Good luck ever trusting anyone again.
I mentioned it to Ben.
He didnt even respond.
Steinar Engeland
Ben responded with a sound that Im not even sure qualifies as a grunt.
I let the shower warm up and then slipped in.
The first couple in minutes of the shower were utter bliss.
One of those moments when you feel like nothing else in life could ever be better.
I never wanted to get out.
Then I heard the sound of Ben peeing on the other side of the shower curtain.
Steinar Engeland
Ben, I said in a thoroughly-annoyed tone.
just just dont flush the toilet.
I heard the urine stop.
I didnt hear the toilet flush.
I heard Ben walk out of the bathroom.
I showered for another 10 minutes before I got out.
I dried off and headed back to the bedroom.
Thanks for not flushing the toilet, I said before ducking into our bedroom.
I didnt go to the bathroom, Ben fired back.
I stopped in the doorway then walked back into the living room.
I heard you peeing when I was in the shower.
Ben threw his hands up, eyes still on the game.
I have not gotten up from this seat since we walked in.
Its overtime, Ben insisted in his tone where I know he is telling the truth about something.
The warmth of the hot shower slithered off me in a second.
Dont mess with me, I stated coldly to Ben.
Ben finally looked at me.
I swear to God I didnt go in there.
The entire room started to feel dangerous.
I didnt even know what to do.
I stood there shivering in nothing but a towel.
Ben rose to his feet and walked towards me.
I watched his eyes scan the room with a fear in them I had never seen before.
He stopped in the doorway and grabbed me.
He covered my mouth and perked his ear.
I didnt hear anything other than the distant, ominous ring of a siren.
We stood silent for a few more moments.
We would hear something if someone was in here, Ben said in a flat tone.
Ben reluctantly agreed to search the apartment.
We searched the place up and down and found nothing.
It was actually worse than finding a stringy junkie with a bloody knife or some hideous monster.
The mystery of the whole thing was worse than any nightmare I could have imagined.
*
The next few weeks were tense.
I wouldnt stay in the apartment alone.
Ben told me my brain must have just played a trick on me.
That was a bad idea.
He said there was no other possible way it could have happened.
It was not a good idea on his part to tell me that.
I lost trust in him.
What happened was definitely not in my head.
I got my confirmation a few weeks later when I stood in the shower getting ready for work.
I couldnt dodge the water in time and took a stinging-hot stream to the face.
I heard the front door unlock, open and then close again.
I called out, my body cold despite the hot water pounding on my back.
I shivered into a towel and walked into the bedroom.
No sign of Ben.
I checked out the living room.
There was a handwritten note on the coffee table
Had to run to work early…Ben.
He was bristly and clearly annoyed.
Worse yet, he confirmed that he did not flush the toilet when I was in the shower.
He left before he even heard the shower come on.
I listened to the space around me in the apartment.
I dont even know what Ben said after that point.
Everything was silent, but it felt like the entire apartment was alive at that point.
I ended the call with Ben.
One thing was clear at that point.
Ben continued to swear up and down it was not him doing it.
He brought up the idea or me inventing the whole thing in my head, again.
I melted down, but also offered a solution…what if we set up cameras in the apartment?
I wanted to cam the entire apartment.
Ben didnt want to spend that much.
We settled on recording the front door and the bathroom.
I reviewed the tapes each day at work.
The fear that all of this was in fact in my head started to bubble.
Our already-strained relationship felt like it was hanging by a single thread.
We were barely talking.
The footage from the bathroom proved fruitful while I was in the shower.
I couldnt believe I still showered with the curtain closed at that point.
I hated myself almost as much as I was scared as I watched the footage.
I would launch the curtain any second.
What I watched next made the vomit literally bubble up in the back of my throat.
I couldnt believe what I saw.
I watched about half of the bathroom floor rise up and about a foot off the ground.
One burning thought simmered in my mind when the realization washed over me.
It was the day before Veterans Day and Ben had the day off, while I didnt.
He was still at home, with the man in the bathroom floor.
I scrambled to call Ben as soon as possible.
I called the cops and drove back home without telling my boss anything.
The cops were already there when I arrived.
They busted down the door under my phone direction and found the apartment entirely empty.
The story of Ben was far more disturbing because there wasnt much of a story.
He vanished without a trace other than that.
I have since moved out of the apartment and Ben has yet to show.
I can still remember the cops exact words.
Most of the time, its someone they know, in at least some capacity.
Good luck ever trusting anyone again.
