Transformation

Every day was the same routine for me. I put the alarm clock out in the morning, brushed my teeth, put on a suit with a matching shirt and tie. Every other day I took a shower. I never liked the water on my skin, so I tried to avoid taking baths every day. And no, I didn’t smell, I checked. I stood in an elevator once with some older women, and they didn’t sniff me out, so I was good.

This morning I washed at the sink in my bathroom. Just when I wanted to put on my t-shirt, I saw this spot on my left jaw in the mirror. It was somewhat reddish and swollen. I had not shaved in a couple of days, so it could not have come from my razor. I looked at it and looked at it again. The pale light from my bathroom window gave my face a jaundiced look as if I was ill or something. And then that strange spot just in front of my ear. It didn’t look good.

I went to the living room, put on my shoes, and tried to call the doctor’s office to make an appointment for that very day. But the line kept being busy, so I decided to ignore that spot altogether and went to work in my study. I worked from home as a translator so I could forget about commuting or forensic traffics. I stayed where I was, behind my desk in the study.

At six, I was finished for the day. I stood up behind my computer and stretched my arms. That’s when I felt it. I couldn’t stretch all the way because something was stuck in my armpits; it felt like hard material as if I had grown a tumor in a day. Alarmed, I went to the bedroom and took off my clothes to check.

With my clothes came off a swirl of loose skin and rubbish. My skin was turning into this hard material. I was growing scales as I shed my skin.

I looked in the mirror and saw this gigantic deformed creature peering into my eyes. Shock and disbelieve: what the hell was happening to me? As I looked at my fish-like head with gills where once had been ears, I opened my mouth, and a roar left my throat. I wasn’t able to utter any intelligible sound. I looked down at my feet to see a fishtail at the bottom.

That’s when I fell, not being able to stand straight.

Breathing was hard, and I felt the life squeezed out of me. I slowly closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable to come. May God have mercy. My body jerked one more time, and then it was all over.

Word count: 467

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HONORABLE MENTION Grim Blunt Contest Autumn 2016