Frightful Flash Fiction

Hives

I woke up in the middle of the night. I tried to go back to sleep, but my arm was super itchy. I scratched it, but that didn't seem to help. I was able to finally get back to sleep, after trying and mostly failing to ignore the itch.

When I woke up in the morning, I noticed that I started to break out on my arm. Not badly, only a couple hives it seemed. My arm was still itchy, and couldn't help but scratch it a few times while I got ready for work. I'm a cashier, at some dollar store.

It's usually pretty slow, so most of the time I'm scrolling social media on my phone. Today wasn't too different. I kept scratching my arm every so often, and I noticed the hives got worse. It went from just a couple to being all over my arm.

It became incredibly bothersome, I wasn't able to focus on anything else. My arm just kept getting more and more itchy. I tried not to scratch my arm anymore, but I just couldn't help it. It kept getting worse and worse.

I was finally able to go home, and at that point the itching was so bad, I was starting to cut myself with how hard I was scratching. By the time I came home my arm had looked horrible. I was bleeding from the scratching, and the hives had turned into big red bumps all over my arm.

Quickly, a burning sensation went rushing through my arm. It hurt so badly, I started to scream while I gripped my arm, praying for it to go away. Then, I could feel it. Something moving.

It was moving inside of my arm. I felt it moving all over, it wasn't just one thing, but multiple things moving beneath my skin. The large red bumps started to leak blood, and I felt something trying to burst out of them. The pain and itchiness was unbearable.

Then I saw them. These extremely thin and small wasp like bugs, breaking out of the red bumps. I started to scream even louder than I already was. As more started to pry out of my arm and fly away, my vision got hazy, and I fainted.

When I woke up, the pain and itchiness was completely gone. My arm was covered in dried blood, and I had small cuts all over my arm. I went to the hospital, but they thought I might have been hallucinating, or worse, just straight up lying. Whenever I get itchy, I always think about that day.

I haven't gotten hives since, but now when I'm itchy, I don't scratch. I'm too afraid that if I do, it'll get worse.