Skin Creep

The rats killed all but one.

Hunted down in packs, cornering their prey.

Sharp teeth ripping the slime flesh, greedy tongues sucking oozing innards. Organs, brains, eyes swallowed or discarded.

Burrowing under the clammy flesh, filling the devoured void with their pus-slicked fur.

Black eyes peering out from inside empty skulls, catching the light from my kitchen door, the slow loping gait replaced with a sharp chaotic scurrying across the lawn.

The lone survivor sits still, unblinking in the wet roots, the stench of rotten leaves masking the fear.

Plotting his suffocating revenge on the nest below the sewer.