Out Of The Well, part 1 (Patreon)

***** With Halloween just a few days away, it's time for another collaboration with the ever-talented ChaoticDjinn.  If you're not familiar with his work already you should definitely give him a read! *****

“You know, the more you do that, the longer it's gonna take to piece this together in the editing room right? I can’t even use stuff like that for the blooper reel. YouTube is super strict about stuff like that. Unless you want to be demonetized?" 

The two men in front of Matt both shared a laugh before pulling their basketball shorts back around their waists.  It wasn't so much that Matt minded the view, but after being mooned by his friends every time they went out to film a new video, the sight had more than begun to lose its allure.

"Come on, you know we'd get a shit ton more views if you just left these clips in. People on the Internet are thirsty as hell." Said Chris, turning back and flashing a dazzling smile towards the GoPro strapped across Matt's head.

Matt just rolled his eyes and made like he was looking at the map he had pulled up on his phone. He hated to admit it, but he knew that Chris was probably right. In fact, he was certain that their channel was as popular as it was because of how well the others two served as thirst bait for their viewers. Chris and Brad catered to the whole boy next door, all-American, amateur model trope without even trying and, for those who were into something a little more rugged, there was David.

Even from behind, Chris and Brad were impressive and attractive men. Despite being fairly similar in terms of personality and physique, the comment section in their videos showed a fandom divided when discussing which one of them was more gorgeous than the other. Some viewers swooned over Chris' tanned skin, cleft chin and sparkling green eyes, while others remained adamant that Brad's striking red hair, alabaster skin and dimples were the stuff that dreams were made of.  Similarly, the fans were deeply divided on the matter of which man wore their trademark goatees better.

What all commenters seemed to agree on was that neither one of them was the kind of guy one would kick out of bed.  Much to his own annoyance, Matt actually agreed with them in that regard. Casting his gaze back towards his friends, Matt ran his eyes over their impressive bodies with an inward sigh.  Their matching softball sized biceps were on full display in their loose and breezy tank tops.  Chris' forest green complemented his tanned skin and shimmering eyes perfectly, while Brad’s navy blue provided a stunning contrast with his pale skin and flaming auburn hair.

Matt found his eyes lingering on his friends' tapered waists, taking stock of the matching dimples that sat just above their round, bubbled rears. Like their tops, they always chose loose and comfortable clothing for their expeditions. This time around they had chosen matching black basketball shorts to go with their low riding tank tops, no doubt in an attempt to stir the debate over which one of them was the most attractive.

"Don't worry about it, man." Said David with a deep rumble, wrapping a chiseled arm around Matt as they walked. "You've got your own fans. Not everyone's into the plastic Ken doll look. "

"Hey, don't get mad at me just because your daddy made it with a yeti." Replied Brad, turning his head around and flipping off the bigger man with a smile on his face.

"Besides," continued David, ignoring the jock’s less than brilliant retort. "There wouldn't even be a channel without you. None of us can work all the technical stuff we do for shit. We couldn’t do this without you." 

"Yeti's right about that." Agreed Brad,  looking forward down the path once more.

Matt smiled and gave David a grateful nod.  Even though he had known the guy for such a long time, it always surprised him just how sweet and gentle the six foot seven giant of a man really was. His thick, Nordic features and dense, sandy blonde beard did nothing to help lower his intimidation factor. But, his kind eyes and even kinder words more than made up for his intimidating size and heft. While David and Chris were toned and completely shredded, David's body was a tower of corded bulk and soft, squishy pudge.  It gave him seem somehow more honest and relatable, like he wouldn’t spend an entire conversation talking about his macros and most recent sick gains.

Standing among such distinct people only served to increase Matt's own low-level self-loathing. Whenever he was editing their videos, he couldn't help but feel like he was the dorky kid brother tagging along with the older kids despite them being the same age. Next to Chris' radiant smile and angular face, his own thin lips and shy expression made him look all the more child-like and inexperienced. Then there was David who’s sheer size made Matt’s lanky appearance all the more evident. At six foot three, he had most of the big guy's height but absolutely none of his heft.

"Hey, this close enough to shoot the intro yet? I wanna get that out of the way."  Asked Chris.

"You memorize it already?" Asked Matt, having doubts that his friend was going to get all the facts right.

"Yeah, man. I got it. It's not like it's complex. Creepy mansion, rich family falls into poverty and drifts apart, bank owns the property."

"It's a lot more complicated than that." Began Matt with an exasperated sigh. "There isn't a single person who lived there that was ever seen again. After the family business started to fail and the family circled the wagons, they disappeared. More than that, the bank hasn't been able to find a buyer for the property in over fifty years.  There's only been one other family who's lived there since the original owners and they vanished too. Nothing was missing from the house and there were no signs of a struggle. The official record is that the family just up and left the country, but I'm not sure even the cops who wrote the report bought that."

"Jeeeezzze man." Groaned Brad stopping and turning on his heel. "No one cares about all that. Only thing people want to see is hot guys checking out abandoned, creepy places."

"He's not wrong. You're the one who told us early on that we get like, what, twenty-five percent more views when we bring the pythons out to play." Said Chris flexing his impressive arms first before Brad followed suit.

"Yeah, it helps our views, but no one would watch if it was just you two walking around dusty places with your muscle tits hanging out." Said David, rolling his eyes at his friends’ display. "The story matters too."

"It's fine." Groaned Matt, knowing better than to try and force Brad or Chris to repeat the facts verbatim. It always came out rigid and robotic when they did. "Just give your summary here and I can fill in the rest while we explore or in voice-overs later." 

"Now you're speaking my language. Less talking, more doing." Said Brad, fixing his hair in the reflection from Matt's glasses.

"Alright guys,  let’s get the intro wrapped up and then keep heading towards the house.”  Sighed Matt, adjusting his glasses in an attempt to shoo Brad away.

"Sure, just give me a few minutes to do some pushups." Began Chris, dropping to the ground to assume the position. "Don't want to disappoint the fans."

Even as Matt rolled his eyes again, Brad followed Chris' lead and dropped to the forest floor where he began to execute a rapid series of perfect pushups.  As petty and vain as the display was, Matt had to admit that it wasn't a bad view. The two of them had the right idea, annoying as it was. An opening with the two of them pumped and glistening with a sheen of sweat was sure to be more popular than the two of them dry chested and giving some bland factual explanation of the mansion. They had managed to tap into the Supernatural style fan base, where fans were there in a mixed ratio for the actual supernatural angle and the two hunky hosts.

David tapped Matt on the shoulder and handed him the larger high-quality camera they used for intros and establishing shots. Matt turned the camera on and centered Brad and Chris in the shot, showing the winding and overgrown path leading to the house. Looking at the two men in the frame, it looked as though someone had put a strange kind of fish-eye lens over the camera, which Matt knew wasn’t the case. 

"Hey David, do you see this too?" Asked Matt, handing the camera to the Nordic giant while rubbing his eye.

"What do you mean- Oh hey, yeah. The shot looks weird. Kinda bulgy." Said David as he gazed through the camera's eyepiece.

Matt watched his large friend turn slowly in place, panning in a circle with the camera's lense. Like he did with Chris and Brad, Matt found himself staring at David’s beefy body as he turned in spot. He often wondered if they wouldn’t have been more successful with David as one of the main hosts in a counterpoint to the douche twins. Thick pecs that looked like they would make a comfortable pillow, height and hair for days, and a soft and honest smile that could rivel a baby pug so far as aww factor was concerned.

"Are you guys ready or what? I don't want to lose my pump before we start." Said Chris, dusting leaves off of his palms.

"One second, technical difficulties." Said Matt

Chris grumbled and got back down into position, breaking out another series of perfectly executed pushups. Amid the sounds of Chris and Brad's grunting, David continued panning around the forest that rose up around the four of them. A confused look washed over his face when he completed the pan and focused the camera back on the two grunting men and the path behind them.

"It's weird man. It only bulges out when it's pointed over there by the path. Everywhere else it looks totally normal." Balked David.

"Really?" Asked Matt, taking the camera from his friend's thick hands.

Looking through the camera and spinning slowly in place, Matt saw exactly what David was talking about. When the camera was pointed in any other direction, the image it recorded was a normal and precise shot of the area. When Matt pointed it towards the path leading to the mansion, the picture became warped and distorted as though it were pushed out from behind.

"That's really weird. It's never done anything like this." Murmured Matt under his breath.

With all the research he had done about the mansion and the surrounding area, it wasn't a complete surprise. There were complaints about equipment acting strangely when used in and around the mansion. A man in the area who specialized in aerial photography had posted some pictures of the mansion on his Instagram with strange details visible throughout. Shadows going in the opposite direction in relation to where the sun was ,strange, hazy and out of focus segments in the midsts of an otherwise clear shot. There were even a few shots that looked as though the drone was shooting with a fisheye lens.

"I guess we can just film the intro facing the other way. No one's going to know which direction the mansion is actually in. Just hope the GoPros don't fuck up too." Said David, tapping the diminutive camera strapped to his forehead.

"Yeah, that'll probably be fine." Replied Matt, his face furrowed with concern.

"You guys done yet?" Asked Chris, his arms crossed over his chest with his biceps flexed.

"Geeze man, you're worse than a chick sometimes. No one's going to notice if your 'pump' is slightly less yolked. Now, come on. Stand over there behind us and we'll get the shot done." Said David, taking charge of the situation.

Chris just grabbed his crotch and thrust in a playfully aggressive manner before walking with Brad to the spot David was pointing at. Both men took one final look down at their rippling muscles before crossing their arms and smiling into the camera. David handed the camera to Matt who centred the shot and hit record, giving the two dreamy hosts a quick thumbs up.

"Hey, there internet. I'm Brad." Said Brad, taking the lead and puffing out his chest beneath his folded arms.

"And I'm Chris." Added Chris, giving the camera a sly wink.

"The two of us, along with our friends David and Matt, are avid explorers, breaking into all the places that you want to see, but are too afraid to go yourselves.”

“Is it because we’re brave, or stupid?”

"Well, I know you're stupid, man." Replied Brad before receiving a playful punch in his arm.

Cheesy as it was, Matt knew that the fans were going to eat the intro up. Both men spoke with the kind of confident ease that when added with their above average physique and looks, drove all kinds of people wild. The straight bro style flirtation of their little barbs and daggers wasn't unintentional either. Pretty though they were, each man knew exactly how to work people to get the views that paid the bills.

"Well, even if that's true, I'm pretty sure you're going to be running like a scared little bitch at this one. Matt tells us that this mansion is a pretty fucked up place that basically eats people or something." Smirked Brad.

"Ha, eat all this? I'd like to see it try. I'm so jacked, it'd choke trying to swallow." Boasted Chris, breaking into a veiny ,full body flex.

"Well, not everyone's a champ at swallowing like you." Replied  Brad with a flamboyant flap his wrist.

"Whatever, man. You know you'd be the bottom if we swung that way. Lucky for you ladies, that ain't ever gonna happen."

"Right. Anyway, that's what's on the docket for this episode. The four of us and one house that no one has lived in without disappearing. We'll be staying overnight, exploring the place and seeing if we can catch some creepy shit on camera."

"So turn off the lights, get close to the screen and get ready for some real Manmode Exploration!”

Each man nodded to the camera and tensed their muscles before Matt hit the red button on the camera again and gave the two of them a thumbs up. Whatever they didn't cover in the intro, he would fix later with editing and voice-overs, but from what he had learned of their viewers, the intro was a solid one.

"Ok, let's hurry up to the mansion. I want to pick a room for home base and get everything set up before it gets dark." Said Matt, adjusting the modest backpack across his shoulder.

"All right, let's move out!" Cried Chris, bounding up the path towards the mansion like an excited puppy.

"You gonna be ok keeping up?" Asked Matt while the other two men ran ahead of them.

David just smiled and nodded, giving a flex of his meaty arm. "Just because I don't go around flexing all the time doesn't mean I'm not strong. Let's catch up."

Matt smiled back and jogged alongside his friend. While his own backpack only contained their more sensitive recording and monitoring devices, David's held the majority of the group's supplies. Last time he had checked, Chris and Brad's only packed their own essentials, like sleeping bags and styling products. Matt felt a little bad about using their friend as a pack-mule, but the easy-going giant never complained about it.

"What do you say we ‘lose’ one of the meal packs and watch the two of them fight over their protein for a while after we get base set up?" Asked Matt through puffing breaths.

"Heh, sounds good to me." Replied David, extending his fist for Matt to tap.

The four men jogged up the barely existent path leading towards the mansion. The branches of thin, underdeveloped trees and towering weeds slapped against this skin as they moved, leaving tiny red marks on their bodies. The slight stinging pain only served to pump Chris and Brad to barrel on even faster, neither one wanting to relent and slow down in an admission of defeat to the other.  

Both men suddenly skidded to a halt in front of David and Matt who slowed their pace and jogged up beside them. The mansion rose up out of the forest like some massive, slumbering beast. Each one of its cuntless windows glinted lazily in the tangle of sunlight and shadows that painted its face. 

“Woah, you didn’t tell us it was this big. This is gonna be kick ass!”

Matt shook his head and pretended to fiddle with something on his phone. He could point out that he’d sent everyone an information packet about the house so they could review and get familiarized with the area, but he knew better than that. Chris would just ramble off a story about having meant to read it before getting distracted by some party or late night hunny drunkenly hitting him up.  Even though it was likely the truth, Matt was getting pretty sick of hearing about the boastful stud’s sexual exploits with women.

“Didn’t you get the packet last week?” Asked Brad in a surprising show of responsibility.

“Yeah, and I was going to read it, but then I got  this text from Cindy Willison and well, you know, higher calling and all that.” Began Chris, gesturing towards his crotch with his hand. “Wait, are you saying that you read it?”

“Well, I looked at the pictures at least.” Said Brad with a coy little smirk.

Matt rolled his eyes again before a thick hand patted down on his shoulder. He didn’t even need to look towards David to know that the guy was giving him a sympathetic expression. It always did him good to know that at least one other person took the time to sit down and read through the information that he had pieced together for the expedition.

“I was just wasn't expecting it to be so big, and I thought you said it was totally abandoned?” Asked Chris, turning back towards Matt and cocking his thumb towards the mansion behind him.

Even though he had included the tidbit about the mansion being in strangely good condition despite its lack of upkeep, Matt hadn’t expected it to look quite as good as it did. The forest rose thick and overgrown all around the three story colossus, and yet, not a single vine or tree was visible within fifty or so feet of the house. It was as if an invisible barrier surrounded the estate and defended it against the onslaught of the encroaching wilderness. More than that, from where they were standing, Matt couldn’t see a single broken window or lazily painted tag along the chipping white paint of the mansion’s exterior.

“Do they get a groundskeeper out here or something? Because, if there’s some secret servants road that we could have driven up, I’m going to kick your ass.” Said Chris in mock outrage.

“I thought you were supposed to be Mr. Fitness. What’s wrong with a little walk through the forest?” Asked Matt, rolling his eyes again when Chris beamed at being referred to as “Mr. Fitness”. “Anyway, there isn’t any other path that leads up here, much less an actual road. No one’s really sure why the forest just grows around the mansion, but it does.”

“Three stories, huh? That’s a lot for us to explore. I’m kinda pumped for this one.” Said Brad, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

“Well, four if you count the attic and there’s a cellar too but neither of them span span the whole house or anything.” Corrected Matt, pointing to the very top of the house.

“Damn. Well, let’s stop standing around here with our hands around our dicks and head on in. Gotta give the fans what they want, and what the fans want is this gorgeous face in spoooooky settings.” Said Chris before flashing a confident smile towards the camera strapped to Matt’s head.

“Gotta go with my boy here.” Began Brad, patting Chris firmly on the behind. “No sense in standing out here talking about the mansion when we can just go in and see it for ourselves. We men. We brave.”

Brad flexed his arms over his head and made his pecs do a little dance. Transparently overly masculine as the gesture was, Matt knew that it would behoove the channel for him to make sure it made it past the editing room floor and into the video proper. Bouncing pecs and overconfidence from either of the modelesque men were always a big point of interest for their viewers. They’d even gotten a few memes going comparing the two Alpha males to Matt and his average ‘beta’ form.. It stung a little bit, but it helped their visibility and that meant more ad revenue for the channel.

The four of them walked up towards the house with Brad leading the charge. He looked like a kid in a candy store as he pushed up against the creaking, wooden doors that led into the grand foyer. Matt, however, couldn’t shake an uneasy, nagging sensation in the pit of his stomach. The strange fish eye bulge from the camera earlier, and the plant growth bending away from the mansion...he couldn’t help but wonder if they were connected.

“Woah, this place is fuckin’ swanky! Way better than that burnt out hospital from last episode.”  Declared Brad, striding into the foyer and doing a slow three-sixty.

Each man’s face took on a look of surprise and wonder at the grandeur of the room that surrounded them. Dark, mahogany wood paneled the walls and served as columns to support the balcony one story above them. The ceiling rose up even further above and came to a vaulted point at least fifty feet above them. Though dust and the occasional showing of chipped paint stood as markers of the mansion’s lack of maintenance, the room itself looked as though it might have been abandoned only a couple of months ago.

“Whew.” Gawked Brad, letting out a low long whistle. “What kind of evil shit do you gotta do to make enough money to afford a place like this? You know whoever built this place had like, mob ties or some shit.”

“You might not be far off, really. Clarence Warren was from a long line of old money and had this place designed shortly after he married his wife, Sophia Drummond. Both of their families had so many business interests, it’s almost impossible to account for all of them.”

“Well, fuck. I’d marry a dude if it came with perks like this. As long as I could still get some pussy on the side.” Said Chris, running his hand along a mahogany column.

“Are we using this as base camp?” Asked David, turning to Matt with a smile.

“I was thinking we’d use the dining room. This room is great, but it’s got a lot of echo and I worry about audio problems. It should be right over here.” Stated Matt, taking the lead and walking towards the archway on his right.

“You’re the expert! Lead on, noble nerd.” Said Chris, following up close behind.

“You’re sure no one keeps this place up?”  Brad’s head swiveled on his shoulders as he took in the expansive dining room.  It was smaller than the cavernous foyer, but only just.  A long, oak table sat in the middle, nearly jet black in color and lined with matching high backed, upholstered chairs that looked like small thrones.  An elderly, stern-faced gentleman with a shock of frazzled white hair glared down at the table from a portrait at the far end of the room, while a strangely ominous landscape hung at the other.  Looking at the painting of the dark, gnarled woods, Brad’s first thought was that he was looking out a window.  The details were hyper realistic, especially the crumbling well that sat in the center of the painting.  He could practically feel the moss-covered stone against his hands and smell the musty, stagnant water.  

“Daaaaaaamn,” Chris laughed, spreading his chiseled arms and looking around at the pristine, yellow damask wallpaper.  “Now THIS is a dining room.  Man could get used to a set up this nice.”  He pulled out the chair at the head of the table and made a show of slowly sitting, giving the portrait of the elderly man the finger in the process.  “Spooky fucker, isn’t he?”  

“Yeah, so be sure to piss him off immediately.  Great plan,” Matt sighed, setting his bags down on the table as David pulled out the camera.  

“It’s not so echoey in here at least,” David said, panning the camera around the room, “but there’s some kinda weird interference.  Are you seeing this?”  

He handed the camera over to Matt who made a few clockwise passes of the room before doing the same in reverse.  “Huh...that’s really, really weird.”  

“What?”  Brad turned away from the painting of the woods and stood behind his thin friend, watching over Matt’s bony shoulder as the camera panned.  Several blurry spots could be seen around the table, hovering in the same spot as the chairs.  “Is that just ‘cause of the light in here and the dark wood on the chairs?  Or is there something on the…” Brad trailed off into a sharp gasp, his head darting back up towards the painting of the well  just as the camera scanned by.  

“What?  What the fuck was that?”  Matt asked, startled and annoyed.  

“I...nothing, I guess,” Brad shrugged, laughing awkwardly.  “Fuck, man, this place has me jumpy already.  I would’a swore I saw the trees in that painting move.”  

David swallowed one of Brad’s broad shoulders with a giant hand.  “I don’t want to agree with the Bradster anymore than I have to, but he’s got a point,” the towering blonde said.  “Place that’s been empty this long should have way more dust than this.  I mean, look at the table...there’s more dust on my bookshelf back home.  And what about all the mice and the birds?  Those little dicks should be shitting everywhere, but it looks like the maid just left.”  

Matt adjusted his glasses and crossed his lean arms over his chest.  “What’re you saying,” he snapped.  “Do you want to pack up and leave?  That’s a lot of work to just throw away because Brad got spooked for once.”  

The nordic hulk shook his head, raising his hands in surrender.  “No, no, I’m not saying we leave, I’m just saying maybe let’s be a bit more careful than usual.  This place ACTUALLY has documented disappearances attached to it, not the bullshit we usually spout at people.  Keep that in mind, is all.”  

“You’re right...sorry,” Matt sighed.  “Guess I’m a little on edge, too.”  

“You guys gonna make out now, or can we get on with the show?”  Chris had his feet up on the table, leaning back in the tall chair and turning his phone over in his hands as he watched his friends argue.  “Anyone else have a signal?”  They all pulled out their phones and all shook their heads.  

“Just keeps getting better,” Brad said with a forced smile, his brow furrowing.  “You two didn’t set this all up beforehand, did you,” he asked, putting a hand on Matt and David’s shoulders and giving them a sharp squeeze.  

“Yeah, dude, we flew all the way out here and back to set up a stupid prank.”  Matt pulled out of Brad’s grip and rubbed his arm.  “Like we’d need to work that hard to fool you two idiots.”  

“Pretty idiots,” Chris corrected, walking over and draping a sculpted arm around Brad’s bare shoulders.    

“I prefer meathead, really,” the chiseled ginger added, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.  

“Fine, sorry.”  Matt pinched his nose under his glasses and closed his eyes, trying to stay calm.  He normally didn’t lose his cool with the guys but the anxiety was starting to get to him.  The nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach had blossomed into a full fledged desire to run, every instinct in his body telling him to get out of there.  “Let’s just get started.  How about you two stand in front of the Scooby Doo villain hanging on the wall down there for the opening?”  

“Do we even know who this guy is,” Chris asked, running a nervous hand through his thick, chestnut hair while Brad moved back and forth to see if the eyes really followed him the way it felt.

“No clue,” Matt shrugged, lining the guys up in the frame.  “He’s not the guy who built the place and I didn’t see his picture in any of my research, so your guess is as good as mine.  You two know what you’re going to say?”  

As soon as they were in front of the camera Chris and Brad donned the comforting costume of their routine.  They flashed their sparkling smiles and flexed their impressive arms, insulting and joking with each other in such a convincing manner that none of their previous dread showed through.  The duo laughed their way through several takes outlining all the people who had disappeared in the house over the years, and all the urban legends surrounding the estate, from ghosts and cults to aliens and serial killers.  

“Alright, I think we’re good here,” Matt finally said, grateful to look away from the man in the portrait and his wrathful gaze.  Unlike the men faking it for the camera, he was every bit as unsettled as when they’d started.  “How do we want to do this?  If we go room by room with the two of you it’s going to take forever.”  

“I say we split up for a bit and then reconvene for the basement or the attic...breeze through the empty rooms and save the creepiest parts for a big finish.”  David looked over at Brad and grinned at the redhead’s dubious expression.  “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe, stud.”  

“Fuck you,” Brad said, puffing out his prominent pecs defensively.  “If we want to play it safe, is splitting up a good idea?”  

“We’re not going anywhere out of earshot, right?  You two can take the bedrooms on the second floor and we’ll handle the first,” Matt said.  “There’s a balcony that overlooks the ballroom down here, so we won’t be that far out of earshot.  No one goes up or down beyond that, though.  Deal?”  The four nodded in agreement, none of them wanting to be the one to admit defeat and say they were scared.  

“Up we go,” David said, giving Brad a slap on the back.  “Just lean in close if you get too scared.”  He looked over at Matt, his eyes darting towards Chris.  “You going to be okay with him by yourself?”  

Matt took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “Yeah, we’ll be fine....I think.”  

“Yell if you need anything,” David waved as he followed Brad back out into the foyer.  The blonde giant could tell how scared his redheaded friend was by the young man’s lack of boasting about how good his ass was going to look climbing the stairs.  David made sure to get a few shots of the firm cheeks bouncing and shifting in the other man’s basketball shorts anyway.  

“It’s weird, though, right?”  Brad asked on the way up, lifting his hand from the untarnished railing and sniffing at the air.  “How nice this place is?  It doesn’t even smell musty.”  

“Wouldn’t take much...even if someone only came out a couple times a year they could keep this place in pretty good shape,” David said, not even convincing himself. “Let’s take the wing to the right first.  The lighting should still be pretty good over...there…” 

“Or not.”  Brad gave a quick, humorless laugh at the long hallway stretching into darkness.  There were a pair of doors on either side that he could see before the smooth wood floor and patterned wallpaper vanished into an inky pool.  They should have been on the side of the house that still faced the sun, but it could have been the middle of the night based on how dark it was. “Do they have curtains covering the windows?  Shouldn’t there be some light in here?”

David cleared his throat.  He felt trapped and claustrophobic despite the expansive surroundings.  “Couldn’t tell from the outside...let’s, uh, let’s get a shot of you opening one of the bedroom doors.”  

“If you say so…” Brad rolled his shoulders and shook his arms like he was about to hit the field for a big game.  At David’s nod he grabbed the nearest handle and gently guided the door open, bracing himself for the worst.  “Huh...that’s weird...no curtains,” he muttered as he looked out the pair of tall, unobscured windows.  There was still plenty of daylight left outside, which made the darkness in the hallway all the more confusing. Even with the door open, the light seemed to stop just beyond the threshold. 

The room was otherwise unremarkable save for the large, four post bed and same dizzying wallpaper that covered the rest of the house.  As with the other rooms they’d seen so far, only a faint coating of dust covered the surface, as if the owners were just out of town for a few weeks.  

“Okay, I’ll shoot you in the doorway and you run some lines…”

“Fuck am I supposed to say?”  Brad asked, shuffling over to where David indicated.  “Usually Chris is the one whooooOOOHHHH FUCK!”  

David spun on his heel as soon as he saw Brad’s eyes go wide, turning to see a chunk of darkness at the end of the hall separate from the rest and come skittering towards them.  The shape was immensely tall, standing at least a head higher than the towering blonde as it shambled forward on spindly legs, its lanky, wraith-like arms reaching out to support itself against the opposite walls of the broad corridor.  

It was happening too fast for David to make out much detail, but even in his shock he registered the absence of the creature on the screen in his hand.  He could clearly see it in front of him, but looking at the camera out of the corner of his eye all he saw was empty hallway.  

Then it was on them.  Brad was knocked from his feet in a blur of shadowy motion and crumpled to the ground, the wind knocked out of him.  He felt like he’d been hit in the chest with a sledgehammer.

“Fu...Fuck!” Brad wheezed, crawling forward as fast as his stunned limbs could carry him.  “David!”  He made it to the door just in time to see his hulking friend being dragged into the darkness, David’s powerful legs thrashing as he struggled against the monstrous creature.  There was just enough time for their terrified eyes to meet, and then David was gone, vanished into the shadow at the end of the hall.  

“No no no no no…” the ginger stammered, his hands frantically grabbing for the dropped camera.  His brain refused to believe what his eyes had seen.  He told himself he hadn’t really just watched his friend get carried off by a monster, and the footage would confirm it.  “Oh...oh god…” he fumbled away from the camera when the scene replayed, only this time he saw a thrashing David get dragged down the hall by nothing.  The blonde’s eyes were wild with fear and his massive arms flexed against the unseen figure pulling his heavy frame along like it weighed nothing.  “This can’t be happening…this can’t be happening,” Brad said over and over as he scuttled away from the camera and up onto his shaking legs.  “David!”  he bellowed into the darkness.  

To his surprise, he got a response.  “Br...Brad?”  The quiet voice barely made its way down the hall. 

“David!  Is that you?  Where are you?!”  Brad strained his ears to hear over the sound of his own pounding heart.  

“In a...a bedroom…I don’t know which one...something...something’s wrong…” 

Brad zeroed in on the door at the end of the hall and charged through it, momentarily forgetting his fear.  His chest ached from where the creature had slammed into him and he knew it could still be lurking nearby, but the sound of his friend’s voice was all that mattered.  He threw open the far door and was surprised to see the pool of inky darkness in the hall give way to the muted light filtering in through the bedroom’s large windows.  The force holding the shadows in place having apparently fled, the terrified jock focused his attention on the man on the bed.  

“Dude!  What the fuck just happened?!  Are you okay?  Where’d you go?”  Brad hurried over to inspect his friend.  David was sitting in the center of the massive bed, a shell-shocked look on his pale face.  His clothes were soaked, like he’d been dunked in a pool. “I saw that...thing...drag you down the hall and it looked like you...I don’t know...disappeared or something.”  

“I...I think I did…” the blonde giant said, his eyes wide.  “How...how long was I gone?”  

“What?  You weren’t gone at all, man.  I lost sight of you for like two seconds and then I heard you in here.”  He watched the big man start trembling, feeling the bed shaking beneath him.  

“It felt like I was gone for so long.  It was just...dark.  And wet. I could feel it’s hands on me, dragging me down, digging into me...I…” David trailed off, his eyes dropping to his sopping pants and then back up to Brad with a pleading look.  “Something’s wrong!”  

The confused redhead hopped up to his feet when his brawny friend started frantically clawing at the waist of his pants.  “Whoa!  David, hey, dude, let’s just chill for a second and catch our...breath…”  The young jock’s voice dried up in his throat when he saw his friend’s pants fall open.  Instead of the dark grey cotton of David’s boxer briefs, there was a patch of lace.  Brad had seen the elastic band of David’s underwear all day.  Every time the tall man bent over or raised his arms, there it was.  He knew without a doubt the beefy blonde shouldn’t be wearing something low-riding and lacy.  

David knew it too.  He kept repeating “something’s wrong” as his shaking fingers fumbled with his pants until he finally tugged them down.  “AAAAHHHH!  What the fuck?!  What the fuck?!”  

“Shit!”  Brad took an involuntary step back from the bed at the sight of his friend’s flat, panty-clad crotch.  He should have been looking at a long, thick hose that was just as beefy as the rest of the burly man, but instead there was nothing but a petite mound.  “Where’s your fuckin’ dick, man?!”  

“I don’t know!  I don’t know!”  David shrieked, tugging the skimpy lace underwear down to reveal his feminine slit.  

Brad couldn’t wrap his brain around any of it.  He’d seen plenty of pussy in his young life, but he’d never expected to see one between David’s muscled, hairy thighs.  He reached down to make sure his own equipment was still in place, blushing slightly when he felt himself semi-hard already.  

“Fuck!  Fuck!”  David had clambered to his feet and was tugging his soaked shirt off now, desperately trying to examine the rest of himself.  He clutched at his slab of a chest and ran his hands up and down his thick arms, relieved to at least find the rest of his meaty body untouched.  

Brad just stared.  The sight of the beefy hulk groping his naked, altered body in shock, with only a patch of hair where his girthy package should have been dangling, was overwhelming.  “Does...does it hurt?”  

David looked up at him, his mouth hanging open but no words coming out before dropping heavily to the edge of the bed, his pants and unwanted underwear still around his ankles.  He buried his face in his wide hands, his broad upper back rising and falling slowly with each deep breath.  

“Okay...okay...we’ll figure this out…” Brad said, trying to sound reassuring.  He sat next to his naked friend and put a hand on David’s back, rubbing his sore chest with the other.  There was a wet hand print left by the creature when it slammed into him, the long, crooked fingers perfectly imprinted in the damp fabric. The aching from his pecs was spreading towards his shoulders and he was already afraid to look at the bruise he must be developing.  

“Figure it out?!  How?!”  David sat up and spread his legs, giving Brad an unobstructed view of his missing cock.  “We don’t even know what happened!  What the fuck was that thing?!”  

“I don’t know...it seems like it’s gone now,” Brad said, unable to look away from his naked friend’s lower half. “Is it...I mean...does it feel like a…” he stammered, increasingly captivated by the sight.  He prided himself on knowing his way around a woman, and before he realized it, his hand was sliding across David’s meaty thigh.  

“Hey!  What’re you doooOOOHHHHHH!”  David hissed, arching his back and clutching at the bed when Brad slid a few fingers inside.  Each of his ample muscles tensed, leaving him gasping in stunned silence.  

“Sure feels like the real thing…” Brad muttered, a faraway look in his eyes.  It occurred to him on some level that he was fingering his male friend, but in the moment that didn’t feel odd.  There was a surreal haze that made everything feel like a dream. The room itself even seemed to bend and melt at the corners of his vision. “It’s so tight…” he sighed, working his fingers in deeper. Brad was already rock hard in his basketball shorts and the big man’s desperate whimpers only turned him on more.  

“UUUUUnnnnn….Br...Brad...shiiiiiiiiitttttt man…” David finally managed, his eyes nearly bulging out of his skull as he watched the young jock’s fingers disappear into him.  He didn’t want to believe it could feel as good as it did.  “We can’t….we have to...to...hhhnnmmmmm…” the beefy giant grunted, writhing helplessly in Brad’s hands.  He reached up from the bed to grab the young man’s arm and felt another rush of fear at how large it seemed.  

David’s immediate thought was that he was shrinking.  Given what he’d already experienced it wasn’t as crazy a thought as it would otherwise seem, but he wasn’t getting smaller; Brad was getting bigger.  The sculpted ginger had always been built, but in a carefully crafted, athletic way.  He was covered in lean, defined muscle, not cumbersome bulk like a meathead lifter.  Now, that appeared to be changing.  Brad’s sculpted pecs were already hanging off his chest like a shelf, and the straps of his tank top were looking smaller and smaller against his increasingly broad shoulders.  Like David’s underwear, the expanding man’s shirt seemed to be changing in time, going from a tight tank-top to a low hanging, open-sided muscle shirt.  

The young jock seemed oblivious, focused only on the fingers that were busy reducing the blonde giant to panting moans.  Even though Brad was looking down at a significantly widened forearm, he kept going.  His softball sized biceps had already doubled in size and his trim waist was growing wider and wider, but he just kept flicking his fingers.  

“Brad...Brad!  You’re...gruuuunnnnn…” David groaned, interrupted by another flash of blinding pleasure.  

“Good at this?  I know,” the smug redhead grinned.  “Wait’ll you see what happens next.”  Before David could stop him, Brad pushed the taller man down onto the bed and climbed up, straddling his friend.  Still seemingly unaware of his baggy new shirt and plastered on shorts, Brad bent down and buried his face between meaty legs.  

“OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”  David’s scream masked the loud slurping sound as Brad’s tongue picked up where his fingers left off.  When the prone stud’s vision cleared a few moments later, he lifted his head to find a stranger eating him out.  Instead of an athletic adonis, David looked down on a lumpy ball of muscle.  Flesh was piling on top of flesh as the young man continued to expand, swallowing his neck and leaving him with a set of huge, bowling ball shoulders above a back so wide the young man’s massive arms would forever hang at an angle.  He couldn’t get a full view from his current position, but David’s baggy basketball shorts had shrunk so much that they were barely larger than the boxer briefs he normally wore, leaving Brad’s broad legs and round, massive globes hanging mostly exposed.  The huge thighs were larger than the young man’s trim waist used to be, and a pair of basketballs had replaced his perky bubble. The tank top turned muscle shirt was hanging off the colossal torso, leaving more of the burly muscle exposed than covered.  “Brad….BRAD!”  David yelled, finally getting the expanding young man’s attention.  

“What?”  Brad asked, sounding annoyed.  He lifted his face and let David get a look at his sloping new brow and exaggerated, lantern jaw.  

“Look at yourself!  You’re fuckin’ massive!”  

Brad’s widened brow furrowed.  “What?  No I’m nooaaaaaAAAAHHHH!”  The altered young man could barely tilt his face down on his neck-less body before his chin connected with his impossible chest.  He tumbled backwards, falling over to the side as his thickened legs and tight shorts limited his range of motion.  The small trunks had been pushed down his legs by his expanding ass and tangled his already awkward limbs.  The meaty trunks pressed together all the way to his knees and were so packed with muscle he could hardly bend them.  “Fuck!  Fuck!”  The inflated jock clutched at his torso as best he could, his arms struggling for movement just as much as his legs.  Head sized biceps, obscene lats, and pecs the size of a small car left him waddling with his arms stuck at an angle like a little kid in a puffy winter jacket.  “I’m huge!”  he cried, staring down in horror at the distended roid gut that cut off the view of his feet and still-throbbing cock.  The muscle shirt was little more than spaghetti straps that ended in a small patch of fabric at his gut.  He desperately reached for cock he couldn’t see, barely wrapping his fattened fingers around the oozing head.  “Is it still there?!  Why does it feel weird?!”  he pleaded.  “Did it shrink?”  

“I don’t, uh, think so,” David said, smiling despite himself at Brad’s concern.  He’d just inflated like a steroid balloon and he was still more concerned about his dick.   Considering what happened to himself, David couldn’t exactly blame him.  “I think the rest of you just got so big it doesn’t really, uh, show.”  

“What?!”  Brad bent over as best he could, lumbering towards the dusty mirror in the corner of the room.  He winced with every waddling step, wishing he’d never made the journey when he finally saw his reflection.  His trim, sculpted body could have fit comfortably inside the muscle beast he’d become.  He hadn’t grown any taller, which made the extra flesh all the more awkward since now he had enough muscle for three guys his size.  Like David said, his dick was still in place, but between the tree trunk thighs and huge muscle gut, the throbbing pole just barely poked out instead of standing long and proud.  Worse still were the changes to his face.  The handsome features that made him an internet darling had been buried like the rest of his former body, leaving him looking more like a caveman than a model.  

“It was that...thing!  It did this to us!”  Brad cried as he spun back to face David.  He blushed a deep shade of crimson when he discovered how hard it was for him to bend and pull the altered shorts back into place.  Had they been any lower, he would have needed help. His underwear was gone, and the formerly loose polyester had turned into skin tight lycra, fitting his beefy body like a pair of briefs that still left most of his mammoth new ass exposed while his still-solid cock left a solid lump in the front.    

It was David’s turn to stare as he watched the altered jock stomp back to the bed, the frame groaning loudly under the increased weight.  He was still taller than his redheaded friend, but Brad was nearly twice as broad.   As much as it pained him to think about, he was desperate for the altered man to finish what he’d started.  His body throbbed in an unfamiliar fashion as he stared at the oversized bodybuilder, but he did his best to ignore it as he picked up his lacey new underwear.  

“But how did it…” he winced as he pulled the tiny panties into place, still unable to accept the lack of his bulging package when he looked down at himself.  “How is any of this even possible?!”  

Brad was still too shocked to do anything other than moan.  “It turned us into fuckin’ freaks, man!  What’re we gonna do?!”  

“I don’t know...I don’t know…” David stammered, his head clearing at the sight of Brad freaking out.  One of them had to keep it together.  “First things first, we’ve gotta get out of...oh shit!  We’ve gotta warn Chris and Matt!”  

**

“So how much do you wanna bet that Brad and David are holed up somewhere upstairs going to town on each other?.” Asked Chris, using the camera’s flipped around display to check his hair before shooting himself a smirk and a smile.

“It’s pretty doubtful considering they’re both straight. Painfully so in Brad’s case.” Said Matt, doing his best to ignore Chris’ vain primping.

“It’s always the ones that overcompensate that you have to worry about, man.” Replied Chris, grinning at his own retort.

“Pot, kettle, black?” 

“Hey, Brad’s a good guy, don’t get me wrong, but between the two of us, he’s the try hard. Getting jacked, dropping panties, charming legs apart, it's always just sort of been second nature to me. I was watching this video on youtube about how some guys are just natural born leaders and it was like someone was doing a documentary about me. Alphas, you know? People just sense that about me.”

“If you say so.” Replied Matt, giving his eyes a vicious roll. “Now, do you want to hand me that camera so we can get some shots of us exploring the mansion? Not that your using a thousand dollar piece of equipment as a vanity mirror isn’t riveting.”

“Sure. Heads up.” 

Matt let out a voice-cracking gasp and made a mad lunge towards the expensive piece of equipment. In a scene that could have been lifted straight out of any of his middle school softball games, Matt fumbled his first attempt at catching the expensive device and sent it twirling through the air in front of him. After several loud shouts and awkward flails from his arms, Matt finally managed to grasp the camera firmly between his hands and breathe a sigh of relief.

“What the hell is wrong with you? This camera was over nine hundred dollars! You don’t just go tossing it around like that.”

“Come on man, lighten up. You caught it, and plus, it was funny as hell.” Snickered Chris. “You still got that Go Pro running right? Because man, that is classic B reel material.”

Matt summoned every ounce of his restraint and took in a deep breath. He knew that there was no point in blowing up at Chris. Not only would the overconfident jock not take anything he said seriously, it would also delay them getting to work and Matt didn’t fancy the idea of doing the first sweep of the mansion in the dead of night. 

“Fine, just try to be more careful, ok?” Asked Matt, exhaling his calming breath.

“Yeah, I got it. All business from here out, buddy.” Replied Chris giving Matt’s hair a playful tussle.

Matt grunted and pushed the jock’s hand away to muffled laughter from Chris. He turned the camera back on and pointed it to Chris, giving him a silent countdown with his fingers. 

“Alright! Me and Matt are about to check out the first floor of this creepy ass place. So far as we know, David and Brad are checking out the second floor, but for all we know, the mansion’s already taken them! Matt here thinks that the two of them might be slacking off and taking a little couple time together, which could be true. But don't worry ladies, I'm still playing for the same team as always. Sorry fellas."  Chris gave a little sly wink to the camera followed by a round of bounces from his toned pecs.

As always, Matt had to give the guy props, he really did know how to play to the camera. The stilted words would have come off as trying too hard to set the mood and give the viewer the creeps were they coming from someone with less charisma. When Chris spoke, it was with just the right tone.  Even Matt could get the feeling that Chris was setting up for the viewers. A strong guide who didn’t really believe that the house was dangerous, but was confident that he could deal with the situation if it arose.  Of course, bringing up the idea of David and Brad together would spawn all sort of debate and inspired headcanons in the comment section on top of all that.

Matt followed silently behind Chris as they walked, being sure to get the occasional simi-zoomed shot of his round and muscular butt cheeks moving up and down in his shiny basketball shorts.  The two of them walked out of the dining room and crossed to the other side of the grand foyer. The door opposite the dining room opened up into a long hallway with rows of doors on one side and dusty windows on the other. 

“Hold up a second,” began Matt, fuddling with one of the pockets on his backpack. “There’s a lot of shadow going on in here and I know you’re going to just want to reshoot everything if I can’t get a clear shot of your face.”

Matt pulled a small rounded flashlight mounted on a hard plastic clip out from the side pocket of his backpack. He clipped it to the top of the camera and gave the top a little tap. To Matt’s surprise, the device didn’t light up. He knew he had charged everything fully the night before they left on the expedition. He gave the light another series of taps which only furthered his confusion. He could hear the button clicking, he knew the battery was full. There was no reason it shouldn’t be working.

“Is that light busted or something? Even when it’s on, it’s like really dim or something because it doesn’t make things any brighter.”

“What are you talking about?” Asked Matt, turning the camera around.

Clicking the light on again, Matt’s eyes went wide. The light was indeed turning on, but something seemed to happen between the LEDs and his eyes. It was as if the room itself was muffling the light to the point that, by the time it made it any significant distance away from the camera. Its shine was too low to illuminate anything at all. Matt quickly turned around and walked out into the foyer with the light still pointed at his face. The little device flared to life the second it passed over the threshold leading out of the hallway and shone full force into Matt’s eyes.

Matt let out a little yelp and spun the camera around. He blinked the stars from his eyes and clicked the light on and off another couple of times in rapid repetition. Now that it was outside of the strangely dim hallway, it functioned perfectly and cast a bright swath of illumination at wherever it was pointed. With an uneasy feeling in his stomach, Matt walked back into the hall with the light on and called to Chris.

“Hey, I don’t know how, but there’s something about this room that’s making the light totally freak out. I think it might be a good idea t-”

The tail end of Matt’s proclamation was choked out of his throat by the vice-like grip of fear that descended over him in an instant. Chris wasn’t in the spot he had been standing when Matt had left only moments before. Through the murky darkness of the desolate hallway, Matt saw the struggling form of his friend being dragged across the floor. His arms and legs were flailing like crazy while a series of muffled screams left his mouth.  An impossibly long hand was clamped down over the front of Chris’ face, gripping hard enough that Matt could hear the tones of pain in Chris’ distressed cry.

The ghostly white hand was attached to an arm that was far too long to belong to anything from nature, looking as though it had an extra elbow and length of forearm. The gnarled appendage was so long that Matt couldn’t see what it was attached to, but in its own way, Matt wondered if that wasn’t a mercy. His body stood frozen for a moment, trying to decide the best course of action. Much as he was annoyed by Chris, he was his friend. Should he call for help and hope that David and Brad showed up in time? No, whatever was attached to that hand wasn’t dragging Chris by the face so that it could sit around and make nice with him. 

Matt’s body acted on its own and sprinted down the hallway with one hand still around the camera. When he made it to the end of the hall he nearly fell over when he made a sharp turn and skidded on the worn carpet. He made it just in time to see the last few inches of Chris’ flailing feet get dragged into an open door halfway down the connecting hallway. Matt sprinted towards his friend at full speed, not knowing what he would do when he caught up to him.  

Reaching the doorway with the camera raised up in front of him in a futile attempt to shed whatever meager light he could onto the scene. The figure holding Chris was standing amidst a clutter of objects covered in lightly dusty sheets. It was dangling the burly jock off the ground as though he were little more than a paper doll and despite the rooms considerable size, the creature stood with a hunch in its back to keep its head from scraping against the ceiling.  

Matt’s initial suspicion turned out to be correct. The creature’s arms and legs each held an extra segment and joint which allowed it to bend and stretch to a tremendous height. An image of the creature scuttling around on all fours popped into Matt’s head and lowered his already frigid blood by several degrees more. The creature seemed to pay no attention to his presence, its large milky eyes fixed intently on Chris as he struggled in its grasp.  The creature opened its mouth and revealed a maw full of row upon row of thin, needle-like teeth. 

The creature let out a horrible, undulating screech that filled Matt’s head with distorted warbling images of the room. The ice in his veins ground to a halt while his body screamed at him with everything it had for him to leave as fast as he could. Leave the room, leave the mansion, leave the forest entirely. As the creature's scream ebbed, everything in the room came into crystal clear focus from the adrenaline that surged suddenly through his body. The scent of dank and feted water filled Matt’s hyper-focused senses and his eyes caught a small detail he had missed on his first inspection of Chris and the creature. A slow but steady trickle of water that seemingly originated from the creature’s too-large palm was running its way over Chris’ head and down his flailing body.

Forcing all the courage he had into his limbs, Matt leaned into his terror and charged towards the creature with his arms outstretched. He channelled every football play he had ever seen, thanks to his friendship with Chris and Brad, and made a mad tackle towards his closest approximation of where the creature’s hips were.  A deep shudder travelled through him the instant his flesh made contact with the creature. There was no trace of any sort of warmth on the monstrosities skin, rather it drew in all the sensation from Matt’s exposed flesh and left it with a sickening, empty numbness. 

To Matt’s own surprise, his tackle loosed the creature’s grip from Chris and the three of them went tumbling to the floor in a painful clattering tangle. With the wind knocked out of his chest by his own tackle, Matt could do nothing more than stir and gasp feebly on top of the creature as its impossible form writhed beneath him. In a sudden flourish of white, the creature leapt to all fours and let loose another piercing wail from its needled filled maw. The room around Matt spun and warped once more. Towers of sheet covered crates sagged and drooped while the walls and ceiling of the room took on the sheen of slowly melting ice. For a brief moment, it was as though the three of them were standing in the middle of a Salvador Dali painting with a bizarre mashing of colour and fantastic, impossible proportions. 

The screech cleared from the room just in time for Matt to see the creature shamble through the threshold in a distorted crab-like skuttle. His mind didn’t stop to think about just where it might be going, and instead focused on getting him and his friend as far away from the mansion as he possibly could.

“Chris! Man, are you ok?” Asked Matt, struggling to crawl towards his friend with his still-numb limbs.

Chris only shook in place before doubling over and letting out a gurgling retch and the smell of feted water filled the cluttered room once more. Squinting through the twilight of the room Matt swore that he saw a few odd leaves and cracked twigs flow from the putrid water that left Chris' mouth.

"W-what the h-hell happened? I-it felt like I was drowning. I couldn't come up for air, but I didn't pass out either, and I was down for so long....it just....fuck it was horrible."

Even through the dim light of the inexplicably darkened section of the mansion, Matt could tell that there was something wrong with Chris’ face. At first glance, he thought his friend might be bleeding from his mouth, but squinting through shadows, Matt knew that that wasn’t quite right. Not wanting to spend another second in the mansion, Matt pushed the mystery of what had happened to Chris’ face from his mind and rose shakily to his feet.

“Come on, we need to get out of here. NOW.”

Even as wired as he was, Matt was surprised by the forcefulness of his words. They had come out more as a resolute bark than the imploring suggestion he had intended. Like Chris’ face, Matt shook the thought from his mind and offered a hand down to his friend. The ease with which he pulled his densely muscled friend up off the floor nagged in the back of his mind, but Matt added it to the list of things that weren’t important at that moment. Even the crushed video camera laying on the floor beside where he had tackled the creature didn’t fully register in his brain. The only thing that mattered was getting out of the darkened hall so they could find their friends and leave.

“Geeze, I never thought you’d be the one saving my ass.” Mumbled Chris as he walked with his arm around Matt’s shoulder.

“That’s a funny way of saying thank you,” Matt replied, shifting his shoulders down to accommodate his friend’s weight better. "I could have just pussed out and headed for the hills."

Matt squinted his face up at his slip of the tongue. "Pussed out" was a phrase that he had heard from Chris and David many times, but one that he had used himself exactly zero times in his life.

“Sorry man. I’m glad you helped me, I guess I just didn’t know you had it in you. W-what was that thing anyway?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t really want to think about it. Just want to get out of here,”

“Sounds good to me. Hey, man, could you ease up a little bit? I’m still not 100%. Don't want to damage the merchandise more than it already is.” Grunted Chris with an audible wince at the end of his shaky joke.

Matt hadn’t noticed, but he was inching ahead of Chris a fair bit and was more or less pulling him along faster than the shaken jock could keep up with. He knew that he should have felt legitimately bad about doing so, but a voice in the back of his mind told him that Chris was just being dramatic. He could keep up if he wanted to, but even if he couldn’t, there was no reason for him to whine about it so much.

“Oh...sorry.” Managed Matt, quashing the aggressive voice ringing in his ears.

The two men rounded the corner that connected back to the original hallway and felt their hearts lifted by the sight of the dimly lit door at the end of the hall. Matt felt Chris’ pace increase under his arm and the two of them began to towards the door, the promise of safety driving them into a jog which gave way to an awkward, stumbling run. Neither man dared look back behind them for fear of catching another glimpse of the long, pale creature and its hypodermic grin. With a gasp and a grunt, the two men threw themselves against the door and fell on to the polished hardwood of the grand foyer side by side with a thud.

“We made it- holy crap.”

“What?” Asked Chris, sitting up and giving Matt a confused face.

“It’s just... You’ve got something on your face.”

Matt felt a familiar sensation rising up in his chest. In the moment that he saw the lurching creature, he wasn’t sure that he would ever feel it again, but it was bubbling up nonetheless. Laughter. The sight of Chris’ face was striking laughter in his heart and was suppressed only by the extreme nature of the situation they had just escaped.

“What, like here?” Asked Chris, giving the corner of his mouth a wipe with the back of his hand.

The laughter building in Matt began to mingle and temper with ripe fear at the being that had seemingly caused it. Chris didn’t have just a little something on his face, he looked as though he had dove face first into a pit of MAC cosmetics. His lips were bright cherry red with a layer of glittery sheen that made them look thicker and more luscious than they really were. His already tanned and smooth skin was a picture of perfection, with each and every small divot or flaw concealed by a layer of makeup to fit his golden tone.  

The rest of his makeup was subtler than his bold and bright lips, but it was still clearly evident that he was wearing a great deal of it. His high cheeks had been contoured to appear more distinct, and his deep green eyes were highlighted by a small ring of dark eyeliner. The entire thing looked completely bizarre and out of place given Chris’ otherwise manly appearance. His trademark goatee was just as prominent and perfectly shaped as ever, although it sat beneath a pair of lips that looked as though they might be more at home on a sassy drag queen.

Even Chris' usual musky, axe scented body odour had changed in the time it took for them to escape the creature's clutches. Sniffing the air Matt swore that he could faintly detect traces of artificial watermelon mingled with the scent of a Lush body bar rising off of the masculine jock.

“Not really just there. It’s kind of all over.” Said Matt, stifling a shocked laugh.

Chris shot Matt another annoyed and confused look. He pulled out his cellphone and let out a cry of shock when he flipped the camera around to get a look at what Matt was talking about. His tanned skin would have gone white were it not for the copious amounts of bronzer and foundation covering it. 

“What the fuck! I look like a goddamn fat!” Cried Chris as he furiously rubbed the back of his arm across his cherry lips.

Matt felt a small tinge of satisfaction when, to both their surprise, the thick makeup didn’t so much as smudge no matter how vigorously Chris rubbed against it. He refrained from reminding Chris that he was a ‘fag’ and that wearing an entire drag queen's worth of makeup wasn't exactly a ubiquitous trait amongst his people.  They were both having a hard couple of minutes, and he knew the guy didn't really carry the hate behind the slur.

“It’s not coming off!” Whined Chris, rubbing the rim of his shirt along the bottom half of his face. "And does something in here smell like a chick? Is that coming off of me?"

Matt ignored his friend’s complaints and stood up off the ground while Chris panicked and smelled beneath his lifted arm. He knew that he needed to get out of the mansion, but he couldn’t leave without Brad and David. 

"Fuck! It is coming off of me!" Fumed Chris.

Something in Matt suddenly whispered that he was the only one who could solve their predicament. Looking down at Chris as he adamantly tried to restore his face to its natural state without lifting his arms too much, he didn’t feel the usual annoyance he did towards the jock. He was still vain and somewhat annoying to him, but somehow in a softer and more endearing way.

“Come on, up we go.” Said Matt, grabbing his friend by the shoulders and pulling him to his feet with surprising ease.

“When did you get so- Never mind. Let’s get our shit from the dining room, avoid eye contact with that freaky ass painting and just wait here for David and Brad. They’re on the second floor so they’ll have to come back here to get to base camp.” Said Chris, puffing his chest out.

“I think we need to go and get David and Brad.” Stated Matt, acting as though he hadn’t even heard Chris.

“What? I am NOT going deeper into this place, especially not one of the dark-ass hallways. They’re fucked up. It makes more sense to wait here.” Said Chris, not used to Matt challenging him so directly.

“You can do that if you want bro, but I’m gonna be a man an’ go help our friends before that fucking monster messes their shit up.”

Both men stopped and shared a wide eyed look with one another.  Each one of them heard the deeper tone of Matt's voice and realized how bizarre his choice of words had suddenly become. The soft sound of stretching rose up in the silence that the two had created before Matt let out a loud, low groan and clutched his stomach with both hands. The unimpressive man began to bubble and bulge with all kinds of muscles. His flat nothing of a chest burst out so large and perfectly round that it was bordering on shelf-like. His arms inflated until his biceps were the size of small cantaloupes, effortlessly surpassing Chris’ own softballs. A black tribal-style flame tattoo wrapped its way around Matt’s left shoulder and down his arm  while a darkened nautical star took shape on his bulging right bicep.

“Bro, what the fuck?” Cried Matt, looking down at his expanding body with a look of shock and surprise.

Chris just stood in stunned silence and watched his friend transform. A spike of envy pierced his heart when he realized that his once skinny nerd of a friend actually had a body that was more impressive than his. His growing body was large and powerful no doubt, but without looking obscene or overinflated. Each muscle was perfectly sculpted and rounded in absolute symmetry, giving off an effortlessly handsome look. Before Chris’ eyes, Matt’s skin took on a fake and bake bronze tone that was even deeper than his own. His relaxed fit jeans grew darker and tightened until they looked as though they could be a second skin. In a whipping flourish, his Legend of Zelda t shirt unfurled at the neck and rippled until in its place sat a bright pink polo with the collar popped and all of its buttons undone.

The changes coursing over his body slowed and focused on Matt’s face in the last moments of their existence. His dark hair spiked straight up and gained bright yellow frosted tips while a visor, cocked to one side, materialize around this forehead. His jaw grew more squared and pronounced, while a single, oversized diamond stud appeared in his unpierced ear. As a final touch, a thick golden chain rippled into existence around his neck with its thick medallion depicting a fist flipping the bird hanging down between his perfectly sculpted pecs.

“Bro, what the hell just happened!” Cried Matt, his voice taking on a distinct east coast vibe as well as a lower rumble.

“I-it must have been the creature. We both touched it and both got fucked up.” Said Chris, his eyes wide.

“That’s cute an’ all, but I think it must have been something else. Maybe it’s cuz we both touched the creature?” Suggested Matt, as though he had come up with the idea himself.

“That’s literally what I just said.” Cried Chris.

He realized quickly how much he hated the way Matt was looking around at everything but him. Down at his own flexing body, around the dark and dreary room, but never at him, even when he spoke. A sensation of bizarre familiarity crept up on Chris with a dread realization. The vague stare at everything but him. The way Matt took credit for his words or outright ignored them. It was much like the tactics Chris employed on girls at trashy night clubs. Negging them and acting passive to their presence. He knew from experience, while it didn’t work on everyone, it did drive some people absolutely wild.

“Dude, I’m not some fucking bitch that you can just ignore. Now, listen to me. We need to stand right here and wait for David and Brad. If your weak ass was able to knock that thing over, there’s no way that David won’t be able to do the same. We sit here, and we wait.”

“Babe, that’s cute an’ everything, but I already decided. We need to go an’ get ‘em, it’ll be quicker.”

Chris was about to let loose on Matt over the way he was talking to him when the transformed stud took a step forward. With his wide shadow cast over the less impressive man, Matt put his thumb on Chris’ bottom lip and pulled it down gently. Chris’ heart gave a bizarre flutter at the act, though his mind was telling him to recoil and punch Matt square in the face.

“Look, babe. You’re really cute, but you’ve got to learn to take a back seat to real men in situations like this.” Cooed Matt, his expression alternating between sheer arrogance and shock at his own words. “C-chris I didn’t mean...” 

Whatever momentary regret Matt seemed to feel over his words washed away in an instant. His cocky, self-assured smile returned to his face as he turned and gave Chris a swat on his ass. The pat wasn’t just a brief tap like one dude might give to another, but a slower, lingering grasp as though Chris were some apple bottomed girl he was hoping to bed. 

“Fuck! Whatever, I’ll go with you, but only so you don’t get yourself killed!” Grunted Chris, pulling away from Matt with a smile.

“Hey, no need to get so emotional. Don’t worry babe, I’ll protect you.” Said Matt, draping his arm around Chris’ waist and pulling him close.

When Matt made contact with his body, Chris felt the same nervous fluttering as he had when his thumb had grazed his lip. Much as he wanted to tell him to fuck right the hell off, his body urged him to go along with it. Chris rationalized the desire and quickly told himself that he was, as he said, only going with Matt in case the creature showed up and he needed help.

“Hey, I know it’s freaky in here an’ shit, but babe, you’d look a lot prettier if you just smiled a little more.” Said Matt, moving his hand to give Chris’ ass another groping squeeze. 

Chris fought the urge to listen to Matt and turned his head away to glare at the floor instead. He told himself that once they got out of the house, everything would return to normal.