Still unpleasant.
But far less dramatic than my imagination had briefly suggested.
Ordinary Places Can Still Surprise You
The entire experience lasted only a relatively short time, but I kept thinking about it afterward.
There was something strangely memorable about finding a living creature where I least expected one.
We tend to associate encounters with unusual animals with the outdoors.
You expect strange creatures near rivers, ponds, forests, fields, gardens, beaches, or hiking trails.
You don't necessarily expect them beside a bathroom drain.
But nature doesn't always respect the boundaries we create between "outside" and "inside."
Small animals can end up in houses in unexpected ways.
Sometimes they're searching for moisture.
Sometimes they're accidentally transported.
Sometimes they simply wander through an opening we never noticed.
And occasionally, we may never know exactly how they arrived.
That's what makes these encounters so fascinating.
They're tiny reminders that the world around us is much less controlled than it sometimes appears.
The Bathroom Never Looked Quite the Same Again
Later that evening, everything returned to normal.
The strange creature was gone.
There were no signs of additional leeches.
There was no dramatic discovery hidden beneath the sink and no army of creatures emerging from the drain.
Just an ordinary bathroom again.
Except it didn't feel entirely ordinary anymore.
The next time I entered, I automatically looked at the floor.
Then at the drain.
It wasn't intentional.
My brain had simply remembered what happened.