Kacey stumbled slightly on her costume’s awkward hoof-legs as she made her way over to the snack table. With her brother, and now Brad, both showing off their super-fancy costumes, it seemed like she wouldn’t get a real chance to talk to anyone for a while. She absently reached into a bowl of candies, only for the suit’s hoof-like hands to fumble and let everything slip through.
“Ugh,” she groaned, “this costume is so freakin’-”
Beautiful said an elegant-sounding voice in her mind.
“-Beautiful,” she continued, before stopping and blinking. She looked down at her costume in the light, noticing how strangely pristine the white fur had remained, even after walking through the neighborhood with it on Halloween night. She hadn’t really thought about it before, but the costume WAS quite pretty. A little inconvenience was worth it if it would help her stand out more. She had wanted a chance to hang out with the older teens, after all.
The costume began to feel a little tighter around her waist, the sensation spreading up and down her torso from there. She reached down to adjust it, but the sensation stopped as suddenly as it had started, so she dismissed it as a result of the room being a bit humid.
She looked back to the crowd of awed partygoers, some of which were finally starting to drift away from the novelty of the dragon and phoenix costumes. Now she’d finally have a moment to chat!
She stepped forward steadily, feeling a little more used to the hoof boots. But just as she got near the girl in the lioness costume, some instinct screamed at Kacey to back up, to avoid letting the girl touch her at all costs.
She nearly leapt back, surprisingly managing to maintain her balance. She wasn’t quite sure what was giving her this feeling, but it was strong enough that she would take it seriously.
“Well, you’re jumpy tonight,” the girl in the lioness costume said, with a gentle laugh. “Is it the spirit of Halloween, or is James’ costume just that good?”
“Nothing! It’s nothing.” Kacey said, not completely convincing herself. She slowly backed away from the snack table as the other girl moved toward it, not seeming to notice Kacey’s discomfort.
Kacey thought about moving toward the crowd gathered around Brad and her brother, but her instincts were giving her similar “don’t touch me” feelings about a few of them too, though she couldn’t tell which, yet.
She stepped further away, feeling a slight pinch, then a tug, right above her rear. Wincing, she reached back for it, and felt the thin tail behind the costume felt a lot less hollow than before. Not only that but touching her tail… it felt like the glove had grabbed onto her own skin and hair.
“Wha-?” She whispered hoarsely. “How am I feeling that? Is this costume-”
Magical came the voice in her head once more.
“-Magical?…” She stopped, her tail swishing idly behind her, muscle and bone having filled it all the way to the yellow tuft at the tip. ‘If it is,’ she thought to herself, ‘does that mean I’m becoming a unicorn? But, unicorns aren’t-”
Mortal
‘-Mortal. Right. And since I’m-’
Immortal
‘Immortal, that obviously means I’m-’
A unicorn
‘A unicorn.’ Beneath the surface of her gloves, Kacey’s fingers twitched, before her pinkies and ring fingers melded together, the index and pointer fingers fusing soon after. The new digits began to swell and harden, filling the glove’s empty spaces, the exterior hardening into a three-digited combination of a human hand and a cloven hoof. ‘Wait, a unicorn? But that means I-’
am a creature of magic
‘Am a creature of magic. Of course…” She felt her skull stretching forward as her neck grew thicker, the costume’s yellow mane turning a golden color as the hair became her own. Her jaws and nose stretched forward, her teeth flattening, while her ears rose up to short, narrow points on the top of her head.
But all of that paled in comparison to the sparking sensation she felt in her forehead. A hard substance began to grow from her skull twisting up in a spiral shape to fill the empty space in the costume. Then came what felt like a mix of blood and electricity rushing to her head, a sensation of something filling her mind, something that would have seemed completely foreign to her just a moment ago, but now seemed just as natural to her as breathing. Possibly even more so!
Magic.
She could feel her true self, her very soul, and the souls of each other being in the room; their essences laid bare. She was perfectly aware now of what had happened to Brad, her brother, and herself, and what would soon happen to Rosa, and perhaps every guest at the party.
And, as strange as it would have seemed to her before, she had no worry about any of it. She was magical, immortal, and the embodiment of nature’s beauty. She couldn’t find it in her to reject her new state. On the other hand, the members of the party who had joined their souls with another, prior… Something about her new nature urged her to keep her distance from them. Though she’d originally come to chat with the older girls, she was now hoping to find the company of a young virgin for conversation, instead. Such inexperienced souls would appreciate her new magic far more.
Moving with grace and poise so natural it seemed unnatural, the newly-formed unicorn strode toward a young girl, looking around Kacey’s age, in the corner, wearing a plain, store-bought horse costume.
“Hello, little one,” Kacey spoke in a voice like a gentle breeze. “Are you enjoying yourself this lovely Halloween evening?”
The girl was startled, and couldn’t help but stare. “Uh… Hello! Ye-yes, I’m feeling fine. I… Your costume is gorgeous.”
“Yes it is,” Kacey replied, without a hint of arrogance, as if the girl before her had simply stated “your fur is white.” “Tell me, little one, have you ever felt curious about the magic in the world?”
“Well, when I was little, maybe, but now-”
“I think, before the night ends, you’ll see wonders you’ve never dreamed of.”