Placeholder artwork (until human-made artwork is available) generated by Schizoid Nightmares on April 21, 2023, using NightCafe (Stable Diffusion v1.5), licensed under CC0 1.0.

Awakening, my heavy eyes struggle to open. I drift in and out of consciousness. Waking once more, I rub my eyes before creeping them ajar. A condensing steam soaks the room. From above, a hot glow seeps through the membrane. I sit up, and my vision blurs. I lick the moist air and gulp saliva down my parched throat.

In my blurred sight, I see figures close ahead of me, bathing in some liquid. All but one ignores me. On my hands and knees, I try crawling towards them. My tongue gently hangs out across my teeth. Losing my balance, I slump on my side, the membrane cushioning my fall.

I reach my arms out, trying to grasp the edge of the bath, which lies depressed into the membrane. The tips of my fingers touch it. Using the joints of my fingertips, I clench the edge and pull myself a little closer. With greater reach, I grasp the bath’s edge and give one strong pull. My body slides head-first down into it. The liquid inside is a thin balmy mucous.

Hands gently turn me onto my back. The muculent liquid still covers my eyes. Arms drift me backwards. They rotate me around. I float weightlessly on the surface. Fingers grace my face. They tenderly wipe the mucous atop my eyelids. Slowly, I open them and see Lucky staring down at me — with a subtle smile, almost cradling me.

Lucky carefully props me up by my back against the side of the bath. Underneath the surface, my feet touch a shallow cartilaginous ledge below. Little coarse hairs touch the soles of my feet and between my toes. They provide my feet with a firm grip on the lip. Lucky raises their hand to my lips. They carry a clear liquid. I sip from it as they tilt their hand. The liquid is lukewarm and fresh but tasteless.

They point next to me. A small nasal-like opening in the wall secretes a clear liquid, dripping into the bath’s mucous. I cup my hands underneath and collect some of the secretions — drinking it. Hydrating but not filling. It nonetheless quenches my thirst. I continue to drink from the secretions until my throat thirsts no longer.

I turn around, my back against the side of the bath and sink into the mucous right down to the tip of my chin. My hands rest below, underneath the surface, on the ledge of cartilage. I let my legs float freely out in front of me and close my eyes…

Thoughts whisper inside my mind. There is no way to communicate them to the others. How would I? Point to my head? Dance my fingers around? The others wouldn’t understand. It occurs to me that I may be the only one among us that thinks at all.

Only five of us are alive, including myself, Lucky, Elbowed, and Stung. At least alive enough to be sharing this bath. I don’t know what happened to the others… Those that survived past the platforms separated by an abyss… I suppose I can assume they drowned in the submerged passage. If my memory serves correctly, there were eight of us alive before we entered it. Three must have perished inside. Maybe panic got the better of them, or perhaps they were just poor swimmers. Though, all of us were of equal experience. Aside from slight differences in facial appearance, we’re all virtually identical. Same height. Same skin texture. Same adult-like development. Hairless. Neuters. Practically equals. What sets us most apart is what’s beneath our fleshy exterior. My thoughts quiet down as I drift further into relaxation.

Half awake and asleep, my chin bobs on the surface. I feel a current in the bath, and I fully awaken. The bath drains, its contents swirling down into a widening orifice, which has appeared at the bottom. Struggling as the current pulls me with it, I turn over, my chest against the bath, and I grip the ledge of cartilage. The membrane then absorbs the cartilage. Lucky, I, and the others slide down the bath’s walls and fall through the orifice.