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"Parasite"

     Here I sat, on the rooftop of my apartment building. It had been such a long day and I was exhausted. I wasn't tired in the sense where I didn't want to leave my bed, but rather, I wanted to look up at the stars, breathing in the night air and just feeling everything around me. Like I was one with the world.
    And for a while, it felt great. I was alone with my thoughts, finally giving myself time to breathe after a day at work that seemed to drag on until I wanted to crawl out of my own skin and die.
    But as I was about to go inside, I let out a sigh and felt something fly into my mouth. It must have been a bug or something, the way it thwacked into the back of my throat. In a panic, I managed to cough it up and spit it out. It was too dark to see where it had landed, but I felt it leave my mouth so I knew it was fine.
    I returned to my apartment and flicked on the lights. There it was, the same familiar rooms with the grey walls and janky lighting fixtures. It wasn't the greatest, but it felt like home enough for me to be content with it.
    I made my way to the fridge and grabbed some pizza from the day before. I grabbed a plate and threw some slices in the microwave for a few moments. As the microwave hummed, I could feel something gurgling around my stomach. I must have really been starving, I thought. However, it wasn't accompanied by the same familiar hunger pangs. I didn't really question it much.
    The microwave beeped and I grabbed the plate, carrying it to the living room. I plopped down on the couch, turned on the television, and flipped through some channels until I found something of interest to me. It was some kind of a sci-fi movie. I wasn't sure, there was just some guy sitting in front of a computer while talking to somebody else over the radio.
    Finally, I sat back and grabbed my first slice of pizza. I put it in my mouth and was about to bite down when I felt something inside my mouth tugging at the pizza slice before tearing off a piece.
    My heart was pounding against my chest as I felt something squirming in my throat, as if it was swallowing the piece of pizza it had just bitten off.
    In a panic, I tried coughing as hard as I could to try and get it to come up my throat, but I felt nothing. It felt like I was dry-heaving through a perfectly clear throat. Nothing felt out of the ordinary.
    I tried brushing away the thought of what it could be by convincing myself that I was simply too tired and dreamed up something being in my throat. So, I took another bite. But before my teeth even made contact with the pizza, I felt that same familiar tugging, that same squirming, before pulling the slice back out of my mouth and that same squirming in my throat.
    Now, I was in full-blown panic mode. Something was for sure in my throat. I rushed to the bathroom to check the mirror and stared in horror at what I saw. In the deep recesses of my throat was a set of razor sharp teeth. It almost seemed to be pulsating like it was breathing. Like it hungered for its next meal. How the hell did it get there? What the hell was that thing?
    I rushed back into the living room, grabbing the pizza slice once again. I felt that same familiar tugging. And once I did, I tugged forward hard, trying to get it out. As I pulled it forward, I felt an intense sharp pain shooting through my stomach. I ignored it and tugged harder. Looking down, I was starting to see it coming out of my mouth. I used a free hand and grabbed its head.
    I continued tugging hard at it, the pain searing through my insides like they were being ripped apart. But I ignored it. I needed to get he thing out.
    Finally, it came up. But not without a ton of blood pooling out of my mouth. I saw the thing squirming on the ground. It looked like a giant worm with a large, round head that housed razor sharp teeth. But looking at the other end of it left me in shock. I wasn't sure if it was the wooziness from the lack of blood or what, but the other end of the worm looked like intestines. They pulsated and spasmed like they were once a part of a body, but now they weren't. And then, I blacked out...

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