Flannel and Fangs (Full Moon Festivities)

I’m a special effects artist from LA. I know fake. I know latex, animatronics, and CGI. So when I got hired to revamp the "Haunted Hayride" in Hallow’s End, I expected cheap rubber masks and corn syrup blood.

I didn't expect Maddox.

Maddox runs the attraction. He’s six-foot-four, brooding, and wears flannel like it’s a uniform. He’s also the most intense method actor I’ve ever met. When he puts on his wolf costume for the show, the movement is flawless. The growl vibrates right through my chest. It’s terrifying. It’s also... really, really hot.

But here’s the weird I never see him take the costume off. He sniffs me every time I walk into the room. He growled at the pizza delivery guy for looking at me too long. And I swear, when we finally hooked up in the back of the prop shed, his eyes glowed yellow in the dark. I told myself it was just contacts. I told myself I was falling for the man, not the monster.

But now the full moon is rising on Halloween night, and I’m starting to think the special effects in this town are a little too realistic.