Story Profile: Infestation

Infestation came from a real experience I had. I woke up one morning to the realization there was a rat chewing the baseboard a few inches from my head. After nearly two weeks of freaking out about the rat that was clearly in the roof crawl space, I was thoroughly exhausted from lack of sleep. One sleepless midnight, I sat down and wrote the story. During a two hour writing session, every dark fear I didn't realize I had inside of me over a little rat came pouring out. When I had written the last word, I was actually more afraid of the rat than before!

     Right next to her head, but on the opposite side of the wall, Gia could hear the rat gnawing. She gave a quiet bang. The noise stopped, then started again with more urgency.
     Gia banged on the wall several more times, waking Wes up.
     "What's going on?" he asked, clearly on edge about the noise.
     "The rat," Gia said without apology. "It's right on the other side of the wall!"
     Wes listened, but to Gia's dismay the rat didn't make a sound.
     "Go to sleep." Wes rolled over, turning away from Gia. "You're probably imagining it. I swear you're so paranoid by this rat that you're probably just hearing things."
     "I am hearing things," Gia agreed. "I'm hearing a rat in the wall gnawing to get at my head."