Eaten Alive
CW: Blood/Gore
Eaten Alive is a brief story from my upcoming collection, Carnage. A touch of insect horror while still focusing on relationships. Enjoy x3
"So I suppose that's it then?" She was furious. The blood of her fur stood on edge as I told her the news. Our tv created a thin veil of white noise between us as we stared awkwardly at each other. So many thoughts were rushing between us, memories, dinners, everything was so distant now. I ran my hand through the short fur on my head, breathing heavily to try and calm down; to try and weather the storm brewing in front of me. My chest extended but it was minimal compared to what other animals can do. Meerkats are just small by nature; some days I loathed it. "What should we do, Zack?" she asked finally. I could see the anger bubbling in her eyes. She stood there, expecting an answer. I could almost hear her thoughts as she glared at me.She had her arms crossed, her crimson fur meshing with the white of her chest. Her eyes squinted as she waited for the words to come through. Her claws were digging into her arms. The cat I once loved was seething with anger. For a moment, it felt as if she wanted to kill me, and that she had just the energy to do so.
"I don't know. I didn't mean for it to happen like this, Liz. I've been wanting to tell you for some time, now, but there's never been a good moment to do so. I haven't felt connected to you for almost a year. We barely talk anymore. Sex is an occasional affair." I let all the words come out at once. I let them attack her emotional fortress. I let them dig into her. I wanted her to know that this was more than jitters. The love was gone. "I need more in a relationship than just Netflix and a few gaming sessions. I need for us to be a couple. I'm afraid that's never going to happen again. I'm sorry."
"We're supposed to get married in two months. Zack, are we really going to cancel all this?" she asked me. I watched her look away. Glaring at the television.
"Yes." I responded.
"I don't feel so good. I'm going to take a shower" she followed, leaving the living room. I stared at the television, my mind a flurry of "what ifs." I let the news drown on in the background as I sat with myself, just thinking about what the future would look like. What being without her would look like. What just being looks like.
She had just started the shower as I decided to cook dinner. The news was still going, but I turned up the music as I started chopping vegetables and waited for the water to boil. I was plagued with the end of our relationship. The whole situation made me sick. I needed to leave, but at the same time I'm still very attached to her. I knew I was making the best decision, but even the good ones pierce your gut like a blade. It was like the thought of us ending was a virus, crawling around in my blood. I was battling between myself. End it. Don't end it. But I had to endure. It was my decision. It was the right one. No matter how much it hurt, I had to endure. It was terrifying.
I changed the television and flipped on some music and let it pummel the air as I sliced through tomatoes briskly. Though I was often never precise. I had cut my finger with the knife while cutting and hadn't noticed until I was about to murder the onions. Crimson had oozed all over my green fur before I started to run it through some cold water.
Steam was pouring out of the stove as the water had finally boiled and like a shot through a guitar, I heard her scream. My tail stood firm as I ran towards the bathroom, her screams unstoppable by now. I burst through the door, nearly slipping from the impact.
My heart was moshing against my rib cage, my bones practically shaking as I scanned the room for anything out of the ordinary. Then I realized she was still behind the curtain.
"Babe, are you okay? I heard you screaming a moment ago." I said loudly, but got no answer. I could hear her breathing fast. Short, quick breaths about the speed of a double bass pedal. I didn't want to open the curtain, but I knew I would have to. I knew I would have to see what things lie behind it. I cursed myself for getting something dark. If it had been a brighter color, I might have been able to see what was happening with her shadow. I gripped the curtain, the water raining down. It's heat nearly burned my fur as I thrust it back open and saw it. Or them, really.
I saw her lying on the floor of the bathtub, her feline body ripped open by what seemed like little roaches, hundreds of them just devouring her white and red fur. The cross tattooed on her chest had split apart as these white devils mutilated her. When I looked in her eyes, they had already left us. Her body was alive, but she was dead. Liz was holding on by the weakness of her breath, but it wouldn't be long before she wholly left this world.
I said we were drifting apart. That I never felt connected to her. Seeing her like this made me feel strange, thoughts of our argument playing back in my head as these things roach-like insects ate away at her flesh stirred a sickening feeling inside me.
They were small, but god were they strong in numbers. These long bodied bugs were chewing every inch of Liz away in front of me, chewing her down to bone. They're legs stretched out. Though they didn't have wings, one would think they did with how they jumped across from wall to wall. Some were coming out and going in our drains, others were escaping to the window.I had never seen them before, these strange insects. At first I wondered where they came from. The pipes? The air ducts? How did our home become infested with these unearthly creatures?
I had to sit and watch as her body was eaten alive. Tears started forming in my eyes as her breath got faster and faster. Her legs were being chewed off of her torso, one crawling away with a few underneath. Her belly burst open as more spilled out. Her blood was everywhere. Our beige walls were covered in every drop of it. I knew her end was coming. They were pouring out of her mouth now. Her whole head had been taken by then, eyes falling out of the sockets, ears gnawed away. They worked like ants, but these were far from ants. Ants wouldn't take a body like this. Ants wouldn't act this quickly.
Then I felt it. The illness that lingered in my body surged and I looked at my hand to see these little creatures crawling one by one from the cut on my finger. They were in me, my fur bubbling now like grass about to explode. My arms inflated, filled with whatever things were in me. It grew, my small frame enlarging. I felt them crawling all along my arm as my hand burst with them. From the mirror I could see all of my body just bulging in sections. I couldn't tell where the pain was coming from. Or even what the pain was. I just knew I was hurting real bad, as if I had broken all the bones in my body. Parts of my flesh were splitting open like a costume wrapped around a person too large to wear it.
I screamed in agony as I felt it. My cock had burst open. The bastards were funneling down my pants leg, my balls were soon to follow. My cheeks were bulging, my legs were being eaten. I would soon join her.
I flailed around in my bathroom. I didn't want to collapse yet. I didn't want to die. Not yet. I punched through the window and started to scream, but my throat wouldn't release my voice. They were working fast. They were eating me out from the inside.
How funny, to be eaten, ripped open and torn apart; I wonder if this is the new chapter of my life. Death. What lies beyond its veil is something I've yet to see, but I guess I'm coming for it now. I wonder what Liz saw when she passed over.
I stare at her body, bones exposed, her face half gone. Her fangs remained intact, as if they were the most resilient of her body. She always did know how to bite, but cats normally do when they're angry. I was lit up like Christmas, red and green bits all over me, our floor, everything. I couldn't stay up much longer. I was going down, and as I fell to the porcelain tile, I could hear others outside screaming. I could only assume because they were being devoured as well.