Thank you, Donna B McNicol for hosting the Friday Foto Challenge. The picture is courtesy of Wendy G.

A Drink For Surprises

I stared at the flashing sign with shock.

“Hey, Jase, close your mouth, if you don’t want to have a dish of mosquitoes.” Said Ben.

“What’s with the sign there?” I asked, trying to eat my chicken pie.

Ben followed my gaze towards the bright, flashy sign, saying “Eat More Beer”

Ben took a bite and said casually, “They don’t bother about grammar here, my nerdy boy. It’d be ‘drink more beer’, we all know that.”

“Not that,” I said, “Isn’t it totally unbelievable? To see a sign claiming eat more beer in a restaurant named ‘Teetotaller monkey’?”

“Calm down, boy! I get your point.” Ben patted on my back. “Let’s check out the mystery.”

I called the waiter and ordered a drink.

Five minutes later, the waiter arrived with a glass of fizzy drink, oddly pink in colour.

It smelled quite odd too, like a strawberry fondue.

I raised my eyebrows and cautiously watched Ben take a sip of that drink… But what I saw made me more shocked than ever.

Odd scars and patterns grew all around Ben’s faces and tattooed arms.

“Benjamin!” I cried, but strangely no fellow diner, not even the one sitting next table turned at us.

Ben didn’t seem to hear me either. He resumed to drink as if the whole world had paused.

“There’s something in the drink, I say!” I shouted, shaking Ben by his arms, “Ben?! Do you hear me?!”

Caught in a frenzy, I grabbed the drink and gulped it down.

“What a fool am I!” I thought to myself as my vision became blurry.

Slowly as if fogged by a pinkish mist, my eyes dragged and closed and as if… I drifted off to a distant place.

“Jason?! Jason!”

“Uhh?” I struggled to force my eyes open. “W-Where am I?”

I looked around cautiously around myself. There was nothing I could remember. Everywhere where strange pinkish octopus like folks.

“Is this some kind of sci-fi movie set? Where is Ben? Ben?” I cried, nervousness leaking in my voice.

“Calm down, Jason, I’m right here beside you.” Said a voice that I instantly recognized.

I turned towards it and what a shock did I get! There a tall, thick octopus-like creature wearing the same shirt like Ben.

“Is that really…you?” I stammered, my voice a barely audible croak.

The creature nodded and said, “Look at yourself, Jase.”
Fearfully, I turned my gaze towards the glass table… And met the horror I had been fearing.

I had turned into such a creature too. A monster like the rest of them.

“Look at the sign,” said Ben, “The beer they asked you to drink was a potion that turns you into one of them. We’ve already fallen in the trap, Jason. So dear, let’s eat more beer!”