The police were at Jillian's house within ten minutes. The entire time while waiting, she sat on the floor in the kitchen, her knees hugged against her chest. Her breathing was still rapid and her paranoia was at an all-time high. She jumped at the sound of the doorbell ringing, but ran over to open the door to let the police in. They went up into her room to check the window, took some photographs, and asked her questions for their report. They were gone within fifteen minutes, and once again Jillian was alone.
The police had told her to relax. There was no point in continuing to panic when the intruder was gone. Nothing had been taken, almost as though he was simply strolling through. She deserved some down time. She police had notified her parents who had not even gotten out of work yet. It was seven o'clock and they most likely would not be back for another half hour.
Jillian walked up the stairs and walked into her room. She grabbed a pair of pajamas, and her blanket and teddy bear that she owned since she was a small child. She closed the bedroom door behind her, deciding that she would sleep on the floor in her parents' bedroom that night. Normally, she would have slept on the couch downstairs, but tonight had been very different than normal.
Since it was still early, she decided to treat herself. She took all three objects with her into the bathroom. She would change in there and the objects from her childhood allowed her to feel more secure. She turned to the bathroom door and locked it, pushing and pulling to make sure that the lock would not slip. Next, she turned on the hot water in the bathtub. She removed her clothing and wrapped herself in a towel, while lightly humming a random tune she had probably heard on the radio.
After the tub was filled, Jillian lowered herself in the water. She reached over the side and grabbed a bottle of bubble bath with one hand and turning the bubblers on with another. She leaned back and took in a deep, relaxing breath as the tub began to fill with bubbles. Her tranquility lasted for about five minutes until her fear began to resurface. She kept her eyes open and watched the door, almost expecting to see the handle jiggle as someone attempted to get in.
At this point she had to laugh at herself, for she had gone beyond the point of paranoia and into the territory of pure insanity. She moved her gaze to the ceiling and continued humming the tune she had been singing before. She would occasionally glance over at the teddy bear, and then back up at the ceiling.
The bubbles continued to rise until they were tickling her chin like tiny feathers. She brushed them away and tried to push the expanding mass down, that way she would not have to get out just yet, for the sound of the water moving comforted her. It was loud enough so that she would not have been able to hear any unwelcomed noises, yet not so loud that she could not enjoy the bath.
She had elongated her bath as long as she could, to a point where the bubbles were nearly over flowing onto the floor. Her fingers were wrinkled and she knew that she would have to get out, whether she liked it or not. Before doing so, Jillian grabbed a bar of soap and quickly rubbed herself down with it, this way should be clean and the bubbles would start to disappear so there would be no need to clean the bath later. She got up, allowing the bubbler to stay on, and wrapped the towel around herself once more.
She fixed the towel so that her half wet hair was no longer sticking to her back. She grabbed one of her mother's brushes and moved it through her hair. Once finished, she reached down to put it back in the drawer she had taken it from. When she stood back up, and looked in the mirror, she screamed.
In the fog that had clouded the mirror, the words Go to Sleep had been written.
There was no possible way that anyone could have gotten in the bathroom while she was there. Whoever or whatever was in her house could not have known that she was going to take a bath, or possibly even a shower.
Paralyzed in her fear, she remained still, staring at the words, screaming. Unexpectedly, someone tried to open the locked bathroom door. This did not stop Jillian's screaming, in fact, she did not even turn to acknowledge the sound. Then the jiggling of the handle turned into full banging, as though someone was trying to break down the door. Jillian's head snapped to face the door and she screamed even louder. Her immediate response was to back up and find a place to hide, though it would be pointless since she had already let the disturber know she was in the bathroom. She continued backing up however, and hit the edge of the tub, and fell backwards into it.
Her head slammed into the wall and her upper body slipped under the water as the door was busted open.
