The Nature of Freak

I didn't know where I was going, or understand how I knew I didn't know where I was going, but it was with the purpose that I went.

In a hurry my 200 little legs scurried. Each had three joints, and as they worked to get me to my destination, a wave-like ripple went down the rows of them on other side of my body as I sort of slithered back and forth down the middle of the street, following the rotting scent of meat.

I knew myself as Freak. It may have been Frank at some point in my distant past, but I only had one thick deep vocal cord, and I only knew how to scream. Nothing I thought ever translated exactly the same when it exited my mouth holes.

As I undulated down the street, a pink meat bag I recognized as a woo-mun stopped and stared. “BOBRA?!” I shrieked.

The single mouth hole on the woo-mun’s head popped open.

“AAAAAAHHH!” She screamed.

“AAAAAAHHH!” I mimicked.

She ran. I didn't understand what the problem was. It was a logical question, and I asked it almost exactly as I meant to.

Not yet fertilized, “Barbara” was my nest-mate I was to impregnate.

Where are you my queen? I wondered...

I wandered... Until I caught the scent of fermenting meat again and with a refurbished urgency I was off in the direction it was coming from.

“BOBRA?!” I shrieked.

My queen was playing games again. This was her favorite, she called “hide from Freak.”

I will find her I giggled.

“BOBRA?!” I shrieked “EAT BOBRA! EAT! EAT DEM ME MAGGOTTS AN DEM YOUS GOEN DIE, BOBRA DIE!”

As I continued to follow the enticing smell in search of my queen I passed many more pink meat bags I knew as “hoo-mun” but they all gave me the same answer to my question. There was no shortage of screams and slamming doors.

Tonight was the night Barbara would receive my seed, of this I was sure. I was feeling feisty, and my antennae were almost fully erect.

As I rounded the next corner I nearly collided with another “hoo-mun” meat bag and I recoiled in disgust when I saw it was attached to and being led by a tiny fur sack on a string that immediately started “YAP-YAP-YAP-“ing at me and pulling at the string.

“AAAAAHHHH!” The “hoo-mun” screamed.

“FREAK KNOWS!” I shrieked.

The fur sack was interrupted as I smashed it flat to the ground under my feet and

simultaneously smacked my engorged antenna into the “hoo-mun’s” face, knocking it off its feet and out of my way.

I proudly continued on my way. Freak is a kind thing, I thought, feeling like I had just done a good deed for a “hoo-mun” in need.

I finally realized that the smell I was chasing after was emanating from a hole in the road covered by a metal disc. I removed the disc and squeezed down into the darkness headfirst, my long body straightening out behind me as I climbed down the ladder. It was dark and dank down here and smelled strongly of rotten meat, old blood, maggots, urine, and excrement so much so that I could taste it in the air. Now my antenna were fully erect and I was excited knowing I had almost found her. I was feeling right at home. I could hear the water dripping and crept along slowly, not wanting to alert my Barbara to my presence. I extended one feeding tube from a mouth hole and slurped up some of the water that was flowing on the ground. Exquisite I thought as I tasted chunks of coagulated blood and maggots. Freak is close. I knew my queen was just up ahead.

I came to where the tunnel I was in opened up to a large room and I could hear squelching from lots of little footsteps, and slurping, ripping, and tearing sounds. I heard Barbara snickering and giggling as she fed, thinking she had hidden herself very well.

Surveying the room I realized again just how hungry I had become as I searched for my Queenie. there were corpses everywhere in various stages of decomposition. Blood and gore covered the walls nearly to the ceiling and not all of the dripping I had heard was water. Barbara was trying to hide herself underneath a pile of dead bodies and maggoty flesh but having difficulties. Her body was fat and full nearly to bursting, and longer than mine and her preparation to receive my seed.

“Tee-hee” she giggled, as the mountain of rancid meet jiggled.

“Freak never find Barbara” she whispered to herself.

I pounced.

“FREAK FIND! FREAK FIND BOBRA!”

Surprised and excited she yelped and pretended to try to escape by climbing the wall but I was too quick, and landed on her.

“FREAK FIND! FREAK FIND!” I shrieked as I flipped her over and began smacking her hard in the face repeatedly with my rock-hard antennae, to show her how happy I was to see her.

“BOBRA BEHAVE?” I shrieked, and smacked her hard a few more times.

“BOBRA BEHAVE?”

“Barbara behave!” She cooed. We wrestled and played and slithered together to the bottom of a mound of delicious desiccated “hoo-mun” meat.