What happened on that summer night has become sort of a campfire story around the area I live, I guess it happening around the time cell phones had started to become more widespread had something to do with it, but it’s more then just a scary story you tell your friends at a sleepover or something they tell a newcomer to the town to scare them, for the small group of people like me who actually was there on that fateful night. I guess you could say that what happened really changed me to who I am today. The things that it changed about me.
I suppose here’s some obligatory background information before I get into what changed me for life. In the mid 2000s I lived in the little slice of heaven that was Gloomsdale, I wouldn’t call it a small town, cause it wasn’t, and it wasn’t a city either, it had a population of around 9 to 10,000 people, it was just basic suburban sprawl, nice white house’s in rows, with green cut lawns and trees. We did have a small downtown area, it had a theater, a few restaurants, I remember there was a music store that sold cd’s too, you know, all the things that a small downtown would need in the 2000s. Despite all the things I just named, there wasn’t too much for us teens to do at the time, that was until a big company came and saw all the free land in our town and decided to build a brand new mall.
When the mall opened up, some people got together and decided to start doing the “Gloomsdale comic convention” at the mall, for all the nerds of the area, like me. The story I’m about to tell took place on the third year of them doing the convention. It’s very important to note that a few months before the convention a pretty big asteroid came crashing down near a farm outside town, a few scientists even came around to examine it. That was the only thing the people of our boring town could talk about, even a few months later people were still talking about it so the people who ran the Gloomsdale comic convention made a ingenious move, they were going to make this years convention sci-fi themed.
I still remember walking home from school with my friend teddy and reading the newspaper, I remember what the advertisement said very clearly, it read “Come on down for the third annual Gloomsdale comic convention! Since that asteroid crashed down outside of town, we are happy to announce that this year’s convention will be sci-fi themed! Because of this, a new up and coming toy developer will have a stand at this year’s convention to show off his new Alien themed toys, which he claims defies science itself..” after this it showed a picture of what I could only describe as a grotesque green egg, with basic green 2000s packaging around it saying “Alien eggs” it then trailed off into the other people that would be attending and when it was. to say the least me and teddy were avid nerds and toy collectors, so hearing this “new toy” had us immediately hooked, and by the days end we had already made plans with our parents to drop us off at the convention the next week.
The day of the convention came, the mall was packed, more than the previous year’s convention by a long shot, all that advertising must have worked. The malls hallways were filled with stands selling whatever comic or toy related things they were selling, but all me and teddy were there for, and all the other teens I was assuming, was the temporary stage at the end of the hallway, with a big sign that read “The alien eggs” in sci-fi font. On the stage there was a wooden table and a microphone, surrounding the Stage was cardboard cut outs of movie aliens and other alien related decor, and of course there rows of chairs in front of it. The showing of the new toy was going to be at the end of the convention, as short of a main event, so me and teddy went along looking at the other stands trying to fill up time.
Now, my memories get a bit hazy around this part, probably because all the fear. The time finally arrived, a convention worker said over a microphone “now it’s time for the main event all you sci-if lovers! Please gather around the main stage at the end of the hallway, for the first time ever showing off the alien eggs!” I remember Teddy rushing me saying “We have to front row seats..” We didn’t, everyone else was just as excited as we were, so we ended up getting in the second row. After a few minutes everyone had gotten their seats, and after seats ran out people just stood around the sides of the chairs. The lights dimmed, and with a round of applause a old looking man wearing a suit started to walk on stage, he had a weird walk, and in a strange way his face was “loose” He got up in front of the microphone, and looked to the side of the stage, then nodded his head, as he nodded a women came on stage, pushing a white cart filled with the same packaged grotesque green eggs we saw on the advertisement, she pushed it by him, then went off stage.
The suspense was killing us. The man started to talk, despite his looks he talked with a perfect talk show host voice. He picked up one of the eggs and showed it off to the crowd, he started to speak, “Welcome all! This toy is something you’ve all never seen before on this earth! I know you all must want to know how this works, but I best let a volunteer in the crowd try it out!”
Almost every hand in the room went up, including mine, but thank god he didn’t pick me. He ended up choosing an older boy, maybe a high schooler, who was a few rows behind me. He excitedly ran up on stage, the old man handed him the egg without saying a word, the room was silent now, after a second or two, the egg stared to crack, very slowly…, it started at the top until the crank made its way to the bottom, and it finally opened. It came out and slithered its way up the boys arm. The thing….. it had a body of snake, about the length of a small dog, but at the there was a head, I guess if you could even call it a head, it was a mangled up mess of green and red flesh, the eyes were two empty holes, with disgusting crust forming around them, his nose was the same, just a empty hole of where a nose should be, with green flesh oozing out of it, but the part of the face that scared me the most was the mouth, it didn’t look like mouth, it looked more like someone cut a line in his face with a knife, with blood leaking out of it, and through the darkness of his mouth I could make out rows and….rows of sharp rotten teeth. I almost ran out my seat right then and there but of course at the moment it was happening none of this had really went through my head.
Just then with a crack of speed the snake-head monster thing slithered his way up to the boys neck and opened his mouth, and bit down on him with his disgusting teeth, the boy fell to the ground screaming in pain, just as this happened all the other eggs on the cart started to crack, one by one these creatures were slithering out to the crowd, at this point everyone had started running, it was madness, there were screams and crying, me and Teddy were stumbling through the crowd, as we passed by other people we could see the creatures attacking more and more people, I could feel them slithering by my feet as we ran through, I was too occupied to check on stage to see where the old man has went. I heard gun shots, I don’t know where they came from but I heard them, I felt a stinging pain for a second, a pain I could only describe as a thousand bees stinging me at once, although in the heat of the moment I couldn’t stop to see what it was. a lot of people were running into the bathrooms so me and Teddy followed, in the bathrooms people were crying and screaming and trying to call 911. This is about the time I blacked out.
I woke up in Teddys moms car, I was in a delirious state, looking out the window I could see many people sitting on the sidewalk outside the mall with so many police cars and lights, and ambulances. There was so much noise. Seeing the confused look on my face, Teddy leaned in and explained after I blacked out, the adults in the bathroom with them were able to barricade the door, they all hid in there for what seemed like hours. They only came out after the screaming had stopped and they heard police sirens. He told me that all the creatures were gone by the time the police came, the police took a few people for questioning, the old man was no where to be found, and a lot of people had to be taken out on stretchers. He continued taking, but I couldn’t hear him, his words started to blur as I looked down at my right foot, there were two bit marks with dark green blood leaking out of them, it was just then I realized what that stinging pain I felt while running was. And I could already feel those dry green scales starting to appear..