Bedtime

Chapter 4
Morning Aftermath

Chapter Description: Andrew survived the night, but is the ordeal over?

The sun’s warm morning rays awoke Andrew from his uneasy sleep. He poked his head outside the blanket and looked around the room. Furniture was knocked over and the floor was stained where he wet himself and dropped the wine. If Jess was still willing to put up with him after this then he’d definitely have to shape up.

The unnatural shadows seemed as though they were isolated and gradually making their way back toward the black box. Various writhing shapes and shadows could be seen in the darkness, but those figures could not get into the light. Andrew wiped his eyes. He lifted his back off the couch and watched as the darkness and its population was all pulled back into the box, which shut having had all its contents returned. He survived.

Andrew wasn’t a religious man, but he gave a short prayer of thanks for surviving that night. He didn’t know and didn’t want to know what would have happened to him had he not made it.

Andrew was relieved that the night was over. He’d have to talk with Jess, something he never foresaw himself having to initiate, but at this point he had to convince her to get rid of the box. Screw gaming, he’d even make sure he came home employed that very day, but he knew they were in mortal peril if they didn’t get rid of it. Without warning, purple sparks shot from the box, hitting Andrew in the chest. He fell flat onto the couch.

Andrew cringed as he felt strange feeling in his chest, which slowly spread to the rest of his body. He started breathing heavily. He felt intense pain as the bones in his body began to shift. He let out a gasping moan, and even a shout, but then gritted his teeth out of respect for Jessica, he didn’t want to upset her any more than she’d already be, considering he trashed her apartment last night. It felt like the transition and the pain lasted for an eternity, but the duration only took about ten minutes. His skin started to feel like it was getting tighter.

His moans became louder and louder. While writhing in pain, Andrew felt the clothes and the blanket gradually become bigger. His moans turned into yelling. As he flailed, gripping the blanket, his grasp on the blanket lightened with each passing second. His yelling became moaning again, which became higher pitched as his clothes loosened. He considered calling out to Jessica, but he couldn’t even formulate a way of getting her attention.

His clothes felt really loose now. Whenever he squirmed his clothes discontinued to coordinate motion with his limbs, making them as useful as additional sheets for the couch. He felt his clothes steadily grow on him. His toes were touching the knees of his jeans and the ends of his sleeves of his t-shirt surrounded his wrists. The moaning coming from him lost the depth that his voice had but moments ago. He cried out as he realized he was shrinking. He wanted it to stop so he could warn Jess then and there about the box, but the pain was too much and prevented him from moving. He couldn’t even get up off the couch to write her a final message.

Andrew felt like his head would split open from the pain. His t-shirt covered his mouth and he wasn’t wearing his pants anymore. Now light bursts of sobbing were mixed in with the moaning. Now he wouldn’t be able to warn Jess about the box. Now it would ruin them both! Soon the pain became too intense. He continued to writhe in pain, now trapped, fully immersed in his t-shirt. He was entirely engulfed in his shirt. He felt his teeth start to retract. His moans were replaced by high-pitched screams.

When the transformation stopped, Andrew was flailing about in his shirt. The pain gradually subsided, along with whatever intellect and reason he’d accumulated over the years. Andrew found himself trapped under layers of bedding and his t-shirt, making it hard for him to breathe. Andrew continued to kick and scream until the covers were lifted.

***

Suffice it to say, Jessica wasn’t happy about the noise she woke up to. Trying to scare Andrew before bed may have been a little bit excessive, but all the noise was unmerited. That guy was out of control! It was definitely over between them. She’d put up with his behavior for far too long and it was time for him to move back in with his parents and for her to move on.

She thought she could hear Andrew yelling in the other room, probably because he stubbed his toe or something while getting into her food. Five minutes later when she heard a baby crying she’d had just about enough. That guy had a friggin’ headset to go with his laptop so it wasn’t unreasonable to assume he had headphones so she wouldn’t have to hear what he was doing online. It was half an hour before her alarm was set to go off, but she needed to set Andrew straight.

Jessica jumped out of bed. She could hear the baby screaming now. She was appalled and slightly disgusted of Andrew’s lack of consideration for her. The least, the very least he could do was wear his damn headphones or keep the volume down. She kicked over a burnt-out candle as she opened her door.

Ignoring the box she stormed over to the couch, and that’s when she froze. The place was a complete mess! This was a new low that Andrew had sunk to. She had half a mind to give him the boot when she found him. The only pieces of furniture that weren’t knocked over were the couch and the coffee table, otherwise there were wine and urine stains in the carpet, the place wreaked of odor, and he still had the volume way up. That video with the crying baby was getting on the last of her nerves.

She rushed over to the laptop to turn it off, but when she made it to the coffee table she realized it wasn’t the laptop. In fact, the laptop was off and Andrew wasn’t anywhere in sight. "Andrew?" she nervously called out. All she heard in response to her was the screaming of a baby coming from right behind her. She slowly turned around.

The shrieking was coming from a lump under the covers that was on the couch. In shock, speechless, and eyes very wide, Jessica slowly lifted the covers to find a writhing shirt. It was the shirt that Andrew had worn the night before, and the rest of the clothes that had adorned Andrew were also present. It was as if he had been pulled out of his other clothes as he lay on the couch. The screams and wiggling stopped, but were replaced with light sobs, which returned her attention to the lump. What she pulled out of the shirt... was a newborn infant.