100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2021 #88

 88

There's a lot of things you end up losing as you get older. Your hair, your dignity, your family and friends who eventually die before you do.

There are also fewer things you don't lose as you get older. That's fat and your ego. For me, it was the latter. I began losing a few of my teeth because of a case of bone loss. That meant I had to up my vitamin D intake. Meanwhile, I was given a couple of crowns and dentures for the lower and upper back teeth, which had to be extracted. The doctor was thorough enough that she didn't have to pull out any remaining pieces of a tooth, which would grow back later in a weird, kinda way. You know what I mean, right? Everybody has got that one nefarious tooth that has a mind of its own. "These dentures don't have any fake teeth in them. It's actually cloned human teeth from a donor," the doctor said.

"So, I've got alien teeth in my dentures?" I asked.

"No, it's human," she corrected me.

"This is very science fiction," I chuckled.

"All donors are vetted, so they understand that if they agree to go through the process, they have to be in perfect health," the doctor covered her bases. "Another thing is that the dentures aren't made of the regular material. It's synthetic human skin so that it doesn't feel fake. So when you're eating or drinking something, the denture doesn't take the taste away. It's permanent, so you won't ever have to take it off. It won't even feel like it's there."

The doctor went over the details of how to apply the dentures, which surprisingly fit just right. Life after that was good, and things were great. One night, I had a dream that I was some sort of rabid creature walking the streets of Waikīkī where I tore random people to shreds. It was horrific, the screams of terror and the blood that covered the sidewalk were disgusting but what was even worse, was the sensation of myself, chewing and swallowing human flesh. I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom where I must have sat and thrown up for almost an hour. When it finally stopped, and I cleansed myself off and washed my face, I looked in the mirror and just caught sight of four huge fangs, top, and bottom, receding into my gums. I went back to the dentist's office the very next morning to talk to my doctor and to tell her what happened. The building was completely empty, with no furniture, no call center, no back room where all the dentists and doctors did their work. I asked the business next door if they knew what happened or if they saw anything. They said a bunch of moving trucks came and emptied the entire contents of the building overnight. By sunrise, they were gone. 

In Waiʻanae, a new dentist office opened where they were applying dentures for free. You just had to be sure that you had a clean and healthy medical record. Otherwise, the creatures that they were going to turn the residents into, would die in a day. They needed them healthy and able to kill at will.