The Haunted House

Carson held Brendon's hand eagerly, leading them into the 'House of Horror'. Haunted houses weren't usually their ideal date spot, but in the spirit of Halloween they'd decided to make a concession.

Besides, this had rave reviews online, a bunch of themed accounts claiming that the house had transformed them in some way or another. And with such glowing accounts, who could blame the bespectacled boyfriends for wanting a walk through this house?

“I can't believe I let you talk me into this.” Brendon chuckled, his heart beating a little faster as they walked up to the decrepit house's front door. Surprisingly, there was no line. Of course this also made the house look all the more frightening, its deserted and run-down appearance implying nothing but bad times ahead.

He hadn't worried too much about going here back when it sounded cute online. After all, how could a house that 'changed a tour group into rats' possibly be frightening? But the more that he looked at it now, the more daunting it seemed. If Carson wasn't still smiling, he'd have legged it at the first chance he got.

On the other hand, Carson was looking forward to this. Though he wasn't particularly fond of being frightened, he was fond of seeing Brendon frightened. The way his black-haired boyfriend would hold his hand was more than a little exhilarating, and he was looking forward to feeling Brendon's palms bead with sweat.

“I can't believe you needed to be talked into this.” Carson replied glibly, a grin on his face. “It's free, remember? And aren't you always the one who keeps telling me to enjoy the cheaper things in life?”

Brendon nodded slightly, trying not to whine as he spoke again. “But that excludes free things that involves bugs.” He said, gulping anxiously.

“Oh?” Carson chuckled. “Like that one review that said their girlfriend got turned into a spider? Come on, you can't really believe in that sort of thing!”

Brendon groaned and rolled his eyes. “Of course I don't, but—”

“But nothing! Tonight we're gonna be adventurous!” Carson beamed with delight, knocking on the door.

Brendon winced, not entirely knowing what to expect. He'd half-thought that a demon would jump out and attack the two of them, or at the very least have some deranged housekeeper with a knife. The last thing he'd expected was what actually happened: the door swinging open without so much as an eerie creak.

“Well that was mundane.” Carson grinned, voicing Brendon's thoughts. He then looked to his black-haired boyfriend expectantly, squeezing the young man's hand for good measure.

“Yeah, yeah. It's not so scary.” Brendon conceded, sighing and being the first to step into the house. As he did, a mad chill made its way down his spine. He shivered at its icy touch, looking back to Carson as the brunette passed into the house.

Sure enough, Carson shivered, looking at Brendon with a smile. “Ooh! Spooky!” He said with a smile, looking around the doorway. “I wonder how they did that... I don't see any air vents.”

“Must be something magical.” Brendon muttered dismissively, hoping that the two of them could run through this house and be done with it. His skin was already feeling clammy from the house's damp air, giving him one more thing to look forward to on this tour of theirs.

“Oh?” Carson grinned, curiosity piqued. “And tell me, what sort of magic is this? The kind that would ensnare us on this path, transforming us into decorations for this house forever?” He wrapped his arms around Brendon with a gentle smile on his face. “You've been spending too much time on DeviantArt.”

The door closed behind them with a quiet click, and Brendon whimpered slightly. “Still think I'm paranoid?” He held Carson's hand a little tighter, trying to ease his nerves.

“Endearingly so.” Carson replied with a wink and a gentle kiss. “But that's why I'm here to protect you.” Despite his bravado, even he was a little unnerved by the door's mysterious closing—though he'd never let Brendon know that.

“Yeah, yeah. My hero.” Brendon snickered sarcastically, beginning to feel a little more at ease. He placed a hand gently over his heart and let out a low sigh, opening his eyes with renewed resolve. “So with the doors shut behind us, I take it that means the only way is forward?”

Carson nodded with a grin. “Smart and cute, how am I so lucky?” He smiled, patting his boyfriend's shoulder contentedly.

“There's times I wonder that myself, like when you drag me out to places like this.” Brendon sighed, giving Carson's hand a squeeze to show that his words didn't have any real bite behind them. “But I like to think that the other times make it more than worth it.”

“Good to know.” Carson replied, looking deeper into the dimly-lit house. There weren't any candles or lights around, yet everything was lit by a haunting blue glow, as though the moonlight could pass through the roof to fill the house.

It was all very creepy, and exactly what Carson expected of a haunted house—save for the smell, which was a plus. Instead of the stink of a musty, rotting old house, this building smelled remarkably fresh. It smelled exactly like someone was taking care of the wood to a remarkable degree.

If he didn't know any better, he'd probably assume that the house was really haunted, and was somehow taking care of itself. But the thought was a ludicrous one, and he dismissed it from his mind immediately.

Instead, Carson focused on how they should be getting out from this house. A thin sweat began to form along his skin as the lights seemed to brighten along a path through the building, and Carson nodded slowly towards it. “Hey... You seeing what I'm seeing?”

Brendon nodded, a small smile on his face as he started to get into the adventure of it all. “Yeah, I wonder how they're doing that. Maybe a guy in a hidden room with a camera?” He could keep calm if he just kept telling himself that it was all a trick somehow...

Unfortunately, one look to Carson broke his facade almost immediately. Brendon's boyfriend seemed to be concerned for the first time since they'd gotten here, and if Carson was worried, then Brendon had to worry all the harder.

“What's wrong?” Brendon asked, hoping Carson wouldn't have a real answer for him. In that he was sorely mistaken, as his ever-honest boyfriend looked him in the eyes, a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead.

“I can't for the life of me see any source for those lights... And that path lit up just as I wondered how to get out of here.” Carson gulped anxiously, his face quirking into a small frown. “In all honesty, I'm a little freaked out right now.”

“That's exactly what I wanted to hear.” Brendon groaned loudly, covering his face with a hand as he let out a sigh. He quelled his beating heat, then gave Carson an uneasy smile. The brunette needed someone to be his rock, and though Brendon wasn't normally the one to fill that role...

He placed his right hand gently on Carson's shoulder with a smile, squeezing Carson's left hand with his own. “But for now,” he paused to swallow nervously, “for now I think we need to take this path, wherever it leads us.”

Carson blinked in surprise as Brendon's actions; then broke into a relieved smile. “Yeah... Yeah! And hey, nothing bad's gonna happen to you as long as I'm with you, okay?”

Brendon let out a sigh that he didn't know he was holding, and he smiled earnestly. It was good Carson was feeling better, because he didn't think he could act brave for another second. The sooner they got this over with, the better.

The two of them set off for the glowing path, at ease with each other—if not with the ethereal light which lit the path. And on the bright side, the first hallway was normal, just dilapidated.

The second hallway, however... The two crossed the threshold to it and realized that this haunted house was for real. It was like they'd passed from a building into a cemetery, and even Carson squeaked with fear.

That said, he cleared his throat a heartbeat later, biting his lip anxiously. “I mean to say, this isn’t as bad as I thought.” Carson chuckled anxiously, trying to both assert some masculinity and ignore the cold sweat that was starting to dew all over his body.

“Yeah, keep telling me that and it might come true.” Brendon whined gently, gripping Carson’s hand a little tighter. It was a relief that his boyfriend’s hand was as wet and clammy as his own, despite the brunette’s brave face.

Carson chuckled uneasily, then shivered slightly with trepidation at how slick both his and Brendon’s hands were getting. He couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was wrong with them, and so the brunette sent a nervous glance down to their palms, immediately regretting his decision.

Their skin looked darker and almost mottled, the forming bumps covered by a sheen of mucus. That, combined with the dark brown color their skin had assumed, gave Carson the distinct impression that these were more the hands of a toad than they were of a person. And the more Carson stared, the less human they seemed, their fingers beginning to lengthen, fingertips bulging into slight bulbs.

Panicked, he looked into Brendon’s eyes, trying to think of how he should tell his boyfriend; wondering if he should even tell the dark-haired man. Unfortunately, before anything came to mind, Brendon’s curiosity got the better of him, and the bespectacled boy looked down to their clasped hands.

His reaction was a good deal more drastic than Carson’s, a shocked expression marking itself on his face as he jumped back in shock. Unfortunately for the two of them, Brendon’s grip only tightened as he leaped back, resulting in his leap pulling Carson off-balance.

The two collapsed to the floor in a heap reminiscent of one of their first dates, and Carson blushed madly as he straddled his boyfriend. “R-really? I don’t think now’s the best time for this…” He joked uneasily, trying to distract himself from the creeping sensation that was slowly spreading its way up his arm.

But Brendon had no intention of being distracted, too absorbed in this sense of change that was assailing his arms. “W-what’s going on?” He stammered. The dark-haired man fidgeted uneasily under his boyfriend, trying to come to terms with what was happening. The two of them had certainly read enough transformation stories in the past, but this was… It wasn’t supposed to real! People just didn’t turn into animals, much less whatever they were becoming!

“Um…” Carson said nervously, and Brendon looked up to him desperately, hoping that the brunette would have some possible explanation for whatever was happening to them. Sadly, the man could only clear his throat and state the obvious. “I think that we’re becoming some sort of animal… And if you asked me, I’d have to say that we’re becoming a pair of frogs…”

“Frogs?” Brendon half-croaked. “The only thing worse than being frogs would be if we were changing into fat toads!”

As if the transformation had heard him, his stomach began to swell, and he whimpered, releasing Carson’s hand to feel his bloating belly. It felt like he was being inflated, his stomach slowly expanding with an onrush of soft fat. At least his stomach was still relatively taut, instead of flabby.

Carson noticed this too, his own tummy beginning to tingle, and he looked down to Brendon sheepishly. “Or we could be changing into toads…” He muttered, looking at how round his boyfriend’s stomach had gotten. That, coupled with the mottled brown color of their hands ruled out most kinds of frogs, loathe though he was to admit it.

And though Carson thought he had trouble admitting this, his reaction was nothing compared to Brendon’s. The black-haired man outright whimpered with distress, hurriedly tugging his shirt up to see that his chest was turning a deep brown, a sickly shade that would indeed look at home on a toad.

“Don’t say that!” Brendon said, refusing to accept the truth that lay clear before him. "I don't want to be some kind of fat toad, that's something from a nightmare! Please, tell me that this isn't happening; lie to me, I don't care!"

Carson shifted uneasily, unsure of what to say. Then, when no comforting lies came to mind, he opted for the truth. "I don't know what's happening to us, or why we're changing like this, but I love you, and..." He blushed. "I think you look cute with a little extra weight on yourself, anyways." He gave Brendon a quick kiss on the cheek, hoping his words had their intended effect.

Thankfully, they did, a small and shy smile forming on Brendon's face as he remembered he wasn't alone in this. Still, he couldn't help but get a jibe in, and as he fidgeted with his glasses, he smiled. "I told you that this was a bad idea, didn't I?"

"Yeah, yeah..." Carson muttered, rolling his eyes with a sigh. "We can place all the blame we want later, okay? Right now, we just need to get out of here before we fully transform into toads." He looked deeper into the house with worry, hoping that rushing through the house wouldn't accelerate their changes.

And as ever, Brendon was in sync with him, a frown forming on his face as he arrived to the same conclusion. "And what do we do if the house itself is transforming us, and following that path is only going to make things worse?"

Carson groaned mentally, forcing a brave face for his love. "Well, we don't really have any other options here, right? Besides, if we really do become toads, then we find a nice lily pad to call our own, because I'm not going to leave you no matter what you look like."

Brendon blushed, fidgeting slightly under the brunette. "That's really sweet, but..." He chewed on his lower lip, an embarrassed look on his face like he was keeping a secret from Carson.

"Hm?" Carson tilted his head to the side, glad for the distraction. Talking like this was really helping him calm down, and he could tell it was calming Brendon too.

"Well..." Brendon sniggered anxiously. "Lily pads are for frogs. Toads prefer logs or other places with damp soil."

The statement was so outrageous that the two of them sat in stunned silence for almost a full minute. Then Brendon sniggered, and a smile slowly started to break across Carson's face. "It's not," he hiccupped with laughter, "funny..." Another hiccup emerged from his throat, and Carson blushed as Brendon began to outright laugh.

The brunette tried to compose himself for a moment before realizing that it was a futile struggle, and he hiccupped once more before uttering, "Oh, damn it all." With that, he joined Brendon in hysterics, falling atop his plumper boyfriend, then rolling to the side and kicking his legs with mirth.

It felt good to laugh. A calming feeling eased both of their hearts at their engorged chests hiked with delight. And as webbed hands covering their mouths in a vain attempt to contain their laughter, the two realized that they'd be in this together, no matter what.

Hearts at ease, Carson and Brendon held each other's mottled brown hands, slowly helping one another get to their feet as they looked back to the hallway before them. "Well... No time but the present than to get going." Carson smiled, saying what they both were thinking.

"Agreed." Brendon chuckled, giving Carson a quick kiss on the cheek. He blushed a little as Carson turned to look at him curiously, and Brendon added, "For luck."

Carson kissed his boyfriend back, chuckling with amusement. "You can just be too cute sometimes."

"Only sometimes?" Brendon blushed, nothing else coming to his mind. It seemed that these were the right words for him to say though, as Carson gave him another kiss, tapping him on his nose gently.

"Okay, more than sometimes. Now let's see what we can do about getting out of this maze, hm?" He grinned, taking a confident step forward only to scream loudly as a rubber skeleton popped out from a faux casket before them.

"You okay there?" Brendon chuckled, knowing full well that he'd have done the same.

"Shut up." Carson giggled, squeezing his boyfriend's hand tighter. "Look on the bright side, at least we're not changing more, right?"

Brendon nodded, then paused as he noticed a slight bulge beneath Carson's jeans. "Um..." He started, watching as the bulge began to wiggle from side to side. "I think you might have spoken too soon..."

"What?" Carson blinked, his free hand moving to his cheeks. "Is it my face? My back?" He asked, his last question drawing out as he felt his pants shifting behind him. "It's not a tail, is it? Please tell me I don't have a tail."

"Well, that would be lying." Brendon smiled shyly, looking at the wiggling appendage behind his boyfriend. "But on the bright side, it looks cute on you. Like, really cute."

"S-shut up and get over here so you can grow one too!" Carson exclaimed, his cheeks burning as he started to sweat anxiously. He tugged on the man's arm, pulling him closer and grinning as Brendon squeaked loudly.

The dark-haired man had good reason to protest: a bump had begun to form along his backside, and he squeaked in surprise as it grew a little longer. It was short and stubbly, an extension of his body that sat well in his pants, his only discomfort being his ill-fitting pants.

"H-hey, are your pants tight?" Brendon asked, looking to his boyfriend curiously. He received a funny smirk in response, and the black-haired man groaned at the expression on Carson's face. "Don't take that in a sexual way, or anything."

"I don't know if there's another way that I could take it." Carson quipped with a grin on his face that faltered slightly as he moved to scratch at his tail. "But now that you mention it..."

Brendon had to fight back the urge to squeak at the cute sight of his boyfriend, and he flushed. "Let's just... Let's just keep going..." He started to walk a little further through the house, finding there being a slight and uncontrollable hitch in his step, like an urge to spring and hop.

Carson followed, keeping quiet about it as his own legs began to move in a faint yet uncontrollable hop. It was a little funny to see Brendon hopping like that, and Carson had to fight back the urge to laugh at him. It was a hard-fought battle made worse by the jiggling of Brendon's chubby tummy, and Carson was only able to keep his laughter in check by the knowledge that the same thing was happening to himself.

Indeed, he was already hopping with every other step, while Brendon was hopping with his each and every pace. And it looked like that wasn't going to stop anytime soon. Both of them began to stoop as they raced through the spooky house, holding each other's hands tighter and tighter as they felt their humanity slipping away into the aether.

"I... I don't know if we'll reach the exit!" Brendon exclaimed, hopping faster and faster, whimpering as Carson finally overtook him. "And how are you moving so fast?” He whined, trying to sprint but failing as his limbs continued to reshape themselves.

Carson looked back to his boyfriend anxiously, his eyes widening as he saw how odd Brendon looked. It was like none of his clothes were tailored at all to his form, fitting poorly in all the wrong places. His pants were the worst offenders, though. The man's jeans were too tight on his thighs and too thin on his calves, and it looked like he was having some trouble with his feet, too. Come to think of it, Carson's shoes were aching as well, and the brunette slowed his hopping to a crawl.

"You're not going to like it, but you'll have to hop... But first, I think we need to take off our shoes." Carson sighed, knowing Brendon wouldn't like that one bit.

Sure enough, his boyfriend gawped at him in distress, his shock clear on his face. "What are you talking about? We can't just hop around like animals, can we?" He asked, his eyes wide.

"Well... It helps us move faster, and my feet are starting to cramp in my shoes. How are yours feeling?" Carson looked up to Brendon, a slightly shy smile on his face in hopes that he wasn't alone here.

Thankfully, Brendon nodded-though it looked like the man was a little less than comfortable with the prospects of removing his shoes. His worries had good reason, and slipping off his footwear revealed that his feet were awkwardly splayed, the outlines of a toad's spindly toes clear beneath his socks.

"Oh wow... I don't know if I want to take these off..." Brendon trailed off, looking up to his boyfriend for help. He got an eyeful of toad feet for his gesture, and he outright squeaked at the sight of it, hugging his chubby stomach to himself a little tighter.

"What?" Carson asked, wiggling his toes, the webbing audibly tapping against the ground. "We knew this was going to happen, right? And it's not like we're croaking or any-ribbit!" The underside of his jaw bulged widely, and the brunette blushed as he realized that he'd spoken too soon.

It was the oddest sensation, similar to the feeling he’d get if puffed his cheeks up and deflated them. And yet it came from his neck, and it had bulged out far more than he’d ever thought possible, the vast amounts of air making his vocal chords tingle as he’d released the loud croak.

He let out another loud ribbit and looked to Brendon with worry, his eyes tinged with concern for how the man would react when he started croaking as well. Sure enough, Brendon’s neck bulged and he croaked as well, as though echoing Carson.

"We're-ribbit-not getting out of this anyti-bbit soon, ar-ribbit we?" Brendon flushed as he kept croaking. Somehow his vocal chords had apparently degraded faster than Carson's. But they weren't moving any deeper in the house, so... Were they somehow still changing?

Brendon didn't wait to find out, panic driving him to try and hop forward. Already he could feel his neck tingling, beginning to both inflate and swell with the slippery fat hide of a toad. He hopped faster, sending a glance to Carson as the brunette joined him at his side, reaching out a hand to hold Brendon's.

"W-ribbit-hat's wr-ribbit-wrong?" Carson asked, his gaze full of concern as he reached out a hand to hold Brendon's. But as he stretched his arms out, the change pressed against their bodies like a shove to the back, and both men sprawled to the ground in a tangled heap. Their eyes widened as they croaked in unison, sharing a panicked glance as they realized that their time as humans was drawing ever-closer to a close.

Indeed, they barely made it another two half-staggered hops before their limbs began to get tangled in their clothing, the billowing fabric snaring them right. The both of them thumped to the ground in shock, the fall dislodging some of the hair from their heads, the strands fluttering to the ground around them in a cloud of lost hair.

"A-ah!" Carson was the first one to squeak in surprise, his exclamation getting absorbed by the billowing clothes around himself. "Rribbit! Ribbit!" His cheeks bulged as he tried to tell Brendon it was okay, but his changing mouth wasn't able to produce anything more than a toad's loud croaks.

Worse, his eyes were bulging just like his cheeks, sclera turning from a pearly white to a dull gold as his irises molded themselves into clovers. Color drained from the world, making it look just as brown as he was. And as brown as Brendon must be…

His heart hammered with concern for his boyfriend as he began to croak loudly, feeling his face stretch out and his body begin to shrink in contrast. He knew that toads had a much larger head to body ratio than people did, but to have it happen to him was something beyond surreal, entering the realm of frightening.

Brendon, equally frightened, began to panic as well, croaking loudly in an attempt to console Carson. Even though he was completely terrified at how his eyes had bulged and morphed into toad’s eyes, he knew that Carson was changing in the same way. Worse, his lips were stretching wider and wider on his face as he did, but his cries were soon echoed by the other toad-to-be in the room.

The sound was oddly comforting to him, and he smiled shyly with delight, croaking again as his clothes billowed around himself, making him see his transforming boyfriend through the cavern of his shirt's collar, letting him see that Carson was smiling back.

Their panic dimmed into a contented calm croaking, the two of them knowing that they still had one another, even despite this change. Indeed, as they hopped awkwardly out of the stretched fabric, the two of them looked at one another happily, toady grins on their faces as they placed their big and stretched amphibian lips against one another.

Even though it didn't make either of the toads into a prince, it reminded both of them that they had one another. Content, the two toads nuzzled each other, Brendon resting his warty head against Carson’s fat toad tummy. Then the pair of them felt a faint breeze, their amphibian noses twitching as they smelled the outdoors.

Brendon hopped off of Carson, thumping his body towards the fresh and woodsy scent in surprise. Had they really come that close to the exit? He knew that it was an impossibility, but his curiosity demanded satisfaction.

Carson padded after him in surprise, and the both of their eyes widened at the sight of a small, toad-sized hole in the paneling of the wall. He croaked to Brendon curiously, wondering if the other toad would like to venture through this mysterious exit with him.

Brendon nodded eagerly, and the two of them hopped through the small hole in the paneling, feeling the wood beneath their webbed feet transition to soft, loamy soil. Finally, they emerged from the hole, finding themselves in a spooky forest that was in some ways more frightening than the haunted house.

Carson croaked uneasily, looking behind himself to find that the haunted house was nowhere in sight. He blinked in shock; then croaked in even more shock as Brendon nuzzled up to him, as if to remind him that even if they could never return to what they used to be, that wasn’t so bad. After all, the two of them still had each other, and no amount of transformation could change that.

Carson croaked gratefully, and with that the two fat toads hopped off into the forest. Life there would come with its own challenges, yet they would face them as they had faced their changes: together.