[Jaykobell]

After the incident of Denzil falling sick, everything had gone back to normal. Eunice's eye had healed over time, and she could use and see from both eyes perfectly fine once again. Denzil hadn't had another breakdown since he'd gotten sick, but Eunice had noticed a change in his behavior. He wasn't particularly any different from usual, but she could hear the small undertones in his voice when he talked about the caretakers. He was making his growing hate for the both of them become more and more obvious, and Eunice had to admit she wasn't sure what to think about it. Still, she knew that, deep down, Denzil was a sweet boy. If anything, he wouldn't hurt her, so she always ignored it when he made bitter remarks about the farmer and his wife.

One particular night, Eunice was reading the dictionary while Denzil was busy playing with the broken toys the girl had managed to bring back from the main house. Denzil enjoyed making his own little happy stories with them, whereas Eunice was almost done reading the entire dictionary. Even if she couldn't remember every single word in it, she had still learned a lot of new words.

The two were keeping to their business, quiet, until they suddenly heard something coming from outside the barn. Denzil was the first to hear it, and then Eunice heard it as well, although delayed because of how much focus she had been putting in the dictionary. When she heard the noise, however, she was the one who became edgy first. "Wh... what was that?"

Denzil got up from where he was and headed for the window that faced the field. Taking a peek outside, he gasped quietly before motioning for Eunice to come over. "Look," he said once the girl had joined up with him, pointing towards the chicken coop. "Look, there's an animal." Thanks to the light that was suspended to the chicken coop, the two children could see the bright orange and black splotch that was sneakily making its way towards the chicken coop. "What is it?"

Eunice, whom was beyond uneasy, turned to Denzil, a big baffled, when he asked what the animal was. "U-um," she stuttered, stepping back from the window a little out of fear. "I... I think it's a fox." She could remember the picture in the dictionary, as well as the description of the animal saying that they were usually that same orange color with tints of black.

"A fox, huh," Denzil mused as he watched the event happened by the chicken coop, while Eunice stayed well inside the barn, scared that the wild animal might spot them and head for them after it was done devouring all the chickens.

[Jaykobell]

As time went on, things progressively started getting worse. No matter how hard they tried to perform, both Eunice and Denzil were subjected to more abuse than they had previously received. Even the wife, who was pretty lenient compared to the husband, had started mistreating Eunice more. Denzil got a taste of that whip — among others — every single day, since the farmer never needed a reason to beat him up to begin with.

The caretakers were losing more and more money, and so their financial situation was only going downhill. Of course, neither kid knew about the things behind the scenes, and instead just saw it as the caretakers becoming more impatient, intolerant, and violent.

There came a day when things went overboard.

Very rarely, some people would walk by the road that was a few ways away from the farm. Denzil could see them walk past, either to buy groceries or to just take a walk outside on a sunny day. Whenever someone passed by, the farmer played an act to make it look like everything was nice and peachy on their wonderful little farm. He never cracked the whip against the boy when someone was walking by, for fear that they might report the caretakers and take the kids away. Denzil would only wish that this would happen.

One afternoon, the boy figured he could use it to his advantage, that rare occasion when someone walked past the farm. With the farmer's patience completely gone, anything was enough to make him snap. While he was planting the seeds in the field, he patiently waited for someone to come walking by. It seemed like something was on his side, for he eventually noticed a figure walking down the path just in front of the field. He readied himself for the pain that would come out of it, because the farmer would snap harder than he'd ever snapped before. "Hey! Keep planting those seeds!" the farmer yelled at the boy who had suddenly stopped doing the work.

[Jaykobell]

With a slow turn, Denzil turned around to face the farmer before he threw the bag of seeds towards the old man. "You should plant them yourself," the boy hissed in his usual quiet voice, but despite that, all the hate he felt towards that old man dripped from his voice like venom.

It didn't take long for the whip to start crackling down on him. Hit square in the cheek, Denzil stood his ground for a while, trying his best to stay standing. He hoped with every single fiber of his body that whoever was walking on the path would turn their head around and see this happening, and that they would hopefully do something about it.

When the farmer noticed that the whip wasn't enough to throw the boy down, the old man started running towards the boy. While Denzil was busy trying to fend off the whip, the farmer punched the kid in the face, and the blow was enough to push Denzil on the ground. The farmer started kicking the child in the stomach while the whip continued to snap at the boy in a frenzy. "We've been keeping you here all these years, and that's the thanks I get, you little fucker?!"

Denzil got the wind knocked out of him a few times from those kicks, sometimes rolling over the field like a doll if the farmer him hard and fast enough. He started coughing some blood and whenever he had a chance, the boy would glare at that despicable old man. He probably would've said something, but the child didn't even know where to begin.

As the farmer was kicking him, Denzil tried to keep an eye out for that figure he'd seen on the path. At some point, the boy realized he couldn't see anyone anymore; his heart sank at the thought of his pain being entirely for naught, at the thought that whoever had walked past hadn't seen a single minute of this whole thing.

"I'll kill you, you little piece of shit," the farmer screamed at the top of his lungs, still lashing out at the child. "I'll fucking kill you!" He gave a particularly powerful kick, and the kid was sent flying a few inches away from the farmer.

Those words were enough to trigger something in Denzil that the child didn't even know he had in him. His small hand clenched around the earth of the field, and the child tried to prop himself up slowly, despite his body screaming in pain and coughing blood. At this point, Denzil knew perfectly well what kill meant and implied. "Not... not if I... kill you first..."

[Jaykobell]

Eunice had just finished washing all the dishes from lunch, and was slowly starting to put them in their respective place. The plates went in the kitchen cupboards above and around the sink, and the utensils went in the drawers that were inserted in the counter, on which the sink was. She usually started with the plates since they were the hardest to sort, being that Eunice had to stand on a chair to reach all the shelves in the cupboards.

The house itself was always pretty quiet, except when she was vacuuming. The wife often read a book or did some knitting or sewing while Eunice did all the chores, and there was no television in their house. As such, only the clock would be heard ticking, or on some rare occasions, some of the birds outside could be heard singing. Because of that, neither of them had heard anything coming from the field.

Suddenly, Eunice almost fell down her chair when she heard scratching and loud banging coming from the front door. The girl let out a surprised shriek, and the wife immediately got up from her seat in the living room. "Get down," she instructed the girl, whom did as ordered and got down the chair. She put it back right away under the table, in case it could potentially get in the way. Neither of them had any idea what was making all those noises outside, but whatever it was, it sounded like it was trying to enter.

Picking up a sharp steak knife from the utensils Eunice had just washed, the wife headed towards the front door. With a swift movement, she opened the door wide and stepped back.

Standing outside the door was a devilish-looking furry animal, mouth and claws covered in blood of a crimson-red color that matched its eyes perfectly.

[Jaykobell]

Now that the door was opened, the fox seemed less agitated than it had been while scratching and banging at the door. It stared at the old woman, seemingly unimpressed by the kitchen knife she was holding. The dark red eyes stared at the woman carefully, and even while taking steps forward, the animal never stopped looking at her.

Eunice was staying behind the caretaker, but there was something strange about that fox that she immediately noticed. From what she knew, foxes were orange and black with a white stomach. The particular fox that was closing in on them was pitch-black with intricate markings over its fur in an unnatural bright green color. Not only that, the girl couldn't shake this feeling that those red eyes were eerily familiar.

As the wife continued to step back as the fox stepped forward towards them, the fox eventually shifted its attention towards Eunice, and at that moment, the girl realized that she knew exactly what — or rather, who — this peculiar fox was.

Slowly, Eunice made her way towards the fox, stepping around the wife quietly. Noticing this, the old caretaker tried to order the girl to step back. "What are you doing? It's going to kill you if you step any closer!" she warned the girl, but it were as if the girl hadn't heard her at all. "It's going to kill you if you don't step back, you little fool!" But despite any word she said, Eunice simply ignored her and continued to step towards the fox.

When they were face to face, the girl slowly reached out for the fox's head and put her hands over its cheeks. She felt the blood stuck in its fur sticking to her skin, and it unnerved her at first, but she tried to ignore the feeling. She looked into the red eyes of that unusual fox, recognizing that look and those colors the fox sported. "Denzil..."

Shapeshifters: a species of humans capable of changing their appearance into, theoretically, anything they wanted.

[Jaykobell]

The eyes of the fox softened when Eunice called his name, still very much in control of its mind. Despite having changed his appearance for the first time, Denzil still knew exactly what he was doing — and he knew exactly what he'd done prior to joining up with Eunice. He was still the same person inside the body of the fox, despite the difference in appearance. Subconsciously, Denzil's tail started to wag slowly at Eunice's touch, relieved that she recognized him.

However, the reunion was short-lived as Eunice suddenly felt something sharp go right into her from behind. There was a loud, unnerving crunching sound that resonated from behind the girl, and immediately Denzil noticed her change in expression that turned from relief to horror in a split second. As if unable to scream from the intense burning pain in her back, the girl just coughed blood that landed right in the fox's face.

The wife stepped back, now that the knife had been firmly planted in the back of that little bastard girl. "If you're with that demon, then I'm going to kill you too! We never should've adopted freaks like you! You've been nothing put trouble from the beginning!" the caretaker yelled, shaking with fear and panic and about to get another knife from the counter.

Meanwhile, Denzil was trying to give support to Eunice, whom fell to her knees eventually from the injury in her back. She coughed a little more blood before falling forward, and Denzil was the only one who prevented her from falling on the ground. As she stayed slumped over him, he managed to catch a glimpse of the knife stuck in Eunice's back.

Before that sick old woman got to hurt either of them even more, Denzil would make sure that she suffered the same fate as her despicable husband.

Before she got the chance to grab another kitchen knife, Denzil latched onto the leg of the woman and forced her down on the ground. The woman screamed and started thrashing about wildly in an effort to chase the fox away, but Denzil wouldn't be fended off by her measly kicks. In all his rage and hate that had been building up over all those years, he blindly charged in, biting and scratching anything that came across his teeth and claws, whether it was hair, clothes, or bare skin. He could hear the woman scream and shriek for a while, until eventually his teeth landed into soft skin, and as with the husband, blood gushed out from the woman's injury, and she eventually peeped down to complete silence.

[Jaykobell]

After the deed was done, Denzil left the torn up body of the wife alone so he could go back to Eunice. From his earlier abuse by the farmer, even as a fox, he could feel the pain going through his body constantly. Up until now, the adrenaline and the transformation had kept the pain tolerable, but it was now all over. The two caretakers who had made their lives absolute hell were now out of the picture. They were gone.

But if the boy didn't act fast, his friend would die along with them.

As he made his way to his friend, his transformation reverted, changing him from the fox to the boy he was. He was beaten up as well, scars bleeding from that merciless whip and bruised from the kicks he'd received from the farmer. He dashed for his friend, who had lost consciousness between the time when she'd received her injury and Denzil rushing back to her.

Falling to his knees, Denzil grabbed his slumped friend from the ground and tried to shake her awake. "Eunice! Eunice!" He could see and feel her chest rising and falling, so at least he knew that she was still breathing. The fact that she wasn't waking up no matter how much he tried, however, terrified him. With his adrenaline rush dropping faster than a speeding bullet, the boy hugged his friend as tightly as he could, the two of them covered in blood and dirtying each other even more. "It's my fault," the boy lamented quietly to his friend, even if she couldn't hear him. "It's my fault. Eunice, I'm sorry," he whined in a high-pitched voice, chocking on his own tears as he started sobbing uncontrollably. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he kept on repeating between sobs and gasps because maybe, just maybe, apologizing might make a miracle happen. "I'm sorry! You can't die, Eunice!"

"You can't... you can't die..."

[Jaykobell]

The police car stopped a little ways away from the farm, sending dust flying as it slowed down. Coming out of the passenger seat was a civillian dressed in typical farming clothes and whom looked particularly uneasy. From the driver's seat came out a neatly-dressed man who, under these fancy clothes, carried a police office badge and who carried a holstered gun over his chest.

The two men started walking down the field slightly. "This is the place you said you saw an older man hurt a child?" the officer asked the farmer, whom nodded slowly.

"Ah could'n real see from so far away, but Ah can tell ya t'was pretty hard to watch, even from afar," the farmer told the officer as his mustache wiggled from one side to the next, perplexed.

"Hm. Was it the first time? What do you know about this couple?"

"Aye, not much, sir. Just that Ah've heard they're actually pretty shady," the civilian admitted, scratching his head. "Never had any problems with 'em personally, though, if Ah reckon. They pretty much kept to 'emselves most o' the time, didn't see 'em real often." They were the shady types who'd come from one of the cities. Usually, you couldn't really trust those types. Often said they wanted to start their own business, but they just didn't have the energy in them to do all the physical work. "But ye know, Ah reckon seein' that kid before, on this here farm. Ah thought he was their boy, y'know?"

The officer was listening carefully to the farmer so he would be ready to interrogate the couple that lived on this farm. The civilian had reported seeing an old man beating up a small boy rather mercilessly while he was on his way to go buy the groceries. When he'd seen the boy getting, literally, tortured, the farmer ran back home, where he immediately called the police station to report the incident. That was why the agent was here this afternoon: to look into this matter.

Of course, if there would be anything to look at. The officer frowned as the two of them stumbled upon the dead body of an old man.

[Jaykobell]

The farmer gasped at the sight of the body. "In tarnation, what happened?"

The officer pulled his shirt over his nose as he bent down to observe the corpse from up-close. Bite and scratch marks everywhere on the body, with the face and part of the chest nearly unrecognizable. The man had either died from blood loss, or the animal had landed a square hit in the throat. Either way, it seemed like the man had been dead for a little while now. "I suppose this is the farmer in question?"

The civilian scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Aye, s'kinda hard to say Ah'm afraid. Not tryin' to be difficult, here."

"No, I understand," the officer said as he got back up and took a look around. It looked like a typical farm, with animals and a barn, along with a small main house. Deep down, the officer had a bad feeling about this scene. "We better go check the house." He started heading that way when he felt his foot step onto something that almost made him lose his balance. The officer looked down to see his foot stepping on the handle of a whip that seemed to be made out of leather, or a material similar to it. Well, that confirmed it was indeed the same man, since the civilian had reported seeing the man whipping a child.

Together, the officer and the farmer headed over to the main house, hoping to find someone who could hopefully answer some of their questions. They were even more uneasy when they arrived at the house, with the door wide open. What they found inside the house was just as bad — or, no, even worse — as what they'd found in the field outside.

[Jaykobell]

While relatively unfazed, the farmer gasped at the sight of the house. Inside, they found the body of a woman who had been hurt in a similar manner to the man they had found outside the house. Just like the male, the face was so torn and bloodied that the woman was basically unrecognizable.

However, that wasn't what preoccupied the officer. He was already down on the ground besides two children, both covered in blood, and both of which seemed to be unconscious. He noticed the steak knife planted in the back of the girl, and how the two had fallen unconscious with the boy latching onto the little girl.

The officer almost jumped in surprise when he heard the farmer yell in revelation. "Aye! Sir, that's the boy Ah saw! Ah could'n tell him too well, but Ah definit'ly reckon he had black hair like that!" He walked a little closer to the officer, but he had to admit that he was a rather unnerved by this unexpected discovery. "Are they...?"

The officer was already trying to fell the pulse of both children, first starting with the girl and then the boy. "Do they have a phone in here? I'll take care of the children, but I need you to call an ambulance right now," the officer instructed as he started taking care of the girl.

"Aye, yessir! Ah'll get to it in a heartbeat!" the civilian said as he side-stepped around the officer and the other things in order to explore any potential room in the house that could have a working phone. Thankfully, the small community wasn't so far into the rural area that phones didn't reach the bigger cities around the area.

Quietly, the officer stayed in the kitchen as he took care of the two children, with a sour expression on his face. "These cases are becoming way too common," he complained to no one in particular, sighing sadly.

[* ... To Be Continued... *]