Author's Note: This stand-alone story of erotic horror is an entry in the 2012 Halloween story contest. Please vote! As always I welcome all comments/feedback, thank you!
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It was positively surreal, Gina thought, watching the costumed crowd. She had always loved Halloween, the costumes were freeing, the eerie atmosphere got the adrenaline pumping, and all the treats pleased her sweet tooth greatly. It also held a bit of dread for her, the secrecy of masks and the feeling in the air brought to mind the origins of the day, when the dead walked among the living.
But this Halloween was special. She knew everyone there, hidden by their masks, but it had been ten years since they had met face to face. The only one who she knew by sight was Diane, the host. She was dressed as a lady pirate, her domino small, and had greeted Gina at the door with the rules. No names. No personal questions. No guilt.
Their college had been too small for a homecoming, so Diane, still in town and now a professor, had put it together. All the invite had said was it was for singles from their year, a fun ten year reunion. Costume required, must have mask.
Gina might not have gone if it weren't for the fact that she was bored, broke, and close by. Life in ten years hadn't gone exciting places and while she'd been working to keep the ranch afloat it seemed life had passed her by. A real reunion would have been depressing, surely by now Bobby Williams was a big attorney and Mary Farnsworth she knew had had a nose job and a name change, and was on Hollywood's B-list working her way up to first string.
But a Halloween party was irresistible. This year it was on a Wednesday, and the actual night her ranch had several events for guests to spice up the slow season, but this was the Friday before, and she'd come expecting at least an interesting time.
There were forty people there, one quarter their graduating class. That meant depressingly that one hundred and twenty were happily married and off to bigger and better things.
She took up her station by the food and glanced around. Diane's place was a big Victorian off the town square, absolutely perfect. If the Adams Family were real, they would live there. All around her she saw impressive costumes, people had obviously been planning for this for a long time. The invite had come two months ago and in that time she had put together a simple costume for Little Red Riding Hood.
She saw a few pirates with what appeared to be real swords and swooping hats, more than a few vampires, sexy and gothic, and even a few almost child-like costumes of cowboys and Indians, though done up expensively and made adult. In the case of a female Indian Princess, downright sexy.
She grabbed punch and a brownie made to look like a grave with a grey-frosted cookie tombstone. She tried to figure out who everyone was, but ten years had changed them all and the costumes were all quite good and concealing.
She looked down and resisted the urge to fidget. Working a ranch, even a dude ranch as hers was, kept her in shape. Still she was more at home in jeans and a loose t-shirt atop a horse than gussied up. Her best friend and business partner Millie had done her makeup and hair, loosely braiding the sun-lightened blonde tresses into two loose pigtails. The costume she'd made was a tight red dress, it wrapped and was stretchy, forming a low V at her cleavage and the skirt showed a lot of her long, tanned legs. The cloak flowed down, tying at her throat and she wore the hood loose and back. Her domino was a cheap sparkly red one bought at the local Farm & Fleet's costume section.
"Well, well, well, off to grandmother's?"
She jumped at the deep voice and turned, gasping. The man behind her was tan, his hair long and dark. Probably a wig, she didn't know any man of their class with hair both dark and long. His mask was face paint, that of a wolf, his chest bare and muscled. He wore armbands and had vermillion paint on his large biceps. All he wore were buckskin pants and boots, and a cape that was a wolf, the head resting on his, the fangs dipping over his brow.
"What are you?"
He smiled, the lines of his face strong. "A skinwalker who becomes the Big Bad Wolf." She gulped. Suddenly music started
The Monster Mash
. He turned his head in a canine-like gesture. "Care to dance, Red?"
"It- it's not my kind of music," she said stupidly.
On the ranch men sometimes flirted with her, but as the owner and foreman she was always tough, in control, and had no problem turning them down. Here she felt exposed, vulnerable, and it bothered her that she could not place the man or his voice.
His smile was feral, and though it was appealing a deep tremor of fear took her. "Fair enough. So how have the years treated you?"
"G-good."
He drew closer and she noticed how tall he was. Cripes, there had been no one this good looking from school. Maybe he was a guest of Diane's from her adult life. Whatever he was, whoever he was, he scared something inside her.
"You have no clue who I am, do you?"
She shook her head and he smiled, reaching out to brush a lock of hair back. When their skin touched, she gasped, trembling. He smelled of expensive cologne, a wild contrast to the heathen image of his costume. His touch was electric, and she felt her body melting.
"Gah!"
He laughed and chucked her chin, turning to meld with the press of bodies. She watched him go and when he reached the doorway to the dining room he turned, giving her a knowing look. She blushed as red as her dress.
Diane came over, laughing. "So the game has begun."
Gina jumped. "Wha?"
The brunette pirate laughed. "Don't tell me you didn't know, I thought everyone knew."
"Knew what?"
"I have these parties every year for my single friends. Halloween is a time to slip on someone else's skin and do what you normally can't." She winked at that.
Blushing, Gina scooped up more punch and drank it deep, wincing at the turn of phrase. "What are you talking about?"
Diane leaned in close, her voice a deep, husky whisper. "You don't have to do anything you like but tonight if you see anyone interesting, I highly encourage you to seduce him. We're all strangers tonight, no past, no tomorrow, no guilt. Just have fun!"
The doorbell rang, cutting off any further speech and Diane left with a wink. Gina stood there feeling lost, yet her eyes looked for a wolf head above the crowd. If she understood Diane, this was like a swinger's party.
Her heart began to pound. What would Millie say? Or old Mr. Barrowman, the cattleman she'd inherited from her parents who'd been with the ranch since Custer had ridden west with bravado. Her oldest friends who were always telling her to get out, be young, have fun. Would they approve?
