Happy You Came

To my readers,
I've reached out into cyberspace and ran into Chuck Wendig. He runs a blog called "Terrible Minds," and he posted a prompt the other day I thought I'd respond to. His challenge: roll the dice and see what fiction subgenre smash-up you get. Write a story under 1000 words to fall into this category. I rolled:

Psychological Horror/ Alien Invasion

So, without further ado...

HAPPY YOU CAME

The house was completely silent. I asked for it to be that way. The lights were out. The doors were locked. All these little bodies, warm and radiating heat, were where I wanted them, perfect little dolls. Almost as if on cue, the front door opened.

"SURPRISE!" Macky was nearly knocked off her feet. "Happy Birthday!" And the whole house erupted into a chorus of the Happy Birthday song. Macky saw me, smiled, and shook her head. She knew all along, but she was a good sport. She started to make her rounds while I watched her hungrily, waiting for her to come near so I could take in the whole of her. I hoped she was wearing her perfume.

After ten minutes, she found me. "You little sneak."

"Oh come on, you had to know."

"Actually, honestly, I had no idea."

I smirked. "Good. But, you don't have to lie."

She smiled out the corner of her mouth. "Yeah, okay. Walter told me."

"I knew it! That's why that wormy little bastard's been avoiding me all night." I had to laugh.

She did too, and put her hand on my chest. "But, regardless, this is perfect. I just can't wait until this house is empty again. I want to have a little surprise party of my own..."

I felt it again. That nagging little electrical pain shooting through the back of my skull and searching for my eyes. It never lasted long, thankfully, because I couldn't survive much longer. I winced.

Macky put her drink down and ran her hand up the back of my head. "Was that your headache again?"

I nodded.

"I want you to go get it checked out. Tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll go."

"Kyle, promise."

I sighed heavily and looked her in the eyes. "Yeah. Tomorrow."

Once everyone was out, Macky followed through on her promise. I had cleaned up what I necessarily had to without putting any undue delay on the boy- cut panties and cupless bra. The house was once again silent. I could hear Macky down the hall shuffling around for her unmentionables. The whole thought of it was driving me mad.

Then it came again. Harsher this time, like a knife to the base of my skull, digging, digging in. I reached my hands up to the source of the pain, fumbling around for something, anything that could explain this slowly creeping electricity. It forced itself up and up into the top of my head until my ears were ringing, and that's when I dropped to my knees, holding myself up with one arm on our dining room table. I felt heavy, and my breath was coming in starts and stops. There was an echo off into the distance, perhaps Macky heard me. I called out to her, but my voice stopped in my throat, caught and pleading. When the pain reached my eyes, I could see the lights outside. Bright, florescent, and alternating hues of blue, cold blue.

I stood, unconscious of myself, my muscles moving on their own accord. I was starting to feel numb, and I couldn't be sure if I was hallucinating the terrible whispers that were swimming around my head. Little whispers, little blank whispers. I was propelled down the hallway, slinking as if my skin was hanging me and dragging me. My eyes were fixed and frozen; I hadn't blinked in I don't know how long. Down the hall. Down the hall, one step, one dragging step at a time.

The door to our bedroom was open, and that smell. I didn't know what that smell was. I'd never smelled it before, and never want to smell it again. It drove itself into me, hitting me over and over and over, and I realized what was wrong. Macky was gone. The whispers found my head again, pinning themselves into the light that was pouring in through the open window.  The open window? It was freezing outside, and Macky hated the Fall, especially when the winter was nipping at its heels.

The first hand came from above the window, like gravity was somehow inverting itself. Then the second hand, both human. The ends of the fingers, though, were black. Black like they'd been frozen or burned. Then the face appeared. Human, smiling, smiling, ear to ear it wore a smile that stretched far beyond what should have been, and the teeth. It slinked in through my open window.

I wanted out. I wanted out of my body, numb as it was, frozen as it was, out of my control as it was. The second person came through the window, followed by the next, and the next until I was staring at too many to count. The pain came crashing back into my head and carrying itself through my teeth, bones, and sinew. The whispers were coming from them. Then, a whisper came from me, pulling up from my own throat.

At once, they nodded, turned, and slithered back out the window. "We've got to clean, now Kyle. We've got to clean." I turned despite myself. Macky reached her blackened fingers out to mine, and I grasped them. My body wasn't my own, but now, for some reason, I felt like I was joining them. I was... happy... happy they've arrived...

-JR Simmang, from the prompt inspired by http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/10/25/flash-fiction-challenge-the-subgenre-smash-and-grab/

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