The room was nearly silent. The rat had stopped moving, Gareth gluing himself to the wall and staring at the unmoving creature, not daring to move a muscle. The only sound he heard was the wild drumming in his ears that was slowly coming down from its crescendo.

What felt like hours later, Gareth crept forward toward the cage.

“There is no possible way you survived that. A creature the size of your stomach fully burrowed inside you and has to be wreaking havoc and laying eggs. I wonder how long it takes them to hatch…”

He bent down to bring the rat level with his eyes.

“At least I know where you are now. Not that I want to go digging through a dead rat, especially when you could jump out and burrow into me at any moment. But it does bring a certain peace of mind.”

The rat stayed unmoving.

“Shame about Theodore. I liked him.”

Gareth sighed and stood back up, pausing when he noticed Theodore’s chest moving.

Is this how I die? An insect burrowing out of a rat and jumping at my face?

Waiting with bated breath, Gareth stared. As the moments passed, he leaned closer to examine what was happening.

“You’re breathing. That doesn’t seem possible. There’s no way it could fit inside you without rearranging everything, and that would surely kill you.”

He spoke the words aloud in an attempt to convince himself of what he was seeing. Even with the words, the event continued to seem highly improbable. He began reaching for the door of the cage to confirm the rat had a heartbeat, then stopped himself.

“Oh yes, Gareth. Open it up and let the parasite in him change hosts to you. Wonderful idea.”

Unwilling to grab Theodore himself, lest he get an unpleasant surprise, Gareth contemplated what to do.

I suppose I could just poke him with something and see if he moves.

He shook his head.

That is not a proper reaction to this. I need to observe the subject and wait. Since I cannot exactly stand here twenty-four seven, I will have to set up an observation camera.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Tentative plan created, Gareth headed toward the stairs, and began his trek upward. He glanced one last time at the cage – then realized if he left now, something could happen in the minutes he was away.

He bit his lip, then looked up and spotted his discarded clothes on the steps. He quickly went up to his pants, closing his eyes and steeling himself before touching the bloody garment. He opened his eyes and went for the pocket as fast as possible, retrieving his phone. He went back to the cage and propped his phone against the wall to record his rat while he searched for a proper camera.

Glancing at himself after leaving the basement, he decided his paltry setup would be enough for a little while and headed to the bathroom. He took a look at the pristine white tub, and dreaded what it might look like after he was done. Gareth almost turned away, leaving his cleanliness to be a problem for his future self, when he saw himself in the mirror.

Matted brown hair, made darker in places by congealed blood, a smear across his face from when he rubbed at it. He reached up, and truly noticed how filthy his hands were for the first time. He had had the misfortune of placing them inside the man he crawled over, and it showed. He was unsure if he would ever be able to clean them off properly. His chest was largely clean, but the skin on his back could scarce be seen, and everything below his ribs would forever be marred by the experience.

Never again. If he wants to save people in a situation like that, he can do it on his own. I never want to see anything like that again.

He turned on the shower and stepped in, making it as hot as possible to burn away the images in his mind. He sealed his eyes at the sight of the water running red down his skin and into the drain, doing his best to scrub as much as he could as quickly as possible. An hour later, the water long since running cold, he still felt filthy, but he realized it would be a long time before he felt clean again.

Memories swirling down the drain, Gareth dried himself and went into his room, rummaging around for clean clothes. He quickly discounted anything that reminded him of blood, as well as clothes that could easily be stained red. Unfortunately not finding much, he settled on dark blue jeans with a purple shirt.

It’ll do.

Finally beginning to feel as though he could lock everything in the recesses of his mind, Gareth went to work searching for a camera. It took a scant few minutes, rifling through various drawers in his desk before he found it buried beneath papers and various odds and ends. It was a simple little rechargeable thing with poor quality video, but it lasted a long time on its own and could be plugged into a wall to last indefinitely.

This should work for the time being. I will get a better one as soon as possible, assuming Theodore or one of those bugs survives to observe. Hopefully he’s still in his cage with the thing inside him.

At that thought, Gareth nearly bolted back to the basement, but he stopped himself.

I have my phone there temporarily acting as a camera. If something did happen, rushing will not help matters. Take it slow, watch your steps, and try to avoid getting any bugs on your face.

Breathing deeply, he put on a veneer of calmness and sauntered down the basement steps. Reaching the bottom, he turned to the cage, mentally preparing himself for the worst. He stopped dead when he saw it. All he could do was stare as he tried to process what he was seeing.

There was a second rat in the cage.