The Horror (Part 1)

I saw the first gnat in my bedroom. It stood still and bold against the ivory ceiling like a chip in the paint, fluttering about only when the partition shakily rumbled along its track, jostling the walls. It would be in different places throughout a week: the stove`s exhaust hood, the bulb on the bathroom light, clinging to an empty waterbottle as if stuck to ice. He was there in the tub too, right on the soap shelf while I showered. It was there that I accidentally killed him with a stray jet from the shower nozzle. 　
The next day he had mourners. Two gnats walked along the tub rim as if retracing their friend`s last moments. `Right here, man. I just can`t believe it. Right here.` Another couple consoled each other along a seam in the walls while a third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh grazed about the tub floor. I`ve grown use to the Carolina, pre-winter, lady bug infestations but these gnats had neither there personality or charm and I became concerned when their number grew casually into the uncountables.
I washed the few dishes soaking in the sink, took out the trash and checked my bags to route out any breeding grounds. The bags wouldn`t normally be procedure had I not discovered a rotting kumquat in my bookbag last month. It was a forgotten gift, stewed down to a pulp, mysteriously perfuming my apartment for weeks. The scent was pleasant, thickly sweet, and I was kind of sorry I found it. After the apartment was scrubbed down I turned to the bathroom. The tub gnats were given a biblical drowning; those daring enough to fly up were caught in a scalding sideways rain and the swirl about the drain was peppered with bodies.
I slept well.
Before work the next day I was fixing my hair in the mirror. I decided after the first few weeks in Japan not to cut my hair and it is getting shaggy. I`m partly afraid of negotiating with a barber in broken Japanese but mostly I want to see if I can pull off that artistic image I have always associated with long hair. Though now, it is too hot and I look like a sweating Beattle most times. It was then that I saw a gnat moving along my reflection in the mirror like a rogue mole. Turning to the shower curtain, I pulled it back revealing another insect horde built up on the tub walls and floor. I reeled, knocking my toothbrush off the sink onto the floor, and stepped out into the kitchen.
Out of ideas and disgusted, I hadn`t even a clear problem to solve... until I picked up my toothbrush.