Bogleech.com's 2014 Horror Write-off:

" Squirming Underground "

Submitted by James B. Davis

It started happen probably around May of 2012. Something that still gives me nightmares to this day. Nightmares that have made my sleeping nearly impossible. I'm still considering the gun in my desk drawer.

It was one cool night, my little brother had been acting strange for weeks. I thought it was a sickness that stuck with him till he died, but how wrong I was. That was the night I saw what my little brother was truly hiding and what he planned to unleash. It was the night he asked me to sleep in his room and stay up late for a while. I remember distinctly that we were watching a movie he was not allowed to watch, some horror movie with lots of gore. And I also recall he never was scared at any point during the movie.

It was near the end when it happened. The movie was at the climax, when Jimmy looked at me and said “What would happen if a worm crawled into your ear?” as he said this, a worm slipped from his ear, across his face, and slipped into his ear. My eyes widened with fear, as more worms began falling from his mouth. He took his hand, one finger having a razor sharp claw on it, and slide it up his mouth to his ear, pouring out worms and grubs. I jumped back and crawled on my hands toward the closet.

I quickly jumped onto a pile of clothes that sat on the floor in the closet and slammed the door shut. I heard his foot steps coming closer. But there was another sound, a creaking. It was coming from beneath me. The floor beneath me broke loose and down I fell into a deep stone cave. My fall was broken by something terrible. I rolled off the thing' s back and hit the hard ground. As I looked up, There was a massive grub. It's head was not that of a normal grub, but the head of a dog, a skinned dog. It gave out a loud cry and squirmed away.

It wasn't till now that I realized the ground was cold and covered in a thick, blood red syrup. It smelled like vinegar, and had a few chunks of an unknown substance in it. There were also worm-like things thriving in it, they were gray and had feelers on their heads. They also squirted a thick glowing green goo from their head when held.

It was when I got up from the sticky ground that I saw the body, the body of my little brother, Jimmy. It was shriveled, void of any color, and covered in a greenish webbing. I then realized that his skin was gone. I could hear foot steps behind me. I looked behind me, to see the creature, and I realized, it was waring my brother's skin.

“There's no stopping me now, he'll be awoken soon, and all I need is blood to wake him.” it said, and the skin of my brother was ripped into shreds and out came a creature to massive to have possibly have fit in my brother's skin. It had the body of a caterpillar, and the head of a twisted human face. It screamed and charged at me.

I jumped out of the way and into a patch of strange slug-like things. They crawled away at incredible speeds. “There is no escape mortal, I will awaken him with your blood!” it screamed and crawled toward me I jumped out of the way at just the perfect time, and it smashed it's head on the rock wall. Let out a cry as it's back began to split open. Out of it's back folded two long spindly arms, ending in three claws each. It's twisted back then back out, in such a horrid way. The full creature then immured from the caterpillar-like husk.

It's body was a strange skinny twisted lump of a thing, with a neck that was to short to see, it's head remain the same, but it now had two long tree like things for legs. It let out a bear-like bellow, and stood up. It's head touched the roof of the cave, and it was hunched over. I picked up a large sharp bone laying next to me, I threw it into the creature's chest as it ran toward me. It crashed to the ground, it's back then exploded, sending maggots, worms, intestines, blood, and bile every where. Blood purred from it's mouth, and a thick, chunky fluid oozed from it's eye sockets.

The cave reeked of bile, gore, and the vinegar scented syrup on the floor. The hole to the closet was to high for me to reach. I explored the other parts of the cave before finding a small passage, just big enough to fit through. It was strange, but the whole cave was lit by a faint red light that seemed to come from nowhere. This passage went on through many strange places. Another large cave-like room filled with the grub-like creatures that I fell on was the first of these places. Another was a room that had a ground made of a red gelatine and the roof had large dropping worms. Of the places none where as terrifying as the the raging inferno that was the sleeping place of some giant grub with many other worms, leeches, and centipedes crawling on and around it.

I finally came to the entrance of the cave, and was met with a large forest as I left it. A road was only about fifty feet away. I was quickly picked up by a family on their way to town. They drove me home and I told my parents that we fell through the floor and that we got separated in the cave beneath the house. I was surprised they believed me, even when I showed them the hole. I of course didn't tell them of the monsters and massive grubs that I encountered. But I still fear what lies beneath that house.