The Dark Influence

Chapter 1
1: OMG You Guys My Husband is a Jerk!

John returned home from work on this Friday night. As he shut off the car, he took a second to collect himself. The last few months, he would come home from work, and he and his wife Chloe would argue. No matter what, the subject was the same: Ever since her sister had the baby, Chloe had been hounding him for one every couple of months or so.

He opened the door. Chloe was sitting on the couch in the living room, scrolling through her phone while Keeping Up With The Kardashians played on the TV. Somehow she was able to pay attention to both things.

“Hi wifey.” He said, closing the door behind him. The nickname used to make her smile, but now not anymore.

“Hey.” She said bluntly. She was wearing the same tank top and yoga pants she had worn to the gym, having not changed out of them yet. John’s pace quickened as he saw her panties peeking out of the top. Hopefully he’d get some tonight. At that point, one of the kids on the screen walked by in the background. A baby. This is always how it started.

“John, when are we gonna have a baby?” She inquired.

“I told you babe, I don’t think we should. And I’m sick of going the whole nine rounds with you every time you see a baby somewhere.” He flatly stated. His new strategy of late was trying to keep his cool through the inevitable argument. It hadn’t been working so far.

“Why not though?” She protested. “I make good money, you would make a great stay-at-home dad!”

“I just don’t think we should have kids. We both have the money to travel, to save for retirement, and I don’t want to be a stay-at-home dad, I like my job!”

She would always pout and stomp off when this part came up. In the end, he thought to himself, you can’t make your spouse do anything they don’t want to do. It didn’t feel good, but this was marriage, and it needed to work through compromise.

Chloe walked into their bedroom. She would always go scroll through TikTok at this point. John wasn’t much of a TikTok person, though the times he would peak over his wife’s shoulder she would usually be watching mommy bloggers or workout content. As he walked in he happened to see a video of a mommy blogger talking about what goes in their diaper bag. Their child was there next to them, toddling around.

“Chloe, that stuff is so dumb, you know they’re faking it for engagement metrics, don’t you?”

“I don’t care, John, it makes me happy!”

“But doesn’t it bother you that these women are farming out their kids for views?”

Chloe put down her phone. “They blur their faces!”

“But these kids aren’t old enough to give consent over whether they want to be shown online or not!” John shot back. This part of the argument hadn’t come up before. And it was making his heart race more than when he popped that boner in the living room.

“Oh it’s not like it’s that big of a deal!” Chloe returned.

“It IS a big deal! What if a kid did something and then, and then, someone came across it later when they were older and got made fun of at school!” He stamped his foot in anger. This surprised him. He hadn’t stomped his foot during an argument since he was a kid.

Chloe’s anger suddenly disappeared from her face. She smiled. This made John even angrier.

“WHAT’RE YOU SMILING ABOUT?!” He shouted.

Chloe picked up her phone, continued to scroll, and mentioned offhandedly, “Nothing, it just means the powder worked.”

“What powder?” He started hyperventilating. Something was wrong.

“Well, I saw an ad on Temu for an age regression powder. I slipped some into your coffee this morning.” She reached into her bedside drawer, pulling out a small jar, reading the label. 

“Results should start to appear within twenty-four hours. Starting effects include childish speech patterns, emotional volitivity, and quickened heart rate. Side effects include sweating, diarrhea, and headaches. Have you had any of those today, John?” She held his eye contact. Suddenly it felt intimidating to him.

“What do you mean age regression powder? That’s not a thing! And I told you to stay off Temu!” He shouted, his brow suddenly mistier than it should have been for an air conditioned apartment. 

“I’m sick of waiting, John. I told you I want a baby. I’m ready to be a mom. But you won’t listen, so I took matters into my own hands.” She waggled the jar at him. “Do you want to go see what happened to your office?”

“What did you do to my office, you bitch?!” He shouted, running out of the room. His pants had started to slide off him at this point. The sight made his heart sink. His office, where he kept the couple’s files, his computer, was all gone. It was a nursery. A crib, changing table stocked with diapers and wipes, baby monitor, diaper genie, and rocking chair all stared back at him. 

The walls, previously a tasteful greyish white, were painted a pastel blue now.  Above the crib, “John” was printed in block letters on top of a cloud.

Chloe strode in behind John. At this point, she was taller than him. John held onto his jacket, shielding his privates as she spoke to him. “When you wake up tomorrow sweetie, you’ll be all mine. We’ll go to the park, play, and we can go to family gatherings with you as my new- ope, there he goes.” His vision grew dark.