“Oh my God!” My voice ricochets off the tiled shower walls as chaos erupts, water spraying in every direction. I try to find an angle where the water can’t reach me, but it’s no use. The force is so strong, it feels like a belt lashing at my skin.
“Help!” I shout to no one, panic overtaking.
Reaching down for the handle to turn the shower off, I try with all of my might to turn it back to its original position, but it won’t budge. “Oh my God! It won’t stop!” Holding my hands in front of my face in an attempt to block the water so I can see, I lean down and pick up the showerhead, wondering if I should try to shove it back in the hole in the wall. But I can’t open my eyes enough to tell and the piece of metal slips from my grasp, falling to the floor with a loud bang, sparking Roscoe to bark from outside. “Oh my God! This can’t be happening!”
With my eyes still closed, I reach for the handle on the shower door, desperate to figure this out before my house floods. But as I step onto the bathmat, I collide with a brick wall—or, at least that’s what it feels like.
“Fuck.”
“Ahhhh!” I scream, panic flaring again as I start swinging blindly. I will not die like this. I will not be murdered in the nude in my bathroom with a shower that has been possessed by demons with my dog left to wonder what happened to me.
“Vienna!” A familiar voice cuts through the noise of the water and my screams. “Vienna, it’s Rhonan.”
I crack one eye open, and when I reach up to wipe the water from my face, I’m finally able to make out Rhonan standing in my bathroom, his white T-shirt now completely soaked and plastered to his chest.
“What the hell?” I choke out.
His eyes are dancing all over my body. “What happened?”
“What are you doing here?” I ask instead, frozen even though chaos is still going on around me. The shower door is still open, so now the water is flowing freely onto the floor, flooding the small room. My hair is matted against my face and shoulders, and water is continuing to drip into my eyes.
It’s at that moment that I realize I’m still completely naked.
“Oh my God!” My hands instantly fall to my body, attempting to cover up the important parts, but Rhonan is apparently intent on just standing there. “Get out!”
“I heard you screaming and then there was a loud bang, so…”
“So you broke into my house?” I shout, hunched over as I try to hide my nakedness. I flick my chin toward the counter. “Can you at least hand me my towel, please?”
Something must have finally registered for him because his eyes quickly leave my body and he grabs my towel, handing it to me before turning around. “Sorry, but your back door was unlocked and I just…when I hear someone screaming, my instincts kick in to help, I guess.”
“I appreciate the knight-in-shining-armor routine yet again, but I’m not dying. My shower just exploded.”
He glances at me over his shoulder to make sure I’m covered up, and then directs his eyes back to the shower, sliding the door closed to help prevent more water from coming out. “I can see that now.”
I wrap my towel tighter around my body. “I tried to turn it off with the handle, but it’s stuck.”
Rhonan just nods and walks out of the room.
“Wait. Where are you going?”
“To turn the water off from the main line.” He disappears down my hallway, and after a few moments, the water shuts completely off. Breathing heavily, I take a minute to gather my composure, surveying the room that is now covered in water on many surfaces, before walking out to the main part of the house.
My rental house isn’t large by any means. There are only two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living area, and kitchen. It’s perfect for one person, but right now I’m realizing that my bathroom is out of commission, and I have no other options to finish my shower.
Rhonan returns to the living area, finding me standing there still wrapped in my towel, but much calmer than before.
“Thank you,” I say, still clutching onto the towel like a lifeline while trying not to focus on the fact that I probably look like a wet dog.
“You’re welcome, but you won’t be able to turn your water back on until that’s fixed.”
A sigh of defeat leaves my lips. “Just great.”
Rhonan’s eyes dip down my body again, and even though I’m covered, he already knows what’s underneath this towel now.
“Did you get to finish your shower, or…”
“Nope. I had barelygotten started.”
