Hydrophobia (multi chapter)

[Night Kunoichi]

Chapter 1

I used to love swimming. Almost every day would find me in the pool we had in our backyard, swimming laps and diving for at least an hour. We’d always had a pool at our houses since I was a child so I learned from an early age. My parents would always say that I was a fish in a previous life. I loved the water and about a year ago, you couldn’t keep me out if it. Now, I’m petrified of it. So how did I, a young woman, who adored swimming, become afraid of water? Well, perhaps I should start from the beginning.

My life was normal, like so many others, I was attending a local college, studying criminology. For the first few years of college, I lived at home with my parents, building up my money and confidence to move out. A close friend of mine was working in the medical records office in the local hospital and she managed to get a hold of a great rental home and asked me to move in with her. The house was small but large enough to hold college girls and what sold the idea to me was the large in ground pool in the backyard. In a month I had moved out with Katelyn and we bought a bottle of Rum to celebrate us moving in together.

“This is going to be awesome!” Katelyn said, throwing back a shot, laughing with me good naturedly.

“Hell yeah it is!” I agreed, sitting back on the couch, taking a shot of my own, “How did you find this house? It’s practically a steal with how low the rent is!”

“My dad. The landlord is a friend of his and he was just looking to rent it out quickly since the last people living here left in a hurry.”

I frowned a little, “Why did they leave so quickly?”

Katelyn shrugged, “I’m not sure. They never said. Just said they had to leave. It was probably a family emergency or something.”

We let the topic drop and went on to talk about other subjects like our classes, how much fun we were going to have, all the parties that we were going to hold. By the end of the night, the two of us had fallen asleep on the couch together, both of us curled up at our respective ends. Soon the two of us had set up routines around the house. And nearly every day I would swim in the pool. Everything was great in the house for three weeks until one night when things grew strange. I had come home late from my serving job exhausted when Katelyn surprised me.

“Tada! Some tiramisu and Lord of The Rings Return of the King! So grab a plate and a drink and we’re gonna watch it together!”

I grinned at her, “Thanks, Kate. Let’s chow down and watch some Aragorn goodness!”

We laughed and put the movie in and flicked off the lights. Things were going well until about a quarter of the way through the movie I heard something.

“Jaaaaaaasssssmiiiiiiiiine.” Came a barely audible whisper.

“What?” I asked Katelyn.

She jerked her head over in surprise, “Huh? I didn’t say anything.”

I blinked bemusedly for a moment but then shrugged, “Nevermind, I guess I’m hearing things.”

The two of us went back to watching the movie.

“Jaaaaaaaaassssssssssssmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.” Came the whisper again after a few minutes.

“Ok, seriously, quit Kate!” I exclaimed, “It’s creepy!”

“Quit what? I didn’t do anything!”

“Look ok, it was funny I know you’re whispering my name.” I told her, getting a little impatient.

I had expected for her to grin mischievously at me, as she always does whenever I catch her doing a prank, and then tease me for falling for it. This was not what happened though. Katelyn frowned in annoyance and responded differently.

“I haven’t said anything.” She told me, shortly, “Are you sure you’re not imagining things?”

I blinked confused. I was certain that I had heard something but if it had been Katelyn she would have admitted it by now. Not only is she the one to confess her guilt after it has been established that she is the known troublemaker she is also the type who has to tease you about it fairly quickly. Maybe she was right. Maybe I was just imagining things.

“I guess so. Sorry.”

The two of us turned our gaze back to Lord of the Rings. Things became quiet again and I didn’t have another disturbance until the last five minutes of the movie.

“Jaaaaaassssssssmiiiiiiiiiiiine.”

I squeaked and jumped my heart crawling its way up my throat. The voice was on the opposite side of Katelyn and what was more, it felt like someone was whispering against my right ear. And the voice was distinctly male. My breathing was ragged and shallow, adrenaline pumping through my veins as I looked around for the source of the noise. There was no one else in the house and there was absolutely no way that it was Katelyn.

“Jasmine, are you ok?” She asked concerned.

My blue eyes continued to scan the house, looking for who had spoken to me and yet, I could see no one. After a few minutes of silence, I dismissed Katelyn’s concern and my fear for me just being exhausted and hearing things. I then went straight to bed in my room and clutched the covers as voices whispered in my ears all night. But I had no idea that the real terrors were yet to come. I did not sleep that night. And when morning came, I started my day with fear and anxiety in my heart and the memory of a man speaking my name echoing in my ears.  

[Night Kunoichi]

Chapter 2

Another week had passed without incident. I had heard none of the whispers and Katelyn had yet to find anything odd at all, so I dismissed the occurrence and continued on with my life. We frequently held pool parties at the house, even though Katelyn was taking summer courses so she could apply to the Nursing Program by spring. Still we had fun and I helped her however I could with her classes. But the fun was not to last.

One night, I was in the house by myself since Katelyn had gone out of town on a trip to the beach. I had been reading in my bedroom and I caught sight of a moving shadow out of the corner of my eye. No one should have been in the house so there was only one explanation; someone had broken in. I quietly put the book down, slipping my right hand over to my bedside table and grabbed my handgun. The rest of the house was dark, except my room and while it was scary I took a small comfort from the lack of light.

'This is my home so I know it better than they do in the dark.' I thought, creeping over to the door.

When I exited the room, there was no one in the hall, only dark shadows splayed across the carpet and walls. The silence was unnerving as I made my was down the corridor, pausing to check every room, my gun held firmly before me. My breathing was quiet but ragged and I felt that the soft crunching of the carpet was unbearably loud, announcing to the intruder where I was. And my heart was pounding so hard that I thought it was possible that the neighbors could hear it.

At last when I came to the end of the hall, I stopped at the corner I had to turn to reach the living room. Once I rounded that corner, there would be nothing I could do to hide from sight in the largest room of the house. So if anyone was there, I needed to shoot and shoot quickly. Resolve mixing with my adrenaline, I set my jaw in a firm line, took a deep, quiet breath and rounded the corner.

Buh-bump

Buh-bump

Buh-bump

There were a few still moments as my crystal blue eyes swept over the living room, searching for the intruder in my home. It took a minute or two to register that there was absolutely no one here. The kitchen was visible form my position and I could see no one in there. We still had the small laundry room off of the kitchen but there was no way an burglar was in there. That door was set on a very noisy, loud, squeaky hinge that was in need of a serious treatment of WD40. If someone was in there, I would have heard them open the door. Still a little nervous about being ambushed, I flicked on the lights, I walked around the room, checking behind all the furniture and found nothing. I even went back to the other rooms and double checked them as well. Feeling relieved and yet drained, I returned to my room to place the gun back on the nightstand.

I stopped just inside of the door. There, lying innocently on the floor was the book I had been reading. This, in itself, was mildly shocking since I distinctly remembered placing the book on the bed. Even more disturbing, the book was open, set on a brand new chapter. My eyes flicked over the title, in bold letters, of that particular section of the novel.

Chapter 13 Prey

I swallowed and thought back to the odd occurrence the week before. Strange voices speaking my name and then books moving and opening themselves? My heart clenched tightly in my chest, fearing just what the answers were to the questions I had. After calming myself down, I applied logic to the situation. The book must have simply fallen off the bed and opened to that page. Nothing to get nervous about.

No longer feeling up to reading, I picked up the book off the floor and placed it on the nightstand along with my gun. I was overall convinced that it had simply been a coincidence but was unable to completely silence that quiet voice in the back of my head saying that it was more than that. I ignored any unease that I felt and went to bed, suddenly feeling exhausted.