The Black Bug

The Barnes Farm was the last remaining farm in the town area. This status had allowed it to buy up its competitors lands on the cheap when their respective owners had packed up shop and went onto more profitable ventures.

That recent success though had not lasted, Luke knew. Like the rest of the town, more and more of its land had been bought out by Mr Leonard Davis, until the farmer had had to sell his last bit of land to the businessman on the condition he could keep living on it. A deal that had been so one sided in favour of the businessman, that it had been whispered around what was left of the town that Leonard had blackmailed the owner at the time, Roger Barnes, to accept the deal.

Since that point, it had gone down, until the new owner, Ethan Barnes had been forced to give up on everything other than cattle.

It had been a surprise when Luke had gotten the phone call that morning, asking for him to come down to photograph the animals. It was out of either buying or selling season and it gave him concerns that something must not be right. But Luke wasn’t going to complain about the extra income, especially in his own off season.

The road heading up to the farm was still covered in ice, with Luke almost having to drive on the grassy verges to avoid skidding off into the fences.

The gate was open for him as he pulled into the yard where he was greeted by nobody.

Luke stopped, got out of his car, looked around, and was immediately hit by the smell, a farm smell for sure, but also something else. Something was off, he didn’t know what, but he was sure that something wasn’t right at all.

Before he could think on that any further though, he saw his client.

“Ethan.” Luke called out as the Farmer walked towards one of his sheds.

“Ah. Mr Mills. It’s that time of year again?” Ethan said, he was a big burly man, though still in his late twenties, what little hair he had left was already starting to go grey.

“Afraid so.” Luke said, his camera hung at his side. He knew he shouldn’t get emotional. It was all a job after all, and the young farmer paid a lot more than he probably should do for his services. But the next stop for his ‘models’ after he had taken their picture was either the market, or a slaughterhouse. “Never know how you don’t get attached.” Luke said as he followed Ethan into the cowshed, there in front of him, were about twenty cows, all milling about, no idea where they would be going shortly after this.

“You learn not to.” Ethan said, though Luke still couldn’t tell if he was being lied to or not.

“Surprised you’re not waiting a few more months.” Luke said. He had to raise the points, and hoped that the usually brutally honest farmer would give him an honest answer.

“Yeah. Need the cash if I’m to pay off that leach Mr Davis.” Ethan said, clutching his arm as he spoke.

“I thought-” Luke started. If that leach was doing what Luke thought he was doing, then he’d be more than happy to seek vengeance against the businessman.

“It’s not like that.” Ethan replied quickly. “Just got a few unexpected expenses come up. Need the cash quick.”

As they headed up towards where the cowsheds were. Luke was almost doubled over from the smell.

“Can’t believe you can’t smell that.” Luke said his eyes watering from the stench.

“Farmyard smell.” Ethan replied, though Luke noted that even he had a strip of cloth held up to block the smell.

Luke didn’t know if that was honest though. Year after year he’d come down to this farm. And yes, whilst the smell had been bad. This was different. It smelt, well, like death. Like something was rotting. It smelled human.

“Well. Let’s just get this shit done.” Luke said as they entered the barn.

The smell here was if anything even worse. On one point though, Luke thought he’d found his culprit. Not that it would be good news for Ethan.

The Cows, all huddled up against one side of the barn, smelled like they were rotting from the inside out.

“You really want to do this today?” Luke asked, taking out his equipment.

“I know what you think. But these cows have smelt like this for a while now. I’ve had Dr Lewis out here a couple of times ‘cause of it. And she can’t find anything medically wrong with them.” Ethan said, a note of defensiveness in his voice now. Luke understood why. If there was something wrong with the animals, that was it, he would lose a good portion of his income.

Luke could buy that this man was ignoring it for the sake of his livelihood. But that didn’t explain why Dr Eva Lewis would play along. He had his qualms with the town’s vet, but Luke was certain that she wouldn’t ignore something like this.

As Luke grabbed his camera and Ethan brought forth the first cow, Luke tried his best not to gag.

The animal for its part, looked as bad as it smelled. Its eyes were bloodshot, there was what looked like drools pooling from its mouth. Then there was the weight. Luke was no expert, but he was pretty sure with cows, the fatter the better. But these things looked like they hadn’t been fed.

Then there were the marks, it looked like somebody had come in with a black and yellow marker and had drawn dots all across the animal’s neck and flanks in a hurry.

Luke gulped, tried to say that he really didn’t think this was a good idea. And then, feeling the sick coming, bolted.

“What are you doing?” Ethan asked as Luke rushed out of the shed.

Now outside, Luke grabbed the nearest bucket, and threw up what little breakfast he’d managed that day.

“Look. You might not be able to smell or see that shit Ethan. But I can. I really think you need to get Dr Lewis down here pronto.” Luke explained.

Eventually, and with much grumbling, Ethan finally relented and agreed to allow Luke to phone for the vet.

Half an hour or so later, Dr Lewis’ Landrover came rumbling up the long drive, parking within an inch of Luke’s own car. An out stepped a short, thin woman with the biggest and foulest mouth that Luke had ever known.

“Alright what seemed to be the fucking problem now?” Eva said looking around.

“Mr Mills ‘ere is concerned about the smell.” Ethan replied, he looked embarrassed.

“Oh, is he really.” Eva said walking forwards. “Did you tell him. Or do ya wanna let me.”

“Go right ahead.” Ethan said gesturing the vet forwards.

“Okay. Well Mr Mills. There ain’t nothing medically wrong with his fuckin’ cattle.” Eva said smiling.

“You can’t be serious.” Luke said, his impressions of the good vet plummeting towards a level around the same depths of the earth’s core. “Can’t you smell it.”

Eva raised one of her eyebrows up.

“Of course I can fuckin’ smell it. I’ve gotta nose haven’t I.” Eva said sarcastically. “I mean. You’re not the first person to complain about the smell. I’ve been up here about ten fuckin times with that complaint. I’ve done everything that I can. I’ve even sent samples for extra testing to Newcastle, they came back negative. I sent them to London, they came back negative. I even sent them to the fuckin States, they came back negative there too. So, unless you people want me to send more samples to the god damn World Health Organisation, I don’t know what more you town’s people want from me.”

Luke looked over at Ethan, who nodded in confirmation.

“I don’t know what’s causing. It only started a month or so ago.” Ethan said.

“You can’t sell them Ethan.” Luke said, knowing what that would mean for the farmer. “You’ve just got to right this year off. Start afresh next year.”

“Easy for you to say, Mr Mills.” Ethan retorted angrily. “I require this year’s heard to pay for next years.”

“Surely insurance-” Luke started but Ethan laughed.

“-Will not pay, as there is nothing medically wrong with them.” Eva said finishing the trail of thought that Luke had tried to have.

“Do we know what it even is?” Luke asked.

“No.” Eva replied. “I’ve tested it for fuckin everything. But nothing is matching.” She leaned on the side of the shed and took out a cigarette, lighting it and began smoking away. “It’s also limited to this farm as far as I can tell.”

“Well. At least that’s something.” Luke murmured to himself as his gaze wondered back towards the cowshed. The last thing this town needed was to be the epicentre of some new disease, that would certainly finish it off.

His gaze fixed on something then. It was like a small black line going directly from the cowshed.

“What the?” Luke said as he walked over and knelt down to watch the line. It looked like an ant colony. Hundreds, no, thousands of black bugs were scuttling, single file across the yard.

Eva rushed over too, and had the same look of surprise as Luke felt at seeing the small creatures. Quickly, the vet rushed back to her car, returning a few seconds later with a glass cylinder in her now gloved hands.

Slowly, she reached down and with a pair of tweezers, picked up one of the bugs and dropped it inside dripping what looked like a pale gooey slime when it fell. The line made no effort to protect its fellow from being snatched, they just continued to scuttle towards the exit.

“What is it?” Ethan asked taking out a pair of glasses so he could get a better look at the creature. It was tiny, and was trying to continue in the same direction as the others, not seeming bothered by the glass it was continually bouncing off.

“No idea. I’m not an entomologist.” Eva replied as she too peered into the glass. “It’s the wrong shape to be an ant. But too small to be a beetle.”

Luke was no longer looking at the bug. His attention was focussed solely on where they were heading. Following the line upwards across the fields of Ethan’s farm, he saw it plain as day sitting on top of its hill.

The Murder House.

Luke hadn’t told either Dr Lewis or Ethan about his bad feelings when he’d realised where those things had been heading. Luckily too, his house was empty, his sister not back from wherever she’d been that day, spending her husband’s money no doubt, and his nephews who’d probably gone with her.

“Get a grip, Luke.” He said to himself, leaning up against the kitchen counter, sweat pooling from his forehead. Sure, it looked like those things had been going to The Murder House, but that didn’t mean. “Not everything that goes wrong is because - FUCK!”

Something sharp and painful stuck Luke on the outside of his arm. He yelled and pulled his arm up for a look at what had caused the pain. What he saw, nearly made him throw up again.

One of the slime covered black bugs was scuttling down his arm onto his hand, only this one was much bigger than the ones he’d seen leaving the cowshed. It stopped right int he middle, and before it could sink its fangs into his skin, Luke rushed over to the sink, and poured boiling hot water over the thing. The water burned his skin, but it was nothing compared to what it did to the bug thing.

It let out a sudden screech of pain as it burst into black smoke, evaporation down the coolness of the metal drain.

Luke ripped off the jacket he’d been wearing and was horrified to see what looked like little black eggs on the inside, right on top of where the initial pain had come from.

Thinking on his feet and starting to panic now, Luke rushed out into his back garden, grabbing a bottle of lighter fluid as he did so. Once outside, he chucked the jacket onto the ground, gave it a liberal amount of fluid, and lit the damn thing on fire.

More screeching noises followed at the flames, just like with the bug.

“Uncle Luke. What’s going on?” Luke turned to see Will standing in the doorway, looking at him with a bemused expression. Either his nephew had been here all along, or he’d simply not heard him come in. Either way, he didn’t want Will anywhere near him right now.

“Stay right there, William. Don’t come any closer.” Luke said quickly. The last thing he needed was for his nephew to become infected with whatever this was.

Will didn’t respond. But he also didn’t argue back which was a relief to Luke. His nerves didn’t need a pointless argument with his nephew right now.

After making sure that his jacket was nothing more than ashes, he headed back inside and checked his arm.

It wasn’t good. Whatever that bug thing was, it had gotten at least one bite off. A small red mark was indented into the skin with an ominous black hole in the centre.

Rushing back to the sink, he poured more boiling water over the puncture wound. It hissed and burned as the heat hit the mark. He could only hope that he’d gotten to it in time. He knew that most known poisons had a time limit where if you treated it they wouldn’t kill. He just had to hope it was the same with whatever that nightmare had been.

“Uncle- Luke.” Will said tentatively, and for the first time, at least to Luke, his nephew didn’t sound fifteen. More like ten. “What was that about.”

Luke teetered on the edge of telling him about the bug. About what had happened at the farm, his growing fears about the murder house, and his fears that they might all be somehow linked together.

“Nothing Will.” Luke said with a confidence that he did not feel. “But best not mention it. To your Mum I mean.”

Will only shrugged. “What’s one more secret I’ve got to keep.”

Once his nephew was both out of eye and earshot, Luke took another look at his arm. The redness was still there. But he suspected that was just due to the boiling water he’d poured over it.

The black mark though, was gone.