Late Afternoon

*Paul’s POV*

It was almost dinner and yet your wife hadn’t returned home. She didn’t tell you where she went, almost like her being suddenly disappeared into a puff of smoke. It was very strange. You knew she had been planning a surprise for you two, something about spicing up your marriage after 20 years, so it was possible she simply left the house to prepare your gift. You couldn’t think more about it. Now was the time to put food on the table, lest you and the rest of your family go hungry for the night. Perhaps some smash burgers. You did receive a coupon in the mail that could redeem an entire family meal.

That’s when you received a text. It was from Marie, god-bless her. You unlocked your phone to read the whole message. “Hiya, hun . Don’t wait on dinner for little old me. I’m gonna be home late tonight, getting your special little something. Tata.” Well that settled it. Burgers and fries for tonight. It was a strange text for sure, but you wouldn’t doubt that your wife would type something so affectionate. After such encouragement, you were more than ready to make dinner plans for tonight.

By the time you came back, the sun was already setting. “Dinner!” you yelled. On the table were plastic bags carrying cases of wrapped burgers and baskets of french fries. Soon enough, you see your adult children come down the stairs and towards the table. There was Tina and Claire, each dressed for a hot summer evening. Tina stood out with her dyed and straightened black hair while Claire more closely resembled the rest of the family with her wavy brunette strands. “Mom won’t be home in time, so we’re feasting on burgers and fries tonight. Grab yourselves a plate, there’s plenty to go around.” One person was missing of course. “Where's David by the way?”

“Oh, he said he was feeling under the weather when he got home earlier today. He’s upstairs in bed right now,” Claire responded. “I can bring him something later.”

“Well isn’t that strange. I didn't think he'd get a summer cold,” you laughed. Soon enough, the table is seated and you watch your two young adult daughters enjoy the salty and savory meal.

Burger night went as usual as a family enjoying a slow Tuesday evening together, minus two missing members. As you feasted on some fries, something strange caught your eye. It was Claire, who seemed to particularly enjoy her burger. The intentional lip smacking and swallowing mixed with deliberate sounds of satisfaction raised your attention, as did Tina's. The sounds almost sounded like moans too. Claire usually didn’t make a mess either, but ketchup and mayo were staining her mouth and even dripping onto her yellow blouse. It was half disgusting; the other half, you didn’t want to think about.

“I see you have a very tasty burger,” you tried to be subtle.

“Yesss. It’s very tasty. I can’t get enough of it.” There’s a particularly sultry tone to her voice. A familiar tone, albeit very unusual.

“Claire, you’re making a mess,” Tina piped up. She pointed to Claire’s blouse.

“Oh, whoops,” Claire jolted. “Let me get that.” She messily reaches for a handful of napkins and wiped down her blouse with the entire pile. Ironically, her cleaning further smudged her blouse, creating a ugly, yellowish-brown stain across her chest. This is what your daughter had become. Instead of acting lady-like, she was acting like a pig. It frustrated you, as you thought you’d have taught all of your children better manners, regardless of gender. It worried you if Claire would even find the right person to settle down with if she continued to act this messy in a dinner setting.

But you didn’t tell her that. At least not literally. “Good thing we have extra strong detergent,” you joked to Tina. Usually it would be your wife that you’d wisecrack with but because she was absent, your oldest daughter would have to substitute. Tina at least upheld some etiquette. After dinner finished and cleaning after yourselves, you decided to take a doggie bag upstairs to David. His bedroom door was closed, so you knocked outside.

“Hey, David. How are you feeling? Can I come in? I have your dinner for tonight.” Silence. Not even a groan. “Everything alright in there?” Still nothing. You started to grow concerned. Thoughts shifted into your head. “David?” you raised your voice.

A best case scenario, then a worse case scenario.

“David, I’m coming in,” you steeled yourself. You gave a second to hear any response, but stood in wait with radio silence.

It was time to move. You opened the door. You looked to see David’s room in its young male glory. Slightly messy with t-shirts and basketball shorts strung about. At least it didn’t smell bad, instead smelling like store-brand spray-on deodorant. You looked to the bed and saw that it was flatter than you’d expect. No David could possibly be sleeping under those blankets. “David?” You called out to the rest of the room. You then walked up to the bedside and confirmed your suspicion. It really didn’t look like David was in bed, so you pulled off the blankets to see for yourself.

You dropped the bag. Underneath was horror. David’s soulless face and empty body. It looked like all of his organs and fluids were drained out of him, leaving an empty skin in its place. It looked like an example of welting, something common in lizards or butterflies but impossible for humans. No, something horrifying and unreal had happened to David and now he remained an empty husk.

You screamed. Your screams reached the ears of Claire and Tina who came behind. “Dad?! What happened?” Tina was first to ask. She joined you by your side and looked down to see what remained of David. She covered her mouth in shock. “Oh my… WHAT HAPPENED TO DAVID??”

You tried to hold yourself together. “I don’t know! I just came up to his room and I heard nothing, so I walked in to check on him and saw THIS! How is this even possible?!”

Tina held your arm for security. “Dad, we need to call the police. We don’t know what exactly happened but this is something terrible. Whoever or whatever did this, we need to know why and how.” You tried to calculate it in your head. This was equivalent to a **** and with all murders it would be necessary to contact the authorities. But what exactly could the police do? They’ve probably never seen anything like this themselves. Maybe an ambulance or a doctor? You weren’t certain David really was dead because maybe he had only gone missing. Who should you call in an event like this?

Regardless, your family was clearly in danger and you needed to protect the rest of them first. “Okay, let’s call the police. We’ll tell them everything we know and hopefully they can send someone too.”

As you reach into your pocket for your phone, a bright light appears out of your peripherals. Tina’s grip on your arm felt weaker. It didn’t even feel like a hand anymore. More like a glove slipping off your skin. You looked back at Tina. Her eyes had disappeared. Her mouth was empty of teeth. She looked like a balloon that had lost all of its air. And as though in slow motion, you couldn’t turn away as her emptied skin collapsed on itself and dropped to the floor into a macabre pile. Whatever happened to David happened to Tina too. The nightmare was far from over, and the perpetrator was still in the house.

She stood across from you, a distance away from David’s bed. The same light that you saw before appeared to have come from the pen-shaped object Claire held in her hand. Slowly, its light faded away. “Now, now, we can’t start calling the police on us.” A smug look plastered across her face.

“CLAIRE! What have you done!? WHAT DID YOU DO TO TINA?” You held the remains of Tina like a draped curtain.

“Honey, will you let me explain?” Something crossed your mind. Claire would NEVER call you honey. It would be so strange for such a pronoun to come out of her mouth. The list of people you’d ever feel comfortable calling you ‘honey’ was a short one. Among the top suspects suddenly came to light.

“Honey?”

“Yes, dear. How do you like my new look?” Claire twirled herself around like she was showing off a new dress. “Pretty convincing, I bet. You didn’t even know I was there with you at the dinner table.”

“You did this? How?”

“Isn’t it obvious, silly?” she said mockingly with Claire’s voice. “I shot David with a pen and then Tina too before she got any funny ideas. Speaking of ideas, what's to say we got a bit wild tonight? It’s all reversible, you know.” You remembered that your wife did speak of a surprise before. Something to really spice up your marriage after months of stagnation in the bedroom. Something from a friend, who offered a gift in a time of need.

“I still don’t understand. Why turn our kids into lifeless husks?”

“So that we can enjoy our dark fantasies.” Claire sauntered towards you and caressed your face. She was shorter than you, so you had to look down into her eyes. “I always wanted to play with David’s body. You know he’s growing into a strong young man with a very endowed penis. He may even be bigger than you and I want that kind of meat in my mouth. Haven’t you ever thought about doing the same with one of your daughters?”

You wanted to say ‘of course not, that would be disgusting,’ but instead you responded with a meek, “I mean, who hasn’t thought about it for a moment. But it’s still disgusting and immoral and… I can’t possibly have sex with my own daughter. Not when she doesn’t know about it.”

“But that’s the best part, hubby. She won’t know. Nobody will know but us. We have the entire house for ourselves and we will only have this one chance.” Claire took her index finger and pressed against the center of your rib cage. “Think with your heart for once. I know you really want it,” she whispered.

It felt like a dream, hearing this language and tone from out of your daughter’s mouth. You felt like walking in quicksand, slowly sinking into a suffocating abyss. Sand that slowly crawled into your boots and under your trousers. Slowly climbing up your arms and encasing your chest. You were up to your neck, barely grasping for air and unable to fight against the sinking. It all felt unreal, a near-**** experience that suddenly came to light.

You were lucky that you didn’t sink further and touched the bottom of the quicksand. “Is it really you, Marie?” A smirk came across. Claire dug her fingers into her mouth and pulled on her lips. They stretched like silicone, opening up to a new pair of lips. Lips that looked to be those of your wife.

“I can be anyone you want,” Marie’s voice rang out. It was surreal to hear her voice from under the face of your youngest daughter. “Why would I want to be your wife tonight?” She let go of Claire's lips, which retracted back into their normal shape. “You can be anyone too,” Claire voice beckoned.