Shift

This is just an excerpt of a short story I'm working on. I'm kind of stumped where to go with it next unfortunately

Shift

 

                I knew from the moment it began how it would end. I hate knowing that. Especially when I don’t like the ending.

                But when your boyfriend suddenly is sprouting a second head there really is no other way for it to end but badly. Especially not when he sprouts three or four extra heads.

                It began with Kevin.

                Well actually everything began before then, the steady downhill trend, the way Kevin started changing. It started on the inside. It always does. I knew he was changing but I didn’t do anything about it. I loved Kevin.

                None of that is really important. The long slow process that brought Kevin and I together in his basement on a Saturday afternoon when he sprouted his second head wasn’t as pertinent as the fact that he had sprouted a second head.

                We had just been sitting there together watching a movie, trying to keep up the semblance of normalcy. My eyes kept straying from the screen to check on him. He had his arm around me like he used to but his fingers were restlessly drumming against the exposed skin of my shoulder. I wondered at his annoyance but dared not ask.

                Things hadn’t been so great between us for a while. Kevin had a permanent frown on his face that no one could lift. Most days he was just angry at everything so he’d be glaring too. That was all part of the long downward trend that brought us there.

                I believed that he hated me.

                This belief was fed by the fact that gradually his restless drumming included nails digging into my flesh. I bore it in silence for half the movie but during a particularly boring scene I had no choice but to finally question him.

                “What’s wrong Kevin?”

                And that’s when it happened.

                Kevin had always been the lean type, the kind of person whose veins were like a traceable road map despite being only in his early twenties. I could only imagine what he would look like when he got old. When he got angry in particular, the vein in his forehead would pop out above his furrowed brow and narrowed hazel eyes.

                The vein appeared and the drumming stopped. Kevin dug his nails even deeper into my arm. “Excuse me?” He asked without looking at me.

                I carefully considered my options before speaking. No matter how I responded, our story would continue the same. If I told him to forget what I had said, he would become enraged. If I pretended I hadn’t said anything, he would become angry and if I repeated my question, he’d probably be downright pissed.

                “It’s nothing Babe,” I said and snuggled closer to him to relieve the pressure on my shoulder.

                But it was too late. I was not in the slightest surprised when Kevin threw me away from him and stood up. “I’m tired of this.” He said, voice calmer than I had heard in a long time. It was not his usual angry, hate and accusatory remark. It was flat. He was stating the truth.

                I was tired of it too. But that didn’t mean that I wanted him to sprout an army of heads.

                Still there was nothing I could do but look on helplessly. Ever his silent soldier, I awaited his change with dread buried behind a blank expression. Briefly I wondered when it would be my time. We can all only hide our Ugliness for so long in this world before it bursts forth for the world to see, for the world to judge.

                I would not judge Kevin’s Ugliness. It was his important moment to shift from the man I had come to know better than myself into the hideous beast that I knew resided in just beneath his beautiful tanned skin. My judgment would ruin the moment, make it less than perfect. There must even be perfection in the revelation of the grotesque.

                “I’m tired of it.” He repeated, looking me in the eyes for the first time in a month. His voice was halting now, his teeth ground and clenched together. He wrapped his long arms around his wiry frame and hunched forward with his spine curved and his knees bent.

                I’m glad his housemates weren’t home to hear his bloodcurdling scream. There was no time left for me to wonder at what form his shift would take. I knew him better than anyone, but there was no telling exactly what his shape would be.

                I hated my curiosity. Though my stomach heaved, my knees shook and my heart froze, I could not bring myself to look away and miss even a moment of his moment.

                First what appeared to be a large zit formed on the back of his neck. It grew, saggy and wet looking, swelling up until the weight of it burst the skin and beneath a second head had formed, bloody and dripping.

                This head had Kevin’s facial structure but lacked eyes, ears, and a nose. It had a big gaping red hole of a mouth and strands of awkward black hairs atop a lopsided, mushy looking skull. The tongue lolled out of the mouth and made guttural sounds between smacking lips.

                “Me.” His second head said, barely loud enough to be heard over Kevin’s urgent, unintelligible screams.

                I backpedaled when Kevin’s legs jerked and kicked him forward a few inches towards me. His black hair, dampened by sweat and blood, slid forward over his real face. He tore one of his hands away from his body and thrust it in my direction.

                “See what you’ve done!” He shouted.

                “Me.” His second head jerked in an awkward nod.

                I tripped over the X-box and crashed onto my backside. For a moment I sat, stunned by both the sudden fall and by the sight of a second pimple forming on his shoulder.  It was swelling faster than the first, the process accelerating until it too popped to reveal a third head, identical to the second. A translucent colorful liquid dripped from the wound of the third head, like soap only I doubted anyone would want to rub the liquid on their hands before dinner.

                “Me.” The third head said to the second.

                I had seen enough to understand Kevin’s transformation, the ugliness he had been hiding from me for a long time. Perhaps even for as long as I had known him. I had suspicions then, now I had evidence.

                I had seen his Ugly.

                “I’m sorry Kevin.” I said and calmly got to my feet. “I did my best.”

                “You did this!” He shrieked as he crashed to his knees holding his stomach where I could see another bulge forming.

                “I know.” I walked away from his hunched figure and carefully avoided passing in front of the bathroom. The door was ajar and opened to a vanity with a large mirror. I had to duck to avoid being caught by the mirror’s reflection.

                I left Kevin there, writhing in too much pain to follow me up the stairs to the rest of the house. He called my name several times. Cursed me.  The bass line to it all was the unending chanting of “me, me, me, me.”

Author's Note

Feel free to give me any advice that you can. I know it's not long but it's pretty much all I have written so far.