The Odd Family's Book of Bedtime Stories

Ants on the Brain

Jack knew he wasn't allowed to have food in his room. His mother had told him not to do it at least a thousand times. It was one of the things she loved to nag him about. She said it would attract bugs and mice. It wasn't that Jack didn't believe her. He just thought that his mother was overreacting. She had even caught him breaking the rules a time or two, finding an empty plate here or a wrapper there. That was until Jack got smart.

Two weeks before, Jack found a loose thread in his mattress by chance. A few curious tugs and he discovered a brand new hiding place. Since that day, Jack had stuffed it full of empty wrappers. There were so many, they crinkled beneath him when he sat down. He had also noticed that there weren't any bugs or mice, like his mother had said there would be. She had even stopped to praise him when she noticed she wasn't finding sugary trash anymore. It was a win-win situation.

It was true that Jack loved all kinds of snacks, from candy to cakes. His parents and sister enjoyed them as well but not quite as much as Jack. Their pantry was full of every type of sweet they could find, from spongy twinkies to sticky honey buns. It was hard to tell when Jack swiped one or two here and there. He was careful to do it when no one was looking or late at night. Breaking the rules was so easy.

Then the scratching started.

It was a strange sound that his ears couldn't quite place. At first it was as if the scratching moved with him, but no one else seemed to notice it. Afraid that the mice he had been warned about had come, Jack did not tell his parents about the strange noise- not even when it woke him up at night. He was afraid of how angry they would be.

Scratch

Scratch

Scratch

Scratch

It didn't take long for the constant noise to give Jack headaches. His ears throbbed and burned. Because of that, he slept more. The headaches were terrible. He began to have an itching sensation all over. It was like bugs were under his skin. Then it got worse. The scratching was so loud that Jack could not understand how his parents didn't hear it! It was everywhere he went, and Jack was afraid that he had filled their house with mice. He dreamt of giant beetles digging at the drywall in his room. He constantly checked everywhere for any sign of pests, hoping to find them before his parents did. He had to find them before his parents did.

Scratch

Scratch

Scratch scratch scratch

ScratchscratchscratchscratchScratchscratchscratchscratchScratchscratchscratchscratchScratchscratchscratchscratchScratchscratchscratchscratchScratchscratchscratchscratchscratchSCRATCHSCRATCHSCRATCH

Finally, Jack broke. He couldn't find any bugs or mice- or anything at all. He cried when he confessed to his parents what had happened. He had to yell over the scratching for them to hear him, and his body trembled with exhaustion. His parents seemed scared, too. While their son told them what was going on, they exchanged worried looks.They told Jack that there was no scratching and that they could not hear it.

But it was all Jack could hear. He clawed at his ears, sobbing and begging for the noise to stop. He didn't understand why no one else seemed to hear it. His mother held his head in the car while his dad drove them to the hospital at breakneck speeds, but the scratching was in the car too. Jack sobbed when it followed them into the hospital.

SCRATCH

SCRATCH

SCRATCH

SCRATCH

The scratching did not stop, not even after Jack had. It would never stop. His parents found out what the noise had been when they got to the hospital and later when they'd searched his room. The sticky snack wrappers he had tucked away into his mattress had attracted a pest, but it wasn't mice. Jack had brought ants into his room, hundreds of tiny ants looking for food and a new home. They had found the sugary leftovers tucked away in his bed and feasted. Then they found their way into Jack's ear where he had listened as they scratch scratch scratched their way into a new home, right into Jack's brain.