Something is Biting Me !!

It was spring break, and while my mother worked, we kids busied ourselves by roaming the new neighborhood and playing random games. Hide and seek was one of our favorites, and the house next door was vacant. That made it, what we thought to be, a perfect hiding place.

While Debra counted, Richard and I entered the vacant house and went inside the same closet.

“Hey! I was here first!” Richard complained.

“Be quiet,” I whispered, “It’s big enough for both of us… and she’s coming soon.” We tried to make ourselves comfortable, but Richard kept squirming. “Hey, stop moving around,” I complained.

He kept squirming.

“Something is biting me,” he said, “Stop touching me.”

“I’m not touching you.” However, I could feel it too. Something was crawling around. “I think something is in here. Be quiet,” I said.

The sound was faint, but definitely there, a distant scratching, but near, or the sound of raindrops striking a hillside. Whatever it was, it was with us inside the closet.

“What’s that sound?” Richard whispered.

“I don’t know,” I answered, cracking the door to let in some light.

“Hey… the walls are moving,” Richard said. I cracked the door further, until I could also see it.

Fleas were everywhere, like a dark blanket all over the walls and us. To say that chills ran up my spine would be an understatement. Richard and I burst from the closet and out of the house, out into the opening, patting ourselves down as Debra yelled in the background, “I see you!”