I was cramped into the tiny airplane seat, in coach, my iPod and bag of peanuts on the tray table, peoples’ elbows on either side of me. There was the white airplane noise and my neighbors on each side were dozing. I looked over at the center aisle and there was a giant ant sitting in one of the seats- larger than a person, head with trembling antennae rising up over the tops of the seats. I couldn’t keep my eyes off him and wanted to say something to the other passengers but I couldn’t find the words. The ant appeared to be eating something and I saw it was the in-flight magazine. He bit at it like a regular sized ant might bite a leaf. I opened my mouth but no words came out and found myself pressing the attendant button until my finger got white.

The woman arrived and leaned toward me. “Yes?” I leaned toward her but had such a rush of panic that I couldn’t tell her anything and she just frowned and walked off.

Then the ant looked over at me, staring straight at me, and I froze as the antennae quivered. I looked down at my bag of peanuts and found myself throwing the bag at the ant. It bounced off the side of his big head. The ant let out a strange hissing noise and moved around in its seat. Soon I realized it was getting up and moving towards me and I recoiled, leaning into the guy next to me who tried pushing me away.

The ant reached the aisle, everyone else sleeping now and the lights dimmed, and it put two hairy stick legs on the seats in my row. Then it ate the head off the middle-aged lady who had been sleeping next to me. Blood steamed down and sprayed up, speckling the ant’s head. The ant moved closer to me and I leaned even further back, the guy now pushing me with all his might, little fingers digging into my back.

The ant bit one of my arms off before the flight attendant had him go back to his seat and I doubled over, bleeding profusely, wishing desperately for the flight to end.

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