I hate insects, with every fiber of my being. The way they crawl on six legs or squirm about leaving a trace of slimy goo is enough to give me a mental breakdown. I don’t discriminate, as ‘beautiful’ insects like butterflies, and ladybugs will also be crushed to paste as soon as I see them. Or sprayed with insecticide which will make them shrivel up, and die. Or wrapped tightly with toilet paper, and flushed down into a watery grave. I didn’t always have a hatred for insects, I used to have a pet tarantula as a kid, but after what happened last year…Bugs can go fuck themselves.
Last year, I was nineteen years old and was ready to move out of my parent’s house. I had saved enough money from my part-time job as a waitress to rent out an apartment for myself. I was beyond excited to finally be living by myself because it meant my parents would stop treating me like a kid. Despite being nineteen and a grown-ass adult, they had an 11 pm curfew for me, which was utterly ridiculous. Anytime I came back after 11 pm, they would give me a right telling off, and go on a rant about how it was dangerous at night, and bla bla.
Having an apartment all to myself, meant that I could stay out as long as I want, without having helicopter parents telling me off. Luggage in hand, I was saying my goodbyes to my parents. My mother gave me a bear hug, squeezing me to the point that I couldn’t breathe, tears were streaming down her cheeks. ‘Oh! Freya Im going to miss you so much! I can’t believe you’re all grown up.’
‘Yeah…Going to miss you two as well’ I said, faking a smile. To be honest, I wouldn’t miss living with them at all, as I had no freedom in that house. ‘Maren, honey. The cab is waiting for her outside, you should let her go’ Father said. After what seemed like forever my mum let go of me, and gave me a peck on each cheek, and then said. ‘Stay safe, Freya! Remember to visit us, any trouble you have give us a call!’ I nodded and then turned to leave.
When I was in the cab, I could see my parents at the door, waving goodbye, their eyes pricked with tears. God, they were so dramatic. It was a half an hour drive to my new home. Once I got out of the cab, I was met with the pungent smell of weed, which stung my nostrils. There was a group of boys, hanging outside the council estate, smoking god knows what.
I took a deep breath upon seeing the group of boys, and then walked towards the flat, with my head down to avoid contact. ‘Hey, princess!’ one of the boys said, I looked up at him for a split second, and he had weed hanging from his mouth. ‘Ayo! What’s your number, sexy bitch?’ Another dude said. ‘leave me alone’ I said, sneering at one of the dudes. ‘I ain’t interested’. ‘Aw I love a fiery bitch’ one of the guys said, chuckling alongside his mates. I entered the apartment, and to my annoyance, I had to climb three flights of stairs because the lift was broken.
I went into my new flat room 21, unloaded my stuff, and that’s where the nightmare began. On the first night, I was scrolling through Reddit, late at night. When suddenly, I felt something on my leg. I hurriedly switched on the bedside table lamp, pushed the bed covers away, and saw a single ant crawling up my leg. I simply picked up its tiny body, between my fingers, not enough force to crush it, and simply flicked it out of the opened window.
I thought it wasn’t a big deal, as the window was left open, so it must have crawled into the room through the window. I closed the window and then went back to bed, and continued scrolling through Reddit. Seconds later, I then felt something else crawling onto me. I sighed and pulled the covers off me. On my leg was another ant. I sighed with annoyance and was about to squish it with my thumb when the ant stopped crawling. To my horror, it started squeezing out something white and oval-shaped, on its back end. An egg.
‘What the fuck’ I muttered to myself, staring at the ant, in astonishment. The ant just gave birth on my leg. The oval-shaped egg then began to suddenly hatch, revealing a maggot-like creature. This was impossible, as ants eggs, take weeks to hatch, but this egg hatched in only just a few seconds. I screamed at the top of my lungs, and flicked both the ant and its larvae, off my leg.
The larvae squirmed on the carpet floor, and the ant began to give birth to more fucking eggs, which hatched. It was the most disgusting, most traumatizing thing that I’ve ever seen in my life. But it wasn’t the worst thing that happened in Flat 21, more terror was to come. I ran out of the room wailing my arms about, and rushed to the cabinet, throwing stuff to the side, trying to find the vinegar. Earlier, I had gone to the local shop, to get a week’s worth of groceries.
I rushed into my room, with a bottle of vinegar in hand. The ant continued to multiply, and I spotted ten larvae, squirming around my carpet. I fucking began to pour all the vinegar onto the carpet floor, drowning the ant, and its larvae. Once I killed them, by hand I had to pick up the dead carcasses and then tossed them outside the window. The smell of vinegar was so strong, that it made my eyes prick with tears, that night I slept on the sofa, entering in and out of consciousness disturbed by what had just happened.
The next night, I was in the bedroom, watching a Netflix series on my phone to keep my mind off what happened last night. The smell of vinegar had faded away, and earlier, it took me hours to scrub the vinegar-stained carpet. I had left the lampshade on, too afraid to turn it off. It was then in the corner of my eye, that I saw a six-legged creature in the corner of my room. I paused my Netflix series and stared at the spider in utter horror.
The spider was fuzzy, and much larger than a regular household spider. It stared through my soul, with its beady eight eyes, as though it was watching its prey. I would later find out, that this spider was a jumping spider. I sat up, and the mandibles of the spider twitched a bit, as if it was anticipating for its meal. ‘Mummy!’ I cried out, and I grabbed my phone, hurriedly dialing my mums number.
‘Its 3 AM in the fucking morning, I got work in a couple of hours!’ my mum’s aggitated voice, resounded from the phone. ‘Mum I’m scared!’ I cried, trembling, tears streaming down my cheeks. ‘Why?’ my mum asked. Keeping my eyes on the hairy beast on the corner, I then replied. ‘There’s a spider, it’s going to eat me’ my mum chuckled, finding it hilarious. ‘How are you scared of spiders, when you had Rosie the tarantula as a kid?’
‘Rosie was friendly, but this spider looks pure evil’ I said, sobbing. ‘If your afraid of a tiny spider, your are welcome to stay at our house for a few days’ my mum said, chuckling as she spoke. In a blink of an eye, the spider had aggressively launched itself at me, landing right on my face. I was completely blinded, by that demon hugging my face. It was nibbling my nose, with its mandibles, and its fuzzy hairs that coated its entire body tickled my face. I thrashed, and thrashed, and screamed my head off.
I then managed to pull the spider from my face, and I threw it against the wall. I ran out of my bedroom, behind me, I could hear the giant spider skittering behind me, trying to catch up with me. It chased me into the kitchen, where it then began to try and launch itself at me, knocking over plates on the counters. I then rushed to the balcony, shutting the door in the spider’s face. The demonic abomination began to lunge itself repeatedly at the door, attempting to break through the glass, so that it could get to me. I screamed with all my might, which alerted the neighbors, who nosely rushed out into their balconies to see what was going on.
‘SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE!’ I yelled out, as loud as I could, my face was red from tears. I glanced back at the demon, and instead of lunging at the glass door, it just stared at me with its multiple eyes. It then slowly walked backwards, dissapearing into the darkness. Twenty minutes later, the police had arrived, and they warned me for ‘wasting their time’, and laughed at me, when I told them about these demonic bugs that try and kill me at night.
I then stayed at my parent’s house for a full week, life seemed to carry as normal, and it felt like what happened during those nights was nothing but a nightmare. I then moved back into my apartment, and sprayed the whole area with insecticide, in the hope that that would deter insects and I would enjoy a bug-free night. That night, I checked my whole room, checking for bugs, but there was no sign of an insect anywhere. I then got into bed, closed my eyes, and was able to finally enjoy a night’s sleep. Or so I thought.
My alarm startled me awake at 6:30 am, as I had work. I smiled blissfully, relieved that I got to have a bug-free night in this room. However, as I reached my arms out spontaneously as I yawned I noticed an array of pink, round, bruised-like marks all over my arms. Something had bitten me, as I slept. Sweat trickled down my forehead, I checked my other arm and saw that it to was completely covered in bite marks.
I pulled the covers off me and saw that my legs were also completely covered in bite marks. I hurriedly got out of bed and then rushed to the bathroom, and what I saw in the mirror made me smash the mirror into pieces. My face, neck, fucking everywhere, was completely covered in bite marks. I smashed the mirror in utter frustration, the glass sliced my knuckles, which drew blood. I soon felt light-headed, and my head was spinning like crazy, I then fainted and fell onto the bathroom floor.
I was lucky, that my mother had come to my apartment the same day I fainted to check on my well-being. Because I hadn’t opened the door or answered her calls, she called the police who broke down the door, and found me laying on the bathroom floor. I was promptly driven to the hospital, and it was concluded that those bitemarks were from bed bugs, they had drained a lot of blood to the point that I was anemic which is why I had fainted, and I had to be given blood transfusions. The doctors had also found four chiggers which aren’t even in this country, burrowed deep into my feet, which means I got attacked last night by both bed bugs and chiggers.
Whilst I was in the hospital, my dad paid for exterminators to come and look at the property. The exterminators claimed they couldn’t find any insects, which was utter bullshit because I was literally attacked by many insects in that house, and almost died from blood loss. I refused to go back into that cursed flat, and I now currently live with my parents.
Yesterday, on the news, it was said that a family of three was found deceased in flat 21. They had been poisoned by something, and by the time their bodies were found, they were half-eaten with maggots squirming around their body. Previously, the family had complained about many types of insects visiting them each night.
If my mum hadn’t been there to check on me, that day I fainted, I hate to say this, but something would’ve probably come and finished me off. I wouldn’t have lived to tell the tale.
Oh and one last thing, bugs can go fuck themselves.