Date Night

"Mark!" Zoe waved across the restaurant. Her date saw her and waved back. His smile gave her butterflies and she sat down across drom him. He always smelled really good too. Like, really fucking good.

"Hey there," he said, "You look, wow."

"Thanks," Zoe smiled sheepishly. It wasnt like her to be this nervous, but it was like meeting her high-school crush all over again.

"So, how's that new painting coming along?" she asked.

"Really well," he said, "I dont have it with me, but..." he pulled his phone to show her. However when she saw it, shw was a bit...

"It's um... a bit..."

"Violent?"

"I was going to more polite and say unorthodox, but yeah." Zoe admitted. She already knew Mark was an erotic artist, which fascinated her, but his tastes were somewhat niche.

The painting in question was a work in progress, just line art on the white background. Mark was clearly inspired by Frank Frazetta with this one, the work depicting a nubile maiden in chains being sacrificed to some kind of giant insectoid monster. It wasn't quite her cup of tea, but in technical terms it was well done.

"You smell really nice," Zoe blurted out loud.

"What?"

"What?"

Mark hurriedly put away his phone as the waitress approached.

"Hi!" Mark said, "The Mahi Mahi for two with a side of the roasted peppers.

"What about the lady?" The waitress asked.

Truth be told, Zoe didnt really like fish, but

"Yeah that sounds great!" Zoe said.

Why did I say yes, Zoe thought.

"So what about your job?" Mark asked. Zoe was quite passionate about her job, she got to photograph animals for Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife.

"Yesterday was so much fun!" Zoe started telling about finding a pod of orcas, but soon she got distracted by how hot Mark was.

"That sounds exciting," Mark said as he wrote something down in a notebook. Where did that come from.

"Hmmm? Zoe asked, "What were we talking about?"

"The last time you had sex," Mark said.

Were they talking about that? Zoe... couldn't remember. Mmm... he smells so good...

The waitress brought them their food, fish, fish to her dismay. She took an exploratory bite, but it was pretty good.

"Right," she said thinking back to the conversation, "Well I met a guy at the club. We went to college together, hell we wrote our dissertation together."

"What about?" Mark asked.

"An experiment that was done on some finches in the Midwest. They were threatened by a novel strain if avian flu, and the biologists came up with an equally novel solution. After they found one of the birds with a gene that made it immune, they tried to disperse that gene through the reat of the population via a breeding program."

"Did it work?" Mark asked.

"As far as I know its still ongoing," Zoe said, "Nit to bore you with my college thesis, but we went back to his place and fucked."

"First time with him?" Mark asked.

"Yeah, he was alright," Zoe admitted. Then she took a sip of her beer and glared at Mark over the rim.

He's asking about sex, that's a good sign, she thought. They talked some .ore and the **** started to get to her head and she felt just a but whoozy. She had already intended to sleep with him while her judgement was sound, but as the went on, Mark's wonderful smell grew stronger and stronger. The waitress seemed to be able to smell it too and bit her lip as she returned to ask if they wanted dessert.

"Hey he's my date tonight!" Zoe laughed.

"Well do you two want dessert?" The waitress asked, "Or are you two gonna go get a room?"

Both women stared at Mark for a long moment before Zoe finally snapped out of it.

"I think we're finished," Zoe said.

"Ok, I'll bring yoyr check," the waitress said as she chewed on the tip of her pen.

"So you think you wanna have fun tonight?" Mark asked.

Zoe got out of her chair with a smirk and walked around the table.

"I was hoping you'd ask that," She said. Then, they kissed, long, deep, and Zoe felt ger tongue exploring his.

"So how do you like it?" He asked.

"Doggy," Zoe whispered, "Its comfortable and I kind of like giving up control."

Zoe took her seat as Mark psid for their dinner, then she looked down and realized for the first time how many plates were on the table. Three each? How much did she eat, and when? Before she could think more about it, Mark took her arm and they walked out of the restaurant to his car.

As they walked, he whispered in her ear exactly what he was going to do to her tonight, telling her how he was going to eat her, and take his time doung it.

"Such a gentleman!" Zoe giggled when they reached his car. However, as he opened the door, he stopped and sniffed.

"What's up?" Zoe asked.

"Nothing, just get in the car," he said right before his head exploded into green goo.

Zoe screamed and backed up against the car behind her.

"Zoe!" She heard her Unkle Dave call, "Zoe are you alright?" Then he appeared, carrying sone kind if huge handgun, black with red tron lines.

"What the fuck, Dave!" Zoe screamed, "You fucking killed him!"

"Trust me, he's not dead, thats why we need to run," Dave insisted.

"No!" She shouted, "You fucking killed him! Why did you do that?" Then she heard a sickening crack behind her, and looked over her shoulder to see Mark stand back up, his arms turning into claws like a mantis, and his jaw turning into a pair of jagged mandibles.

"That's why! Now run!" Dave grabbed her hand and dragged her along to his car as the thing that was Mark roared after them.