Quarantine

The heavy silence in the kitchen broke as reality crashed through Elena’s denial. The protective, motherly instincts were being violently warped by the fever burning in her veins."We need to lock this place down," Elena said, her voice dropping into a breathless but determined tone. Her chest heaved against her blouse, her overnight growth making every breath visibly tight. With trembling fingers, she picked up her phone to call her assistant. Luckily, the boutique practically ran itself and could easily function without her presence. "Sarah? I'm taking a few days off. Take full charge of the boutique and handle everything until I get back," she spoke into the receiver, hanging up and leaning heavily against the counter as her Day Two symptoms continued to reshape her frame.

Chloe watched her, terrified. To her, Mark had always been a intolerable brother, making the sudden, overwhelming thoughts about him deeply confusing. "I... I have to call the campus," Chloe whispered, her voice cracking as a fresh wave of hyper-sensitivity rolled through her ballooning body. She quickly reported her absence, her glassy eyes helplessly locked onto Mark the entire time.The intense libido was becoming too much to handle in the open. "I'm going to my room," Chloe choked out, her face completely flushed. She turned and practically fled down the hallway, slamming her bedroom door shut.

Elena stayed at the counter for a moment longer, staring at Mark with a maddening mix of motherly authority and newfound hunger, before she too retreated to her room.Mark stood alone in the quiet kitchen. He had a free day from school this semester on fridays, so with nowhere to go Mark retreated to his own bedroom to escape the tension knowing theres no need to rush things. As the hours ticked by, the apartment grew suffocatingly hot, and the faint, desperate sounds of his sister and mother struggling against their worsening symptoms drifted through the walls.

He tried to spend a couple hours playing games to distract him self before tossing the controller away and sitting on the edge of his bed, the heavy silence of the afternoon suddenly shattered by a soft, hesitant knock on his door. Before he could even call out, the handle clicked, and the door slowly began to swing open.