All the lights in his room were on; he refused to turn them off. If his mom or dad tried, he would start shrieking and crying, so they let him keep them on. Bryce’s mom had tried to console him, to tell him that monsters weren’t real, but he knew differently. He knew they were as real as he was and that only four doors and a pane of Plexiglas separated him from them. Five doors when he was in his bedroom. His father didn’t speak about it, at least not to Bryce. He didn’t try to explain what Bryce had seen, which just further confirmed it. He didn’t try to explain, because if he said anything other than what Bryce thought, it would be a lie. The worst of the monsters had been a woman. She wore a white lab coat and a nametag, just like his dad, just like all his dad’s friends. This woman had been normal once. She had been just like everybody else, but now she was a monster. And if she could become a monster, then who’s to say that nobody else could? Might his dad turn into a monster? His mom? His baby sister? Bryce didn’t know. Maybe he would become a monster. A terrible monster that would hurt people, hurt his family, hurt the ones he loved and cared most about in the whole wide world.
What do You think about Adaptive Instinct (Survival Instinct)?
