Pests
Kathy felt the movement more than she saw it; a flash caught with the corner of her eye. Gone by the time she turned her head.
She laughed with the tiniest flicker of unease. It had been a long time since she'd been this alone, and she was still learning the sound of the old house settling. Or how the overgrown bush out front threw shadows at the wall. That must be it. A shadow.
Besides, she was tired. Kathy had spent the day scraping wallpaper off the dining room walls. Some garish orange and pink floral with the mustard tinge of the former owner's cigarette habit. But she was lucky. Old houses had their issues, but this place had solid bones. Besides, she didn't mind a bit of eclectic charm. She even planned on leaving the wallpaper up in a few spots. A nod to the house's past lives amidst the renewal for her and the house both.
Dinner arrived in greasy takeout boxes, so Kathy went to wash the grime off her hands. She didn't want to think about the contact high of wallpaper glue and nicotine she must be getting. Tomorrow she'd buy some gloves...
The sound of skittering just overhead.
Probably a mouse, she thought. Or maybe I'm hallucinating. She'd call pest control in the morning. Just in case.
Kathy settled on the dining room floor, enjoying the pleasant ache of a full day's work in her muscles. She leaned against a stack of boxes and sipped a beer. Her contentedness dulled slightly by a growing anxiety.
Then she heard it again, like the patter of rain. Kathy stood, trying to gauge where the noise was coming from. It's just a mouse. Just a mouse. An unpersuasive mantra as she tried to stay calm. Just a mouse.
The glass chandelier smashed onto the dining room floor with a furious cacophony. Shards of glass exploded across the room, extinguishing the light with it. Kathy flinched away, feeling a hundred pieces of glass graze her skin. She turned to survey the damage, but movement drew her eyes upward.
A seething darkness writhed where the chandelier once hung. It licked across the plaster towards the walls. Kathy stepped toward the kitchen, kicking over her beer with a clink. For a moment, everything seemed to freeze. Then Kathy watched as drops of the darkness began to fall. They caught themselves in the air, roiling towards her.
Wasps. Thousands, millions of them pouring out of the ceiling.
Kathy screamed. She felt the first sting like a knife to a balloon. Fear, pain, and panic ruled her in that moment. She scratched at her face, her arms, her legs, trying desperately to free herself from the swarm. But they kept coming. The whole room vibrated with wings. Kathy cried out one last time as the wasps filled her mouth.
And then silence. The wasps retreated up the walls, back to their attic nest. The house settled once again into a peaceful slumber.
NYC Midnight 500-Word Fiction 2023
Round 2 Prompts: Horror | Washing Hands | Wallpaper
Result: Did Not Place
