Halloween Costume TF

     The door flung wide open as a young man stumbled into his home from the bulk of a briefcase and a package box.  He was of a medium build and had a crew cut of black hair, and his dark grey suit went well with his green eyes.  He set his briefcase down and hung up his suit coat, then carried the package into the living room.
     He had to stop and take a breath, he knew what was in the package, and he was very excited.  He set the package down on the sofa and hit the play button on the telephone answering machine on the end table, and it stated, “Three new messages.”  The first of the messages began playing as he pulled out his pocketknife and began cutting the packaging tape on the box.
     “First message,” the machine began.  “Hey Benji!  It’s Allyn!  I was wonderin’ if you wanna go bowling sometime this week after Halloween.  Gimme a call and lemme know when ya wanna go, and have fun at the costume party tomorrow night at work!  Catch ya later!”
     Benjamin chuckled to himself.  Today was October 30, which meant that tomorrow was Halloween, and tomorrow was the big bash his job had every year at Halloween.  It was one night where any employees who attended got paid overtime to party all night at the expense of the upper management.
     “Second message,” the machine continued.  “Benjamin Zolkower, this is Mr. Harolds.  I am pleased to inform you that you could be first in line for what I advise you to consider as a very significant promotion.  All you have to do to guarantee your name as top priority is analyze some data for me for an important firm and report your findings.  Be at my office one week after Halloween on November 7 at noon and we can discuss your assignment over lunch—my treat.  Have a frightening Halloween.”
     Benjamin stopped opening the box.  He couldn’t believe what he heard.  A promotion!  His boss was going to give him a promotion!  To what, though? he thought.
     “Third message,” the machine interrupted his thoughts.  This time, it was a woman’s voice, “Hey honey, it’s mom.  I just thought I’d call and wish you a happy Halloween.  Give me a call when you get home, alright?  I love you.  Bye.”
     “End of messages,” the answering machine finished.
     Benjamin smiled.  I’ll give her a call after she’s eaten dinner, he thought to himself.  He finished opening the box and pulled its contents out.  It was supposed to be the costume he had custom made for the Halloween party tomorrow night, but it was just a floppy mass of latex.
     “Whaaat?” he asked himself.  “That’s not what I ordered.”  He turned it over a few times in his hands to get a look at it.  It definitely resembled the costume he ordered:  a humanoid raven.  However, it seemed rubbery, and was horribly incomplete.  He sighed and set the costume down on his lap in frustration.  He sat there for a few seconds before trying to put the costume back into its box, but he couldn’t let go of it.  The costume seemed to be stuck to his hand somehow.
     “Hmm.  Odd,” he said as he grabbed the costume with his other hand to pull it off.  The rubber stretched rather generously, and he had his hand wide open, but it was stuck to it like gum on a shoe.  He opened his other hand and discovered that it, too, had fallen victim to the gluey latex.  No amount of pulling on his hands could peel the costume off.
     He stood up and tried to shake the costume off, but each time it just ever so slightly touched his arms, it stuck firmly.  He tried to peel it off his arms, but every time he touched his arms, more of the costume got stuck to them until he could no longer move his hands.  They were bound together by the black mass of latex.
     Benjamin muttered something inappropriate and blunt about his situation.  He tried to get his arms free again, but the costume had gotten so wrapped around his arms that they were glued together and immobile.  He swore again.  “I’m never buying another costume from that person,” he added in frustration.
     Then, he noticed something—or felt it, rather.  The latex was slowly oozing up his arms.  If Benjamin wasn’t panicking at first, he sure was panicking now.  He desperately tried to pull his arms free, but to no avail.  They were inseparable.  Curses flew from his mouth until the latex made its way under his clothes and up his mouth, at which point he was promptly silenced and forced to watch in horror as the costume slowly surrounded his body.  Benjamin tried to scream, but the latex over his mouth muffled it to a mumble.
     After a minute, the rubber closed around his back and started moving down his legs.  All the while, it started pushing his clothes off as though it had a mind of its own.  The latex then forced him to sit down on the sofa rather awkwardly as it got under his socks and around his feet, and forced him to kick his shoes.
     Finally, after the costume had encased his body and forced his clothes off, Benjamin could move his arms again.  He peeled them apart and grabbed at the latex over his mouth, but it slipped out of his grip as though it were oil.  Then, as though the costume had forgotten about Benjamin’s gagged mouth and then remembered, the latex began to ooze up and over his head.  All the while, he could feel the stuff seeping into his skin, almost as though it were infusing itself somehow.
     The last thing Benji saw for the next few seconds was the living room TV.  The instant the costume flowed over his nose and eyes and completely sealed him off from the world, Benjamin started to flat-out claw at his face; he couldn’t breathe.  Within seconds, he was finally able to take a deep breath again.
     He opened his eyes and looked around.  The colors of the world seemed richer—they seemed more full and… and natural.  Benjamin sat on the sofa for a few fright-paralyzed seconds before looking down at his hands.  They had scales and talons, but his arms were covered in shiny, black feathers.  He turned his arms over and discovered that the feathers on their undersides were incredibly large and long.  He felt his face and was surprised when his claws scratched on something hard and bony.  He got up and stood close to the TV and looked at his ghostly reflection in the glass.  He had a beak—and a massive one at that!
     Benjamin jumped back with a short squawk.  “What the!?”
     So?  Whaddya think?  You like? a strange, yet dignified voice said in his head.  Benjamin looked around in fear for the person who spoke to him.  He heard an echoing laughing.  You can’t see me.  I’m in your head, silly human.
     “But… but I can hear you,” Benjamin argued with a wavering voice.
     Of course.  I’m in your head.  I’m you now.
     “I… but… what?”
     You stupid human.  Don’t tell me you didn’t actually stop and consider my creator’s words, did you?
     “Whaddya mean?”
     My creator—the human that made me.  Not once did you even fathom considering what he could have meant by “This costume will make all your dreams come true” now did you, hm?
     Benjamin thought hard for a second.  Then, he had one of those looks of confused realization.  “You mean… Can I?”
     Of course, the voice said matter-of-factly.  In a short instant, Benjamin found himself looking at the face of a walking lizard.  Benjamin gasped and stepped back as he looked at the fearsome, triangular face in the reflection.
     “How’d you know I was going to ask that?” Benjamin asked in disbelief.
     I already told you.  I am you now.
     “Wait… Are you…”
     Yes, I am the costume.
      Benjamin stepped back and sat back down on the sofa as a lizard-man. He couldn’t believe what was happening to him.
     You’d better believe it, the costume said.  We’re inseparable now, you and I.
     “Then how am I going to change back into a human then, huh?” Benjamin challenged.
     Simple.  Like this, the costume chimed cheerfully.  Benjamin could feel what it was like to transform this time.  His body became amorphous and everything fluidly changed shape back into a mostly human form.  However, there were a few things that didn’t quite change entirely.  Benjamin’s fingernails were long and pointed, and he had a tail.
     “Um… this isn’t quite human,” Benjamin pointed out.
     That’s the trade-off.
     “WHAT!?”
     Like I said:  we’re inseparable now.  You can’t take me off; you can never again be ‘exactly human’ anymore.  You can just look the part, and even then you’ll still have a few small traits from your last form visible, the costume said quite angrily.  You wanted to have a costume you could wear anytime.  My creator knew you couldn’t decide what to look like for this… this Halloween you humans obsess about.  He made me so you could have a costume all the time that could be anything you desired.
     Benjamin shut his mouth after incurring the costume’s wrath and said no more.  In his mind, he heard a sigh.  I’m sorry I got mad at you.  You’re just being so stubborn about all of this.
     “Why do you think I’m being so stubborn!” Benjamin shouted.  “You glued my arms together!  You took me hostage!  You turned me into something I’m not!  I can’t take you off now!  And you’re talking to me about all this like it’s no big deal!”
     He could feel the costume’s consciousness in the back of his mind retreat a little.  I… I thought you knew, it whispered.
     “Surprise, surprise,” Benjamin said coldly.  He sat back down and remained in silence for a while.  After half an hour of mulling the whole thing over, he said, “You know, now that I think on it, I… I’m almost hesitant to say I liked having my arms stuck together.”
     … What? the costume asked in confusion.
     “I know, I know.  It doesn’t make any sense.  But… can I ask you something?”
     I’m listening.
     “How much control do you have?”
     Absolute control any time I want.
     This made Benjamin shiver, but he forged on.  “Okay then… How about this?  Until the Halloween party, you can do whatever you want.”
     What if you want control back before then?  I’m merely the costume.  You are my wearer.
     “Don’t give it to me.  Can you read the time?”
     Of course.
     “All you have to remember is my job’s Halloween party starts at seven o’clock P.M.”
     I still don’t think…
     “Like you said earlier:  you were made to be anything I desired.”
     The costume laughed at this.  Very well.
     Benjamin suddenly found himself feeling restrained.  He tried to move an arm, but it wouldn’t budge.  His body turned back into the lizard-man from earlier and it moved with an unfelt strength that easily held against his own attempts at movement.  “Starting now, I’m your master.  You go where I go and do what I do, and you can’t do anything to stop me,” the costume said just to humor his wearer.
     The costume spent the rest of that evening exploring Benjamin’s home.  Eventually, it grew tired and curled up on Benjamin’s bed.

     The next morning, the costume locked the front door, grabbed the house keys, and snuck out the back door.  It shifted into a more quadruped stance, and then buried the keys somewhere near the corner of the house.  It looked around to see the coast was clear, and stalked off into the woods behind Benjamin’s home.
     An hour later, it returned carrying a raccoon and a hedgehog in its mouth.  It found the door to the crawlspace under Benjamin’s house and slipped inside.  Benjamin was forced to watch through the costume’s eyes as it tore the carcasses apart.  He was almost transfixed by the methodical carnage.
     After the costume had finished eating its fill, it slinked back around to where it buried the house keys, dug them up, and went back into Benjamin’s house to explore some more.  This time, it started poking and prodding the various human devices.  Benjamin had to explain how everything worked, why it worked, and why it even existed.
     The costume was most transfixed by the computer in the office.  “Such an imitation of intelligence,” it breathed.  “It is almost realistic.”
     You should see it when it gets a virus.
     “Artificial devices get sick?”
     I guess you could say that.
     “How can you require so many machines to live?”
     Benjamin was quiet at first.  He wanted to say he didn’t need them, but he also had to say he needed them to live the way he does.
     “I guess it’s a human thing,” the costume finally said offhand.  It wandered back out into the living room.
     Do you… Do you have a name? Benjamin asked.
     It was the costume’s turn to be silent.  My creator gave me a spirit.  He gave me a soul.  He gave me intelligence.  Why didn’t he give me a name? it thought, being careful to conceal them from Benjamin.  What am I anyway?  I guess I can say I’m male.  My wearer—Benjamin is male.  What does that mean then?  Do I need a male name?  Why do I keep feeling urges deep inside?
     Questions raced through the costume’s mind.
     It’s alright if you don’t.
     “No, it’s not alright,” the costume said quietly.
     Let’s give you a name then.  How about…
     The costume said the first word that came to its mind.  “Akasune.”
     Now what made you think of that?
     “I… I don’t know, but it sounds like me… I guess.  You know that feeling you get when someone calls you by something that you identify with?”
     Like a name?
     The costume was silent a minute, then it suddenly clicked.  “Yes.  Exactly like a name.”  He thought, He did give me a name after all—Akasune.  It sounds so familiar; it’s surreal.  I feel like that’s a word I’ve known my entire existence.”
     Akasune.  That’s an interesting name, Benjamin said.
     Akasune smiled.  “And it’s all mine.”  For a second, Akasune’s thoughts turned toward an irresistible urge to go an hunt again, but he repressed it.  No.  I must think like this human.  He and I are one now.  I am not an animal.
     Akasune walked out onto the back porch of Benjamin’s home and looked at the forest behind it.  “All of this is our home now,” he said.  But is it really my home? he thought.

     Eventually, the clocks in Benjamin’s home said 6:30 P.M.  Akasune walked into the living room and shifted back into the walking raven that his wearer originally wanted to be.  “It is time for your party,” he said.
     With that, Benjamin found himself in control again much to his relief.  Definitely don’t want to do that very often, he thought to himself.
     Unfortunately, Akasune picked up on that thought.  It may be more often than you think, he replied.
     Benjamin visibly shuddered at that thought, but put it to the back of his mind and left to go to the party.  It took Benjamin a little bit to get used to the beak that he could now feel and was, inexorably, a part of his body.  However, he eventually made it to the party and, like everyone else there, clocked in to get the overtime pay.
     The party went very well.  Everyone that Benjamin saw thought his costume was the best.  They even made him compete in the costume contest, and he won first place hands-down.  At the end of the night, Benjamin received many a compliment.
     As he was walking out the door, there was a shiver down his spine.  Now it’s my time “to run free,” Akasune said.  “My creator wouldn’t give me a name… and a mind if I would never use it.  You must now bend to MY will!” he said maliciously.  He shifted back into a lizard-man and ran off into the night, cackling.