Day 1,801

I used to work as a plumber, you know. Not the most pleasant of jobs but the pay made it almost worthwhile. Never had a problem I couldn't fix in an hour or two, never had a client cause me more hassle than their pipes until I got a call from the gym on the other side of town.

I don't normally go that far out, it's someone else's turf and I don't want any more trouble than I already have but they sounded pretty desperate and the guys that work that area weren't answering any of my calls. I figured 'what the heck' and drove over the next evening.

The staff were nice enough, nervous but I assumed they were just concerned about the clogged pipes in the locker room. They said one of the clients might have tried to shove one of the small hand towels down a drain which made absolutely no sense but I just nodded my head and walked right into danger.

First thing I noticed was that all the tiles were red, total contrast to the neutral tones of the rest of the place. That and the tang of iron in the air, made me wonder if there was a mineral deposit leak somewhere, maybe a collapsed pipe even.

They said I'd be alone down there but I saw a pair of unhealthily pale feet poking out from one of the shower cubicles, red running down them in little rivers. I hoped it was just soap but the stench of iron confirmed my fears and, like a sensible coward, I went running back upstairs.

First person I found was one of the reception ladies off to the break room and she didn't bat an eyelid when she told me that was the clogged cubicle. I asked her to repeat what she said next, thinking I's misheard but no - she just looked at me like I was an imbecile and told me the shower had bitten off more than it could chew.

The showers needed meat every now and then to feed into the boiler and generator that kept the whole building up and running. They were some kind of lesser demon that the owners had harnessed into cost-cutting tools and now one of them had indigestion.

This was way out of my league, my knowledge, my paygrade and yet I found myself back down there trying to claw my way through an ungodly amount of viscera so I could unscrew the drain and get my vacuum right in there to get rid of the rest of the poos bastard who'd come to lose weight and lost their life instead.