Thursday

 

Ali woke up before her alarm went off. 6:16am. She noted a slight pain in her stomach; it was then that she decided she wasn’t going to go to school that day. It had been a long week, and she wanted her weekend to start early. As such, she went back to sleep until around 11:30am. When she woke up, the same uneasiness in her stomach was still there. She took some medicine to calm her stomach down and sat down on her couch.

 

The stomach pain lingered, but wasn’t bad enough to really instill any worry into Ali. Around 1pm, she decided that staying at home was too boring, and set off for the mall. While driving to the mall, she noticed the pain getting worse, but it was after passing a few bus stops that she realized that the pain only got worse when groups of people were closeby together. She thought it was just coincidence and kept on her way.

 

Also during her drive, she noticed herself getting very irritable when it came to other drivers, something she was usually very relaxed about. She made it to the mall, and parked at a far end, where she would start, then make her way to the middle, then up the other end, and work her way back around. It was a shopping routine she’d been employing for the last few years, one she’d learned from her older sister.

 

She entered the mall, and immediately noticed the irritability start up again. Every time she felt a person looking at her, she felt a little spark inside her, accompanied by a turn in her stomach. She briefly considered going home, but a sale advertised at Victoria’s Secret changed that idea as quickly as it had come up.

 

The stomach issue wasn’t like anything she’s ever felt before. It wasn’t that she felt nauseous, or had to use the bathroom, and it wasn’t a sharp kind of pain either. The only way she could think to describe it was as though she had things crawling around inside her. She continued her shopping for a bit, until everything came to head.

 

As she reached the center of the mall, she realized there was a large gathering of people for some kind of demonstration; for what, she didn’t know. Upon approaching the large group, she felt her irritability rise, and flower into an anger, which then blossomed into a rage. She didn’t know why she was feeling this, but at the same time, the crawling feeling in her stomach multiplied, until Ali let out a slight cough.

 

She then coughed more, until she felt something come up her throat. She gagged a bit and then something flew out of her mouth. Normally, this would have mortified Ali, but for some reason, she was perfectly okay with what had just happened. She looked at the creature, which resembled a locust, flying directly in front of her face.

 

It was between the size of a quarter and a half dollar, and it had numerous eyes on its face. It was hovering so perfectly still in front of her face that she actually got a good look at it. From what she could tell, it had razor sharp teeth on either side of its face, with its nose being where its mouth should have been. She looked at this buzzing creature, which almost looked as if it was waiting for Ali to give it an order. All she did was think “go away” and the insect buzzed off in some random direction.

 

As a test, she then thought “come back” and the insect followed suit, returning to the same position in front of her face it had initially flown to upon leaving her mouth. Just then, a woman bumped into Ali, which sent her irritability over the edge. Just for kicks, Ali thought “get tangled in her hair” and the insect obeyed. It flew into the woman’s hair, sufficiently scaring her.

 

At that moment, the demonstration started. The blaring voice from the microphone got under Ali’s skin like nothing she’d ever felt before. This, in addition to all the people around her that were inexplicably angering her, sent the crawling feeling in her stomach over the edge. She coughed a few times, and a handful of other locust-like insects protruded from her mouth.

 

She simply thought “attack”, and the creatures flew away, antagonizing people at random.

 

Ali felt a strange sense of power from within her; she took a deep breath in, tilted her head back, and allowed a flurry of the small, winged beasts to exit through her mouth, silently ordering them all to “attack”.

 

Soon, the entire center of the mall was in a state of pandemonium. People were getting swarmed with these strange, unknown insects while Ali stood there watching, conjuring up more at will. The insects began chewing through their targets, ripping pieces of their flesh from any exposed area on their bodies. Once they got a wound open, they would then burrow inside and start destroying the person from the inside out, feasting on their vital organs.

 

Any victim that had any bit of their physical self still recognizable was soon completely eviscerated within, and left bleeding out of their ears, eyes, noses and mouths. People tried running away, but soon there were hundreds of these Ali-conjured locust-like monsters fluttering through the corridors of the mall, tearing anyone in their path apart.

 

When all of the commotion was done, and bodies now littered Ali’s local mall, she simply called for them to come back, had them group together to make a type of hovering surface, and stepped atop it. She then had the locusts carry her down the corridor of the mall, stopping at every store she wanted anything from, and ordering her newfound minions to mutilate anyone in the store.

 

When she was finished, she and her “followers” exited the mall into the parking lot, where she once again had them create a surface under her feet. She rose into the air, wondering where next to take her unbridled rage and her new tiny weapons…