With a quiet beep after placing his card on the lock of the door, Kasper quietly stepped into the dark room where the weasel was peacefully snoring away. The pungent smell of piss instantly hit him in the nose as soon as he took his first breath from the warm, humid air, making him take a step back before heading back in, a little more mentally prepared. The soles of his rubber boots stuck to the floor with each loud, squelchy step, which further proved his suspicion as to what might have gone down in the room the night before.


“Darryl! Darryl, wake up!” He said quietly as he grabbed the sleeping weasel’s shoulder and shook him gently. He had to be patient given how deep the exhausted weasel slept, but he eventually opened his eyes and stared up at his supervisor with a confused look on his face.


“Wha…” He grunted, trying to make out who disturbed his peaceful slumber. His eyes felt like dry marbles and his thoughts felt all fuzzy- although he’d completely lost track of time, he surely hadn’t slept more than a couple of hours.


“What’s all this mess?” The shepherd giggled, gently stroking the weasel’s side and rubbing his gloved hand along his belly as he turned on his back. “It smells like someone popped a piss balloon in there and forgot to clean up~”


“Well how am I supposed to clean up?” Darryl turned his head away in offense. His head was starting to spin from the nauseating fumes that lingered around the room too, he wanted nothing more than to finally be out of there. “That bitch got me good yesterday… She made me piss in my uniform.”


“Ah, I heard the news, sweetie…” Kasper wiggled a bit closer to the little dude and scritched under his chin like he was trying to make amends with a cranky kitten. “Kate can be quite the menace to those she dislikes. But hey, I’ve got a surprise for you that I think you’ll like~”


“A surprise?” Darryl’s gut reaction to that announcement was more skeptic and fearful than excited, though the second part of the sentence struck just the slightest bit of hope into him. He sat up, looking at his supervisor with widely opened, hopeful eyes. In an instant, it felt as though his sleepiness was gone. “Am I finally going home?”


“Not quite, dear. But I’ve managed to arrange a bath for you and a nice cleaning for your suit before you head to work today!” The canine replied, watching as the spark faded from the weasel’s eyes, but a slight smile remained.


“Well, that’s better than nothing. I don’t think I could’ve gone another day in this hell…” Darryl said, standing up from the bed and taking a deep breath to try to appreciate what little he had.


“We can go whenever you’re ready~” Kasper smiled, taking his small employee by the hand.


–


The facility was exceptionally eerie in such an early hour of the day. The hallway was illuminated by a line of dim blue leds that only gave enough light to see the outlines of the hundreds of doors along the way. Strange sounds echoed through the whole facility from the machines that worked overnight, but no one stood next to them like in the bustling daytime hours. Still, the factory wasn’t empty: if he really strained his eyes, Darryl could make out the silhouettes of guards in some of the corners, dressed in their usual tight, black latex suits that helped them blend seamlessly into their dark environment. They all stood motionlessly, but the weasel knew that they’d jump at him without a warning if he made any attempt to escape.


The “Washing Room”, as it was named by the shiny sign above the door, was a large area located in the back of the factory full of dozens of washing machines, glass tubs of water with different kinds of items floating in them and huge baskets with tons of dirty and clean employee uniforms. The stench of sweat and bodily waste mixed with pleasant flowery washing solutions and nose-stinging disinfectants in the air.


“Pick one of the cabins and get in!” The voice of the canine was almost completely drowned out by the background noise coming from all the appliances, but Darryl could somehow make out what he was saying. In front of them were a few empty shower cabins made of frosted glass, so he assumed his supervisor was thinking about one of those.


“Where do I put my clothes?” He asked as he began to undo the buttons on his uniform and stepped closer to the nearest cabin in the row.


“Just get in with it on! That way you both will be cleaned at the same time~” Kasper explained, helping the short weasel step into the shower by lifting him up under his armpits and placing him inside.


“Oh… Okay” Darryl was caught off guard by the shepherd picking him up like a baby, and admittedly a little flustered too. Kasper slowly closed the door to ensure the weasel’s privacy, and soon enough, warm water started streaming out of the showerhead that was fixed on the wall of the cabin.


Darryl took off his uniform and hung it on a little hook enjoying as his skin could finally breathe and the sweat could come out of his fur. A gross, stinky concoction of sweat and piss dripped out of the uniform which was still stuck in there after the previous day’s attempt at cleaning.


He really did put effort into it at first: when he got into his room the night before, he stood in front of the toilet and only undid the very bottom of his suit, expecting to control the flow of the piss into the bowl. Despite his wishes however, things quickly spiraled out of control when the warm, smelly liquid started to spray in all directions because of the high pressure inside of the suit, painting the walls of his room and coating the entire floor.


The weasel felt sick just thinking about the scene, taking deep breaths under the warm, steady flow of fresh water and enjoying how his rough fur became smooth again as days worth of filth was washed out of it. A little bit of dirty water started pooling up at the bottom of the cabin- probably just a blocked drain- he thought, continuing to scrub under his armpits and letting some water into the suit too, to make sure that everything was squeaky clean once he got out from under his well deserved shower.


Minutes went by, and as Darryl began to look for any soap or shampoo, he realized that there wasn’t only no soap holder inside, but the shower was also missing a handle with which he could control the flow of the water. There was no way to turn it off, and the cabin was already flooding up quite badly underneath, almost at knee height for the short weasel.


Confused, he pushed his hands against the glass and tried to push it to either side, outwards or inwards, but it just wouldn’t budge. There were no handles on it at all, and he couldn’t quite remember which way Kasper closed it behind him. A bad feeling swept over him… This factory just seemed to bring bad luck at every turn. Hoping that there was still somebody outside, Darryl began to bang on the glass.


“Uh, hello? I’m having a bit of trouble with the shower here…” He called out nervously, not wanting to make a big fuss about it. No answer came from the outside, and the water just kept crawling further and further up, so he made another attempt, shouting even louder. “Anyone? Help!”


The warm water waved at his belly button now, looking a little brown and cloudy from all the filth that it had washed out of the weasel. The air was heavy and steamy like in a sauna, making it a little hard to breathe and clouding up the frosted glass even more, though he couldn’t see out of it even if he wiped it off with his hands and pressed his face against it.


It just kept coming. Darryl wasn’t sure if it was just his paranoid mind playing tricks on him, but it almost seemed like the stream showering down had gotten even stronger and even warmer. The water- which at the beginning felt nice and warm- was now slightly burning the weasel’s sensitive skin, and the air had become so steamy, that he could barely even see the opposite wall in the shower just an arm’s length away. He kept on banging on the glass with full force trying to break it, but it proved to be a lot stronger than expected from a regular shower door. No matter how he struggled, nobody answered from the outside.


Eventually, the water level had become so high, that it was impossible for the small creature to stand on his feet anymore. Even though he could just barely get along on his tiptoes at first, eventually he had to start swimming. Although Darryl had good stamina and weasels are famously good swimmers, he knew that eventually, there would be nowhere left to swim.


After a while, he could finally reach the shower head that was mounted so high in the cabin that at first, he had no chance of reaching it. He took it down from its place and desperately tried to hold his palm against it to limit the flow of water, but it just squirted out around his hand in all directions. In a desperate attempt, he tried to bend the shower hose enough to at least partially cut it off, but he underestimated the strength of the material; the hose broke in half right in his hands, sending an even stronger stream of water barreling into the cabin, now that it was no longer restricted by the thin holes of the shower head.


Panicked and desperate, the little weasel kicked his legs to keep himself on the surface while he desperately screamed and hit the thick glass with his fists. His head soon bumped into the ceiling of the cabin as the water reached a dangerously high level- there wasn’t much space left for him to swim. A smaller space also meant less air: he was already coughing his lungs out from all the hot steam inside, but air was also running out, making him lightheaded and dizzy. His stamina was also affected from the lack of oxygen, making it harder to kick and keep himself afloat with each passing second.


Chin level now. There was nowhere left to grab onto, even the shower head mount was way too deep down to rest his foot on it. The red faced weasel was hyperventilating, wildly splashing around and looking for any weaknesses on the ceiling, but he could only find the little hole that allowed some of the steam to escape in the corner. It was way too tiny to breathe through, but Darryl still desperately stuck his face against it. There wasn’t much else left to do; the water had already covered his mouth, forcing him to turn his face up to breathe.


It was almost completely full. Darryl counted how many more breaths he could take before his whole body was submerged.
One…
His lungs were burning from the lack of oxygen and the hot steam.
Two…
His face pressed tightly against the ceiling, barely enough space to breathe.
Three!
This one had to be his biggest, as there really wasn’t any more room left. He filled his lungs with as much of the hot air as he could before his face was finally completely submerged. Water started dripping out of the hole that was once there to let out steam; the cabin had completely filled up.


“Why did this have to happen to me… Haven’t I suffered enough?” Darryl thought to himself desperately as he struggled to decide between swimming around to try to find any weakness, or staying still and conserving his oxygen until somebody found him. His heart raced fast; this decision could cost him his life.


He tried to bang on the glass again, but his hands could exert even less force underwater. He tried to pull on the hook his uniform was mounted on, trying to break it off and make a crack in the wall, but it was screwed on way too tight. The whole thing was manufactured so well, so seamlessly and so claustrophobically, that it felt like swimming around in a giant coffin filled with water.


The thought of a coffin made Darryl’s eyes widen with fear, as he thought about how these could be his last minutes alive. His chest was heaving and his stomach kept contracting inwards as he fought against his body’s reflexes to take a breath. Little bubbles began to leak from the corners of his mouth; even though he could comfortably hold his breath underwater for minutes normally, he felt like he was about to drown after just a few seconds in this hot bath.


There was no way… It was over… Angered and aching all over, the weasel screamed into the water in a blind rage, before immediately regretting his decision. Large bubbles came out of his mouth and floated gently to the top, carrying away the very last pieces of hope that their once-owner could make it out of this situation.


Every single muscle in the weasel’s body tensed up in a final struggle not to breathe in, but eventually, he had to give in to his reflexes. After sinking to the bottom and watching the last little bubbles escape the cabin through the damned tiny hole at the top, Darryl’s mouth opened, and he took a breath of water.


Having his lungs fill up with the heavy liquid was more painful than anything he’d ever experienced, but he was too weak to fight against it. Even if he wanted to swim up, he couldn’t- his motions became uncontrollable and weak, and even though his conscious mind was freaking out, a strange feeling of peace took over him. Over time, this peace slowly overpowered his conscious thoughts, which seemed so small and so trivial now… After a few final twitches, he finally closed his eyes and floated silently in the tank of water.