Brainssss! by David William Jurgenson
The child services case worker frowned. “I’m concerned Conner’s teachers think his poor grades are due to his underdeveloped speech. Mr. Stone, you’re teaching Conner ASL at home, we think he should be concentrating on developing his speech at school. He’s only six-years-old. That’s a very critical age for language development. It seems too much for him to learn and I think it’s contributing to him doing poorly in school.”
Stone read her lips, then took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. He thought, How dare this woman tell us how to raise my son! How else is Conner going to communicate with us if he doesn’t know how to sign?
He cleared his throat. “Welll Mrs. Corb-in-nee, aah tink it’s nong o yo bidmess how we baise our son. By bon’t you day out of our bidmess?”
If looks could kill, Stone would have been dead on the floor and Cordini would have been on trial for murder. “It’s very much my business, Mr. Stone. Evaluating families for the Administration of Child Services is part of my job. If you aren’t open to my recommendations, then the state of New York may have to consider other options.”
“But are you talking abop? But obber optins?”
Cordini began to shovel her paperwork into her purse. “Sending Conner to live with another family. You’re going through a divorce, it seems like your ex-wife could be a suitable candidate to raise Conner. You’d have visitation rights, of course, but Mrs. Resner would become his primary caregiver.”
Stone balled his fists. “Ah yu betening me?”
Cordini rose, slung her purse onto her shoulder, and shrugged. “I’m only being realistic. We’ll check in with his teachers in the next few months. If things haven’t improved, we may need to recommend a more suitable environment. That’s just the reality of the situation. Anyway, thanks for your time, Mr. Stone. We’ll be in touch.”
Stone was about to raise his voice, but his girlfriend Karen put a restraining hand on his arm. Karen signed, “Don’t talk to her. If you keep arguing, it’ll only be worse.
Stone signed. How can I raise Conner if he doesn’t understand sign language?
Karen sighed. I know. Look, you’re preaching to the choir. Anyway, why don’t you come to the kitchen and we can have dinner? I’m sure Conner is probably hungry by now. It’ll just take me five minutes to heat things up.
Stone padded into the kitchen. Conner was on the floor playing with a toy plane. He said, “Mom, my belly hurts! We eat soon?”
Karen nodded. “Bight now bunnie. I’m gobing to beat someting up bite bow.”
The lights flickered. Stone wondered if they were having a brownout. He shook his head and sat down at the kitchen table. He felt his stomach clench when he thought about what Cordini had said and now he didn’t feel hungry. Could Child Services really take Conner away? He was a man with a disability in the middle of a divorce. But did they really think he couldn’t take care of his son? He felt like Conner’s biological mother, Anna, had put Child Services onto him so she could get sole custody rights.
Karen came to the kitchen table and began spooning out salad onto their plates. She said, “Ere, yuu can start bit balad.” As she served Stone, a worm fell out of the serving bowl and plopped onto his plate.
Stone shuddered. How disgusting! How did a live worm get in the salad? We should never buy from Farmers’ Market again. Now he definitely didn’t want anything to eat. Stone speared the worm with his fork and lifted it up to the light. It didn’t look like a worm he’d ever seen before. It was covered in shiny, grey slime, wriggling on the fork like a living rope. He stood to throw it in the garbage disposal.
Conner grabbed his hand and stared at him. “Don’t.”
Stone signed. “Let go of me! Right now!”
“No.”
Stone tried to pull away but couldn’t move his hand. Conner’s grip was iron. How is he doing this? I’m four times his size and he’s just a kid.
Then he saw grey slime in Conner’s ear. Did a worm fall onto his ear? How gross!
“PUT. DOWN. IT.” Conner forced Stone’s hand onto the table, making him sit. The fork dropped out of Stone’s hand and clattered to the floor.
Stone gritted his teeth, feeling his hand burning with pain. “But is ba matta with boo?”
“You never listen to me, ever. You always think you’re right ’cause you’re big. The worm didn’t do anything. That’s not nice.”
Karen shouted, “Conner, bet bo of yo fathber!”
“NO! It’s lesson time for him. And you.”
Stone’s eyes bulged when he saw the worm free itself from the fork, then drop onto the floor. Without warning, the worm bunched up and sprang at Karen.
Karen screamed and dropped the salad bowl.
Stone tried to get up but Conner kept him at the table. How is he so strong? This is impossible.
The worm landed on Karen’s arm. She tried to swat it away but it climbed like a squirrel on a tree. Then the worm opened its mouth, displaying sharp teeth, and tore into her ear.
Karen’s lips widened into a scream. Conner threw his head back laughing. Karen put her hands to her head and began to cry. He saw the flesh at her temples move – the thing was now inside her head. It looked like it was in her brain.
Panic squeezed his throat. Oh God! That thing is killing her! I’ve got to do something or she’ll die! He put his foot up on the table and kicked at Conner. Conner looked stunned as he fell off the table and Stone’s hand came free.
Stone rushed to Karen, held her hand, and signed, “Honey, what can I do?”
Karen tried to open her mouth, but instead of speaking, a bubble of blood rose out of her mouth. He felt a cold, icy shiver go up his spine. Then a hole appeared at Karen’s temple and out of it, a mouth emerged, covered in pink brain matter. Karen collapsed onto the ground and began to shudder, as if she was having a seizure.
Karen’s lips trembled and then her chest stopped moving.
Stone’s heart sank. Anguish and horrible sadness washed over him. No! No! This can’t be happening! It can’t!
The worm crawled out of the hole in Karen’s head. It was covered in blood and brain matter. The worm saw Stone, bared its teeth, and leapt at him.
Stone had been a track athlete and gotten through college on an athletic scholarship. He easily pirouetted away from the worm. When it landed on the floor, he stomped on it and crushed it with his heel. Dozens of worms dropped out of the ceiling. This isn’t good. I can’t stay here. Stone opened the front door and raced outside.
As he passed the kitchen, he saw Conner in the window. His temples bulged and contracted as he shouted, “Get after him! He is mine for the turn-a-ment!”
What is wrong with his head? Did a worm get in his his brain too? Who is he talking to? What tournament?
He kept running until he was away from the house. The neighborhood was a war zone. Several of the neighbors’ houses were on fire and had black smoke billowing out of them. A Ford F-350 was completely ablaze with a charred body at the wheel.
Stone ran fast, looking for a home that was safe to ask someone for help. His neighbor Bob Petrovius was screaming at him but he couldn’t read his lips. Petrovius opened his mouth wide and then blood came out of his head. When he fell to the ground, hundreds of worms poured out of his mouth.
Oh Lord, it’s like the end of the world! Is this an alien invasion?
Something moved out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and saw someone flying in the air. The thinglooked human, but where its head should have been, it was just pink brain matter encased in a glass helmet, with eyes like charcoal and a mouth like a squid. From its ankles protruded small, feathery wings, beating quickly keeping it aloft.
Stone turned to run but the brain monster saw him. The creature pointed a rod at him. The tip of the rod glowed bright orange and then a bolt of energy leapt out into the air. Stone was just barely able to dodge out of the way before the bolt struck a Nissan Rogue and it bounced two feet into the air.
Stone landed on his back. He looked up and saw the brain monster quickly powering up another bolt. He tried to move but he wasn’t fast enough and the bolt struck him hard in the chest.
He was paralyzed. Everything within his vision looked like a dirty and cracked prism. Then his consciousness slipped away.
Into a floating storm of orange atoms.
Glistening upon an electrical sound current.
Ice chilled him like a fleeting jewel of winter’s breath.
Buzzing bees flew on his skin.
Sunshine cooked him like a roast on an open spit.
Stone awakened, lurching upright, his heart pounding and lungs hissing like a locomotive. He was in a large hover bus with other humans. His stomach clenched.
I thought I was dead. Why did they kill my neighbor Petrovius but let me live? How in the hell did I get here?
Stone felt pressure on his wrists and ankles and saw he was bound in shackles. Other prisoners were crying, while others were praying.
Wherever we’re going, it seems bad.
He peered out the window and saw the moon was a sliver in the sky, as slender as an eyebrow hanging upon the stars. He looked further out the window and saw a second green moon.
What planet is this? How long have I been unconscious? Sorrow stabbed him in the gut as he thought about never seeing his son ever again.
The vehicle stopped. Tall brain monsters boarded the bus and sternly motioned for them to stand up and move. A large Jamaican man in shackles refused to comply. A brain monster came up to him, lit a rod up with orange energy and clubbed him. The man screamed, then put his hands to his head. He quickly got into line. Stone meekly followed behind him. As they stepped out of the vehicle, the aliens marched them toward a domed building.
Is this the tournament Conner was talking about? Are we merely blood sport entertainment for aliens? Stone felt sick.
They were herded into an underground labyrinth, then through an entrance of a massive arena with 100,000 aliens in the crowd. The brain creatures were cheering, laughing, jeering, and throwing trash at them as they were led to the center of the arena.
Stone looked at everyone in his group. There were a dozen of them and they all looked scared. The group was very physically fit and made up of different nationalities.
A massive jumbotron came to life. It had a message in an alien language. Below the alien language were captioned English subtitles:
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
Aliens in the crowd began jumping up and down at the announcement. Stone read the lips of the humans. They were saying to each other, “I don’t want to die!” “Why are they doing this to us?” “How do we get out of here?”
And then a building rose up from the ground, so tall it almost touched the top of the dome. Then all the sides of the building fell away and Stone gaped. Inside was a cage with a three-headed worm, the size of a skyscraper, with a thick armored carapace.
They expect us to fight that thing with our bare hands? We’re all going to die.
As if in answer to Stone’s thought, four small buildings rose up from the ground. The doors slid open, revealing weapons housed inside. Stone saw a lance, a double-bladed axe, a sword, and a gun, before his attention became drawn back to the jumbotron. A countdown had started:
5…4…3…2…1…GO!
The shackles on his wrists fell to the ground. Then the cage door sprang open. The humans raced to the buildings where the weapons were located. The worm dove into the ground, quickly burrowing below the surface.
Stone watched as six of the prisoners raced to the west building. He ran in the opposite direction to the east building, while another five prisoners split up between the north and south buildings.
As six men got close to the west building, the worm burst out through the ground in front of them. It whipped around, sweeping all the men with its tail. All six men immediately flew into the air. Their bodies landed on the ground and no one moved. All of them were very still.
The worm just killed them in seconds! How the hell will I survive?
The worm saw Stone and began burrowing underground toward him. He only had seconds before the worm would be here. Stone sprinted fast, leaping into the air and catching the edge of the roof with his hands. He quickly pulled himself up. He noticed the Jamaican bodybuilder had grabbed a flamethrower out of the northern building.
Stone felt the building shake, as if there was an earthquake. The worm exploded out of the ground, flying high into the air towards him. He dove off the building and then the creature completely demolished the entire structure.
Stone lay dazed upon the ground, spots swimming in his vision.
He saw the glow of the flame thrower. Stone felt the earth tremble as the worm roared, then raced in the opposite direction after the Jamaican.
He shook his head, then stood up unsteadily. He saw an object out of the corner of his eye. Stone turned and saw that the lance was at his feet. It must have gotten thrown from the building after it was destroyed.
Stone picked up the weapon and examined it. It had a button, an eyepiece, and a trigger. He pressed the button and the lance powered to life, glowing with red energy.
The Jamaican had struck the worm with a blast of flame, but it didn’t do anything. A hulking Samoan man flanked the worm and fired a gun at it. The worm just swatted the man away like he was a fly.
I have to do something quickly. As the worm turned back on the Jamaican, Stone noticed a large circular disc on the juncture of its neck where all of its heads met. In the center of the disc, there was a small hole.
Is that a breath hole?
It gave him an idea.
He hoisted the weapon onto his shoulder and looked through the eyepiece. Inside was a scope with a laser tracking system powered by a strange technology. He aimed it at the disc on the worm’s neck and it locked onto the shape with a beep. Then a red light highlighted it with a circle. Stone squeezed the trigger. The javelin launched into the air like a cruise missile, a trail of red energy plumming out from behind it.
The missile followed the worm as it moved, tracking it like a homing beacon. Just as the worm had moved in on the Jamaican at the corner of the arena, the missile struck home, slamming into its neck and sending it toppling to the ground.
The alien crowd grew still. No one moved. The worm remained motionless on the ground with the javelin sticking out of its neck.
Stone’s whole body thrummed like a big heartbeat. Is it maimed, or did I kill it?
Slowly, the heads in the crowd began turning toward someone in the aisles who was walking to the front of the arena. Stone’s heart beat faster as he saw it was Conner on the jumbotron.
A wave of dizziness struck him.
This can’t be! What is Conner doing here?
Then other human children rose up from the audience and came to join Conner by his side. They were all of different nationalities.
Are these the children of the other prisoners in the tournament?
Conner raised up his thumb and so did the other children. Then he pointed his thumb down. The other children looked at Conner for a long moment, looked at each other, then one by one, they all moved their thumbs down. Then all of them looked at Conner.
Are all these kids possessed by the worms? Well, I won’t do it.
A sign came up on the jumbotron that read:
FINISH IT!
In disgust, Stone threw down the javelin housing unit and walked away. The crowd tossed garbage and drinks at him, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to be part of this freak show anymore. He went to the entrance where he’d come in and banged on the gate. After a minute, the gate opened up, and the aliens grabbed him. They placed shackles on his wrists and roughly brought him inside.
A few minutes later, the Jamaican, a squat Japanese man and a craggy Greek man with hair that looked like lightning bolts, walked into the entrance. They were all that was left of the twelve.
As the aliens locked them in shackles, a human black child appeared in the door and approached him. The child smiled at him. “Conner would like to see you now.” The boy’s temples expanded and contracted as he spoke
“To balk about but?” He looks like the Jamaican’s son. What have the aliens done to these poor children? They’re just innocents!
“Conner would like to offer you an award for your magnificent performance in the tournament today. Please, follow me, I’ll take you to him now.” He turned and began walking without waiting to see if Stone was following.
Stone sauntered after him. They climbed three stories of steps, then walked through a heavily guarded encampment. Finally, they got to a large room. Two brain aliens standing guard stepped aside. The child stepped up to the door and then pushed it open.
The child smiled at Stone and said, “I’ll leave you two to catch up. I’m sure you have much to talk about.”
Stone held his breath as he walked into the room. His stomach flipped when he saw that the walls, ceiling and floor were covered in worms, moving everywhere. Conner sat on a throne-like chair, smiling, his eyes half-hooded. Worms were on him, crawling all over his entire body.
Conner clapped his hands. “Look! It’s the hero guy! Hi dad! You did real good today. I’m proud of you.” He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t like that you didn’t do the Myotisin like I said.”
The Myotisin? Is that the three-headed worm creature?
He signed at Conner, “Why did you bring me here, son?”
“To give you a prize ‘cause you finished it. Yeah.”
“What prize?”
“So you be a part of us. All of us. We all be one.”
“What? No! I don’t want to be part of you! I want you disgusting parasites to get out of my son’s head! Give me my boy back, right now!”
“Don’t make that face. It’s good, Dad. You’ll be super lucky to be with us.”
“NO, I don’t want to have anything to do with you things!”
“If you do it, you get me back. All of us together!”
Conner opened his mouth and hundreds of worms came out. All of the worms on the ceiling dropped onto him.
Stone screamed loudly, “No! Get dem off of bee!”
The worms crawled over his face, burrowing into his earholes, tearing into his ear canals with sharp teeth. He felt the worms eating through his flesh, eating their way to his brain.
Stone screamed. The pain was like a thousand knives stabbing him inside his head. One of the parasitic worms attached itself to the base of his brain. Then the worm took control of his mind, becoming the host.
Then it was over. Stone had become one with his son, the prisoner’s children, and the aliens.
& & &
After a couple of weeks, the new alien Stone was able to hear normally again. And before long, he could talk without impairments. Alien Stone was proud of his son. He had become one of the most powerful aliens on the council.
What more could a father want?
He had millions of children to father. All they needed was a chance to be born into new hosts
The sirens sounded. It was time to take up arms again. Stone smiled and grabbed a weapon.
He and Conner boarded a destroyer spaceship together. Stone put his arm around his son’s shoulder and they watched the bay doors seal. Then the spaceship blasted off, flying into the air, shooting up into the stratosphere, until the spaceship was nothing more than a dot in the sky, twinkling like a jewel amongst all the other stars.
* * * * THE END * * * *
Copyright David William Jurgenson 2026
Image Source: Dey from Fictom.com