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Part Two (of Three): Bright Green By: Jman250 Archive Link: http://archive.muscle-growth.org/threads/23455-p1.html The clothes left behind, once loose on Adam, were now incredibly tight on me. Nobody seemed to recognize me on my way back to the dorms, but everyone looked. I had the look of a professional bodybuilder and was damn tall! I didn’t look as big as the last guy etched on the box, but my size was impressive. Walking had definitely changed. I had a swagger, and my arms had to hang down at an angle. As I reached to open the door of my dorm’s common room, I thought back to the look on Adam’s face after my growth. It was heartbreaking to say the least. I felt a sense of loss and wondered if he’d ever forgive me. At the very least I wanted to talk about what had happened. Hearing Aaron inside broke my train of thought. All thoughts of Adam pushed aside, I grinned. Imagine Aaron’s reaction. Just the thought made my cock jump in their tight confines. Aaron had always bragged about his cock size, but now I knew I was bigger than him by at least two inches. And fuck! with this new, erm, ability, I could make the size difference even bigger (I chuckled at my own pun). I let myself in. Aaron was lying on the couch watching TV. He heard me come in. “I ate your leftovers. I was hungry. You can grab something else later.” He said out loud, not even look up. “Yeah, whatever,” I shot back. My newly deepened voice must have caught him off guard. He sat up a bit before replying, “Do you have a cold? Don’t get me sick.” “No. Just a good pump at the gym.” That got his attention. He swung around on the couch to look at me. Where he was obviously expecting to see my face he found an eyeful of my pecs. He looked up my full six foot seven inches of height and fell backwards off the couch. I chuckled at the spectacle. “W.. w.. what happened to you?” he managed to sputter out. I flexed one of my arms. “Twenty inches. It was a good workout.” He seemed unsatisfied and just stared. I walked slowly around the couch; I wanted to get close and see what his toned soccer muscle would do to my size. Not wasn’t like Adam. He was an ass and he deserved what was coming to him. “T.. t.. that’s impossible!” He looked at me in awe. “Oh, it’s possible alright. Look at me!” Sixty-five inch chest, solid eight-pack, thirty-two inch waist, thirty inch thighs, twenty inch calves. I lowering my gym shorts, releasing my now semi-hard cock. It wasn’t fully hard but still must have been a good eight inches. I bragged to him like he did to me many months before, “eleven inches.” I needed to show him what I had become. He just stared. “It’s huge!” he finally relented. I just nodded. “Touch it,” I urged him. Cautiously, he put both hands on my dick. The warmth made it plump more in his hands, getting harder still. It slowly grew to its full size, pushing his fingers and hands apart. The thought of sucking out his muscles and growing more in size was making me horny. But nothing was happening. No energy yet. I bent down and grabbed him by the arms. With little effort, I lifted him to straddle my cock. “Feel my muscles,” I ordered as I pulled off Adam’s shirt and brought him into a tight embrace. His groping hands were playing with my back, neck, ass, anything within reach of his hands. Still, with all this contact, there was no energy. I was starting to get angry. Here I was, having this guy who I hated get off on my body with nothing in return for me. I could feel his dick completely hard in his pants as we embraced. Maybe I was doing this wrong? I pushed him back onto the couch and unzipped his pants. His eight inch dick sprang out, completely hard. I used to think he was big; not anymore. Aaron was in complete lust over my huge body. With little effort I lifted his weight and took his cock into my mouth. After seeing him hard wood morning after morning, I secretly wondered what it would be like to suck him off, but that was before… before Adam. Now I felt nothing but greed. I wanted his size. There was no energy. “It must have been a one-time thing,” I thought to myself. “Why did I have to take from Adam?” I sighed to myself at the thought. Before I could pull off Aaron’s cock, he came down my throat. “Ugh!” I dropped him on the couch and spluttered back at him. “It didn’t work!” A look of terror filled his eyes. Before I could react, he was up off the couch and out the door, pulling up his pants on the way. This was all too much. I looked at Adam’s gym shorts stretched half way down my thighs and I fell back onto the couch. I was feeling the guilt of what I had done to Adam. “First I get huge from Adam, and now nothing from Aaron?” I thought out loud. “Where’s that damn box?” I went back into my room and retrieved it from the trash bin. Something was different about it. I took off the lid and looked inside. It was green. Not just any green, but a bright, neon kind of green. Left inside were two somethings and the note: “Steal and grow.” I thought about what had unfolded earlier in the gym. “That’s it!” I mused to myself. I put the box on my dresser where I had found it only an hour or two before. “Here I come Adam.” I locked my door, pulled on his shorts, and left in search of my boyfriend. I left several message on his phone, urging him to return my call, but no luck. After an extensive search of the gym, his apartment (he lived alone), his favorite places, my favorite places, and everywhere I could think he’d be, I returned to my dorm defeated. It was much later in the day, and the sun had begun to set. I walked into the common room and surveyed the area. No sign that Adam had been there. I walked to my door and reached down for the handle when I heard Aaron’s door open. I spun around to look at him, still angry about this morning. The look on his face surprised me. He had a mischievous look in his eyes. I was used to that look by now. It was the look he always used before putting me in my place. And there was something else -- lust. He looked different, almost radiant. A thought entered my head and my eyes went wide. I grabbed and I turned the handle to my room. It was unlocked! Aaron leapt after me and grabbed my leg as I crossed into my room! No box. Rage began to fill me as I looked down at my suite mate! But I found myself unable to respond. There was a foreign energy filling my soul. I could already see his growth. Even as he held my ankles, he cowered, obviously afraid I would take revenge. I didn’t move. My mind was split. I felt rage, but also joy -- a joy willed from somewhere outside myself. I found myself thinking, “He would look good with more muscle.” He was very attractive, after all. So this is how Adam felt? After a moment, he looked up at me with malice in his dark brown eyes. Snap out of it! I tried to resist. He had easy access to my shorts from his prone position. He hefted them down and kneeled in front of me. “Gods, I forgot it was that big.” No! He can’t do this! I couldn’t resist. My dick was already hard, eleven inches bobbing before my cobblestone abs. He looked at it guardedly, and then took the plumb-sized head into his mouth. As if struck by a sudden surge, he grabbed my ass cheeks and clenched with his fingers, digging in hard. Feeling the hard globes of my ass made him push more of my huge cock into his mouth. It felt good. I could see his muscles inflating within the weak confines of his clothes. “Those won’t last long,” I thought to myself. This was wrong. From this angle, I could see his traps pushing outward. His shoulders were quickly filling his shirt. Both arms seemed to strain the material. “He’ll look hot when he’s as huge as me.” Images of the supreme muscularity he would soon contain filled my mind. It made me moan. Why did I moan? This isn’t right! My sound seemed to awaken him. He pulled off my cock and started up at me, calculating. A large wry smile crossed his lips as he stood up. “You can’t hurt me, can you?” he sneered up at me. His voice was already starting to deepen. It sounded so sexy. “Can you even move?” He pushed me a little. The force surprised me and I fell back into my room, making a loud *thud* as my ass hit the hard floor. It must have surprised Aaron too, because he let out a single laugh as I fell. I never realized he had such a cute laugh. I needed to resist! His face lit up. “This is perfect!” he said, more to himself than to me. “He’s right,” I thought to myself. “I can’t wait for him to become perfect.” I smiled up at him. Still looking at me, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He walked out of sight, but I could hear him: “Hey, Robert, dude, you’ve got to get over here. “No, I mean it! Like right now! “It’s unbelievable! Dude, really! “Ok, cool! I’ll see you in a bit.” The conversation ended and he returned to me. I could already see his pecs pressing against his previously baggy shirt. “I should get you on the bed,” he thought out loud. I was all too happy to oblige. I got up, stripped down (anticipating his desire) and stretched out on the bed. I wanted to hurt him! My cock stood tall, though slightly smaller than before, as a tribute to my amazing body. I wanted to watch him grow. Aaron’s face lit up again, looking like he’d just won the lottery. He stood in my doorway, calculating. After a short while, there was a knock from outside my view. “Come in!” Aaron shouted, not taking his eyes off me. The door opened and closed. “Dude, what’s so impor…” Robert had obviously seen Aaron. How could he not be speechless? Even from his short contact, Aaron was already gorgeous! Must resist! Robert was Aaron’s team captain – one of his favorites team members too, or at least I gathered by his past visits and the repeated bangings of a headboard on the wall while I would try to sleep. Not many of the soccer players were as hung as Aaron, and not many players were as buff as Robert. He wasn’t huge, by any means. Certainly not as large as even Adam used to be, but he filled out his clothes well. Robert, with his short blond hair, entered my field of view. I could see him through the doorway, eyes not moving from Aaron. “How …” he trailed off. Aaron, with his gave still fixed on me, pulled off his shirt. I felt a shudder move through my body as I looked at him. He had a six-pack when all this had started, and now he had the most solid six-pack I had ever seen! His round, firm pecs jutted from his body with perfectly round nipples pointed perfectly straight. His arms had grown to at least fourteen inches already. “Dude, you look amazing! Like a model!” Robert was clearly impressed. “And you’re getting buff! How’d this happen?” Finally, Aaron took his rust brown eyes from me and turned to fixate on Robert. “Here, let me help you with that.” Aaron reached under Robert’s shirt and pressed firmly on his abs. Aaron’s body flexed ever so slightly. After a moment, he seemed satisfied and lifted the shirt completely off. “Strip,” was all Aaron had to say. Robert’s blue eyes gazed longingly at Aaron, and he seemed more than willing to oblige. He took everything off. His body was well kept. Aside from the hair on his head, he was completely clean-shaven. The gods had blessed him with a strong body, but sadly his dick was less than impressive. It was hard and obviously shorter than six inches. “Shame,” I thought, “Aaron won’t steal much from that.” Must fight back! Aaron, though, seemed pleased. “Go lie down with Chad.” It seemed the first time Robert realized I was there. It didn’t seem to matter much. Aaron was the only thing on his mind. “Ok boys, let’s have some fun.” He looked so beautiful. He came into the room and pulled off his pants. With a quick glance at me, he tore his underwear from his body. “Friggin A!” was all he could say. His previously eight inch dick was already slightly bigger. He started stroking it. It must have been nine inches already. “Ok Robert, you in back; Chad, you in front. I want my dick in that beautiful ass.” Robert practically leapt from the bed! I can’t imagine Aaron let him top much. All to happy to oblige, I got up and moved to position myself in front of Aaron as requested. I was still taller than him by a good foot, but he’d already grown an inch or two in height. He positioned me so I could see him in the mirror, his dick pointing straight out, floating less than an inch from my hole. He leaned forward slightly, standing on his toes to get close to my ear. Without touching he whispered, “I figured out what you were trying to do to me earlier. I read the note. Now you’re gonna pay. Watch me get huge.” He flicked my cock and I shuddered with pleasure. I could see him pull Robert closer. Without moving or shifting from his stance, he encouraged Robert to enter. Robert looked elated. Aaron closed his eyes as Robert pushed into his hard ass. I could see the growth almost immediately. Aaron’s legs -- those amazing legs with massive calves, already huge and toned -- started to grow. “Harder!” Aaron shouted back. Robert pushed harder, pumping his not quite five incher in and out. He looked to be in pure ecstasy! All the while, Aaron stood immobile. He fixated on me, staring into my eyes through the mirror. No matter how hard Robert pumped, Aaron stood still. His expanding legs kept him, and his quivering dick in place, half an inch away from me. He was torturing me. His abs grew harder. I watched two more ridges appear to complete his massive eight-pack. His pecs inflated like balloons, the cleft between then growing ever deeper. His shoulders and back widened as he took on a definite V shape from his former narrow soccer player appearance. And still Aaron did not move. He stood there with hard concentration, eye locked, massive legs holding him in place. I could see Robert loosing muscle. “Aaron will be huge.” I thought to myself. Resistance was useless at this point. He grew wider, inching quickly to match the huge expanses of my frame. A smile crossed Aaron’s face. He realizing his time had come. Though he hadn’t moved an inch, Aaron’s dick began to push on my ass. It was growing too. I could feel it pushing past the globes of my ass cheeks, hard and impervious as they were. Then slowly, very slowly, it hit my hole. I felt the strange foreign energy fill my body. My dick was rock hard! His legs grew harder and more massive, filling with power faster than the rest of his growing body. He held firm as his growing cock pushed, millimeter-by-millimeter, against my tight hole. I could feel the mushroom head expanding thicker too, as it pushed my rock hard cheeks apart. “Gonna get huge,” was all he said. After what seemed like an eternity of ecstasy, the head of his enflamed cock grew into my waiting hole. Just the tip at first, as my ass stretched to accommodate his growing, thickening mushroom head. Finally, and with an audible *pop*, it finally pushed past my sphincter. Aaron let out a massive moan in victory. “Huge!” He had the hard look of a small bodybuilder now; his already lean body seemed devoid of fat, his skin vacuum-sealed to his expanding muscles. Aaron’s moan sent a shudder though Robert. He was much smaller now than Adam now. As he came in Aaron’s ass, a consciousness seemed to return to his eyes. Exhausted, he fell to the floor. With just his cock in my ass, Aaron started feeding on my size. Not only was he growing huge and buff, he had dominated me completely. Though he hadn’t moved an inch, I could feel his dick expanding, pushing into me as my own still significant member slowly receded. “Bend over,” Aaron said. I grabbed my ankles. His growth had slowed when Robert fall, but I felt the strange energy inside me increase and renew as he started to push further into me. The feeling was incredible! I was being dominated by a man that would soon be massive! Truly massive! He continued pushing in, and in, and in. “Ahh! My cock must be as big as yours by now. And it’s going to be even bigger!” Indeed, a glance at the unconscious Robert confirmed this as Robert’s previously meager endowment was down to almost nothing. I would be there soon. I felt his pubs brush against my ass. “Picture it,” he said through his panting, “my arms growing huge. Bigger than they are now!” He raised them into a double bicep. “My pecs will be monsterous!” he bounced them in triumph. “My legs,” he ran a hand along those truly massive thighs, “can crush anything.” He pulling out in a long stroke, “and my cock,” he pushed back in, “biggest in the world!” With that he started pumping fast. Faster and faster as he grew. He had to continually re-adjusted his stance as his thighs ballooned larger and larger, first past thirty, then thirty-five, then forty inches. His abs grew longer as he grew taller. His pecs must have passed the sixty-inch mark, but stayed round and perfectly shaped, as his body grew wider. His nipples continued to point straight out. Arms past twenty-two inches. Forearms ballooning and flexed as he held me in place. “I’m getting so huge!” All the while, I could feel his weight increasing behind me. With every thrust I began to wobble. I couldn’t support his weight. “You’re getting so weak,” he was panting hard, “feel me grow!” Just as I felt I would fall forward and be crushed by his weight, I felt him lift me off the ground! I let go of my ankles so he could bob me up and down on his massive member. “So friggin’ huge!” His head started disappearing over the top of my seven-foot mirror. My once impressive cock was dwindling to near its old size. I could feel him growing bigger inside my ass, stretching out my hole and shoving ever deeper into me with each thrust. My chest and abs looked like they had before Adam. And yet he continued, growing ever bigger. “Massive cock filling your ass!” He thrust harder still, throwing me around like a rag doll! My own little cock looked smaller than ever before, shrinking past the six-inch mark. “A LITTLE BIT MORE!” he screamed out, taking every bit of strength I had. His shoulders were wider than a doorframe. His massive legs were so huge his stance was several times wider than his impressive chest! “NOT YET!” His eyes were closed tight in concentration! His massive body was in solid relief as his rock hard muscles flexed and grew. “JUST A BIT MORE!” My dick continued to detract as his thickened in my ass! “Ahrg!” he finally screamed! His dick pumped load after load of cum into my ass. I could feel massive amounts of seed slosh around my insides. His face was in ecstasy. It was amazing! He had finally become massive, taking all that I could give. His balls grew bigger with every load! Larger than tennis balls, oranges, melons! He pulled out of my ass and continued to shoot in every direction! Finally, unable to hold out any longer, I came. As my small load dwindled, my mind cleared and I looked down at Robert, then down at myself. Aaron looked at us, towering above. Finally he spoke, “this will do, for now.”

Liam has always had a desire deep down to be big and strong, but didn't want to work out to get there. He has received advice from his friends that hypnosis might be a way for him to fulfill his lifetime dream. He heard from a guy at the gym that there is a specialized therapist that can help men with their mental blocks. When he goes into the office, he is greeted by the man who tells him to just call him Oliver. He points to his leather couch and wants Liam to lie down and just relax as he eases his way into his mind. He starts to listen to Oliver’s words as the therapist has him close his eyes. Liam begins to drift off as he speaks to him in a very calm manner. He tells him to visualize what his body looks like at the present time. As he lies there, he wants him to try and flex his arms and pump his chest. He is unaware of his state of mind as he continues to drift deeper into this new consciousness. Oliver lifts his arms up to make him flex as he positions them for him. His muscles are not toned since he never worked out before. He then lifts his shirt up to expose his skinny chest and tells him to contract his chest muscles. Liam visualizes this unconsciously and begins to smile as he feels something building up inside him. His chest muscles are reacting as the therapist sees his abs thicken up and stretch out. The growth is moving up to his pecs as they blow up to look like small pillows. His arms are swelling too as the therapist hears what sounds like helium pushing blood through his veins. Oliver tells him that he is doing great and to try and lift the weight sitting in front of him. Liam sees a barbell sitting in from of him in his mind loaded up with 400 pounds of plates. He goes to try and lift it. When he does, the therapist sees him stand up from the couch and lean down to lift the invisible weight. As he does so, his legs expand and shred his pants exposing his underwear which does little to hold his expanding butt and growing cock. The therapist moves over to a chair to watch him continue his transformation. His chest, arms, and shoulders are ripping his shirt to the point that they leave nothing concealed. He lifts the invisible barbell above his head before throwing it back down to the ground. He roars as he drops it showing the huge change in his voice too as it goes an octave lower. Oliver takes a moment before telling him to lie back down on the couch so he can rest. Liam appears spent and is soaked in sweat due to his massive growth. He doesn't want to wake him yet because he needs him to sleep for a bit. As he lies there in nothing but his underwear, Oliver starts to make him visualize what his cock looked like before. In his mind, he is naked with his new muscular body, but his cock is the same as it was before. He makes him focus his energy on his cock. He wants Liam to try and flex it so it will pump more blood. He begins to notice changes occurring down there. He sees his balls expanding in his undies as he smells the aroma of cum filling the air. His cock is slithering its way out of the top of his underwear now and sits on his thick abs. He moans as the feeling is unbelievable as it bounces with each beat. The therapist can’t help but to lick his lips as he talks to you staring at the beautiful piece newly formed. Oliver continues to talk as he slowly walks over to him to leans down to service it. Liam continues to moan in his gravelly voice as he is caressed by the therapist. He wants him to keep focusing on his cock. His balls are growing again as they tear his underwear. His cock moves further up your chest now. His crotch breaks free and his underwear rips off. Oliver pulls the remnants off of him and starts petting his cock. Liam goes to touch it, but he tells him not to move a muscle. As he keeps him calm, the therapist starts to lightly lick the cock head making him squirm. He tells him to just relax and go back to where he was at with the barbell in front of him. He wants him to load it up with more plates now. Liam walks over to where he thinks it is in his mind and grabs the invisible plates to put on the barbell. As he attempts this, the therapist stands back so the newly muscled Liam can stand like he did before. He sticks his thick arms out and makes motions similar to what bodybuilders do when they load up the bars. He thinks the barbell is at 500 pounds now and goes to lift it up. As he raises his arms above his head again, his muscles start growing again as the skin stretches, revealing more muscles on top of the ones he already has. Oliver tells him he is succeeding at his goal and he now needs to put the weight down so he can go sit and rest again. He growls as he makes a slamming motion and goes to sit on the couch again. As he sits down, the therapist takes his glasses off and walks over to sit beside him. He tells Liam to imagine his lover being there with him in the gym. He smiles and says his name Vince. Oliver says that Vince is on his knees and he is going to suck his cock after that hard workout. He moans a few times before the therapist moves down on his cock and starts sucking. He honestly thinks that it is his lover doing it so he pushes down on Oliver’s head to go deeper. The therapist moans as he tastes the precum going down his throat. He starts talking dirty to Oliver repeatedly using Vince as his name. He gets so turned on that he makes Liam stop for a moment so he can get on top of him and tell him to flex his arms for him. He growls as he flexes his huge 24" bis so Oliver can feel their power in his hands. He follows this up with a command to bounce his pecs so he does. He can feel the power raging through Liam’s entire body now. It gets him so excited that he unzips his trousers and pulls his throbbing cock out while sitting on the big man’s lap. All this is going on while Liam still thinks it is his lover Vince. He is imagining his beautifully hairy body sitting on his lap while his cock is out touching his leg. Oliver is stroking both of them at the same time as he leans up to kiss him. He manages to get a kiss in before the big stud pulls him in to him. He literally can't tell the difference between the therapist and Vince because they are about the same size. He reaches down and tears a seam open in the rear of his trousers and reaches in to rip his briefs open in the butt. He moans as Liam sticks his huge rod inside his hole and starts fucking him. Oliver is drenched in sweat now and his clothes are stuck to his body. His loud moans make him fuck harder because Vince always loved to be pounded. The power in his thrusts makes the therapist cum all over his chest. As he tries to pull out of Oliver, the therapist tells him to stay inside. It is at that moment that Liam questions Vince since that doesn’t sound like something he would say. He pushes Oliver off of him and appears to be waking up. He attempts to keep him under, but it doesn’t work. When he comes to, he notices that the therapist is completely soaked in sweat and his cock is out of his pants. He yells a few times and goes to confront him, but before he does, he realizes that he isn’t the same size he was. He looks down and notices how immense he is now and goes over to look in a mirror close to the office door. He can't believe such a thing could cause major changes like this. Oliver tries to make him understand that he needs his influence and control to maintain this kind of growth. Liam turns to laugh at him and proceeds to go out the office door, but he remembers that he is wearing no clothes. The therapist tells him he can get him some new clothes that will fit, but he needs to do something for him. He stops walking and turns to go sit down and listen to what he has to say. He tells him that he needs to put him back under so he can finish the process, but for that to happen he must be fucked before it can be finished. Liam laughs again and gets up to leave again. He tells Oliver that he will just walk out of the office naked since it doesn’t really bother him anyway. He pushes the therapist out of his way and leaves.

A C has been pumping iron for years and is pleased with his progress. He started out as a skinny 18 year old and continuously grew from that point for about 6 years. His strength tripled with the help of a lot of supplements and hard work, but he has to work on his diet too. His stomach is an eyesore and doesn’t like to go shirtless despite the fact that he has 22” arms and a colossal barrel chest. He has been working on his legs extra hard lately to get them up to the size of his upper body. They don’t look ripped, but the thickness of them makes him feel really good. The redhead doesn’t shave his body hair either and likes to stay au natural despite a lot of the ladies opinions. He admits that he doesn’t have time to date to his friends on occasion because he wants to focus on growing even more. He recently added hypnosis into his routine to see if it would help him work harder on making new goals and to possibly help with his diet to reduce his gut. He heard from some guys at his gym that it could actually help him grow bigger after taking the class, but the results would vary depending on how much he wanted it. A C has attended every class over the last several Mondays and is about to finish up. He isn’t as tired anymore after he leaves the gym from an intense two-hour workout since he started taking the hypnosis course. His muscles feel pumped to the max and he can get an erection from the sight of seeing himself in the mirrors. His energy level has increased since then too. The instructor always does one-on-one sessions with the athletes to customize their needs and wants. With the last session this Monday night, A C is extra motivated. He decides to get his workout in before the class in case afterwards he wants to do something else to celebrate. For the last session, the instructor puts him under and asks him very specific questions about his goals and why he feels the need to get bigger. A C tells the instructor that it is his destiny to be huge and powerful and he won’t stop until he gets there. After this admission, the instructor wakes him from his coma and the session ends. A C feels like a ton of stress has been lifted from his conscience and leaves the facility to return home. Still feeling pumped from his earlier work out, he rubs his hairy chest and flexes his thick biceps feeling the soreness running deep inside. He almost feels horny from the touch; he loves being big and only wants to be bigger. He has never been satisfied with his 6’1 height, but to be wide and powerful would more than make up for it. He gets home a few minutes later and walks into his bedroom. Every morning he would always get up to walk over to his body length mirror to examine himself and flex. Now for the first time ever, he would do it at night. When he stands in front of it, he is wearing a white tank with Labrada Laboratories on it. He still has on his grey shorts and black boxers. The flip flops he is wearing are black with a green stripe on the sides. He starts to smile and do his normal posing routine: double bi, back, crab, and whatever else he learned from his trainer a few months back. The posing actually makes him feel more confident than before since he can’t keep his eyes off of his pumped chest. He pulls the tank off to stare at his huge hairy pecs bouncing up and down and getting all pumped. He feels them jumping around in his hands and it gets his juices flowing throughout his entire body. He starts flexing his biceps and can feel the testosterone starting to increase. The overwhelming sensations make him want to dominant someone and tell them to worship him. Since no one is around though, the only person he can do that with is himself in the mirror. He starts to trash talk his reflection making himself feel incredibly powerful. Now dripping with sweat and getting a lot warmer, A C strips off his grey shorts to check out his huge quads. He flexes them taking in their diamond-shaped beauty and attempts to make them ripple. As he does so, he starts to implore his body to react to his demands. The tingling sensations he has been feeling for the last twenty minutes have now moved deeper into his body as he feels the soreness in his muscles beginning to subside. He can’t get over the fact that he isn’t sore anymore, but his muscles are remaining so pumped. A C feels his heart pumping harder than before as the blood starts circulating through every inch of him. He looks down at his hands hearing an odd sound coming from them. Are they growing? The sounds they are making are actually the fingers stretching and making more room to accommodate the added weight. It is not a painful feeling, but rather it itches. He laughs at what is transpiring. He feels his blood inching up to his wrists making them swell exposing the veins that will start the trail up his arms. He moans as he feels them pulsate and grow larger under the skin. The sensation gets stronger as he notices his forearms thickening up and making all kinds of stretching sounds. With the feeling now moving up to his biceps and triceps, A C begins to roar in anticipation as he watches intently as he 22” guns shine in the light. The big vein sitting on the peaks of both biceps begins to stick further out and appears to be growing larger. He feels the blood rushing through both of them making him bounce his biceps. He starts to agonize as the decent sized horseshoe in his triceps pulls wider and bigger taking up more space than before. The veins grow from what were straws into small garden hoses. The pleasure he is getting from his growing arms is sending his cock into a euphoric state as he starts to leak precum in his boxers. He laughs as he watches his biceps popping not once but twice growing larger, thicker, and wider. It has now moved to his shoulders making him go absolutely wild. He has cannonball sized shoulders to begin with, and can now feel them filling up with blood. He looks from side to side as each fiber expands and stretches bigger and bigger growing into his delts pushing higher than before. His blood has now made its way into his neck where his carotids begin to stick out further than before. The huge veins start making more space inside for more blood to flow. A C can feel every single change occurring. While he has some hair on his head, what is there is starting to fall out as he feels his head literally swelling up and getting thicker. He moans in agony as not only the sound is overwhelming but the feeling of the muscles in his head thickening up makes him nearly fall to the ground. He manages to keep staring into the mirror to watch what happens next. His neck continues to stretch and widen making bull necks look tiny. He knows now that it will start moving down his chest. After finishing its trip inside his neck, his blood starts to travel slowly down the ridge above his huge pecs all hairy and soaked with sweat. He loves the feeling of his pecs all swollen and sore, but this is unlike anything he has felt before. The sensation is beyond ecstasy as his chest heaves in and out with anticipation of its growth cycle. He feels his pecs expanding outward pushing his massive arms out further than before. His nipples drape even further down with this change. He squeals in delight as his nipples are being manipulated, growing wider. The hair on his chest is falling off because of his excessive growth. His cock shoots a thick white load into his boxers as his nipples expand. The thickness of each pec creates shadows under each curve. Tears stream down his face as he feels his gut starting to morph. The fat around his middle is beginning to dissipate as he feels his waist tighten to a level he has never felt before. It frightens him at first until he feels every single muscle in his abdominal cavity start to thicken and harden. He watches as his obliques, stabilizers, and abdominals start popping growing with each sound. He rubs each individual ab feeling the fibers swelling up into thick marble slabs. His legs are unable to support his weight and they buckle on him, making him fall to the ground. This makes his house shake to the point that it leaves cracks in the floor. He laughs and wants so much more. His blood starts to move to his back. He can feel his lats starting to react so he spreads them. The tingling sensation makes him squirm as he hears them stretching, growing bigger, thicker, wider. His back cracks making his spine stretch. He can feel himself getting taller. He yells as his traps make an explosive sound and start growing bigger and bigger making him have to put his hands on the floor to handle the extreme changes. He hears multiple pops moving down his back as the muscle fibers around his spine swell and stretch growing massive. The area at his lower back stretches tighter making his waist look smooth and fibrous. The blood is now moving further down into his pelvic region. He tries to stand up, but the weight of his upper body prevents it so he just stares into the mirror while on his knees. He rises up enough to pull down his boxers to where he can see his pelvis. The fat pocket that was there before has disappeared revealing tighter almost veiny muscles that are pulling his pubic hairs out. He feels his ass starting to thicken even more. His hard butt is stretching further away from his body. He turns to his side and sees his boxers being stretched to their limits. Each individual seam is literally being pulled apart by his growing ass cheeks. His boxers eventually fall off of him revealing his throbbing cock now engorged with blood. It is hairless now with his transformation. He can feel more blood moving down insides his legs into his quads, hamstrings, and calves. The anticipation makes him start growling uncontrollably. He loves the feeling he gets when he works his quads anyway and this will heighten his pleasure. Each individual muscle fiber in his quads have started to pop and pull their way up and out swelling up even more. He feels both quads stretching, growing further outwards getting thicker. His cock immediately points up at the mirror and squirts a huge rope of precum on to the mirror. He moans as his hamstrings swell bigger and bigger pushing him further off the ground. He is able to stand now and take in the rest of his changes. Now his calves have started to react, stretching further beyond his fibulas. They grow to nearly twice their size and glisten in the light. It doesn’t stop here as the blood finally meets up with his feet while he is still wearing his flip-flops. He looks down to watch his toes swell thickening up and crushing his footwear. The change is almost complete as he growls staring at all of his new equipment. He feels incredibly horny after this incredible experience and feels all kinds of tingling sensations starting at the base of his cock. A C was decently equipped to begin with, but with his massive growth, his penis suddenly looks smaller. The tingling moves into his ballsac making him squeal in delight. It feels so good that he wants to cum a thousand times, but can’t do so. He watches in the mirror as his testicles start filling out and growing bigger making more veins and capillaries to accommodate their new size. His sack is now stretched tight where it was loose before. He can feel the overwhelming sensation of his prostate being stimulated by his testicles creating more cum. He shoots another rope of precum coating the mirror again. He wipes it with his huge hand and gives it a taste before moaning. The blood inside his penis finally makes its move and begins to transform it. After hearing it pop, A C agonizes as his cock starts to stretch and thicken getting wider and harder than before. He can feel it lengthen from the inside added several inches. He was never hung before, but after this change, his cock can now bob up and down with each contraction. Raging with sexual lust and power, A C wants more as his mind intensifies its need for additional stimulation. He continues to leak more precum into huge puddles on the floor in front of him. The sequence he just went through must have added at least 50 pounds to his 260 pound frame. While he has been able to channel his emotions well, his need for more muscle is stronger than ever. He manages to get back into position in front of the mirror and does a most muscular. The veins and arteries on his entire body start to bulge and fill up with extra blood. He senses the hair on his body beginning to grow back. It starts on his head and moves its way all the way down. The bristling sound it makes sends him into another round of ecstasy. His reddish brown body hair comes back in thicker than ever covering everything. He strokes it lovingly as he looks at the dark reddish brown facial hair forming a beard on his face. He smirks noticing how perfect it looks on his chiseled face. His eyes have even changed to a golden brown color which he admires. He feels the short stubbly hair on his head and glides his huge hands across it looking at its red tinted tips. He finds himself incredibly attractive at this point, but he can’t help but to want more. He rubs his hands together to prep himself for the next phase. A C takes a deep breath and tenses his body. He flexes his neck and chest like he is trying to lift a car and looks up in the air. His 6’5 frame starts to make sounds that he has never heard before. He yells in pain as he feels himself growing taller again this time moving faster than before. His huge back pops multiple times making him rise higher and higher. His voice is now getting ridiculously deep as it rumbles the walls in his bedroom. They shake to the point that anything on them falls to the ground. His pain goes beyond what he is feeling now and instead is replaced by constant tingling. His normal human proportions are going to end if he doesn’t stop. He goes past the 7’ mark and realizes that he no longer cares if his house exists anymore. He reaches his hulking arms out to touch the side walls that are now getting closer and closer. His hunger makes him shoot the load sitting in his growing balls on to the mirror. It falls and shatters into hundreds of pieces. His muscles continue to stretch and pull their way out further from where they were before. He laughs as his growing frame runs into his bed pushing it towards the wall. He knocks over the lamp on his side table and puts his fist through it. It is like paper crumbling as the drawers disintegrate and the underwear inside it just goes flying everywhere. His bed finally reaches a wall and starts to buckle making the wood start to split. It finally breaks as his immense chest goes through it. He feels himself getting close to the ceiling which means he has to be close to 8’ now and nearly 600 pounds. The floorboards in his bedroom start to break under his weight. He can’t help but to shoot another massive load hitting the back wall and putting a giant hole in it. Incredibly he is still coherent inside his gigantic muscular head. He wants desperately to bust through a wall or maybe the ceiling. His growth seems to have stopped too as the strange sounds have ceased. A C is practically immobile since he is now underneath the floorboards. He tries to climb out of his trench, but just breaks more in his path. This makes him a tad irritated even though he wanted this more than anything. He starts making his way over to the corner of the room busting up every floorboard and piece of furniture in his way. A C grabs a hold of the bottom edge of the corner and starts lifting up. His 35” cannons flex making beach balls look small. He feels the side of the room starting to creak as he pushes the house away from the foundation. The walls begin to fall apart as he hears his bedroom windows starting to break. This makes him start to precum again as his two foot schlong lies in a giant puddle of goo. He roars as he launches the wall up into the air sending debris everywhere in his yard. His bedroom is almost nearly destroyed except for the closet on the other side of the room. He attempts to run towards it making a path all the way there under the floor. He manages to get underneath the carpet beneath his entire closet to get his gargantuan back into position. When he is ready, he moves up on it like he is using his closet as a press. The sound of wood and nails breaking and flying is heard through the neighborhood. He growls as he is able to detach the entire closet and throws it down. The feeling is enough to make him moan as his cock sprays the grass now in front of his massive feet. He remembers that his house is not on the foundation anymore and attempts to push it completely off. A C manages to get free from under the floor and waddles over to the corner where his kitchen is on the outside of the house. He puts all of his strength into it and starts moving it. The sound of stuff crashing through the house is enough to make him growl as he watches his one story house crumbling with each inch he moves it. He can’t help but to be aroused uncontrollably by this. He shoots multiple ropes of hot sticky cum all over the siding showing his dominance. He wonders what will happen now though since he just destroyed his own house. What will the neighbors think? Check out the sequel story here: https://muscle-growth.org/topic/7751-hypnosis-does-more-than-one-body-good/

Okay, gang, here is the second story casting Michael Fitt as a super-hero. If you want to a look at what the real Mike is like, visit this thread: http://muscle-growth.org/topic/708-fitt-for-a-king/ Enjoy! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Internet is certainly filled with guys who like to flex for cameras. Streaming video and rippling muscles seem to go together like few things ever had. Of course, to all but a very few, Michael Fitt seemed just another hot guy who liked to bounce his pecs and flex his biceps for the members of his site. A few trusted longtime members knew exactly how special he was and helped him keep that secret. One evening, during his regular chat, Mike's only chatters were these few. Mike thought it odd, but didn't say anything other than how glad he was to spend time with his VIPs. The next week, it was the exact same folks. Even stranger. As he was signing off, he asked one particular member if he would mind instant messaging him after the chat ended. To save time, Mike used his telepathic powers to contact that VIP. The VIP didn't know for sure what was going on, but kind of suspected something about a guy who called himself Todd The Muscle God. He had been a big sensation, coming out of nowhere to have over a million followers on YouTube. The VIP said he thought this Todd person was hot, but didn't understand why everyone seemed hypnotized by him. “Thanks, man, I appreciate your help,” Mike told him. What he didn't tell his VIP was that his protection was reason he didn't give in to Todd's charms. He couldn't let anything happen to them, but he could only protect a few people that way. “This is definitely a job for Super-Fitt,” Mike said as his Super-Fitt costume appeared on his body. A check of Todd's page confirmed everything. He was a very handsome dark-haired young man with a very buff, well-defined body, not unlike Mike's, but with more hair. He had videos posted on his main page where he flexed his muscles and commanded people to give him money. Now, there was nothing wrong with this in theory, if the person doing the “hypnotizing” was merely using suggestion, giving a show and playing cocky. On the other hand, this guy needed a little investigation. Clicking on the “Members” link, of course led to a dialog box asking for a user name and password. That's what mortals would need for access, but Super-Fitt has his ways of doing things. The members page showed that a chat was in progress. There was Todd The Muscle God, sitting before the camera, bouncing his pecs and dreamily saying, “That's is, slaves. Show tribute to your master. All your money, everything you own, everything you have is mine!” Todd was hardly the first Internet muscle guy to say this. But this seemed different. Sure enough, he looked at his screen “Ah, ten thousand dollars from ILoveToddFlexing.” You're a good little slave. You get to live and serve me another week.” Then Todd looked up from his screen. “There's someone else watching. Someone who is not a slave.” He grinned. “Inferiors, I'm going to cut this short tonight. I have someone I need to talk to.” He tapped his keyboard. Super-Fitt's screen went blank, but a voice came in his head. “If you're who I think you are, you can hear me just fine right now. And you shouldn't have any trouble finding me.” In the next instant, Super-Fitt teleported himself to Todd's room where he was still sitting by his computer. “Super-Fitt,” Todd smiled evilly, “Or should I say Michael Fitt? I knew you'd come looking for me.” “What's your story, 'Todd The Muscle God'? You're not just acting cocky and demanding money. You're controlling these guys!” Todd smiled more evilly. “And why shouldn't I? You of all people should understand that?” “Oh?” asked Super-Fitt. “I can control people's minds, but what you can do! I don't think I could begin to understand your power.” Todd shook his head. “But you're all Boy Scout about it! Always trying to help people. What a waste!” “That guy you were just talking to. You told him he could live to serve you another week. What was that about?” “My slaves are mine to do with as I wish. If they don't give me what they want, then they do as I command them. If that means sacrificing themselves for me, so be it.” “You have them kill themselves?” Super-Fitt was incredulous. “Oh, I haven't had anyone do that yet, but they need the discipline. If they don't please me, they need to be punished. They're mine.” “You are sick, man!” “Oh, come off it!” Todd fumed. “You could do the same if you wanted! I have a proposition for you!” Super-Fitt was taken aback a bit. “You have a proposition for me?” “We could rule this world together! With your powers and mine together, we could have every nation on Earth groveling within a few hours!” “Why would I do that?” A yet more evil smile appeared on Todd's face. “I'm sure you know that I've got several of your members under my control. With a thought, I could have every one of them walk into the middle of the nearest freeway.” Super-Fitt thought a moment. “No, you couldn't.” “What do you mean by that?” Calmly, Super-Fitt said “I saw how you work. They need to see you or be near you for you to command them. That's why you bother with the cam shows.” “So I'll summon them and have them come back right now!” “Not on that thing you won't!” Super-Fitt bounced his pecs toward at Todd's computer, which promptly exploded in a hail of confetti. “You dare...” Todd began, full of rage. Super-Fitt smirked. “I dare! You love making people feel small,don't you? Maybe you need to know what that feels like.” With that, Super-Fitt, bounced his pecs again and then opened his index finger and thumb and slowly brought them together. As Todd began to shrink, he started screaming. “Hey! You can't do this to me! I'm Todd The Muscle God! My slaves are loyal to me!” Within a minute, Todd was three inched tall. Super-Fitt, now appearing to be a giant before him, picked him up in his right hand. “Are they now?” Super-Fitt brought Todd up and held him against his left pec and bounced it. “Not any more they're not. I've taken away your powers!” “What?” cried tiny Todd. “I can't hear the voices! They're all gone! What do I do now?” “Well, what I'm going to do is go home and undo every one of those financial transactions the guys you had under your control made so they all get their money back. As for you, I'd say just watch out for your cat.” He nodded toward Todd's grey tabby who had just entered the room. As Super-Fitt teleported away, he heard tiny Todd saying. “Nice kitty! Nice kitty!”

Baring Bones: A Halloween Story - Chapter 4 (and Bestiary Notes) Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 ------------------------- Can I just state, for the record, that this really wasn’t how I’d hoped I’d be spending the evening? Is it too much to ask that I go to a party, hang out with friends and coworkers, show off my costume, and maybe meet a hot guy who doesn’t turn into a huge brute possessed by the ghost of a puritan witch hunter who decides to murder me in a clearing full of the bones of monsters? Before my eyes, Gosser was transforming Kellan’s body with the life force of over a hundred party guests. The green light illuminated his muscles so that they gleamed slickly, and every so often, like cartoon electricity, it caused his skeleton to blaze visibly through his skin, looking dark and monstrous. His muscles pumped and burst and grew again, almost seeming to froth. His costume tore off his powerful new body, revealing his warped physique to the world and finally revealing that tattoo that had been teasing me all night: the words “To The Bone” written in interlaced gothic script, stretched from just beneath his right clavicle, dipped across the tops of his pillow-sized pecs, and ending beneath his left clavicle. For some reason, even when the eldritch fire revealed his skeleton, the words stayed there, hovering grimly in front of his uppermost ribs and sternum, only to re-attach themselves to the skin when it re-appeared the next moment. His pants also burst, the black fabric charring in the green energy as a naked and increasingly erect, thick cock spilled out, stretching over a foot long! His balls also bulged, dangling heavily beneath his erection, but while Kellan had been a stunning and enticing figure of a man, Gosser’s possession only made his endowment seem threatening and repulsive. In body shape, his physique resembled some cross between a bodybuilder on the cover of FLEX magazines and the oversized physique of comic book ‘tanks’: enormous muscles, but gleaming with sweat and ectoplasm, and sharply defined, with noticeable veins and heavy striation. My enhanced vision noticed that the red lights had been flashing back at the manor, but now they’d gone dark, and as they died, so did most of the emerald flames around Gosser/Kellan, now standing over eight feet tall and looking down on me with a sickening grin that occasionally flashed the horrible rictus of Kellan’s bare skull. Horribly, Gosser took his massive hands, every inch of tightly-packed muscle in his huge arms flexing as he did so, and began to slide them over his new form, caressing and stroking his stolen skin in a blasphemous form of self-worship. “AT LAST,” he moaned, as he continued to feel his own horrific muscles. “LET ME SHARE SOME LAST WISDOM BEFORE YOU TAKE MY PLACE IN THE GRAVE, YOU UNCLEAN THING,” he snarled at me in that creepy dual voice. “WHEN I WAS ALIVE, I SPENT MY LIFE PROTECTING THE PITIFUL HUMAN RACE FROM ITS OWN DARKNESS… THE PURSUIT OF CORRUPT MAGIC, THE WORSHIP OF FOUL ENTITIES, THE REANIMATION OF DEAD TISSUE, THE BEASTS AND MONSTERS THAT LIVE IN MAN’S SHADOW… BUT IT WAS ALL FOR NAUGHT. AS THE YEARS PASSED, FEWER AND FEWER ALLIES JOINED MY SIDE, AND THOSE THAT REMAINED BECAME AS GRAY-HAIRED AND WRINKLED AS I. MEANWHILE, THOSE QUAKERS PLAYED THEIR LITTLE WELCOMING GAMES, PUSHING FOR ACCEPTANCE OF ALL NEWCOMERS, NEVERMIND THEIR ORIGINS AND POTENTIAL THREAT. I WAS RIDICULED, AND MY TRAINING CAMP SHUT DOWN, ONLY TO BE TAKEN OVER BY BRAINLESS BIBLE STUDIES AND WHINING CHILDREN! FINALLY, A DESCENDANT OF MY USELESS YOUNGER BROTHER BOUGHT THE PROPERTY AND BUILT HIS HOME ON IT, BUT HE AND HIS DESCENDANTS WERE ONLY INTERESTED IN MAKING MONEY, AND LACKED TRUE FAITH AND TRUE DISCIPLINE. FORTUNATELY, I HAD ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY. I TURNED TO MY NOTES ON THE VARIOUS WITCHES AND SORCERERS OF WHICH I RID THE WORLD, AND FOUND DETAILS ON AN INTRICATE SPELL THAT WOULD ENABLE ME TO LIVE AGAIN… AND THIS TIME, INSTEAD OF BEING A VIRGIN DEFENDER OF THE FAITHFUL, HOLDING MYSELF PURE, I WOULD REVEL IN ALL THE PLEASURES AND POWER I HAD DENIED MY BODY IN LIFE. AS LONG AS ONE OF MY GODLESS RELATIVES CONTINUED TO LIVE, I COULD USE THEM AS A HOST AS LONG AS THEY HADN’T LET THEIR BODY GO TO SEED. HOWEVER, IN ORDER TO REMAKE EVEN A HEALTHY BODY TO MY IDEAL, I WOULD NEED THE LIFE FORCE OF AT LEAST 250 ADULTS. YOUTH IS WASTED ON THE YOUNG, AND I SHALL TREASURE WHAT THEY WERE THROWING AWAY. EVEN WITH A LARGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE HERE, I NEEDED SOME WAY OF HARVESTING THAT ENERGY AND CONVERTING IT INTO ECTOPLASM TO FUEL THE BODY. SO I ARRANGED FOR SPOTS THAT WOULD DRAW A NUMBER OF PEOPLE AT THIS PAGAN CELEBRATION TO BECOME SINKS OF VITALITY: THE WOODS WHERE THEY WOULD DRIVE BY IN THEIR HAY-FILLED CONVEYANCE, THE BONFIRE WHERE THEY WOULD TRY TO DRIVE BACK THE NIGHT’S CHILL, THE DANCE FLOOR WHERE THEY’D CAVORT SHAMELESSLY, THE BAR WHERE THEY DOWNED THEIR DEVIL BREWS, THE PLACE WHERE THEY DEFECATED, AND THE CHAPEL… WHERE MY MORTAL REMAINS WERE SAFELY INTERRED, BENEATH THE STONE FLOOR BEHIND THE ALTAR, FROM WHICH I COULD BEGIN THE RITUAL TO FILL MY HOST WITH THE ECTOPLASM TO REMAKE HIM AS THE MAN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN! FINALLY, WITH THE DOORS BETWEEN WORLDS STILL OPEN FROM ALL HALLOW’S EVE, I WAS ABLE TO ENACT MY PLANS!” While Gosser monologued, absorbed in feeling up his stolen body, I’d been surreptitiously flipping through the journal, hoping that I could find the details about the spell and some way to break it. Knowing where his body was hidden was great, but I couldn’t escape him now, much less get all the way across the property to the chapel and break through the concrete floor, and then concentrate on the music of the Choir enough to summon the Helpful One and send Gosser to the Great Beyond. I’d managed to find rules for how to trick Kappas into bowing and spilling the water from their heads, how to protect yourself from native American curses, and how to wear clothes inside-out to confuse fairies (and most normal people, I’d suspect), as well as a spell to raise the dead to fight on your side against their killer (which would’ve been nice, but I didn’t have “The Bloode of the Innocent,” “The Bloode of a Dragon,”or “The Bloode of Godde’s Servants”… though there was certainly enough “Ectoplasme” around Gosser/Kellan). None of them seemed likely to work. Then the book fluttered from my hands and floated into Gosser’s waiting hand! I realized belatedly that even in a body, he’d retained ghostly powers like poltergeist activity! “THEN, HOWEVER, SOMETHING INTERFERED WITH MY PLANS. I COULDN’T SENSE ANYONE, COULDN’T DETECT ANY FOREIGN MAGIC, COULDN’T EVEN SEE A PERSON I KNEW HAD TO BE THERE, EVERY TIME I TRIED TO CONVERT THIS WHELP INTO MY HOST! I CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT ONLY A CREATURE NOT INTENDED AS PART OF GOD’S PLAN FOR THE WORLD COULD SO EVADE MORTAL MAGICAL AND SPIRITUAL SENSES… WHAT IS YOUR NAME, HELLSPAWN?” I found myself suddenly forced to speak, as if the words were being drawn out of me. “Angelo Chiaro Alinero,” I stammered, revealing my full name to monster. I wondered if knowing my name would give him further power over me, but if he could force me to talk, I’m not sure there’s much he couldn’t do already. However, as soon as I spoke my surname, he smiled with wicked satisfaction, and the book levitated in front of my face, the pages turning of their own accord. A flicker of green ectoplasmic flame illuminated a particular passage, listing the family names descended from the Grigori Armaros, “Who Taughte Men The Resolving of Enchantments”. At the bottom of the list was a name, underlined in green: Alinero. “YOU ARE A NEPHILIM, THE DESCENDANT OF A UNION BETWEEN THE SONS OF HEAVEN AND THE DAUGHTERS OF EARTH. YOU ARE SO WICKED THAT GOD HIMSELF SENT THE FLOOD TO WIPE OUT YOUR KIND. AND LOOK… HE DOES SO AGAIN!” Waving his powerfully-muscled, green-glowing arm at the sky, I saw that the full moon had been replaced by storm clouds, and dimly remembered the weather man talking about a hurricane making its way up the coast. With a howling laugh, Gosser continued. “FORTUNATELY FOR YOU, I SHALL TAKE CARE OF YOU, SO YOU NEED NOT FEAR DROWNING LIKE SOME OF YOUR ANCESTORS… YOUR DEATH SHALL BE QUICK, AND AFTER THAT, YOU SOULLESS THING, THERE WILL BE NO PARADISE FOR YOU, JUST EMPTY ETERNITY!” With that, I felt my body lift from the ground and float towards his grasp. I tried to struggle, but I couldn’t move a muscle. I felt his hands wrap around my torso, and waited for the pull, when a woman’s voice echoed through the clearing, and Gosser froze in shock. “So… it looks like someone has some pretty dramatic plans. And it looks like you’ve already killed some of my descendants, Quincy Gosser. I would rather you not harm another.” Tossing me to the bone-strewed ground, giving me a number of bruises and small cuts, Gosser turned to face an exotic older woman, dressed as Marilyn Monroe, and holding Claudia’s empty husk. “YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? AND YOUR DESCENDANT… HE IS SPAWN OF THE GRIGORI, NOT YOUR DEBASED BROOD, WITCH!” ‘Marilyn’ smiled condescendingly at him and wiggled her finger teasingly. “Now now, Quincy, do remember that Armaros hasn’t been seen since the Flood. That’s plenty of time for his descendants to mate with mine, as well as many, many, many other people. Time DOES fly, after all.” Gosser curled his fingers into fists. “I WILL DESTROY YOU BOTH, THEN!” ‘Marilyn’ laughed, a rich, throaty chuckle that almost sounded like a purr. “Oh, that was a good one, darling! You just slaughtered about 280 people in Halloween costumes, just so that you could pose in a speedo and live out the boyish daydreams you never actually indulged in life. You haven’t the vision, the wisdom, or, frankly, the balls, to face me.” She then winked at me. “Unfortunately, I am unable to actually interfere with someone of fully-human descent without provocation, and though you have descended further than most, you still… barely… qualify, Quincy. However, I am allowed to tip the scales in favor of my family.” She pulled a long, thin dagger from somewhere in her billowing skirts, held up Claudia’s gray finger and pricked it, then shouted, “YOUR LEFT POCKET, ANGELO,” before vanishing in a puff of smoke. I found myself able to move and reached into my pocket as commanded, pulling out a small vial labeled “Dragon Blood.” Before Gosser could stop me, I threw it to the ground, enjoying the satisfying sound of the glass shattering and wiping my own blood from my arms as I repeated the small, nonsense chant from the journal. My voice seemed to echo in the clearing, becoming more pure and powerful as the bones began to rise, cloak themselves in blood-red skin and muscle and assemble themselves as a collection of monsters, who immediately turned against Gosser with a vengeance. I saw harpies, trolls, ettins, lamiae, satyrs, and more wade into combat with the enormous hunk, whose green fire charred their reformed flesh, and whose punches and kicks sent them flying. The monsters were relentless, but Kellan’s body and Gosser’s powers together were unstoppable. As more and more of the monsters started to fall and turn to dust, one of them, a hugely-muscled creature with the horns of both a ram and a bull, lifted me up and said, in a voice that sounded like the ruined throat it used to speak, “Thhhhank yooou, brotherrrr. Weeee wellllcommme vennnnggeannnnce agggainnnsssst ourrrr killllllerrrr. Gooo annnnd ennnnd hiimmmm forrrr usss!” With that, the creature threw me high into the air, well over the tree line, back towards the fields. As the storm rumbled around my hurtling body and the rushing wind pulled tears from my eyes, I felt resigned to crashing into the earth and dying, when the costume wings on my back suddenly unfolded, fanning out behind me. The plastic and fabric warped as my body seemed to catch fire, blazing white like a shooting star. As swiftly as they’d begun, the flames went out, and I found that I wasn’t cold, the wind now seemed to caress me instead of blowing at me… and that I was no longer wearing the wings…. they’d become real, and fused with my back. I remembered The Helpful One giving them to me and realized this had been its plan all along! What’s more, I felt powerful… running my hands down my body, I realized that my shirt had burned away, and I now possessed the sculpted powerful body of an Olympic athlete, with curly hair-covered gymnast-like chest muscles to power my new wings, which were clawed at the top like a bat’s but covered in ravenlike feathers that shaded from black to blue, purple, green and red at the tips, with an iridescent oily sheen. I flexed my chest and found that doing so caused my wings to beat, sending me soaring upward! With a cry of exultation to answer the thunder of the storm, I beat my wings, feeling my body pump as I sped towards the Manor. As it came into view, I realized that there was no motion. Gray husks from the party guests littered the grounds, and I remembered that I was now the only living person on the grounds (though I technically was over the grounds at the moment) unless you counted Gosser in Kellan’s body. Far behind me I heard a terrible roar of fury as the sounds of the fight between the dead monsters and the tremendous Gosser continued. They wouldn’t be able to buy me time for much longer, though, and I still had to break through the stone in the chapel to reach Gosser’s real body. My wings fanned out, pulling me up before gently dropping me to the ground and folding up against my back. Then I felt a chill at my back. I whirled around, fanning my wings out aggressively to make myself look bigger, and stared at the sight in front of me. A hazy, transparent version of Claudia, still dressed in her costume, hovered behind me, looking nervous. She parted her lips, and a voice like the whisper of a fall breeze said, “I’m sorry… he took me over and used me while I was asleep. He thought he could get close to Kellan through me. And he did… but you brought me back once, and the lady using my blood for that spell snapped me out of the shock of having my life taken from me. I think she wanted me to help somehow, but what can I do?” I shook myself. “No, I’m the one who’s sorry… I’ve got a crush on your boyfriend, and if I’d been focusing on actually solving this mess instead of how tight his costume was, maybe we’d have been able to keep you alive.” Claudia’s shade moved closer, but her face had a rueful smile. “I’m not entirely comfortable with you and Kellan, together, but he still cared for me… at least before that monster too him over. And I have to say, you look pretty amazing now,” she continued, giving my new musculature a once-over. “If you can somehow manage to save all of us, I think I’d be up to try sharing Kellan.” Before I could respond, behind Claudia (or through her, actually), I saw a sudden burst of green flames exploding from the woods. “That’ll be the end of the reanimated monsters,” I groaned. “He’s coming. We need to get into the Chapel, and we need to get his body from underneath the altar. Maybe we can do it together, or between the two of us, we can get inside Kellan’s head and break him free. Let’s go!” Her face lighting up (literally glowing) at the thought of defeating Gosser and rescuing Kellan, Claudia drifted through me and inside the doors of the Manor. I opened them and followed her, only to be slowed down when I realized that my head was scraping the top of the door! I’d grown in height as well as musculature, and I remembered the stories of the Nephilim had described them as giants. Ducking carefully, I entered the main drinking room, which was eerily silent with no one talking and the dj’s music turned off, and found Claudia’s path blocked by a bunch of ghosts dressed in old-fashioned attire. One of them, a skinny, bearded man, moved forward and said, “We are the soldiers of God and the slayers of monsters. Our brother, Quincy Gosser, has called us back to stop you, Abomination… and you shall be stopped!” Immediately, torches, pitchforks, and other makeshift weapons formed in their hands and they menacingly waved them at me. Claudia ducked through me to avoid getting stabbed by a spectral musket blade, but I’d had enough. “Your time is long gone, and your crusade, while noble, was misguided and callous. Your current goal is foolish and in defiance of both natural and supernatural laws, and I have seen far more frightening things tonight than a group of colonial spooks. What’s more, I’ve BECOME a more frightening thing than all of you. I am alive, and this is my world… your world passed away with you, and you are not welcome here. BEGONE!” To emphasize my argument, I flexed my ripped chest, and my wings unfolded behind me, causing a draft of wind that knocked over more than a few bottles of cheap alcohol and spilled dozens of plastic cups on the lifeless party guests. I stared them down, my eyes never leaving the ghost’s, and my rage at their idiotic temerity caused white flames to lick my skin and dance among my hair and feathers. The ghosts quailed before the sight, and though some looked indignant, they all faded away. The flames died, and I folded my wings behind me, and took off at a run towards the chapel doors. I pushed them open with a cacophonous BANG that echoed through the chapel, and Claudia and I raced to the Altar, only to stare at the unmarked floor. Without being asked, Claudia did a swan dive into the floor, passing through the concrete, only to emerge a moment later, as if rising from a pool. “There is an old, worn coffin with a body down there… about six feet under… but I can’t turn it ghostly and bring it up with me or anything! What do we do? Kellan will be here any moment!” “I’ll have to break through it,” I said, hoping I wasn’t making a big mistake. However, the power of my muscles, and the warmth of the white flames filled me. I focused on Kellan’s kiss, on his attitude, the way he was protective of me, how he insisted I never risk my life again, and all the other moments we’d shared that evening… and the thought that Quincy Gosser, all-around useless member of society, had used Kellan as if he didn’t matter at all filled me with a terrible wrath. With a furious battle cry, I leaned over and slammed my fist into the concrete. I didn’t feel anything when my knuckles connected with the cold stone… but cracks began to form as it crumbled, revealing another layer beneath it. Again and again and again I punched, sifting aside rubble until I reached soil and began digging with my bare hands until they reached wood. “ARTEMIS,” cried Claudia, almost in my ear, and biting back a curse both at the lack of time and Claudia’s inability to remember my name, I looked up to see the glowing, monstrous, skeletal form of Gosser striding into the Chapel. He saw what I was doing, and with a wave of his hand, sent a blast of telekinetic force at me… it knocked the altar backwards, and only a quick beat of my wings sent me upward, dodging it just in time, and giving me the chance to form a blade of white flames. I descended on Gosser like a stooping falcon, and crashed into his billowing chest. Green flames coiled against white ones. My own enhanced physique and fiercely buffeting wings countered Kellan’s much greater musculature. But I had trouble dealing with his poltergeist powers, and once, when I was about to land a punch, he phased through it, becoming insubstantial for a moment, only to solidify enough to take a swing at me! If I was caught up in fighting Gosser/Kellan, I couldn’t get back to the body and call the Helpful One. “I’ve got this,” murmured Claudia in her whispery voice, and I felt her melt into my body instead of passing through it. My white flames blazed around us and I suddenly felt everything slow down… except me. Winding back, I landed a perfect punch straight at Kellan’s “To the Bone” tattoo and, filled with Claudia’s spirit, Gosser couldn’t phase away. I felt Claudia speak through my lips: “Get. Out. Of. My. BOYFRIEND!” As soon as my fist connected, I suddenly found myself, no longer a warrior angel, but my normal body, wearing costume wings, floating beside Claudia in a vast room filled with green mist. Hovering in the center of the room was a naked, skinny Kellan, looking very much like he had when we first met. He looked up at us and his eyes widened in shock. “Did… did he kill you both? I felt him take me over, but I can’t remember anything else. I’m so sorry! I thought I could protect you both, but those muscles were useless! And now I’m stuck like this forever and you guys are gone!” “Um, baby,” Claudia interrupted as Kellan began to tear up, “I don’t feel any different besides being here. I think we’re no more dead than before. We’re in your mind or soul or something. I think that if we can clear out this mist, you can fight back against that creep. And we need you to fight back… otherwise, even Armand here won’t be able to handle him.” I forced myself not to rise to the bait… no one could be that hopelessly awful at names, could she? “She’s right, Kellan. I might be able to take him on, but I can’t fight you… especially if there’s a chance we can get you back. And a really powerful witch and a… an archangel seem to think there’s still that chance. So come on… it’s time to use your muscles and show Gosser that he’s got no clue what he’s meddling with.” I reached out my hand to him, and Claudia did the same. When Kellan tentatively wrapped his agile, musician’s fingers around ours, the three of us began to glow, and the mist turned white and faded away… and then a blinding flash of light filled the room. When my eyes cleared, I found that I was in my angelic form, again, and Kellan was still roiling with Gosser’s energies… but he seemed paralyzed. Claudia’s wraithlike form appeared swirling around them, and she shouted, “We’ve got him! Go!” I turned and sprinted for the unearthed grave, but with each step I began to hum, then actually sing, making up the words. At first it was just my normal baritone, but then I started hitting notes that were well beyond my range, both extremely low and shockingly high. Then I started singing in multiple voices at once! Then some of them were singing different songs in different languages, the words and pauses, the breaths and echoes intertwining. I felt like my chest was swelling, the muscles in my throat vibrated as impossible harmonies poured from my lips. After I worked my fingers into the wood of the coffin and lifted it off with a flex of my muscular arms, I ripped the lid off and revealed the dried bones resting awkwardly inside. I distantly heard Gosser scream in despair and frustration, but those pitiful wails were drowned out as the many voices coming from me were joined by countless other voices… including one that was much deeper and richer than the others. The many separate songs blended together into one, and in a language that sounded more like birdcalls than human speech. I placed my hands on the sternum and the skull, and ended the song with a single word that I intuitively knew meant “Return/Release/Undo/Let Go.” Whatever that language was, speaking it involved more than just saying a word. As I was speaking it felt like a tremendous pressure weighed me down. Some measure of myself went into the song, and I felt like screaming… but I had no more breath to speak after the word left me. I felt the feathers and skin shed themselves from my wings, and the accompanying pain felt worse then when I had my wisdom teeth removed, when I fell off a slide and broke my arm, and when I got sun poisoning combined. I gasped for air, feeling weak and helpless, as my muscles shrank… but not all the way back to normal. I could tell I was still and inch or two taller than I had been, and my muscles retained some of their lithe definition… and a fraction of their strength. My vision felt darker and my hearing felt muffled, as both senses adjusted to the loss of supernatural power, but I could still see a glow and still could hear the Chorus. For all that I was losing, though, I could see that Gosser was similarly afflicted. Kellan’s body broke free of Claudia’s grip, but didn’t do anything except widen his stance, pull his fists back, and then begin punching the air. Seeing an 8’2” guy with rippling muscles shadowboxing was pretty impressive, but as he continued to do it, I realized that there was something odd about his sweat. I pulled myself out of the deep hole in the chapel floor, feeling like all of my muscles were screaming in agony, and shakily made my way towards him, in time to see that his sweat was a rusty red, blood-like shade, and that it seemed to cling to his muscles. However, his skeleton was permanently concealed beneath his skin, which started to look less green and more healthy, though still fair. Gradually his features became less monstrous and twisted, and more determined and handsome. The red ooze formed into a ball, then an actual humanoid figure, rolling back each time Kellan punched, and I realized that he was deliberately sweating Gosser out of his system! I watched as more of his naked body rid itself of the ghost’s corruption. Gosser seemed powerless to fight back, as if my song, touch and word had paralyzed him. Finally, Kellan’s body was coated with nothing but clear sweat, and the slimey Gosser had congealed into a jell-o like consistency when Kellan raised his foot and slammed it down on the ground, sending out another shockwave! Gosser tumbled backwards by about three yards, flipped over the altar and fell into his own grave with a sickening squelch. Unfortunately, without real wings and as drained as I’d become, I wasn’t able to leap away, and toppled over as well… only to be caught by a pair of invisible hands. “Don’t worry, Augustus,” came Claudia’s cheerful whisper. “I’ve got you. This poltergeist thing isn’t that hard.” Meanwhile Kellan was glaring into the grave. “And that’s for hurting my friends, family, and loved ones, and using me to do it, you sick fuck!” He turned and saw me hovering in thin air, and ran over to help me to my feet. “Are you ok, Angelo?” I was about to respond in the affirmative, when I saw that something was stirring from the grave. “Guys, I don’t think Gosser’s quite done yet,” I exclaim as a limb formed of red muck and bone pulled a horrific body from the pit. With sightless eyes and a dripping maw, it hissed at us: “All wassss innnn my grasssp, and you ruinnned it allll… for what? A fewww paltry, spoiled lives, drinking themsellllves senseless? Rommmances that will be forgotten in a fewwww yearrrs? Whhyyyy are theirrrr goals and purrrrsuits morrrre valuable than mine?” “Because,” Claudia retorted. “You have no idea what any of us might accomplish in our lives, and what our futures might be like. You simply took away all of that possibility because you didn’t make the changes you really wanted with your own life, and underestimated and dismissed all of us as unimportant compared to your own goals… to have sex and look attractive and be in shape and party… everything that you accused us of doing.” “Because,” Kellan responded. “You manipulated people, lied to them, frightened them, and tried to control them rather than admit that you might be wrong or that you could have pursued your goals differently. And you betrayed everything that was supposed to matter… your faith, your goals, your family, your friends.” “And because,” I finished, letting the tones of the Chorus flow into my speech. “You died over a century ago. Your time to be in the world is long over. Isn’t that right… Azrael?” The others turned to stare at me, but that deep, rich voice echoed through the chapel. “SO, YOU REALIZED MY IDENTITY, NEPHEW? I AM PROUD OF YOU.” The stained glass window behind the altar blazed with rainbow colors as a figure with four thousand wings, a body consisting of enough eyes and tongues for every human living on Earth, and four floating, masklike faces, one of which was identical to my own, appeared above the altar. “The Angel of Death? You did hint at it after we saved Claudia,” I replied. “And once I got over your appearance and this creep spilled that angels were involved, at least through me, the it was pretty easy to figure out. You called yourself ‘The Helpful One,’ and Azrael means ‘Whom God Helps.’ Besides, he wrote about the different archangels in his journal. I skimmed over the passage the first time, and I was pretty distracted when we met, but it just made sense, in the end.” All four of Azrael’s faces smiled. “OF COURSE. NOW THEN,” his fourth face flipped over, going from my own appearance to a bearded, old-fashioned face that I realized must’ve been how Gosser had looked in life. “QUINCY GOSSER, MANY YEARS AGO, YOU LEFT THIS LIFE. I AM PLEASED THAT YOU ARE FINALLY RETURNING TO YOUR RIGHTFUL REST.” Gosser’s fluid face somehow conveyed an expression of hope. “I’m… I’m going to Heaven? After everything?” Azrael’s voice replied. “THAT IS A GOOD QUESTION. SOME SAY THAT ALL SOULS END UP IN HEAVEN EVENTUALLY, BECAUSE GOD IS MERCIFUL AND LOVING AND HIS SON SACRIFICED HIMSELF. OTHERS SAY THAT YOUR ACTIONS DETERMINE YOUR ULTIMATE FATE. YOUR ACTIONS IN LIFE AND DEATH HAVE BEEN GREATLY GOOD AND UNFORGIVEABLY EVIL. PERHAPS YOU WILL FIND THAT ALL SOULS HAVE THE CAPACITY TO REACH HEAVEN… BUT SOME OF THEM TAKE LONGER TO GET THERE THAN OTHERS.” With a fanning of Azrael’s many wings, and a faint hum of music that I suspected only I could hear, Gosser turned to dust and faded away. The fourth face of Azrael flipped again, this time becoming Claudia’s. “CLAUDIA WILLIS, YOUR TIME, AND THAT OF EVERY OTHER VICTIM OF QUINCY GOSSER’S, HAS NOT YET COME. RETURN TO YOUR BODY, AND THESE TWO WILL BE ALONG SHORTLY WITH MY DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO RESTORE YOU ALL TO YOUR MORTAL FLESH.” Claudia nodded, shooting us a nervous glance, and walked through the walls of the chapel, back towards the clearing where ‘Marilyn’ had left her. That reminded me… who was she? I was about to ask, but Azrael’s face flipped to mine, and its four heads shook in disagreement. “I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO ASK, NEPHEW, BUT I AM FORBIDDEN FROM TELLING YOU MORE ABOUT THE WOMAN DRESSED AS MARILYN MONROE, OR YOUR HERITAGE, SAVE THAT I WAS THE ONE WHO ALERTED HER TO YOUR NEED HERE, AND THAT YOU WILL SEE HER AGAIN SOMEDAY. PERHAPS SHE WILL FEEL MORE OPEN TO CONVERSATION THEN. NOW, WHEN WE SAVED CLAUDIA’S LIFE HOURS AGO, SHE BECAME A LINK BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE DEAD… AT LEAST FOR THIS NIGHT. THAT IS WHY HER SPIRIT ALONE, OF ALL THE PEOPLE QUINCY GOSSER LEECHED OF THEIR LIFE FORCE, WAS ABLE TO MANIFEST AS A GHOST. YOU WILL NEED TO SING HER BACK TO HER BODY WHILE YOU…” The angel’s face flipped again, becoming Kellan’s. “WILL NEED TO COMPLETE ANGELO’S EARLIER USE OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIRDS TO RETURN THE STOLEN LIFE FORCE TO THE GUESTS. I BELIEVE YOUR FAIRY TALES WOULD SUGGEST THE BEST METHOD OF DOING SO. I SHALL ARRANGE FOR THE DAMAGE DONE TO THE PEOPLE AND PROPERTY TO VANISH, AS IF IT HAD NEVER HAPPENED, AND I SHALL SEE TO THE REMAINS OF THE VARIOUS CREATURES ANGELO REANIMATED. NOW, GO AND ENJOY YOUR LIVES… BECAUSE I WILL SEE YOU BOTH AGAIN… SOMEDAY.” With that, the archangel of death vanished. I looked at Kellan, and he actually blushed and scruffed his bare foot against the cracked floor, and tried to cover his crotch with both huge hands (and wasn’t entirely successful). Looking away to spare him some embarrassment, I murmured, “We’d best go meet up with Claudia.” He nodded, and we stepped out into the cold November morning, trudging down the fields towards the clearing. Along the way, he picked up the hayride driver and put him back in the cab of the tractor, but before we reached the clearing, Kellan held up a hand. “Wait… before we go in… I need to do something.” Facing him, I saw his features struggle for a bit, as he tried to decide what to say, before letting out a sigh. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I still need to be filled in on some of the events of tonight while Quincy took me over. I’m kinda worried about giving everyone back their lives. It feels creepy to have them in the first place, but you look like whatever you did put you through the ringer… and I like being a supermuscular, super horny guy with superpowers. It’s been just about the only good thing about his whole night… aside from meeting you. But if I give all that back, I’ll go back to being just another skinny indie guy in a band. Will I feel the same way about you… about guys in general… or will my memories change like Claudia’s did? I can’t just say I can work out or something, because there’s no way that I’d get these muscles through normal exercise… and there’d be no extra height or superpowers either.” He took another deep breath, then let it out, before continuing. “But I have to do it. It’s not right that Claudia and the others die just because I want to be superman. So before I go and restore everyone, I want to do this.” “Wha-,” I started to say, only to have his lips on mine, his tongue seeking entrance, his warm breath a sharp contrast to the cool night air, and his massive biceps and triceps wrapped around me as he lifted me up and held me against his rock-hard, marble smooth chest, the “To the Bone” tattoo warm beneath my fingers. I could feel his groan of satisfaction vibrating through his torso as the kiss became more hungry and fierce. I slid my hands up his pecs to rest on either side of his thick, bull-like neck, caressing the hard mounds of his shoulder muscles. God, could the guy kiss! All too soon, however, he broke away and gently lowered me to the ground in front of his magnificent naked (and hardening) body. “Thanks… even if I forget that and go back to my normal sexuality, it happened, and it happened when my mind and hormones weren’t being messed with. Let’s go break this spell.” It took me a moment to snap out of my kiss-induced stupor, but I nodded, and tried not to stare at his perfect ass as he loped through the undergrowth. I did notice that there were a variety of burns and ashen sticks left over from Gosser’s fight with my monsters, but if I looked closely, I could spot places where shoots were rapidly sprouting and re-growing. I didn’t see any lights, but I could hear the faintest strains of might have been music sung by a choir of angels. Claudia hovered above her lifeless body, and Kellan reached down to pick her up, before turning to lock his blue crystal eyes with mine. “Are you ready?” I nodded, unable to speak at this point. If he did forget and shrink back down, I’d be the only one who remembered anything… since I wasn’t entirely human. That knowledge, while wonderful to know while I was flying through the stormy sky, now made me feel like even more of an outsider than when I’d been the only sober person at a Halloween party. Drawing my attention back to the matters at hand, I cleared my throat and tried to sing. It came out as a croak. With Kellan’s expectant and worried eyes (not to mention Claudia’s translucent ones) on me, I tried again. It was like my throat was filled with silly putty; I struggled to get a reasonable sound out. Eventually I held a long note and was able to clear my throat enough to blend it with others. I drew on memories of flight, white fire, Claudia’s righteous smackdown, Kellan’s growth spurts, and his kisses, and I felt the song echo across the property, collide with the thunder, and seep into the drained bodies of the party guests… right as Kellan placed his lips on Claudia’s. Have you ever mixed a bunch of different paints together, especially in a cup of water? It usually ends up as a gray mess. Watching Claudia return to life was not unlike seeing that process in reverse; her gray pallor began to shift and flicker, and then her skin, hair, lips, and eyes took on their natural hues. To my second sight, however, her aura returned in a blaze like fireworks, or the glow of a summer afternoon when you’re just about to drift into a nap. She took in a deep breath, and Kellan, squeezed her gently, before she began to hungrily return his kiss. He now looked only a little smaller than he’d been a moment ago, but it was hard to tell with him leaning down to make out with his girlfriend. I turned away to give them some privacy and to look in the direction of the Manor, and I could hear the music start back up, along with the sounds of voices as the party returned to life. I could faintly see a blaze of lights from the returning auras of over 250 people registered on my ESP through the trees and walls of the building. The next thing I knew, I was pulled into a hug… not by Kellan’s huge arms, but by Claudia’s skinnier ones. “WE DID IT,” she squealed, almost directly into my ear. “This is awesome, Achilles!” Sigh. “Yeah, you’re right, Claudia… want to go check out the rest of the restored party?” She shook her head. “Nah, we’ll leave that to you. I’m feeling like I need to get my hunk here home and in bed. Have a good night!” Kellan looked like he was delirious that Claudia was back to her normal self (and the prospect of sex with her was a sure thing), so he waved at me and followed her to the car, presumably to avoid being spotted buck naked by anyone else. I stayed in the clearing, watching as the grass and trees re-grew in record time, and stones (actual stones, not fossils of a variety of monsters) emerged from the ground to decorate the space between the foliage. The night was almost over. Claudia was back to life, and the damage was undone. Quincy Gosser would never haunt the world again. Kellan was still in spectacular shape, and his relationship with Claudia seemed as strong as ever. I knew some more stuff about myself, and maybe had some talents I could use in the wide world. I should be happy, right? Except that I’d basically gotten a goodbye kiss from one of the hottest guys I’d ever seen, and I wasn’t sure how to take that. Claudia’s ghost had seemed open to sharing him, but if he was already shrinking, would he retain those feelings for me? And then I smacked myself in the forehead, realizing that I didn’t have Kellan’s number, email, anything! Groaning at my own stupidity, and realizing that Kellan and Claudia would be long gone by now, I began to leave the clearing to begin the long trudge uphill to say my goodbyes to my few remaining friends and coworkers at the party, when my foot kicked something that wasn’t a stone or a plant. I leaned down and picked up Gosser’s journal. And wondered… maybe there could be something in here that I could use. Gosser himself had failed in his mission to keep people safe from the supernatural, but that was because he was going about it the wrong way. Maybe I could learn from his mistakes and take what knowledge there was in the book and do some good with it. Tucking the journal under my arm, I began to follow the path that the hayride had been traveling all night, and reached the party. People were still moving around, shifting from the bonfire to the manor and all about. I decided that one lesson I could take from not following Gosser’s example would be to actually enjoy life as it was… so I went inside, poured myself a soda, and hopped to the dance floor to sway to the music as the dj played a couple of classic songs. And if I was dancing with myself, it didn’t matter. Honest. That goofy couple came around and asked me to flap my wings again, so I humored them, and I spotted Mack dancing drunkenly with another of my coworkers. I went over to them, said goodbye, and headed out. The drive home was uneventful, and I stripped off my costume, hung up my wings carefully, and collapsed into bed. I dreamed, of course, of flying. The next morning, I slept in, slowly pulling myself awake by reading a gay erotic romance novel on my kindle. I got cleaned up, did the laundry, and began the draining hunt for a new job, since I wouldn’t be able to rely on the Halloween Hayride position anymore… or at least, not until next year. As I was applying for an Administrative Assistant position nearby, my phone buzzed. I didn’t recognize the number on the screen, but when I opened it and said “Hello,” the deep, exuberant voice of Kellan filled my ears. “Angelo! How are you feeling?” “Kellan? Dude, I’m fine, but how are you? And how’d you get my number?” “Hahaha… remember when you conked out after singing Claudia back on the dance floor? And you woke up in my car? I went through your phone while you were sleeping in case I had to call your parents or something if you didn’t wake up, and I saved your number. But man, what’s your address… we need to meet up and talk about last night.” “Um… ok,” I murmured, before rattling off my address. I was trying not to get my hopes up, but Kellan had saved my number, even if he’d thought I was dying, and he wanted to meet up… I’m not too proud to take that. In a few minutes, the doorbell rang, and I went downstairs to find Kellan, dressed in a tight band t-shirt and jeans that accentuated his new musculature, while still looking non-mainstream. I let him in, looked him over and asked, “Did you have to go shopping for that outfit?” Kellan nodded. “The jeans, yeah… though I had to wear an uncomfortably tight pair of sweat pants to get into the shop. Nobody ever mentions “No pants, no service, but I didn’t want to risk it. The shirt I got at a show, and accidentally got the wrong size, so it was hanging around. But anyway, I’m too new to this gay thing to talk about clothes, so you might want to ask someone else if that’s all you’ve got to say.” I did a double take. “You’re still interested in guys after last night? I thought with the Sleeping Beauty true love kiss thing and Claudia said…” He flashed me a shit-eating grin. “Oh, Claudia kept me very busy this morning. I really do need a lot more sleep before I’m all caught up. Fortunately, I have a lot more stamina now… and someone else I want to sleep with. So, what’d you say? Want to show me what I’ve been missing?” “Far be it from me to turn down sex with a… what, 7’7” tall, hung, professional bodybuilder guitarist,” I reply, “but…” “I actually sing and can play drums and bass, too,” Kellan interrupted. Then he paused. “Ok, maybe I can’t sing as well as you, but I’m not an angel.” “Demi-semi-hemi-and-whatever-comes-after-hemi-almost-infinitely-back angel, actually,” I retort. “Besides, I’m not sure what I’ve actually got left. You heard me croak this morning, and weakening Gosser enough to break you free took a lot out of me… including my wings and all.” He looked me over, smiling at times, frowning at others. “Huh… You still look more… athletic? Toned? Maybe a bit taller than you already were, too. Maybe you just have to give your singing a rest for a bit, recover, and then practice more… maybe sing normally to build up your vocal skills. If you want to guest star at one of my band’s shows, I’m sure we’d be lucky to have you, even without magic songs.” I did a double take at that announcement. “Are you serious? You’d want me to sing with your band?” “Hell yes,” he said, then looked quizzical. “Can I say ‘hell’ around you? Don’t want to get struck by lightning or something.” I chuckled. “I’m pretty sure we can let it slide. At the most, you might get a static jolt from someone as far removed from the angel family tree as me… besides, I’m pretty sure that my… ancestor… didn’t end up on the best of terms with the Almighty.” “Why’s that,” he asked, a curious expression spreading across his features. “Well,” I hedge. “I’m here, aren’t I? I’ve been doing some research all afternoon. Apparently, Nephilim aren’t supposed to exist, which is why Gosser couldn’t sense me until he’d possessed human eyes, and why I was immune to the draining he used on everyone else.” His curious look morphed into an expression of shock and then anger. “Dude, never say that God’s mad at you for existing. That’s stupid! I think God sent you to that party just so that you could save all of us. Without you, Claudia and I, and everyone else there would be wiped out, and Quincy’d have his perfect body and be loose on the world. Besides, you helped out the Angel of Death… they fucking owe you, man, particularly since he used to be a man of faith that they let get out of control. Besides, I shouldn’t be the one to tell you that ancient Biblical scrolls written by a tribal scribe in the desert over two thousand years ago aren’t always God’s honest truth, gay boy.” I was speechless at first, but then I closed my mouth and nodded. He took that as assent and changed the subject. “So, you need to rest your voice, and you might or might not have wings anymore, but you’re immune to magic and spooky spying, you can cast spells, you can see and hear stuff that other people can’t, and you’re more fit than before, right? Well, I’m not as big and strong as I was last night, but I noticed something… this morning I reached for the fridge door, and it opened on its own… I think I’ve got Gosser’s poltergeist ability, and some of his other powers. Not sure how to fog people’s minds… and not sure I want to know after all that he did to Claudia, but I’m still super strong and fast, my senses are overcharged still, and I’m probably still pretty hard to hurt, and I might be able to absorb ghosts’ ectoplasm if I work at it, so why don’t we do some ghost busting, on the side? Maybe I’ll grow stronger, and you’ll get your other powers back, and we can continue to clear up other spooky messes. It’ll be awesome… and we can spend more time together and get to know each other better… and then have some hot, superpowered sex!” I had to laugh at his final statement, but then I thought about it. “Just the two of us?” He nodded. “Yeah. Claudia’s talking about how nice you were at the party… though she still keeps calling you other names beginning with A, even when I correct her. I think that maybe normal people’s minds naturally fog over around the supernatural… and she did die twice last night. It’s probably a good thing that she is blocking the memories out… besides, she hasn’t shown any supernatural powers. I don’t want her to get hurt, and unlike us, she’s not able to defend herself against things that go bump in the night. She did wink at me and told me she wanted all the dirty details later when I mentioned I was going to see you today, though, so I think she’s ok with sharing me, though… and honestly, now that I’m this strong, I need to hold back in sex with her… you, on the other hand, are a… napalm? Nefertiti?” “Nephilim.” “That’s it. You’re stronger… supernaturally strong… and if you’re not quite powerful enough to take on a crazed ghost in my body at the moment, my body’s not over 8 feet tall anymore, either. And you’re a dude. Can we at least try? My hormones are still amped up, and I’d rather not find out I have to be mostly celibate for the rest of my life.” “Poor guy,” I reply, laughing. “Oh, who am I kidding? There’s no way I can resist you, Kellan. C’mon over to the dark side!” In a flash, Kellan was kissing me, hungrily, his powerful hands tearing off my clothes with a loud RRRRRRIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPP, exposing my skin to the cool air. Not wanting to damage his new clothes, I slip my hands under his shirt, feeling the warmth of his hard abdominal muscles before sliding the shirt up over his head. He pulled off his jeans, and I was treated to the sight of his naked body, his huge cock growing erect before my eyes. “Going commando,” I ask, raising an eyebrow. “I couldn’t find any thing that looked good and fit me… I’m kinda… gifted, you know” he replied with a shrug of his mountainous shoulders, before pulling me off my feet and pulling me into an embrace, his hard pecs against my face, while his thick cock filled and stretched towards me. “God, it feels sooooo good just to cut loose,” he groaned. Then he looked down at me. “Can… can we fuck? I don’t think I’m going to last long, and I want that ass. I mean, I want everything… I even want you to fuck me in the worst way, which is kinda messing with my head, you know? But I really, really want to fuck you.” “Sure,” I say. “Lube and condoms are upstairs in my room, in a bag under the bed.” Still holding me aloft, he headed towards the stairs. “Which way?” “Uh… all the way down the hall, to the right,” I manage as his muscles flexed against me with each step up the stairs. He deposited me on the bed with surprising gentleness (but also with haste) and dug under the bed, pulling out the promised bag. “Hold on,” I say. “Lie on your back and let me do it.” Taking the bag from him, digging out the magnums and several packs of lube, tearing them open, and sliding the condom down his huge shaft. It fit… barely. I then slathered the lube up the enormous cock, feeling it twitch with surprising force and eliciting throaty moans from Kellan as he tossed his head back against my pillows and writhed. With a liberal helping of lube, I readied myself, noting that my butt did feel a lot more… muscular… than I remembered, and straddled his hips, gently lowering myself onto his shaft., wincing as I did. With painful slowness, I worked my way down, driving Kellan increasingly wild, his breath heavy and his bodybuilder’s chest heaving, his fair skin flushed to a rich rose hue and his dark hair tangled and framing his perfect face, until I was able to rest my thighs against his flanks, feeling his balls against my ass. Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I slid up, and then immediately back down, groaning deep in my throat as I felt Kellan filling me again. After a few more trips up and down his shaft, I felt like I could handle it and said, “OK, Kellan… take me!” A growl almost scarier than Gosser’s creepy rasp emerged from Kellan’s throat as he rolled his hips and slid into me, then rolled back out, then in again. “OOoooohhh, FUCK, YES,” he exhaled. “God, this is so tight! I’m not gonna last… ooooh… long!” “Oh wow! Uh… me neither,” I gasp, shocked, as I usually take awhile to get off when using anything but my hand. But I was fully erect (and was it my imagination, or was I bigger as well?) and dripping precum onto Kellan’s sculpted abs, which were gleaming with sweat. He reached up and slid his hands down my shoulders to the back of my arms, as if feeling my smaller, sleeker (but still mystically enhanced) biceps, and raised his head to lock his bright blue eyes with my dark brown ones. His expression was tender and wild and happy, and then I felt it… his cum gushing inside me, straining against the condom, somehow hitting me in just the right spot, triggering my own burst. I watched in surprise as my cock fired across the expanse of his torso, splashing onto his face and then over his head, against my wall, while I felt his juices slide down his shaft and pooling in his wiry dark pubic hair. He pulled me down, still riding his cock, holding me against his chest, and then kissed me long and deep, the motions of his tongue languid and graceful and sated as those of his new body. It took me awhile to pull myself together after being so thoroughly fucked, and I was enjoying just being held in Kellans muscular arms, when he shifted and said, “I don’t know how I feel about this…” Worried, I looked up at his face, and met his cyan gaze again, worried that he’d somehow gone from having a great time to having gay sex guilt, only to see a smile break over his face. “Do I want to fall asleep snuggling with you like this, do it again, or shower together and feel your hot hairy body all slick and soapy?” Deeply relieved that he wasn’t panicking, I pretended to think about it, stroking my chin, frowning, and narrowing my eyes. “Hmmm… all three?” “Works for me,” he rumbled, sending pleasant vibrations through his chest and cock into my body. “By the way, thought you should know something…” “What’s up?” I asked, stretching out on his hard body. “When we came, I could’ve sworn I saw some of your white flames fanning out behind your shoulders… and they were kinda sorta shaped like small wings.” Elsewhere, a woman who had been dressed as Marilyn Monroe the night before finished her ministrations on a couple of the monsters that had been reanimated to fight Gosser/Kellan the night before. They now looked like fully-living creatures, one with neon green scales and fins, one with scarlet feathers and a beak, and one with thick brown fur and tusks. She planted a kiss on each of their humanlike heads and announced, “There! All better!” If it was possible for the three monsters to blush, they would’ve, but at that instant a Barbie-sized androgynous creature with bat wings and a scorpion tail and tiny horns fluttered into the room. “Madam,” it said with all the formal air of a butler, “The spells you set up to watch your newly-discovered descendant show that he and the revenant from last night were successful in delivering the specter to the angel of death, and that they have formed an alliance to explore the supernatural… and a sexual liason, of sorts. You asked to be kept informed.” The woman flashed a perfectly white smile at the creature. “Thank you, imp. Yes, the boy will bear watching, especially if he can sing and attracted the attention of the archangels.” The three repaired monsters, exchanged a look, when the scaly one asked, “Um, Great One, we consider ourselves in our brother’s debt. Had he not possessed his Grigori ancestor’s talent for spells, we might not all have been brought back. Is he safe with the revenant? Even with the ghost gone, such creatures are…” “Problematic?” Finished ‘Marilyn’, with a wry smile. “I am aware. I do not share your debt… my gift of the dragon’s blood was sufficient reward for coming into his heritage, and he hasn’t shown any features of our side of the family just yet. Still, he could prove useful. And I am sure that if we continue to monitor his actions, we might find a way to bring him into the fold.” The feathered monster ruffled its winglike arms, and asked, “If it is just the two of them, are they likely to encounter much of the supernatural? I thought that their powers were both weakened by getting rid of the ghost. More experienced and sophisticated teams have sought out nonhuman intelligences before… there are whole television shows about them, after all.” The woman nodded. “True. Nevertheless, like calls to like. They two of them are already unable to stay away from each other… and together, they will draw the attention of others.” Her smile turned sharp, showing unusually pointed canine teeth. “Besides, I have it on good authority that things will get interesting for them next Halloween.” BESTIARY NOTES: These files are compiled from Quincy Gosser’s journal, independent research, and my own first hand experience with various paranormal and supernatural entities. I figure that if we are going to seek out the supernatural, we should leave a record of them so that others can learn from our experiences. The following creatures were encountered at the Higgins Manor. Sincerely, - A *Ghosts: Ghosts are some aspect of human LIFE that left such a powerful impression on the world that, at least a portion of the dead soul was unable to actually pass on. Ghosts are unique among undead in that they do not haunt places where their bodies are buried so much as places where they had a vivid emotional experience. This experience is often a complicated and tragic death, or some place that they loved and made their own in life, or a particular conflict or declaration that left echoes through time. It seems that ghosts are not actually creatures of death, per se, but of life. There is some debate about whether or not ghosts are actually the spirits/souls of humans, or whether they are just memories and recordings. In support of the latter theory, ghosts do not change, ever. They are as focused on their goals, their “unfinished business”, or their emotional moments fifty or a hundred years later as they are the moment after they died. Many ghosts have powers that would be described as “psychic”: telekinetic “poltergeist activity,” manipulating the minds and senses of others, possession, etc. When they do create illusions and phantasms, it is usually of their defining event in life. These illusions can be particularly vivid, with some people reporting cases not unlike time travel, experiencing some historical moment that shaped the creation of the ghost as if they’d actually been there. Ghostly possession is usually not as serious as demonic possession. Ghosts, however, show a peculiar ability to pick up greater power the longer they exist and are recognized. Some of what we consider pagan gods or elementals might actually have been ghosts at some point… ghosts who finally changed themselves, or gained some supernatural power and a lasting legend beyond their human identities. However, just as not every elderly individual lives to be 100 years old, not every ghost is remembered beyond the lives of their immediate descendants. Ghosts gain power from human energies and attentions, which is why they are so concerned with haunting humans, particularly if it furthers their goals. Ghosts can be reasoned with, however, and logic does work on them. They also seem to be weakened by the presence of people who don’t believe in ghosts (but strengthened by those people who do believe… and ghosts are possibly the most believed-in paranormal entity out there, second only to God). Many ghosts are essentially harmless… but ghosts, like people, are individuals, and they can be fearsome if roused to action. Many ghosts, it should be noted, do not know or accept their deaths, being far more concerned (or obsessed) with their lives. Fortunately, there are a number of rituals, sounds, prayers, and natural elements that can be used to exorcise or calm ghosts. Unfortunately, such things are considered superstition among many modern societies. With a ridiculous number of fake psychics and mediums out there, finding something that works against ghosts is very difficult. Note that ghosts are only ghosts in the mortal world. If you somehow find your way to an afterlife, the spirits there are often referred to as Shades, Saints, and Ancestors. *Revenants: Straddling the border between ghosts and vampires or liches (which are primarily a convention of fantasy rather than folklore), Revenants are undead spirits that manifest in some form of body, usually their own (though sometimes that of someone else). Revenants tend to have many powers similar to ghosts, as well as an effect on the life around them. Such effects include manifestations of plagues in formerly healthy villages, unusual behavior in animals and people, and a certain inexorable threat to the safety of a large number of people. Attacking or destroying the original body of a revenant, especially with the same rituals used against ghosts or vampires, can be a surefire way of both destroying the revenant and cleansing its influence from the area (miraculous recoveries all around are common afterwards). Kellan is a special case, in that, though he is definitely a revenant, the ghost that possessed him wanted to improve his physical health instead of detracting from it. His system has been permanently marked by the dark ritual and the huge amount of ectoplasm Gosser flooded his body with, though, and this has resulted in some unusual powers, even for a revenant. His connection to me, stemming from my interference in the ritual’s progress, might have muddied the waters as well. Since he has been rid of Gosser’s influence, we’ve primarily noticed that these powers, like my own, tend to be stronger around other supernatural influences, rather than being consistently present. Also, Kellan remains alive, though I have suspicions that he might now have a much longer lifespan than most people… assuming he doesn’t antagonize any paranormal entities too much. Besides, I’ll be watching his back. *Angels: “Do not be afraid.” The traditional image of angels as winged people, or little flying babies is very popular, but not exactly accurate. Angels are often depicted with wings to indicate their spiritual nature, but that rule holds true for fairies, pegasi, and many other entities as well. In fact, if angels do have a presence in the world, popular legends suggest that they look like, or disguise themselves, very much like humans. The true forms of angels are probably difficult to perceive from our limited senses, and are usually described as intricate chimerae, with features of lions, eagles, oxen, snake, humans, wheels, and more. For instance, the word “Seraphim” derives from the same root as “Serpent,” and these “burning ones” might possibly be the celestial dragons of the Far East through another cultural lens. The origins of Cherubim actually describe creatures like the Shedu or Lamassu or sphinxes of other legends, with the bodies of beasts like lions and bulls. Angels are often described as having many eyes, being sources of light, and having an unusual number of heads, wings, and mouths. It is uncertain if they work through humans (possessing them, perhaps) or create human bodies and identities for themselves from thin air. What is known is that the main body of angels has been split at least twice. The angels that followed the Adversary (the devil… it is somewhat confusing as to what he was called when he served God, since sources disagree) have been thrown into the mix of creatures collectively known as demons, and instigated a major conflict in heaven itself. They are now banished to Hell, and are generally not considered “angels” any longer. The rebellious Grigori, on the other hand, are a bit more ambiguous, since they didn’t actually fight with the other servants of Heaven. Angels seem to be constantly linked to the Chorus, which some Nephilim can perceive and join as well, and in this sense, they are working to uphold reality in some fashion that is appropriate to their roles as God’s servants. That said, angels seem to be responsible for a number of religions, but they don’t seem to have any actual preferences (Gabriel is supposed to have heralded the founding of Christianity and Islam, for instance). Also, Angels serve as a buffer between the world and God… such an effective one that even most of the supernatural creatures I have encountered since the night at the Higgins Manor have no idea if God, Heaven, and Hell exist or not. Angels seem to have a number of roles. Attempts to classify angels and assign them a hierarchy have been conflicting and confusing at best. The Seraphim are the highest rank of angels… or the fourth highest. The archangels are only the second lowest rank, but they somehow command all the other angels. None of the Powers have ever fallen from grace, but the devil might have been chief of the powers. It might be easier to describe angels by their actions in general rather than assigning one type to particular roles. Angels are Messengers. They are Guardians. They are Warriors. They are Healers. They are Guides. They are Psychopomps. They are even devil’s advocates and tempters, testing people at times (and there are some suggestions that the devil’s fall is actually orchestrated simply for the purpose of testing humans, and that the supposed War in Heaven is an act). Beyond anything else, angels are inscrutable. They are also powerful. Nothing says “beware” like an entity that is really on a mission from God. Their unusual features and vast abilities are likely why many of them are depicted as telling humans to not be afraid. But if they are fearful and maddening to view in their true forms, it puts legends of certain ancient gods and H.P. Lovecraft’s insane horrors in a very different light. That said, angels are not infallible and they are not perfect. Too many of them have fallen or rebelled for that to be the case, and they have since been strictly limited in what they are and are not allowed to do, particularly in the world of the living. They are vulnerable to pride, lust, and envy, and possibly other sins, and their role in upholding reality means they can’t create too many ripples. Angels much prefer to work through other agents unless demons are involved. *Nephilim: “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” – Genesis 6:1-4 Nephilim are the descendants of Angels (mainly the Grigori, or Watchers, an entire choir of angels who were supposed to guide, teach and protect humanity) and Humans. Apparently, the Grigori found human women attractive, and abandoned their divine mission to have lovers among the human population. Each of the Grigori supposedly shared divine secrets with humanity, perhaps secrets which mankind was not meant to know. Their offspring, the Nephilim, were usually described as giants (Goliath, for instance, is supposed to be a nephilim), and many of them lived in Canaan. There is some suggestion that the demigods (Heracles, Helen of Troy, Gilgamesh, etc) of other cultures were also nephilim, but records are scarce. Supposedly, the vast majority of Nephilim died out in the biblical flood, which was sent to wipe them from the earth after their culture had become corrupt and spread its influence to the surrounding human tribes. The Grigori themselves were “bound in the valleys of the earth, under darkness, until Judgment Day.” Without the Grigori to support them, and with their population almost wiped out, the Nephilim never really recovered as a civilization, though there is some suggestion that both royal bloodlines (especially those that espoused “Divine Right” to rule) and some of the more outrageous mutations in the human population are a result of lingering nephilim lineage. I find the theory that all gifted and talented people have Nephilim blood to be rather dismissive and belittling of the true gifts of humanity as a species, as well as grossly overestimating the number of nephilim that remain. According to the journal, only a few families remain that have even the potential to manifest nephilim genes, and of those that do, few every realize that potential. Many people in nephilim families go their entire lives without a clue that they are in any way different. Abilities-wise, Nephilim are gifted. They possess the human capacity for free will, and have no real weaknesses (though some have individual fatal flaws) aside from a tendency towards corruption and a feeling of discomfort with their status between humanity and angels (leading many to pursue apotheosis). Nephilim are stronger and have greater endurance than humans, and their lifespans can stretch for hundreds of years. Nephilim have a surprising presence that they are often not fully aware of, which might manifest as good looks, hideousness, charisma, leadership, or fading into the background. Nephilim also tend to have some sort of talent that is extremely powerful. All nephilim are immune to both human magics (many of which were originally taught by the Grigori) and other supernatural senses. Some scholars claim that this invisibility to scrying derives from nephilim being unnatural creatures who were never part of the Divine Plan. I wonder if perhaps, as links between both the physical and spiritual world, we somehow blend in. Nephilim also inherit some ability related to their ultimate angelic ancestor. For instance, my ancestor, Armaros taught men “the resolving of enchantments,” so I was able to alter and break some of Quincy Gosser’s spells. Another nephilim, descended from Chazaqiel or Azazel, might have some talent for manipulating the weather or weapons and armor and cosmetics and jewelry, respectively. Nephilim can sometimes manifest the natural powers of their angelic ancestors, but usually only if they encounter angels who unlock those powers. These powers include second sight/ESP, wings, a boost to strength and endurance, and heavenly fire and light. Nephilim also have the potential to hear and join the Chorus, a musical representation of reality itself, maintained by the angels. Those that can sing in this fashion are capable of altering the rules of the world around them, however, singing for unimportant reasons can draw negative attention from angels, and sometimes the rest of the Chorus opposes an individual song, rendering changes to reality impossible. Overuse of the Chorus is also possible, especially for beginners, and can make it difficult for a nephilim to sing without extensive periods of rest. Generally, alterations of the Chorus are subtle and temporary, and tend to involve changing the rules of a situation instead of raw creation or destruction (though such effects are possible). For instance, an angel using the Chorus to rescue a human from a burning building could rule that the inhabited parts of the building are fireproof and cool to the touch and smoke free for the duration of the human’s escape, only to collapse behind him once safely outside. A nephilim using the Chorus to create a vast fortune for herself would probably find the attempt exhausting and pointless (all the money might be monopoly money, or obvious counterfeits, or it might be stolen almost immediately). *Marilyn Monroe: ? I have my suspicions about “Marilyn,” but whatever she is (aside from related to me, somehow), there are currently too few clues to be certain. Sure, there are hundreds of supernatural women, witches, demons, goddesses, and spirits that assume female form out there. About the only thing I know about her is that she knows Azrael, has access to dragon’s blood, somehow knew what I’d been reading (or manipulated luck to cause me to read that reanimation spell), and can teleport both herself and other things. She seems to have some limitations involving how much she can influence people, so maybe she’s a fallen angel or demon of some sort? I admit I am somewhat loathe to go asking around, both because she is powerful enough to spook Gosser and I’d rather not antagonize her, and because I already found out I’ve got one of the Grigori in my background… I’m not sure I want to know just what else is hidden in my family tree. This post has been promoted to an article

Baring Bones: A Halloween Story - Chapter 3 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 4 (and Bestiary Notes) ------------------------- I gradually regained some sense of self, feeling suspended in darkness. It was like being under water, except it lacked the joy I’ve always experienced swimming in pools or riding the waves in the ocean. Instead of that buoyancy, the weightlessness I was experiencing felt heavy, immobilizing me instead of enabling me to move in three dimensions. Nothing was visible except my own body, drifting helplessly. A sudden fear struck me. “Am I… dead?” Instantly the darkness boomed with a strangely familiar voice… the deepest and richest of the voices from the chorus earlier. “NO, CHILD, YOU ARE NOT DEAD… THOUGH NOT FOR LACK OF TRYING. YOUR BLOODLINE’S FIRST ATTEMPT AT JOINING THE CHOIR SINCE BEFORE THE DAWN OF HISTORY, AND YOU TRY TO REVERSE… WELL, ME? I KNOW THAT YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT NOTHING OF YOUR GIFTS, AND ARE ONLY LEARNING IN RESPONSE TO THE IMMEDIATE THREAT OF THE SPECTRE, BUT TRYING TO UNDO DEATH IS A LAST RESORT. LITERALLY.” My head pounded, both from the thunderous voice and my own condition. “So, you’re death, but I’m not dead? Is Claudia ok? Is Kellan?” “I AM… COMPLICATED. MY KIND DO NOT HAVE NAMES, ONLY TITLES. YOU MAY CALL ME THE HELPFUL ONE. YOU HAVE ASKED FOR HELP, AND IT HAS BEEN GRANTED. PART OF THAT ASSISTANCE IS THAT I WILL HELP RETURN YOU TO THE WAKING WORLD… BUT DO NOT RISK YOURSELF SO GREATLY IN THE FUTURE. CLAUDIA WILLIS IS ALIVE THANKS TO OUR INTERVENTION, BUT I WOULD NOT SAY SHE IS WELL. KELLAN IS CURRENTLY FREE OF THE SPECTRE’S CONTROL, BUT HE IS STILL A TARGET… AND THE LOST SOUL IS VERY CLOSE TO ACHIEVING HIS GOALS. YOU MUST LOCATE THE SPECTRE’S PHYSICAL REMAINS AND USE THEM TO SEPARATE HIM FROM HIS STOLEN POWER, AND SUMMON ME THROUGH THE CHORUS.” I was about to ask more questions, like “where are his physical remains” and “will this restore the drained partiers” and “what’ll happen to Kellan’s new muscles,” but suddenly the darkness lit, and I saw what I was talking to, and the sight was impossible, horrific, and strangely eye-catching! Hovering before me in the formerly lightless void was an enormous monster, whose body was made of billions of… eyes and tongues! Behind it, thousands of wings whirled as swiftly as a hummingbird’s, but I could somehow see all of them if I focused, making out every detail of red, green and silver feathers. An ancient-looking tome floated in front of it, and even as I watched, new words blazed onto the pages, as if being burned there by some unseen magnifying glass. Instead of a head, the monster had four faces, like floating masks. One was that of a child of indeterminate gender with faintly Asian or Native American features. The second was elderly and Caucasian, but so wrinkled with age that, again, I couldn’t tell if it was male or female. The third looked like an African or mixed heritage woman, with long hair that was braided on one side and cascaded loose on the other. The final face was my own, with a knowing smirk spread across his (my?) lips. All four faces opened their mouths, and the powerful voice spoke yet again, despite seeming to boom around me and not emerge from any of the lips. “TIME GROWS SHORT. YOU CANNOT REMAIN IN THIS STATE BETWEEN DEATH AND LIFE ANY LONGER WITHOUT PASSING ON PERMANENTLY, AND THERE ARE OTHER PLANS IN STORE FOR YOU. YOU WILL NEED THIS.” It began to sing, the music washing over me, and I found that I was wearing my costume wings, undamaged by the fishhooks, and that they spread, bearing me aloft on the river of sound, leaving the creature far behind. The next moment, I found myself in darkness again, but feeling something warm and hard cushioning and supporting me. I finally worked my eyes open, and found myself being held, bride-style, and nuzzled, by the new and improved Kellan, who was sitting in the passenger seat of his car. I twisted my head around and saw Claudia dozing on the back seat, but smiling, a healthy blush spread across her cheeks. Kellan shifted, and murmured as he came awake. “Heeyyyy… you’re awake. Feel ok?” He mumbled in my ear, making the hairs on the back of my neck raise in excitement. I couldn’t speak, but blushed and nodded. “Good.” He breathed in deeply, his beautiful face an inch from mine. “Thank you for saving Claudia and helping me yet again. I was out of control. But… you can’t hurt yourself. Whatever you just did, it nearly killed you… you weren’t breathing and didn’t have a heartbeat. I had to use CPR and rescue breathing on you until your chest started rising again. I brought us here to take a breather. But don’t you dare put yourself at risk like that again. What the hell happened? I thought I heard you humming and then you seemed to go into a trance. Then Claudia was healed and you came back for a moment before toppling over. Don’t do that to me again, man! I only just met you, and I want to keep you around for a looooong time.” I gulped at that last statement, but managed to nod in agreement. I then filled Kellan in on the out-of-body experience, the overwhelmingly beautiful chorus, and the insanity-inducing monster that helped me return Claudia to the world… and then did the same to me. At that point Kellan frowned. “Huh… I dozed off for a bit here in the car, and just woke up when you started stirring, so I didn’t notice it ‘til now… but your wings WERE tattered when I carried you here… and now they aren’t.” I froze at that revelation. “Really?” Kellan nodded, making the dark, wavy layers of his rock-star hair flop back and forth over his blue eyes. He reached out with his newly-muscled arm and pulled the door open, letting me slide out of his arms and stand (shakily) on my own two feet. The way he’d cradled my 6’2” frame in his football player’s arms was a bit weird, as I wasn’t used to being the shorter guy, much less being held by someone. However, as he stepped out of the car after me, I found myself looking up at a 7’1” hunk. He stretched, his biceps bulging in his torn black sleeves, his huge pecs warping the image of his costume’s ribcage, his nipples visibly erect through the fabric in the cool November air, and his shirt riding up to reveal his sculpted abs and a dark treasure trail showcased between his iliac furrow by his marble-pale skin. Once he finished stretching, he bent over, showing me the square shape of his muscle butt, while reaching into the car to retrieve my wings… good as new! “Weird,” I commented, running my fingers over the undamaged fabric of the black wings. “Just one more strange thing to add to an already bizarre evening.” Kellan nodded. “For sure. But hey man, it’s getting kinda chilly. I don’t think I’m feeling it as much as I should now that I’m supercharged with ghost lightning or whatever, but I bet you could use some more warmth. Lemme just get Claudia comfortable.” With that, he popped the trunk and grabbed some extra blankets, and quickly wrapped them around his girlfriend, making her shift and wake up, smile at him, and murmur something I couldn’t hear, before snuggling into the blankets as he closed the car to keep the cold air out. Kellan and I then headed up towards the bonfire. As we trudged uphill, I tilted my head and frowned, before asking, “You didn’t feel any drain, and Claudia was fine in the car? She didn’t get… sucked dry… like the other partiers?” Kellan shook his head back and forth, affirming that the instant-lifelessness effect I’d spotted earlier hadn’t occurred. “No… I didn’t feel anything, and Claudia’s fine. You didn’t see anything, did you?” After I confirmed that everything seemed fine when we were at the car, he relaxed. “I admit I was more focused on you and Claudia, so I wasn’t really looking around at anyone else… but now that you mention it, I didn’t hear any engines start or see any car lights. Maybe it’s just the fact that I was the one who opened the car, not Claudia, and this ghost thing needs me? Or maybe you burned it out back at the dance floor?” I shrugged, but then grimaced. “I wish… but you said you didn’t notice anyone leaving… I’d think that if the white flames had gotten rid of the ghost for good, they’d be back to normal. Besides… the big eyes-tongues-wings-faces creature said the ghost was still a threat.” As we approached the campfire, I could see the filaments of otherworldly light moving about … and somehow, I could hear them, like the hiss of the devil’s fiddle strings as he challenged Johnny for his soul. “And the threads of light are here, too… whatever’s going on, it’s not over,” I concluded. Kellan’s impressive shoulders slumped and he groaned in frustration. “Right. So, what’s the next step, besides getting toasty by the fire?” I blushed at the suggestion of “getting toasty” with the big guy, but tried to ignore it, hoping the darkness hid my reaction. “I’m not sure… the journal I found includes some descriptions about various supernatural effects and creatures, but aside from ghosts, I’m not really sure what to look for, and it’s not like this thing was written as an encyclopedia. Having to search through it… in Latin… is going to be time-consuming.” The bonfire’s warmth soaked into my skin, though the tinny noise of the glowing strings sent chills down my spine. Getting this close to the cords and knowing that I was the only one able to notice them was even more frightening than their deadliness. Kellan glanced in my direction, and he frowned, slinging a muscular arm over my shoulder, letting me lean back and rest my head on the curve of his bicep. “Hey, Angelo,” he asked in his richer, more resonant voice “Are you ok? If you’re still out of it from singing for Claudia or whatever it was you did, we could go to the main house instead and get you a couch to lie down on or something.” “Thanks,” I replied. “But I’m ok… it’s just creepy to see what I’m seeing, with the strings and all. I’m ok… just uneasy.” Kellan nodded, and squeezed my shoulder. “Ok… we can work with that.” He then shot an oddly mischievous look at me, and grinned. “Wanna hear what making out with Claudia felt like?” Assuming that non-sequitur was Kellan’s somewhat hearty, boyish way of distracting me with a change of subject, I shrugged and nodded. He seemed to take an almost puppylike glee in his new body and increased sexuality, and that excited energy seemed odd coming from a guy as big as a horse. I wondered just how greatly his personality and attitudes and even language had changed over the events of this evening. They way he was currently acting was a far cry from the terse, unwelcoming indie guy earlier. If we couldn’t figure out what was going on, how much more would he change? If we did solve the mystery, would he even want to go back? Before I could ponder these questions further, he began to speak, and I focused on his deep voice. “It was WILD, man,” the big guy enthused, his pale cheeks becoming slightly flushed, his eyes fluttering shut as he sank into the memory of his powerful body pressed against his girlfriend. “They were playing our song… ‘Beyond’ by Butterfly Three-Way. It was booming from the speakers and the air was hot as people danced around us. Claudia leaned against me and tossed her hair back, and my hands slid down her shoulders, feeling how fragile and tiny they seemed under my big hands. She smelled soooo good… shampoo with violets and cherries, perfume with I don’t know what in it, and all that.” As if being drawn back to that moment, he breathed deeply, his huge boxer’s chest inflating, the black fabric with painted-on ribcage stretching to try and accommodate the bulging muscles as they expanded. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that his muscles weren’t the only things expanding. In the glow of the bonfire, the black lycra of his pants shifted, and his already visible bulge started to grow larger and thicker as it stretched towards his right thigh. His voice, now sounding huskier than before, picked up again. “She pressed against my body, man, and she cooed… she actually cooed… when she felt how hard I was… I am. She said that she wanted to drive me over the edge right then and there… purred it into my ear, and then she raised her arms as if she wanted to be picked up. I could never do that before, but now, it just seemed right, like I’d always been able to do it… and like I’d done it a hundred times. I reached down, felt how light she was in my arms, and lifted her up to my chest. Feeling her body clinging to mine… it was soooo fucking hot, dude! Almost literally… I felt like I was on fire, or in a desert, or something, and every nerve was alive! It was freakin’ intense!” Now his stance had widened, and his package (still barely wrapped) was straining away from his body. Some of the girls (dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, Edward Scissorhands, Mad Hatter, Sweeney Todd, and Willy Wonka) seemed to have noticed, and were gossiping behind their hands and occasionally pointing at him, while others were fanning their faces and blushing, or looking longingly at it. Kellan took no notice, though his breathing was heavier, his face was flushed, and a trickle of sweat was running down his forehead. I also noticed that, despite the heat of the bonfire, his nipples were erect, and clearly visible as they pressed against the fabric of his costume. He reached up a big hand seemed to almost caress his pecs for a moment, before sliding his long, thick fingers down over his abs, brushing them over the fur of his treasure trail. Then, his hand froze and he went still. Kellan took a deep breath, then another, and then a third, before he was able to speak. “I… I think that’s when the thing… the mist, ghost thing… I think that’s when it struck. I just found myself unable to stop. It’s like nothing else mattered except feeling good and getting off… as hard as I could. I think I forgot Claudia even existed, except as a fuck toy or something. I’m… I’m not like that… I’m not!” Then he paused, before asking, “… am I?” Taking a deep breath to bring myself back from watching Kellan actually turn himself on, I collected my thoughts before speaking. “No… I don’t think you are someone who treats others as… uh… fuck toys. I think that, while you do like yourself this way, mostly, and you do like growing… that the ghost is trying to use you somehow… and its selfishness is overwhelming your normal personality while it tries to remake you. I think that if we can get rid of the ghost, you’ll be no more of a danger to society than… well, anyone else.” Kellan’s face broke out into a gentle grin. “Thanks Angelo… just hearing you think things through makes the whole situation a lot better. I’m glad I’ve got you watching my back.” He pulled me into a lingering, if one-armed, hug, and then leaned back. “So, what should we do first? Any other spots on the property you want to check out that might be haunted?” Just then, one of the guys by the fire, well into his cups and dressed like Super Mario, pushed his friend (dressed like Wayne from Wayne’s World), who pitched forward dramatically, almost knocking into me and spilling unidentifiable alcohol everywhere. I saw “Wayne” coming towards me, drops of liquid from his cup moving through the air in what seemed like slow motion before falling into the bonfire and making it blaze upward in a sudden burst of flames. At that moment, though I was off balance and leaning precariously towards the fire, I felt powerless… there was no music, no altered consciousness, no change in the sinister ribbons of light… just me, a mere mortal. However, if I was a mere mortal, that couldn’t be said for Kellan. His powerful arms slid down me and gripped my hips, lifting me up in the air and back from the flames… and a good two feet off the ground… without raising a sweat, before placing me on his shoulder. His skin was flushed, but not with exertion… he was angry! “WHAT THE HELL,” he roared at the drunk guys, so loudly that I thought for a second that the flames cringed and blew in the opposite direction, as if from a strong wind. “YOU’RE PLAYING AROUND A BONFIRE? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MINDS? MY FRIEND COULD’VE BEEN BURNED!” The guys visibly quailed before the force of Kellan’s ire, but tried to drunkenly bluff their way through it. “C’mon mannn… we were jus’ havin’ fun. No harm meant,” slurred the one who’d done the initial pushing. His friend, however, wasn’t quite so smart. Filled with liquid courage, “Wayne” retorted, “’Sides, you may be big, but if you’re an ass bandit, you should get out of the way of a real man, fucker.” The conversation and laughs and exclamations of shock around the bonfire went silent. The “Mario” went white and tugged on his homophobic pal’s shoulder, trying to pull him back. But it was too late. Kellan took in a deep breath, the only sound besides the cackling of the flame to pierce the leaden silence. When he spoke, his words were measured but echoing, as if it was taking all of his musician’s eloquence and impressive restraint to speak calmly and not simply punch the guy… which, given the fact that he’d cracked a wall when he was less built, would be a very bad thing. “One. Gay people are real men and women. Two. They do not have to get out of the way of anyone, just because he thinks he’s hot stuff. Three. I’m not just big… I’m stronger than five of your drunken asses. Four. I’m not gay, but I have responsible, sober friends, including my pal here, who are. My friends are important to me. Five. If I see or hear of you mistreating anyone else at this party, it’ll go badly for you. Very badly.” “Wayne” clearly didn’t have a clue (or had pickled his brain cells) because he actually dared to retort, “Oh yeah? This’ a free country, you freak. What’re you gonna do about it? You lay a finger on me and I’ll make sure everyone knows you’re throwing your weight around.” From my perch on Kellan’s brawny shoulder, I could actually see his handsome face stretch into a smile that could’ve come from the same grave as his costume. “I don’t have to touch you, asshole. I’m stronger than that.” I felt his sinewy frame shift under me, and looking down, realized that he was raising his foot, almost in a bizarrely muscular parody of Captain Morgan… and then he slammed it down! Resting on his broad shoulder, I felt only a momentary shift of hard muscle beneath me, and Kellan had been braced for the force by his own power. Everything around us fared much worse, as a shockwave appeared to spread out from Kellan’s thunderous footstep, causing the logs of the bonfire to collapse in on themselves, sending sparks blazing high into the night sky and knocking Wayne, Mario, the assorted female Johnny Depps, and the other people around the fire to the ground. Squeals and shouts of shock and outrage, spilled drinks, and a cloud of dirt fill the air, though not high enough to reach me, perched on top of Kellan’s 7 foot body. “Now,” boomed Kellan’s voice. “Apologize. Or. Get. The. Hell. Away. From. US!” The drunken jerk from earlier scrambled, almost crab-walking, to back away from my new friend as if the hounds of hell were after him, and his friend split as well. The conversation picked up again as Kellan reached up and gently lowered me to the ground, and looked me over, as if examining me for any damage. “Hey, sorry about that, Angelo…” he murmured, leaning down to bring his face closer to mine. “I’m sure you could’ve handled that punk, but he got on my nerves. Are you ok? I didn’t hurt you when I picked you up or something, did I?” I finally got my tongue to work, and stammered, “ Uh... n-no, b-but, GEEZ! When did you figure out you could do that with one stomp of your foot?” My “hero” frowned, looking throughtful. “Huh… I don’t know… I mean, obviously I’m way stronger than I should be, even with these muscles,” he continued as he flexed one of his biceps, showing off the veins snaking across the muscle. “But I just suddenly knew I could do that... creepy!” The sight of the hunk shuddering at his uncanny knowledge of his abilities broke the image of the furious Hercules from a few moments ago, and I had to smile even as I thought about the possibilities. “Huh… the monster I encountered said that the ghost had goals involving you, and that’s why it keeps going after you… maybe it’s trying to prepare you for something it wants you to do? So it’s giving you these abilities and the knowledge … muscle memory, maybe… to use them? Can you think of anything else that you can do with your strength?” Kellan closed his eyes and seemed to take a moment of thought, before shaking his head. “No… I don’t think I even knew I could do that foot-stomp thing until I was angry enough to do it. If I can do other stunts like that, I don’t think I’ll know about it until they come up somehow.” Then we were interrupted, as one of the ladies (dressed as Victor from the Corpse Bride) came forward, blushing through her pale makeup, and said, “That was pretty awesome, the way you stood up to that jerk. He’s been hitting on my friends and I all night, and it’s cool that your friend has someone like you to look out for him.” Kellan smiled down at her, and chuckled. “Nah, you got it all wrong… this guy’s my guardian angel… he looks out for me. I just try to return the favor when I can.” He then nodded to me, “Hey, Angelo, do the wing thing!” Always willing to show off my costume, I tugged the strings that caused my dark wings to unfold and fan the air, and the girl clapped enthusiastically. “That’s incredible! Can you guys take a picture with my friends and I?” Kellan laughed this time. “Sure… though I gotta warn you, I’ve got a girlfriend, and my pal here appreciates the, uh, less-fine sex, as you might’ve overheard.” There was a lot of booing and teasing and pouty faces (seeing Captain Sparrow pout through fake facial hair was somewhat unnerving), but we all lined up and the girls roped a passing witch into taking pictures of the whole group, facing the fire. The light hurt my eyes a bit, and I had to force myself to keep from squinting, holding my face in a wide, fragile-seeming smile. Surrounded by the enthusiasm of the girls, with Kellan by my side, I felt glad that I’d come to the party, even if it’d been one weird event after another, and began to relax… a moment too soon. As the girls dispersed, the fire abruptly blazed green, and from their depths emerged a spindly, wraithlike figure of emerald luminescence. With long, wickedly taloned fingers and skeletal features, it reached out towards me… or towards Kellan. Its claws poured jade fire towards my new friend, and I tried to deflect them, only to see the streams separate and slide around my outstretched arm, like a river moving around a stone! I looked around, hoping that the ghost’s public actions would attract some attention from the others, but the Johnny Depp Girls had all gone inside to get new drinks, and the new people standing around the bonfire didn’t seem to notice anything awry, going about their business and joking, drinking, and huddling by the unnatural flames as if this happened all the time. Kellan moaned throatily as the flames poured into him, so deeply it was almost like the rumbling growl of a lion. “Oh yeah… feels… so fucking gooood!” As I turned towards him, I could see his skin crawling as the muscles underneath swelled and shifted, faster than before! Slices of his black shirt began to tear, showing glimpses of pale skin underneath that became more and more striated with muscle. “C’mon Kellan, last time I couldn’t free you because you were into it… don’t lose me here. I need you to resist it if we’re going to stop it,” I murmured, trying to build up my rage and direct it at the green energy. Kellan just shook his head and looked down at me as he began to grow taller. “Angelo, I don’t want to stop it. God, this feels fan-TAS-tic! Look at me. LOOK AT ME,” he crowed as his muscles rippled. He now stood about two feet taller than most of the other party guests, and was about twice as thick as any of them, with huge muscles that resembled those of a massive football player, with some elements of powerlifter from the sheer size of his muscles thrown in as well. Looking down, I saw that his crotch was noticeably growing erect… and Kellan was now massively hung, if the imprint of his cock as it strained against the costume’s fabric was anything to go by. As my poor brain tried to wrap around the concept that my new friend was turning himself on as his body grew, Kellan seemed to come to a decision, heralded by another shuddering groan. “That’s it. I can’t stand this. I need to act on my horniness… and I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile!” His hands were larger than they’d been when he’d lifted me out of the way earlier, but they were at least as fast. I found myself lifted off my feet again, clasped against the biggest, tallest, most muscular guy I’d ever seen or heard of, and felt his lips press against mine. I swear I saw fireworks. His strength was tremendous, and his muscles were hard, but his lips were… teasing, gentle, playful, sweet, exploring, caressing, warm, soft, and inviting. His entire body as he moaned with satisfaction, almost purring as he deepened the kiss. He was supporting my weight with one hand clasped over my butt, clutching my black jeans between the folds of my wingtips, while the other hand stroked through my curls, cradling my skull. The kiss was powerful and unasked for… but it certainly wasn’t unwelcome, just unexpected. It was clearly driven by his changing hormones, but it was an act that was filled with emotion and intimacy as well as hunger. I began to kiss back… and surrendering my higher thoughts to make way for my increasing attraction to Kellan finally broke through the block keeping me from converting the ghost’s energies. Instead of wrath, I drew on the passion, the lust, the connection between the two of us, and I could hear a higher, flutelike music trickling from the Choir’s realm as I felt the white flames blaze through our embrace, while the ghost’s howls (sounding faintly like “What continues to thwart my efforts to possess this host?!) faded away around us. Kellan slowly lowered me away from his lips, his eyes still shut. His breathing was heavy, but he didn’t seem to be as crazed as before. I placed my hand over his huge chest, and felt his heart pounding. “Kellan,” I murmured. “Are you ok?” He nodded, then murmured. “I’m sorry, Angelo. That was… it was… I…” He stopped and gathered his breath, his huge lungs inflating and his sculpted chest rising in response. “Ok… let me try that again. I could tell you were interested in me from the moment you complimented my costume. It’s just a skeleton suit… nothing special except that it’s skintight. You have moving wings. You complimenting me is like a bonfire complimenting a candle flame. The only appeal was my body. And yeah, it was a bit creepy of you, but you were cool about it. But before this spook started messing with my body, I hadn’t really been attracted to guys… or at least, not enough to ever want to act on it. Then… I started growing, and you were always there. My senses are stronger now… more vivid, I guess, and I can always tell where you are anywhere on this property. Now I’m the creepy guy, because this whole situation is creepy, and you’re there for me, and god, do I ever need to get off badly… you look and smell sooo good, and your voice makes my heart speed up when you talk, even if you’re getting all cerebral or goofy. I’m still just as into Claudia… god I want to fuck her… but I’ve reached the point where I’m so horny I’m, looking at guys and going ‘Why not? He’d be a good lay’ … and I’m sure you’d blow my mind. And when those girls were around us, I wanted to get naked with them as well… and you… I just wanted all of us to go off somewhere, strip out of our costumes and go crazy! Heck, I was even curious about getting with those drunken jerks earlier, even when I was yelling at them.” As he trailed off, I wondered about those ideas. “Hey, do you think your personality and mind is changing? You seem to be more interested in me, like you mentioned, but how about your memories and other interests? Claudia seemed to have her memories of what you looked like when she first met you altered. Claudia said you met in Econ class, you still remember your band and the songs you play, the chords and all that?” He frowned and closed his eyes in concentration, before nodding. “Yeah… I don’t think there’s anything wrong with my memory, though I’ll need a bigger, more resilient guitar if I’m going to play with the band anymore. I can still picture where my fingers need to be, play the songs in my head, etc. And we did meet in Econ, but I wasn’t built at all, despite what she said. But as for my personality… yeah, maybe. I always figured myself for a one-woman guy, but now… I guess I’m bisexual, and I’m not sure I’d be satisfied sticking with just one person… at least, not for sex. I feel like I still want to spend the rest of my life with someone, but maybe it should be more than one someone.” He took that moment to meet my eyes. “I should be embarrassed by showing off all this skin, and wearing clothes this tight and tattered, but I’m proud of it… I want to show off. I barely want to wear clothes at all.” In the echoing silence from Kellan’s last statement, I realized that it was weirdly quiet. “Uh… is everyone staring at you holding me in the air,” I asked tentatively. He tore his gaze from my face and went still, his eyes wide. “Uh, no… it’s worse.” He lowered me to the ground and I turned around… and saw that everyone around the campfire was slumped over on the ground, drained of their lives. I felt like I was going to be sick, and the ripples of red light centered on the flames continued to dance menacingly across my vision. “Oh Angelo,” Kellan murmured, his powerful voice throaty and wobbling from shock and regret. “I-I did this? I hurt everyone here just so that I could grow bigger and get hornier?” “No,” I insisted. “This isn’t your doing or your fault. You’re just as much a victim as they are… and it’s time to stop being victimized and get proactive about saving them! It sounds like there’s music going on inside, and I can see people dancing by the windows, so not everyone’s gone… and look, the hayride’s coming around, so obviously it’s still being piloted by someone and still has living passengers. I think that means we still have time. We need to find the body of this jerk ghost and send him to the monster, and hopefully he’ll be able to help us return everyone to normal… ok?” Kellan nodded, still looking shaky, but with increased determination in his eyes. “Can… can we check on Claudia first? I need to know if she’s still alive. I know my new… urges… make me not the best boyfriend ever, but I still love her.” Geez, the guy had to be going through a rough time, what with all of this going on. Who’d have thought that having a superhuman body would come with so many awful strings attached? I nodded, saying, “Sure, let’s go. She probably shouldn’t be left in the car for so long, even if she was sleeping.” We didn’t have to go far, however… Claudia met us halfway. “Oh, there you guys are,” she said, yet again seeming to not notice Kellan’s new growth spurt. “Thanks for letting me get some rest… I needed it. How’s the party so far? Everything I’ve seen seems like it’s quieting down.” Kellan and I exchanged a glance, and then I said, “About that… there’s something you should know.” Before I could spill the beans, however, the hayride pulled up, letting off its (thankfully mobile) passengers and looking for others to get on. “Ooooh, hold that thought, Alfredo,” Claudia said, holding up one skeleton-painted nail on her index finger while I ground my teeth at her inability to remember my name. “Kel, can we do the hayride? It’s been too crowded all night, and I wanted to try it out… it’s finally thinned out… looks like we’re the only ones who want to do it now.” I was going to interject by describing how the hayride was really just a boring ride around the edges of the property which had some Halloween decorations hanging from trees… no monsters or chainsaw murderers jumping out at you, no cool displays, just a ride in a tractor-pulled wagon. However, with an apologetic look at me and a shrug of his huge shoulders, Kellan said, “Sure, babe. Angelo, you want to come with? We can fill her in on the weird stuff going on during the ride.” Claudia was shooting a death glare at me (I did feel like a bit of a jerk for making out with her boyfriend a few minutes ago) and switching it to a pout when Kellan turned to look at her, but this nightmare was really more important than giving her time to get busy with and possibly drive my new friend to put her in a coma again, so I nodded my assent, and we all climbed onboard. The hayride had wooden planks as a floor, with a metal frame around it. Bales of hay lined the middle, but the sides of the hayride had some pews taken from the chapel. The top of the metal frame was lined with interconnecting black ropes, designed to look like a spider’s web, and spiders, bats, and pumpkins of various sizes were hanging from the railings or the web. As the engine started and the hayride took off, rumbling down the dirt path, towards the road, past the cars draped with drained bodies, a sense of foreboding began to fall over me. I was missing something… but I wasn’t going to leave Kellan (and Claudia) alone to figure it out. Kellan was filling Claudia in on all the supernatural events, but it was slow going. It seemed like the ghost had really messed with her head. “So…” Kellan was saying. “Do you remember the day we met?” Claudia smiled. “How could I forget? I went to the gym with my friends and there you were, pumping away. I spilled my water bottle all over myself just staring at you, and you were so nice and offered me your towel to dry off… along with your number. When I found out that you were a musician as well, it just made you seem even more amazing!” Kellan and I gaped at Claudia as she blithely related all this stuff about them that apparently had never happened, while the hayride rumbled past the fields and towards the tree line. Then a searing flash of red light struck the front of the tractor, and the hayride rumbled off the front of the path straight towards the trees! Claudia screamed, I gripped the railing to brace myself, and Kellan… suddenly wasn’t there. With a speed that defied the eye, he leapt from the hay bale, tore off the spider web ceiling, somersaulted out of the wagon and over the tractor, and took the entire machine straight into his prodigious pecs. The entire ride rocked, and I just managed to grab hold of Claudia before we hit. “GUYS,” Kellan roared, his voice booming. “I’VE GOT THIS, BUT CAN YOU COME AND SHUT IT OFF? I CAN’T BE IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE!” Making sure Claudia was unhurt, I climbed out and clambered up into the tractor wagon, fiddling around with the switches and levers (hey, I’ve never driven a tractor… I’m a suburb kid) while I tried not to be distracted by the sight of Kellan’s muscles flexing and throbbing beneath the tattered remnants of his costume, which now barely covered his crotch and upper chest. The sleeves had ripped off, letting his thickly muscled arms bulge as they held back an entire tractor, and his enormous height made him almost eye level as I was sitting in the tractor seat. Finally, I managed to shut it off, and my huge friend released the tractor, while we all paused to catch our breaths. “What happened,” he finally asked. “I saw a red light, like back at the manor, lash out here,” I replied. “But I have no idea where the driver’s body is.” “Back there,” came the strained, frightened voice of Claudia from behind us. We turned and saw her, shivering and rubbing her arms nervously. “He was all gray and dead-looking… I… I think he rolled out of the tractor when he died.” She then ran into Kellan’s arms, and he lifted her into a comforting embrace. I noticed more of the red lights, rippling in the darkness. “Guys, I think there’s something over here causing the red light… stay back… we don’t need you growing out here, Kellan, and Claudia, it could target you next. If anything comes for you, call out, and I’ll be there ASAP.” Before they could object, I stumbled through the underbrush, eventually emerging in a clearing filled with rocks. In the moonlight, the rocks seemed oddly shaped and oddly white. I leaned forward for a better look and gasped, scrambling backwards until I collided with something warm. I looked up and saw Kellan there, steadying me. “What’s wrong, Angelo?” I mutely waved at the clearing. “It’s bones… it’s full of bones!” He looked up and stepped forward. “I’ve never seen this stuff here, and I used to explore these woods with my cousins all the time,” he said. I looked around and asked, “Could the recent storms have washed away the soil?” He shrugged, then crouched down, showing off his v-shaped back and his perfect muscle butt, but his words stopped me from salivating too much. “I don’t think these are human bones… or not exactly.” He waved me over, and, taking a closer look, I could tell what he was getting at. One of the skulls had short horns. What I’d taken for hands appeared to be oddly-shaped claws. I saw some structures that resembled the wings of bats, and others that looked like elongated horse or canine skulls, or long snakelike tails. The skin and organs were all long gone, and they’d clearly been there longer than I’d been alive, but they also seemed oddly well-preserved, like some sort of elephant’s graveyard for supernatural creatures. Then it clicked for me. “The journal… it said that this place, the church camp that used to be here, was actually some sort of witch hunting inquisition thing. The author, Quincy Gosser, claimed to have killed all kinds of monsters… maybe this is where he buried them?” Kellan shuddered. “I kinda wish he was still around. I bet he’d be able to handle the ghost.” Then he caught sight of an extremely large humanlike skeleton. “Or maybe I’m personally better off with him in the grave.” Then the cold became bitter, as if the heat was sucked out of us. I saw the red lights begin to dance around us, and heard footsteps. Kellan and I turned to see Claudia walking towards us, smiling… with glowing green eyes. “’Tis funny that you shoulde say that,” she said with a weirdly dual voice, both her own, and one that sounded male and older and old-fashioned. “Because I am sore tired of the grave, lad, and your body will be my ticket out of it.” With that, dark green flames poured from her body and washed over Kellan. They seemed to burn endlessly, and I couldn’t get close… until the flames left Claudia, lying in a gray-skinned, lifeless heap, and pulsed across Kellan’s body. His eyes took on that green glow, and he turned to me, a wicked smile spreading across his face even as his muscles began to swell again. “There you are… finally, I have human flesh again, and actually perceive you, Abomination. I am sure that your sacrifice will give me the power to extend my abilities across the world, just as the lives of every drunken fool on this property have enabled me to possess one of my descendents and remake his form. Let the world welcome back the great Quincy Gosser!” This post has been promoted to an article

Baring Bones: A Halloween Story - Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 (and Bestiary Notes) ----------------- “I’m just a guy who wants to make a name for his band, date his girlfriend, and pay off my college loans. I’ve never gone to a gym in my life. I’ve never been a big guy and always thought they were seriously uncool. But I feel… I feel great!” Kellan had been venting his conflicting emotions into the cold, dark night, his new voice just as strong as the rest of his new physique, but thankfully everyone else had either shifted inside or were riding the hayride on the other side of the Higgins property. The formerly 5’10.5” indie guy now looked like he’d spent years making sure his 6’3” body was as strong and flexible as it could be, when he’d started the night as a slim, almost delicate looking young man. Everything about him, from his broad chest to his thickly muscled arms, his washboard abs to his protruding package, screamed Alpha Male. He was, however, not a happy one. “Now I can’t even piss in peace! I keep going into trances and I’m growing out of my clothes! There are hundreds of people around and none of them realize anything’s going on and my girlfriend’s memories are changed! I’m thinking all these weird thoughts and getting turned on all the time and… I just wanted to come to this party and relax!” He swung his hand back and, before I could stop him, punched the brick wall of the Manor. Then, instead of yelping in pain as I expected, he looked confused. We both stared, astonished, as he pulled his fist away… completely unharmed, with only a bit of dirt on the knuckles. The wall was not so fortunate. A small crater of cracked brick remained where Kellan had slammed his fist into the wall. I stared at it, and at his hand, and my eyes revealed a brief green glow emerging from his fingers before fading away. Uncertain of what that meant, I turned my attention back to his face, in time to catch his expression: wonder. That look was swiftly replaced by one of exhaustion. “Whoa man… I feel beat!” He leaned against the wall and took deep breaths, while I pondered this new development. I was standing next to a guy who could potentially count as a superhero, with some amount of super strength and invulnerability… but using that power wore him out… and maybe used up some of the green energy that had inundated his body moments ago. My thoughts were interrupted when Kellan stood up straight, dusted off his hand, looked at me and said, “Look, Angelo, thanks for coming to get me back there. I appreciate it… even if you did track me to the toilet.” Before I could protest that I had actually not expected him to be there, he held up a hand to stop me and continued. “I’m going to try and act normal, though… my friends didn’t notice anything different the last time, so I’m going to try and go with the act. Hopefully, if anything else weird does happen, I’ll be able to resist it now that I’m so strong. Have a good night, and nice to meet you.” With that, he stomped off, leaving me alone and unsure what to do. “Well, so much for my short career as a green-glowing-light slayer,” I complained to the night as the hayride pulled around and let out its passengers, who dispersed to other sections of the party. I stepped aside as a drunken ghostbuster lurched into the restroom, and then froze. I was staring at the restroom’s entrance and could now see the red ripples head-on, but they hadn’t been there a moment ago. Whatever it was, it seemed to be centered on the men’s room… or was it? I squinted in the dark, and could somehow tell that the weird red glow was pooling around the general spot of the wall between the men’s room and the ladies’ room. I turned and saw another ripple centering on the bonfire… and I remembered seeing others in the dance room and the main entrance/drinking room. Was there one in the chapel? I turned around again and, yes, I could make out the same rippling effect emerging from the stained glass windows. I stepped back to get a better look at the full manor, but whatever my new ESP involved, it apparently didn’t count as X-ray vision. Just my luck. Still, if there were any more of those… rippling vortices in the building, I couldn’t tell from out there. When the ghostbuster guy came out again (walking slightly better and not any more muscular than before, I noted), I tried to focus my vision on him. The effect was clear. Ghostbuster seemed to give off a natural illumination… could I be seeing his aura? Whatever it was, the closer he got to either the men’s room or the bonfire, the more of the lights turned red and drift away towards those places. Nor was he the only one, I realized. Everyone around the bonfire was leaking energy into it, and when the Manor’s door’s opened, and partiers spilled out, I saw that they too seeped red light that either drifted back inside or glided over to the fire. I looked down at my body, squinted, widened my eyes, even tried going cross-eyed, but try though I might, I didn’t see any sort of light, red or not, around me. I moved towards the bonfire and watched. The red light drained from everyone standing in front of and next to me did pass through me like a wave… but nothing of me was caught up in that tide. It was like I wasn’t even there, as far as the ripples were concerned. Was I the strange one, not Kellan? The green electricity flowing through him had turned white and made me feel sugar-high-ish when I touched him, and the wisp/shadow had seemed upset by that, but the shadow hadn’t even noticed me when I first walked into the restroom. I’d felt the unearthly chill from the wisp before I’d been zapped, though, and after the first time I’d been able to see the red ripples out of the corner of my eye AND I’d not fallen under the “guys growing muscles is perfectly normal, he’s always been this way, nothing to see here, these are not the droids you’re looking for” spell that had affected Claudia and Kellan’s other friends and relatives. Experimentally, I tried to concentrate on a fallen twig, willing it to float, skitter across the ground, twitch, anything. No such luck. “Sure, the hot straight guy gets all the useful powers. I see living people. Ooooh, spooky,” I grumbled as I turned to head back to the party. Inside, I could tell that the red ripple effect was definitely centered on the drinks. “But that doesn’t make sense,” I mumbled under my breath. “Those drinks came from many different people… how could someone spike or enchant them all as a whole?” I spotted Kellan and Claudia and their friends sipping from glasses, and realized that while Kellan did have that natural aura, his seemed to be shot through with green sparks. The red glow wasn’t draining him… was it? I watched a wave of red pass through him… and then not continue on to the rest of the drinks. Somehow, these ripples were collecting life energy from the guests at the most common places for the people to congregate at the party (the restrooms, chapel, bar, dance floor, bonfire, etc), and depositing it in Kellan! All he needed was the green light to let him use it… or for something to use him. Just then, the clock turned to midnight. Costumed partiers started cheering, toasting, and generally kicking things up a notch. Having people making out drunkenly all around me sent my spirits plummeting again, reinforcing that I’d arrived alone and would be leaving alone (probably fairly soon). I moved to say my goodbyes (and was unable to find anyone I knew besides Kellan), and headed out the door, down the steps, and towards the grassy field being used as a parking lot. I was surprised to find that there weren’t any ripples there… but what I did discover was much worse. I got to my car, and was about to shrug out of my costume wings, when I noticed someone sitting in the driver’s seat… someone with pale skin that didn’t come from any makeup or mask. Someone who was sitting very still. The guy didn’t seem to be breathing. I was about to call for help, when I noticed that the next car had a young woman in a goth witch outfit leaning against her car’s passenger door… and not moving. Getting closer to her revealed that her skin was similarly discolored and she had neither breath nor a heartbeat nor any warmth to her skin. Over by the driver’s side, her friend (or possibly girlfriend) was actually in a similar state, lying on the ground in a playboy bunny outfit. I started to run, but all around me, the scene was the same… people were dead… but strangely so, as if they’d just stopped being alive the moment they reached their cars. My eyes revealed that they all lacked any sort of aura. I finally spotted a pair of guys (dressed as Na’vi from Avatar, since their costumes were largely blue body paint, they looked extremely chilly) headed to their car, reaching for the handle. “No, STOP,” I shouted, just in time to see them both turn gray and slump over. A moment later, their auras reappeared, like shining, multicolored ghosts hovering next to their bodies, looking confused. Then, from the borders of the property, a red thread of light snapped towards us. It passed through me harmlessly, but the aura-ghosts stuck to it, spinning and wrapping around it like someone was rolling them up, their glow turning red as they formed a ripple and slithered back towards the Manor, like some deadly aurora. After a moment of sheer gut-wrenching terror, I was able to get a grip. I was somehow immune (undetectable? untouchable?) to the ripples. They couldn’t hurt me… for now. Then I got angry. Someone or something was behind this… hurting people and stealing their very essences without even a warning, for no reason, and it was using Kellan for something as well. Well, it wasn’t getting away with it. I was going to get rid of the thing, make it stop messing with Skeletal Boy, and hopefully, find some way to return all those people’s auras to them. Heaven help anything that got in my way. I’m not sure if it was my wrath or my growing ability to sense supernatural forces, but I felt the ghost about to make its move early this time… like a faint shiver instead of the chill of the void. I left the drained bodies of the partiers at their cars and sprinted up the hill to the Manor, my costume wings smacking my shoulders with each step. I dodged the hayride, gasping for breath, and made my way through the lurking guests to the door, opening it to the increasing otherworldly cold, and the sight of Kellan doing a solo keg stand to the applause and cheers of his friends! His arms were groups of bulges encased in tight black lycra, his shoulders were flexed, and his legs stretched out to either side to help him balance. His pants only stretched down to his muscular calves, and his sneakers looked small on him. A little farther down, his thighs strained against the fabric, and… oh geez… he was rock hard, his erection stretching halfway down his left thigh (and the girls certainly noticed THAT, if their raucous squeals were anything to go by). His chest was flexing impressively as his gymnast’s build supported his body, and it astounded me that his costume hadn’t torn. But while the sight was definitely worth charging uphill to get back here, and it was cold as the grave, I couldn’t see a single spark of green lightning. Where was the thing? I deliberately thought back to my determination by the cars, and my temper started to flare at the memory of the helpless, lifeless guests. The angrier I got, the brighter and clearer those vile red vortices around the drinks became, as if my rage gave me greater visual clarity. There! The red ripples sped up and become more jagged, shifting to their complementary color: green. Arcs of neon green flew towards Kellan… no… towards the keg! As I tried to slide through the crowd, the green lightning flowed from the keg up to Kellan’s “kiss me” lips, across his smooth cheeks, coiling in his eyes which immediately took on a dazed look, and down his wide neck, his adam’s apple bobbing as he continued to suck beer (and lightning) thirstily. The green glow continued to whip across his shoulders, down his powerful arms to his hands, with each finger glittering brightly, before the energy surged up his chest, outlining each of his abs, temptingly revealed since his shirt had rolled down. It danced up, appeared to stroke his bulge, and slithered up his long legs. This time, though, it wasn’t getting away unscathed. I didn’t even have to touch Kellan. Instead, with the lightning blazed around him, I simply approached and thought of the playboy bunny, the goth witch, the na’vi guys and everyone else out there with the cars, and somehow willed the lightning to morph into white fireworks, cascading down into the keg. An agonizing, echoing scream emerged from the metal barrel, but only I noticed it. My white flames fanned out from the keg, driving out what looked like a disembodied, bearded head formed entirely of green smoke, looking about in anger and bewilderment, but somehow never seeming to turn in my direction. I stared it down, and the white radiance bent to my will, scorching the… ghost… and it disappeared in a puff of sickly emerald smoke. As the flames died, I felt a rush of triumph, but sensed that the thing wasn’t done yet. As evidence, Kellan was growing again. Still suspended upside-down, Kellan went from gymnast to pumped-up mixed martial artist. I could tell that his body was getting taller because his feet inched higher into the air. His legs throbbed, and I watched as his calves swelled, pushing his black lycra pants farther from his feet and closer to his knees, while his thighs grew steadily larger and more powerful. The waistband of his pants started to slide down, showing off more of his treasure trail, pulled by the growing erection straining to be free. I tore my gaze from his groin and almost whimpered at the sight of his torso. Kellan’s abs protruded more, while retaining (even enhancing) their impossible definition. I barely resisted the urge to push my face into his abs and lick down to his belly button while it was suspended in front of me. His chest also grew, each pec now cushion-sized and capped by large, visible nipples, which looked strange against the stretched fabric with the wide painted-on skeletal ribcage. The neck of his shirt dipped low as the pecs pushed out, and more of Kellan’s goth-thug style script tattoo was visible, but still not enough to read. His shoulders looked broader, and he had to shift his grip on the keg with his thickening arms before executing a perfect flip to his feet (showing off his sculpted ass… I noticed a girl dressed as a bumblebee actually swooned out of the corner of my eye). He turned around, caught my gaze, and sent me a smile that went straight to my balls. Ignoring his friends, he wrapped his huge arm over my shoulder (carefully not bending my wings). He murmured directly into my ears, with a voice like an avalanche of caramel, “When I felt it coming over me, I couldn’t resist… but I didn’t try… I knew even if I’d acted like a jerk, my guardian angel’d be there to help me out. Thanks buddy… sorry for earlier.” I’d stopped breathing, and my cheeks were burning. Was this amazingly hunky straight guy actually flirting with me, and calling me his buddy AND apologizing? I finally managed to gather my wits, and asked “How are you feeling? Sorry it took so long to figure out how he was getting to you.” Kellan grinned at me. “No worries… you’ve got my back… even if my back is bigger than it used to be.” Meanwhile, his friends were drunkenly shouting “Get a room, you two” among other, less friendly statements. “Don’t mind if we do,” retorted Kellan with a shit-eating grin before tugging me out the door into the chill night air. “Um, not that I object to being tugged along,” I said, “… but where are we going?” He stopped, seemed to think, and then shrugged. “Honestly? I just wanted to get away. I mean, I’ve known those guys forever, and I could tell you everything about them, but at the moment, I feel like four things matter to me. The first’s figuring out what’s happening to me tonight, because ignoring it wasn’t working. The second thing’s Claudia. God, I just can’t stop thinking about her tonight. It’s like my libido’s pumped up along with everything else about me. The third’s you… somehow, things are less crazy and more deal-able when you’re around, and I don’t miss Claudia so much, either.” At this point, he inhaled deeply and audibly, and his eyelids fluttered shut in delight. “MMMMmmm… you smell good, too. Hold still.” Enforcing that command (though I’m sure he meant it as a request… didn’t he?), Kellan reached out, placing his large, warm hands on my arms and holding me still as he leaned forward and breathed in, almost nuzzling me. The November night’s cold was driven away by the heat of his body and his warm breath on my neck, though goosebumps of a different kind spread across my skin in anticipation. Was Kellan… attracted to me? How? What sort of ghost would make a straight guy into my ideal gay man? It didn’t make any sense! Then, before I could be paralyzed by thoughts, I asked, “And the fourth thing?” His cyan eyes met mine, and he pursed his lips. “The fourth thing is that I’m… having fun looking like this, GROWING like this. I want to explore it… I want to stay this way… or maybe even feel my muscles grow again. I don’t want to ignore it anymore. When I was hanging out with Claudia, and she was paying attention to me like she hasn’t since we first started dating, I realized that I feel better than I did when I was skinny. My skin’s strong but so sensitive. My senses are stronger... I can taste shades of flavors and age and intensity in my beer now that I never noticed before. I can tell you the natural hair color of everyone on the hayride all the way over in the woods, in the dark. I can hear conversations through the music back in the dance room. And I can smell… well, lots of stuff,” he finished with a surprisingly bashful smile. “And did you see me back there with the keg stand? I could never have balanced myself like that before, but now I could probably lift the keg one-handed when it was full. And the people’s reactions… Claudia’s, her friends, the guys, you… it’s a rush. I want to see how this goes.” I took a deep breath. “There’s a problem with that, Kellan. You see, people can’t leave the party… alive.” That was enough to shock him out of his building love of his new body, and cause his rapturous expression to shift into an angry frown. “Huh? What do you mean? Someone died? And people are still partying back there? What’s wrong with those sick fucks?” I held up a hand to interrupt. “I’ve been seeing these weird ripples of light in different parts of the manor. They seem to be sucking up the stray… uh… life force of people who get near them. It doesn’t seem to do them harm, and if I had to guess, I’d say they’d probably be shedding that same energy partying as hardy as they are anyway. But if they go to leave, and get near the cars, they go unconscious, turn gray, stop breathing, and lose a heartbeat… and those ripples pull out their whole… souls, I guess.” Kellan looked horrified. “Dude, that’s terrible! You think this has something to do with my muscles?” I nodded and continued, “There’s ripples in the restroom, the chapel, and by the bar, along with some other places. I think that the green entity is some kind of ghost, and that every time it makes you grow, it’s hooking you up to those stolen life energies. That’s how you’re so big so fast, and maybe why your emotions are going so wild… you’re plugged into the life of everyone here.” Kellan shuddered. “Ugh… I thought this was awesome, but now I feel… dirty. I’ve got people inside me? Is there a way we can give it all back to them? And how can you see all this stuff?” I filled him in about my own abilities, and how they got stronger each time he did. “Huh… wonder why? You don’t look or act any different than you did before… except maybe a bit less shy and nervous.” I wasn’t sure how to take that, so I shrugged, before chiming in. “I know that the garage, behind the dance room, has all kinds of stuff in it… there might be scales or something we can use to measure how you’ve changed. And hopefully they’ll have a flashlight there or something… your cousin, Mack, mentioned that there were some old books and stuff upstairs... I thought that we might find something about this ghost, maybe.” Kellan beamed his rock star smile at me. “Measuring my muscles AND finding out what’s going on? I like the way you think… why didn’t we meet ages ago?” We exchanged high school and college details (I was a catholic school boy all the way until college, when I went to a Big 10 university, he went to public school his whole life and stayed at one of the local colleges) until we reached the garage. The music from the DJ’s speakers one room over boomed and covered the sounds of the two of us rummaging around (and Kellan hadn’t quite gotten used to his new mass, and would accidentally knock something over with his more bulky muscles every so often), but eventually we found the flashlights and a scale. Kellan wasted no time kicking off his shoes (which seemed to have grown with him, somehow, but only partially, and were getting tighter even though they now read size 12.5, when he claimed to have been a 10 earlier) and climbing on top of it. “Holy fuck! Angelo, it says 256 lbs! I weighed only 137 this morning,” Kellan exclaimed, with something like shock and something like glee spreading over his face. “I’m nearly double my original weight… this is crazy!” We next located a tape measure. “Man, the Higginses keep everything in this place,” I murmur before sliding one end under his foot and raising it to check the tape. “Wow… 6’7”! You’re huge!” Kellan flexed and posed at the praise, making his skeleton costume ride up (and down) in a few places. “Aren’t you cold in that thing,” I ask him, nodding to the flimsy costume. “Heh… earlier I either stayed inside or near the bonfire, dude… but now? I don’t even feel the cold… it’s like I’m built to withstand worse, so this chill doesn’t even register.” That immediately killed the mood, as we both remembered it hadn’t been Kellan who was building his body, and he was right, the chill I felt in the presence of the ghost was much worse than anything November could throw at me. Suddenly the light flicked on. “Hey hon,” said Claudia as she leaned against the garage door, hips and legs displayed provocatively despite being decorated with fabric bones. “What are you guys up to back here?” I turned to see Kellan looking at Claudia and her curves like dog hungry for a… well, bone, so I chimed in. “Um, Kellan mentioned wondering how big he’d gotten, and I recalled there being a scale and tape measure back here, we were going to see if there was anything else upstairs, though…” I trailed off, realizing neither of them were listening to my handy (and nearly truthful) explanation. Claudia looked at Kellan like she really wanted to help him the rest of the way out of his costume, and if Kellan looked at Claudia any harder, he’d probably burst out of his pants, at least. Claudia finally gathered herself together and said, “Mr. Higgins, would you like to join me on the dance floor for our song?” Kellan nodded eagerly, then visibly remembered my presence. I mimicked a smile and waved them off. “Go on, you crazy kids, I’m going to do a bit more exploring… I shouldn’t be far and I’ll let you know if I find anything.” Claudia wrapped her hands around Kellan’s bicep-laden arm and blew me a kiss. “Thanks Andrew, you’re a dear,” she cooed as the two of them headed to the dance floor. I took a deep breath, counted to ten and resisted the urge to growl, “It’s Angelo, you twit.” I then grabbed a flashlight and started the long trudge up the road to the second floor. The manor’s odd construction made it so that there was a dirt road around the back, sliding up the hill and opening into a large entrance on the second floor, presumably for the church camp to store supplies. When I got there, I saw that it was left open, as always, and I carefully walked in, searching the piles of dusty junk for something that looked helpful. I made it into the third room before I came across some books with what looked like solomonic symbols on their weathered leather covers. I flipped one open, and tried to make out the flowing inked script in the light of the flashlight. “Of course the guy who can see in the dark is downstairs dancing… I’m only in luck if this book is written in invisible ink…” I paused, realizing the script wasn’t in English, and grinned, “… or if it is LATIN… thank you, private school education!” I tried to remember how to conjugate the verbs, but for the most part, it came surprisingly easily to me. The book turned out to be a journal and guide written by one Quincy Gosser, Witch Hunter, one of the founders of the “Church Camp” that used to be held on the grounds. Mr. Gosser’s writing initially gave the impression that he considered temptations of the flesh a mere distraction from his work of riding the world of “witches, monsteres and other abominations against God.” Following that were a number of descriptions of various monsters and spells and how to ward against them. Towards the end, though, the writing got scratchier and talked about how the people in the predominantly Quaker-populated region were unimpressed by witch hunts that had gripped the states farther North, and were more accepting of things Quincy considered “uncanny.” “Soone we shouldst be surrounded by beasties and witches and thinges most terrible, women shouldst wear the foul raiment of the grave and men shouldst lie with men and the spawn of the Whore of Babylon and the Fallen shouldst walk amongst man unknown,” was perhaps the most understandable passage in the final letter, thankfully written in English (or close to it). Finding nothing else in the room, I picked up Gosser’s journal, and began to stand up, when I felt that eerie cold emanating from the floor beneath me… the dancing room! I struggled to run out, but my wings got caught on a group of old fishing poles. I struggled to get free, feeling the cold increase, and finally hearing my fabric wings rip apart, leaving tattered black folds hanging from the plastic frame. I tore down the hill as quickly as I could, burst through the main door, and ran to the dance room, only to be lost in the shrouded darkness and dizzying lights. People milled and sifted around me, still dancing, while I tried to use my second sight. I could tell that the ripples here were active and that the ghost was nearby, but with the disco ball, rainbow flashing lights, and various patterns and darkness in the rest of the room, I couldn’t distinguish the electrical lights from the supernatural ones. Finally, I spotted them, back against the wall in the darkened corner, behind one of the fake monster displays. Out of the darkness loomed the body of huge man, the illustrated bones of his costume catching the black lights, and what looked like a storm of green lightning clashed around him. Kellan and Claudia were making out savagely, even as the Ghost whirled around them like a jade vapor with the suggestion of that same bearded face from before, only larger, reconstructing Kellan’s body while they ground together. Claudia’s legs were wrapped around Kellan’s hips as he lifted her off the ground, thrusting in time with the music, shaking her entire body, and their heavy breathing seemed to be sucking in the green vapor of the ghost. Kellan’s physique was now more like that of a boxer and a wrestler combined than a gymnast, but he had to be at least 7 feet tall, and his sleeves had begun tearing along the seams as his arms grew too powerful to contain. His pants rode low on his hips, rolled downwards as he grew taller and broader, but he obviously was past caring. So was I, for that matter. I tried to draw on that power and anger from before, but even though I managed a few white flames, it was like trying to put out a wildfire with a water bottle. The green lights were resisting the conversion… probably because Kellan was going wild with lust for both his girlfriend and his own muscles. I realized that as strong as he was now, there’d be no chance he’d even feel it if I toppled the nearby wolfman mannequin on him, much less tapped his shoulder. He was moving faster, grinding harder and harder against Claudia… and then he went too far. With a loud moan, he slammed her against the wall, and dust and chips of stone visibly dislodged over the couple as her breathless gasps cut off abruptly. Immediately I felt Kellan’s panic, and somehow he instinctively mimicked the rippling effect, sending out ripples that searched for me… and were able to find me, this time. I felt the white flames billow from me, wash over him and burn away the green lightning, while the ghostly mist howled in rage. I vaguely heard a scratchy voice whisper “jussssst a litttttllle bitttt morrrreeeeeeee…” before the ghost retreated from the white light that flared around Kellan. The light then abruptly spilled back to me, and leaving the big guy cradling Claudia, his shoulders shaking and whimpers of sorrow emerging from his throat. I got closer, saw the blood on his fingers as he held the back of her head, her aura gone, and immediately felt like a heel for ever thinking an angry thought about Claudia and coveting her gorgeous guy. I placed my hand on Kellan’s shoulder (and had to reach up a bit more than before to do so) and he turned to me, tears in his reddening blue eyes. “I-I’m so sorry… it felt so good, and I wanted more, and she… she did t-too, and… and… PLEASE! Angelo… you… you’ve saved me every time that thing messed with me in this whole, fucking terrible night, and… please… can you do anything for… for her?” I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders… in a physical sense. It felt like everything slowed down, and my helpless reply of “No” was ground to a halt before I could even utter it. In that moment I wondered… could I? How did I know I couldn’t? Keeping one hand on Kellan’s shoulder, I reach out and lift my fingers just over Claudia’s heart, close my eyes, and concentrate on whatever the opposite of the red ripples would be… something to fill her with life. Sweat formed on my brow, and I concentrated on Claudia as I’d seen her earlier in the evening, vivacious, flirtatious, full of life and eager to experience more of it with her friends and lover. That’s when I heard… a new sort of music, not the dj’s piped and played-with pop tunes, but something pure and sweet and elusive, deep and lofty at once. All other sounds and sensations died away, and I felt strangely adrift, as if borne aloft by the melody. My lips parted and I felt my voice, initially soft, spill out with a resonant baritone, joining in with the music. There were other voices, ones I could just barely make out, and they seemed to intertwine with mine, welcoming me somehow. I could easily lose myself in the song until my throat gave out, but I felt something propel me with dizzying speed through the chorus, hearing voices come and go until I reached one that was deeper and richer than any of the others I’d heard before, and so heart-stoppingly beautiful that I was entranced. My song felt like baby’s wails in comparison, though the song itself reminded me of a dirge, full of loss and acceptance. Then our two voices blended together, and the song seemed somehow more… optimistic. I felt lifted up and moved with more of that incredible velocity, the deeper voice accompanying me past the rest of the chorus until they faded into the distance, and the faint sounds of the dj’s booth were audible again, growing louder as we got closer. The song crescendoed and then ended, rapidly drowned out by a popular rap song remixed to death. Abruptly, I found myself back in my body, my eyes open… and seeing Claudia’s chest rising again, hearing Kellan’s sobs of relief as he hauled me into a crushing one-armed hug, my face pressed against his pecs as he held his unconscious girlfriend with the other. And that’s when everything blacked out. This post has been promoted to an article

Baring Bones: A Halloween Story - Chapter 1 By Martin J. Manco Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 (And Bestiary Notes) ---------------------------------------------------- Nobody really believed that the old Higgins Manor was haunted. Calling the place a manor was actually a stretch, since, though it had two floors with high ceilings, columns in front, and was very wide, it had maybe 10 rooms. One of those had been reconstructed into a chapel when the building was used as a church camp (whatever that involved) years ago. The building sat on what is now a small farm, used for growing pumpkins, christmas trees, and the like for various seasonal events. The Higgins family was very business oriented and hardworking, though their serious nature concealed a great enjoyment of fun as well. For that reason, they decided to use the "manor" not just for their annual Halloween party, but to put on a children's Halloween show and “Haunted House and Hayride” for the entire month of October. I had been part of the kids’ act (a magician, puppeteer, and comedian, often switching costumes and watching the kids), which gave me something to do while I looked for a job that was more lucrative. At 27 years of age, with a Liberal Arts degree and a few grad school courses under my belt, I was a bit at a loss for direction in life. No job really spoke to me. Finding the seasonal position for Halloween was a fun way to earn a bit of extra money on the side while I dealt with the tedious work at an office store during the week. When November rolled around and that job ended, I was invited to a celebratory late Halloween Party in the Manor. I’ve always loved dressing up in costume, especially for Halloween. With dark brown curly hair, brown eyes, Mediterranean complexion, rapidly-growing stubble, and a height of 6’2,” but no fashion sense to speak of, and a lanky, gangly build, costumes gave me the chance to have some style, for once. Taking advantage of the day after Halloween sales, I found a bunch of props for a really cool fallen angel costume, including dark wings that looked like a mix of bat (with the little claw on the top) and bird (with painted and fabric feathers), a pair of dark feathered wings that slid into place behind my ears, a necklace with a cross and wings dangling from a silvery chain, black denim pants, and a t-shirt with images of a swarm of warring angels taking flight. I looked pretty awesome... especially since the wings were rigged so that by pulling two wires that dangled from the back, I could make them unfold and flap. I arrived at the party a bit late, and realized I might've made a mistake in coming. Most of my coworkers from the show had families, and had left earlier, and the place mainly held the Higgins family members and a ton of their children's college classmates and friends. If you hadn’t guessed from my costume and job, I’m pretty nerdy, and while not antisocial, I tend to be shy around new people. I sifted through the crowd, being careful not to hit anyone with my wings or get tangled in fake spiderwebs, until I reached the perfect wallflower’s vantage point against the wall, next to a life-size model of Grandpa Munster. That’s when I saw him. In a sea of vampires, fairies, ninja turtles (a surprising number of whom were ladies, some of whom had some pretty creative “half-shells”), and stranger costumes, was a cute, lanky guy. He had black hair, blue eyes, fair skin with a hint or two of freckles, and a sparkling white smile, dressed in a black skintight outfit with a white bone design, making him appear like a very sexy indie skeleton. His slim body, while not particularly powerful or muscular, was long and graceful and strong-looking… and his pants pushed forward enticingly at the groin, just enough to hint at more if only he had been erect, while not being actually obscene in his current state. Sadly, he also had a skeletal girlfriend (although I’ve never seen a skeleton show so much cleavage before, it was a fairly stylish Halloween costume for her). I like straight guys, and am friends with several of them (and their girlfriends or wives). I really wasn’t expecting to meet anyone at this party who would last more than that night (like the couple who kept insisting that I flap my wings for them every time we crossed paths… at most recent count, it was about 8 times so far, and I’d only been there for an hour or so). Finding out that this cute skinny guy was taken and probably wouldn’t be interested in starting a conversation with me was a little disheartening. I walked up to him and said “Nice costume,” and got a “Thanks,” and a nod in response as he turned back to his friends and girlfriend. After that, I decided to wander around. The place was set up with a bonfire in the front, a food/BYOB entrance room, the chapel (which was mostly left alone except for people to cross through it to get to the rest rooms) and a dimly-lit strobe light- filled dance room with a DJ, so I decided to dance and sway to the music for awhile, flapping my wings occasionally just for the fun of it (and to the applause of onlookers). Then I felt an odd chill… like someone walking on my grave. I wandered away from the dance floor, rubbing my hands against my shoulders in an effort to warm myself, only to find that the chill emanated from a particular direction… the chapel. Though that room was stone, it also had very little in the way of doors or windows, so there shouldn’t be any drafts. Stepping past the mannequins decorated like vampires and Frankenstein monsters, I entered the room, feeling the eerie chill seep into my bones. As my eyes adjusted to the dim lights of the room, I spotted an odd green glow coming from the door on the far side, behind the altar. “I don’t remember any lights or special effects in that room,” I murmured, wondering if the Higgins family had put on some special display for the party. “No, that’s not likely… I’m the only one back here, after all,” I said, moving forward and opening the door with a long creak… only to be proven wrong. I wasn’t the only one back there. Skeletal Boy, in all his lithe, black-and-white, skintight glory was standing there, with his back to me (I promise, I only peeked at his butt briefly… just long enough to notice he had one, which is kinda unusual for skinny guys), facing what looked like a floating electrical tennis ball. Whatever it was, the thing was neon green, round, only a few inches in circumference, and seemed to be made of lightning. The chills that ran down my spine earlier were back with a vengeance, and I realized that THIS was the thing that was causing them. The object appeared to bounce and roll about in thin air, dancing and swaying back and forth, and I was shocked to realize Skeletal Boy’s head was turning to follow it… almost as if he was mesmerized! I moved forward, shouting “Look out!” as the strange orb flared and what looked like a green lightning bolt launched itself straight at Skeletal Boy, sinking into his forehead. Skeletal Boy moaned throatily and the orb of light began moving closer to him, his arms stretching out and his stance widening as if he were somehow enjoying the invasion of his mind and body. Electricity danced from his dark wavy hair, down his lanky body, sparking at the joints and the crotch, and then snaking down his legs to his toes. With his costume, I was reminded of the old cartoons where electrified people’s skeletons were visible. My previous momentum carried me forward and I slammed into Skeletal Boy’s lanky (and now electrical) body, sending us both crashing to the ground. The ghostly charge running through him also spread into me, but the electrical flames immediately blazed white instead of green as soon as they touched me, and I felt oddly satisfied, as if I’d just gobbled down a whole bowl of hot fudge sundae. An otherworldly howl of pain resonated through the room, coming not from Skeletal Boy or me, but from the glowing orb, which shrank in on itself and fled, sinking into the wall. Skeletal Boy groaned this time, with a sense of soreness or pain, and I realized that the green flames had vanished along with the orb. “Are you OK,” I asked him, gently shaking his shoulder. He rolled over onto his back, before his blue eyes finally flicked open and he stared up at me. Gulping for a moment, he finally stammered, “I-I th-think so.” Then he winced and stretched, moaning. I looked him over, using my past experience as a lifeguard (another short-lived, not very well-paying job of mine) to examine him for injury. My efforts were short lived, though, as I started to gape at the sight of what I’d initially believed were convulsions. Instead, they turned out to be shuddering flexes of muscles… muscles that began to grow. The entire process was mesmerizing. The skinny college garage band guy began to swell with newfound muscle. His arms became thicker, stretching the black sleeves of his costume, his legs grew longer as his calves and thighs throbbed. His neck appeared slightly thicker and his shoulders visibly broadened, gaining that sloping curve of trapezius muscle that I’d always coveted on athletes. This reshaping of his body caused the neck of his shirt to dip down, revealing the indentation between a growing pair of pecs, as well as a tattoo, in elaborate gothic cursive, with words that I couldn’t make out without lifting his shirt further. His skeleton costume now looked… sexier. The athletic muscles hidden under the sleek black fabric now resembled those of some of the soccer players who lived in my dorm in college. And… was it just my imagination, or was he TALLER as well? I could’ve sworn he was only about 5’10” before, but he now looked closer to six feet. Looking down, I could tell that his muscles and height weren’t the only thing that had grown. His formerly enticing suggestion of a bulge was now… um… more emphatic. MUCH more emphatic. Finally, the growth stopped, and Skeletal Boy stopped moaning, his eyes flickering open. His eyes were faintly glazed, but then cleared and he blinked, looking up at me, around the room, and down at himself… stopping to stare at his new physique. Gulping and clearing his throat (or possibly coughing) he finally stammered, in a voice that was slightly deeper than it had been earlier, “Whuh-whuh-what happened?” Wondering what state his brain was in after what was obviously a bizarre and possibly traumatic (or even hypnotic) event, I decided to answer a question with a question. “What do you remember?” He frowned, thinking, and groaned. “Ugh, I feel like I had way more to drink than I did. I think… I was dancing with Claudia… uh, that’s my girlfriend… when I had to uh, use the head… but I don’t think I ever got there.” He looked confused for a moment, and then his features relaxed oddly, and his voice came out more reverent. “Then I felt… like I needed to go to the light. No one else seemed to notice it, but it was there in the middle of the room, bobbing up and down. When I walked towards it, it drifted back, and I followed. I think I bumped into a guy dressed as a panda, but I can’t remember. I just found myself feeling cold, but knowing the light would make me warmer. It did, and it felt… man, it felt sooooo good. Then it suddenly hurt and then it was gone, and you were there, and then… now… I look like this?” The dreamy sound and expression of his voice cracked and he snapped out of it. “What the hell?!?” Ok, so he knew everything that happened to him, basically, except the why and how. That was a relief. Dealing with someone suffering from trauma would be more than I could handle, particularly if there was some sort of danger around here. I reached out, offering him a hand up, which he took, his grip strong and his forearms flexing and I pulled him to his feet. As he brushed the dust and dirt off his costume, I filled him in with my side of the story. “I was dancing as well… though I didn’t see you guys in the dark. I might’ve gotten distracted by the strobe lights,” I explained with a shrug. “Then I felt something, like a chill. But with everyone dancing in there, it was actually pretty steamy on the dance floor, so I looked around, and felt something cold coming from this direction. I followed it through the other rooms until I came in and saw you looking, uh, mesmerized by this glowing ball of green electricity, like a will-o-wisp… you know, from fairy tales or, um, ghost stories? Little spirits that look like balls of light, which lure people into swamps or off cliffs?” He looked at me like I was crazy, which, admittedly, is what I’d have sounded like if he hadn’t just had a bolt of green lightning through his skull that left him with a totally different body. “Anyway, that’s what it looked like. It then spat a blast of lightning at you, and you, uh, seemed to enjoy it, but I was already moving towards you to try and break you out of it, and I knocked into you. It looked like it was going to electrocute the both of us, when the light changed color and the thing was scared off. It disappeared… I think it sank into the walls of the chapel. Has anything like this ever happened to you before?” He shook his head, dark, tousled hair waving, and replied. “No man… this is some freaky shit going down here.” He then frowned. “You’re the winged guy who liked my costume earlier, but what’s your name? How do you know the hosts?” He then realized that he hadn’t told me his name yet, and stammered, “Um, I’m Kellan. Sorry, ‘bout that.” I smiled and shook his hand. “I’m Angelo. I thought that my costume was appropriate, sorta.” I said with a casual shake of my shoulders and a flap of my wings. His eyes widened and he grinned. “Yeah man, they are pretty cool. I think you’re the only one with a costume with moving parts here tonight.” I then explained about my job, and he nodded. “Sounds cool. I’m a cousin of the main Higgins family,” he explained. “Sooo… what do we do? How do we explain this to, well, everyone? Claudia, the family, etc? And what does growing like this do to by physiology? Are my organs all kinds of messed up now? And… is it going to happen again?” I shrugged helplessly. “At the moment, you know as much as more than I do, dude. I have to wonder though, if maybe I interrupted what the wisp was trying to do to you, and if it’ll be back to try and finish the job.” He shuddered at the thought of that possibility, making his newly-defined muscles flex unintentionally. “I don’t know what to tell you about your girlfriend,” I continued. “But everyone else here shouldn’t notice too much… you’re bigger all over, yeah,” I said, being careful to keep my eyes from lingering. “But you’re just more built than usual… athletic instead of lithe. You should be safe from casual observation, and everyone should take it in size… err, I mean, stride.” I wanted to smack my forehead at my Freudian slip, but Kellan just nodded. “I guess, dude. I’d better go see. Uh…” he looked at me, before continuing, blushing slightly. “Mind coming with me? I could use some moral support, or someone to confirm what happened so they don’t think I’m crazy.” I agreed, but as we exited, nobody appeared to be looking at Kellan as if they were surprised by his size. There were some girls checking him out (and to be fair, his butt was way more seductive now that it was more muscular and, um, springy), though I didn’t notice any guys doing the same (to my dismay… hanging out with a straight taken hunk and still having no idea if there were any guys who swung my way at this party was increasingly frustrating), but no one seemed shocked at his new musculature or height. Everyone was wrapped up in their individual party activities. When we got to the bonfire outside, where his girlfriend was waiting, she turned around, in her pretty, revealing skeleton outfit and smiled. “Kel’ there you are! When you left me on the dance floor I was wondering if you fell in.” Her eyes then moved to me and her pretty lips turned into a frown. “Is something wrong? Who’s this?” Kellan gulped, but seemed just as confused as I was. “Uh, this is Angelo,” he replied, hesitantly “… but don’t you notice anything… weird about me?” She looked at him like he was joking. “No… I don’t. Should I? If this is a joke to make up for leaving me at the dance floor it isn’t a very funny one.” Kellan shot me a confused and worried look, and I shrugged and suggested, “Maybe ask your other friends or family here,” before Claudia took Kellan’s arm and asked “Are you feeling ok?” Kellan stammered, “Uh, babe, I thought you’d noticed… I saw something spooky… like a glowing light, and it did something to me… something that made me, uh, grow bigger… and buffer.” At this, Claudia only smiled, tossed her blond hair, and said, “What are you talking about silly,” as she placed her hands on his chest, right over his pecs, and slid them down his printed on rib cage to his sleek athlete’s abs, caressing him in front of everyone at the bonfire, and making his eyes flutter and his head tilt back in pleasure. She then leaned in for a kiss, being careful to keep her white and black skeleton face paint from smearing, but seeming to do a good job of arousing Kellan. “You’re the same sexy guy I was interested in since we took that ECON class together. Now come on, I just realized some more of my friends were here, and I want to introduce them to you. What’s the point of being in a couple’s costume if I’m not part of a couple to show it off?” She led him away, looking over her shoulder to smile at me. “Nice to meet you, Angelo… hope you’re having fun at the party!” I was flummoxed… what was going on? Had the other party guests’ minds been tampered with to make them think Kellan looked normal? And if so, why? What purpose would it serve the wisp? For that matter, what purpose would making a guy grow more muscular, other to hammer home how painfully single I was? And why wasn’t I affected? Why had I been able to interrupt the lightning attack, and why had the thing fled from me? “I need more information,” I murmured to myself, before going to look for the Higgins family members I knew. Mr. and Mrs. Higgins, a slightly stiff gray-haired businessman who thought he was funny and his more relaxed, if very practiced housewife, had both been dressed as vampires earlier, but I couldn’t spot either one of them. Maybe they had gone to bed already? It was nearing midnight, after all. I did spot their youngest son, a blond, scruffy guy named Mack, dressed as a hula girl with a coconut bra, but when I approached him to try and ask him questions about ghosts and hauntings and Kellan, he was less than helpful and obviously drunk off his ass. The best I got from him was “I think there’s some old books upstairs,” before he bounced off after an equally inebriated young lady dressed as a sexy nurse. As the upstairs section was dusty, unused, and roped off for the guests, I decided instead to examine the scenes of the crime, so to speak. The dance floor was still dark, lit only occasionally by the flashes of light from the DJ’s booth and these odd, stray glows and flashes of rippling illumination, and sparsely populated, most of the earlier crowds having shifted to some other part of the property as such dancers were wont to do. Heading to the main room of the party, I saw that most of the people, including an embarrassed-looking Kellan and Claudia and her friends (who were a lot more “hands-on” than I’d prefer if I was the one dating Kellan, and who were obviously the source of his embarrassment) were standing around, drinking from red plastic cups or getting refills from the rows of half-full bottles of various alcoholic beverages. It might’ve been an afterimage, but I couldn’t sworn I saw the same rippling lights from the dance floor, centered now around the drinks. I squinted, trying to make out the weird lights, but it seemed like I could only catch them, crimson, snaking, glowing streamers, rippling together, out of the corner of my eye. Deciding to get out of sight of Kellan and his ladies, I followed the flow of the crowd outside. The bonfire was still going strong, and the hayride had just pulled up, depositing partiers and picking up new ones who wanted to ride through the woods. Opting to stay nearby (I’d already ridden the hayride as part of the job) I instead moved closer to the bonfire, basking in the heat on the chilly November evening. Gazing into the flames, I was shocked to find that that weird rippling red light was emerging… or convening… on the bonfire as well! I tried to move around my field of vision a bit, but focusing on looking out of the corner of your eyes for an extended period of time is more difficult than you’d think. It seemed almost like the glow was moving through the other people around the fire, though. I peered around at the other party guests (three guys dressed as Mario kart characters with a trio of balloons attached to their belts probably won the most original costume in my mind), but nobody was unusually athletic. Had the wisp focused on Kellan for a reason? Why? There were more attractive guys here (or at least, more attractive than his original skinny shape… his new athletic frame gave him an edge). I stopped my train of thought. Why was I so concerned about this? For all I knew, this muscle growth was Kellan’s (and Claudia’s, if she actually remembered it) dream come true. If they were happy with it, who was I to stand in the way of a straight guy I didn’t even know from having unusual growth spurts? If a green muscle fairy light wanted to supercharge all the guys here, well, I could only benefit from that (if only in eye candy). I was feeling pretty confident about my “don’t worry about it” plan, when I remembered that cold feeling that had led me to interrupt Kellan’s… connection… with the green light. That sensation was like the grave, and it felt unpleasant and unnatural. Kellan had seemed to enjoy it, but he’d been hypnotized at the time, and Claudia and the other guests had clearly had their memories messed with. Even if I wasn’t exactly the heroic type, off to save the party guests from mind control, I certainly didn’t want something meddling with my thoughts and memories. It was just practical and self-centered, but it teamed up with my curiosity. If something was going on, I not only wanted to know all about it, I wanted to make sure it was something benevolent. Convinced I was in the right to keep searching, I decided to check out the other parts of the Higgins Manor. I snuck over to the garage behind the dance floor room, feeling the pulse of the loud music. Though full of all manner of odds and ends, some of which I’d never think to keep in a garage, I didn’t encounter anything supernatural, and no red or green lights appeared. The most recent hayride had taken off, and the upstairs level was still roped off. I checked out the chapel, and while there were more of those red ripples, they seemed fainter and less frequent, somehow, and I couldn’t tell where they were really coming from. I passed the couple of drunken wing fans, dutifully flapping my costume wings for them for the 12th, 13th, and 14th times, and remembered Kellan saying that he’d had to go to the bathroom before he got sidetracked. Like most of the rooms in the Manor, the restrooms were pretty outdated and poor quality. For some reason, the ladies’ room had an entrance from the main hall, but the men’s room could only be entered from the outside, near the bonfire (which made it cold). Both of them had spider-webs (the real variety, not the decorative kind) and dust inside, and the men’s room was (of course) dirtier… and that had been during the daytime when I was working. At a party for hundreds of drunken college kids, it was now likely much, much worse. I slipped outside, approached the bathroom and took a deep breath, hoping I’d be able to hold it the entire time I was investigating. Then I shivered… but not from the natural cold. The original foreboding chill that had led me to the wisp and Kellan the first time was back… and it seeped from the restroom, with a green glow appearing under the door. “Of course that’s where this thing’d go,” I groaned, steeling myself and taking another deep breath before I pushed the door open. I stopped in my tracks, as I saw what looked not like a ball of electricity, but a weirdly green “shadow” slipping around on the floor. It looked vaguely human, but there was no one there… or at least no one where the “shadow” lay. It wasn’t really dark, and had the same green glow from earlier, but it seemed somehow thicker and gloomier than before. I watched as it slid into the only locked stall like some sort of snake, and saw a pair of familiar, muscular calves in black skintight fabric. Mentally kicking myself for getting into this situation, I knocked. “Kellan… are you in there? Is everything alright?” An answering groan, deep and rich and definitely his voice, but thick with arousal that I was pretty sure wasn’t in response to me, even if it did turn every single one of my hormones into fireworks, confirmed my guess. The jade glow intensified, and I figured that I’d best find a way to get inside. The old restroom stall door was old-fashioned, not so flimsy as modern ones, and I’d be unlikely to bust the door down, even with a well-placed kick. I began desperately shaking the handle, and mercifully, the old lock was loose enough to pop open. Kellan’s back was to me, so I was treated to a view of his muscular ass in all its glory, round hardened glutes designed for running, lifting, and thrusting. It would’ve been nice to see it A) anywhere except a really disgusting restroom, if he was gay and interested in me, and C) not arching with green energy. The entity that did it to him no longer appeared as a wisp of light, but as that weirdly “glowing shadow”, now more human-looking, which moved from the floor to the wall, where it was emitting the green lightning directly into Kellan’s eyes. Kellan seemed out of it (or into it, rather), but his body was already warping as that weird light flooded through his muscles. His butt was literally glowing as it flexed and swelled, pushing enticingly towards me. His legs were thickening as muscles appeared to coil into place. His back, now a perfect V, was arched as the eldritch power filled him, his shoulders broader than before and thick with muscle. His arms bulged, powerful biceps and triceps grinding against each other as he flexed in the restroom stall. His neck was thicker as well, stretching to attach to the muscles of his shoulders and back, and his black costume was stretching and riding up on his growing (and glowing) body. I realized with a shock that he was a bit taller than me now. His moans of arousal continued, deep and resonant and obviously stemming from his increasing pleasure. Sparing a moment of regret that I couldn’t see him from the front, and unable to get through to him verbally, I wrapped my arms around his gymnast’s body, and tried pulling him back. Kellan resisted, already much further gone than he had been the last time, his lustful groans replaced by exclamations of disappointment and growls of frustration. The lightning continued to blaze through him (and now me), and this time I felt pain and loss and disorientation before the light changed from poison green to a vivid white brilliance accompanied by the same feeling of accomplishment from the last time. The illumination drove off the weird shadow, forcing it to slink away, and Kellan went slack in my arms. He was now much heavier than earlier, and I had to bend my knees and hold my back against the heavy wood of the stall walls, but in the end, I managed to keep us both from toppling over. When his breathing evened out I took a deep breath, confident that even though Kellan had been changed again, he was safe at the moment. His impressive pecs made his costumed rib cage rise and fall, and the lower part of his shirt raised to reveal several perfectly carved abdominal muscles. Between his chiseled adonis’ belt, a tempting trail of black hair descended from his belly button to his groin, framing a softening uncut dick that had to be at least nine inches hard. I also took in the sight of his substantial balls, and wondered if he’d be able to fit all of his junk back in those tight black pants. After I’d been able to look my fill, his beautiful eyelashes started to flutter. I murmured “Kellan, are you in there?” He groaned and his eyes opened, seeming confused. “Huh? Ange…lo. What’s goin’ on? I was draining the snake when everything went… weird.” He looked down, his eyes widened at the sight of his (mostly soft, but still six inch) shaft. “That’s… not mine,” he stammered, his eyes wide. Hoping to prevent a panic, I interrupted. “Dude, it’s ok, deep breaths. C’mon.” Once he obeyed, I explained what’d happened. “Then you kinda collapsed on me, and you’re a bit heavier than before… think you can stand up? I’m kinda worried about how we’ll explain this pose if someone walks in on us.” He nodded in agreement, still looking confused and unsettled, but with a surprisingly graceful ease, he lifted himself up off of me, using mostly his leg muscles, though his whole body seemed to flex beneath the tight costume, now stretched across a muscular hunk’s frame. I gulped and blushed, and this time he reached out a hand and pulled me up with ease, leaving me facing him. I thought I saw his pale cheeks blush as well, before looking away… and noticing that his cock was hardening again! Forcing my gaze upwards, I managed to say “Thanks… and uh, can you pull your pants up?” This time he definitely blushed and hurried to do that, but his cock was clearly hard and stretching the fabric. “Um… I’ll be outside… call if you see anything weird,” I said, hurriedly, as I duck out of the restroom. Out in the cold November air, I am able to cool down… at least until I hear the sounds of more deliberate moaning and the distinct clapping sound of a guy jerking off, and cursed the old building’s construction yet again. When he finally pushed himself over the brink, it was almost a howl of satisfied lust, and I had to adjust myself and thank heaven I’d opted for heavier black jeans that showed far less than Kellan’s flimsier costume. He eventually came out, wiping his washed hands, and looked at me with an expression like a lost little boy. “Why is this happening to me? What is happening to me? And… why does it feel so good?” This post has been promoted to an article

I am hoping there are other fans of the IFNB out there… It is, in my opinion, one of the best, consistent and intensely erotic muscle fiction series out there! I have been VERY in to the ongoing muscle fiction of the IFNB for a few years. It is a unique work, because it is not told like a traditional story but is told via "reports" from the world of the IFNB (International Federation of Naked Bodybuilding). Every post is coverage of a contest, backstage or personal profile of huge, hung, alpha-aggressive athletes. Over the course of the short posts, story lines and themes emerge and it becomes VERY hot. The creator(s?) clearly know the real world of competitive bodybuilding yet also have broad-ranging imaginations. Everything from vanilla muscle worship to hardcore gang rape and everything in between! Old-young, coach-jock, hetero and homo, extreme sex and basic showing off . . . it all seems to happen in this world. The cool part is that they acknowledge in clever ways how this has been going on in real life and why none of us are familiar. They are tethered to real life (even if the muscle growth stuff is sometimes pure science fiction), so it makes it hotter. I also like how they RESPOND TO OUR COMMENTS and the storyline follows the fans' interests. The hot discussions and sub-fantasies that emerge are sometimes as hot as the posts themselves. I really get into chatting IFNB with other fans, so thought I'd post here and see who else loves these stories?

A steady ground. A hard, stable surface upon which to walk, run, live... He felt as if he was waking from a terrible nightmare. The kind of terrible nightmare that faded quickly with the state of sleeping but left one trembling, sweating. A steady ground. Yes, he was waking from a terrible dream, but what he was waking to, he did not know. That moment of disorientation just before reason and logic where the world seems like an alien place. Except, for him, the reality did not come. His name... He reached out into the inky black void of his mind, grasping for information that should be there at his fingertips, ready for him to produce as an instinct. But it wasn’t there. None of it was. How old was he? Where did he live? How did he get here? Where was he? All of these questions circled his mind, asking themselves in different ways. Backwards, forwards, sideways. Yet, still, the answers did not come. He stood up from the smouldering wreckage of the building surrounding him. Carefully, he climbed towards a far away light. He slipped several times as he made his way through broken stone, metal and glass. Finally, he stood on solid, even ground. Asphalt. He looked down at his hands and finally his feet. A part of him knew that both should be covered in cuts, welts and burns, but they were in tact. No pain. He frowned slightly as he looked down at his hand. Glass, Asphalt, he knew these things, yet he did not know his name. He knew the object next to him was called a car. That it was made in 2002 by a company - a company? - named Chevy and was called an Impala. The color: blue. The tires, bald. Flashing lights. Red, white, blue. He felt his abdomen tighten in a combination of fear and relief. Those colors meant safety but also danger. Why danger? Why danger? A part of him, a distant part of him screamed at him to run, to go. Another part urged him to stay. Before he knew it, his legs were moving and the ground flew beneath his feet. Air roared in his ears as he approached the far white lights. He came to a stop as he reached the lights and several things happened at once. The cars standing next to the strange columns shook and started screaming. The lights above flickered. Then several people ran out of a door and began yelling. He tried to understand why they seemed so... angry. He just needed to know where he was. He looked around as the people continued to yell at him but found no indication of where he was. He turned to the rest of the people and tilted his head. “Where am I?” One person threw his hands up, “Great, he doesn’t speak fucking English.” “Sounds like Chinese,” a woman said softly. “Who the hell goes walking around naked at two o’clock in the mornin’ at a gas station?” “Probably some frat boy.” “Poor thing, someone get him a blanket or something.” The blanket they provided smelled like stale sweat and smoke. Sweat... Smoke... He looked up at the surrounding faces. As time passed, they began to show worry. “I don’t know what my name is,” he said softly. “Where did you come from?” He frowned and searched his thoughts. Still, no answers. “I don’t know.” “Let’s get him cleaned up and take him down to the police station, maybe he’s like, you know, retarded?” “Doesn’t look retarded to me.” The man again felt his stomach tighten. Fear. That word. Police. No, he couldn’t go to that... Police Station. A man put a hand on his shoulders. He looked old. There were lines in his face around his mouth and eyes. This man smiled alot. He like him. Gently, the old man led him to a room whose smell sickened him. There were small walls inside and a white... thing mounted to the wall. Urinal, the word came. “You need to use the bathroom, son?” the old man asked. He looked at the old man for a moment. Yes, he had to use the bathroom. He nodded. The man guided him to the urinal and gestured for him to go. He went. As he did, the man spoke. “That’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen on a man,” he remarked idly. “Yer mom musta bred with a horse if you know whata mean.” The old man laughed. He looked back at the old man. A horse... “Yer big too, muscles and everythin’. Not as big as somma those boys down at the beach, mind ya, but big enough.” He flushed and moved over to the sink to... wash his hands? He turned on the water and ran his hands under it. After a few moments he looked up into the mirror. Smoke, grime and dirt covered his features and made his black hair grey. But it was him. The reflection moved with him, so it must be him. His eyes travelled down from his moonlight pale eyes, across his bronze skin and finally to a marking on his chest. “Ninety-one,” the old man remarked over his shoulder. Ninety one. The numbers done in gothic - gothic? “Ninety-one. Is that my name?” “Nah, don’t think so. Then ‘gain I could be wrong,” the old man shrugged. “Got girls out here named Bonifa. But I suppose you need a name. How about... Nine? First name Nine, last name One?” He frowned slightly, then nodded. “Nine.” “Alright, Nine, wash your face and I’ll get you to the police station,” the old man said. “What is your name?” Nine asked. “Me? Oh, Will,” the old man replied. “Will, I cannot go to the police,” Nine stated clearly as he leaned his face down and rubbed it with water. “Why not?” Will asked, curious. A dawning comprehension lit his face. “You’re runnin’ from the law. That’s why you’re naked and that’s why you got that tattoo!” Fear quickly replaced comprehension. The man took a deep breath as if to yell as he scrambled backwards towards the door, then froze. Nine jerked his head up out of the water and caught the man with his gaze. He felt something click within him as he looked into the man’s eyes and felt his body grow warm. His sharp gaze quickly turned into one of lust. His cock swelled and he knew that it must be dealt with. Now. Nine felt the man’s will break under his gaze and in moments old Will dropped to his knees forcing his first cock down his throat. Nine leaned back against the wall of the small bathroom and let out a long moan as Will sucked harder and harder, trying to pull Nine’s orgasm from his body. Slowly, Nine began moving his hips, forcing his cock back and forth between Will’s lips. His body felt as if it were on fire as he was thrown upwards and over the pinnacle of his climax, forcing jet after jet down Will’s throat. Nine’s orgasm ripped from his throat in a primal roar that did not end until the last shot ebbed from his softening cock. Will fell back onto the ground, clutching at his stomach as Nine stepped out of the bathroom. An old woman looked up at Nine in fear then rushed into the bathroom at her husband’s cries. “Oh my god, Will!” she screamed. “You’re... growing!” Nine glanced back and saw Will’s pant leg explode with muscle before he looked back out over the dark expanse of the world. Like his mind, its secrets lay hidden in the murky black. Who was he? Nine? That couldn’t be his name, yet it felt right. Nine. One.