Shadowbugs

By David Vorhees He woke up with a start. It was just a bad dream he thought to himself. He couldn’t remember the dream exactly but it had frightened him awake. He rubbed his eyes and stretched. He wasn’t use to being woke up like that. I hadn’t had a nightmare since I was a kid he thought. He was 10 the last time he had a nightmare, it was just after he had watched a scary movie. He never watched another one and besides he usually worked until he about passed out so he rarely dreamt as it was. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something move On his wall. “No way! No fucking way!” he said loudly and got up. He picked up a slipper and crossed the room in three long fast steps and stared at it. “No fucking way!” he said again as he started at the cockroach that was just standing there on his bedroom wall. “I pay $5000 fucking dollars a month for this place. I live on the 25th floor. No fucking way I got cockroaches” he said. He thought it was a cockroach at least. He had never actually seen one. He remembered seeing some movie about a giant cockroach alien that was invading earth once but this didn’t look like that one, well not exactly like that one. He lifted his slipper and hit the bug with it. The big split and started posing something out of it’s crushed body. Most of the bug stuck to his shoe but there was a spot on the wall. He thought about wiping it up, but then decided better if it. That’s why he has made, besides he wanted to get his super up there in the morning to see. It was proof. He was pissed, no way he gets back to sleep now so he diced to take a shower. He bagged both slippers, no point in keeping just one, in a clear plastic bag and sealed it up. He wanted to rub the dead big in the super’s face, he wouldn’t, but he wanted to. After his shower he went into the kitchen to make something to eat and that was when he saw another bug crawling across the floor. “What the fuck!” he yelled into the dark empty apartment. This time he grabbed a magazine off the counter, walked over to the bug and hit it with the rolled up magazine. When he lifted the magazine he didn’t see bug guts or a crushed big corpse. He just saw the bug, unharmed. What, he swatted it again and again the bug rained unharmed. He smacked again and again and still the big was unharmed. He reached down to grab the big but he couldn’t feel it. He could see it but not grab it. It was As if it was just a shadow of a bug, a shadowbug. That how he thought of it at least. He looked around to see if he could find where the real big was but saw nothing, but then he felt something. Something was crawling up his bare leg. He looked down and saw the shadowbug making his way up his leg. He swatted at the big but could only feel himself hitting his own leg. The big kept crawling up his leg. He could feel as the tiny legs touched his skin but he couldn't get it off. He headed towards the bathroom to get back into the shower. He hoped he could wash it of or better yet drown the Little bastard. As he entered the bathroom he could feel the little bugs legs crawling on him still. It was on his back now, running up his spine. He turned the light on and stepped into the bathroom and it was gone. It was gone just like that. He looked into the full length mirror and could see nothing, could feel nothing. The bug was just gone. He tried to figure out where the shadowbug had come from. He knew it didn't really exist and was just a Figment of his imagination, but why was his mind conjuring it up? Was it a hold over from the nightmare he couldn't remember? Or some weird level of guilt for smashing that cockroach on his wall? Whatever it was he wasn't going to be able to figure it out at this time of the morning so he decided to go back to bed and get some more rest. He didn't need to be in the office for a few more hours and after that jolt of fear and adrenaline he was tired again. After he was back in bed it didn't take long for him to fall asleep again. Although he was asleep it wasn't a deep sleep and a few time he opened his eyes briefly and scanned the room for the shadowbug. He saw nothing at first, but then he felt something move on his sheet. He opened his eyes and sat up. When he looked down towards the bottom of the bed he saw the shadowbug. This time however, the shadowbug wasn't alone. There was at least a dozen maybe more at the end of the bed with him. His eyes opened wide in fear and then he remembered the light on his bedside table. He reached over to turn the light on but his hand recoiled in terror as he saw the lamp was completely covered in shadowbug. He looked back at the end of the bed. He could no longer the bottom of the sheet as it was completely covered in shadowbugs, all crawling over each other and towards him. He threw the sheet off, jumped up, and ran for the bedroom light but the light switch, hell the whole wall was covered in shadowbugs. He then remembered he left the light on the bathroom and began to head towards it. He could now feel the hundreds of little legs as the crawled up his legs. He instinctively swatted at them but just cause pain to erupt up throughout his legs as he smacked them. He was sprinting now as the shadowbugs we're crawling up his chest. He stumbled and fell. He tried. to get up quickly but fell again. Now they were on his neck, his chin. He opened his mouth to scream and they crawled inside his mouth. He could feel the tiny legs crowding inside his cheek and down his throat. He got to his knees and tried to scream again but the shadowbugs had filled his throat. He started to gag but could get anything forced out of his mouth he could feel them scurrying inside and on top of his skin at the same time. He could feel his chest tighten as the shadowbugs began to fill his lungs. He couldn't breath. He scratched at his throat and chest in a desperate attempt to find air. But the shadowbugs we're filling every avenue. He fell back down, unable to breath. He desperately wanted air, for the shadowbugs to be gone, but he knew they weren’t going to leave. They were here to kill him and they were succeeding. He knew he was going to die. He lay on the floor in the hallway to his bathroom, he could see the light, he could see the shadowbugs. They were still coming… coming. He died watching them come towards him, come for him.