That Itching Feeling

Bugs. Oh god, I hate bugs. I sometimes had nightmares of bugs crawling all over me, which was followed by the sensation of falling. Sometimes they would even eat their way through my skin, and walk around inside of me, biting and laying eggs, until I was filled with disgusting bugs all over me.

I would always wake from the dreams, itching like crazy, my not-yet-awake mind thinking there were bugs inside me. It got so bad that I nearly freaked out every time I got an itch. I had a panic attack and fainted once in Science class, because my teacher showed the class her pet cockroaches.

After some confusing minutes in the nurses office soon after my faint, my mother decided to take me to a therapist to help my phobia. I knew that I would eventually have to see a bug if I took that route, and boarded myself up in my room, refusing food and water.

What if a bug had been in them, laid eggs, and a bunch of little baby bugs was gonna eat me down to bone? I barely slept, what if a bug was in my room? When I did sleep, the nightmares got worse and worse. I often woke up screaming. I eventually got sick, and started throwing up what was looking suspiciously like little eggs. Bug eggs.

Had they already infested me? I crawled into the corner of my room, itching all over. The itching was bugs, it had to be. I was infested by the damn bugs. There had to be one way to get these fucking things out of my body. I eyed the door nervously, I had a plan, but it wasn't pleasant.

But then again, anything was worth it to get these parasites out of my body.

My parents were gone, they probably wanted to flee before the insects infesting me infested them too. The cowards didn't even try to help. I took a butcher knife from the kitchen drawer, and proceed to get all of those little fucker out. They were mostly little bugs, I knew they were there, but they were hidden by this useless red liquid. I found a bigger one, it was white, and kind of sharp, but after much struggling, I got it out. I felt an unpleasant feeling coming from all over me. It brought me to my knees, but I wasn't done, there was one bug left. My vision was blurred, and the knife before me was covered in some sort of red water. This was useless information, I needed to get the bug out. It felt like it was burrowing just behind my forehead. I raised the knife weakly, I was no doubt weakened by something the damn bugs had done. My vision blurred more, I couldn't see the knife anymore, and I couldn’t feel my way in, all I could feel was that itching feeling right behind my forehead. I thrusted toward where I thought the bug was. I fell to the ground, the red liquid flooding out from me.

Later, I woke up in a place almost completely white. There were three faces peering down at me worriedly. I raised my hand to my right eye, to find it covered in bandages. The third, unfamiliar face said I had been found bleeding out with multiple life threatening cuts, and my right eye impaled by a knife.

I focused on the other two faces. They seemed to be my parents. Or were they unclean too? Were they infested, as I one was? No, they weren't. I raised my hand again to my forehead, which was left untouched. I realized how close I had come to death. If I had that strength for that last push, I wouldn't be here now.

I was kept in the white place, which I was told was a hospital, for months. I lost track, it didn't matter. I was kept under surveillance, as they were worried for my sanity. The thing they didn't know though, was that I was perfectly sane. They were the ones that were mistaken, the ones unclean, the ones infested. I was clean, immune to the plague of the bugs. But the other poor people would live their lives unclean. I pitied them, wishing I could help. No human should suffer as I did. When I was discharged, I realized I could do something.

Now I hunt. I take unclean people to my place of working and cleanse them of the bugs. Many don't survive this procedure, but at least they died clean. The ones who did survive, I found I had to blind, after many close encounters with the unclean police. They were all trapped under a hivemind, all hunting down the one who was clean. So I went on, cleansing people one by one. Nobody had yet to realize the great deeds I've done for them, but I can't complain about this. I was the Messiah of the present, here to cleanse the world.

And I would do it, even if it killed me.