Prompt: The Thing She Brought Back (Halloween '22)

Summary: A regular guy spends Halloween watching scary movies with his girlfriend who recently returned from Antarctica. She reveals to him that she has been turned into a shapeshifting monster, but she still loves him, even if she can separate her head from her shoulders or open a mouth on her stomach.

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[Story Listing]

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Reese and Junie considered themselves a couple, but that didn't mean they were inseparable. Junie was an aspiring meteorologist, and she had an opportunity she couldn't pass up to a weather-tracking base in Antarctica. Reese was no meteorologist, he mostly did data entry stuff, so it wasn't likely that they would humour keeping a cot warm for him.

A six month sabbatical wasn't that big a deal in the long term, so Reese wished her the best of luck and got ready for a long-distance relationship with minimal contact as Junie went to study the ice shelves during the warm months.

It was serendipity enough that the month she was due back was October—the peak month for consuming schlocky horror movies. It was a yearly tradition for them, and Reese was eager to not skip a beat, and make up for lost time. Junie agreed, but when she arrived at their apartment with luggage in hand, Reese had second thoughts. She looked exhausted and ready to collapse. It was at her insistence that the show go on, and Reese, eager to reconnect with his estranged girlfriend, went along with it.

Poor thing didn't last thirty minutes into the first movie before she nodded off, her head resting in Reese's lap. Reese contented himself by stroking her hair. She looked so peaceful like this, her hair flowing to either side of his lap. She stirred gently under his touch. Content to let her rest, Reese turned his attention to the ultraviolence happening on screen...

...At least, until he heard a wet pop close to him, and a strange movement from Junie. He glanced down.

"...??"

He wasn't sure what he was looking at, but when he looked over to Junie's body, it looked like her head had been lopped clean off. He could see pulsating meat and bone. And her head... had rolled into his lap!?

"W-what the fuck!?" Reese shot to his feet, Junie's decapitated head launching away from him. As it soared through the air, Junie... wailed in surprise? Her head bounced along the table, rolling along, only stopping as spindly, boney protrusions erupted from the sides of her skull, supporting them as if they were a terrible, alien spider crab.

Skitting on four spider-like legs, her head, upside down, pivoted in Reese's direction, eyes wide and very much alive... she was just as surprised as Reese.

"A-ah, I can't see well, upside down, like... a-ah-"

Junie stammered to herself, before concentrating. Her neck produced wet slick noises as two stalks sprouted from her neck, swelling at bulbous points before opening, revealing a pair of beady black eyes.

"Okay, better!" She puffed her cheeks. "Reese, it's not what you think-"

"You're John Carpenter's The Thing!!" Reese pointed with a trembling hand.

"Y-yes, um, there was some thawing going on along the ice shelves and I... made friends with an alien." She blushed her cheeks. "B-but it's still me!!"

"Did you... eat anyone??" Reese asked, morbidly curious.

"NO!" Junie pouted. "I would never- h-how could you ask me that!?"

"I mean, I don't know!" Reese blurted. "I'm not used to relationships with alien symbiotes, it's..."

"I-I, I was going to tell you, Reese, really..." Junie's spindly legs prodded bashfully against the tabletop. "I just... couldn't think of a way to explain it, and I was gonna sleep on it, and this... happened..."

Reese studied her anxious expression. It seemed like the same old Junie.

"...You... aren't going to try to assimilate me?" Reese blinked.

"O-of course not." She scowled. But then, upon second consideration, she stirred, her cheeks blushing scarlet. "I-I mean, we could if... if you're into that sort of thing..."

Actually, he was, but that didn't seem like a good point to bring up. He tilted his head.

"N-no, I'm fine, it's... a-actually, it's kinda hard talking to you when your head's..." Reese tilted his head from side to side to look into Junie's eyes.

"My eyes are up here." One of her spindly legs pointed at the beady eyestalks. "...Actually, better idea, um, I'll pull myself together..."

Junie's body began to spasm, to Reese's horror. Her torso writhed as her spine elongated, ripping through her collar as it twirled through the air, three claw-like appendages lowering to Junie's inverted head. They dug into her skin, her beady eyestalks slinking back into her jawline as the boney, gnarled serpent lifted her. With a pop, her head realigned with her spine and, as if resting on a plant's flexible stalk, she turned to Reese, her spine slowly retracting into her body.

"I-I'm not very good at, um, whatever the symbiote did to me..." Junie admitted sheepishly, trying to talk over the sound of her body snapping and wetly popping back into place. It wasn't long before was back to normal. "It... does its own things sometimes, so I... I understand if you... you don't want to see this part of me..."

Reese paused to look at her. Despite everything, she was as bashful as ever, constantly apologizing for every misgiving. But she hadn't done anything wrong.

"W-well, this is... it's a lot to process, but... I still love you." Reese smiled, maybe forcing it a bit for her sake. The chorus of people screaming from the TV ebbed away to a din as he focused on her. He took her hand in his.

"If you want to... to figure out your new body here, I... I'll support you. Actually, I..."

His eyes drifted to a cabinet above the television... but changed his mind about digging out a wedding ring from up there right now. Didn't feel right. He shook his head.

"W-what I mean is... I want you to be comfortable in your... your own skin." Reese scratched his neck. "Even if it's... freaky and alien."

"...you mean it?" Her eyes widened. "You... you aren't scared?"

"Oh I'm scared shitless, but... I-I can get used to it." Reese rubbed the back of his head. "That's... what love is s'posed to be, right?"

"...Omigosh, that's a huge relief..." Junie covered her mouth, kicking her feet. "I-I was so worried you'd freak out and dump me, but you're being so nice, and accepting and... I-I can finally relax...!"

...Maybe she was relaxing a little too literally. Her legs seemed to split apart, fleshy red tendrils spreading across the floor. She unbuttoned the bottom of her blouse, revealing a seam in her stomach. Her stomach split open into a massive second mouth, a long tongue reaching out to wrap around an almost untouched bowl of popcorn... and brought it inside of her, bowl and all.

Reese gawked as Junie helped herself, an expression of bliss coming over her face as boney antennae-like tendrils poked out from her hairline. As her stomach mouth closed and chewed, she cuddled up a little closer to Reese.

"I love you..." She smooched him, her voice cute and tender as ever as the rest of her body slowly collapsed into gnarled appendages of meat and bone. Reese nodded... though watching the movie would be challenging now.