Bad Carnitas

Maybe the trip to Mexico wasn't such a great idea. Sure, it had been spring break and her friends had all rented a spacious villa that overlooked the Pacific... but now that she was on the plane back home, Ashley didn't feel so good. Her stomach was acting up yesterday, which she attributed that to the bad carnitas plate they shared for lunch. Everyone's stomach was a little queasy after that, and she really shouldn't be surprised that she suffered worst of all; she had always had a rather sensitive stomach.

But today it was even worse. Her insides clutched and clenched; her stomach muscles were sore from the violent contractions. Everyone else was uncomfortable, but they seemed to be okay, or would at least be able to manage until they got home. Ashley, on the other hand, had to endure four hours of high-altitude hell.

She made her third trip to the little airplane bathroom and splashed cool water on her face. Her body was coated in a thin layer of sweat, which glistened under the harsh fluorescent lights of the plane. Her clothes stuck to her toned, tanned body, making her feel gross.

Just then, another cramp seized her and she doubled over in pain, whimpering as she felt her stomach adjust and try to settle.

Something wasn't right.

She had endured food poisoning before, and this was way worse.

When the pain subsided and she could move again, Ashley pulled her thin cotton shirt up and over her head. She inspected her stomach in the mirror, as if she would somehow be able to see the problem inside by staring at her flat stomach and pierced navel.

Just as she was about to put her shirt back on, something caught her eye. Had she really seen something? Or were her eyes playing tricks on her? She could have sworn she saw something moving underneath her skin.

Peering closer into the mirror, her eyes stared hard at her stomach, watching intently.

And then it moved.

She was sure of it this time.

A small little tendril, right at the bottom of her stomach near her pelvis. It moved around a little, and then stopped. Ashley, a little curious and a lot creeped out, slowly pressed her finger against the little tendril underneath the skin.

Upon contact, it wriggled about and burrowed further inside her body, disappearing from sight. Ashley screamed out loud as she was immediately overcome with another, even more powerful cramp. It felt like she was being turned inside out as a searing pain ripped through her body.

Ashley looked down at her stomach, gasping when she saw more tendrils... dozens of them now... stretching across her entire stomach and abdomen. They crawled across her skin in every direction. Spreading.

She was startled by a loud knock at the door.

"Miss? Are you all right?"

Panicked, Ashley was oblivious to the flight attendant's concern. As the tendrils spread, she tore away at her remaining clothes, and screamed again as she saw they had crawled all over her body; from all the way down her legs and across her thighs to all the way up along her breasts, crisscrossing their way up her chest and toward her neck.

Inconceivable, blinding pain consumed her as she fell against the toilet and writhed, helpless to control her own seizing body. The only thing she could do was let out anguished screams as the tendrils spread over every inch of her. They now ran down her legs and across her face, her cheeks and forehead swollen with little tendrils.

By now, the flight attendant was ramming the door, trying to force it open. It shuddered and rattled with each attempt, but still held fast.

And then they were in Ashley's brain. She wanted to fight them as they crept into the base of her skull, but she soon found herself completely immobile... paralyzed as the last scream died in her throat and she lost all control of her body.

The flight attendant finally managed to force the door open, just in time to witness the horror that came next.

From what seemed like every part of her body all at once, the tendrils began to burrow out. Ashley could only let out a paralytic gurgle as her flesh was torn open from the inside, allowing thin, worm-like creatures to escape from her body. The ones that didn't burrow out of her skin escaped from every orifice... her ears, nose and mouth. She could only whimper as they pushed out of her eyes, leaving her blind and moaning with her paralyzed tongue as they slithered down her mutilated face.

The flight attendant covered his mouth and stared at her in horror as the worms wriggled free, ripping and rending her now bloody flesh as they squirmed. He was frozen in place, unable to do anything but watch as this young girl's poor body was nearly flayed alive, violated by the disgusting creatures.

And then, just like out of a horror movie, something in her stomach pushed upward, distending her tanned flesh horribly as it struggled to find its exit. When her stomach finally ripped open, a mass of hundreds of these worms... thin creatures with wide heads that housed hundreds of tiny, razor sharp teeth. The creatures poured out of her open stomach cavity and extracted themselves from every crevice of her body, tearing her insides apart as they evacuated.

Ashley finally slipped from consciousness, her world mercifully slipping into oblivion.

By now, everyone on the plane was staring at the rear lavatory, wondering about all the commotion. One brave passenger got up from her seat and moved cautiously toward the source of the disturbance.

She was the one who discovered Ashley's shredded body, lifeless and crumpled into the corner of the blood-spattered bathroom as the last few worms extracted themselves from her. Then she saw the flight attended, convulsing on the ground as thousands of tiny worms disappeared into his body, swarming down his constricted throat, through his nostrils, and into his eyes and ears.

She watched in horror as the flight attendant screamed aloud, tearing open his shirt and revealing puncture wounds where the creatures were already starting to burrow out from the inside... even more of them than before. As if sensing the woman's presence, they began to slither toward her with surprising speed.

Had she not run to the front of the plane in a panic, she might have been able to warn the other nearby passengers, who had no idea that the creatures were, at that very moment, slithering out of the two bodies at the rear of the plane, and up the seats toward them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Looks like we're just about an hour outside Los Angeles, and should be arriving at the gate right on time. I hope you continue to enjoy the flight."

Just then, Ashley's five friends all doubled over in pain, clutching their own stomachs.


(1,170 words)