The Great Pumpkin

The face hit the ground with a wet, heavy smack that sent liquid innards scattering in all directions. It was but one of many that had fallen prey during the four young men's reign of terror. They'd been at it for hours, finding innocent victim after innocent victim and leaving them a stain on the sidewalk.

"Dude, dude, there's another one," Wyatt said, slapping Tony's beefy arm.

"On it!" The hairy brute of a man scurried across the front lawn with surprising speed given his stocky shape, snatching the jack o'lantern off the front porch. He sent it hurling towards Gabe, who exploded it midair with a well-aimed blow from his baseball bat.

"Wooooo!" the wiry man roared as if he'd just scored a home run, his face and clothes splattered with pumpkin gore. He flexed a thick bicep, a smug grin on his face. "And THAT'S why they keep me on the team."

"You sure it's not all those locker room blow jobs you give everyone?"

Gabe swung his bat towards Wyatt, purposely missing the tall man but still managing to send a stream of pumpkin juice spattering against him. "Fuck you, dude."

"See? That's what I'm sayin," Wyatt laughed, grabbing his crotch through his jeans. "I'm not judging."

"Pretty mouth like yours is probably great at it," Tony grinned, wiping the sticky gore from the hairy patch of burly chest that hung out from his thin, v-neck t-shirt.

Gabe gestured with his bat towards the plump, prominent rear bubbling out the back of Tony's pumpkin-covered jeans. "Says the dude with the mammoth ass?"

The shorter man shrugged and gave his hips a shake. "What? I know you like to look."

Gabe grumbled, turning away as Tony and Wyatt erupted into fits of laughter and Luke trailed behind. His laughing friends loved nothing more than to give the handsome young man a hard time about his looks. They were all eye-catching in their own rights, but Gabe was the stunner of the group, with full, pouty lips, high cheekbones, and thick auburn hair that was always perfectly in place. Coupled with the fact that these comely features sat on top of a lean, whipcord body covered in tight definition and offset by bulging, powerful biceps. It was no surprise they'd be jealous after spending years watching Gabe score girl after girl without having to try while they struggled.

Though realistically, "struggle" was an exaggeration. They were all differently built, but each of the young men had a fit, athletic frame. Wyatt's tall, lanky body with his toned arms and long legs made him a natural on the basketball court, while Tony's thick, bottom-heavy shape was tailor made for wrestling. Their quiet friend, Luke, split the difference between them, being neither too short nor too tall, with an impressive, well-muscled build. Unlike the lanky Wyatt or the beefy Tony, Luke sported a chiseled, proportional build that beat Gabe from the neck down, though the other man still had the better face.

Walking almost grudgingly behind his friends, Luke ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair as he watched the other two torment Gabe. He loved anything that made the arrogant young man uncomfortable, but it was close to midnight and they'd been at it for hours. The trick or treaters had long since called it a night and the barren streets surrounding campus were growing increasingly cold and foggy. "I don't wanna be a buzzkill, but exactly how much longer are we going to keep doing this?"

The other three stopped and turned towards their friend, exchanging a trio of annoyed glances. "What? You've got something better to do?" Tony asked. "A hot date with a fuckin' book waiting back home?"

"I'm just saying....aren't we a little old for this? We're not kids anymore, assholes. No one else is out and it's only a matter of time before someone calls the cops on the group of twenty year olds smashing pumpkins like a bunch of idiot high schoolers." Luke held up his hands in surrender before they could start yelling at him. "Don't get me wrong! It's been fun...but it's nearly midnight, guys. Can't we just go get drunk or something?"

Gabe pulled a flask from his pocket and took a long swig, the stench of cheap whiskey carrying through the chill night air. "Why not both?"

"Nerd might have a point," Wyatt sighed. He looked up and down the empty street and the trail of pumpkin guts they'd left in their wake. "This IS getting kinda boring." He shivered, goosebumps breaking out on his long arms. "It's also getting cold out here."

"But it's Halloween!" Tony whined. "We can't call it a night yet."

"No one's saying we have to call it a night. Let's just head back towards campus and see what's going on there. Gotta be something more exciting than this."

"I second that," Wyatt nodded at Luke's pleading look.

"Fiiiiine," Gabe pouted. He rested his bat over a broad shoulder, a sour expression on his face. "But if we find any good ones on the way back I'm still smashin' 'em."

The group turned back the way they came, retracing their trail of destruction as the fog closed in around them. It seemed to thicken out of nowhere, swirling in dense clouds that obscured the lights overhead and reduced the lit porches on either side of the street to diffuse, pin pricks of illumination. A blanket of deafening silence fell over the midnight air, swallowing the sounds of their footfalls and blocking out the rhythmic, cricket chirping.

They all noticed the frigid chill that came with the sudden fog, but none of them wanted to be the first to give voice to their growing unease. They walked along in silence, occasionally giving in to impulse and looking back over their shoulder to reassure themselves that the sensation of being followed was all in their imagination.

It was the changes to the sidewalk that caught their eyes first. The smooth, even surface started to pepper with tufts of grass and overgrown weeds. Thick tree roots thrust sections of the ground upwards in broken chunks until even the pavement of the street itself began to crumble.

"Guys? Where are we..." Tony finally asked. "Do you remember passing here? This place is a dump." He strained his eyes through the fog, making out the shapes of towering, victorian houses where there should have been small bungalows.

"What do you mean 'where are we'? We're walking back to campus," Gabe spat. "Don't be stupid," he added, trying to hide his own anxiety.

"What the fuck's with these houses though? I don't think we..." Wyatt trailed off, grabbing Luke's shoulder as he froze. "Do you see that," he whispered. The others all stopped and looked down the street where Wyatt pointed, at first thinking the tall shape was nothing but a street light.

They didn't know what it was. It was too tall to be a person and too thin to be a tree. It traveled up from the ground in a straight line, terminating in a round, squat orb on top.

"What?" Gabe shrugged. "It's just a street sign...or..." he trailed off when it suddenly moved.

The four young men watched as the round, bulbous head turned in their direction, feeling more than seeing the set of eyes that landed on them. The now-moving creature lurched forward in slow, stumbling steps, its movements stilted and uncoordinated like a marionnette. Whatever it was, the figure grew impossibly tall as it drew closer to the startled young men until it towered before them like a slender idol. It was tall and thin, with skeletal arms and legs, its entire body covered in clinging dirt and vines that dangled off it like cobwebs. The round head bore a familiar orange shape as it glared down at the cowering group. The young men craned their necks up at the nearly nine foot figure, rooted in place by overwhelming dread. Despite the impossibility of what they were seeing, they knew deep down this was no halloween prank.

"Gu...guys...let's...let's get the fuck outta here..." Tony's voice quivered, a hoarse whisper. Being the shortest of the group, the figure loomed over him like a giant.

Gabe wasn't quite ready to give in. "It's just someone fuckin' with us. Probably mad we smashed their pumpkins or whatever," he spat towards his quaking friends. Determined not to let his own fear show he drew himself up and steadied his voice as he yelled to the deserted street, "okay! Good job! Points for originality...this thing is super spooky," he laughed. "But we got kinda turned around. Could someone points us towards campus?" Instead of echoing down the street his deep voice was swallowed by the fog, barely making it to his friends a few feet behind him. "Nevermind I guess," he said with an annoyed, dismissive wave. Turning back to the others he shrugged, a smug look on his face. "See? Nothing to..."

"Fuck!" Wyatt yelped, cutting off Gabe as the creature's bulbous head flared to life. A pair of triangular eyes, a matching nose, and a jagged, grinning mouth suddenly lit with an internal glow that flickered like flame.

Without a word, the creature slowly raised a bony arm and extended a gnarled finger towards the group. All at once the sticky, dried remains of the shattered jack o'lanterns that covered them began to emit a soft orange glow that was quickly followed by a quiet sizzling.

"What the hell?! What's that...shit! Shit!" Gabe began frantically pawing at himself when he looked down and saw his clothes steadily disintegrating. The strange orange light coursed over him, tracing the lines of pumpkin gore like veins as it took the fabric with it.

The four men stared at each other in shock as they watched the light spread over all of them. Gabe and Tony were the most covered, their bodies rapidly becoming exposed as their clothes somehow vanished.

Wyatt was the first to snap out of it. The tall man gasped, coming back to his senses. "Fuck! Run!" He yelled, turning and bolting, not bothering to see if his friends followed. He could hear their pounding feet behind him but he was too scared to turn and face the creature again. Already the burning eyes were seared into his brain, hovering just in front of him every time he so much as blinked. He could feel the chill night air on the exposed skin of his abs where his shirt should be, while a similar draft ran up the backs of his legs. There wasn't time to stop and look, or to be embarrassed. He could only run as fast as his long legs would carry him.

Luke was right behind him, watching in stunned horror as the back of Wyatt's jeans dissolved from the knees up. The tall man had slipped and fallen on a destroyed pile of pumpkin guts earlier, and though they'd all laughed at the time, Luke found nothing funny about the sudden appearance of the back of Wyatt's red boxer briefs. Since he'd been hanging back for most of the night there were only a few sizzling holes in Luke's t-shirt and jeans, which he ignored as he sprinted after Wyatt.

Gabe and Tony weren't so lucky. Being as covered as they were, it only took a few strides before the shredded remains of their clothes drifted off as they ran. They stumbled and staggered, catching on their dissolving jeans until the tattered denim was no more, leaving them in nothing but their underwear and rapidly dissolving sneakers. Gabe did his best to focus on getting as far from the monster as he could, but it was hard to ignore the increasingly absent sensation of his boxers against his pumping legs. The same went for Tony, whose grey briefs were letting in more and more of the evening air and whose hairy cheeks bounced freely behind him as he ran.

It was Luke who finally spotted the house. They'd been running for what felt like miles through the endless fog when he'd finally mustered up the courage to look back over his shoulder. He saw his exposed friends trailing behind, but fortunately no creature with glowing eyes. He looked back towards the street just in time to catch a break in the fog that gave him a quick glimpse of what looked like an abandoned house. The broken windows and gaping front door leered like a face, but at least it was shelter.

"Guys! This way," he hissed in a loud whisper, turning a sharp ninety degrees and bolting into the ominous, darkened house. The rotted wood of the porch creaked under their weight as one by one his friends lunged in after him, their mostly bare, sweaty chests heaving for breath. They stumbled away from the missing front door and into a windowless back room, barely able to see anything in the dim, filtered illumination from the streetlight outside.

"What...the fuck...was that..." Wyatt panted, bending over to support himself on his exposed knees. The tall man's shirt had dissolved from the chest down, leaving him with a ridiculous cut off that showed off his tight abs and shredded jeans. The front of the denim was peppered and pockmarked with holes, but the back was gone entirely from his calves up. Wyatt had been holding them in place as he ran but he let them drop as he caught his breath.

"What happened to our clothes?!" Gabe spread his sculpted arms wide to emphasize his mostly-naked body. T-shirt, jeans, socks and shoes had all vanished. Only part of his boxers remained, and even they had dissolved into something resembling more of a loin cloth than a pair of shorts. A small patch of plaid fabric hung down the middle of Gabe's perky bubble, while a similar strip covered the majority of his dangling hose. The slightest movement caused his long cock and low, heavy balls to swing into view, but the wiry man would take what he could get.

Tony wasn't so lucky. Like Gabe, his clothes had entirely vanished, but unlike his lean friend, the beefy man's briefs had melted away to a web of cotton strands. His plump cheeks and thick, squat cock stood on full display as he pawed at his furry torso. "This shit's still on us, man! What's it gonna do?! Is anyone else itchy?" The group watched their stocky friend scratch at himself, each of them silently shaking their heads with wide eyes. "Really? None of you are...are...what are you all looking at?"

"You're, uh, still glowing," Luke said, reaching a hesitant hand towards Tony's burly shoulder. Before he could make contact the shorter man gasped and spasmed out of reach, every muscle going tense. His broad body erupted with definition as he seemed to flex in place, straining against the electric current suddenly running through him. His flesh crawled when, like his clothes, the glow began to consume all of the ample hair that had covered him since puberty. The other three couldn't believe their eyes as the hairy ape of a man was replaced by a flexing, smooth-skinned hunk. The lack of hair accentuated his straining muscles, letting his bulging pecs and ripped abs stand proudly on display instead of lurking beneath a silky carpet. It was easy for them to forget just how built Tony really was under all that fur. Their short friend didn't look like he was putting on additional muscle, but the bulk he already had was becoming increasingly defined. The fat on Tony's body seemed to melt away, leaving a striated map of definition that left him looking like a bodybuilder on stage day.

"Wha...what just happened..." Tony gasped as the glow faded. "Jesus!" He staggered on his feet as he looked down at his now-smooth body. Though he was relaxed and had stopped flexing, he kept the prominent definition as though he was. And while the glow had stopped, Tony was horrified to discover that his smooth new skin bore an orange tint, as if he'd covered himself with the cheapest spray tan possible.

"Are...are you okay?"

"I...think soouoouuunnnn...." Tony's knees sagged when Luke reached out again and a wave of pleasure washed over him as soon as his friend made contact.

"Whoa! Shit!" Luke grabbed Tony's other shoulder to steady him but the short, buff man only groaned harder. "Guys! Something's...wrong..." he stammered as he pulled Tony towards him and felt his friend's solid, fat cock dig into his leg. He looked down and saw the thick, oozing pole sticking out through the lace of shredded cotton, looking all the larger without the dense bush of hair around it. "Tony! You with still with me, man?" He fumbled to keep his friend upright while glaring at the others. "Will one of you fucking help me?"

Gabe just stared in slack-jawed shock but Wyatt pulled it together and hurried over, draping a long arm under Tony to hold him upright. The smooth skinned stud let out a howl as Wyatt's arm drifted across his back, and Gabe felt a warm, spurting stream splash against him. "Let...let go! Let him go!" He barked, backing away.

Wyatt looked confused as he held the squirming, tanned little muscle man. "I thought I was supposed to..."

"I think touching him is making him do this!" Luke motioned to the cum stain on his shirt and Wyatt let go as if Tony was suddenly red hot, sending the other man to the floor in a heap.

"I could...couldn't say anything..." Tony sputtered breathlessly. "As soon as you...it was like you guys were...just touching my shoulder felt like you were jerkin' me off." It was hard to tell if he was blushing under the new orange tint on his face. "When Wyatt put his arm on my back it was like...holy shit..." he stared in confused wonder at the semi-hard cock poking through the lacework of his underwear. Despite the powerful eruption his squat club wasn't getting any softer.

"We need to get the fuck outta here," Gabe interrupted, peeking his head around a corner to look out through one of the broken windows. "That...thing...could be here any minute."

"Or it could be waiting for us outside," Wyatt countered. "And I don't think Tony's in any position to go anywhere."

"No, I'm fine...this is just...weird..." the short man said as he lumbered to his feet and ran a hesitant hand over his shredded torso. Touching his own skin sent more of a thrill than it should, but nothing like his friends' touch had. "Why do I look so jacked? And what the fuck is with this tan?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Luke shrugged. "Whatever that thing is out there...it did this."

"You all saw it, right? The fucker had a jack o'lantern head, right?" Wyatt forced his eyes from Tony's altered, naked body. He felt bad for his friend, but he was more concerned with what the freshly sculpted man's new look implied for the rest of them.

"That's not possible," Gabe hissed, still looking into the other room. He told himself it was so he could keep watch, not that he was afraid to look at Tony. "None of this is possible!"

"Tell that to Tony," Luke growled, stomping over to Gabe. "Or your missing clothes! We're all scared, dude. Denial isn't gonna...wait...what's that?" He trailed off, his eye catching on a small, pale object stuck to Gabe's lower back.

"What? What's what?" Gabe's heart started racing as he looked over his shoulder to see what Luke was inspecting.

"Oh, it's nothing," Luke sighed. "I thought it was a weird bug or something, but it's just a pumpkin seeee...whoa!" He'd been reaching out to flick it from Gabe's back but jerked his hand away when it suddenly melted into the other man's skin.

"What? Shit! What happened?!" Gabe was turning in circles as he tried to get a view, his barely covered package swinging wildly between his toned thighs in the process.

"It...melted...into your skin..." Luke stammered.

"WHAT?! No...it just fell off or something, right? That's all. It just fell offffuuuuuuunnnnggg!" Gabe's eyes shot open, his mouth gaping in a prolonged, wordless gasp. The other three watched the wiry man go up on his toes, his back arching as an obvious quiver spread across his firm, perky rear. The quiver turned into a ripple, like the broken surface of a pond. There was a momentary pause, just long enough for all of them to look at each other, before Gabe's small little cheeks exploded outwards. They were like inflating balloons, pushing back and spilling out at the sides while still seeming to defy gravity. The growing mounds expanded in jiggling spurts until it looked as if Gabe had two hefty pumpkins strapped to his lower back. The rest of his lean, whipcord body was unchanged, making the new growth seem comically large compared to the rest of him.