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Beetles (version I) By Geoffrey C. Porter The beetle, nearly as big as a quarter, crawled up her blanket, and she froze. In the moonlight a second bug and then a third, inched their way up the blanket towards her. Teresa shrieked and kicked at the bugs sending them scurrying to whatever dark recess from which they came. Her Mom burst into the room shouting, "What's wrong!" "Bugs!" "What bugs?" "There were three giant bugs!" "We don't have bugs, Teresa. Come on now you just had a nightmare. Do you want to sleep with me and daddy?" Teresa paused--thinking about it. She figured at eleven years old she was a little old to be sleeping with her parents, "No Mommy, it wasn't a nightmare." Her Mom sighed, "I'll leave the door open a bit for you." Teresa lay quivering for a while and then drifted off to sleep. At breakfast the next morning Teresa ate cheerios and bacon when another one of the bugs scooted across the kitchen floor moving from the pantry to the island in the center. Teresa pointed and said, "There, look, a bug!" Her Mom didn't even look, she just said, "We don't have bugs, dear." Teresa replied, "There it is look!" Just then the creature crawled underneath the cabinet and Teresa's Mom looked and didn't see anything. "Now girl, don't go making things up, there aren't any bugs in this house." "But Mommy!" "Hush! Finish your breakfast." "You don't believe me?" "No, dear. Eat your breakfast." Teresa ate quietly. She started to plan out her day, and her coloring books called out to her. She figured that would occupy a few hours. Then she could call up Jessica and maybe play. The hours passed and Jessica and Teresa found themselves in front of the game console when another beetle inched its way into view from behind a stereo speaker. She pointed at it and said, "Look!" "No." Teresa hit the pause button on the game and said, "Look!" Jessica looked and said, "Eww..." Teresa said, "They're in the house. My Mom says we don't have bugs but we do." Jessica said, "Let's catch it." Teresa nodded and smiled. She ran and got a broom, a dustpan, and a big mason jar. When she got back Jessica said, "It went under the couch." Both girls looked under the couch and couldn't find any bugs. Jessica said, "It must have gotten away. It was huge--I've never seen a beetle grow that big." Teresa frowned, "Oh well, as many as there are I'll catch one." Jessica smiled, "I bet you will. It's almost dinner. I should go home." "Ok." After dinner that night her Dad brought a movie home for them to watch. Mom made popcorn with M&Ms in it, Teresa's favorite. After the movie Teresa went to her room to read. As she lay reading on her bed she felt an odd tickle on her feet--she immediately thought the worst and looked down. She screamed, bugs, big ones, at least a dozen all over her bed. She thrashed and kicked at them, sending them flying across the room. Her Dad burst into the room, "What?" "Bugs, Dad!" "What?" "There were bugs all over my bed." "What kind of bugs?" "Big black beetles--almost an inch big!" "I don't think we've got bugs in the house, honey... But I will call an exterminator tomorrow and have the house sprayed." The next day a two man exterminator team went through the house and declared it bug free. They still sprayed down poison though. Teresa slept well for the next three nights. Then, on the fourth night she slept quietly when she woke to a start, something just bit me she thought. She could feel things crawling on her legs, then another bite. She threw off her covers. Bugs, more bugs than she could count. She smacked at them with her hands trying to get them off her legs and bed. She screamed a high pitched wail. After a few moments her Mom stepped in the room. By then Teresa had gotten all the bugs off her bed and they had run away as if controlled by some higher intelligence. Teresa cried, "Bugs, Mommy." "I'm taking you to see a doctor tomorrow, Teresa." "No." "It's ok, they won't give you any shots I don't think." "But, Mommy, I'm not sick." "I think you might be sick, honey. We'll see what the doctor says tomorrow." Teresa could have cried. She hated doctors almost as much as she hated bugs. She couldn't believe that her parents didn't believe her. Why would she make up stories? She went back to sleep. The next morning when she made it downstairs her Mom handed her a bagel and said, "You can eat in the car." They drove for what seemed like hours. Then they pulled up in the parking lot of a bright, shiny all glass building. Teresa stepped out of the car and followed her Mom inside the glass structure. A receptionist told them to wait in the lobby. As they waited a guy in raggedy clothes and un-kept hair looked them over quizzically. Teresa's Mom ignored the strange man. After a while the man said, "You got bugs?" Teresa's eyes bugged open and she answered, "Yes!" Teresa's Mom yelled, "We do not have bugs!" The strange man said, "Only one way to get rid of bugs--have to get the curse lifted." Teresa's Mom ignored the man, Teresa, however, said, "How?" "Go see a gypsy friend of mine, Isabel, her house is on the corner of Vine and Willow, 1313 Willow. She'll cure what ails you." "We are not going to Vine and Willow. Leave my daughter alone or I'll call security." The strange man smiled, then laughed, then he just got up and wandered off. A receptionist called out Teresa's name and both her and her mother followed the woman into an office. A man, obviously a doctor greeted them, "Madam, I need to talk to your daughter alone. I'll talk to you when I'm all finished, ok?" Teresa's Mom smiled like she intended to win the argument, "I'd rather stay." "I'm afraid I can't conduct the interview with you here, Madam." "Fine. I'll get some coffee." "There's a snack bar down the hall at the end. Our employers label it a cafeteria. We think in jest." "How long?" "Likely only thirty or forty minutes." "Fine." She left, and the doctor said, "My name is Doctor Michaels, how are you today?" Teresa said, "I'm fine." The doctor started to drill her with questions after that, odd questions. Things Teresa had never even thought of. This seemed to go on for a long time when Doctor Michaels paused for the longest time, then he said, "Well, you seem fit and healthy enough to me. I would like to talk to your mother though." The doctor punched a button on the phone and asked for Teresa's Mom to be sent in. Teresa's Mom's first word was, "Well?" "She seems fine to me, Madam. She hasn't seen any traumatic event recently has she? Like seeing somebody hit by a car or seeing somebody die?" "Heaven's no." "She's too young to be developing a psychosis. We would usually only see psychosis in older youths that have been abused or who have a genetic disposition. There aren't any mental health issues in your family history?" "No, of course not!" Doctor Michaels smiled, "She is just likely going through a phase of some sort." Teresa asked, "We can go home?" Doctor Michaels smiled, "Yes, you can go home. Get a lollypop from the receptionist. And my advice is if you see any bugs, kill them." Teresa nodded. On the ride home all was quiet for a while, then her Mom said, "I want this to be the last I hear of bugs, my dear." Teresa sighed, "Ok, Mom." For a week Teresa didn't see any bugs. One night as she slept she felt another bite, she flipped the sheets off her bed and there was another unholy swarm of beetles. She kicked and smacked them--trying to kill them, to no avail. Finally she started to scream and the bugs as if on cue fled the scene. Her Mom ran into the room shouting, "What?" "Bugs, Mommy!" Teresa's Mom smiled, "Tomorrow we'll go see Isabel." "Really?" "Yes, we'll get the curse lifted." "Thanks, Mom." "Now go to sleep." In the morning after Teresa ate breakfast she went to her Mom's room. Mom had a picture off the wall and a safe that Teresa had never seen stood open. Mom pulled a pearl handled pistol out of the wall safe and stuck it in her purse. Teresa asked, "What's that for Mommy?" "Willow and Vine isn't the best part of town honey, and I have a permit for a reason." Teresa's Mom closed up the safe and put the picture back to hide it. They drove through town moving from upscale neighborhoods to poor neighborhoods. Teresa noticed the cars especially. In her neighborhood, new Toyotas and BMWs were commonplace. Once they made it to Willow St. most of the cars had either a flat tire, a busted window, or rust all up and down its sides. They parked in front of the house at 1313 Willow and stepped out of the car. A few grimy looking young men started eying them. Teresa's Mom reached inside her purse and cradled the snub nose .38. She thought to herself, you boys don't know who you're fooling with--I loaded hollow points today. As they stepped up to Isabel's gate the boys turned and walked off. Teresa's Mom knocked on the door and they heard a holler from inside, "Come in." Teresa's Mom opened the door with her left and keeping her right in her purse she stepped into the dimly lit abode. They heard from the other room, "Have a seat. Tea? I'll be right out." Teresa sat on a big fluffy chair and waited. Teresa's Mom sat after a few minutes keeping her hand in her purse the whole while. An elderly black woman wearing a white dress, strange beads around her neck, and a skull of some animal hung from a leather band around her neck. It looked like a chicken's head. The woman looked them over and said, "You got the curse on you. I can see it from here..." Teresa's Mom said, "What curse?" "It's a death curse--the girl is doomed. Her fate is set. Your whole family's fate is set." "Well, get rid of it." "I could I could. But I want five hundred dollars." Teresa's Mom laughed with sarcasm, "I won't pay." "Goodbye then. I don't help strangers for free." Teresa's Mom scowled and said, "We're leaving." "But Mom, the bugs!" "We're leaving!" Teresa's Mom marched back out to the car and put down some rubber leaving the street. Teresa asked, "Mom, why wouldn't you pay to lift the curse?" "I'll spend fifty thousand dollars on specialists and doctors before I spend five hundred on some witch doctor." Teresa sighed and watched the scenery fly by on the drive home. When they got home everything seemed to be going well. A few weeks passed when Teresa awoke to a start. At first she felt a tingle and thought it would be more beetles, then it went away and she looked at the floor. Something moving, the floor seethed with crawling insects with their black gleaming carapaces in the moonlight. She didn't want to scream, she knew it would drive them away. What she needed in her mind was a jar to put some in. She gingerly stepped out of bed crushing gooie masses of exoskeleton and guts. Before she could take a step the beetles started crawling and biting their way up her ankles and legs. Teresa fell to her knees crushing more bugs, she thought to herself, anything, I'd do anything to get rid of these damn bugs. She heard a whisper back, "Kill..." She whispered, "No..." The whisper became the chatter of a thousand voices, "Kill..." Teresa growled back, "No..." The clicking of beetles whispered, "They don't even believe you." As the bugs crept up Teresa's legs it struck her like a vision, kill. The bugs fled in that way that they were so good at, and Teresa poked her head out her bedroom door. She could hear dear Father snoring away. She crept down the stairs to the kitchen, picking out the sharp heavy knife Mother always said not to touch. She stared down at the knife, gleaming in the moonlight. This is my first ever attempt at horror. I wrote it for Ed Davis's Fiction Writing Class. |
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