VERY STRANGE BUT VERY SHORT STORIES #1
BEDBUGS
Hello. It’s October, which means Halloween is right around the corner. I like Halloween, and I like spooky, spooky stories. So, in the spirit of things I thought it’d be fun if I wrote a very strange, but very short story every day leading up to Halloween. I hope you like them. Bye.
Bedbugs
Reane won’t leave her room, and I’m worried about her. When she moved in, she said that she sometimes ‘got weird’ and needed time to herself, but I haven’t seen her for a week now. I know she’s in there - I can hear her moving about sometimes, late into the night. I tried knocking, but she’s locked the door from the inside and will not answer me.
Will says to just leave it. He has the sort of relaxed personality I can’t relate to. I worry about people. I care about them. Will just ‘takes things as they come’. Maybe that’s why it was me who had to call the landlady about the bedbugs. The entire flat is crawling with them, and I’m having trouble sleeping. I can feel them - eating away at me when I’m in bed. The landlady tried to say it was one of us who brought the bugs in, but she’s a liar. They were here when we got here - embedded in the curtains. I have had to ask the landlady three different times to sort out the bugs, and she’s only now relented after I threatened her with legal action.
I’ve sent Reane seven texts since Friday telling her she needs to be out of the flat tomorrow. The fumigator is coming, and is going to be spraying the entire place with deadly chemicals. Reane hasn’t replied at all. I tell Will that we might need to force our way in, but he says he isn’t cool with that. I asked him if he has any better suggestions, and he doesn’t. Big surprise. I knock on her door again and say: Reane? Are you alright in there? Can you open up please, we just want to talk to you? There is no reply. Will stands in the hallway with his arms crossed. He shrugs, and scratches his leg. I pull on the door handle, and to my surprise - it’s unlocked. Will throws up his arms and walks back into his room. He doesn’t care about people. I go in.
The light switch doesn’t work. Either the bulb has gone, or she’s taken it out. Why would she take it out? I shine my phone torch over towards the bed, which Reane appears to be asleep in. The covers are over her, but she is tossing and turning - in constant motion. Is she having a nightmare? Is she having a fever? I sit on the side of her bed, and place my hand over her wriggling torso - so as to let her know I’m here. But, as I do - I notice it feels soft. Much too soft to be Reane, at least. I pull back the covers.
Reane’s body is stiff, and lifeless. I jump up and call out for Will. He enters the room with his phone torch also illuminated. Only now can we see the full extent of Reane’s condition. There is a huge gape in her torso, arms and face - with some wriggling black mass inside of her. Bedbugs. Bedbugs, absolutely everywhere. Individually invisible, but side by side connected and plain to see, pulsating and shifting like some dense, dark wave. We back out of the room, and close the door behind ourselves.
I sit in the bath as Will calls the landlady. She says she’s going to need photographic proof before she can do anything.