1 The Bank of the River Read Free Page A

window. Steven
strained to focus his eyes which were blurry with sleep. The house was silent
now, and he strained his ears for any sound of movement, something that would
tell him what was happening. For several moments he stood there like an animal,
defenses up, senses strained to detect a threat. His eyes continued to adjust
to the darkness, and he looked for anything in the pattern of the moonlight
that might indicate to him the source of the sound. Then he saw it. It passed
almost imperceptibly from left to right at the base of the stairs. They were in
the house again.He considered calling 911, then dismissed it. What
am I going to tell them? he thought. That I saw a shadow? I need to know
what I’m dealing with.
    He felt sweat
break out, and he rubbed his eyes. He focused again. No movement, but now he
heard the sound of water running. It was coming from downstairs.
    He walked
down slowly and quietly. He was scared, but he was also determined to find out
who was inside the house. He considered turning on the stairwell light, then
decided not to. This time he wouldn’t scare them away. Perhaps whoever was in
the house didn’t realize he was awake, and he felt this gave him an advantage.
    At the base
of the stairs he turned right and entered a hallway that led to a bathroom
where the sound of water was coming from. The door to the bathroom was open,
and as he approached the door he heard the sound of the faucet being twisted
off. The water stopped, followed by a few drips. Steven was convinced he’d
cornered them, there was no way out of the bathroom. Time to confront whatever
was there.
    He stepped
in and turned on the light. He could smell the slight chlorine odor of freshly
run water. The shower curtain to the oversize tub was pulled back, and in the
tub stood about six inches of water. He glanced around the room – no one was
there. The room had no closets or corners where someone could hide. He walked
over to the tub and looked down into the water, searching for some explanation,
something to make sense of what he was seeing. He reached down into the tub to
pull up the stopper. To his shock it was already up. The water wasn’t draining. It must be plugged for some reason, he thought. Yes, it’s plugged, that
explains it, and there’s been a slow drip that I haven’t noticed, and it’s been
accumulating for hours. He knew this didn’t explain the sounds he’d heard
or the movement he’d seen, but this partial explanation accounted for the
water, and he was willing to go with it for now.
    Determined
to figure out what was blocking the drain, he leaned over the tub and dug his
fingers into the holes on the sides of the stopper, searching for the blockage.
    With his
face just inches from the sides of the tub, he heard it again – four knocks.
This time coming from overhead, behind him. Instinctively he twisted his neck
to look up, but as he did so, a large drop of liquid hit his face and it caused
him to flinch. With one hand in the drain and the other trying to prop himself
up, he lost his stability and fell face-first into the water, its chill jolting
awake any parts of his body still asleep. He pushed himself up with his arms
and lifted his head from the water, wiping his face. His hand came away bloody. Great, I’ve cut myself , he thought. Then he heard the knocking again,
directly above him. The sensation that someone was in the room with him washed
over him like the coldness of the water. He knew it was above him, behind him.
In his mind he couldn’t rationalize how it could be above him in the tub, but
he knew it was there, just as you know when someone is standing behind you even
though you haven’t seen them. At first he felt too frightened to turn to face
it, but he realized that for his own sanity he needed to get an answer, to see
what he was dealing with. He could hear his heartbeat pounding in the blood in
his ears. He turned over onto his back to see what was above him.
    Something
was