#hive mind

A bar in town was the last stop, and you were already three-quarters of the way to an overstimulated meltdown, people yelling, glasses clinking, the screech of the speakers between songs letting out feedback, the world feeling too warm, and skin too tight as you slip out to the smoker area. With whatever luck you have in you, there is almost no one out here, an off duty bartender sitting in the far corner and a few patrons sit clumped together, but otherwise no one from your work is out here.

The bench at the far end of the smokers is your refuge, curled in the corner with your phone, trying to calm down just enough to avoid the breakdown brewing inside you.

It's hard not to flinch when someone sits down next to you, speaking softly as they ask if they can be there. Compared to the yelling and hollering of your workmates, you agree, unintentionally making a new friend with this new face, commiserating about the noise and sticky floors, enjoying the quiet outside, even as the smell of cigarettes drifts over occasionally from the group of people smoking.

Ignoring the wide smile that hasn't moved, or the lack of blinking as just nerves when talking to a new person, you find them rather enjoyable.

It hadn't been on your list of things to do when you exchange numbers, somehow they seemed to lack any of the socials you listed, so all that remained as a way of contact was swapping phone numbers. Smiling as you left them behind at the end of the night, slipping away from the last dregs of drunk coworkers hollering as someone had bought a round of drinks.

The ride back home flew by, already eager for the shower and flop into your bed that was coming for you, paying the fare quickly before scurrying up and into your apartment.

For the beginning of an unseen invasion, it could have been worse.

Your new friend was easy to talk with, texting occasionally and sharing some simple memes, even finding a moment of surprise interaction as they catch you at the coffee place near your work. The pins on your work bag seem to intrigue them, and they laugh as you explain what they are and where they come from, each word an idea fed into endless potential hidden beneath the friendly face. How would you ever have thought a joke about taking a werewolf over some of your past dates would change someone's life?

The conversations you share from there are more questions or jokes about movies, monsters, and the like. It's nice to have someone new to share your favourite films with, and to enjoy the excitement you feel after they watch one and fill you in on all they have learned watching them.

Work gets easier, the coworkers you are in direct contact with seem kinder, more attentive to your needs and the stress of the projects you're working on. It becomes tolerable to be in the office, even your manager is starting to come around, but only one coworker you would say is your friend, and that's okay, she's almost feral on shift and has some similar interests as you. It passes through your mind to introduce her to your new friend from the bar at some point, she would definitely have more recommendations for films for them.

It had been around two months since your work's little holiday party, and you were looking forward to the long weekend coming up. With no plans to leave the apartment till you had to return to the office there was little keeping you from sleeping the days away, unknowingly missing the end of your town and the people within.

Your apartment is just high enough from the streets that when all hell breaks loose, the noise barely reaches you. No one was prepared for the spread of this thing, one person morphed and then another, screams filling the air, cars coming to halt as whatever this thing was rampaged through the town via the air. Everything, no, almost everyone was touched by it, seeping through cracks and unsealed seams, what once was just a normal town changed overnight.

At the centre your new friend, the carrier that wanted to start it all that night in the bar with you, their false human form itched to reach out and slip into your lungs, to make you part of it. Yet, something stopped it, something clicked over in its endless mind, you would be perfect as you are, unchanged, so very human amongst its masses, it could make you happy, it could take away the stress you exuded tucked away in that corner of the smokers area.

It could be perfect for you.

So it learned, gathered your coworkers in their drunken state that night and took the first minds into itself. No changes would happen before it could learn what you wanted, it needed them human and whole, trusted, let close, for now.

And it did, learning what you liked to eat, to watch, to love...

It consumed the media you offered, scoured the internet with the many minds it now claimed, devoured source after source, monsters, myths, demons, angels, stories that told of people wanting these things in ways that weren't natural to it, yet.

Still it would learn.

That night as you rested, it moved, spread across the town and pulled the strings only a thing like it could see, humanity morphed and stripped away, monsters replacing everyone and everything that it could. Leaving just enough of the minds it assimilated to have the bodies function on their own, now driven by its will and direction, these people, this town would be for you!

It made this for you, so when the day breaks and you finally rise from your sleep it is ready.

The mailboxes are cluttered and some overflow with junk as you come down to check your own mess of ads and bills, tossing so many fridge magnets that you won't ever need before you notice the person next to you. Autopilot makes you nod and mumble a hello to them before your eyes catch up to your mind, a sleep addled hallucination is what you think it is, but beside you leans a pale blue purple demon, horns of burnt ivory curl from icy blue hair as they wiggle their fingers at you.

Bolting last them, you just miss the confusion that flashes across their face and barely avoid the spade tipped tail that tries to curl around your wrist as you flee. Once back in your apartment you try to wake yourself up fully, washing your face with cold water before returning to your living room and slumping into the couch, cursing the story you had read before bed for the strange vision you had experienced just moments before.

As your phone rings you groan, grabbing the device and sighing as you see your work friends contact on the dial screen. Picking up the call you jolt as they stare at you, the video feature is forgotten as you had hastily hit the little green button, your friends expected face gone in favour of a more canid form, you know it's them from the eyes and the piercings that seem to glint from under the heavy fur of this creatures face. Some part of you feels horrible as you end the call, throwing your phone on the couch as you scramble to leave your apartment, snagging your slippers and keys as you bolt out and down the stairs, hoping to find this is just some bad dream.

The moment you are outside everything feels worse, endless faces stare at you from the street, monsters, myths, demons, angels, writhing masses of tentacles, all creatures that once featured in stories that you loved, enjoyed, fantasized about. The droning ring of their voices makes you cover your ears, too loud, too much, quiet falls as you uncover them, a single familiar face steps forward then.

Your friend from the bar.

Their fingers are clawed, hair longer and skin shifting as if something is under it writhing to get out, they speak softly, smile wide and unmoving as they ask if you like it, like them, they made this for you, all of these people are them and they are for you now. You flinch when they cup your cheeks, trying to pull back against inhuman strength, only to stare at eyes that have one too many irises, made to listen as the voices of all those in the street whisper to you.

You will be happy here, safe here, you here, they do not want you to join them, not in any way that would deprive you of being you.

They have made your home perfect, a nightmare, they have made your home a dream to live out as you see fit, you will never leave, they will give you anything you could want, the world will abandon you, they will give you as long as you need and they will make sure you embrace them.

When they step away from you, the crowd in the street disperses, moving back to normal lives and activities for the time of day, leaving you with what you thought was your newest friend. The creature before you smiles even when you recoil from the touch of its cold lips to your cheek, nuzzling against you before pulling back, before sighing and telling you it will text you soon.

Far outside the bounds of the town a lone person walks the distance to the next gas station, enough money tucked into their back pocket to get them a ride to anywhere, a smile on their face and music playing in their ears as they step into the concrete area near the pumps. Their polycoria hidden under sunglasses as they hear the hiss and click of the automatic doors open, it will take the world to have you happy, and well all roads lead somewhere.