"Uh, just going over to Karyn's house." "Ok." And his mom turned her attention back to the TV. She looked defeated and tired, and he had never seen her act that way. Come to think of it, she had never really watched much TV, and at this time of day she was normally cooking dinner or at least planning where she would order from.
"You cooking tonight?" he asked her. "No." was all she said in reply. She seemed like she couldn't care less either.
After a minute he realized that she wasn't paying attention to him anymore. That and he felt the need to bleach his eyes for seeing that much of his mom. So he headed for the front door and opened it. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but the normal neighborhood wasn't it. There were cars parked in driveways as normal at this time of day, and there were a couple kids playing down the street. He watched for a moment until he confirmed that they too were naked.
"Oh my god, I turned everyone into nudists." That gave him the courage to go outside though, so he headed down the street in the opposite direction of the kids to go to Karyn's house.
Halfway there he came across a woman lying on her back on the sidewalk, sleeping. She looked about his mother's age and the sight of his naked mom assaulted his mind again and he looked away. He looked around, but this was bizarre. There was nothing nearby that helped explain why this woman was just sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk, not even in front of anyone's house. Her nudity was easy to figure out, and the smell of her confirmed his theory that no one was bathing either. Then he noticed the pool of blood underneath her. He panicked and started running, hoping that his wish hadn't done that too. He would call the police when he got to Karyn's house
Finally arriving at her front door, he knocked. Karyn's naked mother, just as dirty as everyone else he had encountered, answered and waved him in. She was hiding her lower half behind the door, and he was doing his best to not peek. More images of his own mother swam in his mind and he felt like he was going to be sick. He wasn't sure how much of it was the mental picture of his mom and how much was the smell in the house though. He hadn't noticed any real change in his own house, except for his mother, so he had no idea what to expect.
He knocked on Karyn's bedroom door and she shouted "What do you want!"
"It's me, can I come in?" "Oh, yeah. Is my mom out there?" "No, she's downstairs. I need help." "Well, get in here already."
He opened the door and found what appeared to be a garbage dump on the other side of the door. There were dirty plates and cups piled in one corner of the room, the topmost layer being paper plates and plasticware, the bed was stripped down to the bare mattress with the blankets piled messily on the floor next to it, and Karyn was sitting on a pile of clothes against the wall reading a book. The walls looked fine, with some posters of bands and stuff, but the bands were wearing their normal clothes. The smell in here was terrible. She looked uncomfortable as hell but her expression brightened when she saw him. She looked like she hadn't bathed in a millennium.
"Please tell me you brought the stone. I've been thinking of ways to overthrow her."
Jon went to reach for a pocket but stopped immediately and held out his hands to show they were empty. "No, I didn't. Who are we overthrowing? And why is everything such a mess?" She just stared at him.
