Fox Ball
The Future

I entered through a foggy haze, with sounds and pictures that didn’t fully make sense to me. I saw Peter and Rose talking, Rose and Derek talking, Rose and I having our first date. Wow that felt like forever ago I thought bitterly to myself. The images flashed so quickly and suddenly that I had no true idea what I was looking at. Before it all came into focus.

I was thrown into the onslaught of sound: the waves crashing against the beach, seagull-like birds beckoning for food, and the distant rumbling sound of the stone crushing under it’s own weight. All sounds that I have grown accustomed to.

The sights were a different story. Rose was just standing there, on the highest peak of the Ruins, gazing out toward the teal sea as the sun was setting. A mixture of oranges and pinks and purples and yellows lighting up her chestnut hair and glittering in her eyes, the eyes that still reminded me of my mother. She was beautiful.

“Sister…” I heard from afar.

The scene rapidly began dissolving and reinventing itself before it settled on the clearing in the woods. Just the sight of it caused a deep pain to seed itself in my heart, almost breaking my concentration of what was occurring ahead of me, or rather, around me. I felt like I was a ghost invading the privacy of someone I hold dear to my heart. Just standing in the middle of the clearing, right next to the bonfire, as Rose made her way towards me. I caught myself from waving back. I don’t think I’m in this story.

“Sister!” The voice now yelled from much closer. Finally, breaching the tree line, I noticed Derek walking towards us. Rose had taken a seat in one of the chairs, patting the one next to her with a small smile. He immediately pulled her into a quick hug and then sat.

“How have you been sis?” He asked in a very nonchalant way. He looked anything but nonchalant though as he fidgeted with his fingers and tapped his toes. Though that could be what he always looks like, who am I to know.

“I’ve been good. Training some with Bendigeidfren, trying to hone my skills so I can help Olivia beat Peter once and for all. What have you been up to?” She didn’t seem concerned with the way that he was acting, so I decided not to be either.

“Things have been going well. I’m still spying on Peter, trying to figure out his next plans on how he’s going to rope Olivia into his schemes. Killing her brother probably put a damper on his timeline, but the less we have to worry about him, the better.”

“You’re right about that brother. You should have seen her after Tyler had been killed. I never want to see her or anyone else go through that pain ever again. It was awful.”

Derek picked up one of his hands and placed it on her knee in comfort. She gave him a small smile in return.

“Listen, I’ve heard some things going around the castle that might be beneficial for you or Olivia to hear.” He gazed around before his eyes landed on me. I knew I couldn’t be seen, but it was almost like he could actually see me. There was a flash of mischief on his face before it was gone. I couldn’t tell if it had actually happened or not, that’s how fast it was gone. He leaned in closer to Rose, as if he didn’t want me hearing what he had to say.

I watched Rose’s face instead, hoping to gain some of the knowledge that her brother was passing on to her. I watched as the easy smile faded into a look of shock then finally settling on fear and disgust. “I have to tell Olivia! Right now!”

My curiosities were peaked at this. What could he have possibly told her that would elicit that kind of response?

Just as she was about to stand up, Derek beat her to it and stood in front of her. Whether he was holding her captive so she couldn’t tell me the news or protecting her from getting hurt, it was hard to tell. He moved back a step, glanced over at where I was still standing at the bonfire, and then chuckled in amusement.

“Brother…what did you do to me? Why can’t I move?” Rose’s voice became pleading, her face filled with worry frowns.

He only chuckled darkly, the sound too reminiscent of Peter’s cool demeanor that my hackles rose to their utmost point. I tried moving forward, but it was like my feet were cemented to the grass. I couldn’t move either.

I tried to speak, tried to yell at her to get out of there, and yet I couldn’t open my mouth. Even if I could, no sound would dare break this moment. I had to stand there in fear, agony, and desperation as I watched Derek’s face twist into something I had never seen on a human face before. His nose became more prominent, beginning to resemble a snout, his eyes crossing and moving in towards his elongated nose. His ears cracked as the cartilage moved them into points. His nails, which had been precisely shortened due to adamant nail biting I was sure, were curved into claws. Finally, a tail began to grow from the middle of his back. It was all black.

“Brother…what did they do to you?” The fear was evident in her voice, even as she tried to maintain a strong front.

“Oh sister, it’s not what they did to me, but rather what they did for me.” This time, his voice came out strangled, dark…mechanical. I knew that sound. I heard it in my dreams every night.

That’s not Derek was the only thought I could muster before he turned his fox-like face towards me. The black eyes winked before turning back to his sister. “Don’t hate me for this. I promise it’s all for the better.”

She wasn’t able to get a word out before he plunged his hand into her chest and ripped out her still beating heart.

I was finally able to speak, but all I could do was scream.