Parasite

• Prabhas Grandhi, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2019

Sirens were ringing. People were running in all directions. Blood. I watched as the rest of the officers tried to stop the killing. The murderer started to sprint away and in haste, leaped from the top of a building. By the time we got to the dead body, there was a large hole in his abdomen, bored out from the inside. His intestines were surging out like water from a pipeline. There was a sickening stench that suffocated everyone nearby. It had escaped.

This was the fourth mass murder with killers that had a gaping hole in their stomach after suiciding. After confirming with the forensic scientists, we were sure that this was the work of a parasite. According to witnesses, a green worm-like creature was spotted slithering across the street, and then disappear completely.

I was unsure about what was causing it until one fateful day. I was at the local coffee shop, and while I was calmly reading a newspaper before my unpredictable day at work as a Deputy Commissioner started. As I flicked through the advertisements, one of them caught my eye. It was for a freak show. I usually didn’t support such things, but what it read was what drew me in. The advertisement read, “Come see the monster in green.” Was this ‘monster’ the thing that the other cops and I were searching for? I needed to find out.

That evening, I had a meeting with my staff, and we all made the decision to go to the show, in order to find out whether this monster was merely part of a show or if it was a killer.

By the time we reached the theatre in which the freak show was being held, there were people crowding at the tickets section. The fact that so many people were here, just to ogle at people who are different, disgusted me. Ignoring my feelings, I continued into the theatre. The stage illuminated with lighting. My colleagues and I took a seat close to where the ‘freaks’ entered the stage. It was there. The same stench that was at the crime scenes. Was this the culprit?

I calmly awaited as bearded women, three-armed monkeys and many others were teased by the audience. I almost dozed off, but as my eyes closed, I heard the ringmaster yell, “Welcome the monster in green!” My eyes sprung open and I anticipated the entry. As the stench intensified, my nostrils flared and I started to have trouble breathing. There it was. A green creature. It had teeth that circled around its mouth. It was like a green grub.

I signalled the rest of the policemen. We all got up, guns pointed at the stage. Realising that it had been caught, it attempted to crawl into the ringmaster’s mouth, but I quickly shot at it. Dark blue blood emerged from the wound. It squirmed for a brief period of time, until it died.

The Police Commissioner next to me sighed with relief.