A splashing sound echoes in Richard’s ears. Waking up, he feels his face unceremoniously squished up against a wet surface. What is going on? Lifting himself up, water drips from his damp clothes. Looking around, he sees water gently cascading into the room, slowly filling it up. The room is entirely empty, except for a single door. With the water lapping at his feet, he rushes for the door, frantically trying to force it open.
“Good morning, Richard. You must be wondering what is happening right now. As you can see, you are no longer in your mansion. I have trapped you in this room, but you do have a chance to escape. Do you see where the water is coming from? At some point in time, a key will fall into this room so that you can unlock the door. But alas, the waterways aren’t as clean as they used to be, but you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? There may be more than just water coming from those pipes. Good luck, Richard.”
When Buddie stops speaking, the water starts flooding in with greater intensity, quickly climbing up Richard’s calves. As the water starts to rise, clanging sounds start to come from the pipes. At first, small innocuous things fall from the pipes, splashing into the water; cans, plastic bottles, and straws, all falling into the room.
“You can’t do this to me. I am an upstanding member of society; how dare you try and make me swim in filth. When I get out of here, I will find you, and I will ruin your life.” Richard yells out, but nobody responds. Nervous, he looks from pipe to pipe, searching for the key. Hoping that it will come before the situation gets worse.
As the water rises above his knees, he starts to wade through it, checking to see if the key fell with something else. More and more things start to fill the water; bags, wrappers, broken glass. Shit, I’ve got to be careful. Wading through the water, Richard fails to find the key. Where the fuck is it?
The water starts to get murky as dirt and mud starts to flow from the pipes. Shit. I won’t be able to find it if I can’t see. I need to take a step back, and watch all of the pipes at the same time. Richard looks around, trying to find a place to stand where he can see everything.
The water rises to his waist, making it more difficult for him to walk. The door. I should be able to see everything from there. Walking over to the door, he presses his back against it and looks out. Five, six... good. I can watch all of them from here. He stays there watching as more trash floods the room, the water becoming harder and harder to see through. The water coming out from the pipes is no longer clear, a foul stench starts to fill up the room. Oh god. Retching, he holds back the urge to vomit. That’ll only make this worse. Pinching his nose, he blocks out the smell.
Why is the key still not here? He grows desperate as the murky water rises to his chest. It’s not long until it reaches my head. I’ll have to start swimming soon just to keep my head above water. At this point, only raw sewage is coming out from the pipes. Trash and filth filling up the room, but still the key hasn’t appeared. “Where’s the key you bastard? Where is it?” Richard shouts, trying to get a response. He starts pounding on the wall, hoping to hear anything.
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Just as the water starts to rise to his head, he pushes off of the ground, and starts wading on the top of the water, his head slowly inching closer and closer to the ceiling. I don’t have much longer until the entire room is filled, and I run out of air. He pushes aside the trash, trying to keep the glass and shit away from himself.
Staring at the pipes, he watches as something small falls into the water, the light reflecting off its metallic surface. The key! Ignoring everything around him, he races for the key. Getting to beneath the pipe the key came from, he looks around, but is unable to see it on the surface. Where the fuck is it! Looking down through the water, he vaguely spots it sticking out of something. Holding his breath, he swims down to it, the view of it becoming clearer and clearer the closer he gets.
Seeing the key jammed into a thick log of shit, his body instinctively tries to vomit, dirty water flooding into his mouth. Out of sheer panic and desperation, he grabs the key and swims upwards. Pushing his head above water, he starts retching violently, trying to vomit out the water. Looking at his clenched fist, he sees the shit spilling out from his between his fingers. Oh god. Opening his hand, he sees the key covered in shit. I’ve got it! Ignoring the smell, he wipes the key clean on his shirt making sure its useable.
The water rises, pressing his face against the ceiling. I don’t have much time left; I need to go. He takes one final breath before the water hits the ceiling. He clenches his fist, keeping a death grip on the key as he swims forward. The door should be over here. Pushing forward, he carefully avoids the glass before getting to the wall. Due to the low visibility, he has to use his body to try and find the door. He presses his hand against where he thinks the door handle is, only to feel a solid wall instead. Where is the door? Desperately, he swims along the entire wall, trying to find the door, but fails.
No, no. I must’ve turned around somehow. He pushes himself off the wall with his feet, propelling himself towards the other side of the room. It must be over here. No longer caring about what he swims into, he ends up cutting himself on some pieces of glass as he rushes towards the door. His head starts to grow heavy, and his vision darkens. No! I’m almost there, I can feel it.
Reaching forward, his hand grabs onto the door handle. Yes! He pushes the key forward, trying to get it into the lock, but due to his poor vision, he fumbles, the key sliding along the lock multiple times. The pain from his cuts starts to worsen as he continues trying to get the key in the lock. A pained gasp escapes his lips as his frantic movements caused more glass to scrape across his body. His body breathes in out of pain, pulling water down into his lungs. As he tries to cough, something gets lodged in his throat, making it impossible for him to breathe. His life starts to fade as the key falls from his hand, floating down to the bottom of the room.
“It looks like your bad deeds have finally caught up to you Richard. As you feel your life begin to fade away, do you now understand the damage that you have caused? You have, in fact, died by your own hands. As this filth was collected from the rivers and seas that your company would illegally dump sewage into. Now you have finally seen what it is you were dumping into the water. A sight you wouldn’t have seen from your ivory penthouse. Enjoy Hell, Richard. Goodbye.”