The Eve in the Water

The Eve In The Water
In the waters under a long, dreary suspension bridge, unbeknownst to the drivers crossing over to get home for the night, was a person. Not a carcass of one, but rather a person just swimming there, submerged all the way up to her nostrils. Her eyes are closed, her body swaying back and forth to the currents' whim. She struggles to open her eyelids as if she was sleeping and, with a few starting kicks and hand motions, she starts to swim to shore.

The woman steps out of the water and into the bottom of the man-made trench under the bridge, wringing out her long, dark hair. She is fully clothed; A pair of jeans, leather boots, a dark grey undershirt, and a red bubble-down jacket, accompanied with a hoodie she swings over her head. The woman tries to get the water out of her boots as she walks.

Once she gets out of the large trench, the woman proceeds to wander through the nighttime streets' sidewalks, putting on makeup around her lips as she passes by late bloomers spending time with their friends in rickety pubs and tired, hunchbacked workingmen providing for their families. The lights of the buildings shine an allure to shoppers and hungry citizens down below.

The woman buys a subway ticket using soggy dollar bills she had in her back pocket and catches a train ride. She stands up in the busy cart, holding the pole beside her for balance as the train moves side to side. A man with a red fedora sitting nearby glances at the woman with baggy eyes, looking from her hand on the pole to her lips. The woman looks back at the man, who promptly turns away and pretends like he was doing nothing.

The woman exits the subway and walks. And then she walks some more. She walks. She walks. She walks out of the city, walking on the side of a backroad with her hands in her jacket pockets. She walks. She walks until the city is completely out of sight behind her, though she has not even started sweating. She walks. She walks. She walks until the dawn, the sun rising after being absent from the night before. And yet, hours later, she still walks.

She suddenly finds herself in a new town, one much smaller than the city behind her, one with a tight-knit community where everyone knows your name. At about the beginning of the workday, the woman walks into a small, local nursing home and goes up to the front. No one is at the front desk to see her. The woman looks down at the bell used to ring up a worker, confused by it.

She fiddles with the outer edges of the bell as a heavyset receptionist appears out of nowhere and gives out a big, warm welcome, "Eve!"

"Clara!" Eve says back in delight. The woman's, who is named Eve, demeanor entirely changes as her eyes brighten and her crystal clear smile peeks through her lips.

"Now honey, I thought you called in sick last night." Clara points out, opening the side door of the desk to allow Eve through.

"Oh, it came and went through the night, but it's all out of my system."

"You sure?" Clara gives Eve a look, "'Cause I can't afford another sick day or Dr. Radcliffe will actually throw me off a cliff."

Eve rolls her eyes, "You're not gonna get infected, Clara. You know, Jay did the same thing to me last night, ran away from me every time I tried to brush his teeth."

Clara chuckles, "How is he, with the new school and all?"

"Oh, he's handling it well," Eve explains, leaning on the side of the desk, "It's a good place, close too. Only three miles from home, and it's right by that park with the red swings."

"Ooooh, y'all been there?" Clara asks.

"Uh, no, not yet." Eve answers. "Haven't had time to, with the move and everything."

"I get it, girl, I've been there. You should bring him there, though. He would love it." Clara lays down the line. Clara knows what is good for everyone.

Eve plots for a moment, "You know, I might just have to now."

After work, Eve clocks out at around the time of when Jay is let out of his new school. He flies out of the dismissed hallways, heading down to the buses. "Jay! Jay!" Eve yells.

"Mom?" Jay gets on his tip-toes to see Eve. He then waves off to his friends as he heads over to see her, "You're here! Why?"

Typically, Jay's mom never comes to school, the old one or the new one, except to meet the teachers on Open House or to see an awards ceremony, "Oh, I have a surprise: We're going to the park today!"

Jay was hoping for something a bit bigger, like DisneyWorld, but the park works, "Can I do the obstacle course?!"

Near the park is an obstacle course made for kids a bit older than Jay, "Absolutely not! That's too dangerous for you."

"But, Mooooom." Jay begs.

Eve thinks, "... We'll see when we get there."

Jay smiles at Eve, "Yes!"

"Now, come on, we're walking." Eve grabs Jay by the hand.

"But, Mom, can't we just take the car?"

Eve flinches for a second, "I'm... saving gas this way. It's right down the corner, come on, lazy butt."

Jay keeps up with Eve and they both head down to the park. Jay looks up at Eve's face, "You're not still sick, are you?"

When they arrive at the park, Jay is let loose and he goes off and plays in the many little attractions there. He eventually runs into a group of kids that he bonds with immediately as they charge up a slide to see who can get the highest. "Careful, Jay! You know that's not how you're supposed to do it!" Eve yells, sitting on a bench.

A mother comes by and sits beside Eve, holding a drink in her hand. "Which one's yours?"

Eve points at the top of the slide, "The one in the khakis, the one going down the slide just now. Where's yours?"

"The girl who just kicked yours down." The mother and Eve both laugh. "Jay, right? What grade is he?"

Eve thinks, "He's in... 3rd now."

"Oh really?" The mother sits up, "So is mine, Alyssa. That's pretty funny."

"If she goes to the school down the block, then they might have the same classes together," Eve points out.

"I hope they become friends then." The mother smiles.

Eve then looks back at Jay, then back at the mother. "Say, can you watch him for me? I'm gonna run and get the car."

"Oh yeah, totally." The mother waves her hand to Eve as if saying to go.

"Thank you!" Eve stands up and casually walks back to where the school is.

The mother watches the kids on the playground, "Alyssa, no kicking! let Jay up there with you!"

In a matter of only a few minutes, Eve is at Eve's house, running up the driveway to the porch door. The house was secluded in the middle of a dense woods. Garden decorations fill the yard as Eve pulls out some keys out of her jacket pocket. She fumbles with the keys until she finds the one that opens the porch door, letting herself in quietly.

Eve looks across the porch and back to the driveway, the only noise being the birds chirping in the distance. Eve gently places her foot in front of her and puts her weight on it, making a faint, creaking noise. She tiptoes silently to the front door of the house, which is beside two large windows. Eve slowly moves her hand on top of the doorknob and turns it, only to find that it's locked. Eve looks into the house through the window.

Inside the interior was eerily dark, the living room completely dead with the large television off. Past the carpeted stairs that lead to Jay's bedroom and the attic is the kitchen, which is the only place lit in the whole house. The woman sitting at the dining table grabs another tissue and wipes her stuffy, red nose, sick as she can be. She has her long, dark hair in a ponytail after getting out of the shower, accompanied by a shower robe she is lounging in. She is going through her bills as the radio plays some soft tunes beside her.

This sick, homebound woman was Eve. And the creature outside climbs the wall of the porch and makes its way to the roof of the house.

Eve looks through all of her mail and bills through her reading glasses, having a handy notepad and a pen on standby. Eve hears a bump upstairs and looks up, only to ignore it and focus back on her work. As she drowns out all the noise of the house with the calming radio music, the creature starts going down the stairs towards the living room in a handstand on the guardrails, completely eliminating any noise made from footsteps. The creature reaches the bottom of the stairs and lands quietly in the darkness undetected by Eve, its eyes faintly glowing a deathly white.

The creature tiptoes towards Eve at the table like it did on the porch, not alerting the mother at all of its nearing presence. The creature reveals the front of its middle finger, where the skin is cut and shaped like the ragged side of a sharp buzzsaw. It creeps behind Eve, getting low to the ground with a devilish smile on its face.

Eve is suddenly put off by the feeling of something touching her hair, specifically the end of her ponytail. Before she can react, her head is yanked back by the ponytail, sending her chin up in the air, leaving her neck exposed. She makes eye contact with the creature who looks exactly like her. For a moment, no sound comes out of Eve, only shock and terror projects through her eyes. As the creature places its hand around Eve's throat, however, a horrified scream leaves her body.

The creature swipes its hand through Eve's throat, running the buzzsaw-shaped middle finger across it, slicing it into two. The calming radio music drowns out the bloodshed as trails of blood fly across the kitchen walls and blinds as Eve's body is dragged and thrown around by the creature's unearthly strength and malice.

After a couple more seconds, the destruction is done. Eve is scattered across the kitchen. The creature turns off the radio as the sounds of faint gargling is heard in the corner of the room.

The creature proceeds to clean up the kitchen, discarding any traces of the murder that just occurred. As it washes its hands, it notices the makeup around its lips is gone, revealing the lines that run down the ends of its lips to below its chin, a puppet-like mouth it was trying to hide.

Once the creature finds Eve's supply of makeup and fixes itself back up, it grabs Eve's car keys and drives back to the park. There, the mother of Alyssa is still watching Jay, who is now playing on a four-way spring seesaw.

"Hey!" The mother waves at the creature, which smiles back, "Took you a little long, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm so sorry! I got caught up talking to one of Jay's teachers, you know how it is."

"It's completely fine. Say, I think Jay and Alyssa are getting along real well." The mother points at kids.

"Oh, really? Then we may have to meet up again sometime soon." The creature jokes.

"I believe so." The mother turns to the creature, "Can I give you my number?"

"Oh! Sure, please." The creature pulls out Eve's phone.

"By the way, my name is Janette." The mother, Janette, introduces herself.

"Eve." The creature lies.

After the two exchange numbers, the creature puts its hand up to its mouth and yells, "Jay! Come on, let's go!"

"Aww." Jay sighs as he runs over to the creature's embrace.

"Come on, kid." The creature picks up Jay, mindful of her middle finger, "We're having burgers tonight!"