The Predator

He wiped the blood from his face. He had not slept a wink in the last 4 hours as they followed him continuously. There are times when the prey outruns the predator. A cheetah chasing a young gazelle may not be always as one sided as it might appear. But he had no such luck today. Wherever he went to, they got to him, crawled onto his face and hands, biting deep into his flesh and drawing blood each time. Every time he had to rip them off his body and start the elusive run again.
They first attacked him when he was sleeping and caught him completely unawares. They were so smart that they now know the places he frequents.
Defense mechanism has always been a part of nature. Some plants turned poisonous to ward off herbivores animals. A few animals evolved chromatophores with which they changed their colours. Elephants grew tusks and butterflies had facial contours of larger birds on their wings. But the most dexterous animal of all, the humans, did not develop any inherent defense mechanism more due to the lack of any threats than anything else. They overcame the odds by using ingenious tools and warded off all predators. But not all can be warded off. He was facing one such species.
He first spotted them a few weeks back. They were rather few in numbers. And he had the satisfaction of killing them as they appeared. His friends warned him that they are resilient and will strike back with full vengeance. He was unperturbed. He had faced them in the past. They had one weakness and that was Ultra-violet rays. He had gone to their lair, uprooted their entire hideout and threw it under the sun, exposing them to the sun and successfully killed them all. But this time he did not have that trustworthy ally of his last battle: sunlight.
Even then he did his best. He had equipped himself with weapons acquired locally. Some said these are not sufficient. He did not bother as he was sure of his plans. But they were smarter this time. They came out in larger numbers and struck when he was most vulnerable: at nights. The battle lasted all night. He struck them down as they pounced on him. Some even got into his shirts. One was pricking his left ear. They were drawing his blood and as he killed some of them he felt blood on his face. He lost out. His inability to defeat them this time frustrated him. Things have now gone out of his hands. He had to call in professional assassins to do the job. The assassins came the next day. They had a gun in their hands and the ammunition was being fed to it from a tank. But unlike him, they did not use their physical might. Instead they resorted to chemical warfare. As their guns spewed the toxic agents all over his hideout, he had the satisfaction of seeing them die one by one.
He smiled. He has won another battle against the dreaded Cimex lectularius, commonly known as the Bedbugs.

* Inspired by a true story
** Written a long time back
*** I do realize the glaring yet subtle difference between parasites and predators well enough to indulge in a bit of twisting the facts, made possible by literary freedom