I knew I shouldn’t have told Ava about the bugs when I saw her reaction. I just don’t know what I was thinking. Ava had severe entomophobia. Every corner of our house was bug spray and the sickening scent of lemongrass in our bedroom I couldn’t ever forget. She always dumped bottles and bottles of lemongrass essential oil into our bedroom humidifier and went into hysterics whenever she saw a bug. I got used to it eventually, but I can’t believe I forgot and slipped up. I think I really messed up…
Matthew, as usual, was rambling about another awful fact he read up on in the office. “Did you know? There are microscopic bugs living on your skin…” I sighed. He was at it again. I continued typing another email to an impatient client. “You can only see them under a microscope. They’re kinda transparent and are covered with scales.”
I cringed at the thought and went back, typing louder, signaling to him to stop. He didn’t seem to notice. “It has an elongated body and its front segment has eight legs and a mouth, look at this” He showed a clearly uneasy intern, Sam, something on his phone. She tried to back away but he continued to talk.
“They come out of your skin’s pores when you sleep to mate, isn’t that cool? Then they’ll go back into your skin to lay eggs,” He grinned comically at an obviously tense Sam. She made a run for it, saying she had some important work to do. Somehow, what he said couldn’t leave my mind all day. It started to feel like they were crawling on my skin. I’m sure I was being paranoid.
Bugs on my face? Is Matt kidding around again? He sure did love making the interns uneasy with his creepy facts and stories and now it was getting to me. I sighed and gave in to my urges, leaving a client hanging. Stabbing at my keyboard more aggressively than expected, turning heads, I hesitantly searched up, ‘Are there bugs on your skin’ and clicked images. Their little faces looked revolting. These creatures lived on my skin? They lived everywhere on my skin? I recoiled from my screen. My stomach turned and churned like a butter factory. Sticky, oily, greasy. Oozing from the walls, the floors, my pores. Near impossible to get rid of. The little hideous face that stared back at me looked like it was giving a smug smile. A smile of accomplishment. It was foreboding something. I could feel it. Chills ran down my spine as I shut my laptop.
I returned to work but it kept flashing back to my mind. When I was replying yet again to that incessant client, on the drive home and mid conversation with my wife.
“And how’s that annoying coworker of yours? Has he stopped rambling about weird stuff?”
“Oh he’s been unbearable today. Usually he talks about urban legends and those stupid things to scare gullible kids and stupid teenagers but today he was rambling on about some disgusting bugs living on our skin. Ugh, I can’t take it anymore, I can’t stop thinking about them! It’s as if I can feel them crawling on my skin!” I stopped mid way when I saw my wife’s expression change. She sat frozen, eyes on me. I tried to stop her as she grabbed her phone and furiously typed. She dropped her fork, repulsed. Bile rose up in my throat. “I-I’m not hungry anymore.”
My stomach dropped. Regret instantly gripped my heart. I put our untouched food on our plates in some storage containers and went to our bedroom to check on Ava. I knew she needed some alone time when she was stressed.
“Ava? I’m sorry, are you alright?” The bedroom door opened with a long creak. Foreboding. Ava was nowhere to be seen. What did I do this time? I really messed up. I went to check in the other rooms. A nude Ava was frantically scrubbing at her skin. She was rubbing her skin with so much force. Her skin was red and raw. “Ava! Stop! Ava, please, please stop,” I tried to pry her hands off the loofah but she just started scratching at her skin. “I can feel them! Ryan get lost! Just let me!” She violently scratched at her skin till her nail marks were etched in them as I struggled to restrain her. “Ava please, you’re going berserk! I’m so sorry for telling you but I assure you they are harmless, just please stop, you’re hurting yourself!” She yelled as she tried to break off my grasp. “They’re everywhere! They’re on me, in me, I think even under my skin! Ryan just fucking let go! I have to get rid of them. I can feel them everywhere!” Those words struck me. I can feel them everywhere.
I finally managed to calm Ava down. I gently applied moisturizer on Ava’s irritated skin and kissed her forehead, watching as my wife finally drifted off to sleep. I hoped this mania would stop soon. I shouldn’t have told Ava about the bugs. I can feel them everywhere. My fingers reached out to scratch my skin. I was getting itchy. I drew my hand back. What was I thinking? This was another one of Matt’s dumb facts. Why was it affecting me so badly?
It was even worse when I came back home the next day. “Ava? Ava where are you?” The living room and kitchen were both empty when I arrived home. The faulty light bulb in the kitchen flickered. Foreboding.
I couldn’t deny I was apprehensive walking around in my house of 7 years looking for Ava. I felt lost in the house I could walk in blindfolded. A stranger in my own home. Ava usually bought pizza for us on Fridays when she got off from work but there was nothing on the dining table. Or did she tell me to get dinner today? Maybe she mentioned that she was gonna work overtime? Why was I so nervous? She could have gone to sleep early, after all it has been an exhausting week for the both of us.
Scrubbing. Dread filled my veins. My heart was thumping twice as hard as my body felt like it was pushing through water instead of air. I tried not to scream when I registered the horrifying sight that met me in our room. The love of my life, my Ava, looked like a stranger. My eyes ran over to what she was using to scrub her skin. Sandpaper. Small bits of her skin lay on the floor. Chunks of hair which I assumed was torn from her head were scattered among the blood and skin. “A-Ava…” She gave me a demented, wide smile. She was barely a mirror of her past self. Her adorable round eyes were now red and sunken, with deep eyebags. Her warm, comforting smile looked menacing. “THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!”
Ava went into the bathroom. I wished that I stopped her but I was petrified. Fixed to the ground. I was glued to the floor. I was afraid of the monstrous figure that was once my lovely wife. Skin lying all over the floor, bones poking out of her skin. A sharp blade lying on the ground as I scanned the hills and valleys carved in her skin. The smooth skin of hers I used to caress was now plucked and dug into. I held back tears as I pictured her destroyed self. She didn’t even bother looking at me. She just continued slaughtering layer after layer of skin off. I was suffocating at the grisly sight before me. It was as if it had grown arms and were wrapping itself around my throat, gripping me harder and harder. I caved in. I dashed to the bathroom. Maybe I’d be an olympic winner if they recorded how fast I sprinted. “AVA STOP! AVA PLEASE FUCKING STOP!”
Ava turned her head toward me, slowly. Mechanical. Like those robots that felt so artificial, so strained. Her eyes were two holes. I held back a scream as I saw her eyes lying on the floor in a deep red pool of blood “I can see them everywhere.They are everywhere.” She cackled erratically. A long, hard laugh. I backed away. She reached out for me, giggling like a child. “Ryannn, look at me! They’re dying. They’re gonna be gone right? Right, Ryan? They’re everywhere but I’ll get rid of them.” Her bloody arms wrapped around me as she turned me around to look at her hideousness. Her mangled face pressed against mine. I screamed louder than any banshee for help, pleading for her to stop.I thought it was all over for me.
”They get stronger when we fear them,” a foreign voice emanated from her and echoed in my skull. Ava collapsed into a bubbling mass of blood and organs. Eaten from the inside. Her organs torn to shreds and filled with enough holes to make anyone trypophobia retch.
I’ve been feeling really itchy recently. They’re everywhere.