Monsters In The Parasol

    The summersaults of his stomach told Quentin that perhaps eating that potent chocolate brownie might have been a mistake. All four walls of this apartment, belonging to a friend of a friend of his oldest sister, felt like they were closing in on him. Again he tried to find his sister, the only one he knew, in the crowd of fourty crammed into this tight space, but could not find her tiny body.
    The brownie had been given to him by a complete stranger, a nerdy Japanese fellow with glasses and a silver bottom tooth. Quentin tried to locate him somewhere in the party he but didn't dare move. He was so aware of his own body movements he decided common balance was a miracle.
    A tall girl stood out amidst the party-goers, who were all starting to blur together in a mashed potato type of haze. She had dirty blonde hair, torn jeans and a pink tank top that was low enough for her curves to not be ignored. Quentin observed her for a moment, her visual appeal stimulating his affected senses, until she began walking towards him slowly. He panicked but didn't dare move away, so he let her approach him with a lustful look in her eyes. Once she was close she grabbed both sides of his face and pulled him in for a passionate kiss.
    'Clearly you don't waste time...' said Quentin cooly, bringing his right hand along her smooth shoulder.
    He pulled back for a moment and was immediately horrified: this was not a woman he was making out with but a monster! Three hideous noses, drool dripping from pointy sharp fangs, yellow eyes looking into his soul hungrily. Quentin let out a small scream and ran backwards into the drink table, knocking over three empty gin bottles.
    The tall girl, who was now a girl again, gave him a confused look and wandered off to a lineup at the washroom. Quentin let his breath come back to him and took a seat on the couch. There was somebody beside him and Quentin was pleased to see it was the same man with the silver tooth who had given him the chocolate brownie in the beginning.
    'Dude, I gotta ask, what was in that brownie?' inquired Quentin.
    'What brownie?' replied Silver Tooth.
    'The brownie you gave me! Like an hour and a half ago!'
    'Bro, I wasn't even here an hour and a half ago.' answered Silver Tooth.
    'Really? I... I was sure we met in the kitchen... while those guys from Concordia were doing shots...'
    'Concordia? What's that bro? I think you have me confused with someone else.'
    Quentin glanced at the rest of the room in terror and, recognizing nobody's face, tugged at his pockets for his precious belongings. His sister was nowhere near this place, and even if she were he wasn't certain he could recognize her.
    'Bro, who do you know here?' asked Silver Tooth.
    'Uh, my big sister.' replied Quentin.
    'Yeah yeah. Hey I got a joke for you. What do you call something that's warped and bubbled?'
    'I dunno. A Super Mario power up?'
    'Ha! Right bro. That's good.' said Silver Tooth, then nodding at someone he knew and leaving Quentin be on the couch.
    Slowly, as Quentin watched the party progress before him, each person started looking more green and spherical. An unremarkable song played through on the speakers and by the end of it all of them looked alien. With each passing tune they all changed so much that even if he watched just one person, they would be unfamiliar by the time songs where transitioning from each other. While this progressed, the party-goers became more aware of Quentin as not one of their own. By the end of an epic hair-metal ballad, everyone in the room was staring squarely at the stranger still tasting chocolate on his lips.
    'I don't even know, what I'm doing here!' explained Quentin loudly.