My girlfriend was a maggot. Or rather, she was made of maggots, millions of them. Squirming little white grains of rice that somehow developed a collective consciousness. They coalesced to form her skin, her hair, her eyes, her lips, her heart... I am not using metaphor or any sort of figurative speech. There is no hidden meaning; I mean this quite literally.

She really was made of maggots. I wish I could tell you her name, but she never told me. I did not push the subject; it was nice to finally have a girlfriend, whatever her name.

It explained a lot when I found out what she was. Occasionally, a few would fall out of place, and appear in their true form on her skin. The mouthfuls of maggots I got whenever we kissed were also quite mysterious indeed.

I later found out that she was one of four maggot creatures. I learned of this when I followed her one day after class. I realize that this is considered a stalker’s activity, but I was deeply curious about her. In the several months I had known her, she was very secretive about just about every aspect of her life, including in what area of the city she lived and even where she was born.

I followed her to some kind of abandoned circus. Carcasses of canvas tents and wooden stands were strewn about. A giant, damaged Ferris wheel loomed overhead. I heard some commotion in the only intact tent, which was the largest in the park. So I went to see what the trouble was about. While peaking through a crack in the sheet of canvas draped over the entrance, I saw a man standing in front of the four of them. Although, he was not a man for long. The four pointed at him, and a bright blue light that was very irritating to the eye shot from their hands. It hit the man, and he instantly turned into a log of wood.

Suddenly, what appeared to be a small cartoon mouse emerged from the shadows within the tent. He was brown, wore a red shirt, and, of course, walked on two legs like a person. He favored Mighty Mouse over Mickey, but he did not quite look like either. He pushed the log over and rolled it to the side of the tent. He struggled comically to get the big log underneath the small space between the canvas and the dirt ground. Finally, the canvas ripped, and both he and the log tumbled outside. The poor mouse fell flat on his face, but got up quickly and kicked the log in frustration. This only hurt his foot, and he held it while hopping on the other for a few minutes. Then, he pulled out a lighter from somewhere, lit the log on fire, and ran away.

Like I said, I’m no poet in any sense. I’m just telling this as I saw it. I not the sort to make this up, mind you.

I decided the time had come to find out what my girl and her friends were up to. So I opened the entrance flap and said, “Hello, dear. Um…glad I found you. You dropped this in Biology class.” I handed her the pen I took from her to use as my excuse for following her.

“Thank you,” she said. “How thoughtful you are! That’s why you’re my boyfriend.” She took the pen and scribbled something on a wrinkled piece of loose leaf. “I meant to give this to you today.” It was her phone number, or at least I thought it was. One of the others asked what she was doing. She said that it was the number to their headquarters. Once I called, they could track my number, and they would “have” me then. Then they all started laughing sinisterly for several minutes.

They did all of this right in front of me. “He’ll never suspect a thing!” she said, still laughing. The thought occurred to me that perhaps they were only joking, but I decided it was best to be safe than sorry. I’m not sure what made me think to grab the nearby garden hose. Perhaps it was the time when I asked my girlfriend if she wanted to take a shower with me, and she screamed for several hours. In retrospect, I’m quite relieved. I thought it was me.

I sprayed them full blast with the hose, and was rather shocked when they flew apart into a myriad of crawling larvae. I only expected to blind them a bit before running away, but this was even more proficient.

They filled the tent about halfway to the top, and poured out of the sides. I was pushed back out by the resulting tidal wave. Outside, I found the log was still burning, so I grabbed several large branches and some dry brush. I spread the brush in a circle just outside the tent, and then lit the branches on the log, and used them to light the brush. I didn’t know maggots made a sound, but millions screaming in unison is a sound not meant for human ears.

It was a shame, what happened with my girlfriend. The whole maggot thing I could have dealt with, but I hate when stupid bitches lie to me.