Dread pulsed through his veins as he leaped over boxes and trash cans. His older sister raced next to him, trying to block the path of their pursuers. As if following every single horror movie cliché ever, the pair failed to see the broken pipe that lay in their way, and fell face-first onto the pavement.

Coughing, he tried to stand again, only to have someone stomp his face back into the ground. His body shook from exhaustion as he turned his head to look at the man smiling back at him.

"You two put up a good fight, I'll give you that. But it ain't enough, ain't it, honey?" The man looked to the woman who stood over his sister.

"Not as good as the Bahamas, remember, dear?" She said as she cocked her rifle at his sister's head. She didn't even fight back; they both knew it was too late to do anything now. They were dead. This was it. It was a shame too, because they were just kids really, even though he sometimes called his sister 'Mom', if only because she was the closest thing to it he had.

The man chuckled, pointing his own gun at the boy's head. "True, true. Now, lights out."

Just as his sister closed her eyes so as to not watch her only family die, a glowing green orb appeared and grew to a massive size, swallowing the man and woman whole. Then it vanished, instead replaced with a small black cat with four eyes.

"Mutie!" He cried out in relief, scrambling to sit up. The kitten ran up to him and purred innocently, as if it hadn't just completely obliterated two human beings.

"Oh, Mutie..." His sister murmured, pulling herself up to lean against the brick wall of the alleyway. The sky began to lighten, signaling the coming morning as the two teens leaned against each other and fell asleep.

~(*-*)~

She looked in the mirror, and the wolf stared back. 'No.' She thought. 'No... Not this. Please. Anything but this.' Helplessly, she watched herself rip through flesh and bone. Throughout the night, she fought for control, and throughout the night, he won. The white wolf galloped through the shadows.

As the wolf tore through innocent people's lives, she wondered how this could happen. She thought she was going to be lucky, but no. As it turned out, she had the worst luck of all. How could she go back to her family like this?

As the dark sky lightened, she regained control of her body and changed back into a girl. Tears stained her cheeks as she looked at all the red covering her hands, feet, and face.

A soft breeze caressed her face, and she looked up shivering. In front of her stood her brother, her twin, the one person who was always there for her. His face was flooded with shock as he took in the sight of her covered in blood and dressed in a simple, matted, once-white fur dress. 'This is it.' She thought mournfully. 'I'll be all alone, and it will only be a matter of time until I'm dead.'

Her brother's eyes filled with tears, and the girl choked back a sob. She closed her eyes. She didn't want to see his expression change to one of hatred- one of horror and fear.

She felt something on her shoulder and opened her widening eyes to see her brother smiling a shaky smile, hand on either side of her. Standing, she ran to hug him. He stood there, humming a comforting tune as she cried into his chest.

When she was done, he pulled away.

"Come home." He said. "Dad will be worried."

And just like that, she knew that everything was going to be okay.

~(*-*)~

He shot up out of bed, the sounds of gunshots ringing in his ears. In a split second, he'd grabbed the pistol on his bedside table, and was in the kitchen, where his twin sister was fending off a large humanoid creature with rabbit-like feet, a devil's tail, and leathery wings.

The incubus screeched as it spotted him, then cried out as his sister whacked him good across the head with her own gun. He quickly pounced on the distracted creature, pinning it down.

"Go!" He cried. His sister quickly whipped out an exorcism book that was cleverly disguised as a cookbook, and began to chant. Within minutes, the monster sparked violently and disappeared with an inhuman scream in pain and a bright burst of light.

Panting, he stood and surveyed the kitchen. There were several series of claw marks on the walls, and cabinet drawers had been completely obliterated. The floor was littered with shards of plastic, broken glass, and silverware. His sister was relatively unharmed, and he was simply going to have to suffer a bruise on his shin where he'd hit it on the corner of the sink.

"So." His sister spoke, her voice tired and weary. "What would you like for breakfast today?"

~(*-*)~

He twirled a screwdriver around his fingers, surveying his work. The cold face of metal stared back, unresponsive. Of course, this was because he'd taken the battery out. His robot-self would never work properly without a power source, something he knew, of course. He just couldn't get the stupid left arm to bend all the way! It was critical that this robot be perfect. Otherwise, his know-it-all little sister would never let him hear the end of it.

He checked the clock and verified that she was, for the first time in her life, late. She had said she'd be walking home with a friend, but they weren't here yet, and he was starting to worry.

'Be cool, dude. You don't wanna be overprotective. So she's getting chatty with her friend. Big deal! It's not like they're hurt right now, lying bleeding on the side of some abandoned road, where she's silently wishing I were there to- Okay, stop it. This is your sister we're talking about. She can handle herself.'

Despite that, he couldn't stop himself from dashing to the door and yanking it open the moment the bell rang.

It was because of both this and the sight of his sister's mangled, bloody body in the hands of her friend Jasper that caused him to faint, crumpling to the floor and leaving both himself and his sister in the hands of an anxious and panicking black-haired boy.