Susie registers a complaint

Susie stamped her feet against the straw. "That's not right," she protested. "You can't just stand here and watch a lady take a bath!"

"Sure we can. The carnival said so."

"But... but she's got no clothes on!"

"That's why it's fun. Who's going to stop us? Not her."

Susie looked down at the beauty, who gave her a cold stare, though two roses were blooming in her dusky cheeks. "Well?" she said, hotly. "Don't you think they should go away?"

The beauty rolled her eyes. "Of course they should go away," she said, in a mellifluous foreign accent. "Do you think I'm here because I want to be?"

"See? You heard her. Go away."

"No."

"They never do," muttered the beauty, and did her best to shrink down below the surface of the water. "And my name is Fatima, by the way."

"Well, they ought to," Susie said. "Wait, why are you here, if you don't want to be? Is the carnival allowed to do that?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Maybe if you tell me I can help you."

Fatima took a deep breath and shot a murderous glare at the boys, who were giggling. "Fine," she muttered. "I am here because I was tricked. Never mind how. And now every night I have to sit here in this stupid bathtub all night along while idiot boys come in and giggle at me."

"Because she doesn't have any clothes on," said Ben, helpfully.

"Yes, I admit that is true."

"She's bare naked under all those bubbles. Ask anyone."

"But that's awful," said Susie. "The carnival can't make you into a sideshow against your will. Can it? Are you really... um..."

Fatima grit her teeth. "Yes," she said, forcing the words out past her lips as Ben smirked. "I'm naked."

"Bare naked," said Ben.

"Yes. I'm... I'm bare naked."

"But that's not all," said Ben, and pointed at the base of the tub. "Look."

Susie looked at the base of the tub. She saw a very small hole, little more than a pinprick. And water was dripping out of it. Was it just her imagination, or was the level of the bubbles just a little bit lower than it had been when she came in? She put two and two together, and gasped.

"The water's draining out of the tub," she said. "And eventually the bubbles will pop. Which means..."

"It means that by midnight," Ben said, "she'll be sitting in an empty tub. Without water. Or bubbles. Or anything."

"But that's dreadful! That means you'll be able to see... everything!"

"Yep."

Susie bit her lip. What would it be like to have to sit in a bathtub in front of a bunch of cute boys, all of them teasing and laughing and ogling you to their hearts' content, nowhere to hide, for hours on end, feeling your modesty stripped from you inch by inch as the waters drained away, baring your breasts, your belly, your thighs, leaving you with nothing but a thin layer of bubbles that pop one by one, robbing you of your last vestige of protection, all of them watching you squirm helplessly, loving every second of your impending doom...

She shuddered. It didn't bear thinking about. Someone had to do something!

"Fatima," she said. "I'm going to get you out."