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My heart skipped a beat.
For a few seconds I simply stared.
My brain raced through possibilities.
Some kind of insect nest?
A fungus?
Had something dangerous somehow made its way into my garage?
What made it especially unsettling was its appearance.
Most household problems are recognizable.
A water stain looks like a water stain.
Even pest infestations usually have obvious signs.
This was different.
The kind of thing that instantly triggers your imagination.
Not too close.
Just enough to get a better look.
The object consisted of dozens—perhaps hundreds—of tiny dark shapes clustered tightly together.
They formed a dense patch roughly the size of my hand.
Some appeared elongated.
Others looked rounded.
Together they created a pattern that seemed almost deliberate.
I felt a wave of unease.
Every instinct told me to back away.
Instead, I grabbed my phone and took a picture.
Then I did what millions of people do when confronted with something strange.
I searched the internet.
That turned out to be both helpful and terrifying.
Within minutes, search results began presenting possibilities.
Unfortunately, many of them were alarming.
Some websites suggested insect infestations.
Others showed photographs of unusual fungi.
A few mentioned parasites.
The deeper I searched, the more concerned I became.
One article seemed to match what I was seeing.
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