leech

The decision pays off in the film’s third act, when Matthew is exonerated in the court of the public and receives the adoration he’s been trying to leech from Oliver.

In the meantime, Millie told the inquiry "confusion, frustration and anxiety... was leeching into my home".

"They pushed me over at gunpoint. I spent two days without food or water in the middle of a field in knee-deep water teeming with mosquitoes and leeches," Ms Banu said, wiping away tears.

A trematode has a very specific life cycle, leeching onto three hosts that include a freshwater snail, a fish and then a bird or human who ate the infected fish.

This fear makes evolutionary sense: Parasites aren't technically predators, but they can cause serious harm as they leech off of their hosts.