A Cautionary Tale

[spookyboo]

Here is a cautionary tale, a true story. I urge the squeamish to stop reading now forget this thread exists and go on with your normal happy life free from the horror I am about to reveal to those who can not, or simply refuse to look away.
It happened one night a few years ago, in fact it only recently feels like enough time has elapsed since the actual event that I am able to safely recall the incident. It was a night like many others I had finished up in the studio late as usual and feeling tired but also a bit hungry I decided to grab a snack from the kitchen and then sit and wind down while watching something on TV. Had I known how things would progress I would have hurried to bed.
I admit I was lazy, I was tired I just wanted something to ease my craving. I wandered out into the dark kitchen, and it was dark no lights on and it took a few seconds for me to even see my way to the cabinet. Had I walked just 5 more steps I would have been able to easily reach out and flick on the light. Light I would regret forgoing.
I reached the cabinet and peered into what seemed to be a large black hole in the already nearly absent lighting. I paused only a moment and then began to feel around in the cabinet. Familiar shapes at once took form as I felt my way among canned vegetables and boxes of spiral macaroni. My hand brushed against a large can and I smiled remembering I had bought a big can of pumpkin to make bread that weekend. I thought I had a bag of cookies or something and I fished around feeling more pantry items.
At any time I could have just simply turned on the light, made my life easier, but
I blundered on. Finally a familiar shape. A box of raisins, I .....loved raisins so sweet
and healthy. The perfect little snack. I took my prize and made my way to the TV room
and sat in my recliner.
I turned on the TV and caught the late news. Again I decided to keep the lights low and the only illumination came from the flickering glow of the
comforting television screen. I looked at my box of raisins, Sunmaid, I could tell because of the girls face staring back from the box. Funny I thought, I dont recall buying these raisins but here they are and I was in need of a snack.
I opened the box, I grabbed a few raisins, and tossed them into my mouth. they were in deed sweet. A little dry maybe....perhaps stale I thought as some of the raisins were a bit chewy. I ate another handful and another. I watched the weatherman doing his schtick in a dreamy absent kind of way letting my body relax. I ate yet another handful of raisins. This time though, just out of the corner of my eye I thought I detected a flash of something white as I had popped that last handful of raisins into my mouth. The raisins I was eating were not the white or green kind but the traditional brown raisin color. At first I thought a stem might have gotten mixed in with the raisins or maybe a bit of fuzz from the pillow I was holding. I didn't feel anything different in my mouth nothing really hard or anything abnormal. I reached in and grabbed another handful of raisins out of the box. There on my palm more white. I couldnt quite see in the dim light so I stretched over and gently pulled the chain on the light.
Light flooded the room and at first I shut my eyes to the brightness but then I looked down at my hand. Thats when I saw it........
There right in my hand, what I had been eating, chewing and swallowing for the better part of 5 min now. Were, raisins and......wriggling, pale, segmented, worms!!!!!!
they were very small and of a variety I had never seen before. I sat stunned for a moment at the horror of my discovery and then realizing I had them in my mouth I went running to bathroom and quite litleraly lost it. I stood staring at my pale complexion in the mirror trying to focus and keep my now empty stomach quiet. Maybe I thought there were only a couple and chances are I ate only one. Not so bad, bad enough, but
maybe. I reluctantly walked back into the TV room and picked up the box I had pitched onto the snack table when I ran to the bathroom. It took a lot of courage but I looked down inside the box to realize there were nearly more worms than raisins. I nearly became sick again. .......well if there is a moral to this tale it is always but always turn on a light when picking out food to eat, and make sure you look at that food before you pop it carelessly into your mouth. You never know when it might be full of worms.

To this day I am unable to eat a box of raisins even in the brightest sunshine.
Eat in the dark at your own risk. I hope my tale may save others from my fate!

[kallie0509]

oh my goodness, where did they come from?!

[One Eye'd Jack]

OH
MY
WORD!!!!

NOT ONLY was your tale horrific but it was SOOOO engaging I couldn't turn away. At first I thought there may have been someone in the kitchen WITH you and when you returned to the TV you'd hear about some madman who had escaped from somewhere...... I read on and on and then........ AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

You tell quite a tale Spookyboo...... you REALLY SHOULD be writing......... I wouldn't be surprised if that's what you DO!

[spookyboo]

I think it was a very old box of raisins that got pushed into the corner of the cabinet. I think it might have been a meal worm "The term meal worm actually refers to all four stages of its life: egg, larva, pupa, and adult beetle. However, the larval or caterpillar stage of this beetle’s life cycle is the most familiar. While in this second phase of life, the insect acquires a worm-like appearance that endures several molts. Just after a molt, meal worms are white in color" Here is a picture of what I ate......shiver........

[One Eye'd Jack]

ok.... THAT'S creepy and crawly!!!!!

[kallie0509]

Spookyboo, i agree with OEJ! your story was so well written. i couldn't turn away either. when i was reading it, i was home alone at night and all was quiet and i thought for some reason that there was going to be some creepy dude in your house and that there was going to be a kitchen brawl with you in the end kicking his butt! but alas, it was a box of worms!

[mama2taj]

ohhhowwww owwwwouuu gross I'd throw up everywhere. I'm never eating with out turning on the lights again.

[MHooch]

Excellent and engrossing tale, spookyboo!!

(And really gross, too!!! )

[One Eye'd Jack]

OH! What happened to the little wormy picture?

[spookyboo]

I dont know what happened to it???? I didnt remove it ......maybe someone stole my worm...
K...fess up....they don't taste that good anyway!

[spikewilliams1996]

Oh my god!!! i would've freaked out completely but i will never eat raisins agAIN UNLESS they are in small 3 or 4 inch boxes of them I am sorry but someone you know could of played aprank on you but they must of really hated you.but i would watch out for raisins and i will too.Well they might have crawled but if you had you laying on the ground they could of had worms crawling in them but if you just had them in a cabinet and someone put them in there.nice tale to send a chill down someone's spine.

[Rising Dead Man]

uuuggggg.......

These stories freak me out! One time at a friends house I was drinking Gatorade (I was in the light) and I saw at the bottom of the cup there was this weird looking cloudy thing and I looked at the bottle and there was more of it. My fiends foster dad (don't know if thats spelled right) looked at the bottle and said it must be pulp or something. But I don't know........ Do they put fruit in Gatorade? On the way home he told me a story about someone who was eating a candy bar in the dark and she was half way through it when she saw maggots in it! uuugggg.....

[Andybev01]

That's why I store clean drink ware upside down, so no creepy-crawlies can nest it them!

[Halloween_Girl]

Something like that happened to me to! Lets just say that I nox HATE spiders and peanut butter............

[Haunt Master]

One time, long time ago, my cousin and I prepared the sausage balls for snack evening... I took out a roll of sage, shredded cheddar cheese, and Bisquik mix, you know? When I opened the Bisquik box and there were some tiny maggots-like in it!! We decided to throw it away, and went to the next door neighbor asking to borrow it, so we were glad they let me have it!

I suggest you to check your food box and drink bottles! I recalled one time, I didn't even think about bottled teas that have been left in the refridgerator for over a year... When I looked at the bottom bottle of tea, it turned some black spots on bottom, so I decided to pour it out! I really didn't know what it was black spots on the bottom of bottled tea!