I was always alone. My parents kicked me out as soon as I turned 18. The rest of my family lived across the world. I didn’t have many friends. Long story short, I wasn’t loved. Most of my time I spent aimlessly wandering around my town, hoping that somebody would come for me. It never happened.
There was this house, though, that I always felt drawn to.
It was abandoned, looked like it had been for quite some time. Vines were crawling across the exterior, the windows were boarded up, and the paint was chipping away. I never explored it, mainly because it didn’t look safe.
But as I walked by it one very late night, I realized even if it was unsafe, and I died in it, nobody would care. They wouldn’t even go looking for me.
“Hey, what the hell.” I muttered to myself. “I might as well.”
As I approached the front door, it creaked open by itself.
The inside was musty and covered in dust, but not nearly as broken-down as it was on the outside.
I was just about to enter when I heard something strange. A piano playing. And right by the piano, a strange shadow getting larger and larger as it slithered towards me. I stepped back in shock.
It was some…thing. It had tentacles in place of arms, and it’s smile was sharp and yellow, unnaturally large. It’s eyes resembled a snake’s more than it did a human’s.
It held out a tentacle towards me.
“Come. Stay. You’ll love it here.”
It’s cold tentacle wrapped around my arm and pulled me into the house, where the door slammed behind me. It dragged me towards a table, where dozens of other creatures sat. Something with nothing but a gaping black hole for a mouth and eyes drooled beside me. A monster with pale skin and no pupils grinned at me.
An octopus looking creature in a droopy chef’s hat walked towards the table, a grand plate of disgusting looking entrees in his tentacles.
“Dig in” The tentacle creature said, that same wide grin staring at me.
“What- what is… who are you?” I asked.
The tentacle creature laughed. “Oh, foolish one. Look at us. We were just like you once. Outcast. Alone. Nowhere to go. Until we found this house. Stay awhile. You’ll be like us in no time.” It hissed.
“I will never be like you!” I yelled, and ran towards the door, but it didn’t open no matter how hard I pushed. The creature with white eyes grabbed me and dragged me upstairs, into a room with a single, mouldy looking bed.
“Rest, young one. You have lots ahead of you.” It smiled, and I could see the bugs in it’s teeth.
“Let me go home. Please.”
It shook it’s head. “You cannot leave. I cannot leave, even if I wanted to. This is your home now, as it is mine.”
“I am not like you.” I said, tears in my eyes. “This is your home, not mine.”
The creature laughed a wheezy, throaty laugh. “What makes you think I am not like you, young one?”
“I’m a human. You’re just some… some thing.” I said.
It sighed. “I was a human once.” It reached into it’s dirty shirt pocket, and pulled out a picture. It took me a while, but as I looked at it, the resemblance was there, and it became clearer to me that it was, in fact, that monster. “This was me. I was alone, like you. I had nowhere to turn but this house. I hated it, just like you. But as time went on, I found myself more at home. It changed me. You don’t have to love it right away, young one, but trust me. This is where you are meant to be. Just, give it a try, okay?” He said, and walked out.
I sat on the disgusting bed, processing everything.
Just, give it a try, okay?
Slowly, I lied down on the bed, and to my surprise, it was comfortable. To be fair, my bed at home was just an air mattress lying on my kitchen floor, but this was like nothing before. I fell asleep in an instant, and I had a thought that maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all.
The next morning as I woke up, I looked different. Not too different, just enough for me to notice. My skin was paler, and my arms were veinier. My hair looked more matted, and when I smiled to myself in the mirror, I couldn’t help but notice it looked similar to the tentacle monster’s.
As time went on, I felt more and more like them. Things I used to be disgusted by became hobbies of mine, and things that I used to fear made me smile a wide smile like everybody else. I barely noticed any changes in me until about a week later.
Were my teeth sharper, or was I just crazy.
I just shook that thought off.
But as time went on, the used to things I got. I felt at home finally. This was home, where I could find joy in tearing a live rat’s head off and drinking its’ blood, or where I could eat live bugs whenever I so desired. This was meant to be. I was turning into the man I was supposed to be.
The tentacle monster, who I now recognized as the most esteemed of gentlemen, smiled at me one day.
“Ah, brother, you have become one with us. A true monster.”
Monster? Who was he calling monster? I was no…
I looked in the mirror, and saw myself.
My skin was now completely white. My fingers were long and sharp at the end. My eyes turned yellow like a cats’. My hair had fallen off.
I was one of them.
One day, as I was lounging by the piano, I heard the door creak open. A young man, maybe about my age, looked around.
“H-hello? Hello!” He called.
I crawled towards him, eager to make a new friend. He jumped back at the sight of me. I flashed him my nicest, most gentleman-like smile. I reached out my hand to him.
“Come. Stay. You’ll love it here.