The apartment was dark and still. Since early that morning it had remained unoccupied, left to itself. Then came a soft rattle of keys in a lock.

A light flicked on, banishing darkness from the home as the door slammed shut behind the man who entered through it. The man, Rick, cast off a light jacket before grabbing a drink from the fridge, his very presence breathing life into what was once stillness.

“Hey, Eric!” He called out, “You home?”

No response came. Rick shrugged, his roommate was still probably at work. He plopped down on a well used couch in the center of the apartment’s living room and flipped on the tv.

Eric had some great luck, Rick though as he idly meandered through channels. To be able to get a job offered to him just from walking in the door. He had tried to get him to spill where he was hired, after all his own applications had not brought him so much as a single interview. Eric, for whatever reason was rather tight lipped on the subject. Maybe it was not that great of a gig afterall.

Rick’s eyes wandered away from the screen for a moment, his attention on something that had been left on an end table. It was Eric’s backpack, half open, with some candies spilling out of it. Rick picked up one of the sweets. The foil it was wrapped in had the image of an owl on it, but no other brand name or logo. Maybe he was working for some candy shack. If he was, he certainly would miss a single piece of chocolate if it were to go missing. Rick smirked as he popped the chocolate orb into his mouth. He was such a bad roommate at times.

The candy itself was not fantastic. Kinda chalky, actually. Eric could keep the rest. Rick turned back to the tv, thinking Eric would be none the wiser to his minor theft. If it was just an ordinary piece of candy, this may have been true.

It started subtly, just a few minutes after Rick had swallowed the candy. His attention was absorbed in whatever program he was watching, so he did not notice as his hair was slowly altered, becoming soft, white down before and overcoat of sleek outer feathers grew took their place.

Fluff and feathers continued growing down his neck and down his back. The advance of the feathers were stunted on his arms, the process slowing down to a crawl as what would be long, nimble plumes were blocked and bound by Rick’s long sleeved shirt. The changes to the man’s arms would have to wait.

His hands, however, were a different story. Fingers shifted, disappearing into the mass of lengthening, sleek feathers. The fabric of Rick’s shirt stressed against the growth, but with a pop, the seam of the wrist split apart.

It was this sound which finally alerted Rick to the changes happening to him. Holding his hand in front of his face, he questioned for a moment if what he was seeing was real, but the feathers kept growing out of the lengthening tear running up his sleeve. It would not be too much longer until it was not a hand he was transfixed with, but a wing.

He was on his feet a moment later, eyes wide, though only partly due to his transformation. What was in that candy? He needed to get a hold of Eric. Where was his cell?

It was getting harder for him to walk as his feet shifted beneath him. Toes merged into three strong digits, each tipped with a deadly talon. The feathers, which had almost covered the rest of his body, had come to a sudden halt at his ankles. Instead of the soft fluff, hardening scales were exposed to the world.

Rick spread his arms- his wings- to steady himself as he hobbled to his bedroom. His jeans were pushed down from his waist as tail feathers fanned out behind him.

The man, now more avian looking than human, only grunted at his new feature. Just another problem to add onto the pile, he figured.

Rick was forced to fight with the door for several precious moments, with the dexterous human fingers he had taken for granted moments ago long gone.

He did manage to manipulate the doorknob, however, and spilled though as soon at it unlatched. His phone, his phone. Where was his phone?

Then everything was still for the first time since this mess began. Apprehensively, he turned to his mirror. Wide, orange eye set like gems in a dish shaped face stared back at him. He brushed one of his wings along the length of a hard, yellow beak. Even if he found his phone, could he speak like this?

Rick groaned, two feathery tufts twitching atop his head signaling his annoyance.

“You know what? Screw this.” Rick spat, his anger only slightly abated by the revelation that his new beak did little to hinder his speech. The oversized owl stormed back into the living room and took his position on the couch back. “We’ll just let Eric deal with this when he gets back. Him and his crazy candy.” He huffed as he kicked his taloned feet up. “Get me a new shirt too.”

For nearly fifteen minutes, Rick lounged in front of the television. It was an engrossing program, on that had almost taken his mind off his predicament. Almost.

Every time he turned his head, feathers. Over his arms, over his body, over everything. Given, they were fluffy and warm and warded off the first chill of the changing seasons; as the duo were not yet ready to turn the heating on, but what mattered was that they were out of place. Not to mention having wings instead of hands made operating the tv remote a pain. He wondered if he would be able to fly. His wings were proportionally huge, but birds needed their hollow bones to be light enough to fly. Of course, there was no telling if his own bones had not changed with the rest of his body.

Rick was so enthralled with the thought that he did not hear the door open until it slammed shut. Quickly snapping back to reality at the sudden noise, he turned his head further than he remembered being able to, to find Eric standing just inside the entrance.

“You are a bird.” He deadpanned.

“Yes, I’m well aware.”

“How did this happen? Did you get one of the costumes?”

“What? No, I at one of the candies that were in your bag.” Rick waved a wing over to the chocolate filled bag that still lay on the table. Eric pulled the bag open the whole way, spilling a few more candies out. In the mass of foil wrappers and cartoon animals, a folded piece of paper stuck out. Eric pulled it free and scanned over the note.



“Eric,” It read.

“We have a new product in for the halloween season. Give them a try!

Love, Luna <3

PS, I know you’ll call me to ask if I don’t tell you, so they wear off in about 4-6 hours. Usually.”



“So, you have a way to fix me?” The owl person asked, wide eyed, as his roommate crumpled up the note and tossed it into the trash.

“You’ll turn back in a few hours.”

“Oh. Well, at least I’ll be back to normal eventually. So what until then?”

“I don’t know about you,” Replied Eric as he unwrapped a piece of candy, “But I’m going to try one of these.” He had to smirk at the look his transformed roommate gave him.

---

Hello everyone! Got a bit of a sneak peek for something I hope to be getting up around halloween. Even made a pretty picture for it!

I still need to work on my drawing, but wanting to be good isn't going to get me anywhere.

Anyways, hope you enjoy! Stay tuned for the follow up!