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It's been a month now, I think. I can't believe it. A whole month. So much has changed. So much has happened. I never thought this day would come. Gran did. They all said she was senile, losing it. Ha way to sugar coat it. No matter what medication they gave her, she never got any better. She just got worse. She would sit in the corner, solitary and mumble. I loved her but even I began to have my doubts. She would say, it's coming. It's coming. Be prepared. Be prepared. I was scared at first but it was just her imagination. She was meant to go to a nursing home. But I wouldn't let her. She needed me. We needed each other. It was May I think, can't say which day. My memory isn't let of why happened before. So much has happened since. But I remember we were at home, all of us. I heard a scream. A desperate, blood curdling cry echo through the house. Dad heard it too. He ordered me to stay where I was until he was back. But I couldn't. He and mum rushed out the door. There was no time for knocking; using the spare keys he burst into next doors house. Mum followed hastily behind. I slipped out our door leaving it blowing in the wind. Why could they have been so urgent? I cautiously ran through Mrs Mantel's house, up the Warring stair case. They just stood there. Mum was shaking hands over her face. I peered between them. Mrs Mantel lay there. In her bath. The shower dribbling out sloshed of water. She was covered in bugs, leech. Like things. Parasites. More spewed out of the shower, covering her pale body. She as covered in spots, blotches. Bites. That's all I remember. I think I went into shock, trauma. She was a nice woman. Fairly aged. She had lived in that house for fourth years. She moved in with her husband George, in nineteen seventy five. George died about ten years ago. Before we moved in. she will be with him now. Seeing her colourless body lying limp, scarred me to say the least. But now dead bodies are not a rarity they lye scattered about. When the next attack came I was terrified, but I didn't know that that was just the beginning.

  I went back to school after Mrs Mantel's death. The whole school was buzzing. Everyone telling rumours. This they heard. Apparently the water supplies were infested. Bloodsucking parasites. That would explain what happened to Mrs M. but that couldn't be possible. Surely not. My water at home was fine. Clean fresh as always. So was the schools supply. Probably just rumours I told myself. The commotion began to calm down by the next day, but there were more stories. More people dead. I became worried. Paranoid. I saved up money, as much as I could get, borrowing off of friends and my parents. I began to buy water bottles from shops. The cheap ones so I could get as much h for my money. Massive bottles of squash and fizzy drinks. I emptied the contents instead filling them with water. I didn't want to risk anything. I figured that if the water supplies are contaminated infested then what will we drink? I hid it all in the cellar, nice and cool so the water doesn't turn rancid. I heard more news information at school. My head was overloaded. It had been a week, each day more people off school. I listened to the news every chance I got. To see if this all was true. I began to brush my teeth getting ready for school. The water wasn't flowing as freely. It came out in delayed spurts and splurges. Bugs those parasites crawled out of the tap. Swarming. They began to flow out of the toilet, in a flourish of dull colours and legs. I screamed, closed the door. Held it shut. They began to appear under the door. Dragging themselves across my feet. I stuffed a towel on the floor lining the door. I screamed for dad. He sprinted up the stairs to find me panting leaning against the barricaded door. I told him not to look but he insisted on going in. they were everywhere, thousands of them. I ran downstairs to the kitchen. They crawled out of the plug hole, practically filling the sink. I grabbed the bleach, pored it over them. Each one that shrivelled was replaced by another – just as thirsty for blood as the one before it.