Worms

Alex Waters was a normal man. His father had been a drunk that went into the Gulf war and got himself killed. He had got shot when on a mission with his squad. They had abandoned him and retreated. He had spent three days in the mud, paralyzed from the neck down, unable to move. They said they had found him screaming 'worms' until he had finally died of a massive heart attack. When the letter came that his father had died, his mother became a broken woman. She took up drinking and came home with another man every night. Alex had been deathly afraid of worms since he received the letter. 
He was a smart kid for his age, but because he was a stalker he ended up in a dead end job that paid well. He was saving money to put himself through medical school. His life changed the day the worms came. The first time he saw the worms was at work. He was typing away at his desk in a failing company when his boss came and screamed at him.
"You lazy shit stain! Get to work, have you seen this quarters report! I should fire you!" Soon the constant ranting of his boss was drowned out by the sound of squeaking. He took a closer look at the screen, and there was a worm crawling across desktop. The worm seemed to look at him and he heard a harsh, raspy voice coming from the computer, it sounded familiar.
"Gouge his eyes out. Just do it, put your thumbs on his eyes and press till the bastards blind. He probably is already blind to marry that cow he calls his wife."
The voice was so calm. It sounded like it knew what it was doing, but Alex resisted the strong urge to follow the worm's advice and went to the bathroom to wash his face. A few days later he went to a drink with Tom and his other friend Jacob. Jacob was a ladies' man; he hit on women with shitty pick up lines and ended up banging them by the end of the night. He knew Jacob and Tom since he was a kid, they used to play catch in his backyard while his father sat on the porch with his bottle of beer. While Jacob went to talk to some blond woman, Tom pulled Alex aside and told him he was joining the military. Tom thought it would be a good way to go to medical school with Alex.
"You can't! I told you about what happened to my father right?" Alex asked with concern.
"Alex, relax. I'll probably end up behind a computer piloting some drone, in no danger. I mean look at me, Alex! I'm not in the perfect condition to go into the front lines."
"I just don't want you to get yourself killed."
"Relax. Everything will be fine," said Tom. It wasn't. Tom was killed in action in the Iraq war at the age of 27, the same age as Alex.
Alex quit his job soon. He started to see worms around his house for another three years until he met Susan. They met in the medical department and fell in love. They got married and bought a house in the suburbs. A year into their marriage, they started to see it wasn't working out. Alex wanted to see his friend Jacob, but Susan wouldn't let him. Susan hated how Jacob could never settle down. This lead to many arguments in their home. One night his wife was extremely mad at him, for a reason unknown to him. His wife's shouts started to echo in his head then stopped. His nose started to bleed then a worm came out, covered in mucus and blood. the voice came again.
"Beat the shit out of that whore. You know she's cheating on you, think about it, why does she never look for a job and stay home all day when she has a medical degree." The worm sounded more convincing than before but Alex fought the urge. Two weeks later Susan left him for another man. Alex took up smoking; it took out some of the emotional and physical pain the worms caused him.
The worms were everywhere now. Every time he ate, the food became worms. So did his vomit. When he left his new apartment the buildings turned into giant worms juting out of the ground. Even his cigarettes started to turn. Jacob came to visit Alex because he was concerned about him. He wasn't answering his phone and never saw him out of his apartment. Jacob came into the apartment; Alex had given him a spare key in case of emergencies. He heard whimpering from the bedroom. He saw Alex, pale and skinny with a dead cat in front of him.
"Jesus Christ, Alex! What happened to you, and why is that cat there!" said Jacob
"It's not a cat, it's a worm. Can't you see? Why won't they leave me, Jacob?!"
Alex turned around and screamed. His friend turned into a thousand worms crawling around in the form of a man. He screamed until Jacob left. Alex knew he couldn't live like this. He went to his closet and got a rope, tied it into a noose and put a chair under it. He saw the noose turn pink and wiggle around. It had turned into a worm. The scare made him stumble backwards and fall out his window. Alex fell three stories; as he was falling he looked below him and saw the ground was a pile of slimy, slithering worms. He accepted his fate as he landed into the endless pit of worms.
Jacob pushed his way through the crowd to see his friend lying on the ground, still (remarkably) alive. He had a wide grin and managed to spit his last words to his friend.
"They're gone...finally. Jacob, don't listen to the worms." Jacob watched in horror as worms started to come out of Alex's mouth.
Jacob stared at the worms as one looked at him and said in a harsh raspy voice, "See what happens to the ones that don't listen to us? He deserved it anyway, he was a psychotic little shit." He remembered that voice from somewhere. When he was little Alex, Tom and he were good friends. He started to remember the voice. It was the voice of Alex's dad.
Category:Animals