It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon when biology teacher Mr. Harris noticed something strange in his classroom. The students had left for lunch, but a faint buzzing sound came from the back of the room. He walked over to the windowsill where several students had kept their science projects – small terrariums with plants and insects.
One container in particular caught his attention. Inside, a dozen fat white larvae wriggled in the soil. That's normal, Mr. Harris thought. But then he noticed something impossible – the glass walls of the terrarium were bending inward slightly, as if something inside was pulling at them with tremendous force.
Mr. Harris leaned closer, his nose almost touching the glass. Suddenly, one larva lifted its head and looked directly at him. Its black eyes seemed too intelligent for an insect. A chill ran down Mr. Harris's spine as the creature opened its mouth – not the small mandibles of a normal larva, but a human-like mouth full of tiny, sharp teeth.
He stumbled backward, knocking over a chair. The buzzing grew louder. Now all the larvae were watching him, their little mouths moving in unison. Mr. Harris realized with horror that they were whispering – actual words in perfect English. 'We're hungry,' they whispered. 'So very hungry.'
The next day, the school announced that Mr. Harris had resigned unexpectedly. The janitor found his empty terrarium in the trash, its glass walls shattered from the inside. And if anyone noticed the strange white worms that suddenly appeared in the school cafeteria's compost bin, no one mentioned it. After all, they were just larvae... weren't they?
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