The Change

Some odd things are happening to young, muscular Simon Baker. First, his hair goes blond, then his eyes turn blue. He even gets three inches taller overnight. No one – not his doctor nor his wife, Loretta – notice or care. They tell him he has always looked like this. Pictures, medical records, his clothing, and his driver’s license bear them out. In the city one day, he meets elderly, homeless Mr. Dixon, who says he was a previous husband of Loretta and that she is a succubus who is slowly changing Simon to her liking. Though a little curious, Simon doesn’t believe much of what Dixon says, though he does Google “succubus” on his laptop after he gets home. The next morning, he awakens to what he believes to be the blankets-covered form of Loretta. When spooning to her feels odd, he whisks back the blankets to find Dixon’s corpse. It is oddly “deflated,” like someone sucked the very life out of him. Loretta appears and says that he really ought to clear his browser history. What Dixon told Simon is true. She had to kill him to cover her bases. Simon will now ask how high when she tells him to jump or she will, at best, change him into something ugly. To remind Simon of who is in charge, she hangs Dixon’s deflated form in a see-through garment bag on her husband’s side of the bedroom closet.