Fiction Short Story – Unforgettable Expedition
Image© Anand Vishnu Prakash, YourStoryClub.com
Matt woke up with a severe hangover that Sunday morning. He had been partying with his friends the whole night. Stretching his body, and thinking of the awesome tales he and his friends had been relating the night before, Matt turned to his side, and the seedling he had planted the day before, struck his mind. Following his instincts, he peeped from his bedroom window to see how far it had grown.
But Lo! There was something totally unexpected. He strained his little eyes to look at a monstrous creature in his own backyard. It was like a scene taken from one of his science fiction books. Matt slowly opened the window and suddenly a strong gust of wind overwhelmed him.
To his utter amazement, his nose was perched on top of his window. He reached out to his face and his hands smeared with blood. In an attempt to summon for help, Matt opened his mouth, and his jaws gave way. His tongue was hanging to the side, close enough to his right ear. Matt was bewildered. He was, in fact, witnessing one of those supernatural beings, with strange powers, he and his friends had been jesting about the night before.
Matt felt helpless. He was actually being victimised, without a singular attempt at resistance. Would he ever be able to get on with his happy-go-lucky life? Would his family and friends ever accept this horrendous looking creature, as he had become for no real fault of his? Matt had to escape.
He reached out to shut the window, and a strange force pulled him out into his backyard. Matt had never witnessed a supernatural being as this at such proximity. He was horrified by that little creature’s uneasy gaze, filled with conviction. As he stared back, an uneasy pain gushed through his spine, and the next moment, all he could see was a membranous fluid all over his body. He saw his body dissolving in it.
Matt couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. His right leg had already vanished, and the fluid was fast approaching his distorted face. Matt couldn’t even scream in pain. The little creature, globular in structure, had a single eye that continually rotated its spherical body. Matt could accurately visualize the explanation about electrons from his physics professor.
Matt tried to move to his side, but his body didn’t budge as if it was held in place by a tremendous force from the little creature’s mere encircling vision. By now, Matt had lost the lower half of his body, and the devastation continued unattended. Matt gave up all hope and his thoughts started to race back in time.
He remembered his mothers’ smiling face, his fathers’ warmth and his little brother’s attention who considered him as a true friend and guide. How he wished he had never woken up that morning and opened the backyard window. Just then, Matt felt something moving across his face and opened his eyes in horror.
His body had been invaded by the fast enveloping membrane. Filled with utter disgust, Matt saw the creature’s body stretch apart right from the center, into a giant valley, and a sticky spatula, supposedly a tongue like extension from the creature, rose to a height of about fifty meters, fast approached the membranous lump of Matt, and engulfed him in his entirety!.
“Breakfast is ready!” called a fine voice and Matt woke up with a start. He jumped up to look through the backyard window. The seedling stood there, angelic, with a few dewdrops on its stem. Matt reached out to open the window but changed his mind. He rushed to the kitchen, embraced his mother and broke up, “I had a bad dream, mom”. His mom consoled him, “Dreams don’t always come true, my son” and Matt was only left wondering, “What if they did?”
–END–
