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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/HorrorStoryArchive on 2024-09-11 18:40:59+00:00.
I wanted to give a little bit of a background on my relationship with my cousin Jeremy. We aren’t some long lost siblings who have only met once. We were practically brothers growing up. But we lost contact when his parents had to move across the country for work while we were in middle school. We promised to keep in contact, and we did for the first year. But as we got older and our lives diverged into different directions. We slowly fell out of contact. We reconnected recently because we happened to go to the same college. Even with how many years have passed since we last saw each other, the amount he has changed is drastic. That’s why I don’t think the man sleeping in the room next to mine is Jeremy.
I’ll start with our reunion. There was a knock at the door to my dorm. I had moved in a few days ago and still didn’t know anyone in my hall yet. I was surprised to find a man around my age wearing a red beanie, black shirt, and jeans, standing in front of me.
It took me a few seconds to recognize Jeremy. He had lost a lot of weight and had a beard masking a lot of his facial features, but the smile he flashed me immediately shot me back to middle school. I threw my arms around him laughing in disbelief, “Jeremy?” Looking back I should have checked it was him before possibly hugging a stranger, but I was so certain it was him.
He laughed and wrapped his arms around me as well, “I wasn’t sure if you’d recognized me at first.” He said as we stepped away from each other.
“I almost didn’t. Your beard made it hard to recognize you at first!” I invited him in and at least let him get settled on the sofa before firing off questions at him.
He sat down while I just stood in awe. “What are you doing here? How did you know I was here? Are you a student here too?” Jeremy smiled at me from the couch as I threw question after question at him. When I finally paused to take a breath he tried to answer as many of them as he could before I started up again.
“Yeah I am a student here. Aunt Polly noticed when my mom had posted about my acceptance here. She messaged my mom to tell her that you were here too. Turns out we live in the same dorm hall and I wanted to come and surprise you.” I sat down in a chair across from him in shock. I couldn’t believe that he was actually sitting in front of me after so many years apart. “If we move quick enough we can still probably put in a transfer request so I could move into your dorm room with you.” I perked up at this.
My dorm room was a two bedroom apartment style. It had two individual rooms, one bathroom, a small kitchen, and a living room. The roommate I was supposed to have moved in with one of his friends at the last minute, so I had an empty room.
Within the week, Jeremy had fully moved into the dorm. He had set up his TV in the living room with his Switch. We spent the first few nights playing Smash Bros and catching up. Jeremy is a biology major who wants to continue on to become an entomologist. This kind of surprised me, he had always been horrified with insects as a kid. “Why would you want to study insects? You hate bugs. I remember you’d shriek at the sight of a ladybug when we were kids.”
There was a long pause as he seemed to think about my question, before eventually shrugging nonchalantly. “Oh you know what they say about knowing your enemy” was the simple answer he gave me. At the time I thought that made sense. It was almost like forced exposure therapy or maybe by understanding insects he didn’t think they were as creepy.
Another thing I started to notice was, I never saw Jeremy without a beanie. Every day when I woke up and came out of my room, he was already awake wearing that damn beanie. He went into the bathroom with it on when he went to shower, and came out with it on as well. I assumed he didn’t shower with it on because it wasn’t wet. I never asked him about it because I thought that maybe he had started prematurely balding and was embarrassed about it.
A few months into the semester I decided to play a prank on Jeremy. We used to prank each other all the time as kids and I thought that this would be a good way to test whether he was over his fear of bugs.
There had been an unusual amount of centipedes in our dorm. Their bodies were dark black and shiny. They had orangish red legs that skittered across every surface in the dorm. Each one seemed to be about an inch long. I remember waking up to one trying to crawl into my ear while I slept. A shiver still shoots down my spine everytime I think about it. Now I don’t have an issue with bugs, but waking up to a squirming mass wiggling its way into my ear definitely put every single one of them on my hit list. Now I wear earbuds when I sleep now even if I don’t have anything playing on them. I’ve also thought of getting nose plugs…but I’m getting side tracked.
Anyway, I found one skittering across the counter while I was making food one day. Immediately, I had an idea, “hey Jeremy. Come here, can you check to see if this spaghetti sauce is too salty?” I turned to him as he set down his controller and walked over. As he got close I scooped up the centipede, but before I could show it to him I felt a stinging pain. I looked down to see the centipede had bitten me and started to actually dig into my skin like a tick. I shrieked as it began to wriggle its way under my skin. A shifting, squirming, bump began to form on my skin as it burrowed deeper. I looked up at Jeremy for help but he just stood there watching it happen. At first I thought he was frozen in fear but instead he was expressionless. “Jeremy! What the fuck? Help me!”
All at once his expression changed to one of concern as he quickly closed the distance between us, “Shit sorry.” He grabbed the body of the centipede, half of its body was already under my skin. The second he grabbed it the wiggling stopped. It seemed to freeze. It didn’t try to burrow deeper and the bulge under my skin stopped shifting.
Slowly and carefully Jeremy pulled each section out of the hole in my skin. The upper portion of the centipede was covered in my blood. When he managed to fully pull out the centipede a hole was left behind in my skin. Liquid crimson slowly poured down my arm. I quickly grabbed a paper towel and covered the hole to prevent my blood from dripping onto the floor. I turned to Jeremy and saw him holding it close to his face. The bug hung limply like it was one of those rubber halloween decorations. It didn’t analyze its surroundings or look for a way to escape. It didn’t even try to attack Jeremy’s hand. It just hung there.
Jeremy turned it left and right analyzing it with interest. “J-Jeremy?!” I look at the centipede in his hands, “squish that thing now! I’m sick of these damn centipedes! I’m calling housing tomorrow and demanding they get an exterminator tomorrow.”
“But Sam…I’ve never seen anything like this.” He sounded as if he was in a trance. “I want to keep it for a bit to study it.”
“What are you talking about? You saw what it did to me!” I hold out my arm and remove the paper towel. I expose the hold to emphasize my point. It immediately started bleeding when I uncovered it. I quickly covered it again, “Shit…I think I’ll need stitches.”
Jeremy continued to study the centipede and didn’t even bother to look over at me. “Don’t be such a baby, Sam. I’m sure you are fine. Just put a bandaid on it.” I stood there stunned. I’ve never seen him show such a lack of care for anyone. Before I could think of a response he turned on his heels and quickly walked into his room shutting the door.
I was pissed as I walked to the front door, “I’m going to get an exterminator down here!” I yelled as I opened and slammed the door. I walked to the housing office and was able to convince them to call an exterminator when I showed them the multiple pictures I had taken and the hole in my arm (luckily I didn’t end up needing stitches for it).
Within a few days there was an exterminator at our door. Luckily Jeremy was out at his classes when he arrived. The man I opened my door to was large. His polo shirt stretched from his beer gut. He had a professional air about him as he smiled down at me, “Good mornin’, son. I was sent down here for a bug problem?”
I nodded as I glanced at his name tag. It had big bold letters that read, “Bob.” I shook his outstretched hand, “Thank you for coming.”
I invited Bob in by stepping to the side and gesturing for him to come in. I closed the door behind him as he walked past the kitchen and into the living room. He was already looking around, probably looking for places they could be hiding. “So…what are we dealing with here?” He says turning to look at me.
I explained the constant appearance of the centipedes as well as the horrific encounter I had with the one from the other day. He seemed skeptical so I pulled out my phone and showed him some of the pictures I took throughout the months, as well as the hole in my arm.
He stared at the pictures and my arm, “Well son…I’ve never heard of a centipede like this in the area.” I was a little disheartened at first until he said. “but…I’ll take a look anyway.” He smiled at me and I felt relief that these things would finally be gone.
Bob and I spent the next hour walking around my dorm. He searched in corners, behind furniture, and under my mattress. There was nothing. Not a single trace of those damn centipedes. I began to feel like Bob didn’t believe the...
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