Jeff's brother, Mike Jr., smiled deviously. Since Halloween was so close, he decided to get into the spirit of the season. He was going to prank Jeff, by stealing his candy and replacing it with whatever gross stuff he could find! He scooped the candy back into the bucket and carried it to his room, where he dumped it out onto the floor. Jeff felt disoriented-having his candy dumped out the first time had made him light headed, but since it was put back in and then quickly thrown back out made him downright nauseous. And his brother swinging him around didn't help.
Mike took the bucket through the kitchen, grabbing the bowl his parents were going to use for handing out candy. He walked out to the backyard, where he put the bucket down on the small lawn they had. The yard was composed of some bushes, an old oak tree surrounded by firewood, a compost pile, and a small pond. Jeff's brother turned over a particularly-rotten piece of firewood with a shovel, and it disintegrated immediately. He then took the rotten pieces of wood and put them in the bucket. Jeff had been experiencing that same lightheadedness, but when the wood entered him, he felt more...solid? Like he was flexing a muscle or something. It wasn't a bad feeling, but he was really worried. What would happen when he reformed? The candy was part of him, after all. Would he not turn back?
As Jeff was thinking, Mike reached into the remains of the log, and pulled out some earwigs, roly-polies, and a big black spider. They squirmed in his hand, trying to free themselves, but couldn't manage to wriggle free. Mike hurriedly ran back to the bucket, and unceremoniously dumped them in. Jeff immediately felt the bugs, their movements literally made his skin crawl. If he had skin, that is. Jeff felt a sensation similar to shivering as the spider chased the earwigs around. What on earth was Mike doing, he wondered. Meanwhile, Mike took a trawl into the compost pile, scooping out a clump of dirt. It had a big, moldy tomato in it, along with half a dozen worms. Mike dumped that into the bucket as well. Jeff felt the tomato slop into him wetly, and he realized he could feel the worms moving through the dirt. It was almost like he knew what they were thinking as well, because he felt a wave of intense confusion come over him. This was getting worrying.
Mike continued to fill the bucket with the grossest things he could find. From the oak tree, he scooped up some beetle larvae hidden in the bark. He also got some snails and a fat banana slug. At the pond, he grabbed some algae, along with a pair of crawdads. He even found a fat toad, which went into the bucket. A hornet flew into the bucket on its own, and Mike put the bowl on top right after. Then, he picked the bucket up and ran inside.
Jeff was reeling. He felt the sensations of every creature that was in him, from the panicked crawling of the worms to the angry buzzing of the hornet. A pounding sensation rang through his mind, as he was getting so much sensory input and was having trouble distinguishing which thoughts were his. He found himself following the crawdad's train of thought, remembering enjoying the pond before being grabbed, and wanting to pinch whoever moved him. But he knew that wasn't right, he was a spider, trying to enjoy a nice meal of rotten wood while he finished pupating and mating with a nice snail like him. Wait, what?! At this point, Jeff wasn't even aware of being placed back in his room, with a bowl over him and a piece of paper taped to it by Mike, which read "A Trick for your Treats!"
As the dirty, wet, shaking bucket sat there on the floor, the Chronivac's timer ran out, and Jeff started to transform. However, without the candy in place, it was going to have to use the animals and detritus inside of Jeff to restore him. Whatever happened, he most definitely wouldn't be the same as before...