Finn's P.O.V.

"Eat up, Brooke!  Finn!"

"This is one hell of a feast!" I manage to gasp out in shock, seeing the turkey on the table.  I cannot stop the drool from coming from my mouth and dripping to the floor.  So this was the intoxicating sent.

"How did you find something like this!?" Brooke questions, her tail waving back and forth, moving the long, battered t-shirt she wears with it.

It has been a couple months since Brook has begun to stay with us, and she is probably the happiest being in this world; nothing can bring her down.  I have begun to feel protective over her as well, just like she is part of our little 'family'.  I have never been happier in my whole life, despite how shitty this world is.  I wasn't even this happy with my parents.

Since Brooke had begun to live with both Nash and Maria, I had done the same, ditching that old bastard and praying that he doesn't ever find me.  It took a lot of convincing from Nash for me to do so though, as I was-- and still am-- worried about their well-being, as Jakob is likely to hurt them to get to me somehow.

"Well, this 'ne is all my doin'!  Y'all better be thankful!" Nash says proudly, his hands on his hips and the most full-of-himself look on his face.

"Nash, this is amazing!" Brook screeches, making even my human ears hurt.  She sprints at Nash and jumps onto him, her legs wrapping around his waist and her large shirt flying up, exposing her pale butt and where her furry tail meets her pale, smooth skin.  The two tumble to the ground laughing and I just strip off the blanket that was around me due to the cold weather and toss it over Brooke, who os still on Nash.

"Cover the hell up, Brooke!  You should really wear some pants," I comment, giving her a stern look.

"But they are so annoying!" Brooke complains.  "Especially because I still can't figure out how to turn when I wish, they get in the way!  Why should I wear them when I drown in them when I accidentally turn into a black cat!?  I can also fight much better without pants!  What is the purpose!?"  I just sigh and shake my head in disappointment.  She sometimes acts like an eight-year-old... actually, a lot of the time she acts like an eight-year-old.

"Okay, I have your drinks!  Come sit  and dig in!  Appreciate this catch, kids."  Maria places four chipped and cracked mugs on the table filled with slightly murky water, but the bottom is still visible, which is a luxury.  "It hasn't rained in a while, so I did the best that I could."

"It is great, Maria."

"Thank you, mama Maria!" Brooke yells, leaping onto a chair and, with her feet on the seat and her butt on the top.  She chugs the water and only stops herself just before she slams the now empty mug  to the table, as she might break it... both the mug and/or the table....

I calmly take a seat to Brooke's left and Nash to her right while Maria is at the opposite end of the rickety table of Brooke.  "I just want to say, thank you all for filling up this table with enjoyable company, and this house with a racket that never ends."  Maria chuckles, but stop continues her 'prayer', even though she hates it when we call it that, as she doesn't believe in any higher-up being, just like the rest of civilization now.  "I enjoy having a happy, full house,; please don't have this joy taken from me."  She sounds so... desperate.  It rips my heart out every time she does it, but this time, it seems more... I don't know, ominous...?  I mean, sometimes people get a feeling like they are going to die, and every time something seems off, you had better bet I'm on the case. 

My life was almost ruined only once, and by that I mean Nash and Maria had almost lost their lives....  I don't like to think about that happening again.

After we finish the best meal I have ever had and help Maria clean up, Nash, Brooke and I sit in a circle on the rough wood floor, a book in the middle.  Nash said that it is a fictional story about a bird who cannot fly.  He cannot fly with others of his kind, and he feels no freedom.  This is all Nash tells us, as how is trying to teach Brooke and me how to read. 

I am not fully illiterate and I can read a little, but Brooke hasn't learned much.  Reading-- or learning to read-- is a nice hobby that makes us feel almost normal.  Nash claims that it can also be enjoyable and is a great method of teaching, but I remain skeptical until I can experience that for myself.

"'Kay, Finn.  Can you tell me what this next line says?"  I look at the line for a few seconds before attempting to say it.

"The bird... felt... confined...?"

"Yup."

"... confined in a cage; trapped, and slowly...?"

"... decaying away."  Nash tells me.

"... decaying away."

"Good."

"Metaphor!  Metaphor!" Brooke giggles, proud that she knows a literary element.

"Well, sure.  Brooke, the next line."

"Okay!"  She leans over the book and scrunches her eyebrows in deep thought.  "T-the bird wants to be free, like his..."

"... fellow...."

"... fellow kin."

"You know," I begin, "this book is oddly relatable."

"Yeah, I feel bad for the poor bird," Brook says, a small frown on her face.

Suddenly, there is a knock on the door that makes us all nearly jump out of our skin.

"Who the hell would be knocking!?" I whisper, fear making my hair stand on end.  I slowly change form and strip myself of my clothes as I turn into a wolf. 

How had I not sensed their presence!?  I should have, even in my human-like form!  I still have heightened hearing and sense of smell, but how had I not noticed a strange, unfamiliar smell?

"Maria, Nash, go into the back bedroom," Brooke warns quietly, grabbing a dull, chipped steak knife from the table.

"No.  I cannot let mere children protect me," Maria says, determination written all over her face.

"Well, if something happens to us, who is going to protect Nash?!  Just hurry!" Brooke say, finally encouraging her to hurry off to the safest place in the house where they can go into the attic from.  Even if that goes wrong, they can escape from a small window up there and get on the roof.  From there, if need be, they can even jump down, as the rickety, old, wooden house isn't overly tall.

Brooke stands next to me, growling and baring her teeth as if she were an animal, but instead, she still cannot turn out of her free will whenever she so desires.

There is a series of knocks on the door this time with more force put behind them.  "Where is Finn!?" comes a man's voice, anger very apparent.  I tense up; will the only people I love die because of me?

"Finn!" Brooke hisses, as if reading my mind.  "Snap out of it!"  I quickly shake my head back and forth, and stare at the door.

"We see candle light!  We know you are in there!"  Not long after, the door is now slammed against, the solid wood cracking due to the pressure of just one hit.

I glance at the hinges and see that they were nearly knocked from the wall due to just that one hit.  "Hurry!  Get some chairs!" I bark at Brooke, knowing she can still understand me even in her human-like form.

Brooke puts the knife in her mouth and runs back to get some of the rickety chairs.  She grabs one and-- quite literally-- throws it over my head and at the door.  I quickly push it into a place where it will be of use.

She then surprises me by even pushing the table over to the door.

She helps me turn it on its side to make the barricade stronger.

The pounding against the door does not cease through the whole ordeal, but no one succeeded in breaking the door down. "Open this fucking door, Finn! THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES!!!"

"Don't listen to him, Finny!" Brooke yells to me, causing me to look at her with my conflicted gaze. "We won't die tonight!"

The sound of shattering glass makes me whip my head around and let out the most menacing sound I can make.

There is an animal before me of which I have never seen before; it is a very large cat that looks unnaturally orange and has black stripes with a white chest and underbelly, but it is most definitely larger than me. It's paws could probably knock me out in one swipe and its yellow teeth would go right through my thin body.

I don't know if I have ever been so terrified in my life, but not for my own safety: for Nash and Maria, who have almost zero chance to escape with their lives if I fall.

"Brook!" I bark behind me over the loud pounding of the door. I never take my eyes off of the deadly cat, as I feel it is like me and is just as intelligent, if not more intelligent than I am. "Go! You know what to do!"

"Finny! No! I'm not stupid!"

"Then fucking go! You know what I want! It is the best thing you c-...."

"Finn!" Time seems to slow as the large cat leaps for me, paws outstretched and jaws agape, huge, menacing teeth ready to bite me in half.

Brooke throws the knife in her hands over my head and it lodges itself into the monster's shoulder, despite being dull.

The cat barely flinches, and still tackles me to the ground. "Just go!" I manage to hiss out, the air being knocked out of me as the large monster slams me to the ground.

I snarl at the thing on top of me, baring my teeth. "I'll rip your throat out!"

"I would love to see some kid as insignificant as you try," he hisses back, spit flying into my face as I try to push him unsuccessfully off of me.

He goes for my throat but I wiggle quickly out of the way and begin to claw at his face. I get a few blows in, but he then takes one of my paws into his mouth and bites down, hard. I howl out in pain and rip my-- now bloody-- paw from his jaws, his teeth and lips dripping with my fresh, red blood onto my face, muzzle, and the floor around me.

I squint my eyes when he dives back down, no chance of me dodging this time, but a loud yowl interrupts him.

He rears back, hissing in pain and I scramble out from under him, limping to the corner and licking my wounded paw while I observe the situation; Brooke had turned into a cat, but something is in her mouth, and I cannot tell what.

Brooke brings her head down onto his neck and stays in place like that for a while. The monster whips around, trying to remove the small pest from his back, but is unable to.

Brooke quickly whips her head to the side and something-- that I conclude is a syringe-- smashes into the wall and shatters. I wonder what the hell was in that?

Fur an blood fly and the monster just falls to the ground, now panting and appearing unable to even roll over to squash Brooke, who is clawing furiously at his flesh and the area where she ha inserted the syringe.

A pool of blood begins to form and his eyes close by the time I decide to limp over. "Nice job," I comment to Brooke, who is practically digging a hole into the monster's neck, "I didn't even have to interfere."

"See, I can be helpful. You almost died, Finn!"

"Better me than any of you."

"That is very wrong, Finn. Very much so." Brooke then moves away from the large cat on the ground who has ceased his breathing.

"What the hell was even in that?"

"Oh, just something Maria had whipped up; some degenerative substance. I think it began to eat his organs."

"What a way to go...." I look to the large cat, almost feeling sorry for him, but then I remember that he had tried to kill Brooke and I.

"Hey, Finny?" Brooke mews, a slight smell of fear coming off of her.

"What is it?"

"What had happened to the knocking on the door?" Oh no... she is right....

"Brooke!  Leave, now!  I'll get the others!" I yell as I turn towards the direction of the ladder.  "I don't care if I never see you again, but just... survive....  We need more people like you in this world...."

"Finny...!?"

"Leave!"

"I smell sulfur!"

"Then hurry then!"  She isn't wrong; her nose caught it before mine.  She really must have been focusing, knowing I wasn't focusing much at all.

With hesitation in her movements, she leaps out the broken window and sprints into the dark of the night.  Farewell... Brooke....

I then head up to the ladder with some difficulty and burst into the attic, the smell of blood strong.  "No.  No!  NONONONONO!  NASH!  MARIA!"  I run to their mangled bodies laying side-by-side, a pool of blood surrounding them.  "NASH!  Wake UP!"  I nudge his chest with my nose, blood from a huge cut on his chest clinging to my fur.  "Nash!" I howl desperately.  They can't be dead, they can't! 

I turn to the other body of which belonged to Maria and do the same.  "Maria!  Make Nash wake up!  Please!"

"F-Finn...?"  I whip my head around and move to Nash's side, putting my warm, furry body against his cold, pale, smooth one.

I can't stop the whimpers from leaving me, as I know he is dying.  "Don't b-blame y-y-yourself...."

"I won't... Nash, I'll make it up to you... somehow...."

"You can do it... but y-ya d-don't n-n-need ta m-make it up t-ta me...."  Wait, could he understand me?!  I shake my head, thinking that he just knows what I would says because he knows me so well. 

"Nash... I... I-I need to take my leave..." I manage to whine out, my throat tight with the emotional pain, my physical pain forgotten.

"Make a good story... change this cruel world...."

"You better believe I will; I plan on it."  Nash has a weak smile on his face, and then, his eyelids drop and the faint rising of his chest halts, telling me what I wished would never happen.

"Burn it to the ground!"  I get up from next to Nash's body and slowly take my leave, half of me wanting to stay here an die with them.  My only family is... gone... all because of me; because of what I am....  I want to die.  I want to give up, that the easy way out.  But I can't.  Nash and Maria died for me, and I don't want them to be forgotten.

I quickly make my way through the rising flames that are lapping at my fur, scorching the ends.  My physical pain is nothing compared to my emotional... I will never hurt this badly again... I feel as though someone ripped my heart out and sliced it into pieces in front of me, quite literally.  I feel dead....

I take the same exit Brooke had made earlier and confront two men who begin to shoot at me as soon as I appear out of the flames.

Emotionlessly, I dodge the majority of the bullets, not any special bullets, but retain a few grazes.  Without thinking, I take my first two lives by ripping their throats out, blood covering me.

Red.  Red is all I see....  I will get my revenge, and after, this world will be different.  No matter how many lives must be lost, no matter what the consequences, I will change this cruel, evil world....