Bugged Out – Short Horror Story

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Rachel squinted at the numbers on her computer screen, and a dozen or so rows of rectangles glared back at her. She had been working on this data set for hours in preparation for her upcoming thesis deadline. She took a sip of her beer, her eyes never leaving the screen. It was hot in her apartment. The window unit pumped weak, lukewarm air into the room, barely cooling it. The TV flickered quietly in the background. Rachel crunched a handful of cheese crackers as she summed up several columns. She twirled a lock of hair and pushed up her glasses. Well, that wasn’t the result she’d been expecting-

A buzzing sound across the room made her look up. Her eyes scanned the room, looking for the source. There was silence. She glanced back at the spreadsheet, but then heard the sound again. Then she saw it- a large, black insect crawling across the TV screen.

“EW!” Rachel shrieked, jumping up and kicking off her flip-flop. She rushed over to the TV and squished the bug. There was no crunch. Puzzled, she lifted the flip-flop to reveal the bare screen. Did I imagine that? She wondered. Surely not. She flipped over the shoe. On the bottom was a single, iridescent wing. Rachel held the shoe close to her face, inspecting it. I could have stepped on that outside, she reasoned. There was no other evidence of a bug anywhere. She sighed. Grad school was clearly taking a toll on her mental health if she was imagining things- and she’d been so tired after coming back from her recent data collection trip to South America. She closed her laptop and finished off her beer before heading to bed.

The moment her head hit the pillow Rachel drifted into a deep sleep. She found herself walking in a field of tall grass. The more she pushed through the greenery, the more the blades sliced at her hands and face. The matted grass ensnared her. A black cloud of flies danced around her face, landing on her neck, her eyes, her mouth-

Rachel sat up with a gasp. She was covered with sweat. “What the actual hell,” she muttered, before angrily falling back on her pillow. She glanced at her watch. 6:47 AM- if she got up now, she could put in a few hours of work before class. Reluctantly, she dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom. Glancing in the mirror, Rachel noticed a bump for the first time. Her fingers gently probed the spot. Rachel loved popping zits, and this one was ready. She began squeezing and a hard, little ball of whitish substance came out. She pressed a tissue to her chin, and looked at the lump more closely. It was an elongated oval, almost the shape of an-

Rachel gasped. What exactly had she brought home from her trip?

The tiny egg on the sink pulsated, and began to crack.

submitted by /u/sunshine_dreaming
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