I was first introduced to the lore of The Worm by a colleague of mine at the university where I teach. He had come across some work one of his mentors had dabbled in and was immediately taken with the idea of this mysterious Mayan slug. After much prodding and romanticizing he convinced me that we should get some funding from the university and head down to the Yucatan and see where our search would lead us.
The first recorded discovery of The Worm was found in the ruins of The Avenue of the Dead in Uxmal. Archaeologists found drawings on wood and carvings in stone of a featureless tube like organism about two metres longer than the average Mayan shown in any of the images where The Worm was depicted. Most of the illustrations showed people engulfed by the creature up to their chests, their mouths wide open and their eyes filled with terror.
Further excavations at sites around the Mayan empire helped scientists discover more about this unknown species. It appeared that the Mayans had been able to capture a few specimens and remove what were either teeth or spines from The Worm's orifice. These needlelike bristles were then used to perform some sort of ritual or tribal medical procedure. Drawings showed both men and women queuing to have their feet pricked by the local shaman. All of those people shown in subsequent pictures were all laying on the ground, the men all had erections.
With the proper guides in place we headed into the jungles of the Yucatan in search of anyone or anything that could shed more light on our grail. We were not disappointed. After three days of hiking, we found a small village and, with a little help from our guides, we managed to sit down with two old and weathered-looking men. They told us their grandfathers' stories about The Worm, and how many villagers were lost to the jungle because of the creature. Only a few were ever found before they were consumed by it, and none of the survivors were ever the same after their encounter.
With a head full of lore and a desire for adventure my colleague set out early one morning before the rest of our group awoke. Figuring he had gone for a short walk to enjoy the forest before it got too hot and muggy from the midday sun, we waited for him for about two hours, long after all of our party had finished breakfast and got their packs ready for the day. When it was clear that he wasn't coming back we broke off into groups and began to search the dense growth for him. To cover more ground, I told my guides that I would search by myself and that they should go towards the ruins we had found the previous day.
An hour into our search I found him in a small clearing in the jungle. When I first saw him it looked like he was in a glossy sleeping bag - he was laying on his back against a rock outcropping. I called his name a few times as I rushed through the trees to the spot where he lay. He didn't answer. When I was finally standing beside him I realized what I was looking at. He had found The Worm, or at least The Worm had found him.
He was almost completely consumed by it. The opening was just reaching his chest, and as I looked for a way to try to get him out of it I could see through the skin of The Worm and was able to make out tendrils that had wrapped around his legs. The creature was in constant motion, its body pulsating up and down the length of my colleague's frame. The movement was slow but very deliberate.
I straddled his body around his knees and wrapped my arms underneath The Worm. I tried to pull it off him but the glossy, gelatinous surface of its skin made it impossible to hold on to. The outside surface was warm, and the slime that covered it was thick and coated my legs, shorts, and arms. I tried again and as I lifted the slippery sack from the ground I could see some of the tendrils flutter around my colleague's crotch, pushing aside his half-dissolved shorts, and dance across his belly. He let out a sigh, and with a slow pulse The Worm flopped out of my arms and back to the jungle floor.
I looked at my friend again and saw that the organism had slithered up to his shoulders. It was only then did I notice his face. His mouth was wide open and moved slightly as if were trying to speak but could not get the words out. His eyes were almost completely rolled back into his head, and a thin stream of tears flowed down his temples. He was fully aware of what was happening to him. I had to try again to get him out. I grabbed The Worm as tightly as I could, lifted it between my legs and pulled as hard as I could muster. The viscous gunk that covered its skin was all over me at that point which made it even more difficult to get a firm grip on the translucent shell.
The larval-shaped beast pulsed one more time, swelled in between my legs and in a pouring motion slumped back to the ground. As it wrenched itself from my grasp the end part of its sack pushed against my pelvis, and I suddenly realized that I had an erection. I had begun to feel flushed and my heart had started to race but I put it down to exertion.
Suddenly The Worm shot a spine into my colleague's neck. He started gasping; short, gulping little breaths were all he could manage. The rhythmic motion of The Worm started to increase, and I could see the tendrils in my colleague's crotch shift his penis into a tube deep in the creature's gut. The two of them started to shudder in unison as they rolled over on the jungle floor. For about a minute all I was able to do was watch the spasmodic motion that overtook them. I did not know which of them was responsible for the convulsions, only that they were both experiencing them as one.
