The women of Pinchton, Maine

Deena Diddell, thirty-four years old and a proud trooper of the state of Maine, took off her dimpled hat, shook out her long chestnut hair and gazed in puzzlement at the onrushing fogbank. She'd been doing this job for most of her adult life, but she'd never seen anything quite like it.

"Looks to be coming in from the lake," she said to her partner, Katey Flanagan, a petite, freckled redhead of Irish descent. The women of the small town of Pinchton, Maine, were famously attractive, and both state troopers were fine examples. "What do you reckon it is? Never seen a storm quite like that before."

Katey shrugged, watching the fog roll down the road towards them. "Kind of spooky," she said, as the first pale wisps lashed around the ankles of their uniform trousers. "I don't know what it is, but... do you get the feeling something in there's watching us?"

"It's just mist, Katey. How could it be watching us?"

"I don't know. But... something's not right. I got kind of a creepy feeling. Isn't that government laboratory up somewhere in that direction?"

"Huh." The trees in front of them were disappearing one by one. Deena heard a strange sound, something like a bird but not quite, coming from inside the mist. She shivered. "It's probably nothing to worry about."

"I feel like there's... eyes all over me." Katey put a hand on the bonnet of their car. "Maybe we should go back in town, warn them about it."

"About some mist?"

"Better safe then sorry, right?"

Now Deena could barely see the road in front of her feet. The mist was descending on them thick and fast, enveloping them in chilly vapor that raised goosebumps down her arms. "Maybe you're right. We'd better go now, though, before it gets too dim to see. You want to drive?"

"Eeek!"

"Katey? I... oh my god, Katey? What is that?"

Something was crawling down Katey's arm. It looked like a slug with butterfly wings, a pulsating yellow body that gleamed with translucent slime. It was like no insect Deena had ever seen before in the world. Katey was staring at it with an expression of horrified fascination.

"Um, Deena?" she said. "Do you... have you ever seen a bug like this before?"

"No. Never."

"I was afraid you'd say that."

Something cold and slimy landed on the back of Deena's neck. She swatted at it, and felt it ooze between her fingertips. She realised with horror, feeling it crawl down between her shoulderblades, that it had slipped down the back of her uniform shirt.

She grabbed at the small of her back, trying to catch the creature before it burrowed even further inside her clothes. And she realised something else. Something truly, incomprehensibly horrible.

There was a line of tears down the back of her shirt.

She looked at Katey, eyes wide with fear, and saw that another space-slug had landed on Katey's face. Katey was staying very still, trying not to move. The first slug had wormed its way up her arm, leaving a trail of holes that got wider as the slime soaked into the fabric. A third slug was wriggling around beneath her armpit. And a fourth...

"Deena," said Katey, in a very small voice. "It's in my underpants."

"Don't move, Katey."

"It's so cold and slimy, Deena. I can feel it wiggling around against my... my..."

"Just stay put. We're going to get out of this."

"And we're being watched. Can't you feel it? It's like the whole mist has eyes, Deena. Like every single droplet is an eye. And they're all looking at us. They're laughing at us. I feel like a whole world is watching me, as..."

"Just stay very still, okay?"

"I'm going to run for it."

"Katey, don't move. Don't move a muscle."

"It's in my underpants, Deena. There's a slug from space in my underpants."

"Don't move. I am going to..."

Katey bolted towards Deena.

Instantly, the slugs were upon her.

They descended from the mist in their dozens, writhing around her, wrapping her up entirely in their sticky, slimy bodies. Katey squealed as she was lifted off the ground by a cloud of fluttering wings, scraps of uniform cloth fluttering to the road below. "Eek! Eeeeek! Stop looking! Stop touching me! Stooooop..."

And suddenly she was dropped onto the soft dirt beside the road, whimpering, crouching, covered in slime and covering her small breasts with her hands. Stark naked. The slugs had dissolved every scrap of her clothing except for her shoes, her socks and her hat. Her cheeks burnt as her eyes darted this way and that, watching the retreating slugs, looking for somewhere she could hide and sink into the earth.

"It's so embarrassing, Deena," she mumbled. "Don't you see? It likes to make us squirm. That's what it wants..."

Deena stood, breathing deeply, not daring to move, as the slug inside her shirt inched its way up towards her left breast. She couldn't imagine what it would feel like to have dozens of them crawl all over your naked body. And she could feel the eyes, too. The sense of being watched, like thousands of invisible creatures were inspecting her every move. _Enjoying _her discomfort. Being naked right now would be like going nude on live TV, with everyone in the world ogling all your secrets...

"Deena," said Katey. "Run."

"What?"

"It has no mercy, Deena. The slugs didn't take pity on me. They ran away because something else was coming."

"But..."

"Something big."

And a huge purple tentacle, bristling with thousands of vibrating cilia, hurtled out of the mist. It lashed around Katey's bare waist and began to drag her, squealing, into the darkness.

"Eeeeeek! Deena, help! It tickles! It tiiiickleeeeeees..."

Deena turned and ran. She didn't stop to protest when her shirt came off, or her bra with it, letting her C-cup breasts fall free. She just cupped then with her hands to stop them from bouncing and sprinted down the road as fast as she could towards the town.