Day 520

The public baths were mainly used by tourists.
Us locals worked there, nothing more.
The water in our area has a certain effect on us, you see.
Makes us see what's really there, what people try to keep deep down.
They can't keep it from us though.

We see their pallid bloated forms drifting around from pool to pool.
Their skin wrinkled and sagging from all the water seeping into them, yet they are hollow.
When they fall over we've seen them crack like chocolate eggs.
It's not so bad for us to see in the lighter areas, where they just shine like glow-worms.
The ones that move to the darker pools are the worst.

The layout we've been gradually building is meant to deter them but it never does.
Starting with the well lit main pool to the shadier mini-pools all surrounded by high walls
that are decorated to resemble tall houses - even with fake rooms behind the tinted glass.
Not even the constant pleasant music and local cuisine on demand is enough for them.
They have to stray deeper inside where they don't come out.

My dad says some of them have been inside for years forgetting how to be human.
They just float and wade around the dimly lit pools, wallowing in their own filth.
We can't reason with them - we've tried and they can't understand us.
They just look back with their dark, vacant eyes and bulbous face so blank and unfeeling.
The most they let us do when they get like that is remove the dead bodies they become.

Yes, they remain there until they die, their distorted corpses blocking the water pumps.
One new person tried to unclog a fairly empty indoor pool only to find half a head.
We never saw him again, still not sure where he went but I swear one of them has his eyes.
Some fear that if we ever touch the water we'll become like them but I reckon we won't.
We won't because we were born them.