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“You’re sure?” Luz asked, holding Hunter’s hands tightly as if he were about to leave for war.
“About what? It’s a public restroom. How bad could it be?” He scoffed, slipping out of her hands and turning away from her. “I’m not five. I know how to pee by myself.”
Luz still looked so concerned, but she backed off and took a deep breath. “You know what. You’re right,” she admitted, letting him go and gesturing towards the arcade’s restrooms. “You can handle yourself. I’m just... Really stressed out.”
He smiled at her sympathetically. “We all are, Luz,” he said, patting her shoulder. “I’ll be quick.”
She nodded and let him go. The harsh halogen overhead lights felt immediately unsettling in contrast with the dim lights of the arcade he’d just meandered away from.
The smell of the men’s restroom hit him before he could even push the door open. He thought the selkidomus was bad, but the stench of stale urine and chlorine bleach made his eyes water. He’d hoped it was just the smell of the maintenance closet, but swinging the door open only made it worse.
His shoulders tightened as he stepped into the restroom with caution. It was completely empty. He would have usually appreciated that level of privacy, but it was just unsettling under the harsh white lighting and surrounded by grimy porcelain sinks and urinals that he wished carried the same sterile feeling as a hospital room.
He could identify where the smell of bleach was coming from. The urinals were practically sparkling. Urine was to be expected in a restroom, but the smell was too strong to be coming from normal use.
And then he turned his head.
Oh.
Oh, no.
What he saw nearly made him scream.
Beneath the electric hand dryers laid a puddle-
No.
A lake.
Of pee.
He had seen a lot of terrors in his life. He’d lived nearly every single day of it with Emperor Belos, after all!
But the stagnant pool of dark yellow excrement on the tiled floor was too much for him to bear.
A chill ran up his spine and he pulled two fists at his sides tightly, his fingernails nearly piercing his skin as he tried to keep himself from gasping in shock or outright vomiting.
In that moment, he decided he could hold it.
He headed out of the restroom and back into the arcade to meet back up with Luz and the rest of his friends.
“That was quick,” Luz noted, nudging him lightly with her elbow.
Hunter took his first deep breath since leaving the restroom. “There was a line,” he squeaked softly. She didn’t need to know about what he saw in there.
But she caught onto his discomfort fairly quickly. “They’re gross, aren’t they?”
He nodded quickly.
A giggle bubbled up out of her. “I figured,” she said. “We won’t be here much longer. Gus and Amity are really burning through credits.”
Amity rolled a skee ball so hard and at such a bad angle that it bounced off the slope and nearly smashed her kneecap in.
“Keep it up, sweet potato!”