A flash of white light engulfed me as I passed the threshold of the door and when I opened my eyes, I was back home. Not my apartment, mind you. My mother’s house. I was walking into the house through the fucking mysterious door.

By the point, I was done. I was… I just didn’t care anymore. I was hurt, pained and my feelings were in disarray from everything else that had come before. I didn’t know if I was to grieve or hope. My mother was dead. Sarah was dead. I didn’t know where Tristan was. I didn’t know where Katie was.

All around me, people were dying and I wasn’t even lucky enough to understand why.

Without stopping in my step, I found my way to the couch in the living room and sank into it. I stared blankly at the television screen in front of me, remembering how it all began with me refusing to play the CD they had sent me.

I looked up at the Fox-masked woman and she was in a conversation with Blake. Whatever they were talking about must have gotten heated because a minute later, the lady had a blade to his neck even though he didn’t flinch from it. Instead, he placed a finger on the blade, pushing it away from his skin.

Mark walked past them and they silenced as he removed his mask and dropped the flamethrower to the floor. He glanced at me, his look sombre, before resting on the wall and shifting his gaze to some area on the floor. He looked deep in thought but I discarded the curiosity that came from that.

I didn’t want to know about him. I didn’t want to sympathise with him. He was the reason I was where I was. I couldn’t afford to let myself forget that.

Sighing, I buried my face in my hands. The pain and hurt I was feeling was threatening to overwhelm me. I gritted my teeth, suppressing the scream that had been building in me. A hand touched me but I didn’t respond to it. I didn’t want to. I didn’t think I would be able to without lashing out at something. Or in this case, someone.

“I’m sorry, Will,” Blake said in a low voice.

“We’re sorry,” the fox girl added.

Silence filled the space. After a few minutes, I raised my head up to meet theirs and they were both sitting close to me, using some of the chairs from the dining room. Mark remained resting on the wall but his attention was on me.

“The way we bring people into the light is never kind. And we can’t afford to make it kind,” the fox girl said, removing her mask for the first time.

Ignoring the scar on her lips, her face was otherwise smooth. That is until she turned and I saw burn marks on the side of her face and head, just a little above her left ear. Seeing my attention shift to her burns, she flipped her hair slowly to cover it. My eyes found hers and she flashed a thin smile that conveyed all I needed to know on that front. She wasn’t going to talk about it.

“We don’t know where the creatures are from. Not really. We know that they are from a different dimension, but we genuinely don’t know,” Blake said and I returned my attention to him.

“So what do you know?” I found myself asking.

Blake pursed his lips for a moment before sighing.

“We know they have been around longer than we think. Longer than some of us have been alive. In your case, we had to research and investigate all we could about you,” the man replied.

“Your sister and your mother…” the lady began before hastily adding, “I’m Sophia, by the way. But yeah… your sister and-”

“Since when?” I asked, cutting her off.

“Since around the time your sister was five. A few years before your dad fucked off. A few years before you left,” Mark replied.

I looked at him and then at my hands.

“How can it be? How would it even happen? What happened? If… If my mum and my sister are those fucking things, then what…”

“Slow down, mate,” Blake said, patting me on the back. “The creatures can take the skin of whoever they choose. But, that happens after consumption.”

“Once they got your sister and mum, changing into their forms is easy,” Sophia said.

“But how did I not recognise them?” I asked, angry at the implication that I had been living with man-eating creatures without even noticing.

“You didn’t recognise them because you didn’t know any better,” she said before leaning forward slightly and adding, “But you did notice them acting differently after a while.”

“Think about it, Will. Do you remember the accident they got into?” Blake asked and I frowned then.

I frowned because I had never mentioned that story to anybody. Because it wasn’t a story that particularly brought good memories. Heck, I ignore the story a lot because it was one of the first few times I felt fear for my sister and my mum.

“How do you know about that?” I asked.

“Focus, Will. The accident. Do you remember it?” Blake asked, brushing my questions away.

“I do. Of course, I do,” I answered bitterly.

The trio maintained their eyes on me as I tried to reason my way out of the situation. Eventually, I gave up, sighed and opened my mouth to speak.

“They had gone out to eat together. Mum, Sarah and Tristan. This was back before my dad left. Back when mum was still happy and alright, really…” I began, running a hand through my hair.

“Mum had asked if I wanted to come but I turned it down. I was going to go see a friend on my bicycle that day. When I returned home, dad was dragging me into his car, yammering about my mum and my sister.

“I entered the car without question when I heard the words ‘danger’ and ‘missing’ a few words apart. The idea that my mum and sister could be missing set my heart into disarray. Eventually, we got to the site and my panic rose. By the point, the bastard of a man had locked me in the car.

“Ahead of where we had stopped the car, was a scene out of one of those action movies you watch in the cinema, you know. Two cars totalled beyond recognition. One of them had burnt up. The other was overturned and squashed up against the divider in the middle ‘cos we were on the motorway.

“From the car, I could see them load up someone into the ambulance that had arrived. Dad had rushed to see who. I didn’t know then but it was Tristan. But Sarah and mum were missing,” I explained.

Silence descended again before Mark opened his mouth to speak.

“Did you find them that day?” he asked.

“Yeah… About three hours after we got there. We found them huddled together in the shade of a tree. The officers assumed they ran into the forest for safety and fell asleep from exhaustion. I do remember my dad questioning why there was a lot of blood around them, especially as they weren’t injured. That was never answered,” I replied.

It was something that had bugged my dad since that day. It played on his mind a lot especially when we were together and he watched my mum play with Sarah. I had asked him once or twice as to what he thought but he never could give me an answer. Up until he just packed up and left.

“They were different after the accident, weren’t they?” Sophia asked.

I thought about it, running through the memories I had of them since that day.

“I don’t think so. It was more of the same. School, home, homework. Mum’s sandwiches, etc,” I answered, rubbing my face.

“Are you sure?” Blake asked, “Nothing seemed different? They didn’t start acting in a different way than before the accident?”

I looked up at him. He was staring at me intently but I couldn’t read his expression. Mark and Sophia stared at me also.

“They were the same. What? Am I supposed to say that they got violent? That they started eating people? Is that what you want to hear?”

Mark started laughing, throwing his head back as he did. The others looked at him frowning.

“I told you two that it’s not everyone that should be saved. Instead, here we are… Wasting our time with this snivelling little bastard,” he said and an axe materialised in his hands.

“Stand down, Mark,” Blake said.

“He’s wasting our time. We need to be out of here soon. Our masks are off, remember?”

“What does that mean?” I said, frowning at the statement.

And just as I spoke, someone knocked on the door.