“THERE’S BUGS EVERYWHERE AND DAD HAS TURNED INTO ONE AND…AND…”
I broke down into tears. Everything was going wrong, so wrong, and spinning out of control. My knees gave way and I collapsed onto the ground, my tears watering the grass.
On the other end of the phone I heard frantic whispering. Then:
“Skye, stay there, okay?”
“Okay,” I said. My heart was thrashing against my rib cage like a caged animal. But through Emily’s reassurance I could finally think clearly.
It was just me and her now.
We could do this together.
Yeah. Maybe?
I turned away to cry. The buzzing was making my head ring. I didn’t know what else to think.
“Skye.”
Emily stood before me, an angel to the rescue. Her serene smile warmed my heart and lifted it with hope.
“You okay? I came as quickly as I could.”
“Yeah…” I couldn’t think straight. I stared at my dad’s bug body again, my heart pounding.
“It’s not entirely your fault, Skye. I’m here for you, okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Now look. You have to hide. The police are coming.”
I stared at her. I didn’t hear any sirens. Yet that cold chill wriggled up my spine, and everything suddenly felt a thousand times worse.
“Look, don’t worry, okay?” Emily said quickly. She looked anxious. Her eyes darted towards the window like the police were going to jump through any moment now to arrest us.
“I can help you. Trust me.”
And before I could say anything more, she grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the house.
The smell hit me hard when we got on the landing, and I couldn’t help but cough and wheeze. It was so, so bad; a rotten corpse dipped in vinegar mixed with the musty odour of dust. I turned and finally vomitted, nearly missing Emily’s arm.
We went down the creaky stairs together, my head bumping on the railings and my arm swollen from her grip. I tried to squirm out and make a dash back home. Where I was safe. Where I could run off and hide and pretend it was all a bad dream. Emily grabbed me even tighter and shoved me against the wall. Her fiery gaze burned into my own.
“Don’t you dare,” she hissed.
I was kind of expecting to go outside, for Emily to shove me into a cab and for us to drive far, far away from this place and forget anything and everything. Start anew. Start fresh. Start a new life, just the two of us.
But instead Emily reached into her pocket and pulled out a large iron key. The basement door creaked as it opened.
“In here.”
The room was as dark as night, but my eyes soon adjusted quickly to the darkness. A large cauldron was bubbling away in the furthest corner. Next to the cauldron was a long table, pushed up against the wall. It groaned under the weight of a stone mortar and pestle, and…and…
Oh god
It is impossible for me to describe everything else that was on that table. They were in different shapes and sizes, strong and hard, soft and brittle, twisting and curling and loping around each other. The extra fish and chips box from dinner sat on the far left, slightly open like a treasure chest, and something red and slimy was oozing out from the box and dripping on the floor.
^(“Skyeeeeeee….”)
The smell was worse this time. I thought it was bad before on the second floor, but down here it was like it spent an eternity in the sewers. I choked and staggered back, felt it wrap around me like a ton of smoke. I was getting dizzy again.
^(“Skyeeeeee….”)
The voice was calling me again. But it sounded smaller this time. Weak. Faltering. Like an old man about to meet his maker.
It also sounded oddly familiar, now that I thought of it. ^(“Skyeeeeeeeee…”)
My blood ran cold. I definitely knew this voice.
“Alfie?” I said in the dark.
^(Skyeeeeeeeeeeeeee…”)
“ALFIE!” I screamed, finally breaking free from Emily’s grip and racing towards it. Tears streaked my face and I was laughing. Maybe there was hope after all. Maybe all this was just some terrible nightmare and I would wake up with Alfie’s rosy face smiling down on me in the morning light.
But all that vanished instantly when I came upon his body.
^(“Skyeeeeeeeeeee”)
He was flipped on his shell so his belly was showing. His eyes were cracked, some missing, and his legs and feelers looked like they were snipped or torn off. Blue blood pooled onto the floor.
His glassy eyes stared at me, unblinking.
“Alfie…”
I didn’t know what else to say. My throat tightened.
“Alfie…” I whispered again. I cradled his body and my cheeks were red. I couldn’t stop crying.
“Skye. It’s okay.”
I looked up to see Emily smiling at me. The darkness beat down on her face through my grainy-camera vision, making it seem like it was made of ice.
“As I said over and over again, it isn’t entirely your fault, Skye.”
She grabbed my arm and leaned until her face was close to mine. Her eyes bulged until I could make out its intricate web of veins and blood was shooting up her face. I found myself desperately wishing that whatever happened to Alfie and Dad would happen to Emily right now.
“Leave him. We need to go!”
“G-go where?”
I didn’t know how I managed to say that. My throat was on fire. In fact, everything was on fire. Sweat rolled across clammy skin.
“Emily…” The world was starting to fade. Emily slapped me hard and everything came back to life.
“I don’t understand…What’s going on? What are you…we…doing? And where is this safe place?”
Emily smiled in a way that sent shivers up my spine. Her next words were carefully poised and sugar-sweet like bottled syrup, but full of poison.
“You don’t have to understand anything.”
She grabbed my other arm and twisted it hard behind my back, making me yelp. She bent down and dripped into my ear.
“I mean, you want to make your stepmom happy, do you? Let’s go.”
Emily pushed through the wall on the furthest side like it was made of water and marched through a long corridor. The darkness, once a friend, was now an enemy, glaring at us while we walked.
“Where are we going?” I choked. I was hyperventilating so hard I thought I was having an asthma attack.
“Don’t ask questions,” Emily snapped. I sensed she was trying to keep her head on. She stopped and spun me around to face her. I yelled as my joints popped.
“Skye, listen.”
“That cauldron you saw will help him get better. Revive him from the dead so to speak. If you don’t cooperate, then…”
She twisted my arm again for good measure. Emily brought my face up close to hers and I could see victory dancing in those eyes.
“I’ll make your life hell. Plain and simple. Do you want to see your precious Alfie die again? DO YOU?”
I shook my head violently like a puppet on strings. Emily chuckled.
“I thought not. Like a pair of lovebirds, you two. Now come on! Walk faster!”
“Emily,” I whimpered. I was crying. I felt the world shrink and my reality shatter. “Why are you doing this to me?”
Emily slapped me hard in the face. Stars swam before my eyes. “I told you not to ask any questions. I’m done being nice. Don’t test me, Skye.”
I stumbled in the darkness, nearly tripping over myself. My knees were knocking together; my legs were limp and floppy like frozen fish sticks. Emily growled impatiently and dragged me upwards, forcing me to keep going.
The corridor ended in a flash of bright light and I automatically shut my eyes. People were screaming my name, cheering us on as Emily dragged me towards the front.
But not Skye. Plain old Skye.
It sounded more like:
ALL HAIL PRINCESS OF HELL, LAMB OF HOLY EMPRESS TAHAN!
Pain spiked through my skull. My blood boiled. It felt like I was slowly being roasted in a hot tandoori oven.
Emily was saying something—no chanting—in this strange, primal language that chilled me to the bone. It just…did not sound like her at all. Like she was channeling an eldritch god that should not be awakened at any cost.
The crowd was chanting along with her. Deep and low, like waves pulsing through the sea. I heard a chattering of bugs and something being drunk and swallowed.
My throat was parched. This fever was not getting any easier.
The chanting had stopped. The crowd held its breath; and the tension was thick and heavy. I heard the sound of a blade being woken from its slumber. I heard it swish as it sliced the air. Blood trickled down my forehead and left a metallic taste in my mouth.
ALL HAIL THE PRINCESS OF HELL! HOLY EMPRESS TASAN, HEAR US! COME BACK TO US!
And finally, I heard myself scream.
The bugs. That was all I heard; that was all I felt. Bugs chirping into my ear. I listened for a while and couldn’t help but smile. It was the most relaxing lullaby you could ever imagine.
The next thing I heard was the bugs skittering off from where I was and across the floor. Then Emily screamed, so loudly that my bones shook and my eardrums felt like they were going to rupture.
I finally dared to open my eyes.
Emily was stumbling backwards towards the pews. Bugs were crawling all over her, biting huge chunks off her face and bare skin. She screamed again and fell on the pews. The wood stretched and twisted and wrapped around her. Soon she was a cocoon, part of the wood, part of Mother Nature the way she had intended. The bugs clambered over her face and turned into wood, sealing her in.
When I brushed my fingertips over the bulge I swore I heard her still screaming.
The rest of the crowd stumbled away from me, fear flickering in their eyes, prayers on their lips. They squeezed through the remaining door like human toothpaste, pushing through the tiny door.
They were yelling too. Lots of shouting. Lots of panicking. I heard my skin rip apart and looked down to find more bugs emerging from my folds and racing across the floor. The fast ones got away. They got the slower ones though or the ones that lay motionless on the ground and dragged them towards the pillars where they became still as stone.
I collapsed against the altar and felt my head explode like a volcano, releasing even more bugs.
Shivers tickled my spine. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my throat. My face was ashen; my mind still ringing with shock.
Oh god what have I done?
Everything was spinning. The yells, the chitters and the cracks and crash as pillars and pews and pictures cave in all blend into white noise that scream in my head like rogue static. I buried my head between my knees and cried.
Crash!
I was weak. My skin was sagging and folding against itself like a stuffed animal which lost its stuffing. I could see the remaining bugs marching away from beneath my skin, spheres of blood between its jaws.
Crash!
“Help me, Mom,” I prayed, my heart hammering away in its throat. I slumped against the altar and watched as the last pillar fell and the last glass crack.
My mother smiled serenely behind painted glass.
Then it shattered into a million pieces and my consciousness followed suit.
“Hey! She’s alive!”
I jolted awake to the beeping of a heart monitor. Soft linen kissed my cheek.
Emily’s old house had been reduced to rubble. The police were gathered around the house in a semicircle, murmured to themselves and took notes. Yellow tape stretched across the street. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the remaining bugs scatter from the concrete and disappear down the sewers.
The wind whipped my face. I took a long, shuddering breath, relieved to be outside in this cold morning.
The paramedics huddled around me and exchanged worried looks.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I said. Their faces were pale and they fell back murmuring to each other. One of them made the sign of the cross.
“There’s something wrong with this kid,” he said under his breath. “Can’t you feel it?”
“I mean she is totally unscathed! No scratches or bruises. And the dead bugs we found under her skin like it was their home! God save me…”
His partner shot him a look and he shut up immediately. Yet as they carted me into the ambulance and shut the door, he clutched his rosary and prayed.
“Lord deliver me from evil…
It was a short trip to the nearest hospital. I was given a quick check-up and then told I was to stay for a few days to monitor me. The doctor, a short man in his fifties with tufts of white hair that made him look like a Tibetan monk, asked me the same questions over and over again.
“Where are your parents?”
Both dead.
“Do you have anyone you know you can stay with?”
No.
“How did you even survive a building falling on you?”
I have absolutely no clue.
He gave up after a while and retreated to consult with the nurses. Hours passed. A police detective came in to ask me those exact same questions and I dutifully parroted the answers back. When no one came to bother me I lay in bed, squeezed my eyes shut and tried to block out the nightmares.
They came every day, even though it was all over. Bugs, rampaging my mind and skittering over my face. Alfie and Emily and my dad all rolled into one mutant monster, chittering and chattering and crawling into my ears.
I screamed so loudly the nurses would run in to check on me.
A strange man from far away came to visit me on the fourth day. The doctor introduced him as Father Peter the Ninth and said he had agreed to take me home with him until the church could find a good foster family for me.
“I’ll treat you like my own nephew,” he promised.
But his words quickly vanished into the wind as we spent the rest of the week together. It was mostly in his eyes, I think. Fear reared its ugly head and roared, and his lips quivered in their prayers.
Sometimes I overheard conversations with the doctor, begging him to take me back and to think of something else. The doctor refused.
“Her heart is black,” he would say. “She is not a child of the Lord…”
“The Lord will give you strength,” the doctor replied. “And so would the family you had lost.”
“You survived one demon; she will be no match for God’s will. With your care the girl will be purged of the evil which dwells within her.”
As for me, I didn’t like Father Peter IX much. It felt strange being with him. Like we were two strangers tossed on a deserted island and forced to survive together. At night when he was gone, I lay in bed, thinking of Alfie and Emily and my dad. My heart ached, and my bedsheets were soaked with my tears.
I missed them. God I missed them. The illusion of a normal family I once had was long shattered and now replaced by a sense of dread and uncertainty. I didn’t know what my future held. All I saw, in my mind’s eye, was the shadows of my past, the ghosts of my loved ones hanging over my shoulder and smiling down at me.
And I cried and cried until I could cry no more.
I was discharged from the hospital the following Saturday. Father Peter IX was waiting for me. I had lost everything when Emily’s house collapsed but he had bought me some toiletries, some new clothes, a cheap phone and a laptop to use for school. Although he lived on the opposite side of the country he insisted on travelling by road. He said we would get to know each other a lot better that way. So that brings us to now. Three days. Three days out on the road. Three days writing this story down on my new laptop in a cheap motel. It helps me kill time at least. The world outside is gray, dull and full of uncer Last night I was awake again thinking of Alfie. I couldn’t sleep. The wind roared through thin curtains and broken windows and howled in my face. The rain had come down in droves and it was so cold I was shivering.
The wallpaper crumbled at the next crash of thunder. Swarms of bugs rose from the rubble and scuttled upwards, swirling over and around themselves in a thick black cloud. Then they settled, like a thin black dust, to form a woman.
A woman with the head of a bug and wearing a regal cloak the colour of blood. Emily’s face was woven in its threads, her mouth open in an eternal scream. My breath caught in my throat. Every single hair on my skin stood up on end and my lip quivered.
My mum smiled at me and stroked my head fondly with one long, thin, arm.
“I am so, so proud of you, my dear daughter,” she whispered.