November 30th 1978- Windwell, Colorado
"I hope you feel better, Honey." Sharon Hall whispered before kissing her husband on the cheek, getting in the Ford, and driving to the market.
Allen Hall watched as the grey vehicle disappeared off into the distance before going back to his book. He would've been at work today but he came down with a fever and stayed home. Allen preferred staying home anyway, while he did like talking with the guys at work, sitting on the porch and reading Jaws was much more appealing. Sharon called the book 'horrifying' and she told Allen she didn't know how he could read such a graphic book, but he didn't care much. When he was reading, he was in another world that words led him to.
The real world outside of Allen smelled like freshly cut grass, birds could be heard chirping to each other, but Allen didn't smell that or hear that, he smelled the ocean and heard the splash of the waves against the boat, because that's what books were to him, a temporary escape from reality. Allen kept using his senses to absorb the new world as he was reading when he heard another noise, not coming from the book's world, but his world. Allen moved his eyes off the page and they locked with the grey eyes of a mailman, the mailman opened the gate and walked down the concrete path that led to the porch, and once he got there, he smiled at Allen.
"Good day, sir. This package is for you." The Mailman stated as he handed a small box to Allen.
Allen smiled back, it wasn't a real smile though, it was more of a formal smile that said 'Thank you, but I've spent too long away from my book.'
As the mailman walked away, he took one final glance at Allen and blinked. As he blinked his eyes they seemed to change shape and color, the irises went from grey to a deep dark brown and the almond shape around them now took a circular shape.
An old song could be heard from the mailman's vehicle as Allen made eye contact with him. The man's eyes seemed strangely familiar, Allen couldn't even process the fact that they changed, only that the new eyes once belonged to someone he knew long ago.
After the Mailman left, Allen began to wonder if he was still in the book's world, because whatever happened with that man's eyes was not something that came from reality.
In his room, Allen rummaged through old photos, trying to figure out whose eyes those belonged to. He knew it was strange to act like this all over some eyes, but there was something about them that wasn't just similar, but exact to someone he once knew.
He scrambled through black and white photographs he got from his closet, but he was having no luck finding anything remotely similar to what he remembered. Allen spent what felt like hours going through box after box to find the photo that meant something, and he finally found it. It was a photo of him and his grandfather in 1950, Allen was just a young boy back then and his grandfather passed away only a year later, but when he looked at his grandfather in the photo he finally pieced it together.
The Mailman had the exact eyes his grandfather had, but that couldn't be possible, even if one had eyes almost identical to their parents, it still couldn't be their exact eyes, right?
This was the first instance of Allen's reality shaping before his very eyes.
The second instance was later that night, at 8:30 P.M. Allen was driving on the slippery, icy road of King's Way. It was hard for him to see out of his windshield because the snowflakes were blurry against his front lights.
Allen was still caught up in thought about the man with his grandfather's eyes, but he wanted to keep his mind off it because he thought if he told anybody about what he saw they would presume him crazy. He decided he needed to put his mind on something else, so he thought about the peaceful ocean and sitting on a warm beach with his beautiful wife. He smelled the sea yet again, and this time he didn't even need the book!
It was magnificent, for only a few minutes, however. Allen was brought back to reality when he spotted what seemed to be a house in the snowy forest on his right; that was strange, because he didn't remember ever hearing about a lone house that was all the way out there.
It would make sense if it was a cabin, but it wasn't. It was a suburban house enclosed and shut off from the rest of the town and the world for that matter.
Allen slammed the break and let his car rest in the middle of King's way, he needed to figure out what the hell this house was and why it was there. He scoured through his glove compartment for his bird watching binoculars, no luck. Next he checked under the passenger seat, no luck either. He must've left it at home, at least he thought so until he found it under the back seat. After that he got into the passengers and turned the diopter adjustment to inspect the house closer. Its lights were on! How would a house be able to get power out in the middle of nowhere? Allen thought that added to the strange house. He assumed that the binoculars would at least help explain something about the place but they seemed to bring more questions if anything.
Why am I so worried about a damned house? He thought to himself, I'm going crazy! First I see a guy with shapeshifting eyes and now a stupid house in the middle of nowhere? I should just get back home to the wife and forget all about this dumb monkey-business.
So, with that, Allen stuffed the binoculars into the glove compartment, sat his butt in the driver's seat and turned the key. As he got back onto the road again he passed the strange house, not even minding to look at it, no more attention on the foolish thing. Allen sighed and rubbed his forehead as he heard old-timey music play on the radio.
He was just sick today, that's why he was acting so weird, he just had to get home and read Jaws to get back to normal.
Suddenly, he felt a large bump and he swerved. Shit! Just my luck, I probably hit someone's dog. And with that one thought, Allen Hall led himself to something that even nightmares couldn't counter, something so evil and corrupt, something with a plan that needed Allen and many others. He opened his door and stepped carefully on the icy road as he came behind his car and found what he hit, even worse than a dog, he hit a person!
The person seemed to be a man with a yellow jacket and green sweatpants, but you couldn't tell what his face looked like because it was a red and pink mess with blood and brains and insides splattered in a path behind the back tires.
Allen killed a man, or so he thought. His breathing sped up as he tried not to panic when he felt something squish between his boot's sole and the rough road. He lifted his foot and found that the brain bits were moving by themselves, dragging along the road like a slug leaving a slimy trail behind it, connecting back to the fleshy tomato of the head. In fact, all of the brain and head bits were joining back to the head, it was regenerating somehow!
Allen watched in disgust and slight fascination as this seemingly dead man's head was rebuilding itself and eventually it finished rebuilding itself. But that was an even more disturbing sight to Allen, because it was the mailman's head on the body, and as the mailman got up he grinned.
"Good day, sir." The mailman said casually.
Allen suddenly puked, and looked up at the man, sweating. "H-H-How? How?" Was all that he could mutter, the shock of it all was too much.
The mailman waved at Allen slowly, but as he waved his fingers made a crackling noise and they grew bonier and longer and longer, until they were longer than the average ruler.
Schhhhhhhhhh! With a sudden slice, the Mailman opened Allen's stomach and his entrails came out, Allen barfed out blood as he tried to hold them in his hands, he even tried to run but he slipped on the ice and landed on his intestines.
Allen's vision was blurry but he could make out the Mailman bending down and looking down at his body with a blank expression, no pity whatsoever.
The mailman's face then distorted and a cracking noise could be heard again as the man's face reshaped itself and his gums and teeth grew out of his mouth, making the teeth look like long wood boards on a fence and the disfigured mouth clamped down on Allen's head before tearing it straight off of his torso with fast, animalistic brutality.
The police came to the scene later and only found blood on the icy road and Allen's vehicle, but nothing else. Allen's body was stolen, taken to a lair that would eventually be filled with many others like his, tools for the brutal monster to use with pleasure.
