The Bug

She fingered her bandage on her left arm, wanting to rip it off and delve into the healing skin, tearing it apart again. Jamie huddled in the corner on her small bed. The doctors outside of her cell talked quietly amongst themselves about her condition. Her disorder. Whatever they wanted to call it. All she knew was that there was something wrong. The bug! It's all the bug's fault!. It squirmed and bit and wriggled inside of her! Wanting to eat through her organs before eating through her skin! It treated Jamie like she was its playhouse!

Mom and Dad sent her here, to this place--the psych ward. "I'm not a psycho!" she remembered screaming, her voice breaking twice. All Jamie wanted was to convince her parents that she wasn't crazy. "There's a bug inside of me!" After her outburst and failed attempt to convince them, Mom and Dad sent Jamie away, hoping and praying that she would be all right.

Jamie remembered how it felt to dig her nails into her skin and watch blood ooze out. Her nails were filthy and blood encrusted, but sharp. She remembered the pain as her nails slowly sliced her skin where she felt the bug moving. It gave her such pleasure and terror at once--pleasure for being close to getting rid of the bug; terror at what she was doing to herself.

Unable to stand it any longer, Jamie tore off the bandages. Screw the consequences! There's a bug inside me I need to get out!

Jamie's damaged, but slowly healing, fleshy arm was finally visible to her bloodshot eyes. Her right hand pinched the wrinkling skin and she bit her lips to hold in her scream. If the doctors outside her room found out what she was up to, it was another trip to the electric shock room. Jaime didn't want that. Not again.

Her fingers slowly tore off the skin the doctors had to replace. Dirty fingers plunged into the sensitive flesh. Her scream echoed in the halls, drawing everyone attention.

"Got you, you little bloodsucker!" Jamie cried, madness coated her words.

The doctors flashed their IDs in the machine to unlock the steel door. They pulled Jamie's probing hand away from her victimized arm. Jamie thrashed around, screaming bloody murder. Her skin was on fire. And Jamie breathed as if smoke was in the air. Blood covered Jamie from neck to ankle. Speckles of the liquid red ran in her hair and clothes...it all worried the doctors.

One of the doctors called in nurses and security while the other three doctors tried to rebandage the gaping wounds on Jamie's arm. The flesh from her arm hung gruesomely, dripping blood.

The doctors put her on a bed and strapped her down, wheeled Jamie out of the room. Jamie screamed at the bug. She felt it move around inside her, as it laughing maniacally at its escape. Through her screams, she tried to tell them - the doctors - about the bug. None listened.

"Now, now, Jamie. Stop struggling. We don't want to hurt you, sweetie," a female doctor told her.

Jamie slipped into oblivion as the doctors put her to sleep. They rebandaged her arm and several hours late.

Jamie was awake again, lying on her bed. She remembered everything that had happened.

The bug awoke inside of her.

She fought the straps that prevented her from ripping her skin apart and screamed wildly. Her hair tangled from the sweat and dirt.

Suddenly, the door opened to admit a pretty blonde orderly with a metal tray of food. As the orderly came in, the bug settled down, making Jamie calm down. "Time for lunch, Jamie," the orderly cooed. She put the tray on the ground and undid Jamie's straps. "Don't act up, Jamie, you hear? You need your strength." The blonde orderly grabbed the applesauce on the tray, waited until Jamie sat up properly, and started feeding her carefully.

"There, isn't that good?" The orderly sat the tray on the bed next to Jamie, still feeding her.

Jamie mumbled, but that was all she could afford to do. Her injuries itch and were sore.

When the orderly pushed the straw into the milk carton, the bug made its move. Jamie stiffened, feeling the bug inside her squirm once more. The orderly noticed this and looked at the patient, eyes searching. Before she could react, Jamie grabbed the tray and knocked the nurse in the head. The pretty blonde fell on the floor, unconscious, with blood streaming down her head.

Jamie felt the bug running around her calves as if playing tag with her and she was it.

Her skin was swollen and a bright red. She tore through her skin, her bloody hands soaked in seconds. Jamie turned to her other leg and did the same. Blood leaked out from the reopened wounds. She felt faint, but determined to get rid of the bug inside of her. Nothing was going to stop Jamie.

Grunting, screaming, yelling in pain, Jaime continued.

By the time the doctors came in, Jaime had fainted from the loss of blood; blinding pain.

Jamie's skin was peeling before their eyes. The doctors worked on Jamie's wounds.

Hours later, the doctor told the nurses to call Jamie's parents.

Jamie's parents walked warily into the psyche ward, meeting familiar Doctor Henrick, caretaker for Jamie.

"I am so sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Pike. We've tried everything," Doctor Henrick told the pale-faced parents.

"H-how did this happen?" Mr. Pike asked, holding up his tentative wife.

"Jamie had one of her 'episodes', ripping off all her bandages and tearing off her skin. By the time we caught her doing so, she had passed out from loss of blood. We tried transfusing and rebandaging, but her heart had stopped beating soon after."

Mrs. Pike stifled a scream and faints. Mr. Pike gently lies his wife on the nearest bench. "May I see her?"

"Mr. Pike, I warn you that she's not exactly..."

"Just," Mr. Pike interrupted, "let me see her. Please."

Doctor Henricks took Mr. Pike into the morgue room. The sight of Jamie's dread body churned his stomach. A glimpse of her was all it took for him to run out and find a trash can.

Doctor Henricks patted the old man on the back. "Jamie always said about a bug being inside her."

The doctor acknowledged out loud, "Throughout the year, we've been trying to match Jamie's symptoms to diseases and always came up empty."

Mr. Pike wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt, spitting out the rest of the vomit from his mouth. "You don't know what caused Jamie to act like this?"

Doctor Henricks grimaced. "Sadly, no. It could have been her imagination. Or it might have been something that we're not familiar with."

The doctor led Jamie's dad back to the main office, where Mrs. Pike sat, looking pale and frantic. Her head whipped up toward the approaching men and began crying. Mr. Pike hurried to comfort his wife, holding her up to lead her out back to the car.

"Mr. Pike, I'm truly sorry for your loss," Doctor Henricks assured.

Mr. Pike gave a ghostly nod, exiting the building.

* * * * *

Once the room was quiet again, the bug made its escape. It chewed through Jamie's organs before eating a hole in her skin. It squealed and scrambled out. It crawled over Jamie's dead body. Its black shell, red, beady little eyes, and sharp teeth made up the dead girl's nightmare. It mades its way to the pile of dark hair where it hid.



Nurses came in to take the body away. The bug waited patiently as the nurses hauled Jamie's body into a body bag and carred it out.

Outside the body bag, the bug squealed with excitement at the sound of screaming and yelling. It bit its way out of the body bag, dropped onto the stone floor. It looked around at the closed doors in the long hallway. Scrambling around, it searched for its next victim...