Unable to move, unsolicited advice from his friends and coworkers echoed in his mind. Sure it was a whirlwind romance, meeting on vacation in the Keys and spending a blurry, but exciting two weeks drunk, high and fucking until he made up his mind that he had to have this woman as a wife. Jen was unlike is ex wife, fun, exciting and outgoing. She was easy to fall in love with and 28 days later, here they were...husband and wife and he was was suddenly paralyzed, and scared to death.
"A stroke, I've had a fucking damn stroke"
Jen's concerned face came further into focus and Ryan felt his body somehow drift up off of the floor. Unable to move, his vision tilted until he was eye level with Jen, who's face somehow was just smaller than the side of a building.
"I'm hallucinating, my brain is fried" Ryan thought.
"Oh Ryan, I'm so sorry...I should have told you" she said fighting tears. "Don't hate me, please don't hate me" she blubbered as she carefully set the immobile body onto the bed and bunched up the covers to keep Ryan safe.
Ryan just stared straight ahead, a million thoughts a minute rolling through his brain as he heard the distance sounds of Jen quickly getting dressed and packing.
A very short time later Ryan felt the world fall away again and he was then suddenly looking at Jen's gigantic face.
"I'm sorry baby, but I'll explain later at home" her gigantic lips pressed against his forehead as she kissed him and then he found himself back resting on his back. One arm pressed against his hip, which was weird and the other was sticking straight out, barely in his line of vision. It didn't look right, though. It didn't look like HIS arm and hand. It was slender and had a strange skin tone, texture and color. Try as much as he could it wouldn't move, the hand was small, very small and the fingers were stuck together making a claw like gesture.
Amy's face came back into view. "This will be slightly uncomfortable, but you will be ok. I just need a safe way to get you home" she said apologetically. Her hand approached him, it too was huge. Her tree trunk like fingers gently grabbed his extended arm and carefully moved it down so it too lay snug against his hip.
"It will be ok, I promise, this is for extra protection" she said as she gently covered him with a t-shirt.
Ryan tried to scream "NO!" as the world went black before hearing the sounds of a zipper sealing his tomb. The world shifted once more and he rolled onto his side as Jen put the suitcase onto the floor and quickly left the hotel.
The hum of the engine lulled Ryan to sleep. In and out of consciousness he lost track of time, if Jen said she was going home then it was a good 3 hour drive. Finally he became aware that the car had stopped for good. He heard the opening and closing of doors and muffled voices, one being Jen's, the other being Kate's his new sister in-law who sounded confused.
Jen apologized to Kate and thanked her for watching the kids, Alicia, Ben and Holly. Alicia is Ryan's daughter from his first marriage and Ben and Holly are Jen's.
"Ryan got called away on business" he heard Jen say
"The kids are asleep" he heard Kate's voice tell Jen "They'll be glad you are home, are you sure you don't want me to stay?" Kate asked.
"That's ok Sis" Jen said.
Ryan felt the world shift again as Jen rolled the suitcase into the house and even the bedroom.
Hoisting the suitcase up and onto the bed, she opened it and moved the disheveled clothing around until she found Ryan.
If he could have blinked he would have, as light flooded his vision, Jen's blurry face came into view and he felt himself being lifted. He gazed out at the expanse of their bedroom, his eyes locking onto the vanity mirror by the bathroom door.
At first he couldn't believe was he was seeing. It was Jen, but not him. Instead he saw Jen holding a doll....a Barbie doll to be exact. The room blurred and suddenly he was face to face with Jen.
"I didn't know it could happen again" she said. "I had thought he curse died with Tom, my first husband."
Ryan couldn't respond. Even if he could, he wouldn't know what to say. All that he knew was the Tom was missing, to hear Jen say he had died filled him with fear and dread.
Jen sat on the bed and held him at eye level. She told him a story, about a misunderstanding and a curse cast upon her by a strange woman. She told him how she was afflicted with a curse to cause her lover to turn into a Barbie after mistakenly accusing her of taking her daughter's doll when she picked up the kids from daycare. She realized it was true when the first time it happened to Tom and described her confusion and terror when the change happened while Tom was in the shower and the stress it caused for the next year as it happened each month...every 28 days.
Jen sat Ryan carefully on the bed and retrieved a shoe box from her closet. She began to sob as she opened it and gently lifted a mangled doll, one arm missed, large tooth marks punctured it's head. She stroked the doll's hair and kissed it gently.
"I don't know if he's still in there" she said. "I don't know if he feels, or hears" she said softly and told about the last time he changed. How the neighbor's dog had slipped into the house when nobody was looking and took Tom. She told Ryan the horror of finding Tom missing from their bedroom and searching the house with no luck, until running outside to see the mangy beast gnawing on him, ripping off limbs.
She described fighting the dog off and taking Tom inside, shaking as she gently wiped the grime away from the plastic body. How patches of hair came away as she tried to smooth it out. Tom had told her he was fully aware when the change happened. How it didn't hurt but other senses like sight and sound were somehow normal.
"That's why I knew you were ok" she said. "I knew you were still in there, I just need to keep you safe".
If Ryan could run he would have. Seeing the mangled form of the prior man, knowing it could happen to him...it was all too much.
"We'll just need to be careful" she said to Ryan. "Now that I know...and you know we can live with this. I learned from my mistake with Tom. I promise you, I will never let anything happen to you." she gently put the mangled doll back into the shoe box and took it back to the closet.
Gently setting Ryan upright against a pillow she started to get undressed. "You'll return to normal 24 hours after changing, you won't leave my sight until then." she said and slipped on a long t-shirt to sleep in.
Jen crawled into bed and put Ryan next to her. "You'll be safe I promise" she whispered.
Ryan stared straight ahead wondering how his life got to this. When he gets back to normal, that is if he is to believe Jen, they'll need to talk because he has many questions.
"I know you have questions" Jen said as if reading his mind.
"Tomorrow I'll tell you everything, I promise" she said as she turned out the light.
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