I didn’t really feel like visiting Meghan today, but she was adamant. “Come over Ash! My parents are gone for the weekend! Come on, please! We can talk about Josh…” That did it.
We can talk about Josh.
Meaning Josh Stapleton, the guy I’d been crushing on for about 6 months now. In all honesty, I not only wanted to talk about Josh, I also wanted to work with Meghan to come up with some sort of plan to get Josh over to her place. Maybe say we were throwing a small party, kickback, maybe just a chill session, whatever… anything we could think of to get him to swing by.
As soon as I walked through her front door though, all plans changed.
There was a terrible smell emanating from somewhere inside of her home.
I didn’t want to seem rude, so I didn’t just blurt right out and ask Meghan what the rank smell was but honestly, it was written all over my face.
When Meghan turned to face me though, she looked right over my confused/horrified expression and started talking about grabbing some food from the fridge.
I couldn’t believe it!?!
Asking me if I wanted food from the fridge, when the smell passing by my nose was enough to make me gag just thinking about food, or a fridge for that matter. But Meghan didn’t seem to notice at all.
As she bouncily walked into the kitchen, I finally had to break it to her. “Meghan, your house stinks! What the hell is that smell?”
She cocked her head to the side questioningly and asked me what I meant.
I was stunned! There was no way she couldn’t smell anything.
“What do I mean!?! Meghan your house smells like someone ate 2 burritos and took 3 shits, corn included! What the hell is going on here!?!”
Okay… maybe I went a bit overboard and was a tad bit harsh, but her house really really stank.
Even after my smartass response, Meghan just shrugged me off and continued getting food from her fridge.
Bishhh What!?!
Whatever. I left her to it, and instead started moseying around the house trying to figure out why it smelled like 20 dead opossums in a turd mobile.
As I searched around the house, I realized when I went upstairs the smell was faint. So that meant it was coming from downstairs.
But where?
I tried to sniff out room by room, but all the downstairs rooms smelled the same. Like, there wasn’t any one room with a stronger odor than the other rooms.
Then when I got to the living room, I saw it.
An old rust-stained ottoman.
It was made from leather and had a brownish red tint. It also possessed two strange and very large burn holes on the top of it.
Quite frankly it looked out of place.
In fact, I’m sure it was out of place. I’d never seen it in Meghan’s living room before.
“Hey Meghan! Where did you guys get this ottoman?”
She didn’t respond so I just figured she was still in the kitchen frying up a bologna sandwich which is her usual after school snack.
“Hey Meghan! Did you hea-“
Right at that moment, the pungent smell floating around got way way worse and I keeled over and started to dry heave.
What the hell was going on!?! And why did the ottoman now also have a bluish purple and grey tint?
The whole thing was strange, but at least now I could pretty much conclude that the ottoman was the source of the horrendous smell.
As I moved in closer to study this odd piece of furniture, my breath caught in my throat.
The ottoman shivered.
It didn’t shake. The whole frame didn’t move or anything… but the cover…. The leather… it shivered.
It was very quick but there was no way my eyes were playing tricks on me.
Even so, I moved closer for a better look, ready to turn on my heels and run away at any second.
But I shouldn’t have been READY to run..
I should have ACTUALLY run!
I should have flown out of there like a bat out of hell because now that I was up close to the ottoman, I noticed the holes that I thought were unusually large burn holes, weren’t burn holes at all.
There wasn’t black char around the holes, nothing was scorched or singed, it only looked that way from afar. Up close, it was clear as day… the black marks were… eyelashes.
Yes.
The holes were empty eye sockets with cotton filling sticking out of them.
In the same moment of the eye hole realization, I also realized the fabric wasn’t leather but more of a leathery human skin.
It would probably seem as if I ran away right then but I didn’t.
I suppose I was in disbelief… I don’t know.
However after a few passing moments I did finally react and my stomach turned 100 flips!
The room felt like it was spinning!
I tried again to call out for Meghan but still nothing.
Dammit where was she!?!
I wanted to run, needed to get away but the fear kept me pinned in place.
Then I saw it again…
The shiver!
The damn skin was shivering! Wait! No! Not shivering….
BREATHING! The skin was moving as though it was inhaling and exhaling! What the FUC—
“Ash! Ash where are you?”
Oh, thank god!
Meghan was looking for me!
I wanted to call out to her, tell her where I was but it seemed if I made any noise, the– the thin- the mon-monster would wake up and grab me!
“ASH!” “AAASSSHHH!”
It was so loud.
But what was it? A growl? Or a yell, I guess?
I don’t know exactly.
I just know that she screamed/growled/yelled my name so deeply into my ear…
Wait… was it a she? Maybe it was a he… maybe it was a them… they… who knows?
There were several different vocal chords in this particular voice and it definitely didn’t sound like the usual Meghan but…
the sad reality is, I have no time to ponder any of this.
My legs are no longer working, and the blood is draining from my body very quickly.
My fingers have been nearly sawn off because I tried to catch the butcher’s knife that repeatedly rammed into my back and out of my stomach.
And you know what?.. I don’t know why I tried to catch a knife! How foolish that seems now.. but maybe that’s the way the body reacts when it’s in shock? When someone is trying to kill it? Maybe, it defends against the indefensible?
Hell I don’t know…
I’m probably sounding crazy right now but I’m watching my blood leave my body!
I’m dying.
Once Meghan or the thing possessing Meghan’s body, ensured I was mutilated, she dragged me to a small closet, threw me in and locked the door.
As my life continues to drain away, I see blueprints and books from Amazon on how to build a couch from scratch. There’s nothing I can do but wait. But one thing is for sure… I sure do hope that I’m fully dead when she changes me and I’m not like whoever it was that was turned into that ottoman… because boy does that ottoman stank!