A Chinatown Bathroom

Li Xiu crashed through one of the cubicle doors in a public bathroom behind a Chinatown street market. He slammed the seat up and with his head bent down into the bowl, let out something fierce. It was burning his stomach and turned his throat into a scorching furnace before it ejected into the dirty water. As it came up it chocked him and as he spat it out he worried his teeth would be burned right through. Coughing echoed throughout the bathroom and the lightbulb dangling from the ceiling flickered.  What the hell head he eaten to put his body through this much?

Li raised his head when he thought he was safe from his smoldering insides. His vomit was light red and to his teary eyes, seemed to be crawling up the bowl to meet with him again. The toilet flushed and Li struggled to his feet, using both walls as leverage.  His entire body felt drained like he had coughed up all his organs into the sewer. When he managed to stand up he went light headed and black patches ruined his sight. He collapsed back onto the ground and gripping the toilet, set free the second wave.

Fifteen minutes passed and Li couldn’t get the strength to move from his spot slouched on the ground leaning against the wall. Faint noise from the markets could be heard from the bathroom but no other sounds could be heard inside. For as long as he had been sitting there, no one had come in and no one had left. He couldn’t stand up. That made him puke. It was a strange feeling to have no wounds or cuts but to feel like you’ve lost a lot of blood. All energy had been drained from his body but the main part that felt empty was his stomach. He was starving.

He needed something to eat. It was all right out that door. Rows of cheap food that seemed to go on forever. He tried to get up again but putting any effort on his legs made his stomach twist and the black patches returned. His voice couldn’t raise past a whisper when he tried to speak.

His body was decaying.

The cubicle walls were an ugly shade of green and stained with bleach. Li had gone over every mark on the wall in front of him. It was all he had. Hours had passed of him staring at it through weak eyes. Or was it days? Or weeks? He was so hungry he should have starved to death by now. People don’t live this long. Was that true or did he just want to die?

He turned his head. This didn’t make him feel as sick as when he moved his legs but still felt like he could pass out. Now he could see through the door, closing it hadn’t been on his mind when he burst in so it was hanging a few inches away from the frame. The room’s single light bulb cut out and engulfed Li in darkness. It was warm in the dark. Time moved less painfully. The light came back on and his stomach jumped, almost sending him back to the toilet bowl.

Laying there, the bathroom stall became his only world. He was happy no one had come in, Li had grown strangely defensive of it. He felt like any attempts at helping him would be ruined by his anxiousness to get the stranger out of his bathroom. He had been here long enough. He had suffered for it. Why shouldn’t he get to claim this room as his own? The disgusting green stalls and dirty tiled walls were his.

Li sniffed in deep. A smell flooded his nostrils. It wasn’t his choice, his body had latched onto a scent and indulged in it. His head snapped to the left. The door to the bathroom was emanating. Glowing with delight. Li couldn’t rip his eyes away, that door was whispering to him. He wanted to crawl over to it. Saliva filled his mouth. It wasn’t a taste he had tried before. He swallowed and the saliva ran through his stomach, settling the acidic beast inside.

Then a man walked through the door. He went over to the urinal and unzipped his fly, unaware that Li’s eyes had followed him. Li watched him shake off and move to the sink. Li could smell him. No, he could practically see his scent flowing through the air. A trail to follow directly to the man. The sickness was gone when Li tried to stand up but the hunger was louder than before. Echoing off the bathroom walls and inside his skull. He had to escape.

Like before, he used the bleach stained stall walls to help him up. His stomach was easy on him this time, the hunger seemed to be in his head, scratching on all the walls of his consciousness. This time his fingertips sliced through the soft green divider. Li pulled out his hands. Black, sharp fingernails had replaced his clean white ones.

He knew he had an urge to do something but this was far at the back of his mind, the hunger was screaming and he couldn’t hear his thoughts. The need to fill his body burned as it was branded into his head. This was his bathroom, he had been here for years. Anything that came in payed due to him or became his. The law of nature was cut simple.

The black talons pulled open the door. They pulled out flakes when it was released. The man was touching up his hair in the mirror. He didn’t hear the bathroom stall open. When Li took a step out, the scent washed over him like a tidal wave. He smelled good. Li meant to take another step forward to feast but his back arched and he heard his bones cracking. The man quickly turned around. He hadn’t seen anyone in the mirror but he heard something like bones snapping.

Li was hunched over and the man could see something moving below this skin on his back. It was fighting to break through the flesh and get out. With a red flash two horrible wings burst out and covered the bathroom in Li’s blood. They were covered in pale skin and bones stuck out at the ends. They launched Li into the air and he came down onto the other bathroom dweller. He sliced right through him with his claws. Easier then swatting a fly. The delicious red replaced the bleach on the walls.

As soon as the first drop landed on Li’s tongue the hunger inside of him went berserk. He drank all the sweet blood he could catch and left a horrible mess of bones and flesh on the floor. When he was finished he picked himself up, no longer woozy or hungry, and left the bathroom where he had been tortured for so long.