The Sleepover - Part 1

It was a cold autumn day in early October. It had started like any other sleepover. But it all went astray after best friends Fred and Billy decided to try on some of the new Halloween masks they’d bought at the store.

Fred struggled to pull the mask over his head.

“It’s stuck!” he gasped, voice muffled by rubber.

Billy laughed, “Oh, come on, Fred!”

“No, I’m serious! I really can’t get it off!” Fred tugged at the long-haired female mask.

Billy stopped laughing, seeing Fred’s panic.

He rushed over, “Let me help.” He yanked at the mask, but it wouldn’t budge as if glued to Fred’s skin.

They both pulled, but nothing happened.

Then the mask started to conform to Fred’s skin, and the hair seemed to be growing out of his scalp.

Billy backed away, mouth open, “Fred! It’s turning real!”

Fred’s fingers clawed at the now softening rubber, but it was as if he were clawing at his own face, “Get it off! Get it off!”

“I don’t know how!” Billy’s voice cracked, the fear in his eyes mirroring Fred’s.

Fred’s breathing was labored, his voice almost a wail, “It hurts!”

Billy grabbed the edge of the mask with trembling hands, but as he pulled, Fred screamed. Billy jerked away, horrified.

“What’s happening?” Fred whimpered.

“I don’t know! I don’t know!” Billy was on the verge of tears.

Fred ran to the mirror, hands frozen in midair as if afraid to touch his transformed face.

It looked real. His face was that of a grown woman.

Not only that, but he was growing taller, too. The loose sleeves of his flannel pajamas pulled tight around his arms.

Billy watched, wide-eyed, from across the room, “You’re… changing!”

Fred’s feet stumbled beneath him, awkward and unsteady in his changing body. 

Billy’s mind raced, desperate for a solution, for something, anything, “We’ve got to tell someone!”

Fred shook his head vehemently, his new hair whipping around him, “No! No! My parents can’t see me like this!”

Fred’s eyes widened as a new sensation gripped him. A tightness, unfamiliar and pressing, spread across his chest. The transformation was not stopping. 

“Billy!” he cried, his voice rising with a mixture of disbelief and horror. 

He looked down. Was this really happening? He was growing breasts. 

The changes seemed relentless, each one more shocking than the last. His flannel pajamas stretched against his shifting form, straining against his altering physique.

“I’m turning into a girl!” Fred shrieked, grappling with the impossibility.

“Not a girl… a woman…”

“Oh my God!” Fred’s voice wavered with fear and something else.

Something higher, softer.

Billy could only stand there, heart pounding. How could a Halloween mask do this?

It didn’t matter. The transformation was complete. Total.

Fred leaned on the dresser, his new hands trembling. He touched his face, tentatively at first, then with increasing urgency. The skin was smooth, unfamiliar. His eyes, framed by strands of long hair, were huge and scared.

Billy swallowed hard, “Is that really… you?”

Fred nodded.

They were silent for a moment, the room filled with their shallow breathing.

Billy blinked, still trying to digest what he was seeing, “How… how does it feel?”

Fred lifted his new hands up to his chest, tentative and unsure. His fingers moved with hesitation, then gathered courage. He touched the spots where the fabric strained tightest against him, marveling at the surreal reality beneath. He squeezed.

“Dude…”