A man called Mr Mifflin arrived home in the suburbs with his son Tom. They parked the vehicle outside while Tom’s mother, Mrs Mifflin, welcomed them by the door.

“There are my two big men! I cooked something nice for you two this evening.”

Aaro came out under the wheels bigger, the size of a mouse, and ran towards the house to climb up the wall and make his way uphill. At the ceiling he bumped into four big rats. Three were playing kick boxing looking like professional black murderers, in company with a female rat which seems to appear more knowledgeable than the rest.

The knowledgeable-looking one was called Daisy, alongside a rat running out of fur called Sticks, skinny with big eyes. Lastly they had among them a fat, lazy, dirty, stinking rat called James. The gang number was complete when the boss was around, Captain Pain! who was a very dark, big and tough one, with an eye patch on the left side.

Aaro took his chances to intrude the gang but was caught on sight by the deep voice, chopping a fish head, standing at the roof edge examining the hornet mutant encroaching. Aaro crawled towards Mifflin’s house chimney cap but was cut short by Captain Pain who stood in his way with an evil smile. “Hey guys, come take a look at the snack I have found for you.” Captain Pain said.

“I’m not looking for any trouble,” Aaro tried. Captain pain’s crew saw him. Sticks narrowed the distance towards them and he studied both the roach and his boss. “Yhea boss that’s a very big snack,” Sticks said and his pack laughed without a deep voice.

Captain pain was trembling, pointing towards the roach. “No, that thing is not a real. It just talked to me!” Aaro looked at their changing faces. “Guys, I think I have just evolved but still, I’m what I am!” he said. They all ran as Captain Pain slowly moved away from Aaro’s path and finally ran for it.

Two penguins, Kevin the speaker and Donald who always agree with him, were standing at the next-door roof looking at the rat’s direction. “I heard what he said,” Donald agreed with his head. Aaro proceeded to the human’s resident, entering from the chimney cap down to the ashes of the last fire.

At the dining room he saw the Mifflin family watching a television programme while devouring on sizzling, edible nourishment in the dim lounge. A two year old girl with big cheeks, Cindy, was playing around with her doll and failed to perceive Aaro running towards the sofa to hide until the lights went out. In the morning Tom, in his casual clothes carrying his school bag, went down the stairs adjoining the kitchen to pump the tank in advance for his departure.

“Ten slices are missing from the bread that I bought late last night!” his mother said. “I found the bread laying down the floor!”. Tom went to the fridge and took milk while his mother was still explaining, then poured the breakfast cereal into his dish. “Are you responsible for this mess Tom?”

“I know nothing about that.” Tall Tom continued with his breakfast and stirred milk with the spoon while her mother stood there. At 2 a.m. glasses started breaking down in the kitchen, Mrs Mifflin woke Mr Mifflin. “There’s someone in the house, you should go and check!”

Mr Mifflin took a gun from the chest of drawers and went to check. Scouting in the dark room like a police officer, he did not find anything, only broken glasses were laying on the floor. He went to check if the kids were okay in their rooms and found them napping.

Two weeks went silently without Aaro’s presence being felt. One morning the Mifflin’s family found the refrigerator unbarred, food upside down, all cakes bitten, half bottles were drunk down and on the floor, bitten fruits and vegetables. All the food had to be thrown away and the security was called to check if there was any false entry during the night. The safeguards did not find anything.

From then onwards everything was locked in the house as Mr Mifflin’s family was living in fear for their lives. Two months passed without anything arising. They did not know who they were really playing mind games with.Not long after, Mrs Mifflin woke up to a dreadful morning once more as her furniture was wracked!

The mat in the dining room, dirty clothes and shoes in the laundry room were in pieces! Only table cloths and plant leaves were left. Mr Beast, an animal inspector was called to examine the house. He made his attempt to find the pest in the apartment but came back with his bare hands.

“When did this all start?” Mr Beast asked. Mr Mifflin stepped closer to him and looked at the house. “It’s been about five months now and we don’t know who or what is doing all of this.” Little Cindy, holding her puppet and her father’s hand, looked at Mr Beast with her innocent eyes.“Is it a ghost?” Little Cindy inquired.

Mr Beast laughed. “No, but I have never seen such a thing in my career. What I can say is that it is alive and related to insects. So relax, it won’t eat you until you’re dead! I suggest you have infrared cameras installed at every corner of your resident. I will come back later to fit them inside the house and you can give me a call if you caught something strange moving around.”

That night, everyone could not sleep, they were looking at the video recorder screen in their rooms displaying multiple rooms. But no one saw anything.

***

Tell us what you think: Do you think they’ll find Aaro?