Night Worm, a Humpbuckle Tale

[felt.buzz]

A 50-word #ZapFic50 story inspired by the Freewriters @daily.prompt, "frighten the children"

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Arnold, a Night Worm, farms terror in sleeping children. Squirming through ears or noses, he sinks his fangs into their brains. The demon's smokey venom turns dreams into nightmares. Harvesting their fears, he gobbles them up before dawn. Wriggling free, he leaves a gooey residue of fright in his wake.

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^{Thanks so much @victoradebiyiart for this brilliant image (I have full rights to use it). Please check out his other artwork at his page. And if you want to see how he created this image, check out this post}

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_{All my stories are my own, coming from my imagination. I do not (nor have I ever, nor will I ever) used any AI program to write my stories. I am personally against the use of AI to write (for me the whole point of writing is to use my own brain: that is the joy of writing for me). The screenshot is of a word counter app that I use when writing my stories to check that my Humpbuckle Tales are precisely 50 words long. I am human, #NOTaRobot}

Comments

[carolkean]

That's terrifying.
Ever read The Animorphs series? by Katherine Applegate and her husband Michael Grant, writing together under the name K. A. Applegate

"Yeerks are parasites. A Yeerk enters a host through the ear canal, flattens itself out on the brain, and takes over completely. The host creature can't scratch an itch unless the Yeerk wants it to. We call a being who has been taken over that way a Controller. You must be thinking the Yeerks are pure evil. But let me tell you what it's like to be a Yeerk who isn't in a host. Yeerks are basically gray slugs. No hands, no legs, no eyes, no ears. If a Yeerk wants to be free, free to really move, free to see the beauty of the world around it, free to hear music or even the sound of rain on leaves, if a Yeerk wants that, it has to have a host. If a Yeerk wants to be free, it has to make another living creature a slave. Not an easy choice, is it?"
―Cassie
The Yeerks are a parasitic species of slug-like creatures who require host bodies to see, walk and verbally communicate. They have made it their mission to search the galaxy and enslave other species.

[felt.buzz]

Ohhhhh, no I haven't read any of their stuff. That extract looks right up my street! I'll add them to my reading list. Looooovvvve the name Yeerk! :)