The Clog

Jamie rinsed the suds from his body in the shower when he noticed the drain was slow. Soapy water backed up around his feet at the rear of the tub. It swirled lazily around the drain, trickling into the pipe.

“Ugh, now what?” he grumbled. His “new” apartment had been nothing but one headache after another since he moved in three weeks ago. First, the fridge died and then the electricity flickered and sometimes just wouldn’t work. Things plugged in wouldn’t work, and the landlord called an electrician, but she didn’t find anything that would cause these issues. The flickering was sporadic now, so he guessed he could live with it for the time being.

Jamie finished up his shower, got out, and dried off. Wrapping the towel around his waist, he shoved the shower curtain back as far as it could go, so he could survey the scene with enough light.

The bottom of the tub was still full of the sudsy standing water. Jamie sighed before he kneeled next to the tub and leaned over to look at the drain. It bubbled every so often, so it wasn’t completely clogged. He grabbed the plunger from next to the toilet and settled it over the drain before he pressed down with force twice.

The pipe gave a few halfhearted gurgles, but whatever was blocking it shifted enough that the water started draining. The drain growled as it sucked down the water like a thirsty man. Once the tub was empty, a slimy film of soap and shampoo remained over the grate of the drain. His fingers trailed through the accumulation of suds around the train and his fingers tangled in long black hair.

“Gross!” he exclaimed before he shook the sodden strands from his hand. “That’s certainly not mine,” he mumbled. Jamie lived alone and his ex-girlfriend had never been here, never mind the fact she had short blonde hair, anyway. Must have been left over from the last tenant.

Jamie wasn’t surprised. Landlord couldn’t even bother to make sure the electricity and the appliances worked, forget about making sure the drains were free of giant slimy hair clogs. He sighed and rolled his eyes.

Picking at the hair, he tried to pull it through the holes of the drain cover, but it didn’t move. A few strands came out in his hands, but most of it was really stuck. He rolled the loose strands off of his fingers and dropped them in the tub.

“Gah!” Jamie breathed out as he got up to get a screwdriver. Kneeling down again, he unscrewed the cover and untangled the wad of hair from it before he set it and the screwdriver down.

He leaned in to get good leverage on the hair and pulled. It slowly inched out, and when he had enough that he could wrap it around his fist, he yanked it. As he tugged at the hair, he heard a strange sound. Almost like the pipes were ringing.

Jamie continued to wrench on the long black hair. As it came up the drain, it smelled awful, like sulphuric rot. The ringing in the pipes got closer and louder as he pulled at it. Slowly releasing its grip on the pipe’s inner workings, the clog revealed itself from the drain inch by inch.

The ringing turned to a woman’s screams as Jamie dislodged the blockage and it popped from the pipe with a wet and disgusting slosh. Jamie fell back on his ass from the force, the clog in his hand. He lifted it to examine what he had liberated from his shower drain.

His eyes followed the tangled black hair down to where it connected to what looked like a slimy, mottled limp thing. It was covered in a thin, stinking film of soap and mildew and filth.

Splotches of black and green were spread over it. Jamie’s other hand touched it and poked around, spreading it out. It stunk something awful and wherever he touched; it disintegrated into a viscid and gelatinous putrid sludge. As his fingers explored the wet folds of the mysterious discovery, he found openings that felt strangely familiar.

When he turned it around to see what he was feeling. His mouth turned to cotton, and his stomach twisted into a knot as cracked, peeling lips revealed themselves from the folds. He lifted the hair at the edges and silver hoops still sat in drooping, soggy ears.

It was the discolored and decomposing face carved from a human body.