Chapter 03: Quit Bugging Me
"You know that stuff's not good for you."
"Yeah, yeah." Abby grumbled around a spoonful of ice-cream, lounging on the couch and watching the recording she'd made of the Superbowl. Her mother was sitting on the couch beside her with a somewhat worried expression on her face, but Abby really wasn't in the mood for parental grilling. The worst part about working undercover for a secret branch of the Government was that she couldn't even confide in her parents when something went wrong at work or with one of her co-workers. Unless that co-worker was Ty, but no such luck this time.
"You know you can talk to me about anything, sweetie. Now come on, tell me what's up." Her mother plucked the spoon out of her mouth with a dull 'pop' and set it down in the bowl, staring at her face with a studying gaze.
"It's nothing, mom, I…" Abby sighed. "I had a fight with a close friend today."
"Oh dear, that's always tough." Her mother nodded.
"He totally stabbed me in the back when I was counting on him to back me up on something important." Abby growled. "And then he acts like I'M the jerk for yelling at him."
"Well, I don't know if he deserved to be yelled at or not…" Her mother said softly. "Though I think you should ask yourself something… is your anger worth hurting your friendship over?"
Abby glanced over at her, giving her a momentary stare before looking down at her bowl of ice-cream again. She reached for the spoon, but her mom snatched it away with a wry smile. "You have school tomorrow young lady, and you've had more than enough sugar. You need to go get ready for bed, now. If you need to talk tomorrow, I'll be right here."
"Fiiine, sheesh…" Abby grumped and turned off the TV before turning to make her way upstairs to her bedroom.
She threw her closet open and pulled out her bathrobe along with a blue towel. She turned to leave the room, but she stopped when she felt the towel rub against something sticking out of the pocket of her jeans. "Hmm…?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out the invitation Paige had given her earlier, a little rumpled from being trapped in her pocket for most of the day, but still clearly legible and very nice-looking.
She narrowed her eyes at the invitation, but didn't throw it out. Instead she dropped it on the nightstand beside her bed and walked out into the hallway, heading into the bathroom and closing the door behind her. Her robe dropped onto the toilet with the towel getting hung on the bar beside the shower before she turned on the water, watching it come down for a few moments and making sure it hit the right temperature before pulling the ponytail out of her hair, letting the fiery red strands flow around her body like a robe and moving to strip off her day clothes.
The water was warm and comfortable when she stepped in, taking a deep breath and trying to forget the pain of the day, though the fresh bandages she'd wrapped around her right arm when she got home reminded her of what had gone wrong. Still, she shut that out of her mind and set about washing herself up for the night, taking ten minutes to clean her body and thirty minutes along with half a bottle of shampoo to wash her hair. Her mom often begged her to cut it, but she liked it like this. It was like having a built-in security blanket.
She blinked when she felt something tickle her toes, then looked down to see a cockroach flailing against her foot as the water washed past, threatening to wash the insect toward the drain. "Hey! How did you get in here, little guy?" Abby knelt down to sweep the little thing into her palm and turn her back to the showerhead, shielding it with her body. The cockroach was still flailing upside down in her palm. "I thought we had the house roach-proofed… you guys sure are clever." She chuckled and slid out of the shower, making her way to the heavily tinted window high up on the wall.
She put her finger on the roach's legs, letting it cling to her flesh before she reached up to open the window with her free hand, pushing the roach against the windowsill with the other. "Now get outta here. Shoo, shoo." She shook her finger until finally she felt the roach let go and vanish from sight. The window snapped shut when she let go and turned to walk back to the shower to finish rinsing out her hair.
A while later she had her hair wrapped expertly up around her head in the towel she'd brought for just this purpose, and was wearing the thick blue bathrobe around her body as she left, heading back to her bedroom. A nice warm shower always made her feel relaxed, so she was humming lightly to herself as she locked her door and padded across the room to her bed, flopping face-down on it with a grunt. One of her eyes opened a moment later, and she found herself face-to-face with another insect, this time a praying mantis.
"Whoa… a Praying Mantis… you're not supposed to be anywhere near here." Abby sat up and looked down at the creature, which seemed to be just staring up at her with its shining, bright yellow eyes. "Did you get out of someone's house?" She reached down to gently sweep the insect into her palm, but she didn't even touch it before it leapt from the pillow, flying right past her head.
"Hey!" Abby whirled to find it, then gasped and leapt to her feet off the bed when she saw her entire floor covered in bugs of varying kinds and sizes. They stood unnaturally silent, like an insect army watching for her to make one wrong move. Were these the same bugs from the plant? Abby's eyes narrowed and her gaze darted around the room quickly, but she didn't see their leader anywhere. Her eyes widened however when she heard a thud from the next room over. "Ty!"
She moved to run for her door, but the insects between her and it suddenly exploded into thunderous noise, a horrendous buzzing and screeching that made her back off in surprise. When she'd backed toward the bed again, the noise died down, and the bugs once again stood as silent guardians, thousands of eyes all trained on her. Abby growled and took one more step toward the door, but once again the bugs started to buzz.
"Yeah buzz, buzz, buzz off!" Abby grabbed the edge of the blanket on her bed and yanked it forward, sending it fluttering to the floor right on top of the insect army. They buzzed even louder, furiously seeking the edges of the blanket, but Abby had already leapt over it and thrown the door open by the time they started to emerge. She slammed the door behind her and ripped the wet towel off of her head to shove it into the crack underneath the door, right before the bugs began to slam against the solid wood like a hundred tiny needles trying to break through.
Her hair now hanging around her body like a red cloak, Abby rushed to the next door and slammed into it with all her force, throwing it open just in time to see Ty hit the ground with a strangled moan, his arm twitching. She could see bitemarks in his shoulder, somewhat shallow, but deep enough to deliver the yellowish venom that was also dripping from the small holes. The creature from before stood up straight and looked over at her, its teeth dripping with blood and venom.
"Step away from the little brother." Abby demanded as she stepped inside. "Who are you? What do you want?"
The creature growled and slowly knelt down, one of its clawed hands closing around Ty's throat as he lay paralyzed in its grasp. "H-hey! Don't hurt him! I'm warning you!"
Without warning one of the creature's claws lashed out, grabbing the lamp from the nightstand and hurling it at her head. Abby raised her arm in time to block it, but the glass base shattered against her arm, pelting her with glass shards and driving her back into the hallway, where she slammed into the opposite wall and sank to the floor in surprise. Trying to ignore the pain, she lowered her arms and scrambled to her feet, but by the time she regained her footing Ty's room was already empty, with his open window the only indication that anything had happened.
Panting in surprise and horror, Abby turned back to her room, where the buzzing from the insects had disappeared. She ran back to it and rushed inside to find it empty… except for a single spot of movement under the blanket lying on the floor. Abby slowly crept to the blanket, then with lightning fast movements ripped the blanket off the floor and slammed her palm down against the carpet. She heard a muffled scream under her hand, but she didn't press down, instead curling her fingers in to grip the tiny figure and lift it off the floor.
"Pleeeaaaase don't hurt me! I promise, I won't do anything ever ever again! They told me to! I don't wanna get hurt pleeeeaaaaase!" The tiny insect blubbered and wailed in her fist like a two-year-old. It looked like a pillbug, though those weren't typically found in this area either.
"So you can talk." Abby raised her eyebrow with a dark glare. "Good, if you can talk, you can answer questions." The pillbug squeaked in horror, but Abby paid it no mind, already turning to get dressed. There was no sleeping with her brother missing, she wouldn't rest until he was in that room right next to hers.
***
"Ugh…" Ty hit the ground hard, though he could still barely feel anything in his limbs. He narrowed his eyes, trying to squint into the darkness of the cavern into which he'd been brought. The floor was slick with moisture, and the sound of buzzing wings could be heard all around his head. He looked up enough to see the creature walk over him, approaching what looked like a throne outlined in the darkness by the reflection of the moon on the slick rocks behind it.
"I brought the weaker one, Your Highness." The insect spoke in a stunningly calm voice and knelt down on one knee, bowing its head in reverence. "As you instructed."
"Excellent work, my child." A familiar, crackling voice spoke from the throne as a gnarled figure rose and stepped into the pale moonlight, grinning down at him with a malicious, thoughtful grin.
"Insectiva…" Ty grunted through the paralyzing venom, struggling to regain control of his limbs. "You did do this… h-how…" His eyes shot towards the creature beside her.
"How did I create such a perfect being, you ask?" Insectiva chuckled and rested one hand gently on the creature's shoulder. "I didn't… ironically, you humans were kind enough to create the next step in Earth's evolution. Insects with the strength and mental capability of humans… you humans unlocked the doors that held back the insect race forever, and it is we who will ensure that the human race adheres to this evolution… by turning all of the human race into these hybrids! Imagine it… a planet full of the perfect insects created by man! It's beautiful!"
"It's impossible…" Ty grunted. "A living thing can't be changed like that once it's already been developed… unless it was pre-designed to. You can't transform humanity…"
"Those who can't transform, I suppose, will just have to make way for the new master race." Insectiva grinned. "A pity but… progress takes no prisoners, as they say."
"You won't get away with this…" Ty grunted.
"And who will stop me? Your dear sister?" Insectiva grinned. "She might, if she were still around the next time we put our plans into action… but the problem with that theory is that it depends on her survival."
Ty struggled to move, to do anything, but the venom kept his muscles flaccid, his body flat and helpless on the ground. There was nothing he could do to help Abby… or himself.