I’ve always ignored door-to-door salesmen. Whenever I looked through the peephole and saw a guy in some uniform trying way too hard to smile, I always knew to ignore them. On the off chance I decided to open the door, I usually had to sit through a tortuously long sales pitch about something nobody needs. But these are the normal, boring kind. Nothing like what I encountered.
I remember the first time I met one of them. I had just gotten back from work and was watching some TV with takeout. I had finally managed to unwind when the doorbell rang. At first I ignored it. Then it rang again. And again. And again and again. It was being rung so fast I thought it might break. I ran up to the door and opened it. “What do you want?” I said in an angry voice. Usually I’m not so rude, but this jerk had just rang my doorbell a million times at 10:30 PM.
“My deepest apologies for disturbing you, sir, but it’s urgent.” The man at my doorstep said. Right away I could tell something was wrong with him. His clothes seemed normal - khaki pants and a red polo, probably the uniform of some organization. His face was strange. It seemed like there were a million little things moving under it. Now I was more disturbed than angry. “Sir, do you want to know about The Mother, the one true god?” He asked next. Oh God, this guy’s a cult member. “Uh, sorry. I’m - uh - a Christian?” I said. I wasn’t, but I just wanted this guy to go away. And what the hell was wrong with his face?
“Oh, that’s fine! You can always convert! It’s easy!” At this point, I slammed the door in his face. I glanced at him through the peephole. He was leaving. Thank God, I thought. At least this would give me something to talk about at work tomorrow. I finished my takeout and television show, and looked out the window before I went to bed. I could see that creepy guy on the other side of the street, staring at my house. Once he noticed me, he ran.
I asked around the neighborhood, asking anyone if they had seen a guy in a red polo trying to get them to join some cult. Nobody had seen anything. I asked everyone at work. Nope. I started looking on the internet, and I found something really scary. Some guy said his sister had been bothered by somebody with a red polo, and she disappeared shortly after, with a photo included. I couldn’t find anything else about it, though.
Four days later, it was a Saturday, and I had the day off. I was feeling quite bored that day. A bit like something was missing. This feeling came to me sometimes, when I was alone. Usually I just ignored it, and I tried to do the same this time. “Feeling ok?” The voice came from right behind me. I spun around so quickly I must have gotten whiplash, and there he was. Standing right over me.
“Maybe I can help you feel better! Come with me!” He grabbed my hand at that point. It felt horrible - like a million little things were moving around under it. I slapped it away. “Listen, I don’t know how the hell you got in here. But if you don’t get out of here right now and never come back, I’m calling the cops!” His face fell, in an unnatural, overly droopy way. “I’m sorry to hear that, sir. I thought we could have been friends.” At this he ran away. I called the police immediately.
They searched the whole house. Even though I never heard him leave, they didn’t find a trace of him anywhere. I told them the whole story so far - how some creepy guy kept bothering me about some cult. They hadn’t heard anything like that before. They kept watch at my house for that night, which I guess made me feel safer. Even still, I can’t sleep at night. I keep thinking I see him.
He showed up next at the grocery store. I had just picked up an apple from a large bin. I thought I saw something in the cracks between the fruit. He leaped up, sending apples all over me and the floor. “Hi! Sorry we had to meet this way, but I can’t go to your house anymore!” I ran over to security. “Hey! I need help!” Once again, the police were called. Conveniently, all of the security cameras that covered the spot where I saw him were down. I could tell that the police probably didn’t think very highly of me at this point, considering none of them had ever seen the guy.
I was too scared to stay in my house. My grandma was out of town for the winter, and I knew where she kept her key. For days at a time I barely left the house. I stopped coming to work. At this point, I didn’t care if I was fired. I just wanted to never see him again. I could see his face every time I closed my eyes. That blank stare. That uneven, shifty smile. And the wriggling under his face, like his body was infested with a thousand tiny worms.
I didn’t see him again for nine days. I heard a knock at the door. I looked through the peephole. It was the exact same guy. Same uniform. I didn’t open the door this time. I walked back to the living room and saw it. It was another one. A different person, but the same uniform and same wiggling underneath the skin. She punched straight through the window. I screamed and ran to the back door, my heart pounding. What the hell was going on? At the back door stood a third one, who punched me straight in the face. I fell unconscious.
When I woke up, I was in a very strange place. It was all gray, and the walls looked like they were made of paper. My arms and legs And surrounding me, on three sides, were hundreds of the salesmen. All of them wore identical uniforms and were smiling way too much at me. One of them, who was wearing an orange polo, walked up in front of me. Directly behind him was an enormous gaping hole.
“Help! Help!” I called. I didn’t know why I had hope for help. The man in front of me smiled. “You are being helped! You are saved! Don’t you realize that yet?” I struggled against my restraints. “I don’t want to be saved! I want to go home!” He smiled so hard that I thought his face might break apart. I noticed something familiar in the corner of my eye. It was the woman from the story! The people who they kidnap must become part of the cult. But what was that wiggling behind her skin - behind everyone’s skin?
He looked away from me and towards everyone in front of him. “My friends!” He proclaimed in a loud voice. “Today, another heretic joins our flock!” There was uproarious cheering. “The Mother will come to complete the initiation. Shed your human skins in her presence!” Suddenly, maggots burst out of every available orifice on the people. So that was what the wriggling was - a million white worms. I wanted to throw up.
I heard a loud thumping noise. Thump. Thump. Thump. It seemed to be getting closer, and was coming from the enormous hole. Then I saw it. A fly - A wingless fly the size of a large house. Millions of eyes fell upon me. I screamed bloody murder as I saw a cascade of wriggling maggots come out of the enormous fly. Then they descended upon me, and I fell unconscious again.
I am in a room that sort of looks like an egg. I can feel them inside me - eating away at my vital organs first so I don’t put up a fight. Writing this will likely be my last action as a human. I know I don’t have much time left, and my phone is nearly out of battery. I can hear them from the next room - gleefully talking about how “It won’t be much longer now.” I just came here to warn you all. I don’t want you to have to go through what I did. If someone you don’t know is knocking at your door, and you can see something underneath their skin, don’t let them know you’re there.