Chris didn’t want to move in to an apartment that was previously infected with termites, but he had no choice. It was cheap and the only one close to his college and basketball court. Chris was relieved to find out that the termites weren’t there for months now. Not even one.
When he reached his room, a man was sitting on his doorstep, cross-legged. He had flaky grey hair and freckles and he wore a short-sleeved flannel shirt which revealed tattooed arms resting on his thighs as he whistled.
He grinned at Chris. “Hi! You must be living here! I’m Marvin!”
Chris didn’t remember advertising the fact that he was moving in. “Um, hi. Can you move?”
Marvin hurried to his feet and watched Chris as he opened his door and entered the room with his suitcase. He stood behind the door, waiting for Marvin to leave.
Marvin cleared his throat. “In case you didn’t know, if you lose your key, you won’t be able to get another one.”
Chris blinked. The owner of this room had not mentioned that. “Wait, really?”
“Yeah. So make sure you keep your key somewhere …here!” Marvin pointed at the shoe-shelf next to Chris’s door. “Like first fill the shoe-case with your shoes. Then hide it among them. Even the thieves wouldn’t find it.”
His tone was making Chris uneasy. Did he want something? Did he know something that Chris doesn’t?
He recalled his mother’s words before he came: it’s normal to feel uneasy around new people. Just trust the right people.
***
For a fortnight, Chris had a hectic schedule. From college to home, then to basketball court to home, he had no time to explore the new town or make new friends.
Not even check the second floor of his apartment.
There were a lot of kids in his apartment, which led to a lot of noise from the ground floor. But the second floor seemed silent. From that floor’s corridor windows, he could see that no lights were ever switched on.
The basketball court was extremely close to his apartment. One night, when he was playing with his team, one of his teammates, Robin, threw the ball over the backboard and the next thing Chris heard was a distant shatter of glass.
One of his second floor’s corridor windows was broken.
The captain of his team whistled. “Dude, that’s too high.”
“It’s fine,” Robin muttered. “We’ll just get a new ball.”
“Or we could just get the-” Chris tried saying, but Robin cut him off with a glare.
After several hours, Chris returned to his apartment. The sight of the broken window troubled him, so he decided to get the ball and pay for the damage. Or make Robin pay for it.
He felt a bit odd walking up the staircase that led to the second floor. The second half of the staircase was dark and so was the empty corridor front of him. The only source of light was coming from the windows.
There were doors, but no shoes around it, or anything to show that someone lived here. No light beneath the door to indicate that the room lights were on- was it because they slept? Maybe that was why it seemed empty.
The basketball was right at the end of the corridor, surrounded by glinting window pieces. Chris approached it and was about to take it, when he heard a muffled scream, making him almost jump out of his skin.
Why did the scream seem familiar?
The voice had come from the door to his right. Why did it look so delicate? And why was it duck-tapped around the sides, corners, and even the keyhole? Without thinking, he touched the door.
To his horror, the door crumbled under his touch, revealing thousands of termites falling to the floor. Chris stepped back, tripping over the basketball and tumbling to the floor, eyes not moving from the room filled with termites. They were everywhere- walls, destroyed furniture, making Chris’ vision swim. In the center of the room, Marvin was seated, looking same as before- same clothes, same posture. Except this time, he was entirely covered in termites.
They both locked eyes. Chris, paralyzed to his spot, watched as Marvin took a handful of termites, not breaking eye contact, and stuffed it in his mouth. The disgusting sounds as he chewed on them was what brought Chris back to earth.
Screaming, he stumbled down the stairs, ran into his house, packed everything in two minutes, and dashed to his nearest teammate’s house.
***
It has been 2 years since he’d dropped out of college and started working as a coach of several basketball teams. 2 years since he has ever heard from that apartment.
Robin told him that everyone had to move out of that apartment because of the termites, and Marvin was hospitalized. Turns out that he was actually eating all the termites from everyone’s room when they were never there, by taking the key from their shoe-shelf and increasing his unhealthy addiction.
Even now, Chris had unsettling dreams of termites crawling under his blanket, all over his body, making it difficult for him to sleep. He could never the shake the traumatizing sight of millions of moving termites.
Sometimes he even saw Marvin with his mouth full of termites. He even heard his voice: You’re welcome.
