Lust of the Haunted Masks

Andy pressed the side of his face against the window. The cold bit into his cheek, and he couldn’t see through the glass much thanks to the rain, but that didn’t matter. Even if he could see there wouldn’t be much there. It was 4:30, and most folks had already gone home.

Rather than go home himself, Andy had spent most of the two hours since his final class lingering, either in the student lounge playing Smash Bros, or in the hallways doing laps and studying the ads on the public corkboards. Once he settled in the dining hall, he nestled himself in a booth, people watching until there were no more people to watch, and then for a little while longer.

At its peak, the Eldersburg Community College dining hall was a bustling hive of student activity. Young people weaved their way between tables carrying trays of cafeteria fare to their tables, where they either met their friends or sat alone hunched over their laptops doing schoolwork. Lovers met, snuck kisses, and indulged in clumsy flirtations. There were no teachers to judge them now, and few, if any, of the rules that once bound them in high school applied, so PDA was rampant. You could almost hear their metaphorical muscles as they stretched the boundaries of their new-found independence. The high ceiling reverberated with exuberant chatter and the clacking of keyboards, filling the air with a charge of possibility.

To Andy, the spark was all too familiar, but compared to his first time around it felt dampened. Distant, even. Like it didn’t belong to him. There was a very simple reason for this:

“Shut up,” a classmate once said, slack jawed. “You’re 28!?”

“But you look so young!” Another one said, studying his face closely.

“Dude, if you told me you were twenty I would absolutely believe you.”

As flattering as these compliments were, it didn’t take long for Andy to wonder if these people had any concept of what a 28 year old actually looked like. From what he gathered, most seemed to think your life was pretty much over once you hit 25, and that by 30 the wrinkles and arthritis came knocking along with your live in nurse and AARP card.

Andy already had a Masters degree. Anthropology with a minor in English. Not exactly a lucrative combo, even in the best of times, but he’d managed to parlay that into some steady employment. At least for a time…until the layoffs. With rent and car payments bearing down on him, he knew he had to make some tough choices, and fast. No more pipe dreams. Now that he ‘knew better,’ he needed to refocus, invest in a few classes, and shift his study from his passions to something that, well, actually made money.

I like computers, he thought one night, and computer people make money, right? He scanned the class catalog the next day and, in the end, that’s what he picked: computer science.

Walking into the student building on his first day ‘back’ made him feel like an alien. So little had changed in seven years. It was nice at first. Almost refreshing. A warm pool of nostalgia from when life was more carefree. That illusion had its limits, though. When he socialized with those around him, with their bright eyes and heedless energy, he couldn’t help but feel the yawn of years separating them. They were friendly, of course, and would include him in games if he asked, but Andy suspected they could sense he was different from them somehow, even without him telling them his age, and would rarely approach him unsolicited.

So when Astrid slid into the booth and sat down across from him, Andy was more than a little surprised.

“Hey.” She nodded upwards.

“Hey,” Andy replied, his face still smushed against the window.

Astrid immediately pulled out her phone and began to scroll. Andy, glanced sidelong, watching her while trying to seem like he wasn’t. She dressed like a recovering Hot Topic goth, wearing a black and white striped long sleeved shirt underneath a black tee from a band Andy had never heard of, along with a pair of lightly ripped black jeans. Her black hair was close cropped, and her ears pierced with silver. Half-full lips and a button nose sat under a pair of large brown eyes, which scanned the tiny screen below her with darting micro-movements.

They’d hung out before. Not often, since the gaps between their classes rarely overlapped, but frequently enough to be on a first name basis. They grabbed lunch together sometimes, though only when they happened to be heading there at the same time, and later would sit near each other in the student lounge, playing video games and watching anime with the rest of the nerds. Andy smirked knowingly at the clumsy flirtations thrown her way by a menagerie of awkward loners, drawn, as such people often are, by her alt aesthetic and tomboyish demeanor. Not that he was immune to it, or all that much more experienced. For all his pretense of being ‘above it all,’ he couldn’t deny the pull he felt towards her.

Don’t, dude. She’s 22. Maybe if you were five years younger you’d have a chance, but you don’t. Just keep your distance, all right? Don’t ruin her.

Andy ventured a longer look at Astrid. If she noticed, she didn’t let on.

I mean, come on. What would she want with an ‘old man’ like you anyways?

Yet here she was, sitting across from him for reasons he didn’t understand.

Just talk to her. You’re allowed to do that. A bit of conversation can’t hurt, can it?

“Got any more classes today?” Andy said.

“Nope,” she quickly replied, not looking up from her phone, “just hanging out.”

Andy bounced his eyebrows once and nodded. He waited ten seconds, then twenty, expecting her to get up and walk away, but she just kept tapping and scrolling.

“Looked like they’re still playing Smash in the lounge,” Andy said.

Astrid shrugged. “Kind of bored of Smash right now.” She glanced at him briefly before returning her attention to her phone again. “Plus you looked kind of lonely.”

Andy felt a heat in his chest. While he was sure she meant to be nice, Andy bristled somewhat at the thought of him being some kind of pity case. He crossed his arms and nestled a bit deeper into the corner of the booth.

Astrid locked her phone and placed it face down on the table. “So, you doing anything tonight? For Halloween?”

Andy had almost forgotten, even though he’d been seeing people in costume around campus all day. He took a deep breath through his nose. “Not really.”

Astrid planted her elbows on the table and rested her head in her palms. “Do you have a costume?” she said.

Andy shook his head. “Not this year?” he replied.

“What’d you wear last year?”

“Didn’t have one then, either.”

Astrid tilted her head. “Do you not like dressing up?”

Andy shrugged. “I mean, what’s the point of a costume if you’re not going to a party?”

Astrid raised a finger. “Ah! That’s not what I asked.”

Andy took a moment to think. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

“What do you like about it?”

Andy took a long time to think, feeling Astrid’s quizzical eyes drill into him.

“I guess it’s just fun being something else, sometimes.” he said slowly. “Something other than myself. It feels…I don’t know, nice.” Andy immediately cringed, realizing that what he said sounded a lot like self-hatred, but Astrid’s eyes seemed to brighten. He turned his body to face her. “What about you?” he gestured towards her.

“What about me?”

“Do you have a costume?”

The corner of Astrid’s mouth twitched. “Haven’t decided yet.”

Andy heard the clatter of grating come down behind him, meaning the cafeteria was closed. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a young couple cross the hall towards a staircase, one as black-suit Spider-Man, and other as Black Cat, chatting with hushed voices and giggling as their feet clopped lazily up the steps.

“Well, if you’re not doing anything tonight...” Astrid elongated her words, “...do you wanna maybe come over to my place and hang out a bit?” She spun her phone on the table. “Maybe watch a movie?”

A voice deep inside Andy muttered three words with such fervent urgency that he almost said them out loud:

Just say yes. Just say yes. Just say yes.

“I mean...” This is it. I’m really doing this. “...OK.”

Astrid sat up and rolled her shoulders back. “Wanna head out now?” She said with barely concealed eagerness.

“Sure,” Andy said, straining to remain casual. “Yeah, let's go.”

Astrid slipped effortlessly out of the booth, as if she’d been prepared to do so the entire time. Andy took a bit longer, flexing his stiffened muscles as he shuffled out from the corner.

Astrid leaned on the table watching him. “You’ll have to drive me, though, because I...” she tapped a one second ditty on the table. “...don’t actually have a car.”

X    X    X

When Andy pulled up to the address Astrid gave him, he expected a house dripping with Halloween decor. Fake cobwebs, plastic skeletons, maybe a half-dozen pumpkins. Instead, he found a fairly standard five-over-one apartment building, one of seven in a complex nestled in a nook carved out of the edge of the woods. He parked as close as he could, and as the two walked the fifty or so feet between the car and the building, Andy’s mind raced as all the ways he imagined the night would go rapidly converged into definite reality.

Her apartment was 305. Third floor. The sound of their footsteps reverberated through the open breezeway as they stomped up the stairs.

Astrid reached around and fished the keys out from the side pocket of her backpack. “Just gonna warn ya, it’s a bit of a mess in there.” She fumbled as she fit her key into the lock. “Wasn’t really expecting guests, you know?”

A sudden gust rushed through, and Andy pulled his coat in tighter, looking around nervously. He didn’t know why, but he was afraid that someone would appear from one of the other apartments and see them.

When Astrid finally got the door open, she shuffled over the threshold, stood just inside, and lightly gestured for Andy to step through. Once he passed her, she closed the door, and all at once they were swallowed by a silence that amplified their footsteps on the hardwood floor. In near darkness the two removed their shoes and winter wear. Astrid finished first and walked past Andy down the hall, but stopped just past the coat closet and half turned back towards him.

“You want anything to uh...” she wiggled her fingers in the air, searching for the next word, “...drink?”

“Sure,” Andy said. “Water’s fine.”

Astrid wet her lips, crossed her arm, and nodded. “All right, well, go ahead and grab a bottle from the fridge,” she pointed behind herself and ambled backwards down the hall. “I’m gonna go pick a movie.”

Andy stripped to his t-shirt, jeans, and socks and followed after her, almost asking where the kitchen was before spying the entrance to it on his right. Making a beeline for the fridge he knelt down, preparing to dig through its contents, only to find that there was barely anything there outside of some jars of sauce and a small cluster of water bottles bunched together in the back corner. He grabbed one and leaned against the counter, twisting the cap off and breathing slowly as he took in his surroundings. There were very few flourishes that distinguished the kitchen from any other. No photographs or decorations, no quirky magnets on the fridge. Andy wasn’t disappointed, but it did clash with how he’d imagined someone with Astrid’s vibe would live.

“Is this just your apartment?” Andy called out.

“You mean do I have roommates?” Astrid called back.

“Yeah.”

“Nope, just me.”

Andy heard Astrid’s footsteps come down the hall and she rounded the corner into view, holding up a Blu-ray case. The cover had a unicorn on it, along with a princess, a young warrior that looked like Tom Cruise (because it was) and some kind of devil with vibrant red skin and massive, black, ox-like horns.

The title said ‘Legend.’

“Ever seen this?” Astrid asked.

Andy shook his head.

Astrid smiled and pointed the case at him. “We’re watching it, then.” She spun around and went back the way she came. “Director’s cut, obviously.”

Andy took a long, deep breath and followed Astrid into the living room, where she was already sliding the disc in the player beneath the 65-inch big screen. He settled into one side of the couch, adjusting to the upholstery and leaning against the arm rest while Astrid stood up and extended her arm, remote in hand, to fiddle with the settings. As soon as she hit play, she rushed around the coffee table and flopped down on the couch opposite Andy and pulled a knit blanket up to her neck.

The movie was a fairy tale in the truest sense. The story was basic, but whatever it lacked in narrative it made up for in the art department. Andy had never seen a movie so resplendent. The sets, the make-up and costumes, all of it astonishing, not just in scale, but in every wild, beautiful, grotesque detail shimmering and glistening under the studio lights. At first Andy was worried his nerves would make it difficult to pay attention, but within minutes, he sank into it like a dream.

His interest peaked about two thirds in when Princess Lili, recently captured by a band of sinister goblins, wakes up with her once pure-white dress torn to rags. She runs through the halls until she ends up in a room full of undulating pillars, a long dining table stacked with black foodstuff, and a massive hearth-like fireplace, whose flames whipped and danced well above human height. After investigating the room with shivering trepidation, she senses a presence and turns, only to find a glimmering black dress standing there, as if worn by an invisible figure. It begins to dance on its own, moving towards her, swaying gracefully to the beat of a titillating waltz. At first, Lili is frightened, but soon the allure of its shimmering opulence is too much for her to resist and she begins to dance too, rocking and swaying in sync. The music, delicate at first, soon begins to roar with mad intensity, rising to a climax, and in the span of a cut, the two merge and the dress is suddenly on her body, leaving the once pure, virginal princess transformed. Standing in her place is someone else, unrecognizable save for the face, and even that is now stained with black, Gothic make-up.

That’s when Darkness appears.

He emerges from a nearby mirror, revealing himself piece by piece, much to Lili’s shock and horror. Played with camp gusto by Tim Curry, Darkness is a red-skinned devil at its most archetypal, towering with muscular splendor over Lili as he attempts to seduce his self-appointed bride-to-be with words dripping with his namesake.

“I’ve found my true mate, and you know it.”

“Never!” Lili says with fading defiance.

“Beneath the skin we are already...one.”

Andy caught Astrid shifting out of the corner of his eye, pulling her blanket tighter against her chin.

“You lie!” Lili announces with renewed courage. “You disgust me! You’re nothing but an animal!”

Darkness chuckles. “We are all animals my lady,” he sneers. “Most are too afraid to see it.”

Andy heard Astrid shift again and turn towards him.

“Hey Andy,” she said as casually as she could manage.

Andy, captivated by the film, took a second to break his gaze from the screen to look at her. When he did, he saw that her jaw was tight, and her eyes were fixed on him.

“What’s up?” he said, shifting to face her.

Astrid bit her lip. “Could we...” her mouth hung open a moment, eyes sidelong, “...try something.” Andy’s heart leapt, not knowing how to reply. Luckily, he was spared having to by Astrid’s stammering interjection: “I-i-it’s something I’ve wanted to try for a long time, and I don’t know if it’s going to work, but...it needs two people.”

Andy’s eyes narrowed. It clearly wasn’t what he thought it was...at least he was pretty sure it wasn’t. “Sure, all right, I mean...what is it?”

Astrid took a deep breath through her nose. She grabbed the remote, pointed it at the TV, and pressed pause, freezing the crimson face of Darkness, whose head was turned upwards in joyous, rumbling laughter. Then, she stood and put one hand on her hip and the other up in placation.

“I can’t tell you yet,” she said. “And we can’t do it here. There’s somewhere I have to take you first.”

If Astrid’s goal was to make Andy as suspicious as possible, she succeeded.

“OK,” he said anyway.

Astrid smiled wryly and nodded, as if saying ‘thank goodness you said yes, because I had no plan for if you said no.’

“All right,” she tapped his knee with the back of her hand as she walked past him. “Come on. Get your shoes on.”

X    X    X

The night was damp – very damp – and the leaves carpeting the ground were slick, glistening with moonlit moisture made shimmering by their flashlights. While the drip of water droplets surrounded them with a constant pattering, there was no rain, which Andy was very much grateful for. Astrid took the lead, carefully high-stepping around the brush and weaving her way through the woods with confidence. Andy, on the other hand, walked a few feet behind, taking deliberate steps to avoid slipping while mimicking Astrid’s footsteps as closely as he could.

“Astrid, where are we going?” he said.

Astrid didn’t respond.

“Astrid?” he asked, louder.

“Almost there,” she said after a moment, though seemingly not in response to his calls.

Half an hour into their trek, Andy’s mind was seized by the real possibility that he was being led into some kind of murder death trap, and that soon a gang of burly men or hooded cult worshipers would burst from behind the trees and brutalize him. He thought about turning back, or at least suggesting that they should, but before he could decide on a course of action, Andy caught sight of something through the trees. He wasn’t sure at first, but the closer they got, the clearer it became.

It was a house. What was left of one, at least.

Most of the second floor was gone. The windows on the first floor had broken or fogged well beyond the point where they could be seen through, and a pile of wood and masonry lay where the left-hand wall was. The ruin looked to be at least a hundred years old and of a design only found in the oldest parts of town. But here it was, in the middle of the woods.

Andy stood and gawked at it. “Astrid, what is this?”

Astrid walked up the front steps towards the door with the confidence of one who had clearly been here many times before, but just as she was about to pull the door open, she stopped. She held her shoulders tense, and Andy could hear her take a series of deep breaths.

“This was a bad idea,” she turned and walked back down the steps. “Let’s just go.”

As she passed Andy, he grabbed her shoulder. “Wait” he said sharply. Astrid froze with a jolt and stared into Andy’s eyes. In that moment he realized she wasn’t afraid of what was in there, he was afraid of his reaction to it. “Just tell me what this is.”

Astrid swallowed hard. “There’s this thing in the basement that I found a few months ago. It’s kind of...I guess Halloween themed, and I thought it would be really cool to show you.”

A gust of wind blew through. Andy didn’t feel it, but the branches above them creaked and groaned in the gale. He nodded and gestured with his head towards the house, smiling. Astrid smiled back and nodded too, and once Andy released her shoulder, she walked back towards the front door, and Andy followed.

There wasn’t much to the interior of the first floor. Nature had done its work, and if there was any furniture it had been thoroughly crushed beyond recognition, likely decades ago. The only interior door still intact sat underneath the stairwell leading to the non-existent second floor, and when Astrid stopped in front of it, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a large, silver key.

“Where’d you get that?” Andy asked.

Astrid gave a wicked grin. “Found it on my second, no…third expedition.”

This key was even tougher to insert than the one for her apartment, and once it was inside, Astrid still had to wiggle the key to wrangle the tumblers in line. When the lock finally clicked, Astrid yanked on the handle, but the door barely budged. After she gave it a few more tugs, Andy stepped in and grabbed the handle where she wasn’t and planted his foot on the wall to the right.

“One...two...three!”

With a single, massive tug, the door immediately snapped from its stuck position and swung open with barely any resistance, to the point where, for a split second, Andy was afraid they’d pulled it off its hinges. Once Andy regained his balance, he approached the opening, pointing his flashlight in. Beyond the threshold were eight steps, which led steeply down before hitting a wall and turning left.

Astrid nudged past him and climbed down the stairs without saying a word, or even looking at him. Andy glanced around the ruin one last time, then tentatively followed after.

“Close the door behind you,” Astrid called back. “Don’t worry, it won’t lock.”

When Andy reached back and pulled the door closed behind them, the darkness became absolute, accompanied by a near total silence outside the creak of the stairs and their breathing.

“How far down are we going?” Andy asked.

“It’s right here.”

Andy rounded the bend and saw that, only ten more steps down, the stairs opened onto a lightless room. By the time Andy reached the bottom, Astrid was already striding around the perimeter with purpose, using a Zippo lighter to light a series of candles all around the room.

Not wanting to wait, Andy let his flashlight scan the walls. The room was circular, about fifteen feet in diameter with an eight-foot-high ceiling and one-foot-high, rectangular window at the top of the wall on the far side. While the middle of the room was empty (save for a large Persian rug), just about every inch of the mortared stone that made the wall had a piece of hardwood furniture in front of it. Everything from wardrobes to cabinets to desks and workbenches all piled high with old books – some of them laying open, revealing stained pages of hand-written diagrams and scrawl. There was even a six-foot-high mirror. Even though its brass was tarnished, the glass still shone with crystalline clarity.

“Did you do this?” Andy said with genuine awe.

“No,” Astrid said, still attending to the candles. “I mean, the candles are mine, but the rest of this I found exploring, like...eight months ago.” She flicked her lighter closed and stowed it in her pocket. “Took a lot of dusting.”

“I can imagine.” Andy looked up and saw the ceiling etched with what looked to be astrological symbols. “Geez...”

As his attention drifted back down, he saw Astrid standing by a desk, arms crossed, watching him intently. Even though there were flickering candles all around them, deep pools of shadow still formed on her face and in the folds of her clothes.

“So, uh, what’s this thing you want to show me?” he said.

She smirked. “Over here.”

Gesturing with her head, she pointed towards the far side of the room opposite the stairs. As the two converged, he realized what she was showing him. On a table beneath the window was a massive, walnut wood trunk, three feet wide, held together with iron banding. Astrid fished out another silver key from her pocket (smaller than the one before) and stuck it into the trunk's studded padlock. Once unlocked, she let it drop on the floor, where it landed with a dull thud, and with a heave and a grunt she opened the lid.

Andy leaned forward and peered inside.

The whole interior was lined with black felt, and a black cushion occupied the bottom half. In the cushion there were two indents, one on the left and one on the right, and in these indents were heads. Two sleeping, human sized heads.

But they weren’t human. Both were bald, and each one had a pair of pointed, elf-like ears, about an inch longer than a human’s. The one on the left had scarlet skin, and while its face was fierce and angular, its features were thoroughly and unmistakably feminine. Its closed eyes were large, and its black lips were full and half open, just barely revealing a row of gleaming white teeth. Andy wasn’t sure, but he thought the incisors might have been fanged. The other head was just about the opposite of the first. Its skin was a sickly greenish-yellow (more green than yellow), its features brutal, twisted, and ferocious. A furrowed brow hung thick over sunken eye sockets, and its mouth seemed to be curled into a perpetual snarl, revealing a row of sharp, pointed teeth.

“Holy shit.” Andy said.

“I know, right?” Astrid pointed into the chest. “Feel one.”

Andy glanced at her, spying her eagerness in her eyes, then turned his attention back to the trunk. He reached in, hand trembling, and lightly stroked the cheek of the green mask.

“This feels like skin,” he said.

“Cool, huh?” Astrid said with an almost nerdy enthusiasm.

Andy brought his other hand in and wiggled his fingers along the sides of the head between the skin and the cushion until he was able to hook them around the ears and gingerly pulled it out. Suddenly, its shape collapsed, and Andy jolted to drop it back in until it settled into a deformed, head-shaped pile in his hands.

It was hollow. Nothing inside.

“Are these masks?”

Astrid nodded and bounced her eyebrows.

Andy grabbed the mask again and turned it about. There was no slit along the back of the vein-covered head, and no matter how much he looked, there was no opening to be found. Not even for a neck.

“How do you put it on?” Andy said.

“You don’t.” Astrid said. “I mean, you can’t really. Not by yourself.”

Andy tried to hide his incredulous look, but clearly not well enough.

Astrid sighed, then rubbed her face. “So, I was reading these...” She walked over to the desk and gestured with her palm towards an open book. “...and from what I can tell those masks were used in some kind of yearly ritual or something where two people would share the masks and would somehow...become those creatures for the night.”

“I’m guessing tonight’s the night?”

“Yeah.”

Andy waited for further explanation, but got none.

“You wanna do it?” he said slowly.

Astrid took a beat to think, then nodded. She closed her eyes and pursed her lips, as if suddenly remembering something embarrassing. “There’s, uh, one more thing, though.” She took a few bouncing steps towards Andy. “According to the book we have to be naked for it to work.”

Andy’s eyebrows raised. “That’s what the book said?”

The two looked into each other's faces for a moment, and Andy thought he caught a glint of real desire in Astrid’s eyes. It was gone in a flash, though, and Andy quickly convinced himself he’d just imagined it.

Astrid shrugged then slapped her hands to her sides. “Look, I mean, if you want to back out that’s fine. I know this is like...really weird and that you don’t really know me that well and...”

“I’ll do it.”

Andy had no idea where those words or the conviction behind them came from. It unnerved him, like there was some other person inside him that spoke with his voice. When he saw Astrid smile, though, he knew there was no way he could back out.

Another gust outside made the window quake and clatter. It was tough to tell in the candlelight, but Andy was pretty sure Astrid was blushing, and had no doubt he was too. He made the first move, unzipping his coat and carefully tossing it in a heap against the wall. Then he reached under the bottom of his sweater and pulled that off as well. Part way through this Astrid began to strip as well, though more quickly than Andy, so that by the time both were in their underwear their disrobing had synced.

To Andy, the air felt surprisingly warm. It couldn’t have been the candles. Maybe the room is just well insulated.

“Do you need help with that?” he said, gesturing towards Astrid’s bra.

“I’m good,” she said curtly.

Reaching behind her back, she unhooked it, shrugged, and let it fall forward before pulling it off with well-practiced efficiency. She didn’t try to conceal herself, but was obviously fighting the urge to. Andy reached into the hem of his boxer briefs and pulled them down as matter-of-factly and unsexy as he could, though why he did it that way he wasn’t sure. Astrid nodded and did the same, pulling her panties down. Once they were at her ankles, she tried lifting her leg up to get it through the hole, but her foot caught on them, and she hopped a bit before getting it free. She kicked them away with a flourish. Both of them laughed.

Wordlessly, Andy and Astrid seemed to agree that they both needed a moment to look at the other’s body.

Andy didn’t have too many hang ups. His dick was average-sized, and while his shoulders looked a bit narrower than he would have liked, that may have just been an illusion of his often-poor posture. He didn’t have much in the way of muscle, though he’d managed to keep his belly from extending quite as far as his dad’s. How much longer he could keep it that way was anyone’s guess.

While Astrid wasn’t petite (on account of her above average height), she was, none-the-less, small. Even though her tight-fitting long sleeves did little to hide it before, Andy was still surprised by just how skinny her arms and legs were. Her hips and breasts were just prominent enough that her frame couldn’t be considered boyish, and if anything, her loose t-shirt and baggy pants had done a disservice to her perkier features. Andy found her body cute, but Astrid, with her arms crossed under her chest and thighs pressed together, clearly didn’t think so.

She took a deep breath. “All right, guess I’ll go first.” She looked about, then walked towards the middle of the room. “Uh, go ahead and grab the red one.”

Andy went to the trunk and pulled out the red mask, whose form collapsed in his hands just like the green one had. It was a striking visage, even when crumpled into a misshapen heap, and he was eager to see on Astrid’s face. He slid a thumb between the mask’s lips, feeling the teeth, and what he correctly assumed were fanged incisors. They felt sharp, and like the skin, almost real. While feeling one of the points, his thumb slipped past it, and Andy was shocked to feel wetness, and what seemed to be a full-on mouth and tongue.

“So, when you said ‘become those creatures...'”

Astrid paused mid-kneel. “I don’t know, that’s just what the book said.”

Andy brushed his thumb against the mask’s lips one more time, then turned and went to Astrid. She was now fully on her knees in the middle of the room, with her back straight and her hands placed placidly on her thighs. As he stood in front of her, looking down into her nervous, eager, waiting eyes, he could feel an erection slowly forming, and he held the mask at crotch level, almost unconsciously, in order to conceal it. Pinching the sides of the jaw, he pulled, trying to make the bottom of the mask open so he could slip it over Astrid’s head, but no matter how much he tugged, it wouldn’t give. He turned it about, trying to find some seam or mechanism, before returning it to a position where he was looking into the mask’s face again.

“All right, so how am I supposed to–”

As if reacting to his words, the mask gave off a wet, squelching sound, and Andy felt it squirm. Before he could think to turn it about, the back opened, splitting from cranium to nape, peeling apart like a blooming flower. Once fully open Andy saw the source of the stirring. A nest of pink, fleshy tubes whipped about in the air from inside the mask, along with one, long, thick tube which seemed to probe and extend slowly from where the mouth was. The force of the thrashing almost pulled the whole thing out of Andy’s hands.

Andy scrunched his nose and pulled his shoulders in tight. “What. The actual. Fuck.” he said, enunciating each word.

“Don’t drop it!” Astrid said, trembling. She stared at the mask, eyes wide. “I didn’t...I didn’t think...”

Andy, unsure what to do next, did as he was told, clutching the mask’s ears as it wriggled, seemingly in an effort to align its opening with Astrid’s face.

“Astrid!?”

“Hold it,” she said. “You need to make it want me.”

Andy held the mask as stable as he could, but with each second, it’s desperation to yank free seemed to strengthen. Through all of this, Astrid remained perfectly upright, staring into the opening, bringing her breathing under as much control as she could. She licked her lips, pulled her shoulders back, and projected her chest out.

“Take me,” she whispered.

With what seemed to be a snap decision, she squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth wide, sticking her tongue out as far as she could. Immediately, the mask wrenched fiercely in Andy’s hands, and with a twist and a jerk, his fingers finally slipped just enough for the thing to pull free from his hands and leap right onto Astrid’s face. It snapped shut like a trap around the back of her head. The force of it sent her toppling backwards, and she landed flat on her back, legs splayed out. She tried to scream, but the mouth tube quickly forced its way past her mouth, worming its way into her esophagus, turning her screams into panicked rhythmic moans.

Andy stood up sharply, stepping back as she watched the thing on Astrid’s face do its work. Somehow, he knew there was nothing he could do.

Astrid kicked and flailed wildly, arms quaking as she pawed feebly at the ground, then at her face. The mask pulsated, softly at first, but then with greater and greater intensity as it forced...something down her throat. It reminded Andy of the facehuggers from Alien. Once a few bulges had worked their way into her stomach, her muscles seized, and a kind of acceptance seemed to overcome her panic. In place of moans, Andy heard Astrid gulp down load after load with an enthusiasm that clashed sharply with the mask’s inert expression. Soon Andy realized the reason for her eagerness. A small pool of fluid had formed on the floor beneath Astrid’s pelvis, with more dripping down with every buck of her hips.

Then the changes began.

It started in her calves. At first, Andy thought they were just tensing, but with each second it became clearer and clearer that they were growing, firming and toning with each pump of the mask. The process worked its way up her body, from her lower legs to her thighs, then to her ass, which inflated as her waist cinched and her abs toned. Then her breasts bulged outwards, firming and tightening so that even on her back they kept their shape. Her fists clutched the carpet, and her arms rippled from the inside, building ligament and sinew to complete the re-sculpting of her flesh.

“Astrid?” Andy leaned forward, resisting the urge to ogle. “Astrid?”

Astrid’s repeated moaning slowed, and her muscles relaxed as the transformation came to a stop. Then, all at once, the mask squeezed, as if shrink-wrapping against her head. The edges against the skin of her neck melted, fusing seamlessly, though the difference in coloration still made the distinction clear. Astrid brought her shaking hands up to the sides of her head, holding them inches from her temples, screaming, until that too was cut off by something forcing its way into her windpipe. Alex could see the bulge of whatever it was weaving its way around her vocal cords. Seconds later, a voice returned, rhythmically moaning again, only this time it wasn’t Astrid’s. It was deeper. Huskier.

“Astrid!” Andy took a few quick, tentative steps towards her.

The masked being laid there, expressionless, her chest heaving with every breath.

“Astrid,” Andy said again, “Astrid? Are you–”

The mask’s eyes snapped open, and Andy went rigid. They looked human, but the irises burned with an unholy yellow fire. As they darted about, the mask flexed its jaw, opening and closing its mouth, tasting the inside as if testing the fidelity of its fusion. Her features were animated by a million muscular micro-movements. It wasn’t a mask anymore. It was her face. Andy watched in real time as the Succubus that was once Astrid slowly became more and more aware of itself and her surroundings. She sat up with one swift movement and surveyed the room, seemingly ignoring Andy’s presence. Her movements were uncannily smooth, effortless, precise, as if calculated to make her as alluring as possible to anyone who might be watching.

Rising to her feet, she flexed and stretched all the way up in a manner that may as well have been posing. She looked around again and spied the mirror, which she sauntered towards, and at the sight of herself, her effortless cool wavered, and she gasped. Her hands immediately went to her ass, squeezing her cheeks before working their way up her flank until they cupped her breasts, which she held for a moment, moaning. Then, she brought her hands to her face, clasping her cheeks and rolling her palms up and over her bald skull. The vibrancy of her moans intensified, as if simply touching her face was pleasurable.

Even just looking at her back Andy was hypnotized, and it took several seconds for the spell to weaken enough for him to speak.

“Astrid?” he said, voice trembling.

The Succubus’s hands stopped, and for a moment she stood unnervingly still. “Mmm yes,” her gooey alto purred. “But also...” she turned to face Andy, arms held out, baring it all and presenting herself, “...not at all.” The sight left Andy immobile, which seemed to amuse her greatly. “Oh, you’re confused? Well, you’ll understand soon enough.”

She walked over to the trunk, reached in, and pulled out the other mask, and Andy’s chest spasmed at the sight of it.

“Your turn,” she said, arching one eyebrow.

The reality of what was about to happen set in. He took a step back, but the Succubus just rolled her eyes, and her whole head along with it.

“Come on, let’s not fool ourselves anymore.” She strutted towards him, bouncing her hips from side to side as she closed the distance. “Astrid knows you want her. You want her body. You’ve wanted to fuck her pink little pussy ever since you first laid eyes on her in that student lounge two months ago. Why else would you have come all this way with someone you barely knew, or stayed when you’ve seen what you’ve seen?” She stroked her palm slowly along his erect shaft and Andy shivered. “I bet you’ve even jacked off to the thought of her, you little pervert.” She lightly wrapped her fingers around him and began slowly stroking. “It’s OK, you don’t have to be ashamed around me? Don’t you remember?” She leaned in, bringing her mouth mere inches from his ear. “We’re all animals, my dear. Most are just too afraid to see it.”

Andy whimpered, feeling a knot form as he approached climax.

Suddenly, the Succubus released her grip and took two steps back. “You can have me. You can have us.” She held up the green mask, its twisted features serene as they hung from her fingers. “All you have to do is say the words, and I will give you the face you long for.”

Andy swallowed hard. “What words?”

The Succubus smirked. “The words you want to say to Astrid. The ones you’ve been too scared to say because you deny that part of yourself. You deny your body. You deny the pleasure it thirsts for. The kind you can only get when you lose yourself fully in another.” She bit her lip and casually stroked her clit. “When you just...let...go.” She continued to pleasure herself, her finger occasionally slipping inside herself, until, on a dime, she stopped. “Say it,” she said imperiously.

Andy closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. “I want you.”

“Louder.”

“I want you!”

“One more time.”

“I WANT YOU!” Andy trembled. “God, I want to fuck you so fucking bad, Astrid I...” Andy stopped himself, shocked by the words he’d let spill out.

The Succubus’s mouth twisted into a thin, satisfied smile. “Get on your knees.”

Andy did as he was commanded. The Succubus turned the mask about so that the back of the head faced him and held it just a foot away from his face. It stirred and peeled open just like the other mask had, but now Andy could fully see inside. The inner lining of the mask was pink, fleshy, and veiny, like the tendrils that now reached for him, and its surface glistened, iridescent with a thick, viscous slime, like drool on the inside of a mouth. It was subtle, but the sound it made almost seemed like squealing.

“Now close your eyes and open wide.”

Andy took a deep breath. A line was about to be crossed. But then again, he’d already crossed so many already. What was one more?

On impulse, he obeyed.

Rather than leap onto him, the mask's tendrils slithered against his face as they slowly and sensuously penetrated his mouth and nose. By the time Andy started to vocalize, the larger tube had already wriggled its way into his throat, choking off everything except his fruitless moans. He opened his eyes just in time to see the inside of the mask slide steadily onto his face. The moment his skin and the inside of the mask touched, the back of the mask folded shut around his head, plunging him into darkness and squeezing like a blood pressure cuff that had gone just a little too far. Panic drove him to try to find an edge to the mask and pull it off, but the seam was too tight for his fingers to find any give.

The mask contracted rhythmically, and Andy felt the tube bulge over and over as it forced its load down his throat and into his body. It didn’t take long for the substance to surge into his bloodstream, invading every corner of his body. An electric heat bloomed in his nerves, making him squirm, and with each new pulse his muscles tightened, then bulged. The process worked its way up his body like it had for Astrid, and when it reached his dick, he felt it strain to its limit, then stretch and thicken. Once it reached what seemed to be its maximum length, he felt another squeeze, this time in his pelvis, and a long, thick rope of cum shot out, followed by another, and another.

When the mask’s substance finally reached his brain, the change came quick, though it was subtle. It didn’t overwrite his mind, but he felt emotions like doubt, fear, and inhibition mute, swallowed by the endless well-spring of voracious desire pouring into him. Andy slipped away, and from the rearranged pieces of his psyche the Incubus emerged.

The pumping slowed. The Incubus felt the mask fuse and final tube slither down to mesh with his vocal cords. Consciousness bloomed all at once, and finally, he opened his eyes.

He was still on his knees, though at some point during the change he’d fallen forward and propped himself up with his hands. Flexing his jaw, he wet his fangs with his new, elongated tongue. When he brought a hands up and touched the seam where his face attached to the host body, an immediate shiver ran through his body, and a deep, satisfied bestial rumble boiled up from his chest. He clutched the side of his skull, and closed his eyes, savoring the sensations as he marinated in these first moments. When he opened them, he saw the Succubus on all fours mere feet in front of him, studying his body up and down like a curious animal.

“How do you feel, my love?” she said.

Her tone was no longer domineering. If anything, the Incubus sensed a cautious invitation, a kind of playful eagerness. He rolled his shoulders back, feeling his new sinews flex and bend as they effortlessly obeyed his command.

This is power, he thought. Real power.

His attention returned to the Succubus, still on her hands and knees, staring intently while trying (and failing) to control her breathing. The Incubus snarled, and the Succubus smirked back, eyes wild. In one smooth movement, she turned about and presented herself, face down, ass raised and shaking.

One look at that glistening slit was all it took.

The Incubus pounced, his back legs launching him with ease, and with a single bound he was on her. The Succubus yelped and tried to adjust herself, but the Incubus pinned her wrists down, pressing his body against her back as he brought his mouth down to her ear.

“A deals a deal,” He growled with a gravelly, baritone.

Releasing one of her wrists, he used his now free hand to grab his shaft. At first, he just rubbed the length of it on her vulva, slathering it with her juices. Then he teased the tip, drawing it along her folds. The Succubus mewled, lightly rolling her hips as if trying to snatch his dick out of the air.

“Tell us you want it.” The Incubus hissed.

The Succubus turned her head and looked back at him with indignation until she realized what he was doing and smiled, baring her fangs. “We want it.”

“Want what?” The Incubus lined himself up. “What do you want?”

The Succubus gritted her teeth. “God, we want your cock inside our tight little pussy so fucking bad.”

He thrust. The Succubus gasp-screamed and the Incubus groaned in answer. It was better than he could have imagined. Every inch of him encompassed in a soft, slimy embrace, snug, but very much lubricated. He needed more. Bringing his free hand back to her wrist, he pinned her down and pulled himself out, then in, then out, then in. He loomed over his prey, back and shoulders arched, drool dripping from his fangs as he panted like a beast in heat.

The Succubus closed her eyes, each pound forcing out a tiny gasp. “Mmm...breed us.” she cooed “Fill our holes with your cum.”

The Incubus released her wrists and clamped both hands on her hips, pulling her into better alignment without skipping a beat. His thrusts became wild, maintaining pace while the moans and groans of the Succubus rose and fell, again and again.

“Ohfuck…ohfuck...OOOOHFUUUHUHUHUCK!

Her whole body tensed, then trembled, then shuddered and quaked like a thing possessed. Her eyes seemed glued open, and her mouth gaped like a land-bound fish as she released a ghastly, undignified cry. The Incubus felt her pelvic muscles undulate and he plunged himself balls deep, holding her in a vice grip. Another knot formed inside of him. A spasming spark which began a chain reaction splitting his nerves one after the other from his core to his limbs, looking for release. Until it found it, all he could do was roar.

Then, with one final thrust, he pushed himself over the edge. His mind went white, and he let go.

One squeeze, then two. Seed rushed from his prostate, erupting into her womb. Even the grip of her lips couldn’t stop some from leaking through the seal and spilling onto the floor. Electricity surged up his body and into his brain, and he felt his skull buzz with indescribable pleasure. The room vanished, the Succubus vanished, and all that was left was the feeling itself.

X    X    X

Consciousness dripped back into his mind piece by piece. His eyes looked down at the still trembling woman, on whose waist his hands were latched and within whom he was still impaled. Her eyes were closed, sealing her in her own little world of ebbing pleasure. He had some knowledge of who this was, and where they were, and what they were doing, but it seemed strange and somehow foreign.

Wait, what is this? Who am I?

Pieces began to click together, forming clusters of recognition.

That’s right, I’m Andy. Andy Garnett.

He looked down at his own body, his sculpted abs, his rippling, trunk-like arms.

But this isn’t Andy’s body, is it?

He pulled himself out of the catatonic woman, the tip slipping out with a pop while strands of cum still hung on the end. Rising to his feet, he stood tall, then wavered. While every movement felt effortless, they were clumsy, as if there was some incompatibility between his brain and body. His hands felt himself up, climbing his torso until they reached his neck, then his head. When he felt his pointed ears and bald, bumpy skull, his fingers slid down until they fell on his face.

Then, all at once, he remembered.

He lunged for the mirror, and saw, staring back at him, the grotesque, horrifying visage of a monster. A male human body transformed to the utmost peak of physical condition, topped with a demonic face fused seamlessly to the rest, moving as if it weren’t an inert piece of flesh just moments ago. In its sunken eye sockets, globes of mad, yellow-orange fire burned beneath a brutish, arched brow.

Andy hooked the side of his mouth with his finger and pulled, revealing two rows of razor-sharp teeth. His own human teeth must have slid into them, like gloves. He tested his new tongue: blood red and a full inch and a half longer than his human one. Releasing his thin lips, he allowed his new mouth to resume its natural, snarling shape, then felt around the seam just below his chin. But there was no seam. It had fused perfectly, and no amount of probing with his nails revealed any flaws.

A perfect host.

Before he had time to dwell on the implications of...anything, he heard the Succubus wobble to her feet, and Andy turned just in time to see her double over, groaning as she stumbled for the desk and clutched the side of her head. She clamped her eyes shut, and when they opened again, they were wide with confusion, and her breathing shuddered. She looked over to him.

“Andy?” Astrid whimpered with the Succubus’s voice.

“Astrid,” Andy said, taking a step towards her, “What’s happened to us?”

Astrid looked down at herself, parting her legs slightly to see the rivulets of cum dripping from inside her.

“The masks, they’ve...” Astrid gasped, and Andy could see the mask spasm and squeeze her head, and he knew it was forcing itself into her brain again. Her demeanor flipped on a dime and the Succubus laughed deliriously. “Oooooh, they’ve made us so fucking horny.”

The Succubus leaned against the desk, bracing herself with one hand, and furiously masturbating with the other. At the sight of this, Andy knew he had only moments before he too would succumb, and knew he couldn’t resist, so he didn’t even try. The mask stirred, and within a few pumps his mind was subsumed, and he was the Incubus again.

The Incubus approached the Succubus slowly, savoring the sight of the creature’s desperation. He cupped the side of her face with a hand and held it lightly, and with a gasp the eyes of the Succubus opened wide. The Incubus leaned forward and planted a gentle but firm kiss on her lips, holding it there, slipping his tongue just past her lips to coax hers out. Just as she began to match him, the Incubus pulled away, staring down at her hunched and predatory. The Succubus trembled, unable to move, her breathing irregular as she stared into the fiery eyes that burrowed so mercilessly into hers.

The Incubus sneered. “I have found my true mate, and you know it.” The Succubus smiled and drew her head up, showing her neck. The Incubus released her face and traced a line along it, over the edge where her own mask had fused. “Beneath the skin...” his hand ran down her flank and along the toned crevices of her pelvis. “...we are already...” he slipped two fingers inside her and began to stroke.

“...one.”

X    X    X

By the time the first hues of morning peeked through the window, the Incubus and the Succubus had found themselves thoroughly and comfortably entwined. The Incubus sat in a high-backed armchair nestled against the wall, and the Succubus was mounted on top, facing him. Though they’d stopped actively fucking two hours ago, The Succubus had settled upon her lover’s lap with his dick impaled deeply within her, and the two maintained a plateau of pleasure through the friction of their skins brought on by the subtle but constant undulations of their bodies. The Incubus, whose fingers clutched fervently at her cheeks, let the demoness cradle the sides of his head while she worked her mouth against his.

The dark blue light turned purple, then pale blue. Suddenly, the Succubus sat up and looked to the window, as if sensing something, then stood, unwrapping herself from around her lover’s hips. She walked slowly towards the center of the room, all while the Incubus watched, curiously, his eyes fixed on her voluptuous outline cast sharply against the oncoming dawn.

The succubus turned to face him and smirked, then raised her right arm, holding her hand out delicately towards him.

“Almost time.”

The Incubus pushed himself to his feet and approached her. As they stood facing each other he stared down into her eyes and brushed his fingers lightly against her collarbone. Responding in kind, she reached around and grabbed the back of his head.

“See you next year, my love.”

She pulled him in, locking her lips to his, moving to devour him as best she could. The Incubus grabbed her hips and pulled her close, grinding against her. He would have fucked her right there, but he knew there was no time.

Seconds later, the sun appeared, and an orange glow suddenly filled the room. As soon as the sunbeams hit them, the Succubus and the Incubus doubled over, groaning as they dropped to their knees, and the substance, which had so eagerly penetrated the entirety of their host’s bodies, rapidly retreated back into the masks. To the Incubus, the weakness came suddenly, even before his muscles began to shrink, and it was all he could do to hold himself up.

The world went dark. The Incubus’s face loosened, and the back of the mask peeled apart on its own, slowly. While he could still breath, it now felt like the air was coming through something, like a snorkel. He brought one hand up, wedging his fingers between the mask and his skin. When it wouldn’t come off, he risked toppling forward and brought his other hand up, and with their combined strength the mask budged, then slowly peeled off with a wet, slurping snap. The tubes slipped from his nose and mouth frictionlessly, making him gag, and as soon as they were free, he dropped the mask and braced himself again with both hands. He blinked rapidly, and his vision was slow to return, but when it did, all he saw was the blurred image of the mask on the floor. The opening faced up towards him, tendrils lying flaccid and inert within the cavity. Before he could even think to prod the fleshy insides for signs of life, the back of the mask folded closed, sealing the protuberances away seamlessly within.

He looked to his left and spied his reflection in the mirror. Its body dripped with fluids, not all of it sweat, but as the sunlight grew in intensity, the liquid began to steam, then evaporated into nothing, like it was never even there. What remained was the naked, shivering body of a human man, whose brain now fumbled desperately for some kind of order. All he knew for sure was that, for better or worse, he was Andy again.

Andy heard the sound of Astrid going through the same process, and looked just in time to see her own tubes slip out, accompanied by a deep, wet cough.

Before she even caught her breath, she began to laugh “Holy shit...” She sat down and leaned back, letting loose a long, contented sigh.

Andy felt something unexpected when she saw this. Not relief, not concern, but terror.

Astrid seemed to notice. “You OK?” she said between heavy breaths.

Andy clutched the carpet again and again and again. “No. No, I’m...” he felt a spasm of panic, and launched to his feet, stumbling for the stairs.

Astrid sat up straight, then followed after. “Wait, Andy!”

Andy clambered up the stairs, keenly aware that Astrid followed closely behind.

“Andy?” she called out. “Andy, wait!”

He burst out of the basement, head swimming as he bumped into wall after wall on his way to the front door. By the time he emerged into the full morning light, his sight and sense of orientation had returned enough that he was ready to sprint through the woods. That is until he stepped off the porch onto the leafy ground and realized that his feet were bare. Still, he struggled on, making it to the nearest tree before Astrid screamed:

“ANDY, STOP!”

Andy froze, his breathing shallow as he braced himself against the trunk.

Astrid stepped down off the porch, but didn’t move any closer. “Andy, what’s wrong?”

“Why did I do that?” Andy said almost tearfully. “Even after seeing what that thing did to you I still put the other one on and just...”

There was a long pause. Andy heard Astrid shift her stance. “Andy, I wanted that to happen.” she said. “I mean, personally I thought that was...amazing and beautiful and...I’m not afraid of you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Well, maybe I’m afraid of you!” Andy turned to half face her and let the words sit a moment before continuing. “Who the fuck even are you? I mean do you do shit like this all the time, just inviting guys to the woods and turning them into monsters so they can fuck you. Is this even the first time you’ve done this?”

Astrid looked stunned, but gave no answer. Andy started to walk away.

“You know, Astrids not my real name”

Andy stopped and turned to face her. Her expression was warm, and curiously soft.

“It’s Lisa, actually,” she continued. “I just picked Astrid because...it sounded like the kind of person I wanted to be. I mean look at me.” She gestured lazily with both hands down the length of her body. “Do I really look like a Lisa?” Her face flushed and her eyes looked down at her feet, then closed. “And no, I’ve never done anything like that and I didn’t go in thinking...that was going to happen but it did and I loved it because I’ve had this...thing inside me that I have to get out to somebody and then maybe if that person saw that thing and they were the same, like, if they had the same thing then maybe they’d, I don’t know...”

A breeze made the leaves above them chatter.

Andy turned fully to face her and leaned against the tree. “Was what she, the...other you said true?”

Astrid flashed a smirk. “Yeah?” She said curtly.

“So, you like me?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“I don’t know, like…why pick me? Why not someone else? Maybe someone younger with, like, an actual future. I mean, I’m just trying to figure out why...”

Astrid held up her hand. “OK, so this may come as a shock to you, and you might not believe me but...” she threw up her hands. “...maybe I just like you because I like you. I mean, don’t know how else to put it, like...” she shook her head, shrugging. “...maybe it’s not that complicated.”

A crow cawed some ways off. Andy shuffled in place, looking around a bit before settling back on Astrid, who, again, stared at him intently.

Andy put his hands on his hips and pursed his lips. “So, what do we do now?”

Astrid shrugged and gave a wry smile. “We could finish the movie.”

Andy let out a burst of laughter, and Astrid laughed with him.

As the adrenaline started to fade, Andy became increasingly aware of the bitter chill in the air. He looked down at himself and the goosebumps forming on his skin. “Should probably go back in and get our clothes.”

Astrid’s smile widened, in a way that seemed both sheepish and mischievous. She walked towards Andy in a clumsy approximation of how the Succubus did, and Andy felt his body flush with heat again at the sight of her. She stopped two feet away, eyes level with his chest, then turned her head up and looked him dead in the eye.

“Do we, though?”