Tuesday
5:40 pm
Fall had wrapped its slender cold hands around the neck of the neighborhood. It was Tuesday at 5 pm when we found our way to the playground. Omah, my four-year-old, sprinted from the slides to the swings cackling the way four-year-olds do when they’ve been cooped up all day and finally had some space to cause havoc. My 7-year-old Lai had entered a new era where she had taken to sitting incredibly still. Often, when prompted she would insist she was “thinking of the world” in the most darling way. It was times like this I wish I could read her mind.
I took my eye off Omah and walked toward Lai, where she sat on the edge of a bench holding a book and a pencil in her hand, scribbling quite furiously.
“Lai, it’s time to head home the sun is setting.”
She looked up, her deep brown eyes settling on me as if I were a nuisance. I stared back the way moms do, challenging her to be anything but kind to me. She stared some more and the irritation left her gaze. She closed her book and stood up.
“Thank you. Sheesh,” I said as I looked for Omah. It was then that I realized that his hoots and cackles had ceased and a panic skittered through my chest.
“Omah!” I yelled searching frantically for his tiny afro, red sneakers, his cherub like face.
“Omah!” I yelled again feeling my heart collapsing on itself.
“Lai, did you see where your brother wandered off to?”
“Sorry, Mom, I didn’t.” She said, a panic creeping into the nooks of the words she spoke.
“Help me find him please.”
It took five minutes to find him but it felt like an eternity. We found him curled up on a bench at the far side of the park and I cried it was true I cried because I was so close to passing out. There was no way I would ever forgive myself, no way his dad would ever forgive me if I had lost him.
And so I pulled him close inhaling his scent deeply and squeezing both he and his sister until they both protested. He was groggy and confused but I was too happy to give a fuck and the overwhelming joy forced me to weep some more as I squeezed them both again. I didn’t even bother scolding him for scurrying off because THANK FUCK he was alive and unharmed.
“Mom please, you’re acting like a total weirdo,” Lai squeaked.
“Shut up and let me love you girl.” I harped out between squeezes of each.
7:30 pm
Dinner was uneventful. We sat four heads giggling and biting through meats and carbs and the silly sounds of two children under ten and two parents in love.
I finally wrangled Omah into the bathroom and managed to take off most of his clothes with less fanfare than usual. Then, I opened the faucet and he screamed. It was a dreadful sound and I feared our neighbors would think he was being assaulted. His dad must’ve felt the same because he burst into the bathroom eyes searching for the source of Omah’s pain.
“Hey hey hey!!!! What's wrong with you man? Omah? OMAH?!” his dad tried yelling over his screeches. The only response was his howls harpooning through the air.
We tried to hold him to calm him down but the screeches reached a new octave and just as I was starting to wonder how a body so small had so much lung space he collapsed.
8:40 pm
We debated taking him to urgent care but decided that we would wait. He had no fever and was still breathing so we would let him sleep through the night and decide in the morning if we could afford the cost. By the time we dressed him and placed him in bed he had opened his eyes again and a deep relief sunk into my bones.
I did not bother denying his request for apple juice as I usually would at this time of night. I was just glad he was coherent and speaking. I spent time tracing the curves of his face while he drifted off to sleep. Glad again to have him considering the shit show of the day. By 9:30, he was asleep again, snoring as loudly as he typically did. I pulled his monster truck sheets over his body and kissed his soft brown cheeks; a tender prayer of thanks to the fates.
9:40 pm
“What the hell was that about?”
“I– I wish I knew. We should take him to the doctor. Fuck the price.”
“We should. Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow.”
We settled into our nighttime routine. Clear the sink. Wipe down counters. Sweep the floors. I stretch across the couch resting my head on his thigh letting the TV watch us as we fell asleep.
11:58 pm
I woke up to the sound of static and moaning. It was a low moaning that was guttural. It was wrong. I sat up so fast I made myself dizzy and shook Dre up. I watched his face shift from grogginess to concern as he registered the twisted moaning sounds and the source, Omah’s room.
We made our way to the door glad that Lai had her own room. Except upon closer inspection, the sound was actually coming from Lai’s room. We tried opening her door but it would not budge and there it was that nasty panic settling in as if it paid the rent. We became frantic shouting and banging. We kicked and slammed and kicked some more until the door opened slowly and we were met by a darkness that seemed alive.
Even with the light on in the background, it was almost impossible to see anything in there. The darkness was alive and the guttural moans emanating from the room made it seem like it was the darkness speaking. The door finally gave way, but we hesitated nervous to step into the darkness that seemed to swallow the light.
“Lai,” I said.
“Omah,” Dre said.
The only answer was the rustling of the darkness and the continuous groaning sound that had started to sound worse than guttural. Dre stepped in first and I stepped in behind him. The humidity in Lai’s room was a pillow on my face. It was almost as suffocating as the smell of decay that clung to the moisture in the air. Our eyes adjusted and we could see a tiny body hunched near the foot of the bed.
We approached and the groaning ceased. The thing stood and moved like a demented beast, taking quick jerky motions towards us both. We took hurried steps back until we were out of Lai’s room and back in the glow of the static of the television.
“Mom,” the voice was Omah’s, but the creature stepped into the light and it was not my child at all. I could see his skin had started to peel off his face and underneath was skin a waxy white that made my skin crawl and its eyes… its eyes were an empty pit. Its mouth was covered with blood and the realization of whose blood it must be made me howl. I felt my soul crack in two and Dre. Dre kicked the beast but it did not move its waxy body absorbing the impact as if he was a powerless nothing.
He kicked again, but the beast grabbed his foot, and I heard the bone crack. The creature yanked him close, moving him like he was dust, and slammed its tiny fist into his face, crushing it. The sheer violence of it froze me in place, and I knew then that the blood around its mouth was indeed Lai’s and that I would not live through the night.
Wednesday
5:40 pm
The apartment was still humid. In the living room what was left of the family was scattered across the apartment. When the police finally arrived the sheer violence of it would cause several of the most senior among them to vomit. Blood splattered the walls, pieces of flesh were scattered across the apartment, and bones… bones were picked clean and covered with bite marks. Some were cracked open as if something had attempted to suck the very marrow from them.
The neighbor had placed the call complaining about the stench and some ruckus from the night before.
In a dark cavern miles away from town a brown boy with cherubic cheeks sniffles. It is damp here. It is cold here. He can hear the sniffles of other little tiny bodies. Together they make a chorus crying out for parents who thought they took them home.
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I just wanted to write some dark shit. This is one I know I’ll circle back to and expand on. There is so much that can be added and tweaked here. The possibilities are endless! Anyway, hope you all enjoyed it. Also recommend checking out the book Changeling by Victor Lavelle which is also a show on appletv now if you enjoyed the vibe of this story.
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What was your favorite part of the story? What part made you clutch your chest?
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Great writing. Love the ending.
A wonderful horrifying changeling story! All those poor snatched children in the cave! I think we need a sequel.