chipping off and it didn’t match the color scheme of the rest of the bathroom. Curious as I am, I chipped it off to reveal in a small sketch “Dottun au rd” At least, that’s what I thought it said, it was really steamy in the bathroom and the sketch wasn’t deep.

I thought it was a road or some place someone sketched into the wall accidentally then tried to cover up so they wouldn’t get in trouble. After some of the steam in the shower went away I looked back at it to realize it said “Don’t turn around”. You know how in stupid horror movies, they tell you to NOT do something and instinctively, you do it? I’m no better, because as soon as I read it correctly a cold chill came over me, which made me turn around. I thought I had just left a window open in the bathroom, and didn’t think anything of it. That is, until the next day.

I got back into the shower, took a glance at the writing and did my normal routine. Until, I felt something staring at me. I figured it was just normal paranoia of living alone for the first time, and shrugged it off. But as I continued showering I felt it draw closer in a sense. I turned around quickly, and nothing was there, to my surprise.

I thought maybe it could have been a peeping tom or something, being a girl and all that happens sometimes, right? I felt really strange when I got out of the shower so I just fell asleep, I actually slept in and missed classes. So I figured I’d just stay home and explore. Nothing really interesting caught my eye. I found a playboy under the bed though, which made me chuckle and remember my old roommate. Then I wandered over the the closet in the hallway. There was, a broom, mop, other cleaning supplies. I turned the light on to get a better view, maybe find some accidental left goodies. I was always nosy. Again though, with that faint but surely there smell, but it was stronger in here. and there was some red on the bottom of the walls. I figured and animal had died, or it was a cleaning chemical that stained the wall, on closer inspection I noticed a sketch again.

This time it said “If you turn around three times it takes you” and then along the flooring of the wall it said “help” a few times. I thought my friend was playing a joke on me and came in here before I moved in and did this, because he knew I didn’t get scared easily. It left me creeped out but I didn’t pay it a lot of mind. Until I got back in the shower.

Again I felt like I was being watched and I was SURE I seen a face behind me out of the corner of my eye at one point, but that writing in the closet left me feeling a bit more than creeped out at this point, and I refused to turn around. I quickly got out of the shower and called my friend about the sketches and red stuff, and the past tenant. He said he didn’t know anything, at all about anything. He said the only thing he knew was his friend mentioned that someone on the second floor said she heard footsteps, and the shower turn on early in the morning. Along with what she though sounded like a faint whimper. Okay, now I was living my own personal horror story.

After I hung up I heard something that sent chills down my spine, the shower turned on. I bolted out of the apartment as fast as I could, and came back to my old dorm room where, luckily no one had roomed with my old roommate yet. I still have nightmares about it, and I still feel like someone is watching me when I shower, but I never dare to turn around. I no longer wonder what was clogging the pipes in the apartment.