Inhale

Chapter 4

**GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING***

It was a routine, Ashton and Larry getting refillable's together.

After school, Ashton would count his cash in his wallet and they'd buy their favorite apple flavored refillable's. It was a quick, odd encounter with an old man and a slide of a twenty and off the two teens went. Rachel never stopped sitting with them at lunch, she'd barely said something to Ashton as they passed each other in the hall.

I can keep this under control, I will not let this become me.

The more and more Ashton told himself he was keeping the use of the Haler under control, the more he began to not believe in himself. Ashton didn't realize how many refillable's he was going through. Months flew by and hundreds of dollars were wasted. Stopping was out of question, but why stop? Ashton saw no harm to him and it was something fun, it was part of his routine. Wake up and take a few hits of the Haler, skip class and go to the bathroom and use the Haler. It was all part of a cycle he just didn't know what happened at the end of that cycle.

Ashton arrived home from school as the rain pelted against the black asphalt of his driveway. Both his parents cars were home, an odd and unfamiliar occurrence.

"Hey, I'm home." Ashton shouted, throwing his backpack on the living room couch.

"Ashton!" A deafening sound of Ashton's mother came from upstairs.

Suddenly, his heart sank and melted into the ground down into the basement.

"What the fuck is this?" Ashton's mother came downstairs holding an empty pack of apple flavored refillable's.

Fuck.

"Mom, I-"

"How long has this been going on for? Huh!"

"A little while."

"Give me everything you have, I want it all. God damn it, give it to me now!" Ashton's mother roared, sending shivers throughout his body.

The panic settling in over Ashton's body was enough to hide the urges of the Haler. However, he knew, sooner or later they would come. The urge to use the Haler would rip through him like a virus begging to be fed. 

"What the fuck?" Ashton smacked his head after a sharp stinging pain attacked the center of his head.

Ashton quickly ran to the bathroom, as the stinging pain become much more clear. Something was biting him, clawing at the skin on his head, digging it's way out. Ashton could feel his skin begin to crumble underneath his fingernails as he tore off the spot that was stinging him.

Then something fell.

Out from his head, a sense of relief flooded him. Pain soon settled in. Just like the boy from the bathroom, Ashtons puddle of blood that poured into the sink was alive with some sort of terrifying worm.

"What the fuck!" Ashton screamed, sweat dripping from his forehead.

He examined his head again, blood still gushing from his open wound. Ashton could feel his heart thumping against his chest. He turned the nozzle to sink all the way hot and watched the worm creature fall down the pipe and into blackness.

~

It wasn't long before Ashton had bought a new Haler device with Larry, and of course a brand new pack of apple flavored refillable's. His mouth watered and body tingled when he took his first hit. The rush that took over his head felt just like the first time he had done it. Brand new and amazing, a few seconds of calmness almost made him forget about his head, still sore. Ashton never told Larry about his disturbing experience with the worm, nor did he tell anyone.

That bug was not from the Haler.

He told himself and he told himself but it was all a lie. Ashton was not sure if it was something from the Haler but how could a vape device be the cause of a worm falling from his scalp? Impossible, not real. However, as the week went on, that impossibility became possible.

"I'm done, bro." Larry said with a deep voice when Ashton got into his car.

"What do you mean?"

"The Haler, look what it's doing." Larry said.

Larry pointed to his head, lifting up his wavy brown hair and revealing small punctures, holes in his head with dried up blood. Just like Ashton, Larry had the worms too. This time, there must have been more than one worm as Larrys entire head was covered with small round wounds. After all, Larry had been using the Haler for much longer than Ashton.

"Oh my gosh." Ashton said, fear overriding his body. "I have a hole like that in my head too."

"We just gotta stop, just like every other kid in this school. It's not just us, it's everyone who used the Haler. Fuck!"

Larry put his arm on the arm rest of the car, sighing in disbelief just as Ashton was. What had they got themselves into, were they too far to turn back? That's when Ashton noticed something. Larry's arm was still but his skin was moving, it was crawling. Long snake like figures slithered under Larry's skin, disfiguring his arm making it look bent and broken.

"Larry what the fuck!"

Larry's jaw dropped open before he began screaming, a piercing noise that shattered Ashton's eardrums. Larry's smacked his arm, tears streaming down his face as he jumped in his seat, smashing his body against the glass window, blood smearing on the cracked glass.

"Get it out! Get it the fuck out!"

Ashton scanned Larry's car looking for something to get the worms out of Larry's arm. After a few seconds of searching, hidden beneath empty bags of chips was a pocket knife. Larry scooped the knife from Ashton's hands and before Ashton turned to face Larry, the knife was wedged into his arm. Larry cut a small incision where the worm was, digging his fingers into his skin trying to grab the worm. The blood covered the car seat, as Larry's screams caught the attention of other students packing into their cars. It looked like a murder scene, blood and a knife wedged into someones body.

Except this murder scene included small, long worms slithering around the floor of a rusty old Honda.