Bathhouse

It was night. The air was frosty, snowflakes falling, the air was clean and crisp. Steam wisped over the water like a tarp trapping in what lay beneath the darkness below.

The contrast between cold and heat was exhilarating. Enough to make the corners of my mouth turn up ever so slightly. easing my way down I felt the warmth cover my body like a warm hug. The smell of roses from the bushes to my rear and the honeysuckle to my left. The illumination from the inside of the bath house to my right was just bright enough to tickle my periphery with a sense of safety.

The faint buzzing of small insects and lizards scurrying about around the outsides of the bath and beneath the bushes made me sink down to my ears. The muffled underwater tones of my arms and legs swishing about overloaded my senses with pleasure.

It felt nice to soak in something so foreign right here in my quarter sized do-nothing little town.

I’ve always wanted to go to Japan but could never actually afford it. So when the city approved an American version of an authentic Japanese bath house I couldn’t resist the opportunity to try it out. It may not be the real deal but it was good enough for me.

I sat there slowly letting my worries drift and my mind deplete of all the weeks of hard work and drama. I desperately needed a good soak and this water was fantastically calming.

With my eyes closed and my mind adrift there came a voice from the distance. “Won’t you come to me?”

The voice was deep and sultry. Obviously a man and from what I could hear handsome as ever. I was afraid to open my eyes; I’d been rejected enough that month so I kept them closed. He whispered so sweetly it was daunting. “Come drift away with me.”

I felt the urge to reach out my hand but waived upon some consideration.

Why was there a man on the female side of the bath house?

It was strange for a bath house to be mixed. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure but there had to be a rule stipulating that each side was for single sex only. There was no way this was a mixed bath. I shot up revealing my ears to the cold. My eyes fluttered open and I looked to my right.

No lights

My beautiful illumination of safety was gone and my heart was starting to pick up speed. My legs felt like lead, my arms like jelly. Mouth glued shut and panic crept into my overly pruned skin.

I turned my head slowly back forward and noticed something unusual. Two bluish grey orbs sauntering about in the open darkness. One shook violently as I maintained eye contact and the other slowly began to make its way towards me.

I focused my attention on that one and it began to violently shake as the other began its course towards my already trembling body. What in the world?

I could hear my internal screams getting louder and louder but on the outside I remained mute. The glowing dots reached my face and scanned my entire body from head to toe. The left orb violently raced up and down as the right orb slowly inspected my chest as if it wanted to find a way to open it up and see what was laying beneath the surface.

I took a deep breath and held it for as long as I could. The orbs interacted with each other almost as if they were speaking to one another in a way. The orbs circled back around once more and began to dissipate but, before completely vanishing into thin air I took a ravishingly deep inhale and they began to glow even brighter than before. Damn I made it worse.

The orbs thrashed around so manically that they began to create wind. I tried to pull my arms up but I couldn’t.

I felt an electrical current surge through my body. It was pure agony and I couldn’t even make a sound. I opened my mouth wide to let out a shriek but all anyone could hear was silence.

My head was arched back and my eyes were to the sky. I began to pray

Ye thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil.

My heart was full and I wanted to live but the electrical current was beginning to fry what little was left of my brain cells and everything began to fade into a silhouetted fog.

My body was on fire like millions of ants were just bawling away at my flesh. I cried as hard as my body would let me. I could no longer feel the cold or the heat, just the pain of the electricity.

The orbs appeared above my head and slowly made their way to my face. They locked into position each orb parallel to my eyes in perfect tandem.

A cold object punctured my stomach and began to finger around in my insides. It was like worms flailing about in a bait box. God it was the most excruciating pain I’d ever felt in my life. The electricity ceased and I could breathe a little. My breathing was shallow and my heartbeat was almost nonexistent. Eyes swollen and burning. I could feel blisters and burns all over my body. I was still submerged in the water from the neck down.

The fingery feeling in my stomach began to tighten like someone was lifting me from the inside. My body began to rise and within seconds I was midair in the middle of a snowfall.

I heard chattering like some otherworldly bird screeching for life. It didn’t sound malicious, it just sounded desperate. I closed my eyes and counted to five. All bad things go away when you close your eyes and count to yourself right?

One. Deep breathe in. Two. Let it out. Three. Deep breathe in. Four. Let it out. Five. Open eyes.

I was scared stiff at the image in front of me. It was a ginormous evil Slenderman-like being with his fingers skewered into my stomach and protruding out the back like I was a shishkabob. I could feel warm blood and cold wind fighting not out to the death. My heart stopped and for a split second I thought I saw remorse in its eyes. Almost like it was an accident. Not like this. God not like…………

“Excuse me, we're closing. You’re going to have to grab your towel and get out of the spring now.” A rather large man was standing over me and tapping my shoulder. Unable to speak, I stood and looked around worriedly. “Did you see anything strange?” The man was walking away and shaking his head “no ma’am just you sleeping here. you must’ve had a lot of stress to fall asleep in a bath house.” He chuckled and continued to walk. I followed with my towel and my body still aching. I was so sure it was real. Did I dream all of that? As I stepped into the building it was cooler than usual and damp like.

I grabbed my belongings and returned to life like normal. Nothing weird happened since but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was more than just a dream. Something just never felt right after that day.

She stayed there in the cocoon rocking back and forth connected to the veins that fueled the monster's body. Hundreds of thousands of other innocent people strung up like Christmas lights, all connected to the monster's body, giving it sustenance for all of eternity. Each with their own mental illusion of freedom and life as usual. The creature wrap for it was the only way for it to survive. Taking lives to save its own. Wanting nothing more than to be brave enough to let his life end for them. Alas he never could and the world became his artificial heart.