Just to Bee Close

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.”

For more on Japanese hornets (yes, they really do have flesh-melting venom!) and other horrifying insects, check out this article: http://www.cracked.com/article_15816_the-5-most-horrifying-bugs-in-world.html