I woke with water smothering my lungs.

I moved as fast as I could. I reached out in desperation for something, anything, solid to hold onto. My fingers hit something metal. I grasped further up the smooth surface.

They failed to find something to grab onto. Fingernails scrambled against the surface, but there was nothing to grasp. I felt my back hit something hard beneath me. My lungs burned, and I tried to scream only for more water to flood in. I could barely see down here, but it was growing darker. Cold suffused me. I needed to get out of here now. How long had passed? A few seconds? Longer? I forced myself up, hands reaching for one last attempt.

The flat surface ended, giving me something to grasp. I pulled, arms burning. A spot on the inside of my elbow felt like it had been stabbed. Feeling of ice cold ran through my ears, lip, nose. My head broke through the surface of the water. A weight felt like it was trying to pull me back in. I forced myself upright despite it, taking a breath as I did.

For a few moments I could do nothing but coughing and sputtering. My lungs still burned from it. But the sweet sensation of taking a breath was there too. Shivering, I took another breath of it before falling into a fit again. My throat hurt as I hacked. Still shivering, I tried to get my bearings.

I couldn’t see in the darkness around me. I grasped around, bumping into the circular walls of smooth metal around me. There was a floor beneath me, and I was in a container of water. A tub, I thought, although it wasn’t just me inside. Cold solid chunks of something floated around, occasionally bumping into me.

I wanted out, whatever the material floating with me was. I pulled myself up, feeling more weight trying to draw me back in. Wet fabric tugged on me in a few different telling places. I was a woman? Of course, why would I even question that? I was….

What was my name? I froze, halfway out of the tub. What was my name?

I didn’t know. There was nothing there to answer that question, or other ones I could think of. Who was my family? Did I have a family? Did I have friends? A lover? Where was I born? When was I born? Did I even know what I looked like?

My heart beat frantically in my chest. My lungs were burning again, as I breathed faster and faster. Don’t panic. Think. What do you know? Some things, at least. Thinking hard: the year, the president of the US, and the entire plot of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Useless.

I needed to move. Shivering, I stood up in the tub. The weight pulled down on me everywhere as water shed off me. Cold fabric coated every inch of me below the neck. A suit‌? A pantsuit, I could feel. Something ran around my neck, strapped tight. I stepped out of the tub onto solid ground, wet feet squishing against soaked socks in waterlogged boots. It felt hard, a tile floor? Reaching down to check confirmed it was.

I looked around, straining, and I saw a bit of light. A thin bar of it, much lower than me, barely there at all. Maybe a crack under a door. Whatever it was, it gave me a direction to go.

I shivered once again as a gentle breeze suddenly hit me. Water-logged fabric touched my body as the wind blew. Was I outside? I hadn’t felt wind before now at all. It died down swiftly, then a new breeze from the opposite direction.

“Soul-dead.”

Faint, barely louder than the wind carrying it. But I knew what I had heard. My heart beat like a drum again. I turned towards where I had heard it from. Then another noise came from behind me. I whirled around, trying to face it. Something solid rammed into my knee and yelling I kicked it.

Agony went straight through my toe. The tub. I had kicked the tub. Another whisper, this one next to my ear. My fist went through there a second later. Nothing. My hands fished around in the pockets of my pants as I tried to keep track of the whisper. They pulled out a thin rectangular box, a switchblade my mind told me a second later. Pain went through my index finger as I opened it. I’d cut myself, my right hand spasming at the wrong time. That spot on the inside of the elbow still felt like a spike had been rammed into it.

“Who’s there?” I’d meant it as a demand but it came out a whimper. There was no response.

The switchblade’s handle pressed into my hand as I carefully moved a step away from the bathtub. I had no idea what was in here with me. But I wasn’t going to let it kill me. Looking over the room, I found the bar of light again and start to move toward it.

That was, of course, right when light burst into existence right in front of me.

Tears filled my eyes immediately. It was like the sun had burst into existence right in front of me. The hard edge of the tub rammed the backs of my knees as I stumbled back. Weightlessness seized me for just a moment as I fell backward. Water flooded in, my eyes, my ears, and my mouth as it smothered my scream yet again. Furious and sputtering, I pulled myself up into a world now brightly lit. Angrily, I glared at the sun that had sent me back to the tub. It was a goddamn lightbulb.

My lungs freshly burning, I spat out some water and got out of the tub again. My eyes still teared up as they adjusted to the light, but I could see around me now. Walls and a roof. I was inside a bathroom, and no one else was in here with me. Had I imagined the whisper? Maybe.

The tub dominated half the room, then a toilet, a sink, and a mirror with a built-in medicine shelf. A single door where the bar of light had been. A handle that was styled like a loop of chain with no lock. The lightbulb hung on the end of a chain and no part of the room was hidden from its light. No place for anyone to hide. Pretty cramped as well. I didn’t know how I had hit none of this when trying to punch that imaginary whisper.

I turned my attention to the floor and saw green tile but also something else. A strange device, a tube with a needle sticking out of it, two metal half cylinders at an angle from the base of the needle, and a three-ringed plunger at the other end. The end of the needle had a touch of blood on it. Please let me not have amnesia because I overdosed on something.

Pain burst through my right arm from the inside of the elbow again. Realizing what it could be, I unbuttoned the sleeve of the suit and rolled it back. Red stained the white shirt sleeve underneath, traced back to the inside of my elbow. Rolling that back, I could see a small hole there. A pinprick, no longer bleeding at least. Looks like my thoughts had been correct.

Could a drug actually erase memories? I had no idea, but it was as good an explanation as any. I pocketed the contraption and turned my attention to the rest of the room.

I went to the bathtub next, where there were chunks of ice floating in the water. What kind of sadist put ice in a bathtub- it’s going to end up being me, isn’t it? I thought resignedly. Went on a drug binge, loaded up a bathtub with ice, and climbed in when fully clothed.

A disheveled fedora floated among the ice. I fished it out of the tub. Well, I already had enough water dripping through my hair that adding the fedora wouldn’t hurt. Fit perfectly.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I went to the mirror next, hoping that knowing what I looked like would help unravel this all. Not in the best of conditions, with cracks running through it. The sink had grime all over it, especially in the layer of water at the bottom of it.

I knew I was a woman physically, and rolling the idea around my head, identifying as one felt fine as well. Bending down to see my face in the mirror, I was a really tall one as well. That or the apartment was for people much smaller than me.

I focused on my face first, which was-bluntly-harsh. Just the face itself, some angles, not much filling, narrow in width, and with somewhat sunken brown eyes. The amount of metal just made it look even harsher. Nose stud, lip ring far to one side, another ring through my right eyebrow, ones through my earlobes as well, and one through the top of an ear. Maybe I had been at a rave before this.

My hair was probably another point for the rave theory. This had to be hair dye. Pink at the top transitioning through all the shades of violet and blue down to navy at the bottom. About chin-length and plastered to my skin from all the water.

So, rave theory looked correct, but what kind of rave allowed someone in wearing a pinstriped suit and fedora that looked like I came off the set of a thirties gangster movie? Dressed in the wrong kind of clothes for a woman in those films? Then again gender-conforming rules on fashion were bullshit.

Something flickered in the corner of my eye. I turned around in an instant, switchblade held in front of me. Nothing. But I knew something had moved across the door. I took a hesitant step forward. My leg came out from underneath me as I accidentally stepped on a wet patch. My free hand went to the sink to try and keep myself steady. Right into a layer of grimy water.

Something was pressing into my hand in there, hard and small. Nothing showed up by the door as I got my feet back. I withdrew my hand, looking down to see whatever was in there. A few of the objects were still embedded in my hand. Small, white, and sold. Teeth.

Whimpering, I shook the rest off before feeling inside my mouth. None of mine were missing from what I could tell. It was time to leave this bathroom.

Hard tile met the sole of my boot as I strode towards the door. The light suddenly flickered halfway there, the bulb dimming before surging back to life. Don’t you dare, I thought, moving to a run as it continued to flicker, Don’t you fu-.

The light died. I was in the darkness again. Something coiled around my leg. It yanked, sending me sprawling. Cold painted the side of my cheek as it pressed against the tile. A weight pressed down on me from above. The pressure made my lung strain to keep breathing. There was nothing up there!

Dryness took my mouth as I tried to pull myself up. The weight redoubled, my hands giving free. Pain erupted in my forehead as it smacked into the tile. The crack echoed through the room.

Something pressed against the back of my calf, a gentler touch. I forced myself still, palming the pocketknife. I didn’t know what this thing was. I did know I wasn’t going to lay down for it. Something caressed the hair on the back of my neck.

I was turning over, knife jabbing upwards- into nothing as the light turned back on.

Panting, bug-eyed, I looked around the room. Again nothing. The lightbulb burned merrily away as I stared at it. Then it flickered again.

I was up in an instant, hand on the door handle. Cold metal pressed into my hand as I pulled, only it didn’t give. Cursing, I tried, again and again. Putting both hands on it for a second I forced myself off my feet. It still didn’t budge.

I looked behind, at the lightbulb. Seemingly steady, then it flickered again. It was taunting me.

Something grasped my hand, looping around my wrist. Heat suddenly seared my hands, and I tried to release the handle. Only I couldn’t, and turning to face it again the stylized chain of the handle was wrapping around my hands. Smells of cooking flesh filled the room as I screamed and pulled, while behind the lightbulb began to-

The door handle suddenly turned in my hands. The heat was gone. My hands were fine. The chain was back to being part of the handle. I blinked. Nothing changed. Okay, I thought to myself frantically. Clearly, whatever drugs I put in myself are still working their way through me. A few hallucinations. Maybe some nervousness. Let’s not get too worked up over nothing.

I realized, as I had been talking to myself inside my head, that the shadow I was casting against the door was getting bigger. The surrounding light was fading. I looked back, and the lightbulb was slowly dying, almost taunting me as the light faded. I didn’t spare a second glance.

I almost rammed my way through the door, slamming it open. I didn’t hesitate, forcing the door shut right after. There was no lock on the outside. From beneath it, the light of the bathroom winked out.

I took some deep breaths. Slumping down against the door for a moment. Till I thought I felt a gust of something from underneath the crack.

I moved away from the door and resolved not to let it out of sight this entire time. Underneath light was suddenly shining. The lightbulb was back on. Because of course it was. Next time that lightbulb and I crossed paths, I would kill it. I’d never go back in there, but I would still kill it.

I was in a hotel room, or one of the world’s smallest houses. Electric lights burned up above. I gave them a wary eye. I walked over to a single bed with a nightstand and felt the covers. It felt fluffy and soft. I’d take a rest if I felt I could risk it. Three objects sat there, but I left them alone for now. Not much else in here besides a table and chair. I rapped a knuckle on the table and got an echo in return. It all seemed like solid wood.

A switch in the corner caught my eye. It was the only thing standing out on bare walls. The rest was cheap wallpaper in the same color as my suit. As in the same blue and white colors and spacing as my suit. Creepy.

There was a simple door to the left of the bed and to the right, a single window, covered by heavy curtains that were nailed to the wall. Given everything else I had encountered so far, I didn’t feel like exploring what was behind those. In fact, there were three things of note on the bed.

I picked the first one up and spread it out, feeling a little exasperated as I did so. Seriously? I thought as I looked over the trench coat. I… I didn’t even hate this look. I didn’t think I had an opinion on whether or not my current clothes were okay with me, but who would go to a tub in these? Wait, terrible question, no one would go into a tub with any clothes, but this did not feel like everyday wear for your average person. It was dry, unlike the rest of me, so I did put it on.

And more water on my skin as the weight of the coat squeezed some more out of my water-logged clothes. Brilliant.

The other two things were suitcases, one medium-sized, sized for someone of my height. Not that I could tell anyone my height. I could be anywhere between three and ten feet for all I knew. The other was much bigger, almost big enough that I could fit in there if I squeezed myself. Maybe if I broke a few bones. I put my thumbs on the latches but didn’t open them yet.

The entire room was something I couldn’t quite place like it was on the tip of my tongue. This entire style, of everything, was throwing me off. I couldn’t place it. Oh, Batman animated series. Fits it perfectly. Art déco. I came to a halt in my head.

I… I hadn’t known about that before I mentioned it. Nothing about the animated series in the nineties that now I could picture any moment from in my head. I hadn’t known what Batman was! And now it was in there, everything, even random behind-the-scenes knowledge about its production.

My brain had just had all of this randomly dumped into it just from randomly wondering what the style of my room, my clothes, and everything reminded me of. Typically, people don’t think like this. This has to be the drugs. Can’t be anything else. This is a comedown from a rather severe trip. They really messed me up.

Was this more than just that? I had recognized what a switchblade was remarkably quick. And so far hadn’t seen anything I couldn’t identify. Shaking my head, I thumbed the latches to open the big suitcase, just wanting to move past this and get some answers

Staring up at me was a pale glassy-eyed face, ghost white pale, stretched and flattened to about the size of a pizza. The smell of rotting flesh assaulted my nose, gagging me. I tried to block it with my free hand. Clumps of stringy dead hair were on top, looking less like hair and more like sewed-on string. Someone had ripped the skin open and split it in various spots, blood leaking out from all of them. The emotionless dead eyes matched my horrified stare as I was stunned by what was in there. Below the flattened face, the rest of the body was in there, equally warped and twisted. Skin ranging from pale white to dirty grey in color stretched tightly over the skull. I could see the bones jutting, pushing, even ripping through the thin layer of skin over it’s face. The rips in the skin got even larger, and clumps of flesh half hung out, some of which I think was its internal organs. More organs piled up at the bottom, in a small collected pool of its blood.

What did I do?