This week: Tiny vampires Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week:
"Walls have ears.
Doors have eyes.
Trees have voices.
Beasts tell lies.
Beware the rain.
Beware the snow.
Beware the man
You think you know."
From "Songs of Sapphique
~Catherine Fisher, Incarceron
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Every year, just as the weather turns nice in the spring, the vampires come out to play. These are tiny vampires, almost too small to notice until they attack. To anyone who is lucky enough to live in an area where these horrible creatures don't exist, I am talking about mosquitoes.
The bite of one mosquito seems insignificant, but a victim rarely encounters just one. Often there are hundreds, or even thousands of the little beasts all waiting for a taste of your blood. Only the female mosquito bites, since they need blood to produce eggs.
While mosquitoes attack from the air, ticks lie in wait for their hosts in the grass. They are attracted to the breath, odor, moisture, and vibrations of humans and other animals. They slip silently on to the host's body and crawl around undetected, searching for the perfect place to bite. Unlike mosquitoes, both male and female ticks bite. Male ticks only need a small amount of blood, but females keep feeding until they swell to many times their usual size.
While the feeding of mosquitoes or ticks usually doesn't harm the host, these little bloodsuckers can be vectors of diseases which can be harmful or even fatal. A disease vector doesn't cause diseases itself, but spreads the microorganisms that carry the disease. Mosquitoes can be vectors of diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus, and yellow fever. Tick bites can spread Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease, and many others.
Ticks and mosquitoes are not the only small vampires waiting to suck the blood of humans and other animals. Bedbugs, lice, horse flies, and some assassin bugs need blood for at least some of their life stages.
Imagine the different horror stories that could be based on these little monsters. Maybe a bloodsucking insect might carry a super disease that is far more dangerous than the diseases they currently carry. Swarms of mosquitoes might work together in the same way as a swarm of bees. Maybe tiny drone mosquitoes or ticks might be created to gather information about people through their bite. Or maybe a race of female vampires needs blood in order to reproduce.
Something to try: Write a horror story based on mosquitoes or other bloodsucking creatures.
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| | Cyborg (13+)
Frightmare Contest Entry November 2020 - 2nd Place
#2237876 by Lovina  |
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Horror/Scary: May 24, 2023 Issue [#11979]
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