The Bees.

I don’t really remember when I first saw them. I think they had been lurking in the corner of my eye, retreating into the shadows as soon as I looked their way. The buzzing came first. It had been very faint in the beginning, barely audible, but this one day it became so noticeable that I had to stop my friend Susie in the middle of a conversation and ask her if she could hear it too. She couldn’t. It started to get worse. It seemed every time I talked or thought about it, the buzzing became louder and louder until I was certain that there must be something hanging right beside me – but every time I looked toward the direction of the sound, I couldn’t see anything there. I could sense something though, edging back into the darkness, watching me with malevolent eyes, delighting in my agitation and never showing enough of themselves to satisfy my eerie curiosity. I soon noticed the pattern; they always came at night, usually around 6pm as I left work, pursuing me as I walked home. If I stayed late, I could hear them tapping faintly against the office window, just letting me know they were there. They stayed with me through the night, torturing me as I lay in bed, restlessly trying to find a way to block out the noise and fall asleep. But even if sleep came, I had no respite. My dreams were plagued by the buzzing, my subconscious embodying the noise in these vast winged beasts; eyes glittering with malice and rough skin oozing with moisture. Their sickening forms lorded over my chained, naked body; utterly exposed to their stroking claws and wet, rank breath. And as I cowered from them in the gloomy light, curling my body into a protective cocoon, they slunk up behind me, the buzzing from the back of their dark, miserable throats, vibrating across the skin of my back and my neck to my ears. I often awoke in fear, drenched in sweat with my sheets twisted at my ankles, trapping me to my bed. This happened several times each night until I eventually drifted into a restless half-sleep, not quite prepared to slip fully back into the nightmare, but too exhausted to stay awake. And when I awoke the next morning they were gone.