• ANT Emma
    By oORaindropsOo


    The afternoon faded into evening as Emma finished her Saturday cleaning. She was about to start dinner and began to prep the kitchen. She looked over at the garbage and spied movement. The all too familiar trail of dark, insignificant little creatures, marched in a line from floor to windowsill. She walked over to investigate and found them, swarming around the remains of a stale Twinkie. The smallest of what appeared to be bite marks was evidence of their work. How did she miss this? She watched them as they marched across the top and all around the desiccated remains of what was once in her nephew's lunchbox and scowled. She imagined them swimming in the cream filling and shook herself back to reality.
    "Enough!" she exclaimed and opened the chemicals cabinet. No bug spray in site, she grabed the orange oil and rushed back to put an end to the ant orgy. Emma took aim and
    *SQUIRT-SQUISH-SQUEEE-SQURRRT* covered the area with a film of citrus-scented death! She watched each ant wriggle and squirm, convulsing in an unknown agony. Emma flashed back to her own childhood and a fond memory of a magnifying glass and ant mound on a hot summer day.
    The orange smell returned her to the scene of ant carnage. A few tried to drag themselves away from their dead or dying comrades, but there was no escape, Emma gave them each a little squirt. She looked over her grim work and smiled.
    "There! Now to clean this mess up." She walked to the counter for a few sheets of paper towel. Turning back to wipe up the remains, she returned only to find....
    ....nothing there...
    The Twinkie was gone as was the oil she just finished spraying. And the trail of ant remains had disappeared! There was nothing there but the trash and an open window.
    Then the room began to spin. The orange scent returned again and everything went black.
    Emma awoke to find her clothing filled with the stench of la aroma de naranja, her skin slick with an oily film from the very bottle she held in her hands only a moment ago.
    Then...the light changed. What was supposed to be the warm glow of the afternoon sun was instead a glaring light as bright as midday. Emma looked around and saw a HUGE, yellow snack cake, towering overhead. She head toward it, all the while trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
    Brighter and brighter the room seemed to appear. She sloshed through oil and crumbs and grabbed the stale sponge cake. The oil burned her skin, making every movement painful and she found her limbs begin to tremble and twitch. She grabbed the cake and began to climb. Over crumb and crevice she gripped tightly to the porous, cakey-mass until she reached the top. Then...Emma looked up...
    Above her head was not the s**c-and-span ceiling of a freshly cleaned kitchen, but a smooth, shining object, round and massive. She winced through the glare and attempted to make out the shapes behind the great, glass object.
    Sweat ran down Emma’s face and into her eyes, yet she dared not wipe it away for the oil. The heat was unbearable, and she began to feel every inch of her burrrrn. Blinking hard, she could make out the shapes of some great beast.
    "WHAT IS IT...WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME!!" Emma screamed.
    "NNNooooothhhhing!" was the only reply.
    Emma could make out a scratchy sounding laugh.
    The voice spoke again. "Loooook at thaaaat.... dissssgusssting bit of nnnooothhhing! Letsss BUURRRRRN it!"
    "NOOOOO" Emma cried out. "You can't do that to me *cough* stop!"
    She smelled burning cake, oil and flesh. The light grew brighter and the click-filled laughter even louder than before. Her body failed and she fell on her back, the word nooothhing echoed in her mind. Her eyes glued to the view above of smoke, antennae and clacking mandibles. Emma’s screams then fade, as does her life.
    "HISSSSSHISSSHSISISHSSS" came the laughter of those who sat in final judgment.
    THE END

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