Something Amiss (Hoodie x Reader)

Three: Shower Thoughts

You turned the key in the lock. The apprehension was bitingly strong, survival instinct urging you to turn on your heel and bolt back down the stairs of your apartment complex. The only thing to comfort you was that the neighbours would hear your screams if you got murdered, and that Harry was only two steps behind you.

You could no longer convince yourself that your worst fears were nothing but irrational; seeing the masked man hadn't been a one-off like you and the police had hoped. And furthermore, he seemed to be playing you like a kazoo.

You pushed the door open as if you were a criminal entering your own home. It squeaked obnoxiously. You really had to get that fixed. Harry snickered behind you.... admittedly, it was a little funny. You knew he was mostly laughing as stress relief. After the Walmart trip from hell, you hoped this night couldn't get much worse.

Your dim living room greeted you, seemingly the same as you had left it. You took one step in, then another. Harry flicked the light switch on. Nothing seemed out of order as you surveyed the room. Looking over to the partially obscured kitchen yielded nothing strange either. You let out a tense breath, looking back at your brother.

Harry gave you a reassuring smile, "You wanna check the hallway or shall I?"

You shrugged, but didn't move from your spot. With a solemn nod, he strode past you towards the hall, poking his head around the corner and flicking that light on, too. Looking back at you with tired eyes, he quietly said, "All clear."

You followed him into the hall. Your bedroom was first on the right. You both walked in together. You had left the light on earlier, too paranoid to flick it off. This was the room the masked man had entered from the first time around, after all. The room was the same as always - after such a horrific evening, the relief made you want to break down and cry. But you had done enough of that in the cafe, now was the time for action.

You strode towards your window as Harry briefly checked your closet (luckily, he didn't find any anyone in there this time around), and double checked the lock. It was on securely, as it had been since Friday. Heaven help you, you were never going to open this window again.

Next, Harry went to check under his bed for masked murderers while you went to check the lock on the bathroom window. As you entered the small room, you remembered with a shudder your thoughts from Friday night - it would be so much much more convenient to kill someone in a bathroom. If only you had known what would happen, those few short days ago.

The window above the bathtub was fixed shut tightly. Nothing to worry about here. You padded back to the bathroom door, calling to Harry a few feet away across the hall, "Hey, I'm gonna take a shower." He gave you a thumbs up in response. Clearly, he hadn't found anything amiss in his room, either. That left the apartment safe, free of masked stalkers at least for now.

You grabbed your new shampoo bottle out of the plastic shopping bag you had carried in with you, trying not to think too hard as you placed it with the rest of your shower stuff. You hadn't showered since Friday morning, not game to be naked and afraid after the events of that evening. The weekend had instead been filled with movies on the couch, Harry camping out on the living room floor a few feet away, not leaving you alone for more than a few minutes at a time. Under any other circumstances, the constant sibling attention would've been intensely annoying. Nothing like trauma to band people together though, right?

You turned on the hot water, taking deep breaths as you peeled off your clothes. Your brain was so fried that the sound of the water hitting the porcelain tub was grating, but you persevered. Never in your life had you imagined taking a shower to be such a terrifying mammoth of a task. Never in your life had you imagined you would be stalked and fucked with, either.