Pumpkin Heads - Ripe

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...must grow...

...must grow...

...all men must be seeded...

We must grow. We must seed.

WE MUST GROW-

Owen GASPED.

His eyes flew open. He was choking on hot, wet air that tasted like pie. There was something on his face. Something HARD.

Where was he?

His cheek was pressed against something sticky.

The floor?

He coughed. It was so dusty wherever he was. Dust wasn't the only thing he could smell though. He sniffed. Holy crap, it stank. Was that him?

He pushed himself up on his elbows. His head was so heavy, like someone had strapped a bowling ball to his face. Everything was orange. A dim orange glow, flickering, coming from... right in front of his eyes?

He reached up to his face.

His fingers hit something round. Smooth. Cold on the outside.

He felt it with both hands. A smooth curved surface. Ridges. Two holes right where his eyes were, and a long jagged one where his mouth was.

A pumpkin.

There was a pumpkin on his head.

"What the f-" His voice came out thick and muffled, like he was talking into a pillow.

"Okay... okay, very funny. Is this a prank?"

He grabbed it with both hands and pulled. It was stuck. Like, REALLY stuck.

So, he hit it against the floor. THUD. And again. THUD. And again, as hard as he could.

Not even a crack. He probably hurt himself more than the pumpkin in the process.

His heartbeat accelerated. He was having a panic attack. In a pumpkin. Just perfect.

"Calm down. Calm down, Owen. Think."

He pressed his hands against the pumpkin and tried to breathe slower.

His hands.

That's when he noticed them.

They were huge.

Owen had always been skinny. Everything about him was thin, his arms, his legs, his hands.

These hands were thick and heavy. They looked like someone else's.

He looked down.

His hoodie was gone, or most of it. What was left hung off his shoulders in rags, split right down the middle. And under it...

Under it was a chest. A real chest. Two big slabs of muscle pushing out where he'd always been flat. His stomach had lines on it. And his arms...

He lifted one. It was as thick as his old leg.

"No..." he mumbled. "No no no..."

His cargo pants were ripped open at the thighs. How long had he been out? Nobody grows like this overnight. That's not how muscles work. That's not how ANYTHING works.

He should've been screaming. He knew he should. But he couldn't stop looking. He squeezed his own arm and a shiver went all the way down his back. This was really his body, and it kinda felt good...

Wait. What? No. Nope. Absolutely not. Focus, Owen. Where ARE you?

He looked around. With the pumpkin on, he had to turn his whole head to see anything. He was in a basement. A big one. There was a beer pong table in the middle of the room, covered in dust, with old red cups still on it. The only light inside the place came from a little window high up, boarded over, with streetlight leaking through the gaps.

A couple of old couches sat against the walls, falling apart. It took him a while to notice, because his eyes had to get used to the dark first, but there was something on them. On the floor too, and slumped against the walls.

He wasn't alone down here.

There were other men. Ten, maybe twelve of them, all of them with a pumpkin stuck on their heads. None of them moved. Owen's heart skipped. Were they...? No. Their chests were going up and down. Okay, at least they were breathing. And sweating. Like A LOT. So the stink wasn't him after all. It was them.

Some of them looked relatively normal, others not so much. Owen couldn't stop staring. The one across from him was sitting against the wall, manspreading, his thighs too thick to close. His belly had lines carved into it, and his pecs were so round they pushed up against his pumpkin every time he breathed.

The longer he stared, the stronger the smell got. Musk. Thick and heavy and so fucking ripe it made his head spin. He should've been grossed out, but he wasn't.

Then he noticed something. A hum. It was so quiet down here that it took him a while to hear it. A low rumble, coming from all around him. Owen held his breath and listened. It was the men. They were whispering something, every single one of them, at the same time.

"...must grow... must seed..."

Wait. His lips... his lips were moving as well.

Was he also spewing nonsense like them?

He clamped his mouth shut. He had to get out of there fast before things got worse. Who knew what could happen if he didn't?

On the other side of the room, old wooden stairs led up to a door. He got up, and almost fell straight back down. He wasn't used to this body yet. Everything was heavier, and the pumpkin kept throwing him off balance, to the point where he kicked someone's leg by accident on the way.

"Oh my God, sorry!"

The guy didn't react at all. He proceeded to climb the stairs, every step creaking under his weight, and grabbed the handle.

Locked.

Now what? He tried slamming it with his big new shoulder. It was like hitting a wall.

"HELP!"

But it came out a muffled mess.

"Somebody! HELP!"

Above him, the floor creaked. Footsteps, slow and heavy.

Owen's stomach dropped. Wait. What if it was them? Whoever had grabbed him, whoever had put this thing on his head and dumped him down here... and he'd just yelled to let them know he was awake.

Stupid. STUPID.

He took a step back from the door. The footsteps kept coming - more than one pair. Somebody was up there, and they weren't coming to help.

The Pumpkin Heads must grow.

They were back. The voices he'd heard right before he woke up. But they were louder now, like they were right inside his head.

All men must be seeded.

The footsteps stopped. Right behind the door. Then, nothing... Well, at least now he knew whoever was on the other side of that wall was not there to save him.

We must grow. We must seed.

With no way out and no help coming, Owen went back down the stairs and sat on the bottom step. It was just him and the others now, and he was starting to look a lot like them...

---

--- 20:22 ---

"BOO!"

The girls screamed and ran out the back door, holding on to each other and laughing.

Kyle revved the chainsaw one more time for good measure. BRRRRRRRR.

Sure, it was plastic, but who cared? Nobody looks that closely when a six-foot-one guy in a bloody apron comes at them with a chainsaw. It was the best job ever.

He'd called the back door spot on day one. It was the last room of the haunted house, so by the time people got to him, Brandon and his creepy doll heads had already freaked them out. All Kyle had to do was jump out and BAM. Instant screaming.

Then they ran out the back door onto the trail, and Kyle got to watch them go. The trail cut through the woods behind the house, past fake gravestones and pledges hiding behind the trees in masks, then looped round the side and spat you back out on the street, right where the line was.

"Yo, Kyle." Brandon stuck his head in from the next room, a doll head in each hand. "You made that chick cry, man."

"Whaaaat? She was laughing, dude."

"She was laughing AND crying, bro."

"That's a five-star review in my book, bro." Kyle flexed under the red lights. Wearing nothing but an apron was the best idea he'd had all week.

"Dude, put a shirt on."

"And deprive the people?"

Brandon rolled his eyes and went back to his doll heads.

Kyle leaned in the doorway and watched the next group head down the trail, giggling and pushing each other forward. He'd seen it a hundred times by now. But this time something was different. Just past the second gravestone, somebody was standing between the trees.

Kyle squinted.

Okay, who was THAT? He was big. Like, BIG. Way bigger than any of the pledges, and pretty much shirtless. He had a real pumpkin on his head, glowing orange from inside. Kinda sick, honestly. But he wasn't even doing anything. He just stood there while the group walked right past him and screamed at the pledge behind the next tree.

"Brandon," Kyle called. "Who's the pumpkin dude?"

"What pumpkin dude?"

"On the trail. By the second grave."

Brandon came out and looked. "Huh. I thought he was one of your pledges."

"Dude, none of my pledges look like that."

Brandon shrugged. "Whatever, he looks sick." He went back to his room, but Kyle kept looking. The pumpkin guy didn't move, not even a little.

Was he... looking back at him?

---

--- 20:45 ---

God, it was so hot down here. All these guys packed into this basement, and not a single bit of air coming in.

Owen was still sitting on the bottom step, sweat running down his heavy chest. He kept his hands firmly on his knees. After what happened with his arm earlier, he didn't trust them anywhere else.

The Pumpkin Heads must grow.

The voices came back every few minutes. Each time, his muscles went warm and tight, and he had to fight the urge to flex.

He thought about Theo instead. Theo was his best friend. His only friend, if he was honest. Every October, Theo made them watch one horror movie a night from a list he would always write himself, and they'd never missed a single night. By now Theo must've texted him like fifty times. Maybe he'd even called campus security. Someone had to be looking for him... right?

Owen glanced at the other guys. If anyone was searching for them, they were doing a pretty bad job. Nobody was coming. If he wanted out, he'd have to do it himself, and he couldn't do it alone.

The guy closest to him was half sitting up on one of the old couches. He wasn't one of the huge ones yet, and his lacrosse hoodie still kinda fit him, even if it was getting tight across the shoulders.

Owen crawled over to him.

"Hey," he whispered. "Hey. Can you hear me?"

"...must grow..."

"Hey!" Owen shook him by the shoulder. "Wake up! Come on, man!"

"...all men must be..."

Owen grabbed him with both hands and shook him hard, harder than he meant to. He kept forgetting how strong he was now. The guy's pumpkin knocked against the back of the couch.

"WAKE UP!"

The guy's whole body jolted. Then he gasped, loud and sharp, like he'd been holding his breath this whole time.

"W-what..." His voice was muffled too. "Qué... where... WHAT IS THIS? What's on my-"

"Shh! Shh. It's okay. It's okay." Owen held his arms down before he could start pulling. "It won't come off. I tried. Just... just breathe, okay?"

The guy was shaking all over. Through the eye holes, Owen could see tears in his eyes. Great. Now they were both gonna freak out.

"Hey, hey. Look at me. I'm freaking out too, okay?"

The guy nodded. Or tried to, with the pumpkin on.

"...Who are you?"

"Owen. I'm Owen."

"J-Javi."

"Hey, Javi."

Owen almost laughed. Hey, Javi? Seriously? They were stuck in a basement with pumpkins on their heads and he was doing introductions like it was the first day of class.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Owen asked.

"I was at the gym. Leg day, I think. I always do legs on Wednesdays... then... then I don't know."

Wednesday? The last thing he remembered was walking home on Tuesday night. A whole day, gone, and he'd spent all of it passed out down here while this thing pumped him full of muscle.

Owen shook it off. Freaking out wasn't gonna get them out of here.

"Okay, listen. The door up there is locked, and the window is boarded up. But those guys I heard before have to come back at some point, right? To bring more people in? And when they do... we should just rush them together."

Javi looked down at his own arms. "Dios mío..." His hoodie sleeves were stretched so tight Owen could see the shape of his biceps through them. "...Yeah. Entre los dos, we could take them probably."

"Yeah."

"We could..." Javi's head tilted. "We must..."

"Javi."

"Sorry. Sorry. They keep..." He shook his head. "They keep saying stuff."

"I know. Don't listen to them. Talk to me instead, please."

So they talked - in whispers - about anything, as long as it wasn't the voices.

"I have a test on Friday," Javi said. "I didn't even study. My girlfriend's gonna kill me if I fail again. What about you?"

"Not much," Owen said, and he meant it. He'd been at this university for two years, and if he disappeared tomorrow, the only one who'd notice was Theo.

"Dude. When we get out of here, you're coming to one of our games, I promise."

"I don't even know the rules," Owen said, a tear running down his face.

"Doesn't matter, man. You're coming now, jaja."

Owen smiled under his pumpkin. "Okay."

CLICK.

Owen's smile was gone in a second. Someone was unlocking the door.

---

--- 20:47 ---

Break time!

Kyle left the chainsaw on the floor by the back door and walked out into the woods.

It felt weird being out here without anything to scare people with. Kyle walked past the first gravestone, then the second, and stopped. The pumpkin guy was still standing there between the trees, in the exact same spot. Had he even moved this whole time?

"Dude, nice costume. Which one are you?"

No answer. Kyle went through the pledges in his head. Tyler was the biggest one. "Tyler? Bro, when did you get jacked?"

Nothing.

Kyle stepped closer. He was used to being the tallest guy in the room, and the hottest one too, if you asked him. So it was kinda weird to be staring straight at some dude's pecs. He had to tilt his head back just to see the pumpkin.

The guy's chest was massive, and his arms hung at his sides as big as Kyle's thighs. There was a plastic ID card clipped to what was left of his pants. Kyle couldn't read it in the dark.

Honestly, the costume was kinda lazy. Torn pants and a pumpkin? Kyle would've roasted him for it, but the smell coming off the guy was making it hard to think. He reached up for the pumpkin. If the guy wasn't gonna talk, Kyle would just find out himself.

Then the pumpkin turned, slowly, until the carved eyes were looking right down at him.

Kyle froze. Heat rushed up his neck and into his face. His hand just hung there in the air, halfway to the guy's head. Why couldn't he move it?

Standing there under those carved eyes, Kyle felt small for the first time in his life. And part of him kinda liked it...

"KYLE! Break's over, bro!"

Brandon's voice from the house made him jump. Kyle yanked his hand back and laughed.

"Okay. Okay, you win. That's creepy as fuck. Good job, bro."

He jogged back to the house. His heart was pounding, but that was just from the jog, obviously...

---

--- 21:00 ---

The door opened.

A bit of light came down the stairs, just enough for Owen to see someone standing in the doorway.

Owen jumped to his feet. "Javi," he whispered. "Get ready."

But the guy was already coming down. Every step creaked like it was about to break under his weight, and with every step the voices got louder.

The Pumpkin Heads must grow.

Owen's legs went weak. No, no, no. Not now.

The guy was huge, way bigger than anyone else in the basement. No shirt, just a hairy chest shining with sweat, and jeans so torn they were basically shorts. Clipped to his belt was a security ID card.

MOHAMMED AZIZ

Why did he know that name? Owen stared at the card, trying to think. A security guard... where had he seen a security guard?

Then it hit him. The library. Owen got there before opening so often that the big-looking Middle-Eastern guard with the goatee stopped asking him for his student ID. He'd just shake his head and wave him in. "Library's not going anywhere, kid."

But that guy wasn't THIS big. Was he? If they got security too... then who the hell was supposed to come looking for them?

All men must be seeded.

The monster reached the bottom of the stairs, and the smell hit Owen like a truck. The same musk as the other guys, but so much stronger. Owen's mouth watered. He couldn't stop staring at the hair on his chest, the way it went all the way down his stomach and into his jeans...

The guard walked right past him without even turning his pumpkin. Typical. Even like this, nobody noticed Owen. That meant the stairs were free, though. The door was OPEN. They could just run. Owen turned to Javi.

"Javi, come on! The door's open! NOW!"

He grabbed Javi's arm and pulled, but there was no strength in it. His legs were still shaking from before. Javi didn't even notice. He was staring up at the guard through the holes in his pumpkin, the same way Owen had been staring a second ago.

We must grow. We must seed.

"...yeah," Javi said softly.

Owen looked back at the stairs. The door was still open, right there. If Javi would just MOVE...

The guard held out his hand.

Javi moved. Just not towards the stairs. He took the guard's hand and let him pull him up.

"Javi! What are you doing?!" Owen held on tighter. "Don't! We said-"

"Tranquilo, Owen." Javi didn't sound scared anymore. He sounded happy. "They just want us to grow."

"NO! Javi, listen to me! What about your girlfriend? What about the game? You promised-"

"...all men must be seeded..."

Then, finally, the guard turned his pumpkin and looked down at Owen. Those carved eyes, glowing right at him. Owen forgot how to breathe.

One hand on his chest, one gentle push, and Owen's fingers slipped off Javi's arm. His legs gave out and he landed on his ass on the floor.

He could only watch as the guard walked Javi up the stairs. Javi never looked back.

The door closed...

He was "alone" again...

---

--- 21:31 ---

"Bro. Bro. Your chainsaw is literally plastic."

Kyle lowered the chainsaw.

The guy was dressed as Spider-Man, but he hadn't even bothered with the mask. He had a red plastic cup in his hand, and three of his friends were cracking up behind him.

"That's lame, dude," Spider-Man said. "Like, so lame."

"It's a haunted house, bro," said Kyle. "You want a real chainsaw?"

"I want my ten bucks back, duh."

His friends laughed harder. Spider-Man did a stupid little web-shooting pose at Kyle, and walked out the back door onto the trail.

Kyle "revved" the chainsaw at his back. BRRRRRRR.

"Ooooh, so scary," Spider-Man called, without turning around.

Kyle watched them go, phones out, Spider-Man dragging his feet at the back with his cup. When they got to the second gravestone, Kyle's eyes went straight to the trees.

The pumpkin guy was still there. Kyle could just make out the orange glow of his eyes, right where he'd left him.

His face went hot again. He thought about those carved eyes looking down at him, and how small he'd felt... Nope. He wasn't doing this again. He looked away, and when he looked back, the group was gone in the fog.

"Fucking Spider-Man," he muttered.

A few minutes later, the group came back round the front of the house. Kyle saw them through the side window, out front by the line. There were only three of them now.

"Where's Dev?" one of them was saying, looking at his phone.

"He probably bailed for the party at Sigma. He's been texting some girl all night."

"He could've said bye..."

"It's Dev, dude."

They laughed and walked off down the street.

Kyle frowned. He kept thinking about the way that pumpkin turned to look at him. Had it looked at Dev like that too? He shook his head. Whatever. Dev went to a party. Obviously...

---

--- 22:04 ---

Owen didn't know how long he'd been sitting there.

The voices didn't come and go anymore. They never stopped now, not even for a second. Owen had almost gotten used to them, and that scared him more than anything.

The Pumpkin Heads must grow. All men must be seeded. We must grow. We must seed.

The more he fought them, the louder they got. He couldn't even finish a thought anymore without them butting in. And fighting didn't stop the growing either, it just slowed it down. What was left of his hoodie barely covered his shoulders now, and his cargo pants had split almost down to his knees.

Every now and then the door opened, and the guard came down and took one of the big ones upstairs. None of them ever came back.

Giving in would be so easy, though. Every time he slipped, even for a second, the noise in his head turned into this warm, happy hum, and it felt so good he almost didn't want to fight anymore.

Almost.

He kept his only friend Theo in his head instead, as loud as he could, louder than the voices. Dude, you got kidnapped by PUMPKINS? Of course you did. Owen would've given anything to hear him say it for real.

He was so deep in his own head he didn't even hear the door. He only looked up when a shadow fell across the stairs.

Someone was coming down, slowly, with something big slung over his shoulder. Owen squinted in the dark. Red and blue... a Spider-Man costume?

Owen didn't care about the costume, though. It was the guy carrying it that made him freeze. He was huge, almost as big as the guard. His chest was smooth and shiny with sweat, and what was left of a grey hoodie hung around his waist, over a pair of green gym shorts torn to shreds. Owen knew those shorts. He'd been sitting right next to them an hour ago.

"...Javi?"

It was him. It had to be. But his pumpkin was glowing now, the same orange as the MONSTER from before. Owen had looked right into those eye holes and seen Javi crying. Now there was nothing in there but light.

"Javi," Owen said again. "Hey. Hey, it's me."

Javi didn't even look at him. He bent down and laid Spider-Man on the floor next to Owen, really carefully, then straightened back up. That's when Owen saw the bulge in his shorts. It was HUGE. Way bigger than anything that... that should be possible. Owen looked away fast. Why was he even looking there?!

When Owen looked back up, Javi was already halfway up the stairs. He didn't look back, but Owen wasn't even surprised anymore. Whatever they'd done to him up there, Javi was gone. So much for that lacrosse game...

Next to him, Spider-Man groaned. Someone had already put a pumpkin on his head too, the carved face still fresh.

"...ugh... dude..." Spider-Man rolled over. "What the... what..."

"Hey." Owen leaned over him. "Hey. Listen to me. Don't panic, okay? There's a pumpkin on your head, it won't come off, and-"

"Whoa." Spider-Man held his hands up in front of the eye holes. "Whoa. Duuude."

"You have to fight it, okay? There are voices, and they're gonna tell you stuff, and you can't-"

"Bro, I can feel my arms." Spider-Man sounded drunk. Or high. Probably both. "Like... I can FEEL them. They're so warm."

"Dude, focus! You have to fight it!"

"Why would I fight it?" Spider-Man stretched his arms out above him. "It feels SO good, bro."

Owen didn't have an answer for that. Not one that would get through to a guy this wasted, anyway.

Spider-Man didn't wait for one. He lay back on the floor and let out a long, happy moan, and right in front of Owen, his chest started getting bigger with every breath.

Owen couldn't believe how fast it was happening. He'd been fighting this thing for a whole day, and this guy had been down here for like five minutes. Was that what it would feel like if he just... stopped?

Spider-Man kept getting bigger and bigger. At first it was just his chest, slowly filling out the costume, then his shoulders, then his arms. Owen lost track of how long he sat there watching. The poor costume was not made for this. Owen could hear it straining with every breath Spider-Man took, until the seams on his shoulders finally gave up with a little pop.

He started touching himself, slowly at first, running his hands over his new chest like he was showing it off. Then lower...

"...must grow..." he mumbled. "Fuck yeah... must grow..."

RIIIIP. The costume split open all the way down his back. A wave of fresh musk hit Owen right in the face.

Owen knew he should look away. But the bigger Spider-Man got, the warmer Owen's own body felt, like it wanted to catch up. His hands were moving on their own. They were on his chest, squeezing...

Ow. OW. What the...? Owen looked down.

He was hard. Like, REALLY hard. How long had he been like this? There was a dark wet spot spreading on the front of his pants. He was leaking. Just from watching some guy he didn't even know...

Funny how everything else on him was huge now, and that was still... normal. Not like Javi. Owen had seen the bulge in his shorts... Whatever happened upstairs, it made you bigger THERE too.

We must grow.

Yes...

NO.

Owen pulled his hands away and sat on them. The voices in his head didn't like that. They got so loud he couldn't think. Theo's face... what did Theo's face look like?

He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to find it. Glasses. He had glasses, right? Always pushing them up his nose. Then the rest of it came back, bit by bit, until Theo was grinning at him like he always did, right before that stupid laugh of his.

When Owen finally opened his eyes, the guard was already standing at the bottom of the stairs. Owen hadn't even heard him come down. How long had he been gone?

Spider-Man was on his feet too, and he was HUGE. Way bigger than Owen now, with the costume hanging off him in red and blue strips. He walked over to the guard like he'd been called, and the two of them went up the stairs together.

Owen didn't even try to stop them this time. He just lay there on the floor in the dark, hugging his knees, whispering Theo's name over and over so he wouldn't forget him again.

Theo.

Theo.

Theo...

---

--- 00:02 ---

"Last group!" Brandon shouted from the front. "That's it, we're closed!"

"After-party at Sigma," someone shouted. "Let's GO."

"Kyle!" Brandon threw a roll of bin bags at him. "You're on cleanup."

"What? Why me?"

"You were late last Monday. Rules are rules, bro."

"Fuck the rules, bro. I can't miss the after-"

But they were already gone.

Kyle heard them laughing down the street, then the front door slammed, and it was just him and the bin bags. He went out the back, and the cold hit him straight away. Wearing nothing but an apron had seemed like a great idea at seven o'clock. Now he was freezing his ass off.

It was really dark out there. Kyle started picking up the fake skulls and throwing them in the bag, trying to get it over with fast. He could hear the bass from Sigma in the distance.

He bent down for another skull. Then a branch snapped somewhere in the trees, and Kyle looked up.

The pumpkin guy was still there.

"Dude, you can stop now. We're closed. Everyone's at Sigma."

The pumpkin guy didn't move.

---

--- 00:05 ---

Owen couldn't remember Theo's last name.

He lay there on the floor and tried as hard as he could. He'd written it on like a hundred group projects since freshman year. It started with a... with a...

He didn't know.

Most of the guys from before were gone now, and there were new ones lying where they used to be. Owen hadn't even noticed them come in.

He'd stopped fighting at some point, he didn't even remember when. The voices didn't yell at him anymore. They just hummed, and every time they did, his body got hotter. It felt so good. It felt so so good.

He could feel himself filling out, slow and warm, his chest getting heavier and his arms pushing against the floor. He was still nowhere near as big as Spider-Man, but he would be. He wanted to be.

He was hard too, leaking all over himself. Touching it didn't help. Nothing he did helped. It was like his body was waiting for something.

Ripe.

He could smell himself now, the same thick musk as the others. This time it really was him. And he liked it.

"Ripe..."

Owen said it back without thinking.

---

--- 00:09 ---

"Dude?" Kyle tried again. This time the guy actually moved. He was coming straight at Kyle.

Kyle backed up. "Bro, the joke's over. Seriously."

Then Kyle saw what was in his hands. Another pumpkin, with a big jagged grin carved into it.

"Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa, what are you-"

He kept backing up until his back hit a tree. The pumpkin creep was right in front of him now, looking down at him again with those carved eyes. Kyle's face went hot, just like before. The pumpkin came down towards his head, and his body didn't move.

Everything went dark and orange - Kyle gasped. It was like his muscles forgot how to work. His legs gave out, and he slid down the tree into the leaves...

The Pumpkin Heads must grow.

"Wh-what the fuck..." Kyle's own voice sounded tiny next to the one in his head. "Dude, get this shit off me..."

All men must be seeded.

Then his stomach started getting hot. It spread up into his chest and down his arms, slow and heavy, and his arms... they felt pumped. Like after a workout, except he hadn't done anything. The apron straps started digging into his chest.

"Haha... holy shit," Kyle said. He couldn't help it. It felt better than anything he'd ever done in the gym. He grabbed his own chest, feeling the pump of the pumpkin.

"Holy SHIT, bro."

We must grow.

"Yeah... HAHA... Fuck yeah..."

Leaves crunched somewhere behind the creep, and someone else stepped out into the moonlight. He was huge, almost as big as the first guy. What was left of his suit hung off his chest in a V, the spider logo stretched across his pecs, and the rest had torn into rags around his hips. Kyle knew that costume.

"...Spider-Man?" Kyle said. "Bro...? Is that... you?"

The guy who'd made fun of his chainsaw earlier tonight bent down and threw Kyle over his shoulder. Kyle was six-foot-one, and Spider-Man didn't even grunt. Through the eye holes, all Kyle could see was his back. It was so wide it filled the whole view, and every time Spider-Man took a step, Kyle could see the muscles shift under the skin. Kyle could smell him, all sweat and musk, and something stirred under his apron.

We must seed.

That was just the pumpkin talking. Right? He liked girls. Everyone knew that. Kyle had made sure everybody knew that.

They walked for a while. Kyle had no idea where. When Spider-Man finally stopped, Kyle twisted his head enough to see out of one eye hole. Boarded-up windows and a "No Trespassing" sign on the back door. Kyle knew this place. It used to be a frat house, until the university shut it down and locked it up.

The door opened.

---

--- 00:31 ---

Owen heard the door open. He lifted his head, but it took forever. Everything was so slow now.

Spider-Man was coming down the stairs. His pumpkin was glowing orange now, just like Javi's. They'd gotten him too.

He had someone over his shoulder, someone in a bloody apron and not much else. Spider-Man dropped him on the floor in the middle of the basement. The new guy was breathing hard. He was already big, his chest pushing out of the apron, and he was moaning something under his pumpkin.

"...must grow... fuck yeah, bro..."

Even through the eye holes, Owen knew that face. It was Kyle. Everyone knew Kyle. His eyes were rolled back, and he was smiling.

Even him, huh.

More footsteps came down the stairs, heavy and slow. It was the guard. He stopped in front of Owen and held out his hand.

Owen looked at the hand. Then he watched his own hand come up off the floor, really slowly, like it belonged to someone else. A few hours ago he'd screamed at Javi for doing this exact thing. He couldn't even remember why anymore...

So he took it.

Standing up was so easy, and so was following the guard up the stairs. Behind him, Kyle was still moaning on the floor.

---

--- 00:34 ---

The door at the top led to an old living room. Most of the guys from the basement were up here, standing in the dark around the walls. The air up here was so thick with musk Owen could almost taste it. Javi was there, right next to Spider-Man. None of them moved, but Owen could hear every single one of them in his head.

The Pumpkin Heads must grow. All men must be seeded.

The man from the library turned around to face him, and Owen looked right back at him.

There used to be someone else who looked at Owen like that. A friend, maybe. Owen couldn't remember his name anymore, but it didn't matter.

All that mattered was right in front of him. The BEAST put his hands on Owen's shoulders. They were so big and warm they covered them completely. He didn't need to say anything. He walked Owen backwards until his legs hit an old couch, and Owen sat down hard. Dust puffed up from the cushions. All around the room, the others turned their pumpkins to watch.

The beast opened his jeans, and Owen's mouth went dry. He'd seen Javi's bulge, but this was something else. It was HUGE, thick and heavy and already dripping. Owen's own cock looked so small next to it.

"I've n-never..." He swallowed. "I've never done anything like t-this. Like ever..."

The man pulled his cargo pants down to his knees and pushed him back on the couch with one hand. Owen spread his legs for him. Nobody made him do that, he just wanted to...

The first push hurt so much Owen grabbed the cushion and ripped a hole right through it. He kept forgetting how strong he was now. He gasped and squirmed, but the beast held him there, slow and patient, and the voices hummed louder and louder in his head until the pain started to turn into something else.

All men must be seeded.

Then he started moving, and the whole couch creaked under them. Owen grabbed at his chest to hold on, and his fingers sank into all that thick, dark hair. He'd been staring at it since the basement. It was so warm, and he smelled so good...

"Oh fuck... oh fuck, oh fuck..."

Owen had never sworn this much in his life. The beast was looking right at him the whole time. Owen had waited his whole life for someone to look at him like that. He wasn't gonna go back to being invisible. Not ever.

"P-please," Owen begged. "Please, I want it. I wanna be like you. I don't wanna be me anymore..."

The beast started going harder, faster, until the couch legs were scraping across the floor. He slammed in one last time and stayed there. Owen felt him throb, again and again, filling him up so much he could feel it in his stomach. Then, all at once, the voices stopped. For the first time since he woke up in that basement, Owen's head was completely quiet. When the voices came back, there was a new one with them, and it was his own.

He was finally seeded.

It spread through him burning hot, and he grew. His whole body got heavier and harder than it had ever been, until he was as big as Javi. Thick, dark hair spread across his chest, just like the one on the guard's chest.

And between his legs, finally, he grew too. Owen watched it happen. His cock got heavier and heavier against his stomach until it was just as big as the one still buried inside him. For once in his life, he wasn't the small one. Then it twitched, and Owen came so hard it hit his own chest, again and again, way more than should've been possible.

The heat kept going, up into his head. Owen tried to think about the movie they were supposed to watch tonight, but he couldn't remember who "they" was. Then he couldn't remember the movie either. It was okay. They were thinking for him now.

---

We stood up. The others turned to look at us, and we looked back with the same orange light.

Downstairs in the basement, the new one was still moaning on the floor in his bloody apron. He would ripen fast. And when his brothers came looking for him, we would be ready for them.

The Pumpkin Heads must grow.

All men must be seeded.

We must grow. We must seed.

To be continued...?

Pumpkin Heads - Handover

The clock on the CCTV wall said 18:04 when Mo put the radio back in its cradle and pulled on his coat.

"Stay awake, kid." He tapped the glass with his knuckle. Outside, the student union steps were lined with pumpkins, paper bats, and other random trinkets - Halloween decorations.

"Don't forget it's prank week," Mo said. "Those kids tend to go nuts around this time of year."

"Yeah, I know," Danny said. "I think I can handle a couple of frat bros and their stupid pranks."

"Good." Mo nodded, satisfied with Danny's answer. He gave him the same look he gave him every night at handover. A quick check, head to toe. Old army habit. Danny was twenty-six, with soft features that made him look weird for the job. Why a guy like him was working in security was beyond Mo's pay grade, but he never asked about it. Everyone needs a job after all.

"By the way kid," Mo said, "if you're going out for a smoke tonight-"

"Uh... I'm not."

"Well, if you are," Mo said slowly, "don't let the door close on you. The back exit's not working, gotta call repairs."

"I don't smoke, Mo."

"My advice still stands. And if something happens-"

"Nothing's going to happen."

"Call for help. Don't be a hero, kid."

"Thanks, Mo..."

The door shut. The office went quiet. Just the hum of the monitors, the heater ticking, the radio crackling on the campus police channel. Danny sat down. On camera four, the football team was walking back from evening practice, breath steaming in the cold. Danny leaned forward on his chair - he enjoyed the view, even if there was no chance in hell any of them would ever interact with someone like him. Still, a man can dream, right?

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