A knock on the door woke Terry from his unintentional nap. He had fallen asleep on the couch watching TV after a hard day’s work. He grunted as he adjusted himself but didn’t bother getting up.



“Hello?” He heard Zoe say as she opened the door.



“Hi ma’am, we’re looking for donations for our Halloween event.” Terry heard a woman’s voice explain.



“I’m sorry we can’t help, we don’t have any decorations, the HOA doesn’t allow them,” Zoe apologized. Terry just rolled his eyes.



“We’re aware of the no decoration rule, that’s why we’re accepting bodies and body parts…” Even though Terry could only hear the conversation there was a sinister tone in that last sentence.



“I’m confused… what are you…. Ah!” Zoe screamed before something hit the ground.



“Zoe!” Terry had a bad feeling and jumped off the couch and ran to the front door. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Zoe’s headless body on the floor as two young women stood over it. One had an old potato sack and the other was holding a bloodless sword.



“Oh good another one,” the one with the sword commented as she ran up to Terry and sliced through the top of his neck, leaving him speechless as his body hit the ground. Terry didn’t feel anything as he head rolled on the floor. There was no pain, no blood, just a whole lot of confusion.



He laid on the floor facing the wall before he felt a hand grab the top off his short hair. He was pulled upwards before being dropped again into the sack. He landed sidewards on the top of another head, a mout was touching the side of his cheek while his eyes were covered by long blonde hair.



“Load them into the van before anyone sees,” one of the women said as the sack began to bounce up and down changing the position of the heads. He was now touching lips with who he hoped was Zoe.



“Excuse me,” Terry was so glad to hear the voice of Paula, the HOA Karren. “You young ladies can’t park your van there, you need to leave.” She demanded. “What are you doing? Get away…” he heard her cry before the sack opened revealing a bit of daylight and the fact that Terry was facing someone he had never met. He then felt a dull pain as Paula landed on the back of his head.



Things went dark again as Terry heard the sliding door of a van open, the sack bounced up a few more times, changing his position again before it was placed on the floor of the van. He could feel an ear pressed to his exposed neck while his was pressed against someone’s forehead. His mouth was now touching the stranger’s nose. They stayed there for what seemed like forever as they heard footsteps coming and going at least three times. Most likely collecting his, Zoe’s and Paula’s bodies. Then the van took off in such a haste that the sack fell over and now Terry was on top of Paula.



As the van sped out of the neighborhood and across the city, the sack of heads bounced up and down, constantly adjusting their positions. When it came to a halt Terry was expecting to be moved again. Instead the front doors opened and closed before a beep sounded that the doors were now locked. The heads just sat there in silence being left and forgotten for the night.



With nothing to do and the constant annoyance of the shifting sack now over, Terry found himself falling asleep.



When Terry woke up he found himself somewhere completely different. It looked like the murder basement of a mad scientist. There were organs and other body parts in jars with limbs on racks.



As for Terry himself he was standing mostly upright, resting on a metal slab. “What’s going on?” he heard in a familiar voice but it wasn’t his own. It took him a second to realize he even had a voice again as well as a body. Though this one didn’t feel right.



“Our star attraction is awake,” one of the women from before walked in front of him. Though now she was dressed differently from last time. She now looked like a doctor of some kind, wearing a blood covered lab coat.



Terry reached out to grab her but found his arms were restrained. He tried to kick out but his legs were being held down too.



“That’s a good girl,” the woman walked over to him and smiled. “That’s the energy we need from you for our mad lab.”



“Girl…?” retorted in a feminine voice before looking down at his body. He screamed as he realized he was now wearing the familiar sun dress of his neighbor, staring down at the sunbaked cleavage. He had Paula’s 50 year old body. Though it wasn’t fully hers. Her left arm had been fully replaced with a much younger arm with an olive skin tone, while her right arm had a masculine black arm from the elbow down.



“What have you done to me?” Terry demanded as he struggled against the restraints.



“Oh this is perfect, you’re going to do great,” the woman smiled. “Our first paying customers should be coming through the door any second now.”



As promised a door opened as a bunch of college students began walking into the room. Most were dressed up in halloween costumes. Terry tried to beg and plead for help but everyone saw it as part of the act. For the next few hours Terry was on display for some twisted house of horrors. He suspected the body parts in jars were from other victims like himself, which made him worry for Zoe’s safety.



After a few hours of being propped up, the last customer finally left. Terry hoped that he would finally be released now.



“The show’s over,” he spat at the woman who had been taunting him all night. “Please let me go and give me my body back…”



“Ooh that last part might be a bit of an issue… We hung it from a tree outside for decoration. It’s no longer there so it appears someone stole it. In fact a lot of our decorations were stolen, I guess using living people on a college campus wasn’t a good idea.”



The young woman released Terry from his restraints, causing him to fall forward. As he stood up he noticed that his legs were a different height, causing him to hobble along.



“Of course I could take your head off that body but then you’d be left speechless until we can find your original. Which comes with another problem, we’ve only got that magical sword until midnight…”



“You mean I’m stuck like this?” Terry screamed.



“Unless we find your body in the next hour, then you’ll need to wait until next year…” the woman couldn’t hide her smile. As Terry looked up at her, he wasn’t even sure if she was telling the truth or not…