[BL] Trick or Treat!

It Happened in the Night

by Nahrenne

 

 

Premise Tags: Sci-fi,

Jungle, Sickness, Stranded,

Married Couple, Paranoia,

Nightmares, Survival.

Content Warnings: Gore,

Bugs/Insect Horror,

Bodily Fluids (due to sickness),

Strong Language.

 

 

I was having a wonderful meal, with my husband of ten years, on board a star cruiser bound for one of the recreational planets. We were happily feeding each other mouthfuls of steak made from the meat of a creature found only in the underground frozen seas of a far and distant planet. A true delicacy and rare food to experience due to the dangers attached to hunting the creature.

We had chosen to go on a big interplanetary holiday for our tenth anniversary, since we’d been so busy with our jobs as of late. It seemed we weren’t the only same sex couple on the trip, either, though that was to be expected this day and age. After all, with how science had improved, the need for a woman to bear a child was no longer necessary – though there were the traditionalists who went through the hassle still.

Looking out of the window, I could see distant planets shining and a large ship coming towards us at speed.

“Eh?”

Suddenly, the alarm rang throughout the ship followed by an announcement by the A.I. asking for us to remain calm and to head to our evacuation life pods.

“What?!” I shouted.

“Less shouting, more moving, Oliver.” My husband admonished as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me from my seat.

I held my tongue and followed, a little annoyed at our meal being interrupted for a ‘possible’ danger, as opposed to an actual one. “It’s just a ship! They haven’t even attacked us!” I mentally complained, only for a loud boom to sound followed by the whole cruiser shaking to one side.

“…” I chose to remain silent as I felt put in place by sod’s law.

We checked our ID bracelets to check where our life pod was allocated – having the necessary information inputted by the staff upon entering the cruiser at the beginning – and headed for the location. Another boom was heard before the A.I. issued a warning of oxygen depletion due to a hull breach.

I swore as we travelled down the lift and reached our shared pod. Thankfully, we didn’t have to be with anyone else as the cruise ship was vast enough to give a pod for each room. We really spared no expense in picking this particular high-class ship…if only we hadn’t been attacked on the journey. I sighed to myself in lament as I entered the life pod. My husband followed soon after before the door sealed shut behind us. We strapped ourselves in and waited.

“…It’ll be fine…right, Liam?” I asked in a shaky voice.

“…Don’t hold your breath.” My husband replied.

“…”

We sat there for half an hour before the A.I. system jettisoned us out into space, sending us into hyper-sleep with a little prick of a needle at the neck. It was a fail safe to ensure all passengers didn’t waste energy in case they got stranded in space for a very long time. I honestly hated it since the side-effects upon waking up were truly nauseating.

 

 

☠️🐜☠️

 

 

 

We woke up to find ourselves on a planet. After Liam checked the A.I. to see where we were, it seemed we were hit by a space storm that sent us veering off the course the rest of the life pods went on. In so doing, we’d been travelling at speed for several weeks before crashing on this planet. We had the A.I. scan the outside to see if we could survive its atmosphere and were given the all-clear.

“Is rescue on the way?” I asked while holding back the nausea from coming out of hyper-sleep.

“…No.”

I whipped my head around, “What?! Urgh!” The inertia from spinning around brought me over the edge, and I vomited all over the floor.

Liam came over and rubbed my back as he explained, “The communication systems got damaged on impact. I’ll need to try fixing it before we can contact the SRS (Space Rescue Service).”

I threw up again before leaning against my husband, “…How…hah…long will that…hah…take?” I felt awful as bile threatened to rise once again.

“Well…that depends on if I can find the parts.” He replied while scratching his chin and not looking at me.

I narrowed my eyes, “We’re fucked, aren’t we?”

Liam sighed and wryly smiled, “I’m sure I can scrounge up some parts. It’ll just take time.”

I glanced at the screen showing the outside, “We’re in a fucking jungle.”

“…” Liam didn’t give a response as he just opened the door to outside and walked out before heading for the damaged part of the pod.

I also walked out and felt lost. All around us were trees as tall as the skyscrapers on urban planets with thick blue trunks and large purple leaves. The air was hot and humid with a very strong aroma of decaying vegetation. I looked down at my formal suit I’d worn for the meal on the ship and felt at a loss. I went back inside to try and find any thermal regulator suits in the emergency compartment.

Luckily, I found some, and so quickly got changed into the skin-tight outfit before going back outside with another one for my husband, “Liam. Thought you’d feel better in this.” I handed it to him and got a grunt in reply before he went back to examining the damage. While he did that, I went back inside and began taking out stuff for making a camp while searching for food rations and water, as well.

Evening came fast, and we stopped what we were doing after a few hours of having woken up. We snuggled together in the collapsible beds I’d found and put next to each other and kissed each other good night. I hoped that Liam would get the communications system working the next day.

 

 

☠️🐜☠️

 

 

“…Mmnh…”

There was the sensation of something crawling over my body moving upwards before reaching my neck. It stopped before I felt many tiny feet crawl up my chin, then my mouth and nose before stopping at my eyes. I found it hard to breathe through my nose and mouth as a light weight covered them.

“Mmnh!”

I woke up in a sweat to see the sun shining through the trees, casting an odd blue tinge to our surroundings. My hands went to my face only to find nothing there as I breathed heavily. Liam was already awake and attempting to fix the life pod. I looked around but saw nothing but purple trunks and dense vegetation and mud. I sighed before getting up and washing my face with some water.

“Don’t waste it. We have a finite supply.” Came Liam’s voice.

“Ah, want me to go look for some?” I replied while feeling guilty about what I’d done.

“Mm, I’ll go with you.” My husband stopped what he was doing and came over before kissing me on the lips with a smile. “Since you’re such a klutz in the wild.”

I pouted at him before we both set our current coordinates into our watches and set off in search of water. We chatted as we walked, trying to keep our moods up while holding hands. In a way, I half convinced myself that this was also a type of holiday…though the reality kept hitting me in the face every time I saw no signs of civilisation.

After walking for several hours, I couldn’t shake the chill going down my back every now and then. “Do you sense that, Liam?”

“Hmm? Sense what?”

“I dunno…Like we’re being watched, or something.”

Liam looked around us before gazing into my eyes, “Probably me checking on what you’re stepping on so you don’t fall on your face.” He smirked before kissing me.

I pouted and lightly hit his shoulder with my free hand, “Don’t tease me!” Though this earned a amused chuckle from him instead.

 

 

☠️🐜☠️

 

 

 

We had no luck finding water, but we did find some large violet fruits hanging on the lower branches of the trees on the way back. Since we weren’t sure of how viable such a fruit was, we decided to have it scanned by the A.I. which stated that it was edible and very juicy. We chose to interpret that to mean we could use it to quench our thirst as well as hunger for the time being, so went back to collect some more.

With that, we returned to our camp and ate the fruits for our meal. The flavour was quite odd, and there was a slight acidic sensation on the tongue – like when eating kiwi or pineapple – but the A.I. had stated it was edible, so we didn’t worry about that. It didn’t hurt and we didn’t have any visceral reactions thus we finished the single fruit we’d cut up.

I felt sleepy from the day of walking and having a full meal so called it a night and beckoned Liam to come to bed with me. He complied and snuggled with me in his arms before we kissed goodnight and fell asleep. I wished the next day would prove more fruitful in finding water and other food than this day had been. The pun was definitely intended.

 

 

☠️🐜☠️

 

 

My ear itched. Or, more specifically, I felt something crawling into my ear.

“Wah!” I sat up immediately and put my hand to my ear only to find nothing there.

“…Don’t be so loud, Oliver…” My husband muttered sleepily with his arm loosely wrapped around my waist.

“But I felt something in my ear just then!” I shouted back as echoes of the sensation made my body shudder.

“Hah…it was just a nightmare.” Liam dismissed.

“But it felt so real, Liam…” I said, becoming half-convinced.

My husband opened his eyes and sat up before holding my head. He tilted it to the side and looked into my ears, “I don’t see anything. Not even a brain.”

I thumped him in the stomach at the poor joke, earning a groan from him. I pouted while crossing my arms to show my annoyance at his claim.

He laughed before kissing me, “It was a joke, Oliver. Just trying to lighten the mood.” He got out of bed and ate some of the fruit before revealing a gentle smile, “You’re probably just stressed from being in a jungle environment after crashing. You’re not used to such a place and it’s getting to you.” He handed me a piece of fruit he’d cut off with the emergency laser knife provided by the life pod, “Eat this and relax. The more worked up you get, the more paranoid you’ll be. That’ll just lead to you wasting energy.”

I sighed and nodded, “You’re right…It’s just…this whole situation is full of shit.”

Liam leaned over and kissed my head, “It’ll be fine. Once we’ve secured a food and water source, I’ll get back to fixing the pod. Just think of the positives, we’re alone together without having to worry about our jobs getting in the way for once.”

I smiled at that and hugged him, “You’re right. I get you all to myself.”

After a ‘short’ ten-minute kissing session, we eventually parted mouths and went in search of food and water.

 

 

☠️🐜☠️

 

 

 

We’d been walking for about an hour and I already felt weary. Every few minutes I’d hear a weird clicking sound from my ear. Whenever it happened, I rubbed my ear but I never felt anything. At the umpteenth time of me rubbing my ear, I heard my husband sigh in exasperation.

“Stop rubbing your ear. You’ll make it go sore.”

“But I keep hearing a sound from it and it’s bugging me.” I said back before I pulled a worried expression, “Y-you don’t think something really did crawl in my ear…d-do you?”

Liam gave me a blank stare before he sighed, “If it’s bothering you that much, let’s head back to the pod and have the A.I scan you.”

“Okay!” I then pulled on his arm and rushed back to camp, all the while still hearing the clicking noise every now and then.

After forty-five minutes, we returned to camp where I immediately headed into the pod and lay on the medical table to be scanned. Liam activated the machine and held it to my head before the A.I. chimed in saying I was healthy. I furrowed my brows, “Check for other life signs.”

Liam sighed as he pushed some buttons before the machine did another scan on my head. The result: no other life signs detected. I sat up and stared at the screen in disbelief before pushing the button to retry. It came up with the same result.

“H-how? It doesn’t make sense…”

Liam rubbed my back, “Like I keep saying, you’re being paranoid. Your ears probably picked something up on your side as we were walking, or something.” He then looked out and saw it start to rain. “Let’s stay here for today and rest up. We can gather the water from the rain.”

I nodded in a daze before we both snuggled together inside the pod, so we didn’t get wet. After some time, we fell asleep from not doing anything.

 

 

☠️🐜☠️

 

 

 

It was dark. I felt hot. It was difficult to breathe. My insides churned while something crawled inside.

“Nnghaaa! Hah…hah…hah…”

I woke up screaming before clutching my stomach and chest. My clothes felt damp while the remnants of my nightmare clung to my mind. I scratched at my ear, my neck, my chest and my stomach feeling like there was something there…but there wasn’t. No crawling. No clicking. No itching.

I glanced at my husband who was still fast asleep and stroked his cheek. I saw his peaceful face and calmed down a little from my paranoid imaginings. I smiled and leaned over to kiss him but paused midway as my stomach suddenly ached with immense pain.

“Nngh!”

I got out of bed and rushed to our makeshift toilet. I only just managed to pull my trousers and underwear down before my bowels began to empty themselves.

“Fuck!”

I was there for half an hour before I could leave. Of course, I was then struck with intense hunger as my stomach rumbled like mad.

“Fuck! Decide what you want, stomach! Either you want to be fed or emptied!” I complained in vexation before I went to our supplies and gorged on the fruit we’d accumulated.

I don’t know how long I’d been eating as my hunger took over me and I blacked out. Once I regained consciousness, I felt bloated as my stomach bulged and juice dripped from my chin.

“…What are you doing?” Came Liam’s voice from behind me as I noticed the sun had already risen at some point.

“…”

I awkwardly turned around to see annoyance and frustration on my husband’s face. He gazed at my appearance and frowned.

“What the fuck are you doing, Oliver? That was all our food!” He shouted at me as he grabbed my upper arms and shook me.

“I…I…don’t know. I was hungry…so I ate?” I replied while feeling incredibly guilty.

“The fuck?!” Liam shouted before he let go and ran his hands through his hair. He breathed in deeply before he sighed and glared at me, “You know what, just stay here. I’ll go find more food without you hindering me.” He then stormed off and disappeared from my line of sight.

I reached out for him and took a step forward, but my bloated stomach protested, forcing me to take a seat and rest. I covered my face with my palms as I came to terms with just what a serious mistake I’d made. Liam was right to be angry with me. I would be too if Liam had done the same. I sighed over the situation before I fell asleep in an attempt to let my stomach settle from all the food I ate.

 

 

☠️🐜☠️

 

 

I awoke to a large thud beside me before something grabbed my leg.

“Wah!”

I then looked at what it was and saw Liam on the ground, breathing hard while sweating with a grimace.

“Shit, what happened?!”

I inspected his body and found two massive puncture marks in the back of his neck. Incredibly worried for my husband’s life, I struggled to hoist him up before half-dragging him to the A.I. scanner. I pushed the necessary buttons and watched as the A.I. scanned Liam’s body and revealed he had been envenomated and was going into cardiac arrest.

My eyes widened as my heart sank from the possibility of losing my husband. I scrambled around the emergency medical supplies and found a stimulant created for people going into cardiac arrest. I injected it into his system before performing CPR on him due to him no longer breathing.

After a few minutes of me crying while desperately trying to bring my love back from the brink, he eventually opened his eyes and coughed. He had a panicked expression as his eyes searched around while he flailed. I grabbed his hands and stroked them before shouting his name in a bid to calm him down.

“Liam! It’s all right! You’re safe. It’s okay.”

His eyes scanned around before they rested on my face. I saw him visibly relax and sigh in relief before he pulled me into his embrace and kissed me.

“Thank goodness! I thought I was done for!” He said as his voice quavered in my ear.

I gave him soothing strokes as I asked what happened. He explained how a ginormous spider appeared from above and grabbed him with its legs before biting into his neck. He’d struggled out while using the laser knife to cut its front limbs and fangs before he ran straight back to camp. He claimed he heard it chase him the entire way but when I looked outside there was no sign of it. Liam calmed even more from hearing that.

Since it was evening once again, and Liam had had a strenuous day, we went to bed and cuddled each other in comfort.

“Liam…I don’t like this place.”

“Me neither. We still have the emergency rations, so I’ll focus on fixing the pod instead of going out there again. I want off this fucking planet!”

I agreed with him and gave him a kiss before we both fell asleep in each other’s arms.

 

 

☠️🐜☠️

 

 

The next day, we both woke to awful stomach aches. Luckily for the both of us we didn’t need to go to the toilet, but it was still incredibly uncomfortable. We both ate a small ration each before Liam went to try and fix the communications system. Since I wasn’t knowledgeable about such things, I tried to put our remaining rations into portions that could sustain us while lasting as long as possible.

As the hours passed, our stomachs ached more. I began to wonder if it was the fruit we’d both eaten at some point. Though, it was a little odd why Liam was only getting a stomach ache now and not when I got mine. By the time afternoon arrived, we couldn’t concentrate on anything due to the pain being so immense, thus we stopped what we were doing and decided to sleep it off. This made me feel both useless and lazy as I hadn’t done much to contribute towards getting off this planet.

 

 

☠️🐜☠️

 

 

“!?”

I woke up to excruciating pain from my stomach and found I couldn’t speak or move a muscle. Only my eyes could blink and move as I struggled to glance to my side where Liam was. I noticed he was also awake but not moving as well, though his face seemed to reveal the agony he was likely experiencing. I tried to figure out what had happened to us as the pain grew more and more intense.

Minutes passed into hours. Hours passed into days. We remained motionless as the pain kept increasing inside me. I wanted to scream out but couldn’t. I wanted to hold my husband’s hands but couldn’t. I wanted to cry but I was so dehydrated from the heat and lack of drinking that nothing came out.

This wasn’t the only thing I noticed while in my paralysed state. No. I saw our stomachs gradually bulge over time. At first, I believed it to be that phenomenon that occurs when you’ve been starving for so long and your stomach bloats, but this couldn’t be the case since it had only been a few days at most. It was then that it happened.

Searing hot pain spread through my stomach in several places – as if I was being cut from the inside. I noticed Liam’s breathing become shallow as he was likely experiencing the same thing. The cutting sensations increased and grew more intense until it felt like pieces of my abdomen were being gouged out. The skin over my abdomen moved as large lumps appeared.

My eyes widened in terror before the sound of flesh being torn open filled my ears. What met my vision as this happened was the sight of my own abdomen being ripped open by large pincers. No, not just one set of large pincers, but several. The agony made me want to black out, but I couldn’t. Whatever had me paralysed did not grant me the mercy of falling unconscious.

I lay there, frozen in place, as centipedes as large as my arm crawled out of my abdomen and stomach. I thought my nightmare would be over then…but it wasn’t. The centipedes returned to my broken flesh and began munching on it. Each bite was excruciating. Each rip of my flesh was agonising. I watched in silence as I was eaten alive by the several centipedes with some of them crawling back inside to gnaw at my organs.

I weakly glanced at Liam as I lost blood from my wounds only to see him in a similar situation. I wanted to swear, scream, shout, and cry…but I couldn’t. My husband then laid remorse-filled eyes on me, and I on him. I wanted to tell him I loved him…but I couldn’t.

My last memory was of my husband’s eyes as I felt my heart being ripped to pieces and eaten.

 

 

☠️

 

Author's Account:

Nahrenne (SH), Nahrenne (SHF).