This fanfiction was written with Astasia666 : .net/u/1002194/Astasia666

Loosely based on the events and characters from the movie Cat People (1982), and descriptions based on a supposed cast. (Michael Fassbender and James MacAvoy"interpreting" the protagonists, Paul and Iren Gallier,respectively.)

Having arrived at the orphanage under odd circumstances, Iren and Paul Gallier were soon separated: one of them being sent to a foster home, and the other later being transferred to a boarding school. Each in his own way, they takes cognizance of an unknown past and surrounded by violence, blood and horror.

When at last they return to meet again, now adults, what looked like the end of a nightmare becomes the start of another much worse, and not only for them but for all who approach this secret. Be moved by hatred or the desire, the consequences will be inevitable, and the end of it all ... Irreversible.

DISCLAIMER: Cat People, characters and mythology are not ours. Sadly, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are not ours, too. Of course, we don't command your imagination, but they are in our "cast" of this fic, and you don't try to convince us otherwise.

IMPORTANT: English is not our native language. You will see some mistakes, but We think that will not confuse your understanding.

A good reading!

Oliver looked back to the street. It was night in New Orleans. He did not know what was the day of the week, neither the date, nor the time. He just watched the days pass one after another, creeping slowly, increasingly long. He was numbed by alcohol, listening to distant noise coming from the another bedroom. Farther and farther away, but always there, like the memory of a nightmare.

The house was dark as always. He knew where everything was there and about the others ... They didn't need the light. Oliver did not see anyone on the street, and he could no longer even answer the phone that often rang for hours, nor answered the doorbell, choosing to ignore the outside world, too scared to yourself to try to help.

The oppressive silence of the street increased his distress. Often felt like a living dead, shrouded by darkness prevails. Again the noises coming from the other bedroom cruelly reminded him of all previous events that culminated in that situation experienced demeaning.

He reached for the bottle resting on top of a worn. The alcohol was a refuge during that time, but also helped to consume his sense of danger. Yes, he thought. He's getting crazy. For sure.

Madness was a seed planted deep in his mind since that night. So long ... How long? Since the night when Irena disappeared. No, he corrected himself quickly. She never disappeared. Perhaps Oliver was the only one who knew exactly what happened, and what came after. And what came ...

He now more clearly heard laughter coming from the other bedroom. The alcohol did not help much to remove that presence. He could stay in a reasonable state of sobriety and normalcy during the day, but he preferred to spend the night drunk, numb.

The children were laughing in the other room, the light on arriving there until Oliver in a yellowish stripe on the wooden floor. They were playing. My God, Oliver thought for a moment until he forgot who they were. However, the increasingly rare moments of sobriety, those little children were like ghosts, haunted him, even if they would realize that. Oliver blamed himself for this fear, and sometimes, disgust, which he infused children.

He ended up leaving the bottle on the coffee table, following the noises, the light over his face as he stood at the door. Two boys. Irony. How much irony. Irony in all, a joke in bad taste. None of this was natural, as nothing that surrounds Oliver since he met Irena. Everything was going against all the laws of nature.

"Dad!" – Was the older boy . Again an irony. The eldest son was called Paul. Oliver could not think of another name other than that when the boy was born. He felt it as a way to apologize to the brother of Irena.

Paul embraced the legs of Oliver. The boy had a storybook in hand, waiting to be read at all. A soft laught on the bed made Oliver look away. The younger boy was Iren. How absurd. Oliver never understood why he insisted on calling him like that, with a name so alike to his mother. What's gotten into his head? Was he trying to fix the past? Was he trying to go back?

"Are you going to read for us? Daddy? "- Paul asked, because Oliver took the book from his hand and carefully put it aside. The boys' room was sparsely furnished, but that was the only place in the whole house that really looked inhabited, alive. The rest of the house was more like a mausoleum.

"No. Go put a jacket. "- Oliver sat on the edge of one of the beds. The boys were in pajamas, ready for sleep. - "And get one for your brother."

"Are we going to get out?"

"Yes, we are." - Oliver sighed. That was late. He would never go out with kids at night in New Orleans. - "We are going to see mom."

The boy's face lit up at that. It was a long time since they visited her. Oliver went to the small cabinet and took two jackets. While Paul was dressed, his father put one on Iren.

Oliver and his sons went and joined with them in the car. He thought again about the risk they ran. A drunken driver and two little boys, late at night. He recognized that his sense of responsibility had vanished a long time ago.

After some time, Oliver reached his destination, the city's Zoo. He waved to the guard, which allowed access. He did not see the boys who were huddled in the backseat of the car. Then Oliver went to the sector restricted to the parked.

The two boys went down, Iren holding the hand of Paul. Although the jacket, Iren gets closer to his brother, to feel warmer, and as though none of them were afraid of the dark, in fact the noise frightened the animal cages, because he thought they called his name .

The boys followed their father, who was slightly ahead. Bright eyes stood out amid the darkness of the cages, watching the unusual visitors. They seemed to recognize the children at heart, similar to their.

"Are you cold?" - Paul asked his brother, who mumbled a "yes". Iren was small for his age, and was frightened by almost everything outside the house where they lived. That was rare for them to go out, and rides like that were their favorites. - "Just stay close to Mom and she'll warm you up."

They stopped near of one of the cages. Inside of it there was a large female black panther, which was perfectly hidden in the darkness. The boys ran toward the fence, happy.

Usually children didn't have access to that wing of the zoo, because that was an old building, and there was hardly space between the hallway and security cages. Although abandoned, this stretch of the park had not yet been disabled by a miracle or something. Oliver did not move a muscle, watching the children against the bars, and he didn't fear the panther could do anything against those two kids. No. Not that panther.

"Wait here. I'll get the keys. "- He left the boys there, without to worry for them, driving to the office where he worked, and also had a small ward to the animals, attached to the office.

Once there, Oliver noted that little or nothing had changed there. It seems that the effects of alcohol evaporated from his mind, leaving it clear. Through the walls he found the photographs of the staff, old and new employees. In the end, all were like a family working there. He found a yellowing photograph of himself and Alice. Discovered that he didn't think about her for years. It was like that they didn't have been married. Well, everything has an end, is not it?

Oliver was so sure, that he didn't even hesitate when he took the keys to the cage of the panther, and never felt so sure of a decision as when he opened the old closet and grabbed the loaded rifle that kept there for an emergency. Oh, sure. And he didn't forget to take two bullets. That was everything he would need now.

Oliver was right behind the boys. They two were still clinging to the grid, now with the black panther with them. They stretched out their little hands for the beast without any fear, and she allowed to be caressed by them. Oliver smiled at that scene, but that was a smile full of bitterness. There was a tenderness and sincere affection from the panther to the boys and from them to her. Iren was agitated and anxious and ran behind his father when he saw him with the key to open the cage. He missed the beast whom he called mother.

And in a gesture that everyone would judge as true madness, Oliver opened the cage and allowed the boys to enter. The boys rushed to the panther, embracing the animal's neck, the little hands getting lost in the black coat, as if that were the most natural thing in the world. Again Oliver had to smile bitterly. What was natural there? He always dreamed to form a family, and that three was his family.

The boys may not realize that Oliver had locked the cage again, and did not realize that their father was with the shotgun. Only Paul noticed when the key hit the ground, thrown away.

"Dad? What are you doing? "- He asked, following the watchful eye of the panther. The huge animal tensed for a moment, but soon calmed down, and her eyes won a quiet understanding, as if that were expected, as if that were inevitable.

Iren pressed harder against the panther, staring at Oliver with wide opened eyes as he walked around the three. If someone suspected that Oliver was mad, now would be sure of it. Locked with a panther was one thing. Locked up with two children in the cage of a panther, was much more worse.

"We knew it wouldn't be otherwise, isn't it?" - He licked his lips, panting. Slowly he loaded the rifle with one of the bullets, and the panther only grunted in response. - "I kept our secret ... I never said a word about it. I swallowed our secret. Now he's growing ...And it's devouring me. "

"Daddy..." - Iren called him, his lip trembling in a threat of cry, and Paul just hugged him and more to the panther, whose tail whipped in the dark, in a tense expectation, although the peace in her eyes was disconcerting.

"It's devouring me away ... Killing me. "- Oliver did not pay attention to anything else. He hit his rifle and pulled the hammer, with a deep and hard sigh. He was lucid, perfectly sober. Six years and he had not felt so sober like that moment. - "I should not have waited so long ... My God, why didn't I have the guts to do this before? " - His voice rose in a roar, he advanced on the other three, pointing the gun at the head of the panther.

The shot echoed inside the cage, followed by the unison scream of the two children, accompanied by the howls of the few animals that remain there. Without hearing the desperate cries of his sons, who called for their mother, Oliver then placed the rifle barrel in his own mouth and pulled the trigger.