Trophy Rack
Enter Dale and Brenda Kessel. A loving couple returning from a hunting trip with an unexpected prize. Little did they know their trip was encroaching on a very peculiar piece of protected land. The name of that reserve? The Twilight Zone.
This is just a little piece I threw together for fakeman's 1000 word tf story competition! Nothing adult inside.
After the novella that is Farm Animal, it felt really nice to crank down the scope. xD
Trophy Rack
By Xerox2
"I understand the idea," Barbra conceded, "but did you have to hang it right above our bed?" The freshly taxidermied buck gazed through her with its glass eyes. She stepped to the side. "I can't stand in that spot anymore."
"Shoot, you're lucky I don't edit it into the family photos!" Dale beamed. "Twenty points, honey. Twenty! It's nearly unheard of."
After some back-and-forth, they settled to move it into the living room next week. That night the hunter laid awake in bed and stared up at his prize long after his wife had fallen asleep. Eventually he too drifted off, consciousness mingling with dreams. He watched the head come to life and face down at them. "Hah! Not so big and strong now are you?" he mentally mocked. The creature locked eyes with him, bellowed mournfully, and a searing pain exploded in his head.
He startled awake. The sun hadn't risen yet. The buck's head was as dead as it had been yesterday, but he had a terrible throbbing headache. He stumbled into the bathroom, shut the door, and rummaged through the medicine cabinet for aspirin by touch alone. Frustrated, he flicked on the lights and endured the temporary pain and blindness that came with it.
The aspirin was hiding behind the electric razor. Dale pinched the bottle open, swallowed a few pills, and shut the cabinet. He hated looking in the mirror; vanity was for the beautiful. Usually he just glanced at himself, but this time he did a double take and leaned in. There were two brown protrusions just above his temples. Pain emanated from them. He pulled his hair away to get a better look. The nubs were short but thick and covered in a light fuzz that he instantly recognized. Antler velvet.
"Impossible," he muttered, gripping the boney protrusions. He couldn't budge them. Sure enough, they were extensions of his skull. There was a creaking sound accompanied by a flash of pain as they jolted forward, growing and branching in front of his very eyes. As the two tips became four, the hair he was holding came loose in his hand. Tiny facial hairs dropped like flakes of pepper into the sink until there wasn't a hint of five-o-clock shadow left. "This must be a dream," he said, dipping his head down and splashing himself with cold water. He rubbed and slapped his cheeks, wiping huge swaths of hair away. He didn't wake up, but the next time he looked in the mirror his head was completely bald.
After a brief pause, the antlers rapidly forked again. His ears stretched and pointed just as quickly. The back of his scalp spasmed and dragged them higher up his head. It hurt like someone was pinching and tugging the cartilage. He flexed knots of newly developed muscles and they flopped and swiveled powerfully. He had six points of velvet coated antlers, no hair, and oversized animal ears. The antlers forked again and Dale's nose broadened. The septum grew wider and pulled his nostrils apart as they themselves took on a convoluted shape.
A loud knock on the door shocked him out of a fascinated daze. "Be out in a second!" he shouted. He looked back at himself. Eight points and a big wet nose. Another flash of pain brought two more points as his jaw pushed forward. His lips grew thin and his chin dwindled. His pointed eye teeth clattered to the floor as a gap formed between his molars and front teeth. No way could he face his wife looking like this! He turned to flee through the shower window, but his antler put a hole in the drywall.
He freed himself and stepped forward. Another aching throb signaled more growth. He started seeing both sides of the room at once as his eyes were pushed apart. There were blind spots in his vision until his pupils widened into horizontal ovals. He clamored past the shower curtain to the privacy window, but there was no way he could fit his massive rack through it. He spun around, and his antlers knocked the curtain rod to the ground with a crash. The pounding on the door was frantic. It was extremely difficult to manage his heavy new headgear. He could barely lift his head.
He counted twelve points. A twinge. Fourteen. His forehead shrank. Sixteen. His muzzle violently cracked and pushed forward to completion. A hairless buck's head stared back in the mirror. He turned away, but he could still see it. Another stab of pain. Eighteen points. The muscles in his neck bulged as it lengthened, granting him stability. A dull throb accompanied the growth of two more points for a total of twenty. A million pinpricks washed from his neck to the tips of his ears, and a sea of golden brown fur covered his head. Then it stopped. He gripped the counter, panting with exhaustion. He ran his alien tongue against his unfamiliar teeth. From the shoulders up he was the spitting image of his trophy buck.
The knocking had stopped. Dale gathered his courage and unlocked the door. If only there was some way he could warn his spouse about what she was going to see. He held his breath, pushed the door, and stared into a dark, empty room. No not empty, something was hidden underneath the covers. He turned sideways and awkwardly maneuvered through the doorway. He reached down and slowly pulled back the sheets. There, laying on a pillow, eyes shut, tongue hanging out, was a doe's head. It was Brenda. She was changed, just like him, only instead of sporting a head with a healthy pair of antlers, hers had been replaced with a smaller, unadorned doe's. She blinked her big, beautiful eyes and placed a hand on her husband's cheek. Anxiety melted away. The pair looked up to the prize buck's head and silently agreed to throw it out tomorrow morning.