Two Heads Pt. 1

I’d just left the corner shop when I felt it happen; an odd, tingling sensation between my neck and my right shoulder. I instinctively scratched it away, only to feel the exact same feeling arise a few seconds later. By the time I had reached the traffic lights the tingling had changed to an ache in the muscle and I started rubbing it for some relief. However, the rubbing had completely the opposite affect and the ache turned into a slow burn, heating my skin. I rushed on, eager to get home to examine my neck, but as I turned up the alley way, just minutes from my house, the burn turned into a ripping pain. My right arm tensed involuntarily and a white-hot pain shot from my shoulder stopping me in my tracks; my face became distorted with the pain, and my mouth stretched open. I tried to cry out but another jolt of pain stunned the air from my lungs and I was unable to make a sound. It eased for a second, becoming a dull throb and I dropped to the floor, gasping; a film of sweat over my face. Then it hit again and I fell onto my back, twisting on the floor, trying to pull my head as far from my shoulder as possibly. I threw my hand to my neck, trying to knead away the pain but to my horror, my finger tips felt movement under the skin, an alien-like bubbling stretching the surface, pressing upwards. I tried to push it down, but it was too strong and the pain was too great and another wave forced my hand away in a spasm. Another wrenching stab of pain and I found myself screaming, my eyes locked wide open, my back arched away from the ground in agony as the alien-thing forced through. I could feel my skin stretching, a new form moulding, rising up beside my head, pushing and stretching, tearing at muscle ligaments, pushing bone aside. The pain was so great I felt I’d be burned up in its explosive heat. Another surge of pain so excruciating that blurry stars began to dance before my eyes and I felt I was going to die. Then suddenly it stopped. The pain vanished, all except for a dull ache to remind me of and the sting of grazes on my arms as I’d writhed against the gravel. Exhausted, my head dropped back against the ground and my eyes closed. My lungs opened again, gasping for much needed air. I lay for several minutes, perhaps longer, waiting for my heart to return to its normal speed and my muscles to relax from their contorted state. My mind was frozen to all thought except the feel of a pain-free body. Slowly the calls of the birds in the trees, the hum of the insects and the faint sounds of distant traffic returned to my ears. It was so calm, I almost cried at the beauty. But then I heard it; a rasping breath just next to my right ear. I fearfully turned my head slightly to face it, only to find an eye, inches away looking at me intently. I couldn’t turn my head more than a fraction it was so close. Not just one eye, but two, attached to a human head, small but fully formed. The head’s rasping breaths came out in moist gasps onto my mouth. I glanced to the base of the head out of the corner of my eye. The neck of the head protruded from my own body. I passed out with the shock.