Well. This is embarrassing. Here I was on my second date with Carl, and I had the intention to potentially destroy his bathroom. Did he know this? God no. Did I plan to tell him this? Fuck no.

But...

His car's music was low, the windows were up, and the air was off. He was bound to hear my stomach going on the fritz. He probably already did...

Was that a wince of unease? He fidgeted in his seat, his hands tightening around the steering wheel, it could have been him adjusting himself, or he could hear my stomach doing somersaults and didn't know how to react.

God this is so embarrassing. Bravo Aly, you know that you're lactose intolerant, why did you order the Chicken Fried Steak for dinner? Country gravy on the side, you've been doing it for years, how did you forget that today?? I was starting to sweat, I felt like I was on the verge of a mass explosion. Oh my God, this was bad.

"Can we turn on the air?" I blurted out.

I could see Carl's eyes narrow. "Um...you're hot?"

"I run...hot" I said with a nervous chuckle.

"Yeah...sure no problem." Carl replied. "High or low?"

"Medium" I answered, even though I wanted it on at full blast. I probably looked crazy for wanting the air on when the weather outside was in the low sixties.

He turned the air dial and I felt the euphoric rush of the car's air hit me in the face. It helped, but my stomach still felt awful.

"Thank you."

Carl smiled. "No problem. Can't have you dying of heat exhaustion on our second date right?"

Honestly, at this point, I'd rather die of heat exhaustion than completely let loose in his car. Anything, I was even for a small car accident at this point, at least I'd have an excuse for cutting loose.

"You're sweet." I said with a smile.

He smiled back at me. He really did have a nice smile, I didn't really notice it on our first date. Carl turned right onto a row of houses.

"God damnit." He muttered.

"What's wrong?"

He gestured with his head to a house that had the downstairs lights on.

"My niece and nephew are awake." He paused. "They're staying with me for the weekend, and I thought they'd be asleep."

"You left them alone?" I asked. Kind of bewildered by his potentially bad decision.

Carl shook his head. "They're twins, Evan and Ellie, both twelve. My brother leaves them alone all the time."

He pulled the car into the driveway and put the car in park. "Time to lay down the law."

I smiled. He could do whatever he wanted to those kids, all I cared about was using the bathroom.

He got out of the car and did a cute little sprint to the passenger side door to let me out. He opened the door, smiled, and actually helped me out of the car. He grabbed my left hand and we walked to his front door.

Through the front door, I could hear the sounds of children talking and scurrying around the living room. Carl unlocked the door and pushed it open.

"Uncle Carl!" They both screamed in unison, running frantically towards us.

"What are you two doing up? It's way past your bedtime, your Dad is going to kill me if he finds this ou..."

"There's a man upstairs." The girl shouted.

Carl flashed me that smile and rolled his eyes.

"Ellie, what did I tell yo..."

"Uncle Carl I saw him too. We heard him walking around and then we saw him at the end of the hall." Ethan said.

"Okay, stop." Carl started, holding out his hands. "We've been over this, I'm the only one who lives here. Seriously, I'm not having you kids over if you're going to behave like this. Come on you're embarrassing me in front of Aly."

The twins looked at me for a second, discarded the fact that I was there, and brought their attention back to their uncle. Both of their mouths hung open in unison, on the verge of pleading their case.

"No. I don't want to hear it." Carl said cutting them off.

I gave him a playful tap on the arm. "Ummm...I need to use your bathroom."

"No!! Don't go up there Aly!!" Ellie pleaded.

"Yeah don't go up there." Ethan agreed.

Carl shook his head. "God damnit." He let out a sigh and his eyes met mine. "Bathroom is out of order down here, you'll have to use the upstairs one. I'll go with you." He grabbed my hand and led me to the stairs.

"You two. Bed. And turn off all the lights, I'm not made of money." Carl ordered as we proceeded up the stairs, leaving their pleas for us to come back downstairs behind us.

Carl flicked the hallway light on, he let out a frustrated sigh. "Umm...they're not always like this. I hope they didn't freak you out."

He did a quick scan of the guest bedroom where the kids were staying, his apparent work office, his bedroom, and even the hallway closet. Each room proved to be empty. They did kind of freak me out, but it looked as though we were the only ones upstairs.

"Probably saw their shadows or the shadows of a car passing by outside." Carl continued with a chuckle. We stopped in front of the bathroom.

I smiled. Part of me wanted him to stay upstairs for the foolish fact that I was kind of scared, but I really didn't want him standing outside the door because of my stomach.

"I'll give you your privacy, but I'll be down the hall putting the kids to bed if you need anything."

I nodded my head with a smile and entered the bathroom. I did a quick and somewhat frantic scan and found nothing concerning. I fast-walked to the toilet, put the seat down, lowered my pants, and sat down.

Bliss. Pure and unparalleled satisfaction. I'd never felt more satisfied in my entire life. I felt my joints loosen, I felt my body relax. I remained seated and let my body do its thing, then turned to get the toilet paper...

There was a shadow in the shower, on the other side of the sliding door. I froze, a shadow wasn't there just moments ago. I was sure of it, I'd scanned the entire bathroom and was positive that I was alone. But right now, there was a man standing in the shower.

I trembled. My eyes locked onto his massive legs, I slowly looked upwards. There was definitely a man in the shower, and he appeared to be very tall. My body was frozen but I could feel my lips trembling together. The shadow's arm moved and grabbed the handle for the sliding door. And then, very slowly, it slid the door open.

A towering man revealed himself, he had to be at least nine feet tall. He had long brown, graying hair that went past his shoulders. He wore a blue denim button-up that was tucked into a pair of dirty and worn-out jeans. He had a large scar on his left cheek.

"CARL!!!" I screamed. My joints loosened, and I hurled myself forward and off the toilet. In that split second I tried to break my fall, but my face smacked into the bathroom tiles. Through blurred vision I could see the man step out of the shower, I could hear his heavy boots make contact with the tiles below.

"CARL!!! CARL!!!" I screamed again. I feebly crawled across the bathroom tiles as my world spun around me. I tried to crawl as fast as I could and in the distance, I could hear his slow steps approaching me.

"Aly?? Aly??! What's wrong??" Carl shouted from the other side of the bathroom door. He banged on the door, I could hear him trying the knob. "Aly! The door's locked."

The man grabbed my ankles with both hands, his touch was ice cold, his skin felt coarse and dry, he felt...dead. I screamed until my throat went sore, tears ran down my cheeks and onto the tiles. In the distance, I could hear Carl slamming himself into the bathroom door before finally bursting through.

"Carl!!! Help me!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"Aly!!!" Carl screamed.

I desperately reached for his hands. The last thing I felt was Carl's fingertips graze mine. And then the world around me cut to black. I could see Carl but he got further and further away with each passing second, and then the darkness swallowed me whole.