No sweat
by Harbinger of Death

“I am so stressed lately,” Euterpe sighed, sitting back in the sauna.

“I know what you mean. With almost all the hunters dead, I have nobody to dress up for,” said Baucis.

“With them dead, you have nobody to live for,” Bona Dea teased. Baucis threw a towel at her.

“I’m really enjoying this. I need more steam though.” aneXa poured a little water on the stones. They hissed and emitted a new cloud of steam.

Then they heard a little *click*. “What was that?” asked Euterpe, sitting up and looking around. “Is someone biting their nails?”

“No, I kicked that habit three months ago,” Dea said, annoyed.

“Let me see if anyone’s outside.” Baucis went to open the door and take a look, but it wouldn’t budge. “Hey! It’s stuck. Give me a hand.” She motioned aneXa over to help her, and the two girls pushed on it, but it still didn’t move.

“Whose brilliant idea was it to put a lock on the outside of a sauna?” demanded aneXa.

“There isn’t one,” Euterpe said.

They looked at each other, knowing it was too much of an oddity to be a coincidence.

“Okay, let’s not panic.”

“Right. We’ll just keep still and quiet until somebody comes to look for us.”

“I don’t think they’ll be looking for me here. I lied and said I was going to help clean the dorm bathrooms.”

“Uh-oh. I weaseled out of chores too.”

“Me too.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Okay, this could be a problem.”

They sat quietly for a moment. “Well, hey, as long as we don’t put any more water on, the steam should die after a while, right?” Bona Dea said.

“Right!” said aneXa, and promptly lost her balance and knocked the whole rest of the pail of water directly onto the rocks. The room filled with an opaque mass of steam that was thicker than the thickest fog. They couldn’t see a thing. They could barely breathe. With no one to open the door for them, and no way to release the hot air, they swiftly ceased to function, and withered away in the lap of luxury.