Buzz

Shahan, Thomas. "Female Tabanus Horse Fly." Flickr. Yahoo, 30 June 2009. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

Jeremy flicked the switch and immediately hopped into his bed. He snuggled under his covers grateful for their warmth. The heating unit in his room was broken and winter easily found a way in. It had been a long day and he was more than happy to finally be able to rest his head and get some much-needed sleep. He cleared his mind and let exhaustion take over. His consciousness ebbed away… suddenly, an irritating noise at the side of his head forced him wide awake. Slightly angered that he had been deprived of his sleep, he rolled over and shut his eyes once more. A few seconds later the noise passed by his ear once more. This time he was fully aware of it; somehow a fly had gotten into his room in the middle of winter. He grunted in annoyance and pulled the blankets over his head to shut out the noise.

He was satisfied that this would finally give him the sleep he longed for; until he heard the buzzing again, even closer. The filthy thing had somehow followed him into his fortress of blankets and further denied him his rest. Jeremy threw off his covers and raised his hands, prepared to snuff out the insect’s insignificant existence. Once again, the pest buzzed by his ear, but Jeremy’s awkward move to smash the bug only wound up smashing his face. Swearing under his breath with his cheek now stinging and red, Jeremy left the warm safety of his mattress to once again turn on the lights. Blinded momentarily, he opened his eyes to find the little devil buzzing around near the light fixture. Jeremy bent his knees and sprang up flailing his arms in an attempt to hit the insect crawling around on his ceiling light. The bug had no trouble avoiding Jeremy’s clumsy attempt to end its life and easily flew out of his reach. Jeremy, on the other hand, was not so lucky; he crashed back to the floor twisting his ankle in the process. Rocking back and forth while clutching his throbbing leg, he cursed the black demon that was floating carelessly around his head. All he wanted was relief from his hard day and this insignificant creature was depriving him of his rest.

In his pain, he started pinning all of his problems on the fly. The fly was his horrible boss, the fly was his bad grades in college that had led to him landing his depressing job, and the fly was the constant reminder that life was going to keep handing him problems and never give him a moment of rest. He pushed himself to his feet and focused his gaze on the critter now sitting on the pillow that he wished he could lay his head on. Grunting from the pain in his foot, Jeremy leaped forward onto his bed to finally squish the tiny beast. But again the fly evaded his attempts and Jeremy wound up simply hitting his head into his bed’s backboard. He curled up into a ball feeling the beginnings of tears in his eyes. His head was now pulsing, his foot was aching, he was exhausted, and he was such a failure that he could not even kill a measly fly. He glanced around his room and saw his badminton racket leaning against his shelves. He pushed his throbbing body off his bed and reached for it. He scanned the room and his eyes lit upon the flying evil buzzing around his nightstand. Jeremy sprinted forwards and swung the racket towards the fly. Too late, he realized that the arc of his swing was headed directly towards his bedside lamp. With a resounding crash, his lamp went flying into the wall shattering across the room while the fly lazily flew away.

Jeremy looked over the damage he had caused. Every time he tried to kill the miserable creature, the situation was made even worse. Jeremy felt incredible loathing towards the fly. It was robbing him of his much-needed sleep, had caused him incredible pain, and kept reminding him of how much of a failure he was. Metaphors between the fly and his hopeless life kept circulating through his head. The fly was the impassable roadblock keeping him from ever succeeding, the fly was his ex-girlfriend who he kept trying to impress but only hurt him, and the fly was the constant reminder that he would screw up every chance he had in life.

He felt rage coursing through him and his eyes lit once more upon the minuscule monster which was now floating around his desk. He bellowed with anger and sprang arms outstretched towards his desk. Despite the speed of his attempt, the fly avoided his attempts and Jeremy’s hands smashed into his desk causing books to topple onto him from the shelves above. Hands screaming with pain and his body aching from the fallen books, he searched once more for the cruel insect and found it flying around his display shelves. Adorned with gems and precious stones from around the world, these shelves were Jeremy’s proudest possessions. But in his haze of depression and anger, Jeremy could not care less. He raised his hand and brought it crashing down on the fly’s resting place. Crystals cascaded around him and the shelves caved in. His hand feeling as though it was on fire, Jeremy stood, breathing heavy, over the chaos he had made of his room. He kneeled down and searched through the wreckage, not satisfied that the fly was truly gone for good. To his triumphant delight, Jeremy uncovered the fly’s mangled squashed under a large quartz crystal.

Feeling elated, Jeremy gladly flicked off the switched and snuggled into his covers. His heartbeat came to a slow and he gradually began to doze off. He felt his consciousness fading fast and then... another light buzz flew by, once more reminding him again that his problems would never go away.