(This story contains topics of transformation. You have been warned)

This is a part two of of Keith's halloween, please read part one before continuing.

It wasn’t often that Keith was left alone after being transformed. Sam always tried to keep things interesting to the boy when there was downtime in their activities. But as Keith hung from the rafters of the school’s gym, inflated into a massive pumpkin decoration, he realized just how boring it could be. The girl’s basketball team had done a wonderful job decorating the gym, laying out dozens of tables and covering the walls in an array of leaves and cobwebs. But the party wasn’t until the evening, and Keith still had to get through the day.

The pumpkined boy tried to pass the time any way he could. He counted tables, chairs, as well as the silly skeleton decorations as he bobbed around in an attempt to pass the day. But every time the clock slowly came into view Keith became aware that his attempts to move the clock's hands was only affecting the minute hand, not the hour. Was this what it was like to be truly transformed into something. It reminded him of his time as a sundress for Sandra, and made him wonder what it would have been like if he had been treated like any other garment of clothing. Would he have ended up on a hanger, spending weeks alone in her closet. Maybe he would have been packed away for the winter, locked away in darkness as the colder months passed. The thought gave the boy a shiver, and the clock had moved a little more. It was still before noon, hours before the party that was scheduled for the evening.

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The sound of music roused Keith from a nap. Quick blasts of a variety of songs that were popular this year made Keith curious to take a look around. No longer was he alone, with the gym now being full of activity. Two custodians were wiring up a few speakers near one end of the gym. Members of the school set up food and drinks on the surrounding tables. Everything was almost ready for the big event. Keith glanced at the clock, 6:30pm. Not even half an hour to the big event. With the sound test done the custodians set the music to what probably was a slow dance playlist, not that Keith was much into music. It didn’t take long for the guests to start to arrive.

Tons of the students from the school started to make their way to the gym, clothed in a variety of outfits. From Keith's perspective he was able to make out angels and demons, cats and dogs, vampires and a whole plethora of creatures that people dressed up as during Halloween. He even could make out the girl’s basketball team, all dressed up in matching zombie outfits wander in, with a few of them giving him a wave. But soon they were mixed into the ever growing crowd, dancing away as the music changed to something a little bit more upbeat. This just left Keith, all alone above the crowd below. He was happy though that his last minute reservations hadn’t come to fruition, with not a single person recognizing who their giant pumpkin was. Instead, he was able to enjoy the evening in a very unique way.

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“So Keith, how was it?” Emily asked as Keith was lowered back to ground level. The boy had no complaints, having experienced one of his first dances in a rather interesting way. It had been an hour or two since the last song had rang out across the gym and now the basketball team was cleaning up the last of their decorations that they had put up mere days earlier. Now the walls were bare, the tables were packed up, and Keith was finally brought down from the ceiling.

“So what do we do now?” Kathleen asked from beside Emily.

“I’m… not sure” Emily responded honestly. She had been so concerned with the dance itself that she had forgotten to find out how to get Keith back to normal. Now that he was just some giant pumpkin she didn’t know how to proceed. Maybe Sam would be willing to help now? “Maybe let's just get him deflated. I know someone that can help me with the rest.” Emily said with confidence to the rest of the team.

“Sounds good, let me just get the knot then” responded Kathleen as she walked right up to Keith. Her small fingers scratched for grip at Keith’s knotted up lips. “You were great Keith” she spoke to the inflated boy as she undid the knot as gently as she could. With a gentle twist Keith's lips were free, allowing all the pressure that had been built in the boy to escape.

SSSSSSSS

The hissing of air was audible to all that were present as the boy's body slowly began to shrink. The large bulges that were formed between the metal wires began to deflate. The tight glossy finish began to ruffle and Keith form no longer fit snugly in the frame. Everything was going smoothly until a very noticeable problem started to occur. Ever so slowly the frame that proved perfect to make a pumpkin out of Keith soon became a detriment to his deflation. The wire frame, coated in rubber paint, was stuck to Keith so well that his form started to look vacuumed out.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Emily asked aloud, visibly concerned at Keith’s new predicament.

“Um well. Maybe?” Kathleen hesitantly said as she looked at the rubber paint that coated the metal wires, but the group knew something was really wrong as eyes went wide. “I might have made a little mistake.”

“A ‘little’ mistake” Emily turned to the girl as she spoke, seeing where this was going but not wanting to hear it.

“Yeah, well… So when I went to the art department for supplies I was in a rush, grabbing whatever I needed and not really checking labels” the girl commented as she poked at the rubbery layer that covered the pumpkin wires. “I think that there might have been a mistake and I didn’t grab rubber paint from the art room, but something else. Like when I went to clean my brushes yesterday it was really hard to remove all the gunk.”

“So then what is covering Keith then?”

“You’re not going to like this, but I think I might have used rubber cement instead of rubber paint” Kathleen answered quietly, knowing full well that she had made a really massive mistake. Keith, quiet throughout the conversation, didn’t know what was so bad about it.

“Is that why it isn’t just pulling off like we planned?” Emily kept on questioning.

“Probably, and neither of you are going to like my solution to it” Kathleen responded as she fumbled in her back pocket.

“Well it’s better than just standing around.”

“I’m not too sure about that” Kathleen responded, as she pulled out a rather large Swiss Army Knife. “I think there is actually a rather large risk” the group was quiet after this revelation as they stared at the knife, knowing what Kathleen meant. Cutting Keith out was the only option, but one wrong move and they would be cleaning pieces of the rubbery boy up, and none of them knew what that would do to the boy who had been so helpful to them. Emily stared at the knife, regretful that it would come to this but there was no choice.

“Right. Unless anyone else has an idea I think we're stuck. So go ahead Emily. I think Keith would rather not be stuck as a giant pumpkin even if it does mean being a pile in a bucket.” The boy was not thrilled with what he was hearing, but Emily was right. Although, if he was being honest he had never actually been popped, leaving him rather worried at the results.

“Okay, six cuts and that’s it. What could go wrong” Kathleen committed to herself as she walked up to Keith and placed a hand gently against him for purchase. Keith could sense how nervous she was, not because she was shaking but because Kathleen had made a habit to talk to him as she worked, something that was not present this time. The rubbery boy felt the knife start to rub against him, separated from his skin by a thin layer of rubber cement. The knife rocked back and forth, slowly gliding down the wire with a delicate motion. As the girl worked Keith’s freed skin pulled away from the wire, pulling with more and more force until the Keith's rubbery body was pulling the wire right out of himself.

“There, one down, five more to go” Kathleen almost whispered before repositioning along another seam. Again the knife worked it’s magic, separating metal from the boy until he could do the rest.

“Two”

Again Kathleen went for a cut, sliding the blade slowly down Keith’s back.

“EEP” Kathleen shouted out as the knife suddenly disappeared from Keith’s back. A gasp echoed out from the surrounding basketball team before.

CLACK

The knife bounced off the floor, sliding away from the rubbery boy before it could do any damage.

“Careful” Emily shouted out.

“Yeah, trying” Kathleen replied as she retrieved her knife. The rest of cut three and four went without a hitch. But with less and less holding Keith in place forced his body to contort and drink to almost a sheet like consistency between the remaining metal frame posts. The fourth and fifth cuts were more strained, with Kathleen having to almost saw away at the rubber. Then, with a final delicate cut, Keith fell to the floor, free of the pumpkin that had been a part of him for the last couple days. With nothing holding him back the boy was finally able to deflate, becoming a mess of rubber cement and stretched skin on the floor. Kathleen picked him up looking him over.

“So Emily?” she questioned the executor of this crazy plan.

“Yeah?” Emily responded, not sure what the question could be. Keith was free and ready to go home.

“Do you know how to remove rubber cement?” Kathleen asked as she tried to pick at the thick rubber patches that covered Keith without success. They had freed the boy, but not solved the mistake.

“Um, is it not coming off?”

“Nope, it’s stuck on really good.”

“Are you sure”

“Yes”

“Crap. What do I do” Emily said aloud to herself as she took possession of the rubbery pile. She tried to pick at the rubber, but to no effect. She felt it, the first pangs of panic as she looked at the boy, unable to figure out how to fix this.

“What about your sister. She said she could help before?” Kathleen interjected.

“Right! Yes, that could work” Emily shouted with joy, completely forgetting that Sam had wanted no part in this. Quickly she bundled the rubbery mass into her bag, ready to bring him home. “Sorry guys, I have to go!” she called out to her friends and fellow players before running out of the gym, wanting to get her problem fixed as soon as possible.

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Keith was starting to get used to being inanimate. These large bursts of excitement followed by long durations of nothing gave him an interesting perspective to everyday objects. He wondered if there would ever be a day that he would be truly stuck as an object, nothing more to the world than something to be used. It was a weird thought, which occupied the boy on the pair's ride home to Emily’s place. Or what he thought was Emily’s place, since Keith couldn’t see where he was going. But if it was for a friend, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Or maybe if it was Sarah it could actually be nice.

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“Hey there Keith” a voice commented as he was pulled out into the open, “So this is what you did to him,” It was Sam, casually picking Keith out of the bag and flipping him over in her hand as she inspected the damage.

“Yeah, it worked well for the dance” Emily replied from beside Sam, looking over her sister’s shoulder, “but as you can see we ran into a little bit of a problem. “Can you fix him?”

“You said this was rubber cement?”

“Yeah, Kathleen from the team thought it was rubber paint and used it to hide the wire against Keith’s skin.”

“Right, well you really screwed up. This stuff is harder than Keith is. Getting it off him is nearly impossible.” Sam commented casually as she picked painfully at the rubbery mess.

“So he’s stuck like this?” Emily asked with concern. Her face was a furrow of worry as she looked down at the boy who had been so eager to help.

“Not quite. I can fix him, but it’s going to be difficult. Look, can you get the air pump from the garage and bring it to the front entrance?” Sam cryptically asked her sister, who immediately jumped at the chance to help.

“Yeah sure anything!” she barely finished her sentence before she was out the door and off to the garage.

“So Keith” Sam started to talk to the pumpkin boy, “Looks like you have gotten yourself into an interesting predicament. Like I said to my sister, this isn’t permanent but it isn’t going to be easy to get you back to normal. From what I can tell I am going to have to melt you down and run you through a strainer to get all the bits out. Now doing this is going to basically scramble every fiber of your body in the process, which makes reforming take nearly forever to do. Like a week or so. Make sense? Good.” Sam explained aloud to Keith what it would take for Keith to get back to normal, but he was glad that someone with a little experience had taken over for Emily. “But there is a catch.”

A catch? The wording caught Keith off guard. What did his friend intend to take from him. He was a pumpkin covered in rubber cement. What more could Sam do to him before breaking him. There would be no time for Sam to explain further as Emily returned to the room.

“Alright Sam, I set the pump up next to the front door. What now?” Emily asked her sister, letting the more knowledgeable take charge in this situation.

“So take this” Sam said as she casually tossed Keith’s body through the air to her surprised sisters hands, “And get him pumped back up again”

“Again? But I thought...” Emily started to say before getting a look from Sam that made her stop. “Right, I’ll just take Keith down and get him set up” she commented as she made her way out of the room. Emily was lost in thought, confused as to what Sam intended to do with the boy. Was there some sort of  secret that she was not aware of. Whatever it was, the comment distracted Emily enough that she did not try to make small talk with the boy like she normally did. Instead she diligently followed instructions, bringing Keith out of the house to where she had but a large air compressor on the grass nearby. “Let’s get started then” Emily started with a matter of fact attitude.

She shoved the air nozzle into the boy's mouth and pinched his lips shut in one hand as she flipped on the compressor with the other. It buzzed to life, monstrously loud in comparison to the tiny air pump that the team had used before. Keith's body fluttered like a bag in the wind as it began to quickly fill with air. His already stretched skin easily accommodated the massive amounts of air being pumped into his body, offering little resistance from the previous defeat. He slowly began to round out, growing in size to a couple of feet tall. But as Keith grew further he wondered what was going to happen without the wire frame to hold him back. The boy did not have to worry about that as the tough strips of rubber cement had enough structure to cause a similar effect to occur. Soon the pumpkin boy was back up to size, a full six feet tall and a little bit wider.

“All ready here?” Sam commented as she made her way out of the front door. No longer was she dressed casually for the day, but now the girl was fully decked out in a witches gown, with a healthy amount of makeup accented by a large pointy hat.

“Just about” Emily commented as she tied the knot back into place, before turning to face her sister. “Oh you put on your costume. I thought we were...” she questioned her sister, who shrugged and cut her off.

“I am. Help me with these ropes” Sam said with a matter of fact attitude that alluded that this was all sort of a plan as she tossed an end of a rope that she had brought out at her older sister. Emily followed her sister's lead, and with a few ropes thrown over the pumpkined boy he was securely tied to the ground. Sam wasted no time now, and to the confusion of her sister, squeakily scrambled up on top of the pumpkin.

“Um Sam, I’m not sure I understand what the plan is here. Mind filling me in?” asked Emily as she stared up dumbfounded at her younger sister. Sam indulged the moment as she made herself comfortable atop the giant pumpkin.

“Can you pass me the candy bucket?” Same asked her sister from above.

“Sure?” Emily, still confused, uncertainty responded as she handed up the heavy bucket of candy. “Now mind filling me in on what you plan to do?”

“Sure. It has nothing to do with this.”

“What? You can’t be serious” Emily looked mad as she almost shouted at her sister's response.

“Yep. I’ve already filled Keith in on the details, but basically the process of getting Keith to normal will leave him out of commission for a week. So I thought I would have my fun today before he spends the rest of the week as a puddle in the garage. Have any complaints with that? I mean we could always deflate him and you could find another plan. Hmmm?” Sam toyingly said as she rocked back and forth on the inflated boy.

“Well, I guess if that is the case.” Emily said in defeat. “Is there really a plan or are you just having fun?”

“If you have to know there actually is a plan, and for that I will need the turkey frying pot set up in the garage with the large soup pot and the fine mesh strainer from the Kitchen. If you can set that up in the garage I’ll take care of the rest”

“Fine” Emily answered with annoyance, “But I will be super annoyed if I find out this is another one of your jokes tomorrow!”

“Don’t worry” Sam said as she rolled onto her back, “He’s my friend too you know. And I actually have known him longer”

“Whatever. So two pots and a strainer in the garage. Got it. Well, have fun giving out the candy Sam” Emily commented mostly to herself before retreating back into the house,

leaving Sam alone with Keith.

“Well Keith. I guess it is just you, me and the kids coming up the driveway now” Sam casually said as she sat back up on Keith’s back. True to her word Keith watched as kids dressed as funny little pirates made their way up Sam’s driveway, all clutching burden filled bags of treats as their parents watched from the curb.

“Trick or treat!” the kids called out in unison, walking up to the giant pumpkin with no idea it was a real person.

“What do we have here” Sam cackled aloud as she stared down at the children, “I assume you are here for the candy”

“Yes please” one of them called out as the group of them held out their bags.

“Then get a little closer little ones, but not too close. My pumpkin here bites” Sam tried to sound evil as she patted Keith's rubbery form. But the act did no justice to what Sam had to do to give out the candy as she was barely able to reach the bags of the children with handfuls of candy while lying flat on top of Keith. Both she and Keith would have toppled over right there if the pumpkin wasn’t secured with rope.

“Thank you” one of the kids said in response as the group of them ran back down the driveway to where their parents were waiting. Their parents waved from the curb before leading their children along to the next house down. The night continued in the same vein, with Sam struggling time and time again to hand treats out to the passing children and only falling on her back once for her efforts. Keith watched as hundreds of kids passed, all dressed in different creative costumes or ones of popular heroes. He felt as Sam bounced up and down, obviously struggling to stay atom in his odd form during the course of the evening. He wondered why she was doing it. It would have been easier for her to just hand out candy from the porch.

It was only when he watched a young girl dressed as a princess approach, chaperoned by what looked to be her older brother, that he realized what Sam was doing. She was spending some time with her friend since he would soon be stuck reforming. It made him feel warm in the cold fall weather as the air started to grow chilly with the coming night. Soon the trickle of kids dried up, with not a soul in sight for the last fifteen minutes.

“Well Keith, I think that’s it for Halloween” Sam said casually as she crawled off the pumpkin boy, taking care not to fall again. “So I guess all that is left is to get you all fixed up for them. Right, pumpkin boy?” Sam rhetorically asked as she began to pick at the rubbery knot that was Keith’s lips. Her fingers made quick work of the knot, but she kept them pinched in her lips. “Keith. I just wanted to say that I’m happy you helped out my sister, but not getting buddy buddy with her or I’m going to tell Sarah about your crush on her. You get me?” Sam’s tone changed from soft to hard in a moment, and although Keith was in full agreement his answer would just have to wait. With a small nod of her head Sam let go of Keith’s lips, allowing the pumpkin to deflate into a rubbery pile of rubber that she scooped up casually from the ground as she went on her way.

It wasn’t a long trip, just in and out of the house as the two ended up in Sam’s garage, where a large pot sat atop of a gas stove burner. Beside the setup was a spare pot and a large fine mesh strainer. “Well it looks like Emily got everything, I guess there is not much more to do then” Sam commented for the benefit of Keith as she turned on the burner, letting the pot get hot before tossing the rubbery mass into the pot. The warmth of the gas burners immediately began to heat the rubbery boy whose body absorbed the warmth greedily. It was like he was ready to melt as his skin began to get sticky and sweat. Soon globs of mass began to float around Keith, slowly causing him to float.

The boy bobbed around in his own mass, trying to soak in the weird feelings that his body was trying to describe. It was like he was touching himself, but not, and if asked he would not have been able to say what was touching what. But what he could feel was the hard rubber cement, now floating freely around in the liquidly boy’s body. Sam peeked into the pot once and a while, checking in on Keith’s progress before retreating back. Eventually she seemed satisfied with the results, and Keith could not agree more. Not a single strand of solid boy remained, it was all liquid boy now. Keith heard a click from below, most likely Sam turning off the pot and he suddenly felt the pot swing up and away. The spin swirled the boy around the pot, mixing him upon himself in a gentle current as the pot started to tip.

But Keith was wrong about the tipping. It wasn’t a tip but a full out pour as Keith was suddenly falling out of the pot straight down into what looked like another. But the path was blocked by the strainer, which served as one last gate to pass through. Though when Keith hit the strainer he knew it was definitely not like a gate. Fiber from fiber was shredded by the fine mesh as Keith’s mind exploded into a million pieces. Words floated along, no longer in a coherent order as Keith lost all sense of self and sense itself before splashing into the pot below.

“Well that seemed to work” Sam commented as she pulled out one of the many pieces of rubber cement the strainer had pulled out, along with a large number of orange paint pieces. She picked up the other pot now, swirling a finger through the tannish liquid to check for bits. There were none, leaving a silky smooth liquid in the pot that was supposed to be a boy. With a sigh Sam put a lid on the pot and unceremoniously put the pot on a shelf. “Well, nothing more to do now but to wait I suppose” Sam said quietly. She stood there for a bit, starting at the pot like something would change. But of course nothing did. It would take time for the boy to reform. She unconsciously reached for the pot lid, only stopping just before. She knew full well Keith wasn’t back yet, but yet somewhere in the back of her mind she wished he was. Quietly she left the room, taking care not to disturb the boy's rest. He would need it if he was going to recover quickly from this Halloween.