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The bedroom was flooded with silvery light when my eyes popped open. I lay there for several minutes, listening to the unfamiliar sounds of a new home. Just as I was about to pull the covers over my head and go back to sleep, a high-pitched howl made the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention.

"Sylvia," I whispered as I shoved at the cover-hogging lump slumbering beside me, "I think there's something outside."

My wife rolled over, smiling sleepily as she said, "Don't worry. Mommy'll take care of it."

She'd been saying things like that all week after I made an offhand joke about being jealous of one of the children she'd been taking care of. Normally, I'd be able to appreciate her sense of humor. At that moment, the teasing just annoyed me.

"You'll take care of the howling?" I asked, doing my best to keep the peevishness out of my voice.

She kissed the tip of my nose and said, "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'm sure it's just the wind."

"I don't think the wind howls like that. It sounded ... human."

There was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes as she said, "A human howl? You mean like from one of those werebabies Mrs. Cole was talking about? You didn't take that seriously, did you?"

"I thought she was joking too, but she did seem kind of upset when you tried to hand her the bottle of milk you'd been feeding her daughter."

"The story and her reaction got me curious, which is why I did some research into local folklore."

That explained why she'd spent so much time on the computer after dinner. "So, did you find anything interesting?"

"It took a lot of digging, but I did eventually come across a few things. Some of the stories I found seemed to contradict each other. What consistencies I did find were just ... bizarre."

My annoyance faded as my curiosity was piqued. "Really? Like what?"

"Well, one of the interesting things that seems to be repeated is how milk seems to be important, although I wasn't able to find a clear explanation as to why."

I nodded when I saw the connection. "That could explain why Mrs. Cole acted the way she did. Did you find anything about them howling?"

"Babies don't howl."

As if on cue, another bone-chilling howl echoed outside our window.

Sylvia sat up, fully alert. "That sounded like a baby," she said as she shot out of bed, grabbed her robe, and jogged out of the bedroom. I threw the covers off and chased after my wife, catching up to her as she descended the stairs to the nursery.

=-=-=

The cheerful golden sunlight from this afternoon had been replaced by the sharp edges of moonlight and shadow, making everything seem surreal and slightly menacing. The howling was easier to hear down here. It was coming from the back door.

"Did we forget someone out in the yard?" I asked as I crept towards the door.

"No," Sylvia answered as she tiptoed behind me. "I'd gone through the nursery and the back yard to make sure everything was tidy before locking up for the night. If anyone had been left behind, I'd have noticed."

I picked up something from one of the activity tables as we went past. It turned out to be a half empty baby bottle.

"What do you think you're going to do with that?" my wife asked.

"I don't know," I answered. When the howling stopped, I quietly added, "Maybe I can use it to feed the baby."

She snatched the bottle from my hand as she whispered, "That's been sitting out all night. You can't give a baby something like that."

While I was trying to think of a suitable argument, the howling started again. It began sounding frustrated as we approached the back door, then was picked up by other voices. "How many babies do you think are out there?" I asked.

"There's one good way to find out," my wife answered as she unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Standing in the doorway were three naked babies. They all stopped howling at the same time, then slowly turned towards us. Perhaps it was because they all had long, black hair and were around the same size, but there was something familiar about them.

"Does Mrs. Cole have triplets?" I asked.

Sylvia's answer was overwhelmed by a blood-curdling screech as one of the babies leaped nearly three feet into the air ... directly at my wife.

I grabbed at the baby while she was in mid-air and pulled her close to my chest. Normally, I'm pretty good at handling a fussy baby, but what I held in my arms fought me like a wild animal. I was just starting to think I might be getting her under control when she bit my hand. My grip loosened as I gasped with pain.

The baby slid out of my arms, then climbed up Sylvia's leg and grabbed the bottle. With a triumphant squeal, the baby jumped to the ground and ran out the door. Before I could blink twice, she had raced across the yard, followed closely by the other babies.

By the time I found my voice, all three had scaled the chain-link fence and disappeared into the night. "What the hell just happened?" I asked.

"I'm not sure," my wife answered, "but I think we need to let the police, or someone, know there's some babies wandering around out there."

"I don't know what they were, but I don't think they were babies," I said as I examined the bite marks on my throbbing thumb.

The rest of our night was spent searching for the babies, assisted by some state police. The only evidence of our unusual experience was an empty baby bottle found a few hundred feet from the nursery.

When the police left, they assured us we were probably more likely to be the victims of a rather strange prank than eyewitnesses of actual werebabies, and the babies were probably just midgets or something like that.

While my gut told me that wasn't true, it seemed the closest I'd be able to get to a logical explanation. I decided to chalk it up to another of the strange things about the community we had moved into and do my best to forget it ever happened.

I did a pretty good job of forgetting for nearly a whole month.

=-=-=

"Sylvia!" I shouted from the shower, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.

"Everything okay in there?" she shouted back.

I held my arm under the stream of water pouring from the shower and stared as the hair slid off, then fell into the water and slowly drift towards the tangled mess that was starting to clog the drain. "I'm not sure," I said as I turned off the faucet with a shaking hand.

The bathroom door swung open just as I was shoving the shower curtain aside. Sylvia gaped at me for a moment before asking, "What happened to you?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out myself. You didn't happen to buy some new soap ... one that maybe makes all your hair fall out?"

"No. Maybe you accidently used my Nair instead of the shower gel?"

I shook my head, frowning at the thought of using my wife's flowery shower gel. "I just used the bar soap like I always do."

Sylvia grinned and said, "At least you didn't lose any on top," as she patted my head. She stopped grinning when she pulled her hand away with a fistful of short, brown hair. "Oh god, what did you use for shampoo?"

Damp, itchy clumps fell onto my shoulders as I shook my head again. "I didn't use anything."

I reached for my scalp and felt surprise as well as tenuous relief when I didn't find bare skin. "What's this?"

My wife brushed something from the top of my head. "It looks like hair ... black hair."

"Where in the world did I get black hair?" I asked as I looked up at my wife.

"I honestly couldn't begin to -- honey, are you crouching or something?"

"What? No. At least, no more than usual. You do seem a bit taller. Are you wearing heels?" I asked as I peered over the edge of the tub. Before I was able to get a good look at Sylvia's feet, I felt an overwhelming sense of vertigo and fell into her arms.

I then proceeded to lose my lunch, and possibly breakfast, all over her shirt. "Oh jeez," I said between gasps, "I'm so sorry."

"Shhh. It's okay," she said as she pulled my arm over her shoulder and helped me climb out of the tub. "Let's get you into the bedroom so you can lay down."

The trip down the hall seemed to take forever. With the way the walls kept tilting, it almost felt like a funhouse, only I wasn't having much fun. My joints ached, my muscles felt on fire, and my bones were buzzing like they were full of hornets.

By the time we made it to the entrance of the bedroom, I couldn't walk at all. To my surprise, Sylvia swung her arm under my legs, then carried me to the bed without even a grunt of effort. After gently laying me down, she gave me an odd look as she asked, "Are you cold?"

"Actually, I feel like I have a fever," I said as I tried to wipe the sweat from my brow with a limp hand. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, it may just look different because of the missing hair, but your genitals look like they've shriveled up a bit."

We both gasped when I felt something sliding between my legs. "What just happened?" I asked as I tried to lift my head.

My wife's mouth hung open for several seconds before she said, "I think your outie just became an innie."

"My what became a what?"

"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just seen it, but your penis just pulled up inside, and testicles seem to as well. Your scrotum has shifted and stretched a bit and ... well, it looks like labia now."

"Labia? You mean, the kind that comes connected to a vagina?" I asked as my voice went up an octave. "Oh crap," I softly swore as I touched my throat. "What' else could go wrong?"

That's when things really started going wrong.

=-=-=

When the world finally stabilized, I found myself staring up at a ceiling that seemed much too far away, squinting at the bright light. I was shivering with cold until something warm and soft was pulled over me. A nice, pleasant scent surrounded me then, making the stench to the side a little less noticeable.

A huge face loomed over me. Something at the back of my head told me the sounds the face was making were important, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why. I realized that something was me, and I grabbed onto it, swimming past the flood of sensations coming at me from all sides until I felt a bit more like myself.

"Daryl?" said the worried face. "Can you understand me?"

"Sivie?" I mumbled. I'd meant to say 'Sylvia", but my mouth seemed to be having problems forming sounds properly.

"Oh sweetie!" she said.

I suddenly found myself being held close, and felt like I would gag from the stench. "Ugh," I groaned.

"Daryl? What's the matter?"

"Ith ...." I frowned and concentrated on getting my tounge, teeth and lips to work together. "It's ... stinky," I said as I gestured to the direction of the horrible smell.

She nodded when she saw the damp blotch I was pointing to, then freed herself from the shirt with one hand while holding me with the other. As she tossed it to the side, she asked, "how are you feeling?"

I searched through the quickly shifting range of emotions swirling inside me and came back with, "Thcared." I clenched my teeth (which a quick check with my tongue seemed to only include my top and bottom front teeth), then relaxed my jaw and said, "Scared."

"You having trouble speaking?"

I slowly nodded. "Finking ... thinking too."

My heart thrummed with panic when her head came closer, almost completely filling my vision. She touched my forehead with her lips and said something. Unfortunately, my senses were overloading from the touch and I wasn't able to connect any meaning to the sounds she was making.

Before my head had a chance to clear again, I heard a familiar howl; the others were calling me. A massive tingling sensation rippled through me as I lifted my head and howled in return.

Although I had no idea why, I knew I had to join them, and began struggling to break free. One of my feet got loose and I kicked with all my might. There was a yelp and I wriggled free, then scrambled out of the bedroom and towards the top of the steps.

A slowly resurfacing part of me that knew what I was approaching was called steps seemed to be trying to tell me that steps weren't a very safe place for me to be. I stopped and looked down at the long, dark staircase. Cold fear began curling up in my stomach when I realized the tumble I'd almost taken.

The howling began again. I leaped without a thought into the dark. A terrified shriek followed close behind.

When the world stopped spinning, I remained sprawled on the bottom landing of the staircase, too stunned to move. Hearing something that sounded vaguely like the rumble of thunder, I turned to see my wife racing down the steps. She fell to her knees when she reached me. "Oh Daryl," she said between sobs, "please tell me you're okay."

My heart nearly burst when I saw the tears streaming down her cheeks. "I fink I okay," I said, then winced when I tried to move one of my arms. Different parts of my body started reporting scrapes and bruises, but nothing as bad as I was expecting.

"You poor thing," Sylvia muttered as she carefully scooped me up into her arms. "For a moment, I thought I'd lost you."

I reached up and touched her damp face. "I sowwy .. err ... sorry."

"It's okay. I'm just glad you're still alive. What possessed you to try going down the stairs?"

With a great deal of effort, I tried to speak as normally as possible. "De howling ... it ... it call me."

My wife frowned as she said, "There's got to be something that could override that. Can't have you tearing off every time you hear a howl." Her brows popped up as she said, "Oh, I just remembered something."

I felt a tiny flicker of hope as I asked, "What dat?"

Before she could answer, the howling started back up and tingles began rushing through me again, even more intensely than before. All thought of pain was forgotten as I jumped to the ground and ran towards the others, only to be stopped by a huge, thick ... something.

I began clawing at the obstruction, and could hear the others doing the same from the other side. I probably would have kept at it until I dug through, but an irresistible scent drew me away.

I followed my nose towards the tantalizing aroma. A clear, sparkling container with a white liquid sloshing around inside was being held out towards me. My whole body trembled with hunger as I sprung towards it.

I was already suckling as I rolled onto my back, clutching at a plastic bottle with both hands as if my life depended on it. Rationality seemed to leak back into my mind as I gulped down the silky, sweet nectar. I looked up and saw Sylvia kneeling beside me, smiling warmly as she helped me hold up the bottle.

I pushed the bottle away and said, "I sowwy ... errm ... sorry. I dunno wh--"

The rest of my apology was interrupted as she teased the nipple back into my mouth and said, "Shhh." When I started suckling on the bottle again she said, "I think I figured out what's going on, and how to help. Can you be a good girl for me and finish drinking your bottle while I get something for the other babies?"

Part of me wanted to argue that I wasn't a baby, let alone a girl. Another part of me wanted to know what was going on, and how she planned to help.

Both of those parts were over-ruled by a third part that felt wonderfully safe and content as I was gently lifted up into a crib and tucked under warm, fluffy covers. The milk seemed to be having a soporific effect on me. The bottle fell from my hands as I drifted off to sleep, knowing, somehow, Mommy would take care of everything.