Natalie looked over at the fifty-dollar bill thrown so hastily on her bedside table just moments before her apartment door slammed shut.

            “Yeah, like that’ll pay the rent” she moaned.

 The single mother of two skinny little girls, rolled out of bed and walked quickly across the hall to the bathroom. After gagging down a glass of warm water, she purged her empty stomach of anything left behind by the man and stepped into a steamy, hot shower. 

            She heard the pounding on her apartment door while she scrubbed at her skin and hoped the fat slob hadn’t forgotten his tie, like the last guy.  Whomever it was seemed unlikely to leave, the pounding continued until she was out of the shower causing her to angrily head to the door still in her towel.

            “What the fuck is so important you can’t knock politely?” she yelled through the door.

            “Your goddamn rent is late, again.”

 ‘Oh god, shit, shit, shit….' Natalie hastily opened the door. “I’m so sorry Mrs. Codona, I swear I’ll have it to you by the end of the week.”

            The old woman looked at her. Just stared with those dark, sunken black eyes. Natalie was never sure if they were actually fully black, or if there was a brown so brown it looked black, but those eyes always scared the crap out of her. When the old woman slowly dropped her gaze to Natalie’s towel, a sneer curled on the wizened old mouth showing a peak at the yellow grey teeth that should have been removed decades ago.

            “You’re a whore now, are ya? A worthless piece of slime. Pay the rent or go back to the unholy pond you and your slimy little daughters slithered out of …”

            Natalie was shocked…she knew the old lady was a miserable old coot, but she’d never been cruel.

            “I’ll, I’ll pay, soon, I promise…” Natalie stammered.

            “Whore…slime…time for you to go home...” Mrs. Codona made a disgusting gurgling noise deep in her throat, curled her gummy old lips and spat on Natalie’s towel. " She thumped her cane and nodded her head, then turned and crept back down the hallway towards the stairs leaving Natalie in shock at the door.

            "I am home..." she muttered and looked down at the yellowy green spew as it slowly dripped down her towel. She felt the bile rise in her throat her stomach constricted.  She tore off the towel, threw it out into the hallway and slammed her apartment door. Unable to make it to the kitchen sink, she bent over and retched on the spot.

            “Holy crap,” she panted, shaking her head, dry heaves made it hard to take a breath. “What the fuck is wrong with that woman…. Holy crap”.  Natalie went back into the shower in an attempt to make herself presentable before heading out to her shift at the coffee bar down the street. Judging by the feel of her stomach, it was going be to a very long day. Natalie looked in the mirror, hoping she didn’t look as crappy as she felt.

            She sighed and started to apply make up to cover the dark rings under her eyes, but had to stop when her stomach cramped so badly, she had to sit beside the toilet on the cold tile floor. “What the fu…” she gasped, as retch after retch forced a vile smelling oily black fluid to stream from her mouth and into the bowl.

            Hours later, after school that day, Gina and Pixie were laughing as they scrabbled up the stairs to their second-floor apartment. Their giggles stopped when they saw Mommy’s pink towel out in the hallway.

            “Don’t touch it!” Pixie jumped back from the towel at her sister’s harsh whisper.

            “Why not?” She asked, tiny hand still poised ready to grab it.

            “Maybe Mommy killed a mouse, or a bird, or a rat! But it was only stunned and you’ll wake it up and it’ll BITE YOU!” Gina lunged at her little sister with claw like hands, startling the little girl and causing her to fall onto the maligning towel with a squeal.

            Gina laughed as Pixie got back up and looked down at her hand. “oh gross” she batted her wet hand through the air narrowly missing her sister. “I think it’s already dead” Pixie moaned and wiped her hand on a clean section of the towel, leaving a black, oily looking smear.

            “C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up,” her older sister unlocked and opened the door. “Oh, great, this just keeps getting better and better. Watch your step, you are now entering… The kill zone.” The girls gingerly tiptoed past the black, wet looking patch on the carpet inside the doorway. 

            “It smells in here, Gina. What do you think she killed? A skunk?” Pixie asked as they entered the small dog bone shaped apartment turning left towards the dining/kitchen and living room area.

            “Dunno” Gina responded, getting her school books out of her knapsack and piling them on the kitchen table. “Why don’t you get a shower so you don’t end up stinking like dead skunk, and I’ll spray something on that crap by the door.” 

            “Unkay…but you gotta help me fix the water so I don’t freeze” Pixie’s little hands weren’t strong enough to turn the grime encrusted old taps in the bathtub. With a sigh, Gina followed her sister down the hall to the bathroom. “What? What is all this stuff?” They both said, looking at the patches of wetness on the carpet. “It looks like oil or something, but it stinks. Whatever she killed, it put up a hell of a fight.”

          The girls avoided stepping on the spots and after Gina set her sister up in a warm shower, she set about spraying the whole carpeted hallway right to the door, with a disinfectant aerosol spray until the can stopped hissing.  Satisfied, she went back to her books to start on her homework.

            “Stop it” 

            Gina wondered what her sister was yapping about now, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort of getting up until it sounded far more urgent.

            “Hey!” Pixie squealed.  Nope, not urgent enough.

            “Gina, cut it out, you’re scaring me.” Pixie let out a loud scream as Gina ran to the bathroom.  “What’s wrong? Pixie, what’s wrong?” the bathroom door was open, but Gina didn’t see the oily black substance on the floor until she skidded into the room, barely able to stay upright, she grabbed the sink to steady herself and avoided falling.

            Her sister was crying behind the shower curtain. Gina looked in. “Hey!” Pixie yelled. “Well, shit, you scared the crap out of me screaming like that, what the hell is the matter with you?” Gina responded as she let the shower curtain fall back into place.

            “Me?! You kept poking me through the curtain!”

            “Um, no…and I thought you were going to wash that shit off your hand. What are you saving it for? Mom won’t be impressed with the mess you made of the curtain with it.” Gina said, looking at the oily finger prints her sister had left on the curtain.

            “You were poking me.”

            “Did Not”

            “Did Too! And I’m going to tell Mommy and she’s going to yell at you, maybe she’ll make you eat that dead thing for dinner.” Her sister was clearly feeling better, so Gina left her to finish her shower tossing over her shoulder, “just call me when you want the water turned off, and don’t step in that crap on the floor, I’ll wash it later.”

            Gina decided to put on some music to drown out her sister’s complaints. She knew when Mom came home later that night, she’d never hear the end of this. But it wasn’t her fault. Pixie had a wild enough imagination without Mom leaving some dead thing out in the hall and leaving the mess for Gina to clean up. She always did shit like that. Make some big meal and eat it all before they got home from school, but leave all the dishes for Gina. Throw all the bedsheets in a heap in the living room with a note reading “Gina, honey, please throw these into wash and dry before I get home, Thanks! Hugs and Kissies, Mommy”. She just didn’t have the strength or fortitude to face cleaning the bathroom, and she liked the songs the radio happened to be playing. She’d clean up later. 

It wasn’t until Gina realized she’d finished her homework long ago and been dancing to the music for quite a while that she remembered she should probably turn off the water for Pixie. “Hey, you still got hot water in there?” She yelled down the hall. “Pix? Want it shut off now?”

She walked down the hall and banged on the shower door, hoping to startle her young sibling. “Pixie! Open up in the name of the law!”  She laughed, opening the door to the silent room. The hot water had clearly run out. It was now chilly in the small bathroom. “Pix? You okay?” Gina sighed. Ah, she’s going to jump at me when I pull open the curtain…fine…I’ll play along. Gina slowly pulled back the shower curtain “Pixie, please don’t –.”  The bathtub was empty.

 The cold water from the shower beat down on the stained old mat. “Huh” Gina muttered as she turned off the taps. “Oh, okay, I get it! You’re pissed because I opened the curtain on you. C’mon Pix, don’t be mad.” 

            Gina turned to see if her sister had snuck up on her, but the doorway was empty. “Pixie…c’mon, I’m sorry.”  She walked slowly to their bedroom, expecting the young girl to come flying out from behind the door. But the room was empty, the dull late afternoon light casting shadows on the two twin beds set side by side in the small room with barely enough room to get in to either. 

            “Pixie? Honey?” Using the term of endearment their mother used for them, she felt mature, looking under the beds and crawling over them to the closet door. “Sweetie, it’s time to come get dinner” Gina felt like a Mom now, like an adult. Maybe it’s time we get a dog! I’m mature enough to take care of this little fart, I could take care of a puppy! Gina thought as she opened the closet door, half expecting again, for her sister to leap out all spit and giggles.

            But the closet was empty. “Shit”. That only left one place. They’d both been told to never, ever go into Mommy’s room. Gina stared at the closed door. There was black goop on the door knob. Damn it, the little shit went in there. Anger rose in her at the thought of the mess her little sister probably made in their mother’s room. She’d drag the little brat by the ear and make her help clean it.  Gina slowly opened the door, the suspense growing in her young stomach at the thought of the mess, and the possible jumping creature her sister would be, just to get her supposed revenge on her big sister.

            “Pixie, I swear…if you jump at me, I will get a knife, cut out your heart and stuff it down your punk-ass throat.” She entered the room, careful to avoid the wet stains on the carpet. God it stunk in here. This must be where Mom killed the bird, or bat or whatever. Man, couldn’t she have at least opened a window? 

“Pixie, times up. I’m gettin’ the knife…” She surveyed the room. Her mother’s bed was unmade, the blankets half on the floor, half on the bed, but nothing indicating any small body lying in wait. She quickly peeked behind the door. Nothing but a pair of discarded pantyhose and some kind of square candy wrapper or something.

            Gina tiptoed carefully across the room to the half opened closet. There wasn’t any goop on the floor near it, so she probably wasn’t in there, but it was worth peaking anyway, just to see Mommy’s “Pretty Clothes”. The ones she wears when she goes to work at the bar on the weekend and brings home boyfriends after work.

           She ruffled through the beautiful dresses and looked around on the floor at the pretty high heeled shoes. But, no Pixie. “Damnit, if that little shit went down to the coffee shop, Mom is gonna kill me.” Her heart pounded at the thought of her little sister navigating the two big streets she would have to cross to get to the diner where their mother worked.

            Gina stopped moving. She heard something and needed absolute silence to tell where it had come from – there it was again. It was coming from the bathroom. Oh man, she’d make her sister have nightmares for a week for this one! She ran around her mother’s bed, forgetting about the goop on the floor, and slipped in it, falling hard on her back with a squishing noise as she landed in another oily puddle. “Fucking Gross!” She yelled as she angrily picked herself up and headed for the bathroom with murder in her eyes.

“God damnit Pixie, this isn’t fun anymore she yelled as she whipped open the shower curtain. The tub was still empty. She stood, dumfounded for a moment, and heard the noise again. The drain was gurgling. “Stupid” she muttered knowing she’d just wasted more time, and who knows when the little brat had snuck past her, to run out of the apartment and rat on her to Mom. But now she and her clothes were wet from the damn slimy stuff and it was on her arm. She’d need to get a quick shower and change first.

            Gina hoped enough time had gone by to let the old water system get some kind of heat back in it, otherwise, she’d be showering in icy cold water. She got a towel from the tiny linen closet and was hit by the stench coming from it. She backed away from the door after grabbing a towel, glad that she’d be out in the fresh air again soon. She could have sworn she heard something in there, but was so creeped out by her sister at this point, she figured anything was possible. She still had the feeling deep within, that her sister was still close by, somewhere, hiding.

            Gina left her clothes in a heap on the floor and a fresh pair of jeans and a tee-shirt on the back of the toilet for when she got out.  She turned on the water with just enough flow to get the shower to run, hoping to make what little bit of heat she felt, last long enough for her to get the goop off and feel clean again.

She lathered and scrubbed at her dirty arm and then lathered her hair. When her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, she heard it. A scraping, scratching on the plastic shower curtain. And a wet plopping sound. And then a gurgling sound. Gina’s heart pounded as she tried quickly and desperately to get the soap out of her hair and off of her face, before it got into her eyes. The scratching and gurgling sound happened again.

            “Pixie, for god sake, stop! Okay, you got me! I’m scared! Now cut it out!”  She rinsed the last of the soap off her face and just before her eyes started to sting, she saw it. A slimy, black, melted looking hand had crept over the edge of the bathtub and was reaching towards her. The arm looked as though it were dissolving on the rim of the tub as it dripped over the edge and into the tub.  Gina screamed.

           She was shaking so badly she plunked down into the tub, sitting there as the small supply of lukewarm water slowly washed the oily black substance down the drain. Her eyes stung as residual soapy water ran down her forehead, but she couldn’t stop staring at the hand.  “Gggggeeeeenaaaa…rrrruuuuuunnnn..” The horrible sound gurgled from the other side of the shower curtain.

The hand oozed into the tub, still reaching for her until it was hit by the spray from the shower. Then it separated from the arm with a sickening sucking noise and hit the bottom of the tub with a wet thump where it splatted, losing its shape and slowly washing down towards the drain away from her. 

            Gina stared, as the stump of arm dripped oily sludge and the oily hand dissolved, before her eyes. She heard a wet, slurping, smacking sound just on the other side of the curtain. Shock had set in providing her with the strength to pull back the curtain to see what was on the other side.

Mud. It still held the basic shape of a person. A person made of oily, black slimy mud, dissolving as it reached into the tub. Gina screamed as it fell to the floor with a disgusting wet splatting sound. The water ran cold. She quickly looked back to make sure the hand wasn’t creeping towards her, but it was almost completely gone.  Something glinted in the light, sparkling under the freezing water. 

Gina leaned forward to see what it was before it washed into the drain. There, on the dirty, stained bathmat, was her mother’s ring. The silver one she wore on her little finger and never, ever took off. “How….what?” Gina whispered. Her eyes glazed as a wave of nausea grew in her stomach and throat. Black oily fluid slowly drooled from her mouth as she watched the ring get rinsed of the muck mere inches from her toes.  

 Her gaze moved to her toes or what was left of them. She watched her feet turn black as the oily residue where her toes had been, started flowing away from her body like….

.....slime from some unholy pond.