Written 2026/2/15
Simon Leu was falling behind, there was no other way to slice it. He was already behind on his latest paper for Professor Nayek, which was supposed to make up for the last late one. He knew he should leave the old man alone, coming to his office after hours was risking another lecture. But he needed a fourth chance.
“Hey, professor, I'm really sorry but-” Simon trailed off, the door now open to reveal the grisly scene before him. There were four students, centered around...Roland, was it? The fish guy? His arm wrapped in something pink and bloody, something that came straight out of Nayek's body, which laid lifeless on the desk in front of him.
Simon barely had time to scream before a pink, bloody snake— his professor's intestine?— unwound itself from Roland's arm, shot across the room, and wrapped around his throat. He kicked his legs desperately as the thing held him in the air, possessing strength he'd never expect living intestines, if such things must exist, to wield.
He clawed at it, nails digging into the soft flesh that choked him. Opening his mouth to scream would be his final mistake, which allowed the thing to force itself inside. Warm. Wet. Writhing. The taste of his professor's blood foul on his tongue, which was powerless to stop this intrusion.
There was a sudden and terrible jolt inside his abdomen. His own intestines had met the intruder, which roused them from their years-long slumber, and joined together. Then, the two exited his mouth with a wrenching shhhhlchk and left him to crash down to the floor, dead.
Roland clasped his bloodied hands together. “It's a miracle! God sees us, it protects us.” He turned to the stunned followers behind him.
One stepped back. “P...prophet, I'm not sure-”
“You witness a miracle, God's direct intervention just before this interloper could expose us, and you doubt?”
The follower cast their head down. “No prophet, I...I wasn't finished—”
Roland wiped his bloody hands off on his coat, sighing contentedly. “My apologies. Speak, child.”
“I'm not sure this will be the last.”
A scream sounded behind them.