Human Like

By Sara Fathima

I rubbed my eyes for the 13th time. What the…? Was this real? It couldn’t be. I must be dreaming. I stared at the long dwindling tower of little humans. Little humanoid figures no taller than 6 inches trying to enter my open kitchen socket.

As though sensing my presence, they all turned towards me in unison. Their crimson beady stare piercing through me. They tilted their heads to the side, chittering while doing so. The sound, louder than a wailing baby. I stumbled back, clutching my heart.

They took a step towards me.

I took a step back.

They chittered louder. The sound felt by every single one of my nerve cells.

I felt silly being afraid of such cutesy little things. But weren't we taught to be afraid of the unknown as kids? Wasn't 'Stranger Danger' drilled into our brains? But surely, these little things wouldn't harm me.

I took a step towards them. My legs, suddenly heavy. They widened their eyes and their little tower fell back. There were about 2 dozen of them. They were all naked and scrawny. No meat between their dermis and their ribcage. They had three-fingered claws for hands. Their feet were human like, but their toes were webbed. I knelt in front of them and waved. They mirrored it, again, in unison. I touched one with my pinkie and it hugged my finger. I smiled.

So silly. They were adorable. And here I was, afraid of them just a minute ago. I decided to help them. I held out my hands, wide and they all jumped. Some clutched my bare skin, some my clothes. I escorted them into their home and tried to peer inside but they closed the socket in my face. Whoa, okay. Someone was protective of their homes.

Then I went about my day. Or tried to. I just couldn't stop thinking about how unusual all of this was. I didn't tell anyone about them. I couldn't. Little humans living in my walls sounded preposterous, but it was true. I thought about feeding them. Nursing their malnourished bodies back to health. Yes. I should do that, then I'll call the cops and they'll do whatever needs to be done.

I opened their little door after getting home and signalled for them to come out. They did, one by one. Clutching onto me. Their bony fingers dug into my skin.

I laid before them multiple foods. Vegetables, fruits, dairy and meat. But they didn't hungrily devour the food like I'd expected them to. Instead they bit into my skin one by one. Two dozen gashes on my skin. I screamed and tried to get them off me. But they persisted, their razor sharp teeth piercing my flesh. Every time I managed to get some off, they crawled right back onto my skin, their claws and feet scratching against my delicate skin, they were all over me, covering every inch of my bare skin. It felt like giant spiders with mouths filled with hundreds of needles were running along my body and sucking my blood, it felt disgusting, I felt nauseous. I jumped up and down in hopes of loosening their deadly grip. They moved with me. Like a person hanging off the edge of a building. I suddenly felt dizzy. Then just as suddenly as they'd started, they let go. Blood gushed out of my wounds. Blood slid down their tiny mouths. They licked their strips of tiny lips and I realised with disgust that they didn't just have tiny sharp teeth, they also possessed a tongue full of tiny, thin spikes, spikes that resembled that of a mosquito.

I ran. I ran to the bathroom and locked myself inside. I stood in front of the mirror and just cried. I screamed and trashed and in the midst of all my screaming I heard it. I heard chittering. They came pouring out my shower head. Thin strips of skin fell through and landed with a hundred plops onto the floor and then became them. They could adjust their body size. They could compress and magnify their body size on will. I threw up right there. They chittered louder. Their bodies, not scrawny anymore. Then I felt it. Fear. So overwhelming it knocked the breath out of me. I clutched my heart to slow it down. The most primitive part of my brain, that had lived and grown for millions of years told me one thing.

Run Run Run.

I understood one thing then, that I wasn't safe in my own home.

So I did what I had to do. I packed my bags and ran. I crashed at my friend's house. I hugged her as soon as I saw her. She looked worried but I couldn't explain anything to her, at least not yet. I needed sleep. I needed to relax, otherwise my heart would jump out of my chest.

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the bed. The wounds hurt but my mind was exhausted. It was as if someone was eating my mind. Sucking the life out of it. Eating my thoughts. Eating every feeling that crashed against the walls of mind.

I was startled awake by the sound of chittering. No. I must be dreaming. It was impossible. They couldn't have known where I was. They couldn't have followed. I made sure of that. Despite my best efforts to pass it off as just a dream, my brain wasn't convinced.

My mind didn't feel tired anymore. So, I was able to think clearly. I followed the chittering. My heart dropped as soon as I realised it was coming from my friend's room. I slowly opened the door. Her room was dark. The light from the hallway illuminated tiny figures hunched over her. Then as soon as they sensed me, they all turned to face me. Their eyes shiny like tiny balls of lava in the dark. Nothing to see but those disgusting beady eyes. My mind soon registered the fact that now there were 4 dozen of them. They had multiplied in just a matter of hours.

I turned on the lights and my knees gave away. My friend was laying on her bed. She was choking. There were bite wounds all over her body. Blood soaking the white sheets and mattress. The tiny humans just stared at me, and once they were sure I wouldn't hinder their feast, went right back to sucking her blood. Then they started multiplying. They started dividing. One became two.

I watched with my eyes bulging out of my head as their skin stretched and stretched, something moving and alive underneath, until it tore at the seams and another little human stepped out. The torn skin of the old ones falling off and new skin forming in the matter of seconds.

It was dizzying to witness a phenomenon so marvellous yet so utterly stomach churning. The scientists would have a field day with them.

Then they all ate their way into her stomach. The new ones and the old ones. The parent and the offspring. But I realised wide eyed, they never swallowed, they spit the blood and flesh out onto the bed. Yet they never stopped chewing on her. They stomped on her intestines and lungs. They bit her every chance they got. But why weren't they swallowing?

How would they get their energy if they weren't swallowing the meat and blood? My mind was going back and forth.

How?

How?

How?

Fear, cold and hard was pooling in my stomach. My heart was a hammering mess. Panic slithered up my bones? How? What was happening?

Then I noticed movement. They had left my friend and were coming towards me now. My head started pounding harder. My mind, felt heavy again. Then a crazy thought occurred to me.

What if they weren't feeding on flesh and gore? What if they were feeding on the pain and fear?

Their slow March towards me came to an abrupt stop. Their little eyes widened.

They can hear my thoughts.

They feed on your thoughts, on your ugly vile thoughts and feelings. The biting wasn't to drink blood or flesh, it was to make you feel, it was to make you feel pain and fear.

They fed on pain, eating away your mind. Your thoughts, your fear, distress, disgust was their food.

They backed away, chittering louder and louder with each step. I got up. Maybe this was my chance to survive. Maybe I wouldn't have to die. I was the superior species after all. I took a step towards them.

Then they screamed. Not chittered. Howled. Their voice, one and many. They started growing, all 96 of them. They grew taller than me, they stopped only when their heads touched the ceiling and then their necks grew. Their necks, long and slender in my direction, necks that twisted around one another, tangled together, necks that seemed like a mass of snakes twisting and writhing over one another. Their necks moved like snakes through the air yet their bodies didn't move an inch, only their necks grew, elongated. They stopped mere inches from my face. All 96 faces huddled together. I could see my reflection in their maroon eyes.

They lunged at me. Each lunged at a different part of me. 96 bald humanoid faces sucked my blood and stung my flesh. Their elongated necks swaying lightly. I thrashed violently against their grip; tried to save myself, but in vain. And in that moment, as I watched myself get mutilated in their glassy eyes, I knew I was dead.

By Sara Fathima