"NO!" The breath was yanked from me as I rocketed into a sitting position in my bed. Bright morning light assaulted my bleary eyes. I hastily brought an arm up to shield myself from its burning radiance. Breathing hard, I furiously blinked away the last remnants of sleep.
Was it...Real?
It took longer than preferred for my eyes to adjust to the sunlight engulfing the room. When they finally did, I let my arm fall back into place and looked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary…Books, plants, moving bo-
I ripped my head around to look at my closet, dreading the messy hangers and fallen clothing that I knew had to be on the floor. Yet they weren't. I froze, knitting my brows together in incredulity. My clothes hung neatly inside and my floor was just as orderly.
But..
I shook my head to myself. As I stared uncertainly, my breathing managed to get itself under control. A strange warmth of tranquility spread throughout my body. Under its growing assurance, my fear soon evaporated. The combined glow of the sunshine cast a peacefully calm ambiance all around. From the top of my head, to the bottoms of my feet, I felt an all encompassing serenity. The tension inside slowly faded away.
I had never felt more safe in my life.
Steadily I scooted myself out of bed, giving my bedroom curious glances as I made my way to the door. I went to take the doorknob into my hand when I hesitated, hand poised just before it could touch. Only one way to find out. I took a deep, cleansing breath. Mustering up my courage, I grasped the knob and turned it. As the door opened, I leaned with it to peer out.
The rest of the house seemed to have a soft glow. It gave everything a nearly magical, Disney feel to it. Leaving my bedroom behind me, I carefully took a few steps out and shifted to look up the attic staircase. Up above ahead of me, I was both surprised and further relieved when I saw the door still intact. The wood suffered no damage that I could see. As if it never happened.. In a half-daze, I wandered over to the railing on my left. Resting both of my hands on the beam, I looked over the side down into the first floor.
An echo of girlish giggling came from the kitchen.
My face dropped at the sound of it. There was no question who that giggle belonged to. Alysson! But it couldn't be.. I propelled myself along the hall's rail, full on sprinting down the hallway. "Alysson?! Max! Are you here?" I called, my pulse beginning an eager pounding pace in my ears.
Please, please, please be here. Please don't be those monsters. Don't let this be a trick.
"Yes, honey! We're in here. Breakfast is ready!" MOM! My mother's voice, ever vibrant and beautiful, returned my call. A sob spilled from my mouth before I could help it. I tore down the stairs, jumping the last four steps in my haste. Barging into the kitchen I halted to a stop, breathing roughly.
My eyes met the most perfect scene of my family gathered around the island counter. It looked like something straight out of a vintage family ad, minus the outdated fashion. My father, my little brother, and my little sister all sat around it in their respective stools. My mother stood in front of the stove. It was only then I registered the smell of breakfast wafting powerfully through the air. My stomach gurgled at the scent.
OH THANK GOD! It was just a dream after all! Just a stupid dream!
"Sleeping beauty! Awake at last I see!" Grinned my father. There was a rustling as he set down his newspaper. Before I could retort with anything, a blur of pink caught my eye. Alysson still clad in her pink pajamas scrambled down from her stool.
"Jenny!" A giant smile split my face in half at the sound of Alysson's excited cry. I dropped to my knees and opened my arms to her as she hopped down from her stool and rushed to me. I embraced her with everything I had in me. I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt the shape of her in my arms. My little sister. Here. With me. Safe. There was a tremor to my bottom lip.
When had they gotten back? Had I dreamt their leaving too? Oh who cared! All that mattered was that they were here, and that everything was okay. No home invasion. No death. No tentacle-headed, pin-faced, home-invading beings. Only the people that I loved and cared about the most. I squeezed her harder. I never wanted to let her go ever again. "I missed you so much." I whispered, a lump forming in my throat. "Imgh myffd yuu htoo." Alysson mumbled, her face buried in my chest. Reluctantly I let her go to hear whatever that was supposed to have been. Though I let out a laugh, my eyes welled up with the threat of tears; "What'd you say?"
Alysson smiled up at me, the blues of her eyes brighter than ever; "I said I missed you, too!"
"Okay you two, don't let your breakfast get cold. Hop on up and eat." Insisted my mother, turning around to slip something delicious and fluffy onto a plate. Alysson stuck out her hand for me to take, and take it I did. Blinking back tears, I let her guide me to a spot at the island. But before I allowed either of us to be settled in at the counter to eat, I slipped from Alysson's grasp to visit Max. He stared at me with a raised brow, clearly confused. I wrapped my arms around him. With my brother held safely in my arms I sighed deeply. Max shifted uncomfortably in my tight embrace; "Um, glad to see you too?" I laughed into his hair, giving him a last squish before letting go.
"Max," I said with more seriousness now. I set both of my hands on his shoulders, turning him towards me. "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't come with you and Alysson to Frankie's house. I know we would have had so much fun, but instead I chose to be selfish. And that wasn't right. I should have accepted the offer when you asked. I hope you can forgive me." Max's lips rose into a small smile and he nodded. "Yeah, that's okay. You didn't miss much anyway." Just need to make sure. "Are we cool?" Max promptly nodded; "We're cool."
I inhaled and exhaled slowly, closing my eyes. I had to get that off my chest. "Cool."
Rising to a stand, I returned to my little sister. I grabbed her by her sides to hoist her up onto her seat. Settling myself into the one directly next to hers, my eyes went to the plate my mother set down in front of me.
Waffles.
My mouth dropped agape in surprise. "Mom! You made waffles?" Waffles were a personal favorite of mine ever since I was a small girl. Unfortunately however, it was a delicacy that she hadn't made in years. Until now. My eyes sought her own. My mother tilted her head, smiling gently at me. Through the wild locks of her hair, she gave a bashful shrug; "Just thought I'd surprise you."
Having them all here..
'Surprise' didn't seem like a strong enough word.
I eagerly took the utensils waiting for me and began digging in. "Mmmgnh." I all but moaned. I couldn't for the life of me recall any food tasting half as good as this. With a mouthful of breakfast, I manage to declare; "Then consider me gobsmacked!"
My mother came around to plant a kiss on my forehead. "Glad to hear it, sweetheart." She chuckled heartily before sitting down herself to enjoy the work she had produced. The feel of her phantom kiss lingering on the crown of my temple suddenly felt…Odd. I didn't know why. I guess with all of the stress that the nightmare had put me through in such a short span of time, and with this overwhelming emotion of constant calm enveloping me, had this whole scenario feeling almost..
Too good to be true?
A knot of sudden dread tied itself inside my stomach. What the Hell was I saying? What was I insinuating? Dumb. Dumb paranoia. Maybe I ought to invest in a spray bottle for the intrusive thoughts. Foolishly I shook away the feeling. While I shooed the weirdly negative thought away, I did want some clarification for their out-of-nowhere arrival;
"I uh, I didn't expect you guys back so soon. Did something go wrong? You miss your flight?" My eyes latched onto my father, genuinely curious. They were supposed to be away for another two weeks. Unless they had changed their minds on the honeymoon, it shouldn't have been possible for them to be here.
My mother and father exchanged loving expressions. They momentarily held hands in an exceptionally sweet display. It was my father that answered; "We rushed on back home. We...Realized that we have something more important to appreciate." He gazed admiringly at me and then to my siblings. My mouth opened only to close. I was taken aback. It wasn't like I was shocked to know that my parents loved me. Their love had been obvious if not painfully obvious sometimes, but this...This was next level. They had canceled their trip for us? The one that they had been planning for several months, even before the move? The very same that my father had been fussing over day and night to get right? I didn't know what to say. My mother was usually the parent to change agendas on a whim. My father? Not so much.
Fuck sake, he usually got a headache whenever he needed to buy a new toothbrush. The man was a nervous tyrant for details. His plans had to have plans.
When my puzzled expression stayed put for a tad too long, my father added; "Besides, we can always travel to some silly island another time. What's to miss but sand, hotel bills, and more sand?" My parents laughed together at the joke, my father swiftly returning to his newspaper. My eyes briefly went to an invisible camera man to convey how out of character this was for him. What the Hell.. Ookay. I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, but.. I blinked at this, composing myself to turn to my brother and sister to ask; "And what about the both of you? You're also back earlier than I thought you'd be. Were they not home?"
Max looked at me with a mouthful of waffle; "We stayed for a little while."
Alysson cut in; "But then it got boring!" She giggled. I couldn't help but grin at the confession. Now that seemed more likely. "Ahh, I see." That was reasonable knowing how life was at the Franks. They were wonderful people, but their routines got pretty stale. I could only stomach a few hours at most over there myself.
I let my eyes rest on the sight of my brother, his hair a hopeless maze of curls. His bedhead could at times be arguably worse than mine was. Which was saying a lot. While his hair was curlier than mine, I had more of it. "So Max, how was Frankie's? Learn anything new?" I teased. Frankie had a weakness for old war films, commentaries, and documentaries.
Max groaned through the helping of food in his mouth; "Three words: Battle. Of. Allatoona."
I laughed. Ripping off a piece of my waffle, I playfully threw it at him; "Three words: Sucks. For. You." Max ducked backwards, the waffle landing next to his plate. Alysson giggled in turn; "All-ah-tuna!" The mispronunciation had her giggling some more.
Max plucked the chunk of waffle from its place and threw it back to me. I caught it in my mouth and chewed smugly at him. He rolled his eyes before turning to look at our sister. The waffle crunched between my teeth uncomfortably. I slowed in my chewing, narrowing my eyes at its questionable taste.
"It's not All-ah-tuna, Alysson. It's Alla-toona. Allatoona." He repeated slowly, willing her to nod and repeat it with him. She indulged him, nodding with him and repeating; "Allllatoonaa. Allatoona." Together they worked out the proper way to pronounce it.
My hand flew to my mouth as I spat the waffle out onto my plate.
"Oh my God!" Amongst the chewed up bits of food, a mangled corpse of a fly sat dead in the middle of it. "Ew, ew! Uuugh! Bllaaugh!" I shuddered violently, wriggling my body in disgust. I snatched a napkin from underneath my fork to forcefully wipe my tongue off with it.
My dad frowned; "Well that's not very nice, Jennifer. Your mother slaved away to make that for you." From behind his glasses, he eyed the slimy bit of waffle before directing a displeased grimace back to me. I motioned down at the plate with my own gaze, giving him an offended look; "There was a fly on it!" His eyebrows came together in a furrow; "Now that can't be right." He stood from his seat, leaning over the island to get a better look. With a shake of his head, his disapproving eyes latched onto mine again. "I don't see anything."
I stared at him, more than a little baffled. Literally pointing to it on my plate, I insisted; "Dad, you're going blind. It's right there." He readjusted his glasses. Stretching his arm to scoop my plate into his hand, he brought my breakfast closer to his face for inspection. He shook his head a second time, giving my plate back to me. I took it with slight reluctance. He shrugged my concerns away; "There's nothing there."
I stared hard at him. How could he not see something so obvious? It wasn't like the body of the insect was hidden underneath a piece of waffle, it was there! In plain sight! Either I was insane, or he needed new glasses.
He and my mother exchanged quizzical glances. I'm not crazy. It's there. I can see it. Frowning myself now, I gazed back down at my plate. "OH!" I shrieked, leaping backwards out of my stool. The stool toppled and clamored to the floor, startling everyone in the room. My hands raced to my mouth to cover it. I made a mildly disgusted face of horror as I stared wide-eyed at what lay before me.
What...What the FUCK?!
Severed fingers stuck out of my waffle at different intersections, as if they had been jammed through the breakfast food itself. The skin of the fingers were a mottled, murky color of green and yellow. The fingernails were completely black. Each one looked to be well past their stages of rigor mortis. The nearly suffocating feeling of calm that had been shrouding the house began to ease away. Fear started to slither its way in.
Meanwhile my family stared at me as if I had grown seven heads. "What's the matter, darling?" Asked my mother, a look of growing concern etched onto her features. A new fly, thankfully very much alive, flew into view out from behind her head. The grating noise of its buzzing set my teeth on edge. I watched its black body circle in the air twice before swiftly landing on the side of her cheek. No one, her most all, appeared to be affected by this.
I had to pick which to be more freaked out by, and frankly, I decided the severed limb took priority. I silently shook my head, still struggling to believe what I was seeing. One hand went to point at the atrocity in front of me; "M-My plate," I stuttered. She looked down at it and then back at me, blinking uncertainly; "Yes?" I quickly retracted my arm to my chest, as if I were afraid that my breakfast would come to life and attack me. "It has fingers!"
They all looked at my plate, visibly confused. In the absurdity of the moment, it even felt as though the fly on her face was looking on in disbelief as well.
Alysson scrunched up her nose and leaned directly over my rightfully neglected dish. Her long locks threatened to spill and brush against the contents of my terrible meal. "What fingers? I don't see any fingers." ARE YOU BLIND?!
"Those fingers!" I yelled, gesturing wildly at them. Max gave me a weird look. "Uh, you okay, Jennifer?" He looked oddly serious for his age. The tone of worry in his voice only served to propel my anxiety even higher. "You seriously don't see this?!" I cried, frantically gesturing at my plate. Max leaned closer to our mother, never taking his eyes off of me. "Mom, Jennifer's scaring me." He whispered. Me?! I'm scaring YOU? I couldn't believe this. My mother leaned close to him as well. "She's scaring me too." She admitted, looking more worried than before. As if it were unnerved itself, the little bug hopped to a more suitable spot on her forehead. WHAT?
"She probably needs more sleep." My father seemed to shrug my behavior off as he reached for the bottle of maple syrup in the middle of the island counter. He drowned his waffle in its contents, making my eyes travel to his own dish. I did a double take.
"Dad! Look at your waffles!" I shouted, my eyes threatening to pop out of my head.
A grimy foot proudly sat atop his breakfast. It lay there severed at the ankle. Its coloration was a revolting green and white in the shine of the sun. Each toenail was an ugly brown. Two more flies emerged from the unsightly mass, one creeping about the disgusting skin and the other whizzing around my father's shoulders. A wave of nausea overtook me. My father jumped at the sound of my shouting, quickly fixing his gaze to his food. He sighed, quickly becoming aggravated. "What is it this time?" He gave me a look only a stern parent could give. I struggled to draw breath. Why can't they see it? Why is it just me?! My heart began a wild thump in my ribs as I continued to stare in undisguised horror at his breakfast.
When I made no reply, he went right back to smothering his waffles in an excessive amount of syrup. I gasped loudly as blood started to squirt from the nozzle.
"DAD!" I screeched, grabbing my hair in fright.
He jumped mid-pour, looking down where he assumed my terror was aimed. When he apparently failed to find the source of my fear, he snapped the bottle closed and turned towards me. The thump of the condiment hitting the island startled the fly that had been roaming around on the foot. The insect vaulted into the air. "That's quite enough of that, little lady!" 'Little lady' was only a name he pulled out when he meant business. I cringed internally at the usage of it. "Now sit back down, stop scaring your siblings, and enjoy your meal. I don't know what kind of prank you're pulling, but it's not funny."
Prank? PRANK?! I WISH THIS WAS A FUCKING PRANK!
That was the last straw. I finally snapped, beyond scared and frustrated; "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" I shrieked. "Language!" My mother gasped it in shock, drawing a hand to her neck as if to clutch invisible pearls. A group of flies hurtled through the space above her head, shooting off into different directions. Several individual whines of their tiny wings made it all the harder to concentrate on being bewildered by their abrupt appearances. Where the fuck were they coming from!?
After a tense moment of momentary silence, my brother shook his head and shrugged; "Hey, if she's not going to eat it, I will!" He laughed, reaching over the countertop to bring my plate closer. Undisturbed by everything around him, he dumped the disgusting contents of my breakfast onto his. "Maaax!" Alysson's features drooped while she whined his name. She cast what would have been a comically adorable pout towards our parents; "He's gonna eat it aaall!" Our father now fixed my brother with a firm look; "Young man, you save some of that for your sister." Max cringed at the sound of his own lecturing nickname. My brother gave a hasty sigh; "Fiiine." While he worked to scrape some of his horrid items onto the dish of my sister's, I noticed his plate sported a mass of ears. Hers was heaped high with eyeballs of varying colors. My mother had a long, sickeningly wet string of intestines.
Bile rose to the back of my throat.
Then they began to EAT their repulsive meals.
My face fell and my mind went completely blank. A long, horrified groan emerged from my lips while I stumbled backwards against the wall behind me. Although I braced myself back against the wall for support, my legs wobbled. My world as I knew it had gone upside down. Even my stomach audibly disagreed with the vile sight in which I was seeing. There was nothing I could do, but watch as my family consumed body parts and organs as if they were the most delectable things they had ever eaten. By this point they completely forewent their eating utensils. They clawed at their meals, groped at it with selfish hands, shoving and devouring the food into their mouths like starving animals. Their lips, chins, and cheeks became smeared and stained with blood. Bloodied handful after handful of the terrible course vanished behind smacking lips and sucking tongues. They consumed with such a voracious mirth, they were practically choking themselves with it as they gorged on the nightmarish items. All the while the number of flies increased and with their growing group, the volume of their collective drones escalated.
"My God, Lily! This is delicious! You've really outdone yourself!" Encouraged my dad, taking a big bite of toe into his mouth. The frenzy of his eating had decorated his glasses with small specks of blood. The buzzing insects marched and maneuvered through his hair. More and more crowded the island's surface, collecting on the bodies and faces of my imposter family members. "Oh, Scott. Stop it! You're embarrassing me!" She laughed, and slurped the intestines as if they were noodles.
I shook my head side to side, squeezing my eyes as tightly shut as I possibly could. "No, no, no, stop. Stop this. Please." It was a lie. All of it a big fat, terrible lie. The rug had been pulled out from under me in the worst of ways. Whatever this sick place was, it wasn't home. And these cannibals, they were no longer my family members.
But if this wasn't home and if they weren't my family, then where was I and who were they?! What was this!? Was I trapped in another godforsaken nightmare?! WAS I DEAD? I slapped my hands over my ears. Sinking to the kitchen floor, I tried with every fiber of my being to shut out the noises. But to my immense dismay, it only seemed to increase the broken symphony of their crunching, slurping, chewing, and swallowing. Nonononononooo. My body trembled on the floor. This couldn't be fucking real.
"Can I have seconds?" Asked Max rather greedily.
My cannibal of a mother laughed; "Why, Max! This is only breakfast."
Their ravenous feasting became an insufferable echo inside of my head, wriggling deeper and deeper into my brain until I could no longer hear myself think. And the flies were just as horrendous in how overbearingly loud they had become. Just as the racket rose to its utmost peak, threatening to tear me apart with every decibel, I screamed at the top of my lungs. It was all I could do to drown out the hideous cacophony of their rabid consumption. I screamed and screamed, and kept screaming until my lungs burned and my vocal cords strained. I could feel the flies swatting and bumping up against my face, my cheeks, my nose, my forehead, and arms. They were everywhere.
This was Hell!
A maniacal cackle echoed somewhere off in the distance, loud enough to overcome every other sound. It was the last thing I heard before I was suddenly ripped out of my own personal nightmare.