Death #17:
Just to Bee Close
By Sarah
Nick loved Japan. A lot. There was nothing he didn’t love about
it. He loved the food, he loved the fashion, he loved the sights and the
sounds, the dazzling LCD screens in Tokyo, the culture that was thousands of
years old and resulted in some pretty cool old shit that Nick liked to visit
whenever he made it out to Japan.
Like, right at the moment, Nick was taking a tour of an old temple
that was hidden in a forest outside of Tokyo. His tour guide was
explaining the history of the site exuberantly in his best English to Nick and
his girlfriend, Lauren, and Nick had to suppress the urge to giggle at the way
the L sound was coming out as R’s. He’d heard this verbal tick a thousand
times, and it still got him. Every. Single. Time.
It was almost as good as dropping stuff in Howie’s mouth every
time the man fell asleep. Which was often as Howie seemed to only need a
place to plunk his ass down before he dozed off. Howie’s dozing habit had
provided Nick with countless hours of amusement.
Which was why it was weird touring without the rest of the group
because he had to put more effort into finding ways to amuse himself instead of
just messing around with the other guys.
But he had put a lot of effort and love into making his
newest solo album, and he was going to make sure to enjoy every minute of his
promotional tour. First stop: his beloved Japan and the passionate Japanese
fans.
Nick tuned back into the tour guide in time to follow him through
a section of the site that had crumbled and become overrun with
shrubbery. There was a faint humming sound, and the tour guide’s
expression turned nervous.
“We should go now, Carter-san. We should go inside the temple
quickly,” the man cautioned Nick. “It is not safe out here.”
Nick frowned and looked around. All he saw were a bunch of
trees, flowers, the odd bird here and there, and the smaller shack-size
buildings that had once been connected to and a part of the temple. “I
don’t understand. What’s so unsafe?” As if to prove that things were
fine, Nick stepped away from the guide and walked through the shrubbery.
Lauren watched him nervously, glancing at the panicked expression
growing on the tour guide’s face. “Nick, why don’t we just listen to the
man and go inside? Let’s go.”
“Aww, come on, Lauren. It’s just a bunch of trees,” Nick called
back as he wandered farther out. He swatted at a bee that buzzed by his
ear and took another step out.
“Carter-san! Please!” The tour guide was agitated now, and Nick
was starting to wonder what the hell the guy’s deal was.
He turned, intending to tell the man not to freak, when there was
a buzzing sound near him again and then he was on the ground, screaming, as
stunningly sharp pain shot through his eye and, it felt, down to the tips of his
toes. The pain went on and on, and he was sure he was going to go
blind—if he didn’t die from the pain first.
“My eye! My fucking eye! What the fuck! What the-”
Lauren started towards him, but the tour guide pulled her back.
“You cannot go out there,” he told her apologetically, almost near
tears. “I cannot let you die, too.”
Lauren gaped at him in horror. “Die?! What the hell do you
mean by ‘die’? What the fuck is out there?”
Nick was still screaming in pain, and, as Lauren and the tour
guide watched in horror, the faint buzzing sound grew exponentially until they
both saw the cloud of angry hornets buzz out of the trees and descend upon
Nick. As soon as they attacked him, his body started writhing in
unnatural ways, and he continued to scream as every inch of him was stung by
the angry insects.
“Vespa Japonica,” the tour guide murmured as they watched in
horror. “It has the flesh-melting venom. I am sorry, there is no
saving Carter-san.”
Within seconds, Nick’s screaming cut off as the buzzing continued
to grow. There were so many hornets covering Nick that it looked as
though Nick had gone and gotten a full body tattoo in black and yellow (no
relation to the song). His body twitched hideously, but there was no way to
know if it was reflexively or if Nick was still conscious and feeling the pain
of flesh-melting venom sprayed from thousands of furiously attentive and
dedicated Japanese hornets. After a few more minutes, as though sensing their
victim’s defeat, the hornets rose in a cloud of black and rushed away into the
trees. Nick's body jerked once before it lay utterly still.
Unable to wait any longer, Lauren rushed towards Nick’s body and
gasped at the sight of it. The face and the body that had fanned the
flames of millions of feverish fangirl hearts was mangled beyond
recognition. The blue eyes that had incited thousands of fantasies were
blurry and seemed to ooze unnaturally.
“Flesh-melting venom,” Lauren whispered sadly. “Poor Nick.
Guess the Japanese humans aren’t your only fans.”
***