Power Corrupts - Preview of a Patreon Exclusive

[Elfy]

The following is a 4,000 word opening of a 22,000 word story. If you read this and want to know what happens you can read the rest (as well as 41 other Patreon Exclusive Stories!) at: https://www.patreon.com/Elfy88

Luke is a young man living in a small town and he is bored out of his mind. Every day is the same as the last and he just wants some excitement. When a strange shooting star appears in the sky he considers it the most exciting thing to happen in months, maybe years.

When Luke wakes up the next morning he finds his family acting strangely, then his friends act the same way. As time goes on he discovers that everyone around him is suddenly acting... childishly.

Find out what what happens to Luke and the weirdly acting townsfolk in this 22,000 word story!

---

Luke sat back on his bed and slumped against the wall. His feet hung over the edge of the other side as he lazily flicked through channels on his television. He was wearing his red dressing gown having recently stepped out of the shower. It was late at night and with college the next morning Luke really should’ve been asleep already. He was so bored after another weekend where he did almost nothing except hang out with his best friend Eric and daydream about Janet, a girl he had a hopeless crush on, but she was way out of his league.

Scratching his junk absent-mindedly Luke continued to flick through the channels looking for something to occupy his time. There was absolutely nothing of interest and Luke soon dropped the remote and sighed. He couldn’t help but feel his life was being wasted in this small town, he was desperate for anything interesting to happen to break the monotony.

Luke brushed his just short of shoulder length hair out of his green eyes as he rolled over to lay on his front and look out the window. It was dark and peaceful. There was no nightlife, no drunken people staggering home or even any traffic in a town that seemed to have a self-imposed curfew. The town was like a graveyard and Luke felt trapped within it, suffocating in a coffin he couldn’t break out from.

“Please just make interesting things happen around me.” Luke muttered into the night. There wasn’t even any wind to disturb the stillness, “I’ll take anything…”

Luke propped himself against the windowsill. The stars were shining bright that night but Luke’s attention was pulled to one star in particular. He soon realised it wasn’t a regular star at all as he watched it zooming across the night sky with a thin trail behind it. Luke squinted but couldn’t make out anything to do with it as it flew towards his house but seemingly miles up in the air. He watched until it flew overhead, the trail behind it seemingly burning up on the way down.

That was probably the most exciting thing to happen to Luke in months and it was just some strange light. He opened the window to let some air in as he took off his robe and laid down on the bed. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep with the television still on but muted. He prepared for another boring week with his boring family and doing boring college work.

---

Luke was woken up by his alarm the next morning and without opening his eyes he groped around to try and shut it off. He stayed in bed for a couple of minutes before gradually throwing his cover off. Something felt a little different that morning but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what. He felt just a little more aware of his immediate surroundings in a way he couldn’t quite describe even to himself. After getting himself dressed in his usual shirt and pants he left the bedroom and went downstairs for breakfast.

As usual Luke was the last person to get to the table. Sitting at the head of the table was Don, Luke’s father. He was already dressed in his suit and was sipping coffee whilst browsing the newspaper seemingly oblivious to the noise around him. To either side of Don was Luke’s brother and sister, Charlie and Zoe. Charlie was a year younger than Luke and had just started college whilst Zoe was in her mid-twenties and never went to college. She left school as soon as she could and spent her time partying, she had never got a job despite her parents practically begging her. Finally Luke’s mother was rushing around the table getting people’s lunches ready. She was a traditional housewife and spent most of her day watching day time TV.

“Good morning, Luke.” Lisa said as she put sandwiches in Don’s lunchbox, “Sit down and have some toast before you go.”

Luke walked into the room and sat down at the table. It seemed like as soon as he sat down there was a change in the room. Don suddenly looked at his newspaper with a frown and put it to one side, something he usually only did when he was leaving for work. Luke bit into his toast as he looked around. Charlie had been laying his head on the table as if he was asleep but he jerked up and was giggling uncontrollably.

“What are you laughing at?” Luke asked in confusion.

Charlie simply shrugged his shoulders as he continued giggling.

“Stop it. It’s annoying.” Luke complained. He was always irritable in the mornings and his mood wasn’t helped when others were so upbeat.

Soon Zoe was laughing childishly too as if it was a contagious disease spreading across the table. Luke was sure that she was doing it to annoy him and was just about to tell her off when something rather incredible happened. Don, who usually seemed to only smile on special occasions broke into laughter as well.

Luke looked around at the table with his family all laughing. He felt like there was some kind of practical joke going on and he was the butt of it. He wasn’t going to just sit there and be laughed at so when his mother joined in the laughter he grabbed his lunch and headed towards the door.

“Screw you.” Luke muttered as he slammed the front door behind him. He hated feeling like he was the butt of a joke he didn’t know about. He petulantly stormed away from the house without looking back.

The town was small despite the nearby college and Luke’s walk there was only about twenty minutes. He met Eric on the way as was usual since Luke’s walk took him past his best friend’s house. Eric had shorter brown hair than Luke and he was half a foot taller, his lanky frame hidden by a large football jersey.

“Hey.” Luke said.

“Yo.” Eric replied with a nod of his head.

Luke walked up to his friend and when he got within a few feet of Eric he noticed Eric’s demeanour seemingly change. His mostly neutral face broke into a goofy smile and for one horrible second Luke thought he was in on whatever joke his family were doing.

“Did you see that meteor last night?” Luke asked as they started heading towards campus. He was eager to take control of the conversation.

“Meteor? Noooooooope” Eric replied. He stretched the word out and then giggled as if it was the funniest joke in the world.

“What’s got into everyone today?” Luke muttered.

The rest of the walk to college was completed with Luke staying mostly silent. Eric acted strange for the whole journey and rarely stopped talking. It was like a long unending stream of consciousness that Luke found exhausting to even try and keep up with.

The two of them passed a small shop which had the newspapers in the window. Luke paused to look at the headlines. He scanned all the print but couldn’t see one mention in either the national or local papers about a meteor that streaked low overhead.

“Hey Lukey, watch this!” Eric suddenly said.

Luke looked away from the last newspaper just in time to see Eric lower the back of his pants and his underwear to press his butt up against the glass. Luke’s eyes shot wide open and inside the store he could see the owner swearing and coming towards them. Eric was laughing like a maniac at his “prank” which kids even half his age would consider juvenile.

“What are yo-” Luke started to demand answers but was interrupted.

“Run!” Eric said through his giggles.

Eric pulled up the rear of his pants and started hurrying down the street towards college. Luke paused for just a second but didn’t want to get in trouble for what his friend did so followed close behind. If he had taken a second to look over his shoulder he would’ve noticed the shopkeeper had stopped just inside the door and was now on the floor laughing as he pointed to the marks left behind on his window by the buttocks.

Eric didn’t stop running until they were at the entrance of the college campus and he stopped to breathe deeply with his hands on his knees. Luke was only a couple of steps behind and was equally winded. He couldn’t understand why all this strangeness was happening and was starting to wonder if this was some bizarre kind of fever dream.

Luke was going to ask what was going on in Eric’s head but his friend recovered from the run quickly and was soon heading in to where their lecture was going to be. It was probably a good idea if they wanted to avoid being late, their stern lecturer often locked the doors at the start meaning late-comers were excluded.

Most of the students had their favoured spots in the lecture hall and for Luke and Eric that meant at the front of the room. Luke always made sure to get these seats because they were right next to Janet. Luke had first seen Janet on one of his first days at college and had immediately been smitten by her. He desperately wanted to be with her but working up the courage to actually ask her out eluded him.

“Hi Janet.” Luke said as he smiled and walked across to his seat.

Janet was gorgeous. Long flowing blonde hair framed the most angelic face like the frame of a painting. She had a little button nose above a perfect smile and below big green eyes. Moving down her body she had an ample bosom that pushed out the shirt she was wearing distractingly. If you asked Luke though her best feature was even further down. Luke was an ass man and Janet’s rump was everything he loved, big and round it swayed with her every step. She seemed just too perfect to actually go out with Luke though.

Luke walked across to his seat and as Janet looked up he could see Janet tilting her head to the side curiously. She was a smart young woman but as Luke pulled out his writing supplies he saw that the young woman had a semi-vacant look on her face. It wasn’t unlike a stereotypical air-headed supermodel.

“Not you as well…” Luke found himself muttering. He couldn’t understand why everyone was acting so strangely.

“Huh?” Janet replied. Her face barely changed as she spoke.

“Never mind.” Luke replied, “Hey, did you see a meteor pass overhead last night? It was pretty late, you might’ve been asleep.”

“Huh?” Janet repeated.

Luke looked at Janet and though the lights were on it seemed like no one was home. Her beautiful eyes seemed somehow empty, maybe it was because her face was almost frozen in this slack-jawed look of stupidity.

“I guess it doesn’t matter…” Luke muttered. He was starting to feel really creeped out by everything happening around him. He turned to his other side and noticed Eric had spent the last minute with his pen underneath his nose, he was curling up his top lip and acting as if he had a moustache.

“You’re funny!” Janet suddenly blurted out. Luke turned back to her as she giggled childishly, “So weeeeeeird!”

Luke was about to reply that she was the one acting differently to normal when the door opened again and the lecturer walked in. Mrs. Zoe McAllister was in her forties and her black hair was kept up in a tidy bun and her glasses perched on the end of nose. She was every bit as stern as she appeared.

“Good morning.” Mrs. McAllister said as she placed her folders on the lectern.

Luke picked up his pen ready to take notes but as he looked up at Mrs. McAllister he noticed she had paused and was frowning at the books in front of her. She seemed a little out of sorts but after a quick shake of her head she started delivering her lecture. Soon the lecture settled into its usual format but Luke noticed his best friend and his crush weren’t taking notes like they would usually do, he was also constantly distracted by loud giggling from the seats right behind him.

“… and so Zimbardo posited that… He, erm…” Mrs. McAllister was twenty minutes into her lecture and suddenly seemed to lose her train of thought, “Ahem, excuse me. Zimbardo said that when you give people… Heh, “Zimbardo”… That’s a funny name!”

Luke’s mouth dropped open. The usually austere lecturer was now openly laughing at the name she had read out, Luke couldn’t remember her cracking a smile yet alone laughing like she was doing right now. From behind him in the multitude of rows full of students he could hear people murmuring to each other in confusion.

“Anyway, Zimbardo…” Mrs. McAllister paused like she was trying to hold in even more laughter. She failed and was soon bent over and laughing wildly. Eric and Janet joined in though Luke was left looking around as if he was in the middle of an insane asylum.

Luke felt real concern and wondered whether he should call emergency services. He had no idea how he would explain to them what was going on. He could imagine calling the police and trying to describe that everyone’s acting weird and probably getting told off for wasting their time. The talking behind him was growing louder with some people audibly calling out asking if Mrs. McAllister was alright, meanwhile all the students around Luke were now laughing uncontrollably and Mrs. McAllister was literally down on the floor.

Finally pulling herself together after a minute of madness Mrs. McAllister stood up whilst still giggling and wiping a tear from her eye. She went back to her spot behind the lectern and took another look at the book before looking up at the stunned students.

“You know what?” Mrs. McAllister Said as she slammed the book closed, “Who cares? Class is dismissed.”

Mrs. McAllister took her bag and quickly shoved all her things into it. She slung it over her shoulder, blew a raspberry with her tongue sticking out and then practically skipped out of the room leaving the students staring after her. When the door closed behind the professor Eric and Janet got straight up, everyone else remained in their seats.

One by one people started to leave when they realised Mrs. McAllister wasn’t coming back. Luke could barely comprehend what he was experiencing. Everyone was acting so out of character, at least he wasn’t alone in noticing as he could hear the other students talking about how weird the situation was. It seemed only his best friend and his crush were nonplussed by everything.

When he saw Luke and Janet starting to play patty cake he felt like he just had to get out of this crazy situation. Without a word to anyone Luke picked up his bag and ran from the room, he was getting freaked out by everything he was seeing and needed time to get away. He walked as fast as the crowds in the hallway would allow and heard both students and teachers giggling as he went past.

Luke was stuck behind a larger woman who was talking to a friend next to her. He was trying to find a way past but with so many people in the hallway he was rather stuck in the flow. Just as he was trying to get around the woman blocking his path he heard her let out a long and drawn fart. Far from a small bit of gas that slips out this was loud and proud, everyone in the nearby vicinity turned to look. Rather than being embarrassed or apologising the woman instead started laughing. She exaggeratedly sniffed the air and then waved her hand in front of her face. The people around Luke apparently thought this was incredibly funny.

Luke was finally finished being polite and he shoved his way past the woman in front of him and ran down the hallway knocking into people as he went. He only stopped to get his breath when he had left the building and was standing out in the sunshine.

If Luke had been hoping that getting away from his family would bring back normalcy he had been badly proven wrong. As he walked towards home he kept his head down and tried to process everything that had happened that morning. Nothing seemed normal.

When Luke opened the front door there was only one other person at home. Luke’s older sister, Zoe, was upstairs as Luke closed the door and took off his shoes.

“Mom, is that you?” Zoe called down the stairs.

“No, it’s me.” Luke replied, “I got out of class early.”

“I always knew you were lazy!” Zoe jokingly shouted down the stairs.

Luke went upstairs and smiled. It seemed like Zoe was back to normal at least, he walked down the landing and passed Zoe’s open bedroom door. She was sitting on her bed and reading a magazine. Luke paused and leaned around the door.

“Hey, Zoe?” Luke said as he looked over to the bed, “What was this morning all about?”

“This morning?” Zoe repeated, “I don’t know I was feeling kind of… silly, I guess.”

“And you don’t feel like that now?” Luke asked from the doorway, “You’re not going to spontaneously giggle or fart or something?”

“Of course not!” Zoe looked scandalised as her cheeks went red.

Luke ducked away before anything more could be said. He felt a little better that Zoe seemed to be acting normally now but that didn’t make anything else that happened that day any less bizarre. He quickly went to his bedroom and closed the door behind him. Luke took a deep breath and only now realised how tense he was, it was like his body was ready for someone or something to jump out at him at any moment.

Trying to relax a little Luke walked across to his computer and powered it on. He also leaned across to the remote control for his television and turned that on as well. As he leaned back in his chair and waited for his computer to boot up he saw an image of space on the TV. His mind immediately went back to the meteor he had seen the previous night. Sitting up he opened a browser and started searching.

There was nothing anywhere about a flying object. Luke checked the local news websites, he checked national news websites, he searched for meteors on search engines and even went to government websites to try and find out any information at all. He wondered if it hadn’t been a meteor and was something else instead so he searched all the different things he could think of. Satellites, weather balloons, aircraft, fireworks. Every search turned up absolutely nothing.

“I don’t get it.” Luke muttered as he let go of the mouse and sat back in his seat.

There was no mention anywhere of anything out of the ordinary leaving Luke wondering if he had been seeing things. Before Luke knew what had happened he had spent his whole afternoon on the computer doing nothing but trying to work out what had happened.

“Luke, come get dinner!” Luke’s dad called up the stairs.

Luke rubbed his eyes tiredly as he closed his browser having finally admitted defeat. He got to his feet and went downstairs where he could hear his family already at the table. He walked in and sat down in his usual seat. Lisa was finishing up the cooking, dinner spelled delicious. As usual Luke’s dad had his nose buried in a newspaper and his brother and sister were waiting patiently either side of the table.

It seemed everything was back to normal now and Luke breathed a sigh of relief. He barely had time for a small smile before things started going off the rails.

“Gah, this is boring.” Don said as he suddenly threw his newspaper over his head and behind him. The papers separated and fell slowly to the floor.

Luke immediately felt his smile falter. That was very out of character for his father and before he could fully process what he had seen Zoe, who had seemed so normal earlier, suddenly started tilting her chair backwards and trying to balance on the edge of the table with her toes. She managed it for just a few seconds before the chair fell backwards. Charlie and Don started loudly laughing.

“I don’t want all these yucky vegetables.” Lisa suddenly stated as she looked at the plates of healthy food steaming away on one of the kitchen counters.

Suddenly there was a loud crashing and Luke ducked automatically. He looked over to see the dishes that had just been sitting on the counter having been lovingly prepared by his mom now strewn across the kitchen floor. Luke was shocked but the rest of the family cheered as if they were at a sporting event.

“I’m getting pizza!” Lisa said emphatically.

Again the family cheered. Luke looked around wondering who had replaced his family with aliens. It was like something out of an old sci-fi movie where normal people were kidnapped and replaced with versions that were ever so slightly off.

“Takeaway?” Luke asked, “We never get takeaway…”

“Fuck it.” Don said before letting out a raspberry with his tongue between his lips, “Pizza sounds yummy!”

This was so out of character that as the rest of the family cheered again Luke wondered if he had misheard his father. A couple of seconds later Lisa was on the phone and ordering the food. All Luke could do was put his head in his hands as he tried to get his brain to accept what felt like a particularly strange dream.

“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked once he noticed Luke’s distressed look. He actually looked serious which for Luke was a shock.

“Well, everything se-” Luke started.

Charlie almost immediately let his head slump forwards and loudly pretended to snore. Seeing the nineteen-year-old pretend caused the rest of the family to suddenly join in. Even Lisa leaned against the cupboards and closed her eyes. The whole kitchen pretended to snore only broken by the occasional laughter as the family struggled to keep their composure. Luke looked around at everyone and felt increasing anger that no one was treating this seriously.

“Screw you all.” Luke repeated his angry statement from that morning. Despite his anger his voice was calm. It was a sense of defeat.

Luke stood up and left the room. He ignored his family calling for him to come back and went straight up to his room. He didn’t leave for the rest of the night, his dinner was some candy he had lying around on his desk.

Luke must’ve fallen asleep at some point because in the middle of the night he suddenly came too with his head on the desk. He lifted up and looked around the dark room with his brain taking a while to remember why he felt so bad. He looked up at winced at the computer screen, the bright light caused him to wince.

Walking over to the bed Luke undressed and laid down. He looked out the window and wondered if he really did see something fly overhead the previous night. With a mental shrug he closed his eyes and did the only things he could do, he closed his eyes and hoped that everything would be back to normal the next day.

---

You can find the rest here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/power-corrupts-72045915

All patrons are greatly appreciated as your support helps to keep the lights on