The Exterminator you called was strange.

Strange was putting it lightly, though.

His nametag said ‘Asa’, but he didn’t really react when you called him that. If anything, the owlish, unblinking stare he gave you made your skin crawl with a million tiny bugs. Ironic how that worked, considering there were many tiny bugs in your home, which is why you called the exterminator in the first place.

But he got his job done, and fairly quickly, too.

You paid him, gave a strained and nervous smile, waved him out your front door, and thought that would be the end of things…

Until it wasn’t.

Your vision is blurred from how hard you cry, panic flooding your system. You’d been out on a date, brought said date home, and then watched your date die at the hands of some cruel invention. Running didn’t yield any results— all the doors to your home seemingly locked from the outside —which forced you upstairs and straight into his arms.

You barely had time to think before you were knocked out, a needle sinking into your neck with a sharp pinch. Your body collapses on the floor, and the last thing you see is unblinking, owlish eyes staring down at you; the same eyes that had looked at you over a week ago.

When you wake up, the first thing you notice is the dryness of your mouth, along with something blocking you from speaking. A gag, most likely, but it doesn’t stop you from trying, even as fear and panic flood your body. You couldn’t explain how you knew it was the Exterminator, but you just knew.

“Sshh. Ssh.” You flinch at his sudden appearance, having not even realized that he’d entered the room— basement? —with you. Your wrists and ankles are bound to a chair, keeping you from moving away from him as he lifts a hand to your face, his gloved fingers brushing against your cheek.

Now that you were awake, you almost wished that you weren’t.

The room, even in the dim light, was seemingly full of jars that held things you didn’t want to know about (some of them looking like body parts, while others looked like bugs and spiders). Asa— the Exterminator, the man who kidnapped you —tilts his head as he watches you, as though observing something fascinating.

Whatever he had planned for you, you were helpless to stop it.