He hurried towards his house, his father's truck was outside and he could bet money that it was still warm. He didn't want to meet his father now so he decided to pass round the back and come in through the kitchen door. On the back door a sticky note proclaimed that his father had "made" pasta. That was a surprise.

He opened the door and the smell of smoke and burnt food hit him. The burner was on fire. He ran to a corner and grabbed a fire extinguisher, after a couple of seconds it died down. The smoke still filled the kitchen so he opened the window. When the smoke had died down enough he went to find his father. He  didn't have to look far. His father lay passed out on the couch. Reruns of sunday's game played on the TV. The beer bottles on the center table told the Whole story, his father had come back from work probably drunk, had a few more beers and passed out Forgetting the pasta.  

He was about to plop down on the sofa and start surfing channels when the pain behind his eyes started again. His sight went blurry and his head ached. He removed his glasses and felt instant relief, his sight returned back to normal and he breathed a sigh of relief.

He knew from experience that his father wasn't waking up anytime soon. Nothing good was on Tv anyway, not even at the news Channel. All they had was some brief story about how most of the animals at some Australian reservation had been brutally butchered. Tens of corpses had been found with claw and bite marks on them. Experts said that some kind of rabid animal or maybe even a group of them must have attacked and left those corpses. The reservation officials said that they would their best to track and contain the threat even though they had no idea what it was.

He finally found A channel that was playing reruns of how I met your mother he was about to go into the kitchen and get some snacks When his phone started ringing. He grabbed it and looked at the caller ID. It was Mia. 

"Oi, Alex. Where are you?"

"Sorry but I couldn't help noticing how you skipped the pleasantries and just dove into the matter."

"You didn't answer the question." 

"Aren't asian girls supposed to be cheerful and all gooey eyed. "

"Only in anime. But seriously where are you?"

"I'm home. Did anything happen."

"Yeah. Dave found where Billy or what's left of him is hiding."

*

Kevin had been taking david  back to the dojo when David had decided to take a detour. Then he had stopped at an old building scheduled for demolition, turned around on his heel, smiled. At first kevin was too busy wondering whether he had something on his face that he didn't hear what David said.

"Sorry did you say something?"

"Yes I did. The flea is located somewhere in here." Kevin had then called everybody . They had been so preoccupied with finding the flea that hadn't thought about what they would do if they actually found him. David would probably take care of it.

He stole a glance at David he stood leaning on a brick wall looking aloof  in his black way too tight clothes with a mischievous grin on his face. He turned back towards the building and almost thought he could see smoke drifting upwards, Billy was most definitely there.

Everyone soon showed up and nobody was smiling. Which was understandable but not good. They were seriously unprepared and there were so many different ways this could go wrong, It was up to him as the leader to do something about it. 

"Common guys let's get this over with."

"What do we do when we get there?" Jess asked.

"Yeah, it's not like we can just go and ask him to kindly leave town?" Mia added. He had expected this from Mia. She had always been the skeptical one and dealing with her needed a little finesse, but not from Jess. Luckily David bailed him out.

"Let's go. You guys are gonna have your first extraterrestrial experience. Don't be scared of some flea, it's degrading."

Kevin neglected to tell him that he was an extraterrestrial and nobody minded so they walked in. Immediately they were in Kevin started regretting. The building was old and dusty and barely any light made it in, there were even cracks in the wall. He knew the building was old and scheduled for demolition but at this rate the building would collapse before they could do the job themselves. 

"Where is he?"

"Somewhere above us."  They made It to the stairway. The building was quiet and Kevin was forced to remember one of his great grandma's saying "the calm before the storm." He could faintly smell smoke. Billy had been here or was here. The seriousness of the situation started settling on him, they could die here and nobody would know what exactly what happened. It wasn't too late to go back.

A grunting sound made him focus and look up. A person stood at the top of the stairs looking down at them. No not a person, a corpse? No it was Billy or more like the remnant of Billy. He was naked and it was not a good sight. His skin was pale and chapped. Huge patches revealed the tissue beneath his skin. His head was bald and somewhere along the line he had lost an ear. Billy roared and rushed at him. He had enough time to be grateful that  at least he couldn't talk, only God knew how terrible that creature would sound. 

David suddenly appeared in front of him blocking his view. He saw David's arm move and Billy falling over the rail and down to the floor. He stood up looking heavily annoyed. His arm was bent at an odd angle. He must have broke his arm when he fell, but he didn't seem to notice the flea or whatever was controlling him didn't seem to be able to experience pain. So instead of collapsing in pain he roared again and went aflame.

One second he was normal, viciously ugly but normal the next moment he was like the human torch, but with blue flame which seemed much cooler.

David held the rail and jumped over, and Kevin realized that they were practical sitting ducks here.

"We have to get off the staircase. Go up!" Billy heard his voice and faced him ignoring David. Kevin had was too high for him, unless he could throw fire balls. Which would mean the end of all of them, So he went for the next best thing. Jason had been at the back of the line and was much closer to the floor. He gave one of his guttural roars and rushed at Jason. 

Jason was shocked when he saw a naked rotting guy drop from the stairs, but that didn't compare to his reaction when the guy started burning. The burning guy  roared and  came at him. He had a moment of clarity to remember that the stairway was made out of old wood. Which last time he checked was very inflammable. And the Stairwell was way too narrow for all of them too make it down at once, he had to take one for the team.

He jumped down and tackled Billy before he could reach the stairs. He felt his breath leave him as he hit the floor but he held Billy down. Billy roared in outrage and the flames went up a notch. He could smell his jacket smoking and felt a pang of regret, he had just gotten it. Then he felt a searing pain on his shoulder and he knew that Billy had just bitten him. He could feel the heat of the fire. He didn't how much immunity he had to fire and he wasn't really keen to test it out. He hoped that the dude would run out of gas or something. 

God must have heard him because the flames died down instantly. He felt someone grab his collar from behind and pull him up with so much force that the seams of his jacket tore. So much for the jacket.

David pulled Jason and Billy apart, and then stomped on Billy's face. Over and over again till they heard a sickening crunch.

"I think that's enough." Kevin said. Mia and Jess were already pale and Alex looked like he wanted to puke. David looked at them, then at the misshapen face and then laughed.

"And what do you plan to do with him?" They hadn't thought about it. They had come here today unprepared and without a plan just hoping that things would work out well.

"Well duh, we'll remove the flea and Jess will heal right up." David smiled again. There was something wrong about that smile. 

"You see it's not as easy as you all think." He picked Billy up and turned his back for everyone to see. At the base of his neck they could see a hunk of flesh shaped like a starfish. That is it had five main limbs surrounding his main body, but he also had other tiny limbs that burrowed into his skin. 

"The flea's completely taken over. The flea works by burrowing into his spine and intercepting the signals from the brain and taking over the body.  If I take it out your friend would probably die or become incapable of doing so much as breathing for himself. That's of course if he doesn't die of his injuries first since the flea was also responsible for healing his wounds."

"So what are you going to do about him?" Jason asked.

"Probably kill it."

"You can't kill HIM." Jess spoke up "it's not right."

"So I should let him go? If that's what you want no problem. But I should inform you that he's..." He pointed at Billy who was still passed out on the floor. 

"Probably cannibalistic. He gets his nutrients from the bodies of other humans. He also emits a gas that combusts when it comes in contact with oxygen. Bearing that in mind how much damage do you think he'll cause before this host breaks down? How long do you think before he gets a new host?"

"But still..." She felt someone hold her shoulder and she turned to see Alex shaking his head.

"Do what you have to do. I'm going to call Mr pierce." David smiled and nodded.

"I think you all should leave. This is not a sight for squeamish people." They turned and left but Mia couldn't help turning back to steal a glance. David held  Billy's head between and twisted it with so much force that she heard the snap from  was. She continued walking and didn't tho she felt like she was going to be sick. There were some more sounds but she didn't turn and she had already gone too far to know what it was, but as she heard the building she was sure she heard someone laugh. She found a lonely corner bent over and proceeded to throw up.

Author's Note: sorry for the late post but I've been busy with exams and other stuff.

Please tell me what you think about the chapter and don't forget to like and subscribe.