It was rumored to be the best haunted house tour in the state. Boasting being able to cater to a visitor’s specific fears, it was said to be a truly unique horror experience. Everyone who attended admitted to being scared beyond their wildest dreams. As such it had gathered a great deal of hype and publicity and even longer wait times for tickets.
Caleb and his immediate friend group had been lucky to win a VIP tour as part of a radio contest. All six of them loved Halloween and horror troupes but were skeptical that such a place could truly scare them. But their friends and classmates who had been lucky enough to attention years prior swore up and down that they would be terrified out of their minds. Yet no one would comment on the subject of what the haunted house tour actually entailed. That only lead to even more anticipation of the coming night’s festivities.
Caleb, with his roommate Liam, Liam’s girlfriend Wanda, Caleb’s girlfriend Ayako, his twin Angela and her boyfriend Jake were all set to go. They’d been waiting on Liam, who was finishing his shift at the local pizzeria. It was getting a bit late, however, and there was no sign of him.
To pass the time, the group began discussing the things that frightened them the most. Caleb mentioned Liam was terrified of dogs since being bitten by one as a child. It was an irrational fear, as he’d encountered many dogs since then, but one that always plagued his thoughts nonetheless. Angela was deathly afraid of rats. Ayako and Wanda were always cautious around walls in old buildings, in case any spiders or bugs were crawling around.
Caleb simply smiled. Unlike the others, there was little chance that any haunted house could cater to his fear of heights in a one-story house. Jake was equally cocky. His childhood fear had been of snakes since having a Garter thrown on him as a boy. He’d been dubbed “Jake the snake” ever since as a form of abuse. He shuddered at the memory but it was only live snakes that really bothered him. Surely there would be none there, and rubber snakes hardly made his heart race!
Caleb eventually got the text informing him that Liam had decided to meet the group at the house. The remaining five piled into Wanda’s car and away they went. The house was situated outside the city, and it was nearly impossible to find the place with no other noticeable landmarks. They had to pull over more than once to ensure they were indeed heading in the right direction.
At last, Wanda parked her car at the mouth of a very long driveway, the GPS providing them what they were sure was the proper destination. The ambiance of the place had been chosen perfectly. It was situated far back from the road on a hill, silhouetted by the light of a half-moon hanging orange in the clear night sky. The late October air was rather chilly and the group lamented their lack of proper attire. Still, they figured the house would be warm enough as they trudged their way to the main entrance.
A lone attendant greeted them at the door, simply asking for their tickets which Ayako had in her purse. He nodded solemnly as the group presented their admission. He then handed them a series of papers to sign, ensuring the house was exempt from liability should something happen. Though the five of them were skeptical of signing such a thing, it was necessary to do the tour.
The attendant led them to a door behind the desk, telling them to prepare for the horrors within. Caleb thought they should wait for Liam but the attendant told them their sixth party member was already inside. They waited a moment for the attendant to lead the way. He shook his head, saying they would know where to go once inside. It seemed strange to go in without a guide, but none of them argued.
With that, the group entered into a dark corridor that opened to a series of closed doors. At the end of the hall, the passage curved towards a massive elegant staircase. No deliberate Halloween decorations were to be seen, which was confusing. Weren’t these places usually filled with gaudy Halloween attire? The house was covered with cobwebs and dust from neglect, intentional or not.
They wandered down the dark stretch of hallway, on high alert for anything that might jump out and scare them. “Liam?” called Caleb as he shone his phone’s flashlight down the hall, looking for their missing friend. There was no sign of him so far and they wondered if they should start checking rooms.
A terrifying howl startled the group as they came to the bottom of the stairs. They could hear something slamming its way from one of the rooms upstairs. Standing still, they found themselves wondering if they should try and hide or if it was simply one of the house’s pranks. Yet it seemed too loud and too real to be any kind of automation.
The figure which lept into view at the top of the stairs was like nothing the group could have prepared for. It was bipedal, like a human, but was covered from head to toe with wiry gray fur. Its legs were digitigrade, ending in massive paws. It had a powerfully muscled chest and was hunched over as though the bipedal stance was difficult, like it could run on all fours if it wanted. The beast was clearly male; it had a massive erect phallus that looked more canine than human. Its sight on the creature was disturbing, to say the least!
But it was his face that was truly frightening. The beast was clutching his head as his muzzle pushed out further, yellow fangs bursting forth from his growing muzzle. Like a werewolf, it seemed to be shifting, having evidently not reached its final form. Yet through all the fur and bestial features, there was an undeniably familiar look to the creature. Its facial features almost resembled those of…
“Liam?” Wanda questioned as the beast’s yellowing eyes bared down at their group. There was no denying the similarity, no matter how impossible it seemed to be.
Liam, if that’s who it truly was, let out another pained howl as he leaped from the stairs. Everyone scattered as the creature landed heavily onto the wooden floor, howling in rage or pain. Ayako, Jake, and Angela tore back down the hall, hoping to escape the beast. Wanda tried to reach out for her former lover but Caleb grabbed her hand and pulled her up the stairs, now free from the monstrosity in front of their path.
The trio raced down the hall, Ayako in the lead. Suddenly, a door opened in front of her and she jumped inside, desperate to be away from the creature. Yet, before Jake and Angela could join her, the door slammed shut in their faces. They scrambled to open it before another door across the hall opened and the two rushed inside, desperate to evade the snarling growl of the werewolf.
Caleb and Wanda, meanwhile, rushed to the top of the stairs and entered the first open door, slamming it behind them. Wanda had tears running down her face, sure that something had happened to her lover, transformation or no. Caleb wanted to comfort her but was equally worried about his own girlfriend. He knew the beast hadn’t chased after the two of them and he was sure he could still hear it prowling about downstairs. Was it after the others? Had it killed them already? It surely appeared as though it could if it so desired!
Thoughts drifted from what such a creature could do to what it actually was. Surely not makeup or prosthetics; there was nothing that could make Liam’s face change like that! The more he contemplated it, the more Caleb had a passing thought. Liam had always been afraid of dogs; wouldn’t becoming a dog, or wolf, in this case, be his worst fear? The coincidence was staggering.
Wanda was still crying, her thoughts racing in fear of what had become of her lover. Had something attacked or bitten him, to change him into some sort of real-life werewolf? Would he come back to her or would he attack her if she came close to him again? Would they even manage to get out of here alive, even if Liam was beyond saving?
So lost in her own head, Wanda hardly noticed a spider falling from a web towards her to light on her hand. Only a pinprick of pain on her hand drew her attention down to gaze in pure terror at the creature of her worst nightmares! A blood-curdling scream escaped her lips as she flung her hands wildly, trying to get the thing off.
Caleb panicked at the sound, thinking the werewolf had gotten in. Yet when he saw the spider he did his best to comfort her. It would have been every bit as horrific for him to fall from great heights, after all!
Bite aching suddenly, Wanda’s attention was quickly drawn to the black marks oozing up her arm. Immediately, she felt sick and vomited on the floor with no further fanfare. As she reached up to wipe her mouth she felt something hairy brush her hand and for a moment thought it was another spider. But a numbness overtook her face and made her reach up to bush the hairy things once more. She was horrified at the realization that two massive protrusions were sticking out of her mouth! A terrible ache assaulted them as two massive fangs burst forth from the tips. Wanda tried to scream but could only elicit an exciting clicking sound as her new fangs touched each other.
Her attention was drawn to a mirror in the room as several lumps burst open all over her face and her vision was split from the formation of six new eyes. Many of them began segmenting themselves and her reflection in the mirror was split into hundreds of horrific images.
Something wriggled from the sides of her dress as two more sets of arachnoid legs burst forth and began flailing wildly. Her neck fattened as her hair fell away and her entire body became covered in a soft layer of sensitive black furs. Yet, Wanda remained frozen in terror, hardly able to believe what she was becoming. She might have had a heart attack had her internal organs not liquefied into a more simplified arachnid anatomy.
Caleb could only watch as Wanda’s now-massive ass ripped through her dress and ballooned outwards. Wanda wanted to moan as her sex and ass merged into a single opening. A new orifice filled with a sticky fluid that she somehow became aware could be released on command. Her body was more akin to the spider that bit her than the human woman she once was!
Both remained helpless as Wanda’s limbs spasmed and cracked into multiple segments. The bones dissolved away as her fingers and toes melted together into a single mass and several pairs of claws burst forth from the stubby remains. Unlike the spider that bit her, however, Wanda remained massive, trapped in the body of her most nightmarish visage.
Wanda’s sense of self started to fade as the spider’s mind took over. Her last fading thoughts were thankful for that; she could not bear to stare at her changed face anymore. Lost in the instincts of a massive arachnid, her fear slowly faded away. The horrific creature quickly crawled out of the room, likely looking for a dark place to build a nest, to hunt.
Caleb, meanwhile, could only tremble in fear at what he’d seen, and what the implication was for him. He knew Wanda was deftly afraid of spiders and had grotesquely been turned into one. Liam, too, was turned into a werewolf for his fear of canines. The circumstances were too much of a coincidence to ignore. What would happen to him?
Distracted as he was, the poor man failed to notice a squeaking and fluttering of wings above him. A sudden cry escaped his lips as something became tangled in his hair and sharp fangs pierce his scalp. Writhing in terror, Caleb was certain he’d been bitten by the same spider and would metamorphose in the same way he’d seen with his friends. Yet, to his surprise, he could see something that looked like a bat fly away and out an open window.
The relief was brief as Caleb suddenly felt sick from the bite. His body shook violently as brown hair burst forth from every pore. A burning enveloped his chest as the flesh writhed underneath and swelled up with muscle. As he rubbed the area he could feel defined pecs, abs, and a chiseled stomach taking shape, the likes of which he’d never known of his lanky frame. What was happening to him?
Yet that brief joy was not to last. His hands began to ache as two of his fingers and thumb grew longer and spindly. Gazing in stunned silence, he was helpless as they continued to elongate, stretching out past the length of his body. A steady tingle encompassed the entire surface as a fine webbing formed between the digits.
It was then he knew what he was becoming. He was not to change as Wanda or Liam had into creatures of their worst nightmares. Rather, his new form was to live out Caleb’s greatest fear as part of his everyday life.
Caleb could only moan as his feet pressed painfully against his shoes. Altered toes burst forth as the tips became adorned with pointed claws. A sharp rip echoed in the room as his new muscled thighs popped out of his jeans, leaving him clad in tatters. A newly-confined tail stretched from his spine above the back of his pants. It soon became covered with the same fleshy webbing that encompassed his now-clawed fingers.
As the horrific transformation raced onwards, Caleb could feel his ears start to stretch and rotate up his head. Human hair fell away to reveal more brown bat fuzz covering him. He tried to scream but a loud piercing cry erupted from his mouth that bounced off the walls and provided his changing mind the dimensions of the room. He could feel his eyesight dim, his teeth growing into fangs, his nose flaring out and flattening upward as his new muzzle pushed forward.
To his somewhat relief, Caleb’s human mind started fading beneath the instincts of the bat-creature he had become. The new beast leaped through the air and perched on the ledge of the open window. He shot several bursts of sound, illuminating the surrounding area as he prepared to take flight. Wings unfurled, he jumped into the night air, feeling a rush of wind under him as he soared above the house. But a part of his mind that was still Caleb screamed and screamed, aware of how high up he was and unable to cope with the reality of gliding above the earth for the rest of the night.
******
Meanwhile, Ayako was left alone, crying and trapped by herself in the low light of the room. She could no longer hear the sounds of the wolf outside and wondered where he had gone. Should she try to leave and get the others?
Trying the door, she was dismayed to find it was locked. Beating her hands on the door and screaming for help left her unsure why no one could hear her in the relatively small house. Surely at least the attendant would come to her aid. Wasn’t he right down the hall from them?
A sound of crawling and wriggling entered her ears, causing the small Japanese girl to look down and scream. At her feet were millions of insects, centipedes, roaches, beetles, maggots, and other things she could only guess at. She screamed and screamed, unaware that one of the centipedes had fallen from the ceiling and into her open mouth. She went to vomit but before she could the thing had slid down her throat, unable to be expelled.
After a few moments, she could feel the thing stop moving and began to expand in her gullet, as though trying to escape. At first, she thought she would suffocate, but to her shock, she realized she was no longer breathing. Something was pricking on her skin as all the hair on her body abruptly fell out. Rubbing at the smooth flesh, she was flabbergasted as it began to harden. It was as though the thing inside her was expanding and reshaping her as it merged with her flesh.
Ayako tried to cry out for help as a pair of waving, multi-segmented legs burst forth from her chest. It was followed by another and another, dozens spreading down her body as her skin segmented all the way towards her ass, which was changing to merge with her sex. The muscles in her legs and arms began to wither and with a sudden motion, she fell onto the ground, a mere trunk with writhing limbs as she expanded to tear out of her dress and panties. Her arms and legs dissolved, the flesh withered as though burned before restructuring into another pair of spindly legs. Something above her ass burst forth and began waving frantically, a pair of alien appendages even longer than her new limbs. Her internal organs, her bones, heart, and lungs were all gone, replaced by the simple fluids of arthropod digestion, circulation, and spiracle respiration.
She was a trunk with a human head, unable to scream or even cry as her eyes grew larger and began to segment into hundreds of separate images. A pair of split appendages torn their way through her jaw, one serrated to tear into prey while the other was more flexible to allow her to guide food to her jaw. Her teeth and tongue dissolved and she began drooling profusely, an acidic substance that could eat through metal. A set of waving antennae burst forth from her former forehead as her changes completed. The new, massive centipede burrowed into the floor to hunt, followed by the army of her much smaller brethren.
******
Jake and Angela, meanwhile, did their best to barricade the door in case the wolf was on their heels. There was little in the room to aid in their defense, save for a dresser and some chairs, which were unlikely to hold for long against such a beast. Yet after a few minutes, there was no sound of scratching claws or howling, and it appeared that the hallway was silent. They breathed a sigh of relief, kissing briefly as they flushed with arousal from the adrenaline that coursed through them.
With the immediate threat out of the way, they took a few minutes to survey the room. There was a massive carpet in the center, a dark dusty window, and an expansive hole in the wall. Angela had to look in that direction, fearing there were rats inside. To her horror, there was indeed a pair of beady eyes staring at her. Then two, four, dozens more. Angela screamed at the sounds of scrabbling claws in the walls, and what must have been millions of rats crawling all around them.
Jake stepped forward to move their barricade so the rats couldn’t get in. But the moment his feet crossed the carpet it simply gave way and he fell down into a hidden cavern about six feet deep. His fall was broken by something warm and leathery, making him think he had been he had landed on luggage. Yet he screamed at the sudden realizion they were all slowly moving. As the moonlight shone in and illuminated the area he was horrified to realize he was in a pit of snakes, all different species and sizes crawling around him.
“Angela! H-Help!” He cried, trying his best to get out and avoid touching the serpents. Angela stepped forward and reached down to grab him when suddenly dozens of large black rats poured out of the hole and began to swarm around her. She screamed, watching as some fell into the hole. Jake starred in shock and disgust as some of the snakes coiled back and struck, swallowing the rats whole. He couldn’t stop the tears from flowing as his childhood nightmares came back to him all at once.
Angela was almost too terrified to move near the rats, but she couldn’t leave her boyfriend there alone. She reached her hand down and Jake took it, trying to get rise and purchase on the writhing pile of serpents. Yet suddenly the muscles in his arm started to weaken. Angela pulled and pulled but with a sickening pop the arm she had been holding dislocated as it withered and dissolved. She watched as the fingers merged and shrank to be inside Jake’s truck. Jake screamed and tried to reach up with the other hand but it too lost all of its muscles and bones and withered towards a stump sticking out comically from his former shoulder.
Jake tried in vain to jump but the same feeling of weakness overcame his legs. He fell over, the skin of his stomach touching the warm scales of the various serpents. His hips, his knees, his feet, and ankles all dwindled away as his pants fell off from having nothing to hold them up. He was forced onto his ass as the snakes in the pit began to crawl over him, making him cry out in terror.
Angela wanted desperately to help but she could do nothing but watch the horrific change. Yet she was unable to even watch when a rat jumped over her foot, causing her to fall backward onto her ass. She shrieked, crawling away from the swarm of rodents in a desperate bid to avoid them.
Jake, meanwhile, was experiencing the bizarre sensation of his spine extending as his ass cheeks receded. To his absolute disgust, it felt as though his anus was moving further up his taint to merge with his retreating balls and cock. With an audible sucking sound, his junk retracted into the single slit he now had. His spine stretched further and further as skin and muscle covered what seemed to be a new protrusion. It was suspect how thick it was becoming, expanding to the size of his ass and chest at the base as it grew longer.
A particular image came to mind, one that terrified him to the core. It was of his body elongating, growing until he was one of the disgusting reptiles in the pit with him. He was on his way to being Jake the snake for real!
His worst fears were confirmed when a dry sensation spread from his forehead and down his neck and back. Jake craned a surprisingly flexible neck to see a pattern of brown, yellow, and black scales spreading down the length of his body in a spotted pattern. At their prompting, the hair on his body started to fall away and dissolve. Formerly human muscles began to flatten into the tube-like body he was slowly developing. Jake wanted to cry but his altering eyes no longer had the tear ducts for it.
His tongue started to push out of his mouth without realizing it and was shocked to realize he could almost taste the air. Not only were various scents present, but he could determine things like heat and movement from the molecules he was detecting. A shrinking head did not hinder his mouth from expanding ever wider, the muscles in his jaw more elastic to allow it to open three times the width of his head.
The new flexibility in his spine and muscles started slowly propelling him forward like the rest of the snakes in the pit. His thoughts began to slow as he drank in the warmth of his brethren. A forked tongue darting in and out, detecting the sweet warmth of prey all above him. The fear he had felt was slowed eroded away by the cool reptilian brain that took place of his own. All that remained was a fully formed Burmese Python, slithering among the rest in the pit.
Angela was crying now as her boyfriend continued changing into the thing that he feared most. Yet, she was too scared to realize that one of the rats had run over her foot and bit down on the exposed flesh of her ankle. She screamed from the sudden pain as a tingling spread from her legs up to her body. Her chest began to itch and she pulled up her shirt to see a dark patch of black hair spreading across it. A frightening notion crossed her mind that the same thing that had happened to her lover was happening to her. She was becoming the thing she feared most, one of the crawling vermin that were still pouring out of the hole in the wall.
Looking at the wave of rats with the fixation of a woman in terror, Angela watched as more of the racing rodents fell into the pit with the snakes. The serpent that had once been Jake opened his jaws in hunger and struck, swallowing a helpless rodent in one go. Angela began to cry, thinking that soon she would be the thing that her former boyfriend had just eaten for lunch.
Angela knew she had to get away before she changed fully. It was her only recourse from the same fate. Banging on the door, Angela could not care less that a werewolf had been outside not ten minutes before. She couldn’t stay here and let herself change!
Yet the door would not budge. In fact, it seemed that the doorknob was slowly getting higher as she watched. No. that wasn’t right. Angela was shrinking! She could feel her clothes getting bigger around her and the itch spreading all across her chest and up her neck. She was changing so fast! Would getting out of the room even be enough to stop the process?
Trying the knob again, Angela was shocked to see that her fingers seemed longer, their nails erupting into rodent claws. A scream escaped her lips as her arms shank into her formerly thin chest, now chubby from her increasingly rodent form. Her hips merged with the sides of her chest, forcing the length of her legs to diminish. She could feel her ankles stretching back, sending her off balance as her feet came out of her shoes and her toes stretched into rodent claws. A low groan escaped her lips as her spine pushed out into a long ropey hairless tail that pooled on the floor as she shrank.
Angela could feel her breasts starting to balloon relative to her body as several more pairs of sensitive flesh popped out along her belly. The urge to touch them was almost overwhelming, but she couldn’t do such a thing, could she? She had to resist the urges of the creature she was becoming!
A pain in her skull distracted her, however, as her jaw started to extend and her two front teeth thickened and became buck-shaped. Her shrinking cranium squeezed her eyes so tight she felt as though they might pop. Darkening to red, they became beady as her ears expanded out to the sides of her head.
Angela could feel her nose start to expand as several pairs of pointed whiskers erupted from its sides. A particular smell entered her nose as she was surrounded by her increasingly equal-sized fellow rodents. Against her wishes, her sex started to leak fluids from the stench. She couldn’t be turned on by…rats!
Yet her mind was fading under the onslaught of rodent senses and the feeling of need in her changed cunt. She reached down to touch it with surprisingly flexible clawed hands, but the pleasure was hardly sufficient. She needed more!
As though reading her mind, one of the males was on her in an instant, poking at her opening with his stiff penis. Yet Angela was too far gone to fight it now. Angela’s mind was whited out from ecstasy as a male rat mated her, pushing its taut penis deep inside her. He filled her with the first of many blasts of seed, making her pregnant with rodent young.
Angela had been afraid of rats for so long, their furry bodies and buck teeth and long naked tails. But the more she was fucked and bred, surrounded by dozens of warm bodies, the more she relished the sensations as the last of her human thoughts faded in orgasmic bliss.
******
Liam awoke with a terrible headache, feeling itchy as the last bits of fur faded from his form and his clothes restored themselves on his body. A dim recollection played over his mind of what he had been, what he had done. He recalled the smells of his friends and his girlfriend but was thankful he did not bite or hurt them. Soon after his change had completed, a door had opened up to him, allowing him to run in the woods and hunt. It had been terrifying at first, losing control of his mind, and becoming a bloodthirsty beast. But he hadn’t hurt anyone, and once he was alone, it had been wonderful, all things considered.
Looking around, he saw that Wanda, Jake, and Ayako were waking up around him, all wearing the clothes they had arrived in. Wanda was rubbing her sides frantically, looking for the extra pairs of limbs that had burst out of her sides earlier that evening. She still hated spiders, but the experience hadn’t been so bad. She had simply found a quiet corner to weave her webs and wait for prey to come by so she could drain its fluids. Spiders had little interest in much else.
It took them a few moments to realize that Caleb and Angela were missing. Ayako starting crying out their names but no one came. She ran all over the hill, wondering where her lover had gone. Jake came with her, both needing to run after spending a night crawling on the ground. It had been terrifying for them both to be limbless, but they left the experience with a new appreciation of life close to the ground.
There was no sign of their lovers anywhere. Jake coughed and sputtered, feeling something in his mouth that made him gag. He reached into his mouth, pulling amount a bit of fur and bone. It took him a moment to realize it was from a rat. Oh, God. Could he have eaten Angela? He fell to his knees, crying from the implication of what he might have done.
The attendant came out at that moment, shaking his head solemnly. “Your friends are not here. It happens from time to time. Either the subject is too terrified of the form they have become and cannot return, such as the boy. Or they have come to love their new body too much, such as the girl,” the man said with obvious regret in his voice.
Ayako and Jake screamed at the man to give their partners back but the man simply shrugged. He told them there was nothing they could do and no legal action that could be taken. The spell around the house would erase the memories of those who stayed inside from everyone in the outside world, including them. Even the attendant lost his memory of the place after Halloween each year, entering back into his normal life until the memories of the cursed place reentered his mind and he renewed his job as a harbinger of the residence’s magic.
They were given one thread of hope, however. If they truly missed their loved ones, they might be compelled to get tickets for next year’s event, when the former beasts would return along with the house that had changed them. Then, the memories of those they had lost would return. Should they have the resolution to avoid succumbing to the changes themselves, there was a chance to reunite with their loved ones.
As the four remaining humans somberly walked back to Wanda’s car, their dispositions become those of excited laughter about the scares they had received. To think they all thought they had turned into beasts and faced their darkest fears! It had all been an elaborate prank, but their fear had been real and they certainly got their money’s worth from the experience.
No one noticed the giant bat returning to the window, looking for a place to roost for the day. No one noticed the small army of rats running from the house, a new female in their ranks that loved being bred and filled with babies so that she might give birth to the next generation of her vermin. The memories of the former humans faded lost amidst the spell the house provided, until perhaps next year…