Bug Bite.
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"The only thing that went according to plan is that Christina died. That's what this whole ***** fest was about anyway, so I guess I should view this as a victory.

"The mud was too mushy to bury her properly, but fortunately she was so torn up that I doubt she'll be identifiable, if she ever is dug up.

"Margot and Eric didn't believe me when I told them our plan would go off without a hitch. I told them about how, since my mother owned Nidoran Fam Bites, we'd have access to the largest meat processor in southern Kanto. I told them how my mom leaves her work keys in a replica Clamperl shell near the dining table.

"Eric insisted he remove her thin ankle bracelet. Layers of red string with two blue beads dangling off the ends. I asked him why, as if that would have him reconsider in his mind. He said he wanted a little souvenir to remember her by. I said that made him sound like a psychopath.

"We should have checked the weather forecast before we went out last night. If we had known winds were going to blow in a rain storm, we would've stayed home. Killed a different night. Too bad Margot has to leave tomorrow for her Swim meet in Celadon, that would've just pushed things out further. I think it's good we got it over with. We all feel better and weightless.

"Trapping and chasing her was easy with Pinsir's intimidating glare. Subduing her was even easier thanks to Venomoth. We tied her ankles and wrists with duct tape, and wrapped a strip all the way around her head, over her mouth. I remember, her hair that curled in perfectly sectioned spirals, bobbed down passed my chin, tickling my shoulders. The sour stink of the Stun Spore, occasionally feeling her breath rush down my shirt, I ran through the rough outskirts of Viridian City. Eric a body's length away from me holding her muddy feet as we easily stayed in pace with each other.

"Just north of the city, Margot and her father's sturdy pick-up truck were waiting. In the back, a dark blue tarp and some price-tagged shovels prepared for action. Margot started the engine when she felt the weighted thump of a statue in her truck bed. Two car door slams later, the truck was moving up the hill with us four inside.

"With my mom's factory being in Pewter, the only thing between us and Christina's death was a few miles of forest. In my head, the act had already been committed; she was already bloated and stinking in some pit. Her eyes were soggy in their sockets and the skin under her nails was beginning to rot. Hearing her knock around behind us brought me back to reality, where her chest still rose and fell and open wounds would leak warm blood.

"As the truck edged up through the forest, Pokemon crying from a distance, we seemed to be moving slower and slower. The watery mud from the afternoon rain storm coated the tires, preventing us from moving up the grade. Eric said we'd have to get out and keep shoveling mud out of the way. Mud that had piled into walls around each front tire, the tires sawing deeper into the earth each time Margot tried to speed out of it.

"They each grabbed a shovel from the bed and I checked on Christina, her body no longer twitching with paralysis. I walked over to where they were already digging, said we needed to hurry. Said the paralysis was wearing off and she'd come to soon. I said we needed to stop at a store on the way back to get some cheesy puffs.

"When I got back to the truck, the live body was gone.

"I shouted in a hushed voice for Margot and Eric, and they both irrupted into panic. Saying, 'No way she didn't see this was my truck,' and, 'Where'd she go, we gotta find her somehow,' and, 'She couldn't have run too far, with her muscles still being tight from your Stun Spore.'

"There were tracks in the mushy dirt and we followed them, leading east towards the edge of Viridian Forest. As the trees got more dense and the tracks harder to follow, Eric and I relied more on our Pokemon while Margot trailed behind. His Pinsir cleared a path for us, and Venomoth searched using Foresight.

"Each muddy shoe print we followed led to a tree much larger than the others, branches upon branches for 12 meters, reflecting dark in the clear night sky. There was nothing left once the wind blew all the clouds south, allowing the stars to shine brightly against the black canvas. By now my calves were tired and my feet stepped heavy with each press forward. As the tree got bigger, the sound of her crying became louder. It was all I could do not to jump with joy right there. Us, having her out numbered, out powered; her weak and vulnerable crying by the roots of a tree.

"Pinsir, aggressive, charged forward, but Venomoth seemed hesitant. She kept flying upwards and out, away from the tree, never too far from my head. Once we were a certain distance, she stopped following. She crooned for me to step back with her as she shook her abdomen, trying to call me away from the tree.

"Instead I yelled for her to come forward, tired and legs heavy with mud. I could see Eric signaling to me from the base of the tree; he must've found Christina. We needed to work quickly to make up for our lost time. Him barely visible up ahead, walked around the tree trunk, curving around its round side until I couldn't see him anymore.

"Venomoth and her antennas began to twitch, squealing to me louder now. Looking to her, then back at the tree, some fearful and cold shot through my belly. It settled in my liver and made my lungs hurt. Falling onto my back, I stuck my thumb into my mouth to suppress a scream, shuffling back away on my elbow. All I could hear was a shallow, fuzzy sound that felt like it was only getting louder.

"When Eric yelled is when I shot up and ran for the heavy forest. When the whole world became the sound of flies on rotting fruit, excited and full of sugary milk. The wing chatter seemed to stretch into the entire sky as the tree branches creaked, their wooden moans indicating the release of tension. When I looked up into the sky, looked up into a swarming ocean of red eyes and buzzing wings. And when it seemed to rise up, taller than my height, and crash down like a wave over me—that's when I screamed.

"I jumped into the closest bush, pressing my stomach flat on the ground covered in dry sticks. It felt like flies were buzzing behind my ear as Beedrill swarmed around the tree. Knees scraping the dirt, I pulled them into my chest so the bush could cover me whole. I could see Eric running back the same way as me, Venomoth twirling her abdomen to signal him forward. He had Christina over his shoulders, dragging her long legs behind him as he tried escaping through the mud. First collecting weight near her ankles, then up the legs of his jeans, his movements began to slow, his boots began to stick in the mud.

"With a sudden clunk of impact, Venomoth was tackled by two Beedrill, who bit into her with their pointed mouths. One pressed his mouth around her wing, ripping chunks of purple-y, sparkly skin. The other Beedrill shoved his mouth into her right eye, feeling the bump of her antenna with its own. Another landed on her now, its body laying and covering hers, its face gorging on meat and juices from her opened thorax.

"Eric was not better off, even with unconscious Christina being used as a body shield. Beedrill landed on her back and bit into the flesh of her neck and ears. Her blood pumped out from the open wound, covering Eric and the ground in sticky blood. Beedrill felt his face with their feet, shoving their mandibles into the tender skin of his cheek, globs of fat sliding onto the mud. The bees balled them both, piling layers upon layers of defenders on top of the human bodies, two Beedrill still feasting on Venomoth.

"Their loud, agitated buzzing, Eric yelling and crying from underneath the pressure of hundreds of Beedrill. Venomoth's body no longer spasmed and no longer had arms. Bees fought for a bite of meat, their mouths dripping with red juice and yellow globs. The sound of their skin being ripped apart, like moist bread, made me sick to my stomach, and I barfed warm chunks of carrot and cereal into my hands.

"Though it was dark and though the only thing I could smell was soggy dirt and insects, I knew Eric and Christina were still alive in there. Just under the loud ringing of Beedrill wings you could hear horrified screaming as more chunks of flesh were torn from tender pockets of skin. Bees, continuously flying away and returning, flying away and being replaced with new hungry bugs. Beedrill stood on the ground outside the wriggling bolus, pressing their brown tongues into the salty liquid that had seeped onto the mud.

"I waited there for what seemed like hours, watching these Pokemon eat my friends and partner alive, then keep eating once they were dead. I waited until the day's sunlight signaled the beginning of pollination duty. Bees lifted themselves up from the ground, faces dipped in red juice, and flew out in all directions. Slowly the layers of Beedrill became thin, and stretched-out piles of bone could be seen under the few that remained. Some patches of skin anchored onto bone with thick connective tissue, covered in blood and hair. The bones were virtually untouched, as the thick walls prevented any Beedrill from licking out any marrow.

"Once all the Beedrill had flown away to look for flowers or back on to the tree, I slowly pushed through the bush from which I had watched my dearest friends die. Out of habit, I stood, and my legs being controlled by habit, brought me to kneel next to the bones and strips of skin. I sat there for a few seconds, throwing up into my lap again, too exhausted to aim my mouth a different direction. With heavy motions I grabbed fist fulls of mud and piled in on top of their bodies.

"By the time the sun had burned red the back of my neck, I was home and safe. The first thing I wanted to do was write in you, scribing down each *****ed up detail about what had happened. Now my hand hurts and my mom is calling me down stairs, probably for dinner.

"I feel relieved. My shirt I'm wearing is muddy and I'm thankful for still having my skin."

Flexing and cracking my toes, I stood from my chair, closing the journal in which I had been writing and walked towards my bedroom door. My knees ached from being locked in one position for so long, making me step painfully down each stair towards the kitchen. Rounding the corner, I stepped from carpet to tiled floor, the bottom rim of my shirt crunchy with flakes of mud.

I stopped, stopped once I saw the blue uniform. Blue hat covering spiked green hair, tight blue skirt that showed too much leg. Red rims around the collar and arms of her police shirt, an officer Jenny stood in my kitchen, drinking orange colored tea out of a cup from our cupboards. The hot liquid leaves a transparent mustache of water on her upper lip and she steps towards me, an off-white colored paper between the fingers of her hand. Thick black lines adding up to scribbles at the bottom, black lines written in a different way cover the rest of the paper. The only words on the paper I can make out are my own name and “Search Warrant.”

And all I can do at this point is laugh.