Chapter Text
Fifteen-year-old Cletus Brown was having a terrible day. His little sister had gone home early because she’d thrown up in the middle of class, and he was on the verge of faking sick just to get away from his classmates. He’d always disliked people, and thought of his peers as way too immature for their age. Today was no exception. After sitting through another nine classes that were much too full of pointless questions, the exit bell finally rang, and Cletus walked out of the school and started on his way home.
He didn’t have the best home life, but it was better than school. The apartment complex they lived in was run-down, and even then his father had to work three jobs to support him and his sister. His shoes dragged slightly against the concrete of the sidewalk, and his backpack felt heavier than usual. Quietly, he walked the streets of his town until he reached the intersection a little ways from his building. Then a bright light, brighter than the sun, illuminated the street in prismatic colors. He looked up, like some others did, and saw something no human was ever meant to.
The sight was truly something to behold. A gigantic eye, easily the size of the Moon, that appeared to be looking down onto the intersection. It shimmered in colors not found on any spectrum, and a black dot in the center pulsed with some sort of arcane eldritch power. Cletus felt a sharp pulling pain in his hands, and then the air was full of screams. Pulling his gaze away from the eye, he risked a glance around the intersection. People were falling to the ground, clawing at their faces, growing eyes and arms in places they would never normally be.
He too screamed once he saw his hands. The pain in them had greatly intensified, and he saw his fingers become unnaturally long before his eyes. Cletus began to run home. His body stretched like taffy, indelibly affected by the huge eyeball staring down on him. Still he ran, until he tripped and crashed to the ground. He looked back, trying to find what had caused him to fall, but found only a mess of pale flesh similar to what his hands had changed into. Six newfound limbs and a tail scrabbled to get him up, and once he did, the ground was much, much farther away.
He began to hyperventilate, hands moving towards his head in a futile attempt to hide himself away. His breath came in whining gasps- from several spots on his face. Already overwhelmed, he ran his fingers over it to find his face had changed too. He’d lost his former nose and mouth, and his eyes closed sideways when he touched them. Someone screamed. Cletus figured they had seen the giant eye in the sky, but when he turned his misshapen head in the direction of the sound, he came across a scraggly teenager crouched in an alley.
A gargling hiss left his mouth(s?), and he reached out towards the stranger in an attempt to explain. They just cringed away in fear and started to run. Now he was well and truly overwhelmed. The unnatural noise that had just come from him freaked him out, and he really wanted to go home. Suddenly he went lightheaded, like his soul was being taken. He clung on with all his might, but he lost most control of his body. Now running on instinct, the Cletus-creature wandered out into the road.
The only thing Cletus was able to notice before the car hit him was that, like him, the person behind the wheel was undergoing a very unwelcome transformation. Two thousand pounds of metal slammed directly into his flank with a resounding thud, sending him flying. Stars exploded across his vision, his head cracking against the asphalt. He tried to get up, but his new legs failed him, collapsing under his weight. Cletus simply laid there for a while, the sounds of the car alarm and the screams of transforming people blending together with the ringing in his head. Thoughts came to him in fragments, animalistic in nature.
go home. home safe. hurts, hurt bad. go home, home make better. always.
Five minutes later, his body forced itself to its feet again, moving slower now towards the building he saw as home. He stumbled and crashed into the outside wall of the apartment, smearing blood against the doorframe as he turned the doorknob with his long fingers and slunk inside. The inside of the apartment was just as bad as the streets. Its halls were filled with screams, and the bestial snarling of new monsters being born.
The Cletus-creature continued on its way, padding up the stairs to the floor it called home. He moved towards the third door on the left, Apartment D4. It pushed down on the doorknob and made its way inside.
“Hey, champ. How was school today?”
His father stood in front of the stove, stirring a pot of something and watching the breaking news. Every thought left his brain, replaced by a primal urge to kill. The monster surged forth and attacked in a frenzy. Cletus reached him before he could stop himself, tearing his own father apart. When he snapped violently back into himself, he held a mangled body in his claws. His father’s arms were wrapped around his torso, bleeding out as he did so.
“Cletus? I-is that you?”
“…” The creature’s lower arms pulled the dying man into a weird sort of hug. A quiet whine left him, and he curled around his father in apology for what he had done.
“If it is… I just wanted to let you know, no matter what just happened to you… I love you.”
The faint pulse against the monster’s chest went still. He spoke in a distorted gurgle, begging for his father to come back.
“No. Dad. Pleassse, come back. I’m scared. I don’t know what’s happened. Please, pleassse come back. I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it!”
Cletus set the body down and backed away, only to remember that his sister was in the apartment. He froze. I have to protect her. But I can’t let her see me like this. BUT I HAVE TO PROTECT HER! SHE’S NINE. Before he could think, his body was moving on its own again. He stalked over to her bedroom door and opened it, poking his head inside.
She was sitting straight up on her bed, staring at him. Obviously, a bloodstained monster large enough for its head to scrape the ceiling stooping down was very distressing for an eight-year-old girl. She cried out, and tried to leave through the window. Seeing this, Cletus lunged. He captured his little sister, somehow managing to keep her wriggling form from tossing aside the curtains and transforming into an eldritch horror.
“Molly!”
“You’re not my brother! Let me go, you freak!”
She kicked and squirmed in his grip, but he just held her close while he moved away from the window.
“Molly, listen. It’s me. Please, believe m-“ He caught a foot in the jaw from the struggling child. “Gakh!” He hissed at his sister, more out of frustration than genuine anger. She stopped kicking, but now wore an expression of absolute terror on her face. Her eyes were squeezed shut, probably expecting an attack from this giant monster trying to convince her it was her brother. Taking this into account, Cletus sat on the floor as best he could in this new form. He set her down facing away from the murder scene that was the kitchen, and started to explain.
“Hey. Curly-fry.” Molly didn’t acknowledge him, too busy shaking with fear. “It’s me. Pleasse. I know you might not recognize me. But I can explain.” A long period of awkward silence followed. “There’s something in the sky. I looked at it, and… I-I turned. Into thisss. I don’t know how. But I want to make sure we get out of this okay. So, just this once, you’ll have to trussst me. I won’t be mad if you never want to see me again. Just… please.”
His sister stayed quiet for a while. Just as he was ready to give up and leave, she whispered something. “What’s the password?”
“…Space Song! It’s Space Ssong. Molly, I might be a monssster now, but I’m still your brother.” She turned around slowly to face him, looking up at his pale, monstrous form. Then she scooted closer to him. “I heard screaming. Did our neighbors… turn into things like you, Cletus?”
“I think ssso, Curly-Fry. They might be dangerous. I… had to… fight one. To get here.” Cletus mentally kicked himself for being a liar, especially since his dad’s body was lying right freakin’ there. He scooped Molly up with his tail, and placed her on his back. “Let’s move. I don’t think we’re ssafe here.”
The monster and his sister left the apartment.