The smell hit first. Not turkey, not pie… something darker, sharper, wrong. We pulled the roasting pan out, laughing, tired, ready to collapse on the couch.
Then we saw it. A warped, alien-looking lump fused to the bottom of the oven, glittering with tiny bits of metal.
For a moment, everyone went silent. Nobody dared touc… Continues…
We crouched around the open oven like it was a crime scene. The thing was about the size of a thumb, oddly smooth in some places, jagged in others