Chapter Text
Mia’s calm voice contrasted sharply with the rather terrifying story she had chosen to read, and by the time Rose had fallen asleep Ethan was frowning a little.
“There, she’s asleep.” Mia whispered, looking down fondly at Rose, and Ethan couldn’t hold back his criticism.
“What is with the creepy story? She’s only six months old.”
Mia closed the book, a sharp smile on her lips. “The woman at the store said it was traditional. A local tale.” She handed the book to him. “Besides, Rose doesn’t seem to mind.”
“Because she doesn’t understand it, thank god.” When Mia didn’t react to his words, he continued. “We were moved here so none of us would have to deal with anything like that, remember?”
Ethan knew that bringing up Mia’s memory was a low blow, as she’d recently been having trouble with that, but he couldn’t help himself with the remark.
“There’s nothing wrong with my memory.” She snapped back defensively, and a vindictive feeling of victory bubbled inside of Ethan at her words. The feeling was short-lived, however, as Mia followed it up.
“You’re just being paranoid.”
Ethan resisted the urge to bare his teeth at that. He hated it when she used that sickeningly sweet condescending tone of hers.
“It’s not--” He cut himself off. It’d be smarter to just deescalate things instead of adding fuel to the fire; they could fight after Rose was put to bed. “Never mind. I’m sorry.”
Mia’s victorious smile continued to irk Ethan, and he added, “But I’m not paranoid. I’m just cautious.”
“Then, go cautiously take your daughter to bed.” Mia carefully handed Rose to him. “I’ll finish dinner.”
Ethan gingerly accepted the infant, cradling her in his arms with utmost care as they both stood up. Mia walked off to the kitchen, and Ethan promptly headed off to the childrens’ bedroom.
“It’s okay, Rose.” He muttered to his daughter, as he went. “Your mother still doesn’t want to talk about some things.” He paused for a moment. “I can’t blame her.”
“Did you say something?” Mia’s voice sliced through the air, and Ethan winced. Damn, she had good hearing.
“Nothing---I’m putting her to bed.” He called back, walking up the stairs. Rose began to cry, and Ethan paused his walking to pat her stomach reassuringly.
“There, there.” A low, bestial croon accompanied his words, and Ethan inhaled sharply. Luckily, Rose didn’t seem to mind the odd sound, and he let himself relax a little. “It’s like I said to your mom, that book’s too scary for you.”
Once Rose seemed appeased, Ethan continued up the stairs. Eveline stood by the balcony, her dark hair draping around her head as she looked down at Ethan.
“Are you going get rid of her yet?” She whined, and Ethan frowned at her as he crested the stairs.
“We aren’t kicking out Mia.”
Eveline scowled, crossing her arms indignantly. “She’s mean and she’s bad and all you ever do now is fight!”
“Evie, I’m not in the mood for this right now.” Ethan warned. Judging from Eveline’s lack of response, his words had their intended effect, and he made it to the childrens’ room without hearing another word from her. He settled Rose into her crib, affectionately rubbing her head and muttering a few words of comfort.
“You should go to sleep too, Evie.” Ethan tucked her hair back as he spoke, and she pulled a face at him.
“Make me.” She hissed defiantly. She didn’t follow him out of the room, however, so Ethan considered that a win.
“Are they okay?” Mia asked as she brought out the stew.
“Rose is sleeping like a... well, like a baby, and Evie’s hopefully getting to bed.” He responded, before taking notice of the aroma wafting out of the pot. “Mm, that smells good! What’s that?” He asked, inconspicuously reaching out for the soup. Mia deflected his hand with the ladle, a playful smile on her lips.
“Hands off, mister. It’s ciorba de legume, a local recipe.”
“Wow, you’ve gone full native, haven’t you?” Ethan joked and she smiled sharply, grabbing a bottle of wine.
“Local wine, too.” As she took the bottle to the table, Ethan grabbed the wine glasses and followed. Moments like this reminded Ethan of the better days, before Dulvey---maybe they wouldn’t have to fight tonight.
“But if you’re going to keep sulking all evening, maybe you shouldn’t have any.”
There it was. Ethan sighed, preparing for the oncoming fight.
“You really have to stop worrying.” Mia poured them both some wine as she spoke, and Ethan masterfully avoided eye contact as he responded.
“It’s just that... everything’s happening so fast. Dulvey, moving here, the kids, therapy... it’s a lot.”
Mia whipped around to face him, her previously lighthearted tone gone. “Well, at least we’re all together.” She snapped, before her expression softened a little. “You, me, Rose, Eveline... we’re all together, and now everything can be--”
“Seriously?” He interjected. “You’re just going to pretend nothing happened again? That everything’s going to be fine and normal?” Ethan took a few moments to calm himself, closing his eyes and taking several deep breaths. “Things changed in Louisiana. I changed. We can’t pretend that everything is the same, because it isn’t. I thought we were over this---no more secrets, right?”
Mia flinched and turned away, frustration evident on her features. “It happened so long ago--”
“Three years, Mia. It’s only been three years.”
“--I just don’t understand why you’re so--”
The sound of glass shattering immediately preceded Mia’s sudden pause. A bright red blot began to spread across the fabric of her shoulder, and his stomach dropped in horror when he caught the metallic smell of blood.
Did the Connections finally find them?
Ethan was doing his damndest to stay calm, but he could still feel the teeth sharpen in his mouth. He wanted so desperately to reach over and pull her down, but the sheer panic and unreality of the situation had him frozen. Fighting through the paralyzing fear that constricted his lungs, he managed a shout.
“Mia, get down!”
The lights flickered out, only escalating Ethan’s fear, and a sudden barrage of bullets flew out from another window. Mia screamed as she crumpled into a bloody mess on the floor, her body shot full of holes, and Ethan forced himself to duck under the table. The chandelier fixed above the table collapsed, the shattering of glass adding to the cacophony of bullets as Ethan dug newly-forming claws into the table.
Keep it together, keep it together, keep it together, keep it together--
The gunfire ceased just as abruptly as it had started, drowning the dark room in a suffocating silence. Ethan glanced down at Mia’s corpse for a brief moment before the sound of boots on the floor caught his attention.
Wrenching his eyes away from his wife, he looked over to see the perpetrator. Only the legs were visible from his position beneath the table, though this was quickly remedied when whoever it was tossed the table to the side, revealing--
“Chris?!”
Sure enough, the man himself stood there menacingly, stony face void of any hint of emotion. The clothing he wore paired with the ominous lighting made him look like some twisted villain.
“What the hell?!”
There was a brief pause before Chris responded, almost apathetically.
“Sorry, Ethan.”
Mia twitched, and Chris turned, remorselessly shooting her several more times. Ethan’s shock was beginning to wear off now, which left him in the thralls of his growing rage, and he embraced the anger in turn. The shift rolled over him, the most natural it had ever felt; sharpened teeth grew into daggers, trembling claws strengthened into steady talons. Ethan’s bones rearranged themselves as he stood up, first at eye level, then taller. Despite this change in form, Chris seemed completely unperturbed, and something in Ethan loathed that.
The window to his right suddenly shattered, and a masked person approached, holding him at gunpoint. Ethan snarled at the man, but he knew better than to strike at an armed person. Another soon flanked his left, and before he could begin to question Chris something hit his exposed neck.
The world spun around, and in a few moments Ethan was knocked out.
The shrill ringing of a phone sounded as Ethan faded back into consciousness. For a brief moment, he thought it might have been Mia’s, but his senses hit him like a truck and he quickly remembered what had happened.
Cold. Everything was cold.
Ethan groggily opened his eyes, only half surprised when he was met with hooked claws instead of soft hands. A low grumble reverberated from his throat, the sound doing little to comfort him.
He dragged himself to his knees as the incessant ringing continued, more than happy to take his time to gather his bearings. Chris had definitely had him tranqed, and now it looked like he was in the middle of nowhere. Great. Mia was dead, Rose was--
Rose was...
Rose.
Ethan shot into alertness immediately. Did Chris take Rose? Leave her? Kill her? What about Eveline?
He tried to scramble to his feet, tripping on his torn shoes and faceplanting in the snow. Letting out a growl, he ripped the ruined footwear off and successfully stood up. He had to check here for Rose, he had to--
A mop of dark hair stood out in the snow by him, and he immediately recognized the person it belonged to as Eveline. Panicked, he made his way to her, gently lifting her up and shaking her.
“Eveline?” No response. “Evie?” He tried again, and this time she groaned a little before leaning into his touch. She was shivering, her pajamas doing little to protect her from the cold around them, and Ethan held her tight to his chest. She was alive, that’s what mattered. She was alive, she was okay, she’d be okay.
By now, the ringing had ceased, though he hardly noticed. He debated between trying to follow the truck’s tracks home and following the footprints to hopefully find shelter and figure out what the hell was going on. Considering Eveline’s condition, he opted for the latter, doing his best to shield her from the biting wind with his winter jacket.
The forest was dark, and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust before he continued farther in. The wind whipped by him, howling through the air, and birds flapped away as he continued his trek. Eventually, he stumbled across some barbed wire, which sparked a flicker of hope in Ethan. Maybe somebody was here, maybe he could get help!
He ripped the wire off with some difficulty and no small amount of scratches, though that hardly hindered him in the slightest. He was a man with a mission, and right now his mission was getting Eveline to shelter so she could recover.
The footprints he had been following had long since petered out, now replaced with the corpses of corvids. He couldn’t tell if they were crows or ravens, though the dilemma mattered little in the face of Ethan’s current circumstances. He was unnerved by the sheer number of dead birds, but he was more willing to take a chance with wild animals than he was with the cold; at least the animals could be scared away or killed.
The cadavers grew in frequency as he went. Some were hung on the branches of trees, while others were splayed across the snow in a macabre display---it was obvious now that no wild animal killed these birds. Ethan’s growing paranoia culminated when one of the tied up crows began to caw and struggle within its bonds, miraculously still alive.
He snarled at the animal, startled by the sound and more than a little afraid of a psychotic human or bloodthirsty monster jumping out at him from the woods. Upon spotting the crow, he felt a little bit of tension leave him, though the adrenaline was still coursing through him and he could feel the rapid beating of his heart in his chest. He opted to walk faster after that, eager to get the hell out of here.
An eerie fog had settled around him despite the raging snowstorm. He crossed a quaint wooden bridge, wincing when the wood groaned beneath his claws; thankfully, the structure was able to hold the combined weight of himself and Eveline, and they crossed without a single hitch. Across the bridge were several wooden houses, all of which looked decrepit and empty. Ethan still pushed the door to the nearest one open, trying to calm himself down enough to take on a more human appearance again.
The interior of the cabin was cold and cluttered and dark. He briefly skimmed through a nearby drawer, though he found nothing of use within. Deeper into the cabin was a bed, however, and Ethan wasted no time wrapping Eveline in the heavy sheets.
Memories of Dulvey had him wanting to keep on the move, to continue running, but he knew Eveline was in no shape to go back outside. Though he was hesitant to part with her, he knew that she needed warmer clothes sooner rather than later, and so he opted to begin searching the house for any spare clothes. As luck would have it, there was a dresser right by the foot of the bed, and Ethan pried open the doors and grabbed the warmest clothes he could find.
“mmmm...”
Ethan immediately scrambled to Eveline’s side, more than relieved. “Evie?”
“Dad...” She mumbled groggily, not opening her eyes. “I’m cold.”
“I know.” Ethan combed his claws through her hair, trying to be comforting despite his monstrous appearance (though knowing Eveline, she was probably more comforted by his molden visage than his human one). “When you’re feeling better, I’ve got some warmer clothes here for you.”
Eveline didn’t respond verbally, only giving a weak nod, and Ethan felt a bit of his tension leave him. Eveline was fine, things were going to be okay. Rose had to be okay; if Eveline was alive, then Rose had to be alive.
A sudden crash startled him out of his mind, and he immediately jumped to his feet. Wooden splinters rained down on him, and he had enough time to let out a vicious snarl before he was being attacked.
The creature leapt at him, its teeth scratching at his throat as he was forced backwards. Ethan managed to push it off and away from the bed, taking up a defensive position. The aggressor nimbly righted itself, allowing him to get a good look at it.
It certainly looked humanoid, though the way it moved was anything but. Its hair was gray and shaggy, and its skin a similar hue. The thing wore torn clothing, more akin to rags than anything, and its canines were very pronounced.
The zombie-like creature began to circle around him, and Ethan made sure to keep it in his sight; he wouldn’t let it get to Eveline. It leapt out, and he took the opportunity to swipe at it, hooked talons leaving a massive gash in its torso. Despite the injury, it still managed to stand up, growling a little before it quickly darted out the way it had come in. The entire interaction was relatively brief, but any progress Ethan had made in calming down was now gone. Eveline grumbled in the bed, and Ethan turned away from the hole in the wall to check up on her.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” she said, peeking up at him from the covers before diverting her gaze to the broken wall. “I don’t like them.”
Ethan huffed, ruffling her hair with his knuckles out of fear of getting her bloody. “Me neither, which is why we need to keep moving. Think you’re ready?”
Eveline nodded, wiggling out of the blankets. She winced at the cold, quickly pulling the stolen clothes on top of her pjs. Ethan tried to practice his breathing exercises to hopefully return to a more human form, but with everything happening so quickly he couldn’t manage to do more than even out his heartbeat. Eventually, Eveline quietly grasped one of the spikes on his arm, and Ethan took that as a sign that she was ready to head out.
The father-daughter duo walked back into the cold, following the trail that seemed cut out for them. Ethan leaped over the wooden fence without effort, promptly turning around to assist Eveline in getting over the obstacle. Once she was on the other side, they continued to walk.
“We have to find Rose.” He said, turning to Eveline. “Did you see what happened to her?”
“The bad guys took her.” Eveline muttered at his side, using him as a shield from the wind. “I dunno what happened after that.”
Ethan only grunted in response, keeping a clawed hand around her protectively---so Rose had to be nearby. As they crested a slope and walked through a gap in the rocks, the two were given a grandiose view of the place they now found themselves at.
A massive valley lay before them, shrouded in trees and mist. On one of the slopes of the valley stood a mighty castle, spires piercing the sky; it looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.
“Where the hell are we?”
A crow flew by them as he muttered, the distant sound of a church bell echoing through the air.
“I ‘unno.” Eveline responded quietly. Ethan snorted in amusement, having not expected her to reply at all.
“Well, I guess we’re going to have to find out.” He said, and then began to make his way down the hill. At the bottom, the path suddenly dropped into a steep decline, and Ethan and Eveline had to slide down the dirt carefully. The slope deposited them at the base of a ratty-looking house, and they took a moment to regain their bearings before they continued.
Ethan caught a whiff of something savory, immediately making him suspicious---he had learned a while ago not to trust his own sense of smell. If something smelled good, there was probably something dead nearby.
True to his suspicions, he found a dead stallion nearby. He began to wonder (and slightly dread) what could have taken down such a large animal before he was abruptly reminded that he hadn’t eaten dinner as his stomach panged.
“You should eat it.” Eveline unhelpfully supplied, catching onto his hunger, and Ethan turned to glare at her.
“Eveline, I am not eating the dead animal on the ground.”
“Come on, it’s not like it’ll hurt you.” She reached over and tore off a loose chunk of flesh with some effort, moving to eat it. Ethan managed to stop her before she could get it into her mouth, gently slapping it out of her hands.
“We’re not eating that.”
Eveline smirked at him. “But you wanna eat it!” She pointed at his face, and Ethan gingerly touched his chin. His claws came back covered in some drool, and he scowled at her.
“No.” He said with finality, wiping his hand on his pants before grabbing Eveline by the wrist to wrench her away from the corpse.
Turning his attention back to the house, he thought a little. They could probably take shelter in this house for a bit; though it didn’t seem the sturdiest, it was better than standing out in the open.
“We’re gonna head inside,” Ethan said, stopping by the door. “But I’m gonna need to, uh...” how did one tell their adopted mold daughter that they had to exit monster mode so as to not scare random people? “...change first.” He definitely could’ve worded that a lot better, but he wasn’t in the mood to think very hard.
The relative levity of the conversation helped him wind down a little, and Ethan began to steady his breathing as he felt his bones crackle and shift. After a few moments of calming, he had finally returned to the most human form he had taken since this entire fiasco had started; checking himself, everything seemed to be in order. Nothing looked too out of place, though running his tongue over his teeth revealed that they were sharper than normal.
Well, he hoped that if they found anybody, they didn’t notice, otherwise he’d have a fun time explaining that (though he doubted there would be many people left alive here).
“Are you ready now?” Eveline sassed, giving him a very flat look, and Ethan pointedly ignored it.
He opened the door, cautiously stepping inside; the interior of the house was in disarray, like a bull had run through. God, now that he wasn’t a monster he was beginning to notice just how cold his feet were. He might’ve been concerned with frostbite, but at this point that was the least of his worries.
“Stay behind me.” He ordered Eveline, though she only huffed in response.
“I’m not a little kid, I’ll be fine.” He opted not to bring up technicalities like how she was a little kid, as he figured that would only start an argument.
There was still warm soup on the stove, and while Eveline had tried to get him to eat it he had refused. It felt wrong, eating food that was meant for someone who was likely dead.
Overall, there was nothing of note inside the house, and the two of them ended up trekking back outside to travel deeper into the village. Everything they passed seemed to tell a dark story, though Eveline hardly minded. Ethan, on the other hand, minded a lot, and every whiff of blood he caught made the pit in his stomach worsen out of hunger and dread.
There seemed to be many crows around here, Ethan idly noted. Everywhere he went, there had been at least a few. Something about that felt foreboding to him, but he tried to brush it off.
“I don’t like those birds.” Eveline did nothing to hide her discontent with the avians, however, making a face at the fleeing crows.
“Hm? Why not?” Ethan asked, looking down at her.
“They’re too loud.”
That was a pretty valid reason to not like the crows, so he only hummed in response, letting the conversation fade away as they kept going.
One of the houses they walked into had a crib with Rose’s favorite stuffed animal in it; seeing it gave Ethan hope that he was on the right track to finding Rose, so together they continued on.