“Did you know? Did you hear? There is a new rumor downtown”
“Tell me, tell me!”
“Lately people say that you shouldn't get close to anyone with a backpack, especially is they are acting somewhat off”
“But why tho?” She asked, taking a cookie from a plate you swore wasn’t there before
“Because they aren't people, at least not anymore, apparently some kind of parasitic centipede has developed a taste for humans,” At the mention of the insect the shortest woman visibly grimaced “They start of small, more or less the same size of a tick, that burrows itself under the skin on peoples backs and feeds on their blood”
“Can we change subjects? you know I don’t like bugs”
“Well, you are going to love this! Apparently this kind of centipede doesn't behave like others, oh no, instead it laches itself onto the bottom of the spine of its prey and starts to eat it, but, instead of just leaving the person paralyzed from the waist down the centipede takes the place of the part of the spine that they ate, and it continues like that for months, eating away the spine without its host knowledge, until, it reaches the brain”
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“Uuuuuuuuugh I hate this so much”
“Huhuhu~ apparently when it finally reaches the brain it stops following the its orders, the centipede cuts the nerves to the eyes and ears and substitutes them with their antennae taking complete control of the body in the process” By this point the one at your right had given up on eating the cookies “Of course it doesn't end there, the centipede needs to reproduce after all~”
“Oh no...”
“Oh yes” The woman giggled “Don’t worry this species reproduces asexually”
“Thank god”
"That does not mean the process is pretty, the centipede creates a sack of eggs on the upper half of the back with hundreds of tinny tiny eggs, when the eggs are about ready to hatch the sack grows so much that it ends up ripping the skin of the back, so the centipede has to use things to cover its young, like backpacks, until it finds a place to let them free”
“Great, now my back feels all weird and tingly, thanks for that”
“Hehehe~, sorry, sorry, I might have gone a little bit overboard with that one”
“You did” She said wile glaring at her companion
Well, why I don’t I make it up to you by telling another rumor?”