I remained frozen as that internal screaming threatened to become external. Then I realized that it would be pointless to scream. There was nothing I could do to this thing, and there was no one who could help me with it, even if I could figure out what to do.

I mean, Rowan could have run in, but that would have been just as pointless.

What would Rowan do? Bleed on it?

“Ava?” Rowan’s voice echoed with concern.

“Not… done yet.” I managed.

I took a shuddering breath before I grabbed my pants and darted into my closet. It was a tight fit, but at least it was big enough for me to hide from the view of both the window and the living room. Not that I thought anyone would peek. I just felt paranoid that there were two strangers that were within viewing distance.

One of them was also a giant, carnivorous monster that apparently understood English.

That thought ran through my mind as I changed the rest of my clothes in the closet. I fumbled a bit and ended up tripping over a pant leg. Falling forward, I slammed my forehead against the wall with a resounding thump before sliding down a cartoon character.

Almost immediately, the sound of bending metal echoed in the bedroom and the moment I looked up, I was face to face with the creature.

This time, I actually did scream.

It was a small shriek of surprise which made the monster recoil back from the closet.

“Uh…” Rowan’s voice from the doorway sounded both confused and concerned. I could not see their reaction when the creature turned to look at them, but I could definitely hear the mild terror in their voice. “What… are you okay…?”

“Fine… fine.” I squeaked out. “Just… fell.”

“Well… uh… if you’re fine…”

“Yeeeeeeeeeep.” I stressed.

This situation was awkward and terrifying.

Especially when the creature turned to look back at me. That head was definitely like a mix of animals. Which probably would not have been as terrifying to me if it was not for the number of eyes. I had thought it had been ten on its side profile last night, but now that I was up close, it was clear that there were not quite that many.

Just seven pairs.

Only some of the eyes had multiple irises. One even had a strange “stretched” looking iris that looked like some kind of demonic goat eye. None of the eyes looked the same beyond the colour. Just like the shape of the head, the eyes looked like they were spliced together from different animals.

It continued to stare at me.

Taking a terrified breath, I decided to go out on a limb and hope that I was right that it did understand what we were saying.

“Out.” I motioned with my hand. “Back out so I can change.”

It huffed, but it did turn around like it had earlier.

Once more, I was internally screaming.

It really did understand what I said. If it understood English, I was almost terrified to know what else it understood. Especially given that it had chowed down on my classmate like they were a stick of beef jerky.

Still, I took that moment to finish changing my clothes. The entire time I was in the closet, the creature did not move. Just sitting there with its massive back to me.

When I was done, I noticed the creature’s tail. It was indeed the tail I had seen following us yesterday. That tail was now curled in a flexible loop, but the tip was flicking back and forth. Like an irritated cat.

“Can… can… you move?” I said once I realized that it was blocking off the rest of the room. Remembering that this was a monster I was talking to, I hastily continued. “Please.”

It made another huff noise before it got up and went out the window. I stared after it, completely dumbfounded and not really understanding what it was doing.

Is… is it mad at me?

That was just plain absurd.

So absurd that I was no longer terrified.

That quickly changed as I stepped out of the closet and the wendigo-creature climbed back into the bedroom. I turned just as it tossed something at my feet. Glancing down as the thing landed with a slightly wet thud, I was both horrified and dumbfounded.

It was one of those hare-creatures.

And it was now bleeding out on the bedroom floor.

I glanced up at the wendigo-creature, who was looking at me very intently. It gave a small nod and a huff noise as it waited. I was uncertain what it wanted, and that seemed to annoy it as it made that noise again.

When I still made no move to touch the hare-creature, it bent down and pushed it forward with a pair of its hands. It sat back on its haunches once the hare-creature was practically on my feet. That gigantic head cocked to the side before it made a weird half nod.

I was about to move when I felt the hare-creature twitch. One leg smacking into mine.

The monster moved faster, those hand-like paws coming down to break the neck of the other creature. The sound echoed through the apartment. My stomach lurched at the sound.

Noticing that I still had not moved, it picked up the hare-creature. Very carefully and slowly, it brought it up to my face. When I still did not move, it then deliberately brought it to its own mouth. That maw opening up to reveal those rows of teeth like a shark’s mouth.

It then pantomimed eating the hare-creature.

Oh, dear fucking Christ.

This whole thing was playing out like some weird fever dream. It was genuinely trying to feed me.

Those huge arms held out the dead hare-creature to me, and I watched as the head rolled to the side. Limp and boneless, it flopped and made the eyes roll in my direction.

Maybe it was the thought of the monster trying to feed me. Perhaps it was the sight of the very dead hare-creature. Or maybe it was the rising smell of blood. Whatever it was, I turned and started gagging. There was not much in my stomach, just the hardly digested beef jerky I had eaten earlier, but it was not enough to really come up. The wendigo-creature immediately jumped back away from me.

I did not gag for long, and by the time I looked up, the creature was climbing back out the window. It only paused long enough to look back at me with a look that was clearly disgusted. Then there was the screech of metal and it was gone.

“Ava?” Rowan called out to me once the monster had left the bedroom. “I… are you okay?”

“Just… fine.” I mumbled and looked down at the dead hare-creature.

“So… that thing…”

“Nope. Don’t… wanna talk about it.” I muttered as I quickly exited the bedroom. The smell of blood was growing more heavy by the minute. “I think… I think… ugh… I don’t know what to think.”

I had no idea what I was supposed to do in this situation. Nothing in my life ever prepared me for any of this. Least of all, a giant monster that was acting like this one was. Hell, I had never even considered a normal animal that might act like this.

“You know… it kind of acts like a house cat,” Rowan said. Their words echoing something that had crossed my mind before. “Like it brought you a mouse because it doesn’t see you hunt.”

“Yeah… I could have done without the mouse.” I said while moving my fingers in the air to make quotations as I said mouse.

“At least it’s trying to bring you something to eat instead of eating you?”

“How would you like it shoving a dead monster at you?” I bit back.

“Still better than it eating me.” Rowan answered.

I could not argue with that. Even if I was back to staring at the dead “mouse” on the floor, that was definitely a better alternative than being eaten. The hare-creature’s blood had pooled around it, slowly seeping across the floor and under my broken bed. It was just a huge mess right now.

“What… are you going to do about that?” Rowan suddenly asked.

“I have no idea.” I sighed. “Do you think the monster would take it back if I asked it to?”

“Why would you think it’d do that?” I could imagine the confused look that accompanied that tone of voice.

“Ah, right.” I sighed again. “I’m pretty sure it understands English.”

“…what?” Rowan’s voice was nothing but disbelief.

“Yeah.” I glanced over at them. “It turned around earlier when I was getting dressed.” Twice, but I did not feel like adding that on to this already weird conversation. “And then when I asked it to move, it moved.”

“I take back what I said about it being like a house cat.” Rowan glanced at the blood on the floor. “More like a really smart dog.”

“It’s more like both of those.” I said. “Like someone stuck a typical dog and cat personality together.”

“It certainly doesn’t look like that.”

“No, it looks like a whole section of a zoo was stuck together.”

I had no idea how the animals changed. Other than the hare-creatures who had seemingly increased in size and become carnivorous, I had no other things to gauge what the strange rain had done. The wendigo-creature was also a lot bigger than any animal should be. A fact that made me think other creatures might have grown.

“Appearance aside, how much do you think it understands?” Rowan asked.

“I really have no idea. I haven’t tried to actually talk with it.” I answered with a small shrug. “It did try to show me how to eat.”

“It thought you didn’t know how to eat?” Rowan asked before they burst out into laughter.

“Yeah.” I grimaced as I said it.

If it had been someone else, it would have been hilarious to watch, but it had been me. Now that I was thinking about it, my pride was a little hurt by the wendigo-creature thinking I was too dumb to know how to eat.

“You don’t think that it’ll attract other creatures, will you?”

That thought had not occurred to me and I was suddenly staring at the hare-creature with even greater concern. I had been worried about figuring out how to clean this thing up, but that idea quickly took a greater concern.

“Damnit.” I said before glancing over at Rowan. “Do you think you can help me carry that thing to the window?”

Rowan was standing more steadily on their feet. Most of that red film was giving way to new skin, but they still did not look quite right. Like their body was still trying to fill out and heal the damage that had been done. At least they did not have any scars from bite marks.

“I… think so?” Rowan said before walking to where I was standing.

Both of us stared down at the dead hare-creature for several long seconds.

“Uh…I’ll grab its front legs.” I said. I bent down to grab the dead creature by the front. “You grab the back legs.”

“Sounds good.” Rowan answered and crouched to grab the back legs. “On three?”

“Right.” I nodded. “One, two, threeeeeee-”

I ended up pronouncing that word a lot longer than I needed to as the sound of metal screeching once more echoed in the bedroom. Both Rowan and I looked up at the window with a dumbfounded expression.

The wendigo-creature crouched there and stared back at us with an equally dumbfounded expression on its features. There was something clutched against its furry chest by the lower set of arms while the other two were pushing the metal bars.

Rowan’s sharp intake of breath was the only sound beyond my rapidly beating heart.

For some reason, I felt like the creature had caught us doing something naughty. Especially when its dumbfounded expression became a sneer.

Rowan immediately dropped the part of the hare-creature they were holding and ducked behind me. The sudden change in weight sent me tumbling sideways. The carcass landed on the ground and I ended up planting sideways onto it. My cheek slapping into the wound on its neck. Still warm blood gushed out of the wound and I found myself gagging again.

The creature quickly erupted into a snarl, and it squeezed itself through that broken window like a cat going through a small hole. It took one step and then another. The bedroom was not large enough for it to dash, but it moved quickly despite its size and small area. It was just moving right at us with those upper hand-like paws reaching with razor-sharp claws fully extended.

Or rather, it was running straight at Rowan.