A World Without:
Chocolate
Caroline Lewis
You’re about to step into a world much
different than the one you may be familiar with. It takes place right here on
Earth, in fact, and from a bird’s eye view you may think that nothing has
changed. So what IS different? Take a closer look, at the stores that is. The
shelves are piled high with fresh produce, meats and cheeses; cereals of all
kinds line the aisles. But something is missing. Ah, now you see it. There is
no chocolate.
Meet Tom and Cody Shelton, your typical
father and son duo. Late nights of playing catch on the front lawn and fishing
for trout until sunset have made them quite close, but this specific afternoon
will test their relationship in a whole different way. Brace yourself, as you
step into the world of Unleashed . . .
*
* *
“Cody, get the . .
.” Tom’s command to his son was cut off by the sudden shaking of the wooden
floors. The walls wavered back and forth, the pictures on the walls slid from
left to right precariously on their hinges.
“Dad!” Cody
shouted, as he pointed towards the living room. Tom dove to the ground,
catching an antique vase that was seconds away from shattering. He gently
placed it onto the sofa cushions and turned toward his son once more.
“Make sure all of
the fragile items are secure. And stand clear of the chandelier, I keep
forgetting to take that damn thing down.” A roar erupted from the upstairs
master bedroom. Cody’s eyes filled with terror as he grabbed a hold of the
downstairs banister. His clammy palms struggled to hold their grip as another
bellow jolted the house.
“CRACK.” A plate slid from the kitchen
cupboards and landed onto the counter.
“Cody! I’m
counting on you to do this, you’ve got to focus buddy. It’ll all be over soon.
I’m just going to go up there and see what she wants.”
“Here. For
protection.” Cody handed his father a large steel bowl and a spatula.
Tom let out a sigh
of relief. “Smart thinking, son.” He placed the bowl on his head as a helmet
and let out one more sigh, but this one was in fear. He watched Cody disappear
into the living room, as he ascended the stairs. His heart pounded against his
chest, beads of sweat began to gather at the base of his neck. He clenched the
spatula tight as he reached the top of the stairs.
“Honey? Is there
anything I can do for you?” Tom turned the corner and poked his head into the
bedroom, then quickly retreated as a chair crashed against the wall, inches
from where he was standing. He grabbed the back of the chair to use as a
shield, and crouched into the room. He closed his eyes, bracing himself for
another airborne attack, but felt nothing. He opened them and saw his wife
sitting on their bed, her green claws shredding apart the blankets. Orange,
cat-like eyes followed Tom as he crossed the room, looking him up and down like
a piece of meat.
“Why, you look
beautiful. I don’t even know why you’re so upset.” He slowly lowered his chair
shield and smiled, trying to conceal his terror. A guttural groan was all he
heard in response.
“Of course you
don’t look fat. You look wonderful,” Tom said. She huffed at his attempt to
pacify her. “Plus it’s already Day 3. Just . . . 4 more days to go,” Tom said,
wincing as he analyzed the damage to their bedroom. A web of intertwined cracks
had formed on the screen of the T.V., disfiguring any image that flashed across.
All of his clothes had been heaved from the closet and into the bathtub. Long
streaks of saliva coated the walls. His favorite photo of his wife hung upside
down. Instead of the sweet picture of her smiling into the camera that he had
known and loved, it had turned into a picture of her frowning.
“Are . . . are you
hungry? We have some delicious pasta that I ma. . .” His sentence was
interrupted by a raspy howl.
“Okay. You want
something else? Something sweet. Right. What about that tea I made you? That
was pretty sweet . . .” interrupted again. “Not creamy enough. Okay, so
something sweet and creamy. And crunchy?”
Tom’s mind
searched through an imaginary grocery store, trying find something that could
possibly placate his wife. His muscles began to tense as the hand on the
lopsided wall clock ticked loudly in the background. He spit out an answer.
“Salad?” Wrong.
Tom was jolted
back into reality when a pillow collided with his abdomen and sent him flying
backwards. A thunderous howl escaped his green-scaled wife as her sharp teeth
bit off a piece of the headboard. Tom quickly stumbled back down the stairs,
gasping for air.
Damn those mood swings!
he muttered to himself. Cody appeared from the kitchen with a box of glass
items.
“The kitchen’s all
taken care of. How’s mom?”
“Better than I
thought she’d be. Joe from across the street said Day 3 is the worst, so it can
only get better from here, right?”
Cody shrugged his
shoulders. “I don’t know, last time she tried to eat Ruffles. I don’t know why
she would be craving the cat.”
“Sometimes they
get weird cravings, son. You’ll learn about it in school. If only there was
something they could eat so that they don’t get so belligerent. But I doubt
such a thing exists.”
Suddenly, the
front door swung open, and a small green figure stood motionless in the
doorway.
“Look, Cody, your
sister’s home. How . . . how was school, Sweetie?”
Cody looked
through the box in his hands until he found another steel bowl, and placed it
on top of his head.
No comments:
Post a Comment