Ripple. Surge. Wait. Nothing.

Henks sits on the chair just by the wooden dining table, his hands between his knees. Spotting dirt on the floor, he smudges it away with the tip of his boot. It sticks, clinging desperately to the sole.

Skin tight. I can feel it, why isn't it coming?

Shawn Henks's blonde hair falls loosely to his eyes. He takes no care to swash the free hair away, and instead waits for what was always meant to come to him; the transformation from man to...

Beast.

By now he begins to tap his foot impatiently, cross his arms, and stare out his dining room window. He glimpses merry trick-or-treaters coming up to doorsteps, pleading for candy.

Ripple, ripple, ripple. It's coming faster.

Shawn falls to the floor, howling and gasping for air. He finds his cranium being shaped and morphed into a mix between dog and wolf head. His legs shorten and elongate - horizontally - and he finds himself on all fours. A short, deer-like tail sprouts between his legs, and he wags it profusely. His now amber fur sways in the moonlight, unaffected by the dense air particles. He smelt many different things: small children, the tastiest smell, hard candy, women's perfumes, the aching smell of sweat.

He no longer thought with human sense, and slowly waited for anxious trick-or-treat kiddies to come to his door. It was Halloween, and no kid on this block would settle without coming to Mr. Henk's house, no sirree. As a bonus, he got a little evening snack to boot.

"Trick or treat..."

The wolf form of Shawn progresses to the door, leaping over furniture and kitchen appliances. Reaching the door, he stands vertically and twists the knob with his soul four claws.

"Wow, Mr. Henks," one of the children, dressed like a spider with four legs remarks, "You really worked hard on your costume."

Shawn is  not amused, and decides that that child will be the one he devours first. He glances from one child to another; staring at a Dracula, a four-legged spider, and a cheap ghost.

"Come on!" The Dracula urges with intensity, "Give us our candy!"

Shawn raises a hairy eyebrow, and starts to stand back on all fours. The children gasp but do not run; they assume it is still a costume.

Until the beast in front of them tears the spider's two, fleshy, human legs off. The other two manage to flee, while the one is dragged inside the house, screaming and clawing at the ground.

"Please," the small child says, through tears, "Don't hurt me...I have a family..."

All human morals are lost to Shawn. Taking the boy's left leg in his sharp teeth, he bites down, puncturing the main artery. Blood slowly begins to ooze out of the wound, and Shawn merrily licks at it. He does the same with the other leg; puncturing and then sucking at it.

Once the legs had been decimated, Shawn, still in wolf form, moved on to the boys torso. Tearing off rib after rib, blood stemmed out of the boy's pleading arteries. There was no hope for him now.

Just as Shawn was beginning to feast in his favorite part: the head, he felt the change going. His legs shortened, and his neck returned to normal. Everything was normal.

Except he had a dead boy in his dining room.

Henk's knees collapsed, resulting in him falling to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. He was a peaceful man at large, and now...had he committed murder? No, a hunger for survival?

Well it was Halloween.