I had to quickly head over to my client’s house, since her voice was urgent and terrified over the phone; she even told me that she literally had to evacuate from her home due to the sudden infestation. Though I remained professional for the sake of my job, it was amusing to hear the woman so scared over a small bug, or maybe I just feel that way because I’ve dealt with insects for over ten years. Surely it wasn’t that bad.

It was a quiet, five minute drive before I finally made it to her cozy, small home, and I parked my truck right next to her white Nisan. As I climbed out of the vehicle, woman walked up to me, shaking and fidgeting with her hands. She looked to be in her thirties, which made everything more amusing to; she’s a grown adult.

“Oh, thank you for coming so quickly!” She said with relief, even though her mannerisms were the opposite, “You really need to kill those bugs for me! They’re ruining my home!”

“I’m sure it isn’t bad, miss. Everything’s gonna be alright.” I reassured her with a chuckle, grabbing all of my tools from the truck as we interacted with each other.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the woman rapidly shake her head, her eyes widening slightly from my assurance. “No- you really don’t understand- there’s holes in my walls from those stupid bugs, and they came out of nowhere! And it’s like they’re millions of them!”

Even though she warned me, I kept my ignorance. “Yeah, but it’s all an easy fix, okay? Stay out here while I go and exterminate them.”

I walked off, not listening to the words the client uttered afterwards. I stepped inside the house, glancing at my surroundings. It was a clean home with a rustic look, and its tidiness alone made me deduce what type of bug it might be…until I saw it…

“What the..”

The many, rough holes in the wall that were about the size of a dime; it was strange to even see them there with the context that this is a bug infestation. With a furrowed brow, I walked into the kitchen, glancing around only to see more holes. But when I decided to examine the other side of the room, my eyes widened as I noticed one of the cabinets over top of the oven were ajar, along with the ‘bugs’ that were scurrying around..

“What is _that_?!”

They were the most grotesque creatures I’ve ever seen! The bugs had the thick, hairy legs of a tarantula, the vile body of a cockroach, and the head and neck of a rat in miniature form! There was even a small but razor-sharp tooth that hung from their mouths, slightly explaining the holes in the wall.

With hunger, the ‘insects’ were beginning to dart towards me, and my hands hastily fumbled to grab the hose of my sprayer. Unfortunately, it was all futile because once I finally pulled the trigger…I realized that it didn’t even hurt the pests.

The vermin’s speed only increased the more I sprayed, making me shout and bolt out of the kitchen, into the living room, only to be cornered. My brow was dampening with nervous sweat while my eyes darted around, my mind thinking fast. As a quick choice, I started aggressively stomping on the ‘insects’, knowing that my strength was much more powerful than a bug’s. Yet, it’s my luck, so it did nothing but make the crawlers multiply! What were these things?!

Some of the ‘bugs’ even began to crawl into my cargo pants, biting my skin like I was a delicious steak. It felt like a billion needles were stabbed into me and it made me cry out in pain. The torture of the pests carried on for what felt like forever until I suddenly blacked out…

I groaned as I awoke, glancing around while trying to get my head back to normal.

“…Where am I…?”

The client from earlier was standing in front of me next to a doctor; they watched me wake up, the doctor speaking when he saw my eyes mostly open.

“You’re in the hospital, sir.”

The woman said with a small smile while the doctor kept his serious expression.

“We have treated your wounds, even though some caused you a couple of infections, and you are going to stay here for a few days, so we can check on your health.”

The doctor added with an expressionless tone, but his words made me raise my eyebrows; my mind was still trying to process the fact that a bug I’ve never seen before caused all of _this_.

“What..even were those things…?” I mumbled. The woman answered my question and placed her hand on her arm, her face grimacing at the thought of those roach-rat-tarantula hybrid

“We don’t even know yet… but one of the spider-things were sent to a entomologist, and because no one knows how many are in my home, I’m not going to be living there for a while…”

It still felt surreal to me that this even happened, and I had so many questions for everything, but I knew one fact; I was definitely going to quit my job after this. What I saw was definitely _that_ bad.