I was cleaning up my little brother’s room, a chore given to me every Sunday that I learned to do without complaint. This Sunday, I was unfortunate enough to have found his secret corner of “snacks”, now no more than bulges beneath mold.

“Disgusting!” I had shouted when I first saw it. The mold was a large combination of gray and blue. It was like a blanket over the contraband snacks, draped as one big sheet. To my horror, it appeared to pulsate with life. Mystified and nauseated with this revolting life form, I took one of my brother’s unused toys and prodded it as hard as I could.

To my disbelief, the mold opened up before the action figure met it, closing over it as it passed through the tunnel. I quickly released the plastic as I felt a tugging, and watched with absolute repulsion as it slowly swallowed the toy, sucking it in bit by bit.

“Mom!” I choked out while I backed out of the room. The toy was gone now, completely devoured by the mold, and I saw the fungus ballooning as I slammed the door.

“What is it?” My mom was washing dishes in the sink, but she turned off thee water as I approached.

“There’s some mold growing in Johnny’s room, and it’s nasty!”

“Show me where it is,” the dishrag was thrown on the counter before she followed me to the room, a slight frown on her face. I paused at the door as I braced myself, before gripping the knob and pulling it open.

The screams from my mom and I were synchronized as we saw the room, covered from floor to ceiling with the furry fungus. It had been on the door, and we both jumped back as it spilled onto the ground, enlarging to fill the unoccupied space.

“Get out of the house!” Mom called to me as we back-pedaled furiously, the ugly thing oozing after us.

“What about you?”

“I’ll call the police, or the exterminator. Someone that knows what this is! It’s a good thing everyone else is out of the house.”

I reluctantly obeyed her, jogging toward the front door while she reentered the kitchen, where our one and only phone rested. I didn’t look back until I was across the street and safely in the neighbor’s yard. When I did, I gasped.

Half of our one-story house was covered with the mold, the other half slowly growing splotches of it, bricks disappearing beneath it’s bulk. My mom was still inside, and my foot was already on the street when the mold pushed out the front door, soon clogging the door frame.

“Mom!” I shouted, panicking. I sensed my neighbor come out of the house, only to hear a shriek and a door slam moments later. My eyes remained locked on the kitchen window, mold pressing against the glass, as it spread like a fire from my house to the two next door. Sirens screamed along with people that day as our neighborhood, then later on, our town, was evacuated from the unknown fungus that crumbled houses and suffocated animals. My brother and father picked me up from the police station where I had been escorted, and we fled from our town in our silver van in silence as we remembered the one person who should’ve been sitting in the passenger seat.

And all of this chaos happened just because my stupid little brother didn’t listen and hid snacks in his room.

A/N: My inspiration? I was bringing (my) old apple juice downstairs, and it had mold growing in it. Blue and Gray mold. Not only that, but only hours before, I had finished a story with gray mold that crawled into your mind and controlled you. And then this was born, on short notice for a Creative Writing Club piece!!... Yay for procrastination!!