For a moment my entire world consists of just the rat and me. But as the focus of my perception widens, I can see that the rat is just the centrepiece of an entire tableau of horror. I'm lying in the bath. I've got my shirt and socks on. Nothing else. The bath is full, but it's what it's full of that concerns me because, instead of water, I appear to be engulfed in a freezing slurry as though my body has evacuated every single waste product of which it is capable.