A Bug (written by Universal Monk)

Tommy Farell woke up to a faint scratching in his left ear, like a nail scraping bone.

He shook his head, thinking it was wax, but the sound grew. Skittering around, alive.

“The fuck?” His fingers probed, finding nothing, yet the noise turned to a wet, clicking churn.

By midnight, his ear burned, a pulse of heat spreading to his jaw. He stumbled to the bathroom, tilting his head under the light.

A black leg, thin as a hair, twitched from the canal. His scream choked as the thing burrowed deeper, its whispers now words in his skull: We’re home.

END