The Unfixing

[Feral]

Feral stalked about Banyon Street over the next several days, casing Redencion House. He had never been at the house many days in a row, so he had no idea how the house operated on a daily basis. Two months of being away changed the place a great deal, though the fence and back porch he built still remained. Unwanted, but there they were.

No one seemed to notice Feral hiding in alleyways during the day or in the shadows at night. No one would bother him. Once he had nearly been mugged, but as soon as the bones started to come out from under his skin, he was left alone.

The man exuded wild danger and intimidation. He never left Banyon Street, not even once. He stole from other houses when the people were out, or went without food for days. He had done it before. He could do it again.

At last, his time came. The whole house piled into Anna's van to leave for the weekend. He could see bags and other things being loaded into the back. He could hear exuberant shouts about going away for the weekend.

Good. He was going to be able to take his time.

Night fell. He did not move from his place. He watched the windows in the house to see if anyone was still there. He had to be sure. It was not time to deal with the people. First, he had to deal with the property.

At last convinced that no one was there, Feral stepped across the dark street and strode confidently to where Anna hid her spare key. He discovered it on accident a while back, and kept the secret to himself for a future surprise. The surprise he planned then was not the surprise he had in store for her now, but it didn't matter. He took the key and slid it into the lock for the back door.

The man took off his shoes before entering the house. He would leave no dirt, no footprints. No sign at all except what he was going to do. He ascended the stairs and grabbed the handrail. It hung loose from the wall before he fixed it. The slightest touch would send it to the floor and sliding down the stairs with a loud crash. He pulled. It loosened. He leaned on it, watching the screws make larger holes in the wall, then wiggle about as they loosened further. Then the whole thing hit the floor and slid into the living room. He retrieved it and put it back. The first person to grab it would likely fall, and the rail along with him.

Up the stairs, into the hall bathroom the savage stalked and set his gaze upon the sink. Once upon a time it leaked water from around the back of it, covering the countertop in water before quickly turning into a waterfall that cascaded onto the floor. Feral produced a long, thin bladed bone from between two knuckles and found the spot where he had sealed the faucet. He turned on the water and scraped away at it until water flowed once more from the old spot.

His work done inside, he stepped out onto the back porch, locked the door, and replaced the key. He stood in the light of the moon, glowing faintly from borrowed light when the bones emerged from all over his body, transforming him into a living weapon. Now he truly was Feral. He produced two blades as long as his forearms and hacked apart the back porch. Nothing salvageable remained. Then he turned to the fence and did the same. Not even the posts were spared:he cut them at the ground level to ensure they would not be used again.

He stood back and put on a manic smile as he said to himself, "There, Anna. You did not want these things, and so I have taken them back." With a particularly nasty snarl he added, "HAPPY?!"

As an afterthought, he picked up the scraps of wood and left a welcome home message: DIE MUTIES!

It would not do to have them realize what was going on too quickly. A red herring was required to sew a seed of doubt to mask the truth. He wanted them to realize it slowly, with thought and effort. True terror they did not know. But soon. Last of all, he retrieved his shoes and put them back on.

Now to wait. He would resume his place of hiding, eager to see the look on Anna's face when she arrived home to her precious house she kept for her precious chosen few.

[Anna Fernandez]

The Fourth of July was an amazing experience at the Fernandez house. Fireworks were, of course, forbidden by the government, but Paolo had acquired his usual arsenal and set off an impressive display after night fell. Mama disapproved, but she oohed and ahhed along with everyone else, even if she made sure there were buckets of water standing by in case of emergency.

No matter that Papa would be able to stop any possible conflagration almost before it started. Anna looked over at Jake, who was driving the van, and then back into the van where most of the teens were snoozing against the windows or each other. It had been a very late night, and long drives were good for naps. Only Jim was awake, fervently reading a thick book on astrophysics and drinking a Mountain Dew.

"Almost home," Jake said as they pulled off the freeway onto the streets of Los Santos. "I'm ready to dig into those leftovers Mama packed for us."

"Ohhh," Anna groaned, "Papa outdid himself with the carne asada. I'll cook up some fresh tortillas and we'll just do that for dinner." She rubbed her hand over her round stomach, adjusting her seatbelt for maximum comfort. "Eating McDonalds for lunch just seemed like sacrilege."

As they turned onto Banyon Street, she looked out the window absently. Telling her brothers about the baby had been very anti-climactic because they all already knew. But everyone had been happy, and Mama had shown her some exercises to do to strengthen her body for labor. Thankfully that had taken place behind closed doors.

Being able to talk to her mother about such things had been such a sweet experience. And then soon she would have her twenty week ultrasound and she would know if she was having a boy, or a girl. Everyone had bet on it before the firework show, some coming up with rather inventive names for the child. All in all it had been a great day, and a wonderful relief after the stress of the rally in Los Angeles and -

The van pulled into the driveway abruptly, Jake throwing it into park and setting the brake almost before it stopped moving. He leaped out of the car before Anna was sure what was happening, leaving the door standing wide open. Behind her the kids were stirring, jolted from sleep by the sudden stop, and Anna smiled at them even as something about the house didn't seem quite right.

The picket fence was gone. It still didn't alarm her, only a mild confusion settled on her as she struggled with her seatbelt and got out of the van.

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan and Tess had trailed the van in the red Toyota pick-up truck with Julian in wolf form riding in the bed with his head over the side and his tongue wagging in doggish contentment. But just before Aidan swung into the driveway, the van had pulled up short. Frowning, he rolled to a stop on the edge of the street. That's when he saw the fence, or rather, what was left of it, jagged spars of painted wood sticking up out of the ground like dragons' teeth.

He killed the engine and rushed out of the cab, catching a fiery look from Jake on the way. When he glanced down at the front lawn, he saw why - a venomous, spiteful threat spelled out in the wreckage of the picket fence. Aidan kicked at the M in MUTIES, scattering planks across the dusty ground.

"Anna, keep the kids outside! We need to check the house!"

[Jamie Morrigan]

Jamie had been bumped out of a dream involving an important mission with the Dinosaur Asteroid Defense Brigade, and she picked her head up off of Aimee's shoulder and squinted out the window into the afternoon light. The older kids were coming around and disentangling themselves from seat belts, but she was much nimbler in the close quarters of the van, and she vaulted over Jen's knees and out the door into front yard.

Something churned uncomfortably in her stomach at the sight of the wooden pickets broken off and littering the yard. Jamie moved over toward Anna and tucked her small hand into her foster mother's.

"Why does it say, 'DIE UTIES'?" she asked.

[Tess Abrahams]

Wide-eyed, Tess unsnapped her seatbelt with a muted click and wrenched open the passenger door, sliding out into the heavy afternoon air as Aidan crossed the lawn. What had been a slow, peaceful close to a bustling holiday suddenly up-ended, scattering into a confusing mess like the timber graveyard that was the lawn.

Julian gave a high whine and Tess turned back, running a hand over his shaggy head.

"I don't know, either," she said, a strange mix of unease and exhaustion rattling in her ribcage. "Come on."

As she stepped onto the curb her eyes caught Anna's for a moment and then broke away to sail across the wreckage. Tess's lips drew into a thin, angry line and she drew her phone out of her pocket and hit 1, then the bright SEND button; Jamie's voice filtered through the ringing, innocence in it like a hit.

"Yes, I need to report a disturbance," she tried to keep her voice down, somehow absurdly worried about drawing attention to the obvious display. "On Banyon Street."

[Jacob Foley]

Jake stalked the perimeter of the ruined fence, walking off the tension coiled into his muscles, he gave the trail of fractured wood a fleeting glance. Built upon a foundation of mistrust, the picket fence, picturesque and pristine white, became the perfect representation of his relationship with Apollos: a facade of familial harmony, doomed from the start. The irony in its demise was not lost on him and he was glad of it. He charged up to the unscathed front door and paused for an instant before turning his key in the lock.

"There's no-one inside, Aidan," he said, glancing over his shoulder, "I'm sure of it."

Inside, he gave the flanking rooms a quick once over and pushed through into the kitchen, and to his relief found the back door lacking any evidence of forced entry. First, he eased the door open, then upon seeing the ravaged remnants of the deck below, sent it rattling on its hinges with a furious boot.

"Motherfucker!"

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan was right behind Jake, but he took the opposite route around the stairs through the dining room. The house was still and, for the most part undisturbed, at least until he saw the state of the porch.

"Damn it. I'm going to check upstairs."

Aidan rushed back through the living room and tromped up the stairs two at a time. He didn't notice the banister wobbling precariously as he passed by.

[Anna Fernandez]

"Tess, keep the kids outside." Anna walked past the scattered wood, letting go of Jamie's hand and heading for the front door. She cautiously entered in time to hear Aidan running upstairs, and she headed down the hallway towards Jake.

Her brother was fuming, hands clenched at his side, and she moved just past him to look out the door at the ruins of the deck. Tears sprang to her eyes. "Who would do this?"

Anna put her hand to her mouth, and fumbled behind her for a chair, sitting down abruptly. "Is it Tres Onces?"

[Jacob Foley]

Trembling fingers raked through his hair and Jake started to pace the kitchen, incapable of providing his sister the tender support she so desperately needed, he shook his head and muttered hoarsely:

"I don't know... I don't know."

It was a curse. Whenever things were starting to look good for them, life had a way of dragging them back down to earth, and all of its shit. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. Fighting off an encroaching sense of helplessness, Jake made his way to the foot of the stairs, and called out.

"Aidan! Found anything?"

[Aimee Connors]

Aimee blinked in the late afternoon sun, just sort of staring at the ruin of their front yard along with the others. Her hand went to her pocket and she pulled out her phone, already composing a text to Cameron in her mind.

just got home- the house is wrecked! we're ok though. missed you. <3 <3

She walked up to Tess, and looked around. "Where did Jamie go?"

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan pushed open the door to the upstairs bathroom and swore again. That certainly explained the water all over the floor in the hallway. He tracked through the trickling river accumulating on the floor tiles and reached over the cascade flowing around the sink molding and down the edge of the counter like a waterfall to shut off the faucet.

His shoes squelched over a saturated floor rug as he made his way back to the top of the stairs. "There's no one up here," he said. "Remember the bathroom faucet that used to leak all the time?"

Aidan wiped his hands on his jeans, leaving dark wet streaks. "There's water all over the place up here."

"Water? Shit, my stereo!" Ronnie charged past Jake and went flying up the stairs in two prodigious bounds.

[Jamie Morrigan]

Jamie slipped invisibly through the front door behind Ronnie, her heart thumping against the back of her throat. She hadn't felt this violated and frightened since the Tres Onces had ruined their celebration day by attacking the house with guns and bricks and hooting voices, but the things they'd gone after this time didn't make any sense. The picket fence, the back deck, and... the upstairs faucet?

But then a horrible, horrible thought occurred to her. "Apollos!"

Completely forgetting about hiding herself, Jamie ran up the steps after Ronnie. "Aidan! Those are things Apollos worked on! What if he's in trouble?"

She grabbed for the banister to haul herself up the last few steps, but the rail came free of its mounts and pitched her off-balance. With a shriek, Jamie tumbled over the edge of the steps and saw the hardwood floor of the family room rushing up toward her.

The small girl crumpled when she landed, and a vicious CRUNCH! echoed through the house, followed by screams of pain.

[Anna Fernandez]

"Jamie!" Anna leaped to her feet, running down the hall toward the sound before she could even register what had happened. "Oh Dios, oh Dios mío...!"

She fell to her knees on the floor beside her foster daughter, already seeing that Jamie was favoring one arm as she cried. "Oh Jamie, Jamie... it will be okay... don't try to move.."

[Jacob Foley]

"Jesus Christ!"

Jake's mind raced, caught in a loop, replaying the awful moments of Jamie's fall and found himself wondering if there'd been anything he could've done. He was beside her when Anna arrived, afraid to touch the small fractured limb, and sick from the sound it made when it cracked. He barked over his shoulder, struggling to overpower the piercing screams.

"No-one else come inside! It's not safe!"

[Jamie Morrigan]

Tears spilled onto the floor as Jamie tried to make reality come back. Everything was too loud and too solid and too dizzying, and her whole arm felt like it had been jammed through from elbow to wrist with a rod of white-hot steel that flashed and sparked every time she tried to move.

[Aidan Fox]

From his spot at the top of the stairs, Aidan had an aerial view of the whole horrible scene. Jamie's cries pierced him like bullets.

"Anna!" He tossed down one of the towels he'd pulled out of the closet to sop up the water from the floor, but this one was still clean. "Fill that with ice! I'll get something for a splint!"

[Anna Fernandez]

She did as Aidan instructed, and they were quickly bundling Jamie into the van, Jake coming with her and Jamie to the hospital while Aidan and Tess stayed behind with the other kids.

They were standing in the front yard, some of the teens looking a bit bewildered by it all. Julian had hopped out of the truck and was intensely sniffing the entire place, ears pricked forward. But Anna could only look down at Jamie, who was trying to be brave, and pray that they got to the hospital quickly.



It was hours later that they returned to Redencion House, Jamie on pain medication and sporting a bright hot pink cast on her arm. Anna was exhausted, and was thankful that Jake had had the foresight to call ahead to Aidan and then run the van through the drive through at McDonalds. They were armed with bags and bags of steaming burgers and fries as they pulled back into the driveway, Jake pulling up behind the truck that had been moved off the street.

"Come on, Jamie, lets show everyone your cast." Anna smiled, helping her foster daughter out of the van. "Don't forget your milkshake -" she handed it to her and then reached back in to help Jake gather the rest of the food.

[Aidan Fox]

The intervening time had been spent sweeping the entire house - pulling cabinet doors, tugging on shelves, thumping floorboards, searching for anything else that might have been artificially fatigued and turned into a booby trap. When that search came up empty, Aidan delegated clean-up duties. Jen and Aimee sopped up the water from the upstairs hallway and then aimed hairdryers at the cracks they couldn't reach; Jim, Alex, and Scott set about gathering and piling the ruined timber from the back porch, and Ronnie and Tess helped Aidan salvage what they could of the banister. It needed some shoring up, but fortunately there was plenty of loose lumber available.

Aidan looked up from sanding a picket that was serving as a makeshift banister support when the front door swung open. "Hey, there's our war veteran."

[Jamie Morrigan]

Jamie felt a little foggy from the pain medication and the trauma of an emergency room visit, but the chocolate milkshake provided sweet purchase on reality that helped things feel just a little normal. She stiffly stepped up through the front door and gave an awkward wave with the raspberry-pink cast on her right arm.

"Hi," she said in a tired voice. "They had to amputate. But they gave me this awesome robot arm."

The cast chittered like a Star Wars droid and sprouted an assortment of metal fingers, sawblades, and laser beams.

[Tess Abrahams]

Tess turned from where she was crouched on the stairs and set aside the hand-held vacuum she had been using to suck up the wood dust on the carpet beneath the newly-braced top half of the banister. A spike of guilt lanced through her belly at the sight of Jamie's plastered arm, made sharper by the exhausted pallor of the little girl's face and the washed-out shine of her eyes.

"That thing come with tweezers? Ronnie's got a splinter," Tess smiled softly, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Even the little pinwheel spinning merrily amidst the robotic artillery couldn't quiet the accusing tint of the cast. She carefully eased past Aidan, trailing a hand across his shoulders absently, and made her way over to relieve Anna of some of the food.

Tess held the bags against her chest with one arm as she crouched in front of Jamie, the other reaching out to gingerly inspect the ER's handiwork. She whistled low. "I bet you'll get about a thousand signatures on this thing - and that's before Vipul finds out."

[Aidan Fox]

Ronnie gave the all-call for dinner, and everyone gathered around the kitchen table and counter island to divvy up the day's second helping of McDonald's and to compliment Jamie on her new fashion accessory. Over the course of the evening, it changed from a bionic arm to a hook to a lightsaber, until it was obvious that the little girl was about to fall asleep at the table, and Tess offered to carry her upstairs to bed.

As the kids milled around and polished off the last of the french fries and ice cream, Aidan moved over toward Jake and Anna. "We looked for other traps," he said. "Anything we could think of. Julian even sniffed around. He found the perp's trail."

He glanced over to the table to make sure the kids were occupied. "There was one person, male. He went straight to the hide-a-key, then came in through the back door. Went upstairs, lingered around the bathroom and the banister. Then the porch and the fence. This guy knew his way around the house and knew exactly what he was going to do."

[Julian Davitt]

Julian, if he had been normal, would have been excited to have been included in on this very adult sort of conversation, even in these circumstances. The truth was, this wasn't the first time that he'd been in this sort of situation. Bears, mountain lions, foxes, ravens, all of the other creatures would not hesitate if they had the chance to have a cub for food, or would sniff around their dens.

The stranger's scent was noticeable in the clean environment of the house; the man (and the scent told him plainly that it was a male) hadn't bathed for some time. He smelled of anger, bitterness, and sweat that was slowly turning rank.

"I smelled him by the fence too," Julian supplied. "He was hiding in the alley for a while. He was all over the place."

[Jacob Foley]

"Okay. Can we not refer to him as The Perp?" Jake muttered irritably.

All evening he'd been waiting anxiously for the discussion, his insides felt hot and coiled like angry vipers, and he was in desperate need of an outlet. Being diplomatic about the situation, and humouring any possiblity other than the glaringly obvious, was an insult to his sensibilities. His face creased with incredulous frustration.

"Come on, as if there's any doubt: it was Apollos! Who else would sneak into our home, using the hidden key, take nothing, and dismantle only a few very specific things? The fence, the decking, the banister, and the upstairs faucet - all things he worked on, and considering his little bitch fit with Anna a couple of weeks ago, it makes perfect sense. Even Jamie-"

He paused, and checked the volume of his voice, "Even Jamie worked that much out before her accident- which- which wasn't even a fucking accident!"

[Anna Fernandez]

She should have been angry. She had every right to be scared. But instead she only felt numb, the cheeseburger that had sounded so good thirty minutes ago sitting like a lump in her stomach. Perhaps it was a result of too many hours spent at the hospital with Jamie. Maybe she was all worried out.

"I can't talk about this right now," Anna said softly, shaking her head. "Tomorrow... but..." She put a hand to her forehead, her hair falling forward to cover most of her face. "I am exhausted."

[Aidan Fox]

Anna's exhaustion was palpable, like a heavy weight grinding her down into her seat. Aidan could see it, Jake could probably feel it, and Julian, who read body language more than facial expressions anyway, probably understood it as well as anyone. As a rule, Anna pushed herself to new frontiers of care and provision every day, and now what should have been a day of rest had turned into a nightmare.

"Anna, go to bed," Aidan said softly. "Jamie's already tucked in. The kids can finish cleaning up. Jake and I will take care of the rest."

If anything, the kitchen was even more subdued after Anna had slowly bundled off to bed with Jake's assistance. Once they had cleared away the trash and the detritus of the ad hoc construction, the kids all trickled away, some to their bedrooms, some to the study, some to the TV in the big bedroom upstairs. The kitchen was empty aside from Aidan and Jake, and once Jake made a cursory telepathic sweep to make sure there were no eavesdroppers, they began planning.

It was hours later that they shut off the lights, the last of the residents to retire for the night, except for Jim who never had to sleep. At long last, after a day full of fear and anguish, Redención House had settled in for the night.

[Feral]

Feral had moved when the wolf started sniffing about. He made sure to mask his scent before he left his hiding spot, just in case.

Then it was the usual crocodile patience. Feral would watch and be still, for days if he had to, until he got his moment. He didn't need days. His moment came upon him at last.

The lights winked out in Redencion House. Feral emerged from hiding and began his transformation.It started at his feet. Bones emerged from the tips of his toes and out of the tops of his feet, curving to roughly match the contours of the tops of his feet. Two long, nasty spikes erupted out of the fronts of his calves and two more fanned out on either side of the spikes, curving to come as close to touching as possible at the backs of his legs. His thighs mirrored his calves.

His bottom-most ribs emerged and lengthened down his torso, protecting his guts, but preventing him from bending in the middle. From now on, he would only be bending at the waist: his back was forced to be perfectly straight. The rest of his ribs grew out of his chest and met each other, making him look more skeletal than anything so far.

Two more nasty spikes sprouted from his elbows, and more bones sheathed his upper and lower arms. Pointed bones emerged from his fingertips, as had happened with his toes.

Feral's face was all that remained unprotected for the moment. His face elongated and his features sharpened, giving him the expression that earned him his name so long ago in Greece. Then, bones emerged from his jaw, protecting his neck at the cost of being unable to turn his head. Bones unsheathed from under his eyes to protect his lower face. Last of all, the bones in his forehead emerged into a spiked crown, and more bones covered the top of his skull and the back of his head, hiding his hair.

Now, to business.

[Feral]

Feral could not risk being loud or hurried. Haste made waste; Caution was King. Jim never slept: he would be a problem. The wolf too, was a problem. As long as no one else got up in the night, he would be fine.

Had they moved the key? Did they suspect? It didn't matter. If he had to climb to the roof and slide down the chimney, he would enter that house. At last, he decided there must be a different method.

Feral didn't believe in God or Luck or Fate. He was his own God, he made his own Luck, and chose his own Fate. He made sure to come prepared. A roll of duct tape, procured from a neighbor during a "lunch break," was all he needed. He chose a window far away from where he suspected Jim sat, reading or watching TV. He made several strips and plastered them on the window. Then he hit the area where the tape covered the glass. There was a silent crunch, then Feral was able to peel the tape away and unlock the window from the inside. He slid it open and let himself in.

He moved across the way and up the stairs on the balls of his feet, heading deliberately toward Anna's room. She always slept with the door open, cracked, or unlocked in case Jamie or another kid needed her in the night.

Feral stepped inside, where the pregnant woman was lying asleep and peaceful on her back. He watched her chest rise and fall with her breathing. Saw the small round belly, which kept the one thing that caused him so much trouble. It would be easy to cut it out of her and leave her bleeding.

But not yet.

He placed his palm on her stomach and could feel the little thing inside her respond. It kicked fiercely, and Feral smiled savagely. Maybe it really was Anna's baby. He looked at the mother's face, saw it stir. He slid the other palm over her mouth and held her firmly, letting his fingertips dig into her belly: an unspoken warning.

Move, or scream, and I WILL hurt your baby!

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna couldn't remember later what woke her up. She didn't even remember the transition from sleep to awake, only that suddenly there was a pressure on her belly and something over her mouth and she was looking up into the face of the Devil. Bone white in the light from the streetlamps, a grinning spectre of evil covered with hideous spikes.

Claws pricked at her stomach, and she trembled with fear for her baby, frozen in place by the implicit threat. All she could do was stare at him, and as she did she realized she recognized him. Apollos' eyes, full of hate or something else, gleamed at her behind the bone armor that shielded him.

The room began to glisten with ice, but he was untouched, breath fogging in the air as he kept her mouth closed tightly with a rough hand. Anna didn't know if she could freeze him fast enough to save the baby, but she couldn't stop her anxiety from dropping the temperature in the room to below freezing.

Please... please... no no no... Her heart rate spiked, thudding loudly in her skull in the silence of the room, and she felt so exposed, so vulnerable. So alone.

Not alone in a house full of people though. Jake! Jake wake up! Me ayuda me ayuda me ayuda me ayuda...

[Feral]

Feral could not stay much longer: the room was getting too cold. He could be seen shivering. He had to remain the perfect picture of intimidation: untouchable, hateful, a nightmare through and through.

Besides, it was only a matter of minutes before Jake showed up. It was not time for Jake to meet his nightmare. Though a little foreshadowing never hurt anyone. Well, anyone except Anna.

Feral dug his fingers into her soft, smooth skin and began to scratch at Anna's belly. He braced to keep her pinned under him as his fingers worked quickly over the spot where the baby kicked and punched at the walls of its womb.

Only a moment more, and the true nightmare will have finally begun.

[Jacob Foley]

Sleep was long to come to him that night, when he settled into bed stiff with anger, and restless from his inability to do anything. It was some comfort, however, that he'd been finally able to relocate back into his old attic bedroom, where he was no longer disturbed by the pitter patter of small feet overhead. Instead, he was shaken awake, drowning in the sound of a terrified voice - Anna's voice. His eyes snapped open and he found himself alone, but the rush of fear was real, the voice was real, and the intruder in the house was very real. He leapt out of bed, dashed across his room and threw open the door.

"Anna!" he cried out, his voice sounding the alarm throughout the house, "ANNA!"

An avalanche of clattering wood as he raced to the second floor, an unholy terror that was not his own crystalized in his heart, sucking the air from his lungs. In his mind's eye, he could see the man on the other side of the wall, hunched lecherously over his sister, and he barrelled inside without a hesitation in the world.

[Feral]

At last, it was finished. Feral stood up suddenly and turned to the door as Jake burst through it, showing an aggressive stance and horrifying visage. Then, just as suddenly, Feral dove through the window.

Let Jake thing he managed to spook his sister's attacker into running away. Soon they would learn--they would all learn--just how powerless they really were.

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna could feel his claws breaking the skin of her belly, scratching the softness that covered her growing baby, and her eyes bulged as she screamed mentally. Too terrified to move or do anything but stare at Apollos, she could hardly think, and when the door flew open and the creature released her to dive through her closed window, she lay there a moment longer, like Sleeping Beauty in a crystal ice castle.

Jake slipped and skidded to her side, and Anna suddenly could move, a trembling hand going to the firey pain of her belly, and she opened her mouth and screamed.

[Aidan Fox]

The stampede of footsteps down the attic stairs and across the hallway was enough to wake Aidan, who charged out of bed in a tank top and sweatpants and raced into Anna's bedroom. He stumbled in through the open door seconds behind Jake and quickly assessed the scene - Anna with her nightgown pulled up over her abdomen, which glistened in the low light, Jake standing like a cannon with a burning fuse and no target to fire on, the smashed-out window with the curtains swaying gently in the sudden draft.

Aidan hadn't seen the intruder, but he didn't have to. He met Jake's eyes for one critical moment, then dashed back into the upstairs hallway and into one of the bedrooms.

"Julian! I need your help, now!"

[Jacob Foley]

A glimpse of the intruder was all Jake was afforded before his escape, he cut a nightmarish vision through the shadow and moonlight, his teeth glistened like daggers, and then he was gone. Jake skidded an advance across the glass floor and crashed at his sister's side, ice stabbing at his bare knees, he took her hand, desperate to lend it warmth. The sudden scream speared him through the chest and turned him colder than the frosted air.

"Anna. Anna! Anna! It's okay. I'm here now. You're safe," he managed, horrified eyes wandering down to her lacerated belly, "Oh, Jesus! Someone call an ambulance!"

Inside, he felt his stomach clench, it felt like a rock, sinking. Trembling fingers reached out and carefully examined the fine glistening lines carved into her flesh. He swallowed hard to dislodge his heart from his throat.

"Anna, it's alright. The baby's going to be alright. Please, don't panic. It's going to be alright. I'm here..."

[Anna Fernandez]

"No - no," Anna gasped, trying to sit up while Jake tried to keep her down on the bed. "Dónde está? Se fue? Se fue?"

The house was an uproar of feet in hallways and people yelling, and she held a hand towel to her stomach as instructed by her brother who was on the phone suddenly. "Call Tycho," she tried to ask him, but couldn't tell if he heard her or not.

[Julian Davitt]

Julian had been dreaming.

He was running through a meadow, one he vaguely remembered from before. He must have been hunting, because he was snuffling deeply, cataloging a scent and following it mercilessly, inexorably running it down.

Beside him ran his pack, and he became happy when he saw his mother, her scent old, stale, but still memorable, making her way around them to encircle the poor beast that was to be their food.

The animal was still out of sight, but that didn't bother him, as the scent was growing stronger. And then his mother cried out, yelping and whining loudly, bringing him to a halt so suddenly that he almost lost his footing and fell in a tumble of legs and fur.

"JULIAN!"

He yelped as he woke, surprised and still reeling from the suddenness of his awakening. He crawled from his position underneath someone's bed and trotted out into the hall, making his way quickly to the commotion. He smelled him almost immediately, despite the measures the man had taken to hide his scent. It hung in the air, heavy, like the fear and anger emanating from Aidan and Jake, both of them prowling as if they had been caged.

He growled sympathetically, a low rumbling deep in his chest rising and mixing with a slight whine. Anna was in distress, her scent in relief against the chilled air of the hall and room, mixing and mingling with all the others.

He looked back at Aidan, his tail low and his ears edged back, his hackles slightly raised from the heightened emotion around him and the fear of the intruder which had so recently been here.

[Aidan Fox]

Julian's body language was unmistakable - a perfect mirror for Aidan.

"Apollos," he said. "Help me find him."

Aidan charged down the stairs and burst out the front door into the sodium glare of the streetlights. Then he ran to the cratered turf beneath Anna's bedroom window where Feral had landed and sprinted off into the night.

There was no need to explain to Julian what he wanted.

[Julian Davitt]

"Apollos. Help me find him."

Julian didn't know who Apollos was, but quickly assumed it to be the name of the intruder. When Aidan burst off out of the room and outside, Julian hesitated, looking over to where Jake and Anna were on the bed.

After an interminable moment, the wolf seemed to make a decision, and turned away toward the door. He loped off, following Aidan. With his long legs and determined stride, even the stairs, which tripped him up constantly, didn't pose much of an obstacle. He caught up with the man as he drew up under the window.

His nostrils flared, and he took in deep breaths of air. In the open, the man's scent was harder to track; he had done a good job in trying to hide his scent. Anna's lingering scent was easier to find, and it had clung to him. He smelled faint traces of blood as well. He snuffled around the dirt where his footprints were most easily seen, and followed the scent to the edge of the yard.

Julian turned to Aidan, his eyes wider than normal in the darker night, and loped off, following the scent as well as he could. His pace was quick, but with the number of scents around, and the precautions the man had taken beforehand, Julian was forced to rely on Anna's lingering scent on him to differentiate what he was tracking.

Slowly, the scent grew stronger, but Julian couldn't help but wonder if he'd find the man, who had gotten farther away than he'd expected.

[Aimee Connors]

Aimee climbed out of bed as a scream ripped through the air, nearly stepping on Jen's head as her roommate flailed about and stumbled out from the bottom bunk. "What the hell is going on?"

"If this is another of Jamie's nightmares I'm going to get some Lunesta for her and force her to take them," grumbled Jen, grabbing for a fuzzy robe to throw over her baggy sleep shirt.

Aimee tugged a pair of pajama pants on and cracked her door open in time to see Julian dash down the hallway and presumably down the stairs. "Red alert, Jen, this isn't a drill." She eyed Jamie's door, still shut, and then reached back inside and grabbed her ditzy roommate's hand. "Come on, lets check on Jamie."

They dashed across the hall, narrowly missing Tess who looked like she'd had a fight with a leaf blower from the way her hair was sticking up, and piled into the little girl's room. "Jamie? Everything okay in here?"

[Feral]

Feral ran through the streets and alleyways, leaving scratches along walls or turning over things in his wake. He was leaving a trail. Knowing Jake, he would come for him alone, or possibly with his friend, Aidan. Feral knew next to nothing about Jake's friend, but hoped that birds of a feather flocked together. They might even convince the wolf to join them.

Follow me! Feral snarled in his mind.

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan wouldn't have needed Julian's nose to follow the trail of destruction Apollos was leaving. Part of him didn't like it, thought it was too convenient, but that part was getting shouted down by the rest of him, which was saying, Hunt him down. Make sure he never threatens the house again.

He chased the galloping wolf out through a narrow alley into a street in one of the neighborhoods he'd told the kids to avoid. The chain-link fence at his right hand shook violently as a huge bull terrier mix threw itself against the metal, screaming more than barking. Across the street, sitting under a garish streetlamp, was a rust-red Toyota pick-up truck. Aidan had seen it plenty of times in front of the House, often loaded down with lumber or plumbing materials.

Aidan reached down to lay a hand on Julian's flank. Last thing they needed was to charge blindly at Apollos's truck. "Woah, wait. Listen, Julian, if we see him, run home and leave him to me, understand?"

[Julian Davitt]

Julian snapped back at Aidan's hand, surprised and unaware that the hand was coming. Normally he wouldn't have reacted so strongly, but the smell of the man was powerful here. In the presence of such an aggressive and large creature Julian's instincts screamed out for him to be wary. The rest of Aidan's words faded into a quiet hum as his senses trained on the area around him. His nose twitched, and his head turned to where the smell was the strongest.

His ears were at alert, pointed forward; his tail drooped but hooked back up at the tip; hackles rose, and he started to growl, deep in his chest, a low warning rumble that carried through the quiet street.

Stay away, he growled. Stay away.

[Feral]

Feral could see Aidan and the wolf from where he hid across the street in the shadows. He knew he couldn't keep the wolf from smelling his presence. He didn't need to. But he did need them to get to the truck. It was all that was left of "Apollos Apatmos." Soon, it would be gone, and two of Anna's chosen ones along with it.

Come closer. You haven't found me yet!

[Jacob Foley]

By the time he hung up, Jake had expected to hear the approach of the ambulance, the phonecall had lasted forever and did little to bring him any peace of mind. All the while, he'd remained at Anna's side, barking orders to Scott and Ronnie, and did everything in his power to bring his sister comfort. He held her trembling hands in his and kept talking, words without weight which evaporated into the air the moment they left his lips. It was torture to him, the waiting, suffering every ounce of his sister's pain as if it were his own. And the worst thing about it was that he knew there was nothing he, or anyone else, could do until the paramedics arrived.

"Anna, listen to me," he said softly, "You have to be calm now. You have to relax. Listen to my voice. It is time to calm yourself. Breath, and relax."

His hand crept up to her face, fingers traced lines through clammy locks of hair, and he gently cradled the side of her head. It was everything in him not to succumb to his own sense of dread. He closed his eyes. If fear and pain could be shared vicariously via a psychic bond between siblings, then so too could serenity and love.

[Anna Fernandez]

Tess was in the room, pressing a towel to Anna's abdomen, but Anna was trapped in her own mind, staring out through her eyes and seeing nothing. Jake's voice filtered through her fearful haze with sudden clarity. "Breathe, and relax. Just listen to my voice, Anna. Be calm."

The giant's fist clenched around her chest slowly loosened, and her breath began to come easier, and then Anna looked up and focused on her brother's face. "Oh my God, Jake..." Tears sprang to her eyes, and she relaxed into his arms, trying to breathe as calmly as possible so as not to hyperventilate. Sirens started up in the distance, growing closer.

"I don't think it's as bad as it looks," Tess said softly, lifting the hand towel she'd put over the cuts and inspecting Anna's skin. "They've already stopped bleeding." She folded over the towel and pressed it down again, putting Anna's hand over it to hold it in place. "I'll go meet the paramedics."

[Julian Davitt]

His hackles were raised, but having Aidan nearby made him feel a bit safer - or perhaps less afraid.

The scent was strongest around the truck. Julian jumped forward, and then scooted back, but made his way closer to the vehicle with each second. Something was off though about the scent.

It seemed... stale, somehow. But it seemed to be what Aidan was looking for. He walked closer to the truck and looked back at the older man.

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan carefully laid a hand on Julian's shoulders, where his fur stood out like a forest. His eyes didn't leave the truck. "Wait here, Julian," he said, "and keep an eye out." Then he crossed toward the driver's side door. There might be some clue in the cab that could lead him to Apollos, and if nothing else, he could cut the ignition wires, make sure that bastard wasn't going anywhere for a long--

As soon as his hand touched the cold metal of the door handle he knew something was wrong. It was a side effect of his mutation that he had a sense for flammable materials, fuel he could use to power his gifts. And right now that sense was telling him that the truck was more... flammable... than it should be.

He'd just turned to shout a warning back to Julian when it happened.

[Feral]

KABOOOM!

The improvised explosive hidden under the car detonated. As though that weren't enough, Feral had bothered to remove the gas tank from under the car and soak the interior and as much of the exterior as possible. The tank was nearly full when he upended it into the vehicle: the entire ruined thing would burn a long while.

Feral smiled and stifled a laugh. He would chuckle over his good work later. He wondered how Anna and Jake were doing at the house. There was no time to return to the House and find out. He needed to leave for the time being. He would return though. He was not yet finished with Anna and her so-called "Redencion House."

[Julian Davitt]

Julian couldn't sense anything for a few seconds. Everything was still flashing, and the ringing in his ears was persistent. He tried to stand, but fell with a soft yelp and a whine.

Slowly, things became clearer. He'd been thrown back by the blast, tumbling into a fence. Nothing felt broken, but his world, while no longer spinning, was still unstable.

He picked up his head and looked for Aidan, blinking a number of times to help clear and keep his swimming vision from making him sick.

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan braced his hands in the air and pushed against the flames with all the strength he could muster. He managed to slow the expansion of the blast to something marginally less than lethal, and for one critical moment the fireball bulged and warped against an invisible barrier, like a candle flame under a glass hood, and the flames engulfing the truck flashed blue and began to recede--

It was only a moment. The flames rolled back on themselves and surged outward again, angry and yellow, and Aidan was flung backwards by the shock. Bits of burning wreckage floated down and clattered into the street, and Aidan lay senseless in a twisted heap on the pavement as blood seeped from a gash on his forehead.

[Anna Fernandez]

An explosive noise from the street rocked the House. Anna flinched, and Jake's arms tightened around her reflexively as her room lit up from outside. Teens were yelling and running down the hallway, and she could hear Tess screaming something from downstairs.

"Go," she said to her brother, who was visibly torn about staying at her side or going to see qué demonios was going on. "Jamie can protect me." The girl was standing in the doorway, her newly cast arm clutched to her chest. Anna beckoned her inside the icy bedroom with one hand while the other still pressed the cloth to her stomach.

Outside the sirens were getting louder.

[Julian Davitt]

Julian couldn't move for the pain that was rippling through his body. He transformed, feeling the muscles reworking and fixing the damage he'd gotten, though the pain was still there, and he was still marked, and bleeding profusely.

Shirtless, with a newer pair of jeans on (they had only gone through a couple transformations), and barefoot, he pushed himself to his knees and staggered over to Aidan. Sirens were wailing through the night, and people were looking out their windows to see what was happening.

Julian was a stranger to the House, still, but he knew all about keeping away from police and rangers.

He picked up Aidan and staggered away, grunting as he stepped on a shard of a beer bottle he'd managed to avoid as a wolf in an alley. Used to pain, the teen continued, grimacing and leaving a small bloody footprint on the dirty concrete.

They'd travelled a bit of a distance, but following the trail back was made easier due to the mess the man had made.

He hoped someone was waiting for them, because all Julian wanted to do was sleep. As soon as Aidan was safe, he'd turn back into a wolf and settle under someone's bed (it reminded him somewhat of the pack's den), and sleep until he wasn't tired...

[Tess Abrahams]

There were rules about situations like this. Nothing concrete, it wasn't as though there was a step-by-step guide to handling home invasions with a side of maliciously vindictive persecution, but there were principles. They were born out of necessity and even though the broad bulk of them were familiar rote to only a select breed - firemen, soldiers, photojournalists - there were a solid handful that were simply common sense.

For instance: never run toward an explosion.

Tess knew, she knew, that it was stupid and irresponsible, just like she knew that the chest-rattling tremors hadn't been a coincidence and that there was something else being borne along with the acrid stench that clung to the faint breeze.

"Stay here and wait for the paramedics!" Tess hollered at Ronnie as she clattered out the back, the screen's hinges shrieking at the violence. "Don't let anyone in unless they've got a badge, got it?"

She didn't wait to hear an answer, just tore across the lawn and into the alley, running toward the inky black smoke that was rising pitch-like above the neighborhood roofs. Without even realizing it, a mechanical sort of instinct had taken hold of her mind and was winding loose, jagged thoughts into a tight spool, preparing for the worst.

Because Aidan wasn't in the house. Aidan had plunged down the darkened streets and then there had been an explosion and Aidan wasn't in the house because where there was smoke, there was fire. The shock of it would be the dangerous part, so Tess needed to lean into the hit first, absorb the blow so that it didn't knock her clean out.

The strategy worked precisely until the dim outline of a hunched figure, staggering beneath the weight of something (someone, she corrected) distinguished itself from the shadows. All the air in her lungs evaporated and Tess stumbled, one foot catching on the back of the other and pitching her forward in an awkward hobble. She only just kept herself from falling, then burst forward again in defiance of the utter inability of her lungs to draw an inhalation.

"Is he breathing?!" Tess pulled to a sharp stop beside Julian, one hand coming to brace against the boy's shoulder while the other pressed against Aidan's face, pale beneath dark smudges of dirt. Julian wasn't in much better shape but he was at least upright and conscious, which gave him the advantage.

[Julian Davitt]

"Is he breathing?" a young woman cried, coming to a stop next to him and resting a hand on his shoulder. Julian would have shrugged (a gesture he was becoming very familiar with as time wore on), but Aidan's weight and his own pain and exhaustion only allowed him to look on as she pressed a hand to Aidan's face.

He was getting even more tired. He continued to walk toward the House, this time with one very worried person in tow.

"Anna," he gasped. "Help."

[Jacob Foley]

For a moment of agonising uncertainty, Jake stood frozen, pitching glances between Anna and Jamie. Gone was the blazing orange glare which had illuminated the entire neighbourhood and shaken him to his core, gone were Aidan and Julian and Tess, and gone, seemingly, was the intruder who had left his sister traumatised and bleeding in her bed. Still, the thought of leaving Anna under the protection of a ten-year-old girl did not sit well with him at all. Mercifully, that was when the paramedics arrived, the piercing wail of sirens bled into the street as the ambulance pulled up, splashing bright blue light through the window.

"Anna, the paramedics are here, you're safe now," he said, wearing a pained look of regret as he departed, "I'll be right back!"

By the time he raced down the stairs, the paramedics were already at the door, he paused only to direct them to his sister's bedroom then sprinted down the street in the direction of the explosion. His senses snapped awake and, rising above the wave of panic and confusion all around, he detected Tess's anguish like a beacon in a storm. Within moments, he turned into the alley knowing exactly what to expect, and yet...

"Jesus," he uttered breathlessly, and rushed forward to relieve the staggering teen of his burden, "Okay, Julian, we got this, buddy."

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan stirred as his weight was transferred from one person to two, and his eyes fluttered open, glassy and unfocused, before shutting again. He muttered something unintelligible as he was hauled in through the front door and set down gently across the couch. His skin was flushed and hot - not febrile, but actually hot, like the side of an oven after a long day of baking.

[Anna Fernandez]

After Jake ran out, the paramedics were coming up the stairs, led by a breathless Scott. He gathered up Jamie to keep her out of the way while the men went to work on Anna. She tried to explain what had happened, and they were very concerned about her stomach and the state of the baby. A doppler was found and when the baby's heartbeat filled the room Anna let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

[Julian Davitt]

Jake's words didn't register in Julian's mind. He saw Jake's face, his lips moving, forming words and blowing them toward him like gusting clouds before a thunderstorm. Jake was afraid, he was angry, he was tense.

Julian tensed and nearly snarled, the emotions in the air around him soaking in through his nose and his eyes and his skin like he was a frog in an acid pool, desperately trying to get out, to breathe, but everything around him was choking him, pushing him; he couldn't breathe.

Jake moved to help with Aidan, and the slight lessening of weight was appreciated, but Julian made sure most of the young man's weight was still on his shoulders. It wasn't often he could fail in his responsibility to help his pack, and have them survive. The guilt and distancing effect it had on him slid easily over his mind and his eyes. It had a lot of practice.

Julian sat down heavily the second Aidan's weight was off his shoulders, and he felt hungry, sick, and exhausted all at once. His arms felt weird, like rubber, but they burned as if he'd been using them to climb and run all day long. His legs were much the same, and the jeans he wore were burned through in a couple spots.

Jake and Tess focused mainly on Aidan, and he watched, simply breathing, hearing the cacophony of voices swirling around the house, wanting to change but not having enough energy to do so.

"Momma," he whispered.

[Anna Fernandez]

The towel was peeled away from her wounds, and one of the paramedics said, "Too late."

"What?!" The calm Anna had been trying to hold onto shattered. "Too late for what!?" The temperature dropped again, causing everyone's breath to fog up.

"No, no, it doesn't look too bad - you'll be fine," reassured the man as he and his partner readied sterilized bandages. They exchanged a look, and Anna stared at them, trying to figure out what was going on. "We'll transport you to the nearest hospital for a full evaluation - with the baby we can't be too careful."

[Aidan Fox]

Unconsciousness wasn't sleep. You didn't wake up rested or refreshed, and usually you found yourself in a position you never would have chosen on your own. If you were unconscious, it was because your body had absorbed more punishment than it thought it could take, and it only bothered to wake you up when it was satisfied things weren't going to get worse.

The first thing Aidan noticed was the sharp pounding in his head that matched time with his heartbeat, and shortly afterward there was a dry burning in his throat, the kind you felt while running a marathon. Voices floated through the air somewhere above his head, but he couldn't tell whose they were or what they were saying. Lying back and pretending he was still out sounded like a real good idea at the moment - maybe he could even steal a few minutes of honest sleep.

And then memories of the night hit him with the force of a car bomb. He tried to curl upright from the couch where he was lying, but every joint in his skeleton protested the idea.

"Augh! Shit..."

He lifted one hand to his forehead, hoping that maybe with a little pressure he could prevent the imminent explosion, and his fingers encountered butterfly strips stretched over a sticky wound.