Feeding Frenzy: Summer Series by Jennifer Weigel, Chapter 3
Last time on Feeding Frenzy…
The next morning, the sun streaked into a small gap in the curtains reflecting off the minute specks of dust in the air like a shimmer of glittering stars. Lucille had no recollection of going to sleep. She woke with a start, still recalling the events of the night prior as if they were etched into her mind, Was it a dream? Did she imagine it?
She got up, still wearing the same rumpled clothes she had arrived in town in the day before. She then realized her suitcase for the trip must still be in her trunk. āOh, well,ā Lucille muttered to herself, āmight as well find some breakfastā¦ā
There was the diner attached to the front of the motel, or what was left of one anyway. One of those old countertop-style cafes where you place your order sitting at the bar looking into the kitchen. It smelled of grease and dirt and old personsā houses, with maybe a bit of bad long-expired and worn out odor-eater air freshener thrown in just to try to mask the musty rotting funk that seemed to imbue everything all throughout the backwash of a town. Lucilleās stomach turned but then growled; she had to see what they offered, she was ravenous.
The hotel desk clerk took notice and nodded slightly at Lucille from the swinging door to the back, apparently she was also the head waitress. āWhatān I get ya, honey?ā she drawled as she slid over to the counter. Her hollow eyes fixated on Lucille as if sizing her up in the depths of a darkness that seemed to go on forever, black as night.
āCoffeeā Lucille answered. āAndā¦ what else do you have?ā
āHouseāpecialz flapjacks,ā the words rolled together into one long drawl. āWeās also got eggs ān bacon ān taters.ā
āI guess Iāll try the flapjacks,ā Lucille answered, surprised at how small and distant her own voice sounded. She cleared her voice with a deep-throated cough to seem less unnerved.
āHeyāderr,ā Tom Jones whistled from the far end of the counter bar where he was huddled over coffee and heated discussion with the guys. Shouldnāt he be working on my car? thought Lucille. He sauntered over and looked her up and down.
āRoughānight?ā he asked. His clothes bore yet more rust colored stains. Lucille suspected they werenāt from motor oil.
āIām ok,ā she stammered quickly. āI left my luggage in the trunkā¦ Any word on the Buick?ā The desk clerk casually tossed a plate of pancakes in front of Lucille and returned to her post by the swinging door.
āYaās gotta bad leak. Gonna needa new gasket. I donāts have the part. Itāll be a couple-a days befores I can get it in. Feel freeān swing by da shop later todayān have a look if ya wants.ā As if things couldnāt get any worse.
āI have to get to a wedding in Portland,ā Lucille muttered under her breath, adding, āI canāt stay here.ā
The flapjacks were pretty standard pancakes. A bit doughy but otherwise just blank tasteless discs of pan-fried batter. No amount of syrup made the situation better. She ate them anyway; to be fair, she devoured them really. She had been so famished and once she dug in she couldnāt stop until the pancakes were almost gone. Two bites to go andā¦ suddenly she felt adrift and awash in unseen eyes upon her, boring into her soul.
She glanced up and caught the desk clerk staring at her intently, her dark eyes beginning to blossom and glow, seemingly growing larger and more focused. Her nostrils flared a bit too, and did she just barely lick her ruby lips with a flash of her thick pink tongue? Two patrons at the other end of the bar from where Tom had come to check in also stared, the same eerie dark eyes alight with interest. There was chum in the waterā¦
Lucille stopped dead in her tracks and stared back. The desk clerk shook it off, her pallid flesh jiggling as she brought herself back to consciousness, her eyes returning to hollow black pools. āYāall done, honey?ā she cooed. āIāll getān ya check.ā
Lucille met her at the register and briskly paid cash for her meal, fully aware that the other patrons continued to track her every move. āKeep the change,ā she said as she flashed out the door.
On her way back to her room, she diverged from the sidewalk to examine the spot where she had dreamt the fray in the middle of the night. There were signs of a struggle. Something large had fallen just off of the curb, crushing much of the dying and poorly mowed edging under its weight. The mud-streaked grass streaked down a small hill towards a slight ravine as if something had been dragged there. There were some signs of what may have been blood, but not near as much as Lucille had dreamt. She followed the movement.
As she approached the ravine, she became aware of more and more flies buzzing about, flitting here and there as if protecting some unseen prize. And there was a foul odor of death and decay that permeated the place. But otherwise, there were no signs of life or death or anything in between. No signs of anything having been, having struggled, or having left. Lucille turned to return to her room and was confronted by the other bar patrons.
āYāall right there, missyā said the older man, grey and pallid and somewhat frail looking despite his notable height, his flannel shirt stained and streaked with years of age and too-hard work. A bluish vein protruded from his balding head, throbbing casually as his hollow black eyes rolled up and down and all over her. His friend, a gaunt and grisly fellow with more dark-grey-flecked-black beard than hair joined in, scanning her over like a synchronized swimmer that drifted in just a moment later. She recognized them from the scene she had dreamt the night before. Why does everyone in this backwash of a town have to size me up in slow motion like some unknown trophy to be won? she wondered, her stomach rolling into a knot as her hand balled into a fist.
āIām fine,ā Lucille said, bowing her head as she headed briskly towards her room.
The grisly bearded fellow caught her arm as she passed and looked long into her eyes, the same unnerving cavernous pools of blackness alight with a far away flame. āGood. I reckon yāall stay outta trouble. We donāt wants no troubles here.ā His face twitched uneasily as he spoke, nostrils flaring slightly once and again. She thought she caught a glint of light flicker off of a white pointed tooth from beneath matted facial hair.
āIām not causing any trouble, just waiting on my car,ā Lucille said plainly, staring back at him, trying to break his focus and appear un-intimidated. His grip loosened and she returned to her room as quickly as she could manage without appearing jarred. She dashed in the door and bolted the deadbolt.
Her cell phone was dead. Bar-less. No reception out here. She turned on the television. Black and white static gave way to a rerun of Letās Make a Deal. At some point she drifted off again, her head still spinning with the events of the day prior.
And feel free to check out more of Jennifer Weigelās work here on Haunted MTL or here on her website.
Today on Nightmarish Nature we’re gonna revisit The Blob and jiggle our way to terror. Why? ‘Cause we’re just jellies – looking at those gelatinous denizens of the deep, as well as some snot-like land-bound monstrosities, and wishing we could ooze on down for some snoozy booze schmoozing action. Or something.
Honestly, I don’t know what exactly it is that jellyfish and slime molds do but whatever it is they do it well, which is why they’re still around despite being among the more ancient organism templates still in common use.
Jellyfish are on the rise.
Yeah, yeah, some species like moon jellies will hang out in huge blooms near the surface feeding, but that’s not what I meant. Jellyfish populations are up. They’re honing in on the open over-fished ocean and making themselves at home. Again.
And, although this makes the sea turtles happy since jellies are a favorite food staple of theirs, not much else is excited about the development. Except for those fish that like to hide out inside of their bells, assuming they don’t accidentally get eaten hanging out in there. But that’s a risk you gotta take when you’re trying to escape predation by surrounding yourself in a bubble of danger that itself wants to eat you. Be eaten or be eaten. Oh, wait…
So what makes jellies so scary?
Jellyfish pack some mighty venom. Despite obvious differences in mobility, they are related to anemones and corals. But not the Man o’ War which looks similar but is actually a community of microorganisms that function together as a whole, not one creature. Not that it matters when you’re on the wrong end of a nematocyst, really. Because regardless what it’s attached to, that stings.
Box jellies are among the most venomous creatures in the world and can move of their own accord rather than just drifting about like many smaller jellyfish do. And even if they aren’t deadly, the venom from many jellyfish species will cause blisters and lesions that can take a long time to heal. So even if they do resemble free-floating plastic grocery bags, you’d do best to steer clear. Because those are some dangerous curves.
But what does this have to do with slime molds?
Absolutely nothing. I honestly don’t know enough about jellyfish or slime molds to devote the whole of a Nightmarish Nature segment to either, so they had to share. Essentially, this bit is what happened when I decided to toast a bagel before coming up with something to write about and spent a tad too much time in contemplation of my breakfast. I guess we’re lucky I didn’t have any cream cheese or clotted cream…
Oh, and also thinking about gelatinous cubes and oozes in the role-playing game sense – because those sort of seem like a weird hybrid between jellies and slime molds, as does The Blob. Any of those amoeba influenced creatures are horrific by their very nature – they don’t even need to be souped up, just ask anyone who’s had dysentery.
And one of the most interesting thing about slime molds is that they can take the shortest path to food even when confronted with very complex barriers. They are maze masterminds and would give the Minotaur more than a run for his money, especially if he had or was food. They have even proven capable of determining the most efficient paths for water lines or railways in metropolitan regions, which is kind of crazy when you really think about it. Check it out in Scientific American here. So, if we assume that this is essentially the model upon which The Blob was built, then it’s kind of a miracle anything got away. And slime molds are coming under closer scrutiny and study as alternative means of creating computer components are being explored.
Jellies are the Wave of the Future.
We are learning that there may be a myriad of uses for jellyfish from foodstuffs to cosmetic products as we rethink how we interact with them. They are even proving useful in cleaning up plastic pollution. I don’t know how I feel about the foodstuff angle for all that they’ve been a part of various recipes for a long time. From what I’ve seen of the jellyfish cookbook recipes, they just don’t look that appealing. But then again I hate boba with a passion, so I’m probably not the best candidate to consider the possibility.
So it seems that jellies are kind of the wave of the future as we find that they can help solve our problems. That’s pretty impressive for some brainless millions of years old critter condiments. Past – present – perpetuity! Who knows what else we’d have found if evolution hadn’t cleaned out the fridge every so often?
Feel free to check out more Nightmarish Nature here.
Continuing our junkyard dawg werewolf story from the previous St. Patrickās Daysā¦ though technically he’s more of a wolfwere but wolfwhatever. Anyway, here are Part 1 from 2022, Part 2 from 2023 and Part 3 from 2024 if you want to catch up.
Yeah I donāt know how you managed to find me after all this time. We havenāt been the easiest to track down, Monty and I, and we like it that way. Though actually, youāve managed to find me every St. Patrickās Day since 2022 despite me being someplace else every single time. Itās a little disconcerting, like Iām starting to wonder if I was microchipped way back in the day in 2021 when I was out lollygagging around and blacked out behind that taco hutā¦
Anyway as Iād mentioned before, that Scratchers was a winner. And Iād already moved in with Monty come last St. Patrickās Day. Hell, heād already begun the process of cashing in the Scratchers, and what a process that was. It made my head spin, like too many squirrels chirping at you from three different trees at once. We did get the money eventually though.
Since I saw you last, we were kicked out of Montyās crap apartment and had gone to live with his parents while we sorted things out. Thank goodness that was short-lived; his mother is a nosy one for sure, and Monty didnāt want to let on he was sitting on a gold mine as he knew theyād want a cut even though they had it made already. She did make a mean brisket though, and it sure beat living with Sal. Just sayin.
Anyway, we finally got a better beater car and headed west.Ā I was livinā the dream.Ā Ā We were seeing the country, driving out along old Route 66, for the most part.Ā At least until our car broke down just outside of Roswell near the mountains and we decided to just shack it up there.Ā (Boy, Monty sure can pick āem.Ā Itās like he has radar for bad cars.Ā Calling them lemons would be generous.Ā At least itās not high maintenance women who wonāt toss you table scraps or let you up on the sofa.)
We found ourselves the perfect little cabin in the woods. And it turns out we were in the heart of Bigfoot Country, depending on who you ask. I wouldnāt know, Iāve never seen one. But it seems that Monty was all into all of those supernatural things: aliens, Bigfoot, even werewolves. And finding out his instincts on me were legit only added fuel to that fire. So now he sees himself as some sort of paranormal investigator.
Whatever.Ā I keep telling him this werewolf gig isnāt all that itās cracked up to be, and it doesnāt work like in the movies.Ā I wasnāt bitten, and I generally donāt bite unless provoked.Ā He says technically Iām a wolfwere, to which I just reply āWhere?ā and smile.Ā Whatever. Itās the little things I guess.Ā I just wish everything didnāt come out as a bark most of the time, though Montyās gotten pretty good at interpretingā¦Ā As long as he doesnāt get the government involved, and considering his take on the government himself that would seem to be a long stretch.Ā We both prefer the down low.
So here we are, still livinā the dream. There arenāt all that many rabbits out here but itās quiet and the locals donāt seem to notice me all that much. And Monty can run around and make like heās gonna have some kind of sighting of Bigfoot or aliens or the like. As long as the pantryās stocked itās no hair off my back. Sure, there are scads of tourists, but they can be fun to mess around with, especially at that time of the month if I happen to catch them out and about.
Speaking of tourists, I even ran into that misspent youth from way back in 2021 at the convenience store; I spotted him at the Quickie Mart along the highway here. I guess he and his girlfriend were apparently on walkabout (or car-about) perhaps making their way to California or something. He even bought me another cookie. Small world. But we all knew that alreadyā¦
If you enjoyed this werewolf wolfwere wolfwhatever saga, feel free to check out more of Jennifer Weigelās work here on Haunted MTL or here on her website.
So what better follow up to Invisibles Among Us in Nightmarish Nature than Monstrous Mimicry? Further exploring the leaps that critters will go to in order to eat and not be eaten. This time we’re focusing on those creatures that want to intentionally be mistaken for one another.
Insects Pretending to Be Insects
This is a pretty common subgroup in the mimicry set. Featuring such celebrities as the Viceroy Butterfly, which looks an awful lot like the Monarch. Why? Because everyone knows Monarch Butterflies taste nasty and cause indigestion. Duh? Though it appears the Viceroy took further cues from this and is not all that tasty in its own right either. Dual reinforcement is totally the way to go – it tells predators not to eat the yucky butterflies regardless. But some bugs go a bit further in this, imitating one another to seek out food or protection. Various wasps, spiders, beetles, and even some caterpillars impersonate ants for access to their nest or because ants aren’t as appetizing as their buggy counterparts to much of anything outside of the myrmecophagous crowd (as shared before, here’s a fun diversion with True Facts if you have no idea), though some also have nefarious plans in mind. And similarly, the female photoris fireflies imitate other firefly signals luring smaller males to try to mate with them where they are instead eaten.
Kind of Weird Mimicry: Insects Pretending to Be Animals
Moths are pretty tasty, as far as many birds and small mammals are concerned, so several of them find ways to appear less appetizing. Using mimicry in their larval form, they may try to look specifically like bird scat or even like snakes to drive away predators, with elaborate displays designed to reinforce their fakir statuses. And once they emerge as moths, they continue these trends, with different species flashing eye spots to look like owls, snakes, cats, and a myriad of other animals most of their predators don’t want to tangle with. But other insects pretend to be larger animals too, with some beetles and others producing noises often associated with predator, typically towards the same end – to deter those who might otherwise eat them.
Animals Pretending to Be Animals
Similarly some animals will mimic others. Snakes may resemble one other, as seen in the Milk versus King versus Coral Snakes and the popular rhyme, Red with Black is safe for Jack or venom lack, but Red with Yellow kills a fellow for all that it isn’t 100% accurate on the Red-Yellow end (better to err on the side of caution than not – so assume they are deadly). Fish and octopuses will imitate other fish for protection status or to conceal opportunistic predatory behaviors. And lots of animals will mimic the sounds others make, though Lyrebirds tend to take the cake in this, incorporating the vocalizations into mating rituals and more.
Really Weird Mimicry: Animals Pretending to Be Insects
Some of the weirdest mimicry comes out in animals pretending to be insects or small fish, where a predator will flick its strangely formed tongue that looks like a fish or water nymph to draw in more tiny critters that feel safe with their own, only to find themselves snapped up as dinner. Snapping turtles are notorious for this, disguising themselves in the muck to make their big asses less obvious and reinforce the ruse. Even some snakes do this.
Weirder Still
Then there are things that pretend to be plants. Like orchid mantises. Or sea slugs that look like anemones (some of which eat anemones and have stingers to match). I mentioned a few of these in the Invisibles Among Us segment last time, because some are highly specialized to look like very specific things and others just aren’t. Essentially, nature loves to play dress up and be confusing and adaptive. It’s like Halloween year round. And who can really argue with that?
Here’s a fun video from Animalogic exploring some of these themes. And feel free to check out more Nightmarish Nature here.