Nehebus

I haven’t much time before these memories fade. I’m not even certain that everything I remember is true but I intend to do my best to tell the story. It began the afternoon that my fiance, Katherine, returned from a trip to eastern europe.

Katherine smiles as she hands me a box. “Now, before you open this up, keep in mind that it didn’t cost as much as you’d have paid for it here. That being said… Well, I hope that you like it.”
Curious, I carefully open the box, revealing the glossy sheen of a veneered wood and my heart skips a beat just before, with renewed vigor and excitement, I shred the packaging that enshrouded my new, hand-crafted guitar. Plucking a string, I listen as the string vibrates with a clear, low and warm tone.
“...How much did you pay for this?” I hear myself ask as carefully as I might manage. I knew that there’s no way I could have ever been able to afford this for myself.
“About three-hundred and fifty dollars.Conversion rates between there and the states are absolutely crazy, so that was equal to about fifteen hundred in their currency. It’s hand-made by a master luthier. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to get it for you, I knew you’d love it and I love you.”
“It’s almost as beautiful as you are, Kat. I love you! Thank you!” I play a few chords, getting a feel for the instrument. “By the way, a few of your friends wanted to throw together a ‘welcome home’ party as an excuse to see you and have some fun. I told them you’d probably be okay with that as long as you had a little bit of time to get ready for it. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all, so long as I can shower and get dressed. I’ve missed everyone, three months is a long time to be away from home.”
“Of course.” I give her a smile. “If anyone gets here too early, which they probably will, I’ll do my best to keep them entertained in your absence.”
With a quick kiss and a small giggle, she heads upstairs. As expected, guests begin showing up while Katherine is getting ready. They bring drinks, food and gifts, setting them on tables and standing about talking. Into the living room comes Katherine, quickly followed by alcohol. With more to drink, the day begins to move faster and faster, more so than I can keep up with. At some point in the early afternoon, I remember being leaned up against a brick wall, one foot propping me up while I smoked a cigarette. Across from me, against a wall of her own, my friend Christina is talking, telling a story. Movement in the corner of my vision catches my attention and it takes me a minute to register a snake making its way through a puddle left over from that morning’s light showers toward Christina while she chattered about something that’s since passed my mind.
“Shit! Chrissy, there’s a snake!” I say quite loudly, pointing at it as it slithers her way.
With a slightly delayed response time, she looks and as she does, the snake’s body shortens, widening, growing larger in diameter as a large black stripe begins growing along the center of its back. Christina screams, flattening herself against the wall as it quickly closes distance. Frozen in fear and unsure of what to do about the shape-shifting snake, I find myself watching in horror.
Once the creature is only about a foot away from Christina, the creature stops and almost cartoonishly, legs and a head seem to pop into existence. The snake, now some sort of lizard, is no longer something Christina sees as threatening, who’s now crouched down and calling it cute.
“Stay away from whatever the hell that thing is!” I tell her, despite knowing that she won’t listen to me. “It was a snake just a minute ago, you saw it.” She picks the creature up and brings it over to me. It stands on its hind legs in her cupped hands.
“See, isn’t it cute?” Her smile is beaming from ear to ear and looking at it, I’d have agreed with her if I hadn’t seen whatever it was change from one creature into another. “You should pet it!”
Reluctantly, I reach out and touch it. Its skin is surprisingly soft and it seems to lean into my touch. As I pull my hand away, it seems to change again, its head suddenly retracting into its torso. The sudden change surprises Christina and she drops it, letting out a quick exclamation of “oh!”. It runs off and scurries under the kitchen’s back door, into the house.
“Oh no!” Christina heads inside “I’ve got to find it, don’t want it getting hurt!”
I stay outside long enough to smoke another cigarette, trying not to worry about whatever it was that just happened. After all, it’s probably just my being drunk that made it seem like the lizard was something else at first. Inside, the house seems to be a sea of bodies, the din of family and friends mixing with a slow growth of dread in the pit of my stomach.
“Has anyone seen Katherine?” I ask a few people, searching for what feels like hours, although I know it’s only a few minutes, moving from one room to another., getting pulled to the side every so often by one person or another. Eventually, I find her sitting with Christina, who’s now sat beside someone new, someone I’ve never seen before. While the two women speak quite animatedly, the man beside Christina rotates his head and torso in an impossible way to look at me. His Torso elongates by a few inches as he does so and he smiles a smile that seems unnatural, like it’s the first time he’s ever done it and he’s not sure if he’s doing it right.
“Oh, Terrence!” Christina practically bounces in place “Meet our new friend Neb. He said he’d heard there was a party and even though he didn’t know anyone here, he’d hoped to meet a new friend or two!”
Looking at Neb, something about him felt wrong, yet familiar. “Hi, Neb. I’m Terrence. I hope you’re comfortable.”
“Very much so. I’m glad to have found myself in such good company tonight.”
Christina giggles and puts a hand on his thigh. “Isn’t he handsome?” She leans in ever so slightly closer to Neb.
I lean in to her and whisper “I don’t trust him, there’s something wrong about him.” I put a hand on her arm. “I don’t think he should be here.”
“Ah, you worry too much, Terrence. I think he’s cute. Plus, he’s a magician. He said he’ll show me a few tricks later.”
“You’re obviously very drunk, Christina. You might be making a few choices you’ll regret later.”
“Let her have her fun with a cute guy if she wants, terrence.” Katherine gets up from her seat and holds out a hand. “Why don’t we see what Jack and Brittney are up to?”
Reluctantly, I agree, knowing I’m not going to change either of their minds. As I walk away, a quick glance over my shoulder reveals Christina and the stranger leaning in for a kiss. The feeling of uneasiness grows slightly before I turn to face where I’m heading.
Jack and Brittney have set-up a game of beer pong in the backyard. As we walk up, Brittney makes a successful shot, making Jack have to take a drink.
“Kat!” The two girls squeal with excitement, run to one another for a hug and begin chattering excitedly.
“How’ve you been, T? It’s been a minute, have you been staying out of trouble?”
“Yeah, not too much excitement these days for me. I go to work, come home, work on the comic and hit the sack.”
“About that, when are you getting a publisher? I have a few contacts who would absolutely love your work. Your style and story are right up their alley.”
“Whenever it’s ready, man. Not exactly the sort of thing I want to rush, you know?”
“Hey, you guys!” Brittney shouts a little bit louder than necessary. “How about the two of you play against the two of us?”
Jack nods to me and I nod back. “Sure, just be ready to lose!”
About halfway through the game, on the losing end, I feel the need to pee. Excusing myself, I sluggishly head inside, sort of dragging my feet to avoid stumbling too much. On my way to the toilet, I notice that Christina’s missing. Curious, I find someone nearby and ask if they know where she went.
“Oh, she said she was turning in for the night and left with some guy.”
Knowing there was nothing I could do about it, especially since I didn’t even know the guy, I continued on to the bathroom. As I got to the door, a couple stumbled out, giggling and half-dressed.
I relieve myself and stop to stare in the mirror for a little bit before leaving. Resting my hands on the countertop, I stare and think about how much I hate how I look, how much weight I’ve put on over these past few years. I’ve quit bringing it up to Katherine, she’ll just huff, puff and tell me that I look perfectly fine and shouldn’t worry so much. I know that she’s right but anxiety’s a hard thing to ignore. Heading back, I’m surprised to find that the party’s dying down, almost everyone’s already left or passed out. My hands feel slimy. Looking down, I notice a green and blue slime on my palms. I go back to the bathroom and try to wash it off, which takes a while. It’s thick and fights to stay stuck to me. I have to scrape it away. Walking back out, I see that the few conscious people left are softly talking, getting ready for their own eventual departures.
I go outside to find Jack and Brittney cleaning up. They look a little surprised to see me.
“Hey, guys, did you see where Katherine got off to?”
“Oh, hey, yeah, T. You really had to go, huh? It’s been like an hour, Kat said she was getting tired and ready to turn in a few minutes ago. We all kind of figured you’d just turned in yourself after using the restroom. What with how everyone else started leaving, we figured we’d clean up and do the same.”
“Well, I hope you guys are safe. You’ve got a sober ride, right?” I give the two a hug. “Keep in touch. I think I’ll go ahead and join Kat, sleep really doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.”
“Good night, buddy. We’ve got a friend coming to get us and they’re bringing someone to drive the truck home.”
“Glad to hear it, man. Good night.”
The weight of exhaustion finally comes down over me, almost like a curtain as I stumble my way back inside and up the stairs as quietly as I can. When I get to the bedroom door, I pause and listen. Ever so faintly, I think I can hear the sound of Katherine moaning in pleasure. A wash of fear blankets over me. Did the stranger come back? No, that couldn’t be it, he left with Christina. Katherine’s never shown any signs of interest in doing that to me, anyhow. There’s no way she’d do that to me. I shake the thoughts from my head and open the door. She’s in bed and quickly, as though caught doing something she shouldn’t have been doing, flips over to face me, revealing that she’s alone.
Sleepily, she smiles.
“Oh, good. I’ve missed you, baby. I hope you’re not upset that I went to bed without you. I wasn’t sure if you were still in the bathroom.”
“No, don’t apologise. I’m sorry I was in the bathroom for so long, I guess that I lost track of time. I’ve missed you, too. Three months is a long time.” I strip down to my underwear, my preferred sleepwear and crawl into bed beside her. Her skin is warm and she puts an arm around me, followed by a leg atop of my own. She looks into my eyes and, in the moonlight, I see hunger. Excitement stirs within my body and we kiss, pulling one another closer, her hand finding the nape of my neck, my own finding the small of her back. She rolls over, onto her back, pulling me above her, hands now making their ways to my shoulders, my chest, down my stomach, toward what she desires the most in this moment.
I kiss her neck, move to her chest and make my way down, gently spreading her thighs with both hands and kiss my own way downward until i can use my tongue to taste what I want, getting lost in the thick, wet flavor of her as her hands now tangle in my hair and I lick and suck on her pearl, the lady making her way out of the hood.
Katherine twists, moans, thrusts, writhes and finally, with restrained noises, squeezes her legs together and letting out a cry of satisfaction, climaxes happily. Her hands pet my head before making their way to my shoulders, then sides to pull me up toward her and I comply, removing m underwear as I kiss first her navel, then her chest, each breast, her neck, her jawline and then, as I kiss her lips, I gently slide inside of her, growing in excitement as the soft warmth of being inside of her for the first time in months. She lets out a slight gasp and I lightly thrust in response before pushing a little deeper, slowly gaining in speed and depth as both of our breaths synchronize, her arms and legs wrapping around my body and she starts using both of her legs to guide, direct my speed and depth just the way she wants. Her excitement and pleasure gets to feeding my own and we become one as the feeling builds more and more, our moans and groans becoming a song all of its own and I feel her tighten, suddenly, ready to climax. I swell in response and the both of us hold out as long as we can until all at once, we climax together and collapse into a sweaty, exhausted heap.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it? God, how I missed you.” She smiles and strokes my hair away from my forehead.
I run a finger through her hair and stare into her eyes. “I think I may have missed you more than I can even express. The house was so empty without you.”
“Well, you won’t be lonely again, my love. I won’t have to leave your side again. Not ever.”
“If only.” Feeling hot and tired, I move to roll over, only to find that I can’t pull myself out of Katherine. Looking at her, I raise an eyebrow. “New trick? Not going to let me go?”
Grinning, she wraps her legs around me again. “Never.”
“Come on, I’m tired.” I try to pull away again, only to lift her up with myself. Something feels wrong, as though my own body is now a great deal heavier than before, not just as though I’m lifting someone else up who’s hanging onto me. I reach back to pull her legs off of me, unwilling to play this game, only to feel my hands touch a new, unknown appendage that’s fused to my back. The appendage is smooth, pulsating and slimy. I trace my fingers along it only to find that it’s Katherine’s legs.
Horror-stricken, I look back to find that her legs have changed into something new, a smooth mass that’s somehow fused itself with my body. Looking back at Katherine's face, I find something new, a shifting mass, a collection of different features. In it, there’s Christina’s lips, Katherine’s eyes, the stranger’s brow and cheekbones. Their hands, covered in scales, meet my mouth just before I can scream. We fuse together like this.
Smiling, it tells me “You’ll never have to be lonely again.” just before giving me a kiss on the forehead, their neck touching and fusing to my face.
Everything goes black.

Later, I woke up on the creature’s back, my consciousness shared with a few others. I’ve found a hand and an eye with which I can write my story. I can’t let it know but I must warn someone else before it’s too late. It keeps changing, consuming and growing.