Autumn stepped out of the shower. Warm water quickly turned cold as the air from the slightly opened window across the room met her dampened skin. She grabbed her hair towel from the sinks countertop and wrapped it around the top of her head. She didn’t really need a towel for her hair anymore, as it had recently been cut short, but she preferred to use it so water didn’t drip onto her shoulders as she dried herself. She glanced into the mirror, which was fogged up from the heat and she could only make out vague shapes and colors. It was placed directly above the sink, next to shower. Across from that there was a small window, below the window there was a large tub, next to its left there was a toilet and finally there was a door to the right of it leading to the hallway.
In her mirror she saw that she had left the light blue curtain over the window wide open; she normally closed it out of habit from when she was young and lived with family, but now she lived in a fairly nice neighborhood. She had neighbors, yes, but there were trees separating each plot of land, and just enough space to give everyone a good amount of privacy. She was sure that if she wanted to she could probably go tanning in the nude in the backyard and no one would see her, but she wasn’t weird enough to do something like that.
She turned to the towel rack that hung on the wall between the shower and toilet and grabbed a towel to dry off with. As she slid it down her arms she heard a quiet squeal, much like that of a camera when its lenses zoom in and out. She stopped and froze. She listened hard but didn’t hear it again. After a few moments she shrugged it off, telling herself it was just the pipes or something and finished drying herself. Her clothes were in a neatly folded pile on the opposite side of the sink than her hair towel had been. She got dressed and opened a drawer to find her hairbrush.
She groaned and knelt down to the cabinet beneath it; her hairbrush had fallen out of the drawer again. The cabinet was rather spacious; as there was next to nothing in it, save for a few extra bottles of shampoo, conditioner and toothpaste. As she stood with the brush in hand, the quiet squealing noise resounded once again in her ears. This time she decided to ignore it, opting instead to continue to brush her hair. Now that her mirror was defogged she could see well enough to style it so it would dry properly. She could also see well enough to tell that there was someone outside of her window.
Her heart seized in her chest and her fingers loosened on her hairbrush. Nearly dropping it she tried not to change her facial expression as she heard the sound of the creepers camera again. She looked a little closer and saw that it was a man. Her lungs grew warm and her stomach turned over. Who knew how long that creep had been standing there?! What the hell made him think he had the right to take pictures of her without her consent!? She opened her eyes, she hadn’t even noticed she’d shut them in the first place. She glared at her reflection, planning on calmly leaving the room and calling the police, but as the camera zoomed again (this time she could hear the click as he took the photo), she shook with rage. Her face turned into a scowl and her cheeks flushed a bright red.
“YOU MUTHERFUCKER!!” With this war cry she turned and launched her hairbrush out him. The clamor of her embarrassment was almost too loud inside her head for her to hear the deeply satisfying thunk it made against either his face or his camera. With luck it had hit his camera and then his face. She hoped it left a big fucking bruise as she heard him fall and yell some sort of curse word. She ran to the window and looked down to yell at him and panicked. She’d forgotten that her bathroom was on the second floor, oh god he’d probably broken a leg or something. She quickly ran out of her bathroom, down the hall and stairs, and out the back door. She ran and jumped off the side of her back porch, her feet stung as she landed but she didn’t give any thought to it.
Autumn froze as she realized something. He was gone. There was no one under window; in fact, there was nothing under her window. Not even a ladder. Her hairbrush was gone too. There was no trace of what had just occurred. She shivered, a vicious cold crawled over her skin, even though it was only eight PM and nearly seventy degrees out. She backed away, glancing over her yard, wishing that there weren’t so many trees, so her neighbors could see if there was someone outside her home. The fact that they could hear if she yelled gave her little to no comfort. Right now it would be more important to know if she was crazy than to have as much privacy as she did. Slightly ironic, considering that it had just been invaded.
Autumn entered her back door again, in her shock she hadn’t noticed the little spots of grass turned black, as if someone had lit little fires but quickly stomped them out. She also hadn’t noticed that she had cut her foot on a shattered camera lens, which had lain untouched and in good condition until she had thrown her entire weight upon it.
