Chapter 1

My son and I moved to a new apartment in Chicago. The apartment is one the 7th floor of an old downtown building. It's quite beautiful in my opinion, i`ve always dreamt about moving to the big city and living in one of these buildings.

My wife no so much. She would become deaf to every word I said about the city. In her world the little suburb we grew up in had everything we could ever want. But I don't care anymore. She lost her vote when we divorced.

It was a messy divorce and I still can't believe I got full custody of shaun. I was sure that I was gonna lose, as I was completely honest to the court about my plans to uproot him and get us both out of town. But I guess her infidelity sealed the deal before we even entered the courtroom.

The divorce drained me and I think it also affected shaun. Although I`m not quite sure, as he is really taking it like a champ so far.

Shaun is 8 years old, he is a good kid. A little too quiet at times, but he gets along with the other kids and never acts up. He also has decent grades and keeps his room tidy enough. There is nothing more a father could want at this age.

We got to the apartment and shaun was astonished as soon as we entered the building. For a boy from a small suburb, this must have looked like a castle. He ran up the stairs as fast as he could.

I had a hard time keeping up with him, as I was carrying both out dufflebags up the stairs. I lost him after the second floor and so I just kept on pushing upwards, while my legs were starting to hurt.

After the fourth floor, I started to hear a male voice. I picked up some pace again and was soon at the seventh floor. My son was already there, before him was an old man, wrinkled face, old flannel shirt, flat cap rounded up by this slightly filthy smell. He was talking to my son as I turned the corner. His voice out of breath, not like he was running up the stairs, more like he was on his dying breath.

"You have to look where you are going, young man! Do you know how long an ambulance would need to get here? Not to meeting all the stairs!"

He stopped as he saw me.

"Ah, you must be Mr. Blonde (fake name, obviously). I was waiting for you. Is this little rascal your boy?"

"Yeah, sorry, he is just excited to see his new home", I answered while reaching my hand out to greet him.

He shook my hand. It was like shacking a bag of leaves. Soft and misshapen with some hard bits in the middle.

I retracted my hand formally and he showed me to our new apartment.

7G, the door was strong and reinforced at the edges, but it looked just like every other door i`ve seen on the way up.

He opened the door and we had a look inside, living room with enough space for the two of us, small, open kitchen to the right, bathroom to the left, and a hallway leading to our bedrooms behind the kitchen.

The apartment was nice over all. It even had a bit of furniture, just enough to get us through our first weeks. To single beds in two different rooms, a dining table with two chairs, a kitchen ,with oven, stove and microwave, and small couch with a small table in front. Sadly no TV.

We had a small tour and shaun jumped at the opportunity to get the front bedroom. It had a nearly perfect view of the streets below, if it wasn't for the old fire escape in front of the window. I wasn't too pleased with the idea of giving him the room with the fire escape access, but I wasn't about to argue either, as I was just happy he was adapting so fast.

We ended our tour of the small two bedroom apartment about 5 minutes after starting it. The landlord gave me our keys and went about his way. He was a bit odd, but otherwise a nice guy.

We spend the rest of the day getting settled in. I got us noodle cups for dinner and we spend our first evening in our new apartment. Joking around about the age of the building and what dark secrets would wait behind every apartment door.

We went to bed at about 9pm and I fell asleep in a matter of seconds. I haven't slept this well in months. Finally a place of our own.

I woke up in the morning and turned towards my phone. 10am…

I stood up right away and walked over to my son's room. I was a bit worried. I didn't knew why exactly, but leaving him up alone for so long in this big building wasn't sitting right with me. I knocked softly at his bedroom door and put my ear to his door. I heard his voice, but not from inside the room, it was coming from the living room.

I walked over and he was sitting on the couch, looking outside the window while talking on his phone.

"No, you don't understand. Its awesome. All the people are so tiny from up here…"

I knew only one person would start to talk him out of this place this early on.

"Hey champ, can I also talk with mommy?"

I asked him softly.

He turned to me, and spoke to the phone:

"Hey mommy, dad wants to talk to you"

He handed the phone over to me.

I stoked his head and motioned him to go to his room.

As soon as I heard his door click, I put the phone to my ear.

"Can you stop ruining things just because they don't go your way"

I told my ex-wife firmly.

She answerd:

"You are making a mistake by putting him in a place like this. Especially because he is so far away from his mother!"

I admit, I got really angry at this point, but I focused myself to stay calm. I was certain she was only waiting for me to slip, so she could call child services on me.

"I`m not putting him in any danger, he is with me in a beautiful house. I don't know how much you listed the stuff your son said, but he actually likes it here a lot."

She started mumbling some stuff about me being irresponsible and resentful towards her, but I wasn't really listening, my focus wandered towards a small bug on the windowsill. It was a nasty bug, but I don't know what kind. All black and big. Like a dung beetle, but without the horn in the middle.

"Are you even listening to me?"

She asked through to phone. This sentence broke through to me, as it wasn't in the same rhythm her usual mumbling was in.

"To be honest, no, I wasn't. Gotta bounce."

I hung up, putting the phone on silent before putting it down on the table.

The bug made me curious. How did it get in here? I mean, it wasn't impossible that the bug would have been here for some time, as we didn't search the apartment for bugs after moving in, but a bug that size would probably die in days without food.

I opened the window and gave the bug the push with the back of my hand. It dropped out the window and flew back inside, straight by my face and into the open kitchen.

I followed it swiftly, while it landed in one of the noodle cups from yesterday.

I took a look inside and there were two more of these bugs inside. I was disgusted by the look and picked the cup up and dumped it in the trash in one quick motion. The bugs were trying to leave, while I tied the trash bag together and sealed them in.

Without hesitation I took the bag downstairs and dumped it in the dumbster in the ally. The dumpster was directly beneath my window. Well seven floors beneath it, but still direct underneath it. Great trade I thought. My son was getting the street view, while I was getting the dumpster and the brick wall next door.

I walked up the stairs while thinking about how great the invention of the elevator was.

At the door, I scrambled for my keys, but I couldn't find them. It dawned on me, that I must have left them on the table inside. I knocked on the door and shouted for my son to open. I saw motions at the inside of the peephole. I thought he was about to open the door, when I heard the sound of this bedroom door opening.

What was that at the other side of the peephole?

I waited for a second while thinking about that.

Shaun reached the door and asked: "yeah?"

I asked him to open the door for me.

He was hesitant and after a moment answered: "I think I can do that."

I was puzzled by that answer, but soon the doorknob turned and the door opened.

Shaun was standing there behind the door, while I pushed beside him to see what moved in front of the peephole. I searched the living room and asked him, what was taking him so long to open.

He said "the bugs didn't like what you did"

I stopped searching and turned my head to him. I asked him what he meant by that and he repeated:

"The bugs didn't like what you did"

It was a really weird answer, but on the other hand, I knew that feeling as a kid, when you feel sorry for animals and other things. Nearly turned me vegan at his age.

"I know it wasn't nice of me, but this is our apartment and the bugs don't pay rent. Do they?"

He shook his head.

"See buddy, it's all good."

He looked at me for a moment and asked:

"Can I have my phone back"

I agreed and he took it to his room.

Still puzzled by the whole situation I started to go about my day. Enough trouble for know.

The rest of the day went by really fast. We had pizza in the evening. ( I know, A1 dad. Noodle Cups and Pizza)

I brought the Cardboard boxes down as soon a we were finished.

A cockroach landed on the top box as soon as I opened the entrance door. Normal enough. It's a big city and these things gotta eat as well, I thought. I dropped the box in the dumpster and the cockroach road the box to the ground of the dumpster like Slim Pickens sitting on an Atombomb.

I closed the lid and got back up. Haven't forgotten my keys this time, I got right in, watched some YouTube on my phone with Shaun and we got to bed soon after.

The next morning I woke up early enough. It was time for me to go job searching after all.

Shaun was still asleep, so I made some breakfast. PBJ Sandwiches for our lunch, some spam for me and a bowl of cereal for his breakfast. It took me a while to realize, that the cherries I poured were moving. I stood frozen and dropped the box. Maggots all over the bowl.

A moment went by, before I took the bowl and the box and I ran to my room, dropping them from my window onto the dumpster lid. It hid the ground and an echoing noise went through the ally. I closed my window shut, as I feared someone would see me doing stuff like that. I didn't know why I did it, I just had enough of these bugs.

I felt bad about the whole thing and made another PBJ for Shaun, who had woken up by now. Probably from the loud noise in the ally.

We had a brief breakfast and I headed out. Looking at the dumpster while getting on the sidewalk. The bowl was shattered to pieces and the cereal box lay there like it was planted in a crime scene. Maggots all around. Some alive, some dead.

I walked by it. Not giving it a second look.

The jump hunt was hard. I walked into some small businesses and asked if they needed a new accountant, as that was all I pretty much knew how to do.

I never really learned the job, but I did the books for my In-Laws small mom and pop store since I gratuated high-school, so it was everything I had.

Some people told me no in a polite way, others just straight up rejected me. Two offered me a job interview in the next two weeks. I accepted, but both seemed kinda spooked when I asked them if we could hurry things up a little.

Overall I don't think any of them will work out. But it was a start.

When I got back home, the bowl was still laying there. Everything just as I left it. Box and maggots included.

I felt bad for what I did and picked the box up. I used a shard of the broken bowl to scoop the maggots up and put them in the box. When all was done, I threw everything in the bin.

Afterwards I haded up, expecting Shaun to question me about my job hunt.

I opened the apartment door to him sitting on the couch motionlessly. I asked him what was going on and he said:

"Why did you do it to them?"

I stood frozen.

"Did what to who?"

I asked back.

"The bugs in the cereal. Why did you throw them out of the window?"

He replied.

The fact that he knew I did it was bad enough, but it was made worse by the fact that he seems to care for them so deeply. I thought about a good answer for a moment.

"We talked about this. They don't pay rent, so they don't live in our apartment"

He wasn't impressed by my answer.

"But why throw them out of the window? You really hurt them"

I said down next to him.

"I know, i`m sorry. Its just, that they spooked me so badly"

He seemed to take this answer a little better.

He hugged me and I asked him about his day. A couple of stories about his adventures in the castle later, we talked about diner.

I told him that I wasn't going to buy unsealed foods for a while, because I didn't want to risk hurting any more of his crawling friends. He took that quiet well.

After a moment of debating, I went and got us some cans of tomato soup for diner. We ate and went to bed soon after.

My eyes felt heavy and started to close, when I look at my door for the last time. A small silhouette was standing in my open door. Surrounded by blackness the silhouette was clearly looking at me. I pushed myself up and hit the light switch. It was shaun, standing there with his teddy in his arms. He looked at me, as I asked him what's wrong.

"The bug man doesn't like your new rule."

"The bug man?", I asked, audibly worried.

"He doesn't like it when you seal away the food", he replied.

I tried to play it off, while a bit of fear started to climb up my spine.

"Well he should buy his own food then."

"He can't", Shaun answered before turning around and leaving my room.

I was sitting there frozen. After a minute or two of deciding what to do, I decided I was best to go back to sleep. Maybe I thought the whole thing was over by tomorrow, maybe I just wanted to sleep, but that was what I did that moment.

I closed the door and went back to sleep. Father of the year at it again.

I woke up the next morning, got up, 3 PBJs and a grilled spam sandwich for the one and a half men in the house and went about my day. I didn't talk to shaun in the morning, as he was still sleeping when I took a peek inside his room.

Walking down the streets, as I enternd ever store I came across was exhausting. But I didn't give up. "It's for the both of us" , I told myself every time the thought of quitting entered my mind.

I ate my grilled spam sandwich on a bench near millennium park and walked around for another hour or two, before heading home. I got inside and greeted Shaun, he was cheerful, which took my mind off of everything that had happened the last days. We talked about the Minecraft world he build on his phone and the different people he saw walking around downstairs.

I asked him if he saw them from the window and he said, that he got out on the fire escape. I got angry at him and told him, that he wasn't allowed to go there. Even though I never specifically stated this rule, I thought he was well behaved enough not to go there.

He started to cry a little and went to his room. I felt like shit. My ex-wife called me a couple of minutes later, because Shaun told her what happened. We had a long talk and I admitted to everything and expressed how sorry I was. I didn't want to show weakness in front of the woman who hurt me so badly, but I also felt true remorse. I never shouted at Shaun. It's not that I was one of those parents that thinks you should never scream at a kid, it's more that he never gave me a reason to shout. After a while the phone call got a bit more emotional and we talked in a way we haven't talked for years.

We agreed that I should apologize to him and tell him that I only shouted, because I was afraid for his well being.

We hung up and I walked over to his room. I knocked and opened the door.

Shaun wasn't in his room. I look around and he was no where to be seen. I panicked and looked over to the window. It was open. I walked over and looked around. Shaun was sitting there, just a couple of steps downstairs, with a plate in his hand. I told him to get inside.

I tried to stay calm, but I gotta admit, I lost it again.

He got inside and I tried to talk to him. It was a mixture of apologies, explanations and building boundaries. He sat there, not saying one word. I waited for a response, but he wouldn't talk to me. I looked at the plate and saw what's left of an PBJ sandwich. There wasn't much left, but what was left was full of cockroaches and maggots.

I looked at him, my face filled with a mixture of anger, disbelieve and fear.

"Are you feeding the god damn bugs???"

He looked at me.

"Yes, the bug man said, that he would leave you alone if I fed them"

I was standing there in shock. I didn't knew what to do, so I grabbed the plate and went out. On my way I told him to never do anything like this again, and that we would talk tomorrow.

I slammed the door by accident, walked over to the kitchen and put the sandwich in the trash, tying the bag up as soon as the bread hit the ground. I sat on the couch for hours, trying to figure out what was going on.

After some time, I fell asleep.

Waking up in the middle of the night, I felt a cool breeze coming over me. I looked around and realized that I fell asleep on the couch. The window was open. I couldn't remember opening it, but I didn't question it either. I got up, walked over and closed it.

While walking towards my bedroom, Ive heard Shaun talking in his room. He sounded apologetic and frighten.

I opened his door without warning, and I saw him sitting beside the window. He was afraid. I told him to get away from there and asked him what was going on.

He told me: "the bug man is angry with us"

I asked him what he meant, but he couldn't get a single word out. Filled with fear, he was just looking at me.

I closed the window and took him to my room. I wasn't angry with him, I was just worried. I told him, that the bug man wasn't real, and that he could talk to me, if something bothers him. I also told him, that it was natural for him to be confused. There was a lot going on in his life and no one expects him to be emotionless about the whole situation. He calmed down a little and we slept together in my bed that night. In the morning I got up and made breakfast. Shaun clearly noticed me getting up, as he was in the kitchen mere minutes after me. I made 3 PBJs and a grilled spam sandwich as always and we sat down to eat. I told him that the second sandwich was for him alone and no bug man had the right to take it from him. We shared an awkward laugh as I packed my grilled spam sandwich and I got outside. I headed down the roads and looked for stores yet again. My spine was still shivering from last night, but I still tried to pull through. The conversations with the store owners were worse than before. I can't blame them. I looked sleep deprived and miserable. I didn't even make it to lunch, when I finally called it quits and headed home for the day.

When I got around the corner to the apartment building, I looked up to see Shaun. He sat on the fire escape yet again. He was laying on the grid of the platform. I started to sprint towards the door. Running up the stairs like my life depended on it.

When ich reached the seventh floor I opened the door of 7G in one swift motion and ran towards Shauns room, not even closing the apartment door behind me. Shaun was still laying on the fire escape.

"Shaun, get in here. Now!"

I screamed at the top of my lung.

"No dad, you don't understand", he answered whimpering,

"What do you mean", I asked him, while I reached out to him.

He finally looked at me and answered: "the bug man is really mad with us…"

I looked at him: "What do you mean?"

He starred at me and said: "He told me, that if I don't want to help him, I might as well jump."

I looked at him shocked, but I still managed to reach out and pull him into the apartment, closing the window behind him.

I told him that he would never do something like this, or listen to this bug man ever again. I told him, that we would switch rooms from now on.

It wasn't my goal to punish him, but I couldn't give him any access to this window again. I brought him to the living room and talked some sense into him. Afterwards we both headed out to get some fresh air and a hot dog.

When we got back, he nearly went to his old room, but was reminded about our new arrangement, when he realized his door was locked.

He looked at me like he got the hint, turned around and entered his new room. I stayed in the kitchen for a while and watched some Netflix on my phone. After an hour or so, I looked inside my old room. I gotta admit, I was expecting everything from pentagrams to a full on exorcism going on in there, but I just found Shaun sleeping in the bed.

Relieved I closed the door and unlocked the door to my new room.

The window was open. I didn't realize it at the time, but in hindsight I knew I closed it. Not thinking to much of it, it closed it again and locked the door. I got to bed and fell asleep in my new bed.

Hours later I woke up to a cold breeze filling the air. The window was open again.

I went to close it again, but this time it hit me, that I definitely closed it before. I looked at the windowsill and sow these black bugs crawling all over it. I took a step back and looked at the window again. The bugs weren't crawling aimlessly, they were headed in my direction.

I should have been afraid at this point, but they were just simple bugs. No fangs, no stingers, just bugs. That's when I realized, that they are all crawling a single line with me at the end. If I´m at the end, what's at the beginning? I took a deep breath and climbed through the bug infested window. I looked around and saw the bugs crawling up the wall from two floors beneath me. I felt my heart beating in my chest as I walked down the fire escape stairs. Sometime I felt the cold grid of the fire escape beneath my feet, sometimes I felt a soft shell breaking, oozing with warm gruel, I wasn't looking down. Not because im afraid of heights, but because the breaking of soft shells, combined with a quiet cracking noise, was getting more frequent by the step. The only thing that kept me going was getting to the bottom of all of this. For Shaun.

The stench of whatever was waiting at the end of those stairs hit me. It smelled like someone soiled his pants and tried to hide it underneath a sack of old newspaper.

I reached the sixth floor and peeked through the window. A young woman was sleeping in her bed. I didn’t give her too much attention and continued my way downwards. The cracking of beetle shells continued beneath my feet, while I felt some of them making their way up my legs.

Soon I reached the source of their journey. The window on the fifth floor.

It was open and I didn’t hesitate to make my way into the room.

The bedroom was empty. I looked around for a bit, but there was nothing that caught my attention, except for the trail of small bugs making their way across the room.

I followed them outside the bedroom door and into the hallway. The bedroom door on the other side of the hallway was slightly open, enough so I could take a quick peek inside, but it was empty as well. I focused on the bugs again and followed their trail. The hallway and living room were filled with flies. The walls, ceiling, and air was filled with flies.

This was the end of the line, I knew it. I tried to step as lightly as possible, because I didn’t know what to expect. One step after another, until I reached the living room. It was empty as well and the kitchen look abandoned. Except for one thing. One piece of furniture stood out. The armchair by the window. I took a close look at it. It was definitely the source of the trail.

I walked towards it, step by step. Looking back on it, I don’t know why I still wanted to get closer to this chair, but I did.

Walking over to it, I put my hand on the backrest and pulled the chair towards me.

It was my Landlord. He still looked as dead, as the day I met him. But this time he was really dead. Bugs crawling out of his mouth, his eyes so clear you could practically see through them. And then there was the stench. It was unbearable at this distance. The constant struggle between running and puking hit me fast and I barely made it outside the aparment door.

The next couple of hours went by in a haste. I can’t remember everything, so I try to recall the situation by looking at the police report.

The police report said, that my landlord had suffocated the day we moved in. It couldn’t have been more than a couple of hours after our conversation. Maybe just minutes.

They said he had fly eggs in his lungs. By now it must have been maggots. I can’t imagine what he must have been through. But I can’t say I was surprised, the way he looked when I first met him.

It looks like the police arrived at 1:17 am. That’s when they started to question me. Another round of questioning at 1:54 am. Of course they forced me to wake up shaun, so they could get his side of the story. This was at about 2:11 am. I was furious that they wanted to get my son into the whole situation, as I didn’t want him to suffer through the trauma of his neighbor dying after everything that happened, but what was I supposed to do. Fight the cops in front of my son?

He told them that he has heard his landlords voice from the fire exit the last couple of nights. Strangely, he never told me as much. But he probably named the landlord „Bug Man“ as he never got his real name. He also didn’t tell the police about the bugs talking to him. Which was for the better in my opinion.

He messaged his mom in the middle of the questioning, which I didn’t realize until about 4:21 am, when his mom showed up. How do I know this?

Because the police report was really specific about the vocabulary both me and my wife used towards each other.

At about 5:35 am she took him with her.

It’s now 11:17 pm and I’m finally laying in my new bed. Im writing all of this, so someone else can try and make some sense out of it.

I should have been mad, because this will definitely turn things upside down in our custody battle. But you know what. I’m not angry.

Actually I’m glad. glad my son is out of this house. In the arm of his caring mother.

I still don’t know the reason for all the bugs in this building and what happened to my landlord, but as the bugs start to crawl up my legs I know, that I will soon find out.