It happened on a Wednesday in early July when Fiona noticed something wasn’t quite right with her partner of ten years named Bob.
Bob was usually a gentle, caring man, so she thought, who worked from home. He was an IT engineer and worked on various contracts from their home office.
Fiona observed Bob’s appearance, well groomed looked like 45 even though he was in his fifties.
Bob wasn’t one for misuse of alcohol and didn’t do drugs of any kind except vitamin supplements, so Fiona ruled that option out to explain Bob’s odd behaviour.
One rainy day Fiona observed their apartment and noticed the furniture had been cut with small slashes, nicks and the walls had marks of all sizes hidden behind furniture in the corners of the wall. Fiona also realised a few months ago her favourite light blue jeans had been scissored with slits and the bottom cuffs cut in a zig-zag pattern. She thought her jeans wore out over time but not that much and in odd places not the usual spots.
“Am I going crazy?” thought Fiona.
Later that evening, Fiona caught Bob out the corner her eye scratching his arms allowing his dead skin to fall to the floor. She asked him to clean it up but he just ignored her request and continued watching the TV. Next, she noticed he had a habit of giving himself a pedicure then emptying his dead skin from a towel he used from the pedicure.
Again Fiona pointed this out and Bob just gave a glance lied and said “No I didn’t do that,”
Over the weeks Fiona would get out of bed and discover Bob’s dead skin on the bedding.
Their apartment kitchen showed signs of strangeness, for example the oven cleaner was sprayed in the oven and left over night yet no one cleaned it. Fiona knew she didn’t do it and she confronted Bob who would deny the whole thing.
Bob grew very cold towards Fiona to the point where she thought he was having an affair. She checked it all out and no he wasn’t. Strange types of chemicals would be laden in the small appliances each morning and poor Fiona would have to clean them up with vinegar and water in order to be rid of the toxins. Fiona would wake up each day concerned what Bob had done to vandalize their apartment.
Fiona was shocked when she noticed in the mirror that her hair had been cut much shorter she didn’t cut it yet it was staring her in the mirror and after that she wore a hairnet over her hair at night.
Bob still continued with his odd behaviour and when she mentioned that he might want to see a psychiatrist he just shrugged and said ‘It’s you who needs one not me.”
Fiona wondered, who is this devil who took over Bob’s body? She pondered long and hard thinking maybe he was abducted by aliens, taken some kind of experimental drug or he was replaced as a type of cyborg or a Doppelganger!
Even their chubby bulldog named Winston began avoiding Bob, he would scurry to his dog bed in the corner and hide under his cosy, blanket.
Finally her partner’s bad behaviour wore Fiona down the result, a nervous breakdown.
She flipped out over all the damage Bob had done to her clothes and furniture she even called the police but they thought she was the nutter. Three younger officers showed up at her door. One officer lunged at her to grab her so Winston bit his ankle. The officer became quite angry towards Fiona as if she bit his ankle not the dog.
Bob grinned with an evil smirk at Fiona behind the officer’s back. The angry officer escorted her to the police car didn’t tell Bob where they was taking her and Bob didn’t care to ask.
Fiona cried all the way to the hospital. She was diagnosed by a male Psychiatrist who refused to believe her story. Fiona was diagnosed as delusional and was observed in a psych ward for eleven days.
She was made to take drugs that made her so groggy she could no longer tell what was real or unreal. Fiona was eventually released and sent home.
“Misogyny wins again!” thought Fiona who was furious her doctor didn’t respect her enough to believe her..
Bob was now a full out Doppelganger 2.0! Doppleganger meaning Double Walker in German, it’s when a malevolent, ghostly counterpart replaces the original human.
Whispers and rumours over social media, people mentioning that their loved ones had changed over night. Some mentioned large Solar flares that may have transformed their loved ones into various Chimeras. Some were a type of bug/human hybrid called a ‘Boogan,’ others snapped photos of a dragon/human hybrid called a ‘Dragoid’. Children were being born with big black eyes like the ones in urban legends.
Bob was standing facing the front hall mirror. Fiona was in the kitchen cooking Chicken Marsala for dinner. She could see her partner’s reflection from where she stood in the kitchen.
Bobs face looked scaly cold with large red eyes. Fiona noticed horns growing out his scalp, a long pointed green tail and long fangs and sharp nails grew out quickly.
Fiona screamed!
Bob, now a green scaly monster lunged at her. She could see the hate in the creature’s expression. Fiona quickly snatched up the cast iron frying pan with the Chicken Marsala and slammed it over the monster’s head. Bob weaved around like a drunkard on a binge. His head hit the counter top and he fell to the floor. Green goop dripped from the cut on his head.
Fiona ran to the phone to call the Police, she heard Bob moan, she looked around and Bob now a wounded creature jumped onto the patio spread his large new wings and flew into the night.
Fiona watched Bob Dragoid’s silhouette glide in front of the full bright Buck moon and fly off into the night, never to return home again.
Source:
*Bane, Theresa. Encyclopedia of spirits and ghosts in world mythology. Jefferson, NC, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2016.
*Dragon Art by Julie Fain