Row after row of faces leered down at him with empty eye sockets and slashes of mouths that were contorted into screams of pain or fanged snarls. The frozen faces dangling from their metal hooks were meant to be creepy, or, at the very least, disconcerting, but they completely failed at their task – when it came to Dr. Sid, at any rate. To one that actually was a real monster, the molded plastic travesties were… pathetic.

Vampires, zombies, bolt-necked Frankenstein monsters, killers from movies that no longer existed on celluloid and were gradually vanishing from memory were all represented in latex form. And yet, one monster was strangely absent from the line-up… where were the werewolves? Dr. Sid strode down the aisle, ignoring the giggling children gathered around costumes based on the latest cartoon fad as he searched for the monster closest to his heart. And finally, he found one.

Either that, or it was a representation of some guy who’d let his side-burns grow out of control. The mask tagged with the label ‘werewolf’ was basically human in shape, except for tufts of hair sprouting from its cheek and jaw bones. A Neanderthal brow hung low over the muzzle-less face, with teeth that gave the mouth an overbite. Anything that tried to eat with those teeth would find itself slicing up its own lips, Dr. Sid thought with disgust.

Dr. Sid plucked the fur-faced mask from its hook and glowered down at the snarling visage. "How can they call this a werewolf?" he asked bitterly. "I’ve seen unshaven soldiers who looked like this, and they were far more frightening." Disgustedly, he put it back on the shelf. Aki came up behind him, startling him. He’d almost forgotten the young woman was there.

"What’s wrong with it? I think it’s scary," Aki said, taking up the mask he’d been examining. "Look at the teeth, all sharp and bloody."

"I just don’t like it. It doesn’t even look like a wolf!" He crossed his thin arms irritably. Aki looked puzzled by his reaction; after all, why should he be so vehement about this particular mask? There was no good, plausible reason… "I don’t like it," he repeated.

"Maybe it’s just hair envy?" Aki asked, grinning.

Dr. Sid ran his hand along his balding pate and scowled. Maybe she had something there; his own lupine form was somewhat lacking in fur. But still… werewolves did not look like men suffering from excess testosterone!

"Why did we come here, anyway?" Dr. Sid griped. "I could be in the lab right now, doing…" he trailed off. He wasn’t currently running any experiments beyond the ongoing search for the next spirit. "Something," he finished. He didn’t see why Aki had dragged him along on this little shopping excursion; she’d said he needed to get out of the lab for awhile and had closed her ears to his protests all the way to the department store. Aki was built like a twig; how the hell had she found the strength to force a lycanthrope somewhere against his will?

"I’m looking for pantyhose, actually," Aki said. "Eli – er, Major Elliot – is going to a Rocky Horror Picture Show party, and he has a run in one of his stockings. He needs a new pair by tomorrow." She grinned, totally oblivious of the fact that Dr. Sid was on to their secret relationship. "He was too embarrassed to shop for it himself, so he asked me, since I’m a woman."

Since you’re his lover, you mean, Dr. Sid thought bitterly. Wait… The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Major Elliot is dressing up like… Desperately, Dr. Sid looked around for something to use to gouge out his brain – it was the only way he’d be able to rid his mind of the horrible, awful image that had taken form there. "I’m going to go look for some," Aki said, unaware of her mentor’s impending descent into madness. "Want to meet up at the café?"

Dr. Sid temporarily managed to quell the image long enough to form a coherent answer. "All right." If she was going to just abandon him at the first possible moment, why had she even bothered to bring him? He shook his head and turned back to the rows of disembodied faces. He spent ten minutes glowering fiercely at the assembled menagerie of horror, with no effect other than to ward off a puzzled salesman. Finally, disgusted, he stalked off, turning in to the next row.

Which proved to be even worse. This row had been dedicated to Halloween décor: phony skeletons hung suspended over shelves of skulls; false tombstones sat atop green shelf paper, covered with realistic cobwebbing and not-so-realistic spiders; green-skinned witches posed, grinning, with wide-eyed black cats; fake rats and crows perched amongst twisted wire trees with faces wrought in their trunks; vampires, mummies, and Frankenstein monsters gamboled about in paper, plastic, and resin form… Everywhere, the staples of the holiday were present in some way, shape, or form… with one exception.

There were no werewolves anywhere.

This was an outrage, Dr. Sid decided. Legends of werewolves had been around for centuries; they were as old as the tales of vampires and witches, much older than Freddy Krueger or Jason – or even Frankenstein’s monster. The threat of werewolves had kept superstitious villagers indoors at night, had caused neighbor to turn on neighbor, had resulted in torture, and even death. They had ever right to be represented here!

A part of Dr. Sid wondered why he was getting worked up over something so worthless; after all, wasn’t the world being besieged by an infinitely worse threat than a few people who turned hairy every month? The Phantoms weren’t represented amongst the costumes – that would have been the height of bad taste. Still, though… We deserve respect, dammit!

"Sir, is everything all right?"

Dr. Sid started. He hadn’t even sensed the presence of the young salesman hovering at his elbow – he really was slipping in his old age. The salesman was watching him with a frown, and Dr. Sid realized he hadn’t come over to assist; he was worried he was dealing with an old man lost in the grips of senility. "Everything’s fine," Dr. Sid lied. "I’m just… looking."

"You were… growling at the rubber rat over there," the salesman said.

Dr. Sid blinked. "Oh," he said faintly, unsure of how to reply.

"Is there anything I can help you with, sir?" the salesman asked, relaxing now that he was certain this old man was at least partly in control of his mental facilities.

"I was wondering why there aren’t any werewolf decorations," Dr. Sid said, trying to keep his voice pleasant.

"Er… werewolves?" the salesman looked blank for a moment.

"You know," Dr. Sid said, exasperated. "Part wolf, part human, big teeth, thirst for blood."

"I know what a werewolf is," the salesman said patiently. "We just don’t get many requests for them. Guess they’re not scary enough, you know? Now, if you want frightening, we have a nice line of vampire-related decorations over here-"

Dr. Sid didn’t know what had compelled him to act as he did; perhaps he really was losing his mind, after all. Next thing he knew, he was pinning the salesman to the rack behind him, into the embrace of a frighteningly real hanging skeleton. The arms seemed to close around the startled man as Dr. Sid moved in, his face bare inches from the younger man’s. "Not scary enough?" he said, his voice dropping into a low growl. "How dare you… They’re worthy of your respect, too! They’re something to be feared, and yet, they have less representation than some square yellow sponge that hasn’t been on TV for more than fifty years!"

"Are you crazy? What’s wrong with you? Why would it even matter?" the youth yelped. "They’re just old wives’ tales! It’s not like they’re going to get pissed off by under-representation and sue us!"

Now there was a thought… Dr. Sid discarded it immediately. There was no way he could find a lawyer who’d represent him. Not after this little public display…

"Excuse me, is there a problem?"

Dr. Sid turned and saw two more salespeople watching him with inscrutable expressions. One of them was big enough to spend his time moonlighting as a bouncer. Dr. Sid turned back to the pinned salesman, and realized with some surprise that his hands were curled into claws, dangerously close to his victim’s throat. This can’t look good… He pulled back, offering his hand to the salesman. The youth looked at the proffered hand and tried to back away, knocking merchandise off the shelf in his haste. Fortunately, it was all rubber or plastic, and nothing was damaged in the process.

"I’m afraid we’re going to have to ask you to leave," the big guy said in a tone that brooked no argument.

Dr. Sid tried anyway. "It wasn’t what it looked like," he began.

"Now," the big guy said, his meaty fist closing over Dr. Sid’s shoulder, and he began to forcibly escort the scientist out. He didn’t release his grip until they were at the double doors, and Dr. Sid walked through them with his head up, not bothering to look back. He wanted to keep as much of his dignity as he could…

Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to be possible. The story of the crazy old man with the werewolf fetish must have spread like wildfire.

"I can’t believe you got kicked out of a department store," Aki said, her tone bemused, when she joined him at the café some twenty minutes later. From the look on her face, Dr. Sid guessed she was wondering at his state of mind, wondering if senility had finally hit after all these years. Dr. Sid was kind of wondering that himself. He decided to blame Aki and the revolting image of Major Elliot in pantyhose for driving him over the edge. Ugh, and I almost had that damned thought out of my head! "Are you all right?"

Dr. Sid smiled thinly. "I’m just a little stressed out," he said. "I’m sure a nice, relaxing evening will help clear my head.

Aki pursed her lips. "You won’t get much relaxing tonight, I’m afraid," she said. "The big USMF costume party is tonight, remember?" Dr. Sid stared at her blankly. Costume party? I don’t remember agreeing to go to any party! Besides, Halloween is still two days away. And he didn’t have any excuse to get out of it – the first night of the full moon was tomorrow, so he didn’t need to conceal himself in his room. Still, maybe there was some way he could get out of this…

"Didn’t I tell you about it? You’re going, too. The Council is attending, and they expect you to be there." Aki grinned widely. "So I got you this, since it seemed to horrify you so much." She fished around in the bag and produced a familiar hair-and-plastic travesty.

Dr. Sid rolled his eyes. Aki had bought him the werewolf mask.

The party was every bit as horrible as Dr. Sid had feared it would be. He’d come with great reluctance, only giving in because Aki threatened to badger him all night if he didn’t go. He’d even agreed to wear the atrocious mask, even though the strong scent of the latex was overpowering to his lycanthropic senses, which were enhanced this close to the full moon. He’d even let Aki put tears in one of his scientific smocks, as if he’d transformed while wearing it, though he’d threatened that she’d have to replace it. She’d then given him a push in the right direction before leaving to get changed herself. She’d said it was because she wanted to surprise him, but he suspected it was because she didn’t want him to be able to recognize her in costume when she started fawning over Major Elliot in public.

Maybe it was for the best; it had taking him long enough to expunge the earlier image from his mind; he didn’t need new ones to take its place.

So instead, he found a seat in the corner of the lavishly-decorated convention center that had been commandeered by the USMF for their use; fortunately, it was spacious enough that he could conceivably avoid Aki and her ‘secret’ beau, and maybe anyone else who came who knew him. Unfortunately, it was inevitable that the raucous party would spill over into his little corner of solitude, and he was forced to evacuate when two drunks, who Dr. Sid strongly suspected were Captain Gray Edwards and Sergeant Ryan Whittaker under their pirate and knight costumes, began hurling candy at each other, and one of them took shelter behind Dr. Sid’s seat. To get out of the line of fire, Dr. Sid crossed to the opposite end of the center, only to run in to Councilwoman Hee.

This was a Very Bad Thing, since Hee had chosen to come as a Medieval wench, complete with low-cut dress. And she wasn’t any more sober than the two soldiers across the room who were now lobbing fake jack-o-lanterns at each other. She gave a burbling laugh when she saw his masked face and threw herself in his arms. "Does the beast want to ravage the beauty?" she cooed. Councilman Drake, who’d been standing behind her, looked ill at the thought. At least the lucky bastard wasn’t getting an unobstructed view down the front of Hee’s dress.

At this moment, I would give anything for one of those memory-eraser machines the military is rumored to have, Dr. Sid thought. This was going to haunt him for a long time to come. He dropped Hee, and she fell to the floor with a giggle. Dr. Sid rushed off as fast as his old joints would allow.

He finally found somewhere that could be considered safe, in an empty coffin leaning against the wall. He settled into it, kicking out the plastic bones that cluttered the bottom before leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. The grave’s a fine and private place, Dr. Sid thought whimsically, recalling his favorite line from Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress.’ But none, I think, do there embrace. Odd how Halloween always seems to make a poet out of me. Or maybe it’s the drinks. I’d better stop, or I’ll be spouting Poe next. He ignored his own advice and lifted the chin of his mask to take a sip of his drink.

He examined the gathered guests and the décor broodingly. The costumes here were better than those in the department store; some of the officers made enough to rent good costumes, rather than just purchase cheap ones. He saw witches and warlocks, vampires and demons, a mummy made of toilet paper that was rapidly unraveling (he strongly suspected that this one was Corporal Neil Fleming, from the way the tag team of Edwards and Whittaker proceeded to pelt him with candy corn), knights, princesses, dragons, pirates… And Aki, in a scandalously skimpy harem girl costume next to a sheik who could only be Major Elliot, judging from the way she was pawing him. Oh, Aki… Dr. Sid buried his face in his hands. She’s supposed to conceal the chest plate… in that outfit, everyone’s going to see it by the end of the night.

He gulped down the rest of his drink, hoping for blissful oblivion and not even getting a minor buzz. Sometimes, the werewolf ability to metabolize alcohol so fast really sucked. Instead, he focused on the other thing that had been bothering him all evening.

Every monster was represented by at least some soldier or official on the floor, often in triplicate – or more, in some instances. But Dr. Sid was the only one dressed as a werewolf. There were two people dressed as dogs, but where were the werewolves? And why was this bothering him so much now, when he hadn’t really thought about it for years? And then, he mentally slapped himself. It’s the holiday, he realized. Halloween was the day after tomorrow, but it fell on the night of a full moon, and whenever this happened, it had an effect on him, infusing him with more energy than he’d felt in years and stirring emotions in him that normally lay dormant, like anger, and bloodlust… not that he was in any condition to slake his bloodlust any longer, not with his worn claws and broken teeth, and bones that creaked with every sudden movement.

He suddenly realized that he was going to have to do something, find some outlet for these energies, because if he was ready to tear out a salesman’s throat for not believing in werewolves, then Dr. Sid was going to have a difficult time at the upcoming Council meeting on Halloween itself. Tearing out General Hein’s throat because the younger man called Dr. Sid crazy wouldn’t exactly help him dissuade the Council of that notion… Tomorrow night, he’d have to go out and find something harmless enough that it would guarantee no one would be hurt, but destructive enough to satisfy his urges. He needed to find something to focus on. Something like… the department store, with its lack of werewolf-related decorations because they weren’t ‘scary’ enough.

Dr. Sid smiled. Maybe tomorrow night, he’d show them just how scary an ‘old wives’ tale’ could be…

"You’re sending me where?" Aki wailed the next morning, when Dr. Sid cornered her inside her apartment.

"Moscow," Dr. Sid said reasonably. "The scanners picked up something last night that could be the third spirit in a game preserve just outside the city. All you have to do is go and pick it up – and, of course, explain to the Moscow Council why you’re taking one of their precious animals – and bring it back here. Simple." Yeah, right… Talking a Council into parting with something as rare as whatever was held in the game preserve would be more difficult than squeezing scientific funding out of General Hein. She’d be gone for days… Dr. Sid rubbed his palms together in delight. He’d finally get some piece and quiet, without having to worry about unholy liaisons in his lab disrupting his experiments.

Even better, she wouldn’t be able to get in his way when he went out for his own kind of fun tonight…

"Can’t it wait? Sid, there’s another party tonight, and I promised Eli – er, I promised that I’d go."

"Aki, what’s more important? A Halloween party, or the fate of the planet?" Dr. Sid asked.

It took her longer to answer than he would have expected. Odd; the question seemed like it should have been a no-brainer. "The planet," Aki finally said grudgingly.

"All right, then. I’ve already seen to the Black Boa; it’s ready to leave whenever you are." He gave her a push in the right direction, and Aki got moving, grumbling the entire way. Dr. Sid sighed; she might have been cooperating now, but he had the feeling it would be awhile before she actually left. She’d probably have to give Elliot a tearful good bye, which would probably develop into something more intimate – Ack! Why can’t I get these stupid images out of my head? Oh, yes… Dr. Sid was certain he was going to need some serious therapy after this.

Still, Dr. Sid found himself whistling on the way to his laboratory. He’d have a few days without Aki dragging him along on shopping trips or to parties or dropping in on him unexpectedly to make certain he hadn’t up and died of old age while she wasn’t looking… or breaking in to his apartment to ‘borrow’ things while he was gone… or to perform unspeakable acts on his bed while he was gone…

Really, why did he keep the girl around? Sure, she had unexpected moments of brilliance, but still… Maybe he should eat her. He grinned at the thought, unlikely as it was, and then a voice snarled, "What’s so funny, old man?"

Dr. Sid blinked and came back to reality. A dark shape came into focus, looking for all the world like a vampire from the previous night’s party, though this was how General Hein normally looked. No, he realized after a moment, this wasn’t normal; Hein’s face was paler than normal – something Dr. Sid wouldn’t have thought possible – and his dark hair was mussed without the gel to sculpt it into its normal backswept appearance. The scowl, however, was normal for the younger man. Dr. Sid said, "Excuse me?"

The general’s icy eyes narrowed, looking for any sign that he was being mocked. Finding none, his jaw tightened, and rather than explaining his paranoia, he turned on his heel and strode off, leaving Dr. Sid to watch after him, baffled. Then he shrugged and proceeded towards his lab. General Hein was normally unfriendly by nature, but the outright anger that had radiated off of him was unusual. It was almost like…

Like…

Like the anger that had made Dr. Sid nearly take off the head of a poor innocent salesman. Dr. Sid turned to look back in the direction Hein had stalked off in, frowning. The previous month, a bottle of Dr. Sid’s highly infectious saliva had been swiped from his bathroom, and later that night, he’d encountered a very confused young werewolf, who’d thought he was merely drunk on what he’d assumed was foul-tasting alcohol. The truth had only dawned on him after he’d eaten several rats and some garbage, and he hadn’t been too happy even when Dr. Sid had assured him the curse was only temporary, and would vanish once the saliva had been evacuated from his body. Since the thief had proven to be Aki, and the werewolf had been male, Dr. Sid had assumed that the temporary werewolf had been Major Elliot. But Elliot had had no memory of the night, and had later proven to have an alibi for his whereabouts, meaning he hadn’t been the werewolf – someone else had.

Such as, maybe, his superior. A man who wasn’t quite himself, who was showing signs of being affected by the upcoming Halloween moon. Shit… If the saliva had somehow entered his bloodstream, then the curse would have become permanent. And for Hein, it might not even have taken much of the saliva – though he didn’t know it, the blood of a werewolf, a gift from his real father, coursed through his veins, even though he’d lacked the shape-shifting gene. Until now.

Great. Just great. General Hein was dangerous enough as a man. If he was now a werewolf, then he was going to make Dr. Sid’s life a living hell. He sighed and ran his fingers through what was left of his hair. I could be wrong. I hope I’m wrong. There’s no proof that he’s a werewolf! I’m just paranoid because of the season. Yeah, that’s it. The general is always a pain in the ass; this is nothing new.

It looks like I’m going to have to make a stop at his quarters tonight just to make sure. There was a place he didn’t want to visit again. He’d already had to run out of Hein’s room nude once; it had seriously turned him off towards further visits.

He continued onward, grumbling under his breath all the while. It wasn’t until he was almost to his lab that he became aware of something that had been hovering at the edges of his senses, a peculiar, indefinable feeling. He paused, glancing around the empty corridor, but that could have set off his senses like that. In fact, there was nothing at all, not even the sounds of the rats in the walls, as if they were giving this corridor wide berth. It was like the dead silence when a forest holds its breath as a predator passes through – but Dr. Sid had never had that effect before.

Then he shrugged. It was probably nothing more than the extra sensitivity brought on by the holiday. For all he knew, his lab always had this aura of strangeness, and maybe it just wasn’t a busy time of day for rats. Whatever it was, it probably didn’t concern him…

The big Halloween party of the previous night had been the ‘official’ celebration, but there were sure to be several more over the next two days, many of them likely wilder than the official function – such as the aforementioned Rocky Horror party. Dr. Sid had learned the location of it so he could make certain to stay as far from it as possible – though the people he’d asked had looked at him oddly, as if they thought he’d wanted to attend.

Uck. There was an image that rivaled the one of a scantily-clad Major Elliot.

But he wouldn’t concern himself with the thought any longer; he intended to take advantage of the glut of parties so he could carry out a long-forgotten Halloween tradition – the destruction of property. The USMF building, the streets, and the department store would all be emptier than usually, so long as he avoided the set trick-or-treating routes. So he waited in his apartment for the change to come, for once secure in the knowledge that Aki wasn’t going to barge in on him and discover his secret.

The air around him felt charged with electricity as change touched the edge of his skin, and Dr. Sid closed his eyes as his humanity dropped away in a rush. He dropped to all fours as the change raged through him, racing towards completion at twice its normal speed. There was pain, but it quickly faded, taking with it most of the aches and pains that had settled into his age-worn human body. He felt so… invigorated. He opened his eyes, half expecting to see a lithe, muscular body covered with the sleek, dusky grey fur of his youth. He was disappointed to see that he was still the same old wolf; he just felt young and powerful.

Full moons need to fall on Halloween more often, he thought. He grinned, tongue lolling. No sense wasting any more time when he felt like this. He trotted forward, reveling in how his joints didn’t ache, didn’t even creak. He touched his paw to the touchpad and the door opened before him, and Sid the werewolf entered the night.

It was a night of sounds – tinny screams emitting from radios, maniacal laughter, ghostly moans, howls (plain old wolf howls, not werewolf howls, and had the people who recorded or listened to the wolf song understood, they’d have realized it was the lupine version of ‘screw you.’) It pounded at Sid’s ears, and he flattened them to his skull. One good thing about the parties; the sound would make them very easy to avoid.

He crept down the halls, keeping to the shadows until he could exit the USMF complex. It wasn’t until he’d slipped out through a delivery entrance that he remembered he’d been intending to check on General Hein. It was too late now; Sid wasn’t turning back. Maybe on the way back…

Trick-or-treaters stuck to routes planned out by the Council, unlike when Sid was a child. It was a safety measure; having that many children out in the open at once could be a disaster in case of a barrier breech. It would have been difficult to round them up and escort them in an orderly fashion to escape pods (not that there was anything orderly about a Phantom incursion.) So the Council figured that if the children stayed within the bounds they set, with USMF soldiers monitoring them, it would make evacuation easier. It made the holiday seem much tamer, in Sid’s eyes. It also bothered him that they were trick-or-treating tonight instead of on Halloween itself, just because Halloween was on a Sunday.

But in this case, it worked to his advantage. Sid trotted along, taking a backway that no children would traverse – unless one escaped its chaperone – and made it to the department store unobserved. And totally out of breath; the store was further than he remembered it being, and he just didn’t have the endurance he used to, even with the boost the holiday was giving him. That’s it… next time, I’m stealing a vehicle.

He’d timed his raid for just before the department store closed; after all, he wouldn’t be able to make his point if there was no one there to appreciate what he was doing. He didn’t want credit for any vandalism to go to teenagers. He wanted the employees to know that werewolves were something to fear – all without revealing they really existed, of course. His plan was to slip in while the doors were still open, conceal himself until the store closed, then terrorize the employees who stayed after hours. And it went without a hitch – this late, there weren’t many customers, and Sid was able to pass through the doors unnoticed, and he immediately skittered across the waxed linoleum – once, falling to his rump in an unceremonious tumble when the slick surfaced proved to be too much – and concealed himself in the narrow gap created by a back-to-back rack. The dust made his eyes water, and the cobwebs clinging to his ears drove him nuts, but he resolved to wait patiently for his moment to strike.

The announcement came that the store was closing in fifteen minutes, waking Sid from the light doze he’d slipped into. He cautiously stood, careful not to scrape his spine against the metal supports of the shelf, and slunk close enough to the opening that he could peek out, but not close enough to be seen. Things began to die down, and the final announcement came, shooing out the last of the customers, leaving the employees to clean up and restock before leaving for the night. Sid grinned, his tongue lolling in pleasure. It was perfect…

When he was certain that there weren’t any employees near his current location, Sid trotted out, the tick of his claws on the floor carrying in the nearly empty store. Let the spookfest begin, he thought, throwing back his head and letting loose a quavering, but passable, howl.

The inane chatter that had been coming from three rows over stopped. Sid heard someone ask, "Did you leave the Halloween sound effects recording on?" Another answered in the negative, and the first voice continued, "Then what the hell was that?"

"Probably some teenage punks snuck in," another voice said disgustedly. "Go check it out."

This was met with protest, but after another minute, Sid’s ears picked up the sound of two sets of footsteps approaching. Sid crept around to the next aisle and howled again, this time managing a strong, clear sound like that which he’d produced in his youth. He punctuated this with a couple of ferocious snarls that certainly impressed him. He hoped the two investigators found the sound equally sinister.

It certainly gave them pause. "That didn’t sound like a kid; more like an animal."

There was a succession of gurgling noises, a mockery of his own growl. "See? I can make noises too," the other said, disgusted. Sid wanted to bite him for the insulting noises but he restrained himself. He was here to have fun, dammit, and he’d have fun if it killed him. Sid trotted away, pausing beside a display of plastic jack-o-lanterns piled in a pyramid. Oh, so casually, he batted at the corner pumpkin, sending the rest of them tumbling downward. Sid laughed silently, splattering the ever-present drool across one angry-faced jack-o-lantern.

"What the…?" a voice wailed. "It took forever to get those things to stay in place! They won’t let anyone leave until the stupid things are restacked!"

Sid ducked into the row of Halloween décor and ducked behind a large foam tombstone just in time to see his angry pursuers enter the aisle. "Come out, whoever you are!" one of the men demanded. "If you do, we won’t call the cops." The passed by Sid’s hiding spot, and Sid was pleased with his talent for hiding. Until it occurred to him that maybe they hadn’t noticed him because he bore a striking resemblance to the scattered plastic bones decorating the cemetery. Sid slunk out, pausing only to mark the largest headstone as his territory.

A clump of the fake webbing stuck to his ear, and Sid shook it off. But it clung persistently, and Sid let it be. He followed after the two salespeople, careful not to let his nubby claws scrape the floor. He caught up quickly and stayed close behind them. His stealth was all for naught; between yelling for the intruder to come out, the two had begun arguing over who would re-stack the pumpkins, and wouldn’t have heard if Sid had driven up on a Harley. He continued shadowing them for several minutes, then decided he had enough and howled.

The two jumped and whirled around, but Sid had already taken shelter behind a stack of boxes – which he bumped with his shoulder and sent toppling, using the distraction to take cover.

"What the hell are you two doing?" the irritated voice from before came upon the two hapless employees. "If you broke anything, it’s coming out of your paychecks!"

"We didn’t-" one of the victims protested.

"The intruder-" the other tried.

"Yes, the intruder. Did you find him?"

"No," the two searchers said in unison.

"Idiots," the third person, presumably a supervisor or manager from his pompous attitude, said with exasperation. Sid was tempted to just let them take the heat for his actions – but that would defeat his purpose. Sid had taken shelter behind a stack of boxes on a lower shelf, and began to travel along the shelf, knocking off boxes as he went.

"There he is!" one of the searchers yelled. Sid took that as his cue to take his leave of the shelf, permitting them a glimpse of his fleeting form before dodging into the gap between two shelves, traveling along its length to come out the other end. He howled, letting them know where he was, then turned and ran. He glanced back once to see how they were reacting, and saw they’d been joined by three more employees.

Still grinning, he returned his gaze to the open space in front of him… and realized too late that he’d crossed the space faster than he’d thought, and had, in fact, run out of space. A candy rack loomed up before him, and Sid tried to turn before he hit. He would have been successful… if the slick floor hadn’t made his feet slip out from under him and momentum sent him careening into the candy stand. He hit it with a yelp, and the shelf teetered, then fell forward, showering him with chocolate before landing on top of him.

Sid lay stunned for several moments, his only movement an absent swipe of his tongue to clear away a piece of chocolate that was smushed to his muzzle. It finally occurred to him that it might be in his best interest to get out of there, and Sid began to painstakingly extract himself from the mangled shelf. More candy was dislodged from the shelf, helping him discover new bumps and bruises. His left real leg hurt when he put weight on it, but he didn’t think he was seriously injured.

The only thing that had taken mortal injury was his pride. Covered in smears of chocolate, with pieces of candy corn stuck in the goop like a bizarre tar-and-feathering ritual gone wrong, Sid began to limp away. Things can’t possibly get worse, he thought bitterly.

Naturally, of course, Something heard his thoughts and decided to prove him wrong. An employee had heard his crash and come upon him faster than he’d expected. The expression on the man’s face when he saw an aged, toothless old cur covered in candy didn’t inspire fear. It didn’t even make the man yell in anger upon seeing the mess Sid had made.

Instead, he threw back his head and laughed.

And took a photo with the digital camera he’d grabbed from the rack.

Sid began to run, ignoring the pain in his leg in the effort to put distance between himself and the camera. Idiot! he snarled to himself. Not only had he let himself be seen – he’d been photographed! In all his years as a lycanthrope, no one had ever taken a picture of him. And, now…

On the bright side, no one would ever think a candy-coated canine was a werewolf.

Footsteps intruded upon his gloom, and Sid looked up to see several more sales reps joining the first, who was gesticulating wildly and pointing in his direction. It was time to make tracks... He poised for flight… but his rear feet, still coated with a layer of chocolate that ruined his grip, refused to find purchase on the floor and his hindquarters went to one side, his front feet to the other. He thought he heard laughter as he gathered his feet up under him and began to sprint away as quickly as the slick floor allowed.

He managed to make it to the costume aisle without incident, but the moment he passed beneath the foam stone archway that led to the aisle, he knew he was in trouble. He just had time to glimpse the mop bucket set to the side and the wet floor before his feet went in every direction and he fell to his belly, spinning slowly and coming to a stop when his rear thudded into the lower rack. Something was dislodged from its hook and fell onto his head, and the familiar odor of latex filled his nose, making him sneeze.

Sid shook, and the mask slipped off to fall at his feet, leering up at him. He stared when he realized what it was. It was a werewolf mask, the duplicate of the one Aki had bought him. It was the final indignity, and Sid finally decided that he wasn’t going to accomplish anything here tonight. So he made his escape with what remained of his shredded dignity and crawled off to his only refuge to lick his wounds figuratively – and literally – where no one would find him: his laboratory.

The moment he entered the lab, however, a strong feeling of wrongness washed over him, and it took a moment for Sid to figure out why his hackles were rising.

Someone – or something – had been in his lab. Glittering fragments of glass covered the floor and pools of unidentifiable chemicals, the former contents of the beakers and vials and now mixed beyond recognition, gave the air a sharp, acrid odor. His ears flattened and he drew back his muzzle in a snarl. He took a cautious step forward, not wanting to risk stepping in anything dangerous. Glass he could handle; he had a healing factor, after all. It was the chemicals that worried him; he didn’t know what they had combined together to form, and if a toxin entered his blood stream, it would be much more difficult to fight off. He nearly lost his balance, however, when a soft fluttering sound came from somewhere nearby, and he froze. His nose insisted there was nothing else alive in the lab with him, yet, something had made that noise. Probably just the rats in the walls, he told himself. Except that he couldn’t smell any rats…

Dawn was too close at hand for him to discover the truth now, but the following night, Halloween night, Sid would find the interloper who had dared violate his territory… and kill them.