Barely awake, a girl enters the bathroom and starts to brush her teeth. An unsettling sensation rumbles in her stomach, but she continues to brush. Spontaneously she begins to choke and heave. Gagging, tentacles begin to unfurl from her mouth. In horror she frantically sprawls back, landing on the floor, flailing and kicking the bath mats. She desperately pulls at them. They won’t come out.

Frantically stumbling around the house sobbing and confused, she enters the kitchen. Violently detaching the drawer from its inlet, she seizes a knife from the tangle of metal. A knocking is heard in the distance. She grasps at one of the tentacles, taught and away from her face. Its tip flits nervously while tears stream down her face.

*knock knock BANG BANG*

"Miss, I wouldn't do that if I were you!" coming from outside the apartment. "I insist that you please come to the door… miss?"

Grabbing a scarf from the coat rack in the kitchen, wrapping it around her face she approaches the door. She opens the door to a man that would have looked fashionable in another era; bowler hat, tie, and vest. Tiny maggots squirm from the back of his neck onto the shoulders, "I would have just come barging in, but modesty prevented me." He smiles, revealing teeth like a row of tombstones…

(To be continued)