Chapter 3: Changes

The next morning Benson's alarm went off as usual but Benson didn't make any attempt to get out of bed even though, for some reason, the electronic blaring was like nails being driven into his eardrums. Finally after some time had passed he shifted under the covers and reached one hand out to hit the snooze button. Strangely he managed to hit the button on his first try and with enough force to actually dent the clock. With a tired yawn Benson sat up, sheets falling off him and revealing the dark bags under his eyes. Turning his attention to the clock he noticed it was now 7:15 and gave a groan.

"That was not a solid ten hours of sleep," he thought. How could he be this tired when he fell asleep before 10:00 last night? Realizing it was best not to dwell on it, since he was already behind in getting ready for work, he got up to take a cold shower to help him wake up.

Once he reached the bathroom and reached out to pull back the shower curtain he was greeted with the sight of his bandage. Remembering the events from last night Benson unwrapped it a little hesitant to see how it was doing. To his shock the bite mark was almost completely healed. Benson knew he had always been a fast healer but the speed at which it had healed seemed a bit unnatural. Then again he supposed it wasn't necessarily a bad thing and deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, decided to ignore it. Once out and slightly more awake, Benson made his way over to the sink to brush his teeth (and apply a fresh bandage). As he ran the toothbrush over his teeth and spat the leftover toothpaste into the sink, Benson noticed in the mirror that his canines were slightly sharper than normal. Raising his brow but deciding not to think too much about it, Benson applied a clean bandage and made his way to the kitchen for breakfast.

After popping a piece of bread in the toaster and fixing his coffee for a quick meal, Benson grabbed the newspaper from outside his door and flipped through it thinking that maybe he could find some word of what he had encountered last night. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort was reported. As his toast popped up, Benson tossed the paper aside and went to butter it but as he took a bite immediately scrunched his face in distaste. It tasted…off. Immediately thinking the loaf had just gone bad, Benson checked the expiration date only to find that it was still good for another week.

"Must be a misprint," Benson mused as he discarded the toast into the trash can and took a sip from his coffee only to nearly spit it back out too. Even the coffee tasted off. He loved coffee. There was no way it could go bad without him noticing. Reluctantly pouring the rest of the brew down the drain he decided to skip breakfast altogether. Glancing at the clock, which read 8:30, Benson headed out the door to go to work.

Once at the park, Benson grabbed his clipboard from his office and went outside to meet up with everyone else, who was already waiting on the steps, to get the morning meeting started. As he came around the house (having exited from the back door since it was the closest exit to his office) he could hear the others talk excitedly about something.

"No way bro, that's really tonight?" Muscle Man asked.

"Yeah," Skips answered. "It's a rare celestial event that happens about once every 700 years. Heck, even I haven't seen it and I'm kind of curious myself."

"Seriously? But you're immortal," Rigby stated confused.

"I've only had my immortality for about 450 years," Skips shrugged.

"Aw man we totally have to see it then," Mordecai chipped in.

"What are you guys talking about?" Benson asked out of curiosity as he approached the lot.

"Oh, Benson. We were just speaking of tonight's rare blue moon," Pops responded. "Surely you've heard of it." Of course Benson had heard of it. He remembered reading about it in the paper a few days ago and then vaguely again this morning as he was flipping through the paper.

"Yeah, I have. But that's not important right now. We've got a lot of work to do today. Don't forget Mr. Maellard will be stopping by any day now for that surprise evaluation so let's get started." Benson was about to read off the jobs for the day when Pops interrupted him.

"Oh my, Benson what happened to your arm?" He asked in concern referring to the bandage on Benson's arm. Caught off guard by the question, Benson glanced down at his arm before turning his attention back to his employees.

"It's nothing. Just a bit of a scratch, that's all," Benson assured.

"If it's nothing then why are you hiding it then?" Rigby asked.

"And why do you look more tired than usual?" Skips added with a raised brow noticing the dark bags under his eyes. "Didn't you get any sleep?"

"I had kind of a rough night," Benson admitted. "But I'm fine so let's just leave it at that." Skips and the others looked unconvinced but didn't argue with him.

"As I was saying, we have a lot to get done today. Skips, the gazebo on the north end of the park needs to be fixed up along with some of the paddleboats at the lake. When that's finished, the carts and park truck need to undergo the typical maintenance." Skips nodded and gave a grunt in understanding.

"Pops, the flower beds on the west side of the park need to be watered and weeded. A new rose bed also needs to be put in so you'll have to go to the greenhouse in town to get the rose bushes. And please be sure to pay with actual money this time. I don't want another call from the florist saying you tried to pay with a butterscotch ripple lollipop again." Pops gave a sheepish grin and chuckle (though he still didn't quite understand what the problem was; a butterscotch ripple could easily pay for what was needed).

"Muscle Man and High Fives, the park fields on the south side need to be mowed and fertilized. I also need you guys to repaint the benches and shed that were rebuilt yesterday along with hauling the logs of the uprooted trees from yesterday to the wood chipper to be shredded."

"No sweat," Muscle Man answered before smirking. "You know who else needs help putting things through the wood chipper?"

"Please don't say—"

"MY MOM!" Muscle Man exclaimed before exchanging high fives with High Five Ghost. Benson shook his head with an irritated groan before moving on.

"Thomas, you're on snack bar duty. The fryer and grease traps especially need to be cleaned as well as degumming under the tables."

"Got it," Thomas agreed.

"Mordecai and Rigby, you two need to pick up all the trash in the park and clean the park bathrooms thoroughly." The two troublemakers groaned upon hearing this.

"Don't even start with me," Benson warned. "You both are still on thin ice. So if you two want to keep your jobs, I SUGGEST YOU GET STARTED!" Benson shouted turning red from anger.

"Ok, ok," Mordecai conceded. "Come on dude," he motioned to Rigby before leaving to get started along with everyone else who left the porch steps to do their respective tasks. When everyone was out of sight, Benson turned to head back into the house barely registering the subtle throbbing of his bandaged arm. Entering his office, he sat down at his desk to get started on the day's paperwork. Ten minutes into the first stack, exhaustion began seeping into his body as his eyelids grew heavy.

"No, come on. Stay awake," Benson told himself figuring it was the lack of caffeine that was responsible. He shook his head to clear up the drowsiness and even resorted to pinching himself awake but try as he might, he couldn't fight off the wave of sleepiness. Eventually he lost the battle and placing his head on his desk, Benson fell into a deep sleep.

It was dark and empty in his dream, and strangely foggy. At first Benson wasn't sure where he was until he saw the faint silhouette of the park house a ways away. He found himself walking up the steps and slowly turning the doorknob but as he entered through the front door was not met with the foyer but instead found himself looking down what appeared to be the passage of a subterranean tunnel. Torches were dimly lit along the walls and painted with strange symbols and diagrams.

Not liking this one bit, he turned to leave but the door through which he had entered had vanished. Seeing as there was no other choice but to go the only other way, he cautiously made his way down the eerie tunnel. Looking at the walls of what appeared to be ancient looking drawings, he finally reached the end, which was a large concaved area decorated somewhat like a viewing arena with balcony-like stone structures protruding from the stone walls high above each connecting to a tunnel of their own. Benson was vaguely reminded of a primitive sports stadium; where he got the idea he wasn't quite sure. Craning his neck, Benson also noticed a giant hole in the ceiling that gave a clear look of a strangely bright starry night sky and smack in the middle of the sky was a large full moon glowing an unnatural but strangely hypnotic shade of blue.

Vacantly, he approached the center of the room, keeping his eyes focused on the moon until a scraping noise from the shadows startled him. Looking around wildly, he nearly jumped out of his skin when his eyes locked onto a shapeless mass with a set of glowing eyes that penetrated from the darkness. The mass slowly stepped into the light of the moon revealing a large wolf-like creature with gray fur and telltale scar, which Benson immediately recognized as the same creature that attacked him last night. Before he could say or do anything, the creature spoke.

"The time is approaching brother." As those words were said the ground around Benson began to erupt and surround him with streams of light that reshaped into a strange symbol of a mix between a crescent moon and a canine-like paw print that hovered above his head.

"Time?" Benson repeated confused looking at the creature. "Time for what?"

"…You're rebirth," it answered just as the symbol above Benson's head glowed and crashed down onto him.

Letting out a cry of shock and fear Benson awoke with a gasp and shot upright from his seat. Almost immediately, he felt a pair of gentle hands place themselves on his shoulder. Startled he turned his head to see a concerned Pops at his side.

"Benson my good man, are you alright? You were having quite the dream, or rather, the nightmare."

"A dream?" he asked almost unsure as he looked around.

"Indeed. Are you feeling unwell? You look pale."

"No, no. I'm ok," he muttered placing a hand to his arm that was throbbing dully for some odd reason. Pops noticed this of course but before he could address it, Benson turned his attention to the clock and saw that somehow an hour had passed making it about 10:30.

"Crap," Benson muttered. "I've been out for that long?"

"'Tis only an hour Benson. No need to alarmed," Pops assured.

"Yeah but there's still things I have to do."

"Then why don't you take care of them and leave the paperwork be for now?" Oddly enough, the lolliman made a convincing argument. Maybe taking a walk would help clear his head and he could take care of the other things that needed to be done. And honestly, he didn't think he could concentrate on paperwork with that nightmare still fresh in his mind.

"Yeah, maybe you're right Pops," Benson agreed.

"Good show," Pops replied with a smile. "I'll leave you to it then," he stated heading for the door. Once Pops was gone, Benson glanced at his arm where the aching was slowly beginning to die down. Pushing it to the back of his mind, Benson got up from his chair leaving the paperwork on his desk as well as his cell phone, which began to vibrate shortly after he had exited the room.

As Benson passed by the kitchen to go outside, his stomach growled in a protest of going so long without food.

"Well, I did skip breakfast," he mused. "I guess it wouldn't kill me if I grabbed a quick bite to eat." Opening the fridge he shifted through the contents to see what looked good to him until he spotted packages of fresh deli meats. A hoagie sandwich loaded with meat seemed perfect. Grabbing every package of deli meat he closed the fridge door with his foot, since his hands were full, and set the ingredients on the table before grabbing a few slices of bread and some vegetables to make his hoagie. But as he took an eager bite he slowly stopped chewing before spitting his out food into his napkin. He couldn't believe it, the food in his mouth still tasted strangely to him!

"What the heck?" Benson muttered exasperated. The bread and vegetables seemed like a foreign taste and knew there was no way it couldbe a coincidence that he has been eating things that have gone bad. The only things that didn't taste off were the deli meats and the chances of it going bad were much higher than anything else in the fridge (except the bread but that is usually always eaten before it gets a chance to go bad). Unsure of what to do, Benson just contemplated the recurring problem.

"I hope I'm not getting sick," he thought grimly. Debating whether or not he should just throw it out until his stomach growled again. He knew that, despite what his mouth was telling him, he couldn't deny his stomach food any longer. Sucking it up, he loaded the sandwich with even more meat hoping to drown out the strange taste of everything else.

"Extra bologna, extra ham, extra salami, extra turkey, extra—" At that moment Muscle Man walked in with High Five Ghost floating in behind him.

"Geeze Benson," Muscle Man started as he eyed Benson's food. "You want some bread and veggies for that meat pile of yours?" Benson looked back at his food and saw that it was indeed more meat than sandwich now. Choosing to ignore the comment, Benson asked a question of his own.

"Shouldn't you guys be working?" Benson asked annoyed as he placed the top piece of bread back on his newly loaded meat-filled sandwich and took a bite.

"Just grabbing a soda bro," Muscle Man answered as he walked over to the fridge. "It's a scorcher out there."

"Yeah," High Fives agreed in his typical high-pitched, quivery voice before suddenly tilting his head (or whatever is part of his head) in confusion. "Wait, is that liverwurst?" Benson stopped chewing in confusion as High Fives pointed out the dangling piece of liverwurst from the hoagie.

"Dude, I thought you hated that stuff," Muscle Man asked after taking a swig of his soda. Truthfully, Benson did hate liverwurst and normally would be able to pick out the taste of it even if he was blindfolded. But for some reason, he didn't have any problem eating it. In fact, his body was actually starting to crave it along with the other meats loaded in the sandwich.

"I…guess I got over it," Benson shrugged taking another bite.

"When?" High Fives asked.

"Just…now?" Benson replied as more of a question than a sure answer.

"Ok…" Muscle Man replied with a raised brow before giving a sly smirk. "You know who else likes the taste of liverwurst on their meat pile?" Immediately knowing what was coming and not in the mood to hear the punch line, Benson gave him a sharp warning glare.

"Don't even—"

"MY MOM!" Muscle Man exclaimed with a loud series of laughs as he and High Fives once again exchanged high fives. Benson on the other hand just let out an irritated groan at the bad joke.

"Anyways," Muscle Man spoke up after his guffaws died down. "Fives and I are going to get back to work," he stated as they headed for the door. "Man, I'm on fire today," he heard Muscle Man brag as they left.

"Maybe not yet," a voice at the back of Benson's head spoke up surprising him. Where did that thought come from? Muscle Man was always a bit annoying with his jokes but that was a little too harsh, even for Benson. Subconsciously, he rubbed his injured arm that was once more dully throbbing before he finished his sandwich in a now unsettling silence.

As Benson made his rounds through the park, he went over the papers on his clipboard to make sure everything was in order.

"Alright, everything in the shed inventory is accounted for. The sprinklers and park electrical systems are running fine. The park fountains are clean and the hedges are trimmed. All that's left is…" Benson's thoughts trailed off as he caught the scent of something that put him on edge. Immediately, Benson thought of smoke but knew that couldn't be it since nothing in the area was burning, not even a grill. It wasn't a foul smell exactly so it couldn't be a skunk. No, it was more of a domestic kind of smell, one that Benson knew and didn't like. Before he could figure it out, a man walking his dog came from around the corner.

"Dog," Benson realized with dread. He had never really liked dogs; too many bad experiences (partly due to the fact that nearly every dog looked and treated him like some sort of walking personal fire hydrant). The only dog he ever really tolerated was his sister's white schnauzer that he had watched for her that one week she was out of town (though he foolishly entrusted Mordecai and Rigby with the task of caring for it for a short time but that's another story entirely).

As the man and his dog approached, Benson stepped to the side to put a fair amount of distance between them as they passed by. Benson visibly relaxed once they were a ways away but as he started walking away, he heard the man shout out as his dog's leash managed to slip out of his grip and the hound started to run over to the tense gumball machine. Turning just in time to see the dog leap on him, he was knocked flat on his back, clipboard flying out of his hands, as memories of last night flooded his mind. Fighting the urge to freak out, he tried pushing the overly friendly pooch off him until the dog's owner pried the canine off Benson.

"Chester no! Bad dog," he scolded before giving Benson his attention. "I am so sorry sir. That's usually not like him."

"It's fine," Benson waved off getting back to his feet and brushing himself off. He looked around to see where his clipboard had gone. He noticed it on the ground some feet away and being sniffed by the same mischievous canine. On instinct he growled protectively but instead it came out far more deeply menacing and animal-like. Upon hearing the threatening growl, the dog whimpered and backed off with its tail between its legs before retreating to hide behind his master. It took a second for Benson to realize what he was doing, nearly slapping a hand over his mouth, shocked by his own behavior. The man as well was rather unnerved by Benson's actions pulled his dog away and gave him a strange look before bidding a quick good-bye and walking away.

"Gumball freak," he heard the man mutter as they were some ways away. Offended, but hurt by the comment nonetheless, Benson muttered a few choice words of his own as he retrieved his clipboard.

"Dog-walking son of a—" Benson's rant was cut off as he winced and clutched his arm that was once more throbbing, this time slightly stronger than before. Rubbing his arm in an effort to soothe the discomfort, Benson walked away to continue his manager duties unaware of a rather perplexed Thomas who had witnessed the whole thing.

After checking on everyone else's progress with their work, Benson made his way over to where Mordecai and Rigby were supposedly picking up trash. The ache in his arm still lingered but any trace of pain had long since ebbed away. Benson contemplated checking the injury to make sure it somehow wasn't getting worse when suddenly a familiar voice shouting "Ninja Warriors 4" was heard followed by a can that flew through the bushes to his left and narrowly missing his head. Growling, Benson peeked through the bushes where sure enough Mordecai and Rigby were goofing off. Each troublemaker was staring the other down in a mock Western showdown and each holding a trash bag that, by the looks of it, had far less trash inside them than what was littered on the ground.

"Dude, you missed by a long shot," Mordecai taunted. "And how can you think Ninja Warriors 4 is a better movie than Zombie Dinner Party 2: Just Desserts?"

"It's a classic. And it's remastered with twice the action," Rigby defended. "Besides, Just Desserts is just some lame sequel with less zombies and more sappy romance stuff."

"Whatever dude," Mordecai said with an eye roll. "You just don't know quality entertainment."

"What are you two idiots doing?" Benson asked hotly as he approached the two.

"Benson," Mordecai said with a slightly panicked look on his face. "Look man, before you say anything we were working," he tried to explain as Rigby nodded his head.

"Oh you were, were you?" Benson ground out through clenched teeth as he felt his face turn red. "THEN WHY WERE YOU CHUCKING THE GARBAGE AT EACH OTHER INSTEAD OF PICKING IT UP?"

"Well, we wanted to make a game out of it," Rigby stated.

"Yeah, we thought that by making it more fun, we'd get it done faster," Mordecai explained.

"I don't care," Benson snapped. "I want it done right and I want it done now OR ELSE YOU'RE FIRED!" At those words Benson's injured arm throbbed once more causing Benson to wince and grab his bandaged arm. This of course caught Mordecai and Rigby's attention.

"Dude, Benson. Are you ok?" Mordecai asked.

"I'm fine," Benson muttered after the throbbing slowly began to subside. Eventually, he turned his attention back to Mordecai and Rigby. "This is your last warning. Get your jobs done by the end of the day or you'll be sorry." At that moment, Benson's eyes seemed to (literally) flash dangerously causing Mordecai and Rigby to give a low gasp.

"What?" Benson asked irritably. For a minute, Mordecai and Rigby were silent in shock, trying to figure out what they had seen before snapping out of it.

"Uh, nothing Benson," Mordecai responded. "We promise we'll get it done." Giving them one last stern look, Benson finally walked away to finish the last of his rounds. Once he was out of earshot, Rigby turned to Mordecai.

"Dude, did you see what happened with his eyes?"

"Yeah I did," Mordecai responded with concern. "Something's up with Benson and whatever it is, it definitely doesn't look good. We've got to talk to Skips."

After hastily taking care of the trash pickup, Mordecai and Rigby hustled to Skips' garage to speak with the wise yeti about what they had seen take place with Benson. Skips was currently working on one of the golf carts' mechanical innards when he heard the duo call out his name.

"Skips, Skips!"

"What did you guys do this time?" he asked nonchalantly, wiping his greasy hands on a nearby towel.

"Nothing," Rigby stated obviously offended as he hopped into the seat of the golf cart that Skips was currently working on. "Why does everyone always think that whenever something strange happens, it's automatically our fault?" Skips merely gave them an "are you serious" look.

"Look, it's not us this time," Mordecai interrupted. "It's Benson. Something weird is going on with him." Before Skips could ask what they meant, another voice spoke up first.

"Oh dear, you think so as well?" The three turned to see Pops along with Muscle Man, High Five Ghost, and Thomas approach.

"Pops, what exactly do you guys mean?" Mordecai asked.

"Well, as you recall from this morning, I was concerned with the injury on Benson's arm and after finishing my day's tasks, went to check on him in his office. However, once I arrived there Benson was sound asleep at his desk."

"Wait," Rigby interrupted sitting up straight from leaning back in his seat. "Benson fell asleep on the job. HA! We've totally got to bust his chops about it—OW!" This comment ultimately cost Rigby a hard slug to the arm courtesy of Mordecai before Pops continued.

"Honestly, that wasn't quite what had me concerned. 'Twas how he was grasping his arm as though it was causing him pain that truly concerned me after he awoke from a terrible nightmare."

"That is kind of odd," Skips admitted.

"Well, that's not as weird as what we saw," High Fives spoke up.

"Yeah," Muscle Man agreed. "When Fives and I were taking a quick soda break in the kitchen, we saw Benson practically pigging out on every type of meat in the fridge, including liverwurst." The other workers just stared at Muscle Man not sure where the dire concern in the report was.

"Oh no?" Mordecai questioned.

"Duh, Benson hates liverwurst," Muscle Man exclaimed as if it were obvious.

"Why does it not surprise me you know something like that?" Rigby questioned.

"Shut up!"

"You know, now that I think about it, I saw something weird going on with Benson too," Thomas spoke up getting everyone's attention.

"Whatever do you mean Thomas?" Pops asked.

"It was after I had finished cleaning the fryers and stuff at the snack bar," Thomas started. "I was heading to the bathroom to wash off when I saw Benson and this guy walking his dog. I couldn't hear what they were saying but what I did catch was Benson literally growling at the guy's dog in such a strangely animalistic way that it ran away with its tail between its legs."

"That actually sounds like typical Benson to me," Rigby cracked earning another hard punch to the arm from Mordecai.

"What about you guys?" Skips asked looking to Mordecai and Rigby. "What did you see?"

"Well, when Benson was laying into us for not doing our work as usual, his eyes changed," Mordecai replied.

"Changed how?" Skips pressed.

"I don't know they just did," Rigby explained. "One second it was just his normal eyes but then they just suddenly changed before going back to normal."

"And just like what Pops said, he was holding his arm like it was bothering him," Mordecai added. Skips placed a hand to his chin in thought.

"What do you make of all of this Skips?" Pops inquired.

"Hmm," Skips sounded. "This all does sound vaguely familiar but I can't quite put my finger on it. Either way, I agree that something strange is definitely going on with him. And I bet that so called 'scratch' on his arm is most likely the cause of it."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Muscle Man asked. "Let's go find Benson." The rest agreed and started heading towards the house. Mordecai and Rigby went to follow but as Rigby turned to hop out of the golf cart, his tail accidentally hit the parking brake and the cart slowly started to roll backwards out of the garage. Hearing the creaking metal fixer-upper rumble away, everyone looked over their shoulders to see the out of control cart and barely had enough time to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit. Exchanging quick looks, the park gang chased after the runaway cart, hoping they could stop it before it could get damaged, or worse, possibly hurt someone. But as it gained momentum from rolling down a small hill, to everyone's horror, they noticed it was barreling straight for an unsuspecting Benson who was walking by and going over the papers on his clipboard.

"Benson look out!" Mordecai cried out catching his boss's attention. Looking up from his clipboard, he saw the speeding metal missile and froze in his tracks like a deer in headlights. But as the cart got closer some strange instinct within Benson took over causing his eyes to shift into a beast-like state (though Benson didn't know this and the others were too far away to actually see the eye shift). Reacting with barely enough time, Benson leapt high into the air with a back flip, narrowly avoiding getting hit as the cart crashed into a tree a ways behind him. The other park employees who witnessed this were absolutely speechless by what they had seen as Benson landed unscathed in a crouched position. Blinking several times, Benson's eyes went back to normal as he stared at the now busted cart trying to process what had just happened. But when he heard the others approaching and his eyes fell on Mordecai and Rigby, any sense of shock was immediately replaced with anger.

"WERE YOU TWO IDIOTS RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT?" He yelled getting to his feet and pointing to the damaged cart.

"Dude Benson, that was…How did you do that?" Rigby asked in awe. Benson was taken aback not really knowing the answer himself.

"I…Don't change the subject!"

"Dude Benson, something's up with you," Mordecai said.

"Yeah, you just cleared ten feet of air doing a back flip without even trying bro," Muscle Man said.

"You haven't exactly been yourself lately man," Thomas also added.

"I-I don't know what you're all talking about," Benson replied feigning ignorance.

"Benson, cart incident aside you must understand we're concerned about you," Pops said gently. "If anything is going on, you must know you can tell us."

"Look, I appreciate the concern but I don't need to explain myself to anyone," Benson replied getting frustrated. The wound on his arm started to throb once more causing Benson to subconsciously grasp it.

"Actually I think you do need to do some explaining, starting with that arm of yours," Skips spoke sternly casting a glance down to the park manager's arm. Starting to get fed up with everyone's stubbornness to not to let the situation go, his arm began to throb much stronger than before.

"I'm fine," Benson unconvincingly replied. Unfortunately, the throbbing of his arm began to intensify and he was unable to stifle a grunt of discomfort, nor hide a grimace of pain as he grasped his arm tighter.

"You don't look fine man," Rigby said. "Come on, we're only trying to—"

"I SAID I'M FINE!" Benson shouted giving them all a glare. However, instead of hearing hasty and reluctant agreements to drop it, he saw the others to gasp in shock and…was that a hint of fear as well?

"Benson," Pops started stunned. "Your eyes!"

"My eyes?" Benson said confused. "What about them?" Skips went over to the downed cart and swiveled the side mirror around so it was facing Benson. What Benson saw made his heart skip a beat and emit a gasp of his own: his eyes were now that of some kind of wild animal's!

"W-What?" Benson could only utter taking a few steps back before his arm reacted with a throb so strong it caused Benson to cry out in pain. The others immediately rushed to his side as he was brought to his knees and the pain began shooting not only through his arm but also through his whole body.

"Benson? Benson!" Mordecai exclaimed.

"Dude, what's wrong with him?" Rigby asked worriedly as Benson's whole body trembled in agony.

"My…head…" Benson croaked out his hands moved up to clutch his dome. "Feels like…it's splitting!" Letting out a final loud cry of pain, two magenta-colored, canine-like ears sprouted from the top of his head. As the pain started to fade, Benson felt his consciousness leave him as well before he fell over on his side and blacked out. The other park workers could only stare at the new appendages in bewilderment.

"Uh, what just happened?" Thomas asked. Skips was the first one to move as he approached his boss and checked him over.

"It doesn't matter. Right now we've got to get him back to the house," Skips ordered taking one of Benson's arms and helping him up. Mordecai took the other arm and they hustled back home.

Once inside the park home, Benson slowly came to his senses as his eyes fluttered open. Sitting up from the couch he was placed on with a groan, the others gathered around him.

"Benson, are you…ok?" Mordecai asked.

"Ugh, I think so," he answered rubbing his temples to ease the lingering headache. "What happened? How'd I get here?"

"We carried out here after you passed out," Skips answered.

"Passed out?" Benson repeated confused.

"You don't remember?" Pops asked concerned.

"Barely," the gumball machine answered. "I remember going over some things on my clipboard then the next thing I see is the-" Benson stopped remembering what had happened with the cart. "The cart!"

"Take it easy Benson, it can be fixed easily," Skips assured. "But that's not important right now. You were saying?" Benson gave a small sigh before continuing.

"We were all talking and then…" Benson's eyes widened as his memory slowly came back to him. Seeing how his eyes had changed, the sudden and crippling pain in his arm and eventually his head, he remembered it all clearly now.

"You remember," Skips simply stated seeing the change in his boss's expression. Benson could only numbly nod before looking to everyone else pleadingly, almost expecting it to be one of Muscle Man's sick jokes.

"Am I…I mean, are my eyes still…"

"Well, that's actually a bit of good news," Mordecai spoke up. "They managed to change back to normal. But uh…" The blue jay rubbed the back of his neck unsure of how to tell Benson the rest of it. Pops, deciding to pick up the slack, pulled out a polished lollipop fashioned into a mirror and held it out for Benson to see. At first, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be looking at, until his eyes came to rest on his new, twitching furry ears.

"Oh no. No way. Are you kidding me!?" Benson could only exclaim in utter disbelief as he brought his hands to his new ears, checking to see if they were real by giving them a firm tug. With the yelp of pain he let out as a result, it was clear that unfortunately they were. "Why…How did this even happen?"

"Actually, that's what we would like to know," Skips said crossing his arms. "Start from the beginning, from when you got that 'scratch' on your arm." Looking from one employee to the next, he let out a slow sigh before reluctantly complying. He started by explaining what happened after he had gone home, to the attack in the alley by the canine-like creature from last night, to the dream he had in his office along with all the subtle little changes he had noticed all that day. By the time he had finished Skips and the others had a mixture of confused and concerned expressions on their faces.

"I think we need to take a look at that bite mark," Skips said. Hesitantly, Benson slowly began to unwrap the bandage until it finally fell off. But upon seeing the condition of his arm, everyone gasped. On Benson's arm was the same mark that Benson recognized from his dream and it was starting to take shape.

"Dude, what is that?" Muscle Man asked.

"It wasn't like that this morning," Benson responded with worry. Skips examined the mark more closely before validating what he had begun to suspect.

"I'm afraid this confirms it then," the immortal yeti declared. "Benson, you've been bitten by a werewolf."

Author's Notes: Phew! Now this was a long chapter, which needless to say was why it took me much longer to post. I had to go back several times mainly because I knew what I wanted to say but had a hard time making it all flow and got writer's cramp (a less severe case of writer's block) a number of times I was trying to figure out how I wanted certain things to proceed. But I have to say I'm rather satisfied with it now. The dog thing was more or less kind of a stretch. I've always seen Benson as more of a cat person than a dog person but it was hinted in the show that Benson once cared for a dog, specifically a white schnauzer (once as a flashback in the episode Blind Trust and once more briefly by Rigby in the episode Out of Commission). As for the "shocking" reveal at the end of the chapter, I'm guessing that most of you already knew what was coming (I didn't really make the best attempt at hiding it especially given the name of the story). Regardless, let me know what you liked and so on. And if anyone is curious as to what the mark on Benson's arm is supposed to actually look like I may post some story pictures of my DeviantART account (search by my user name, which is the same as it is here). As always please read, review and enjoy and see you all next chapter!