"Sniper. Sniper? Yeah. Sniper, stop that."
The werewolf turned around and snorted. Yes, Pauling now was sure he was Sniper. After a couple of days she could now tell who was who: Scout would always leave his dog tags on and was the thinnest of them all; Soldier was one of the burliest in the pack and always ready to fight everyone for reasons only he could understand; Pyro kept his suit on so it wasn't difficult at all to tell it was him; Demoman had a missing eye and his fur was black; Heavy was the biggest and most probably the calmest; Engineer, on the other hand, was one of the shortest and had blond fur; Medic was around Heavy and Engineer during the nights and seemed to have vision problems, since he couldn't keep his glasses on, and Spy insisted on wearing his mask as a wolf and was always grunting. Miss Pauling could recognize Sniper ruling out the others, but she found that his behavior had changed.
That night Sniper was very jumpy. He howled and grunted all the time, walked around the room, stopping in front of the windows and howling in despair. She saw him scratching the floor and even himself.
Miss Pauling wrote that down. Medic had told her to take notes of everything she saw, so that he and Engineer could study them later. They already had cameras around the room, but perhaps she caught something they missed, they said. She couldn't complain: that was an useful distraction. Scout and Pyro were still around her, and it was as uncomfortable as it was the night before.
She had been thinking about the mating issue. Seeing their behavior, she just couldn't get it out of her head. Like, they seemed to have accepted her as part of the pack, so what if she became the...let's say "female"? Pauling reminded herself to get a book about the behavior of wolves, because those were theoretically close to what the mercenaries were and she needed to know if those were innocent displays of affection or if she had reasons to be alarmed.
"Hey! Hey, you two! Stop that!"
Scout actually did two things during nighttime: being awkwardly close to her and bothering everyone else. And it seemed Spy, whose patience was very thin, was fed up of him. When Scout left Pauling's side to bite his leg—perhaps blaming him for biting him in that exact same place and passing the curse to him, perhaps he just wanted to bother him for a while—, Spy turned around and, barking, leaped on him to grunt him closely in the face. A not very friendly request to leave him alone, to which Scout responded barking in what Miss Pauling supposed was a playfully way, which irritated Spy even more. Then, Soldier jumped in and rose Cain.
"I don't know if you guys are fighting to become the alpha or you're just being as stupid as usual, but...! Oh, why am I talking to you? You don't understand me."
Heavy was lying on his stomach, just letting the hours pass by peacefully. Miss Pauling got down on her knees and let herself fall gently on him, using his furry back as a pillow. Heavy's ears pricked up but he allowed her to do so, closing his eyes with indifference.
"Why can't you learn from Demo? Yeah, go drink scrumpy, there's enough for all of you in the bowl." Even though they couldn't understand her, Pauling kept talking to them. She felt slightly better that way.
"And you, Medic, Engie, you could do something instead of playing like pups. You could try to communicate with me, find chemicals in the air with your smell or something. I'm sure you're as intelligent as you are at day. See? You're looking at me. You recognize your own name. I know you trust me but I don't know what I can do here, getting hair and drool in my clothes and..."
Heavy turned his head to her.
"...You're right, Heavy. I should stop complaining."
She removed her glasses and closed her eyes, buring her face in Heavy's fur. His slow breathing helped her calm down, to the point that her body relaxed.
"Sniper, really, stop..."
That was the last thing she remembered saying.
When she realized, the room wasn't as dark as before. The mercenaries were sleeping on the floor—Spy, Scout and Soldier in a strange posture, like a ball. No. Sniper was in a corner, chewing a piece of meat.
He had been doing his thing all night long and worked up an appetite, apparently. But he was moving slowly. He seemed sleepy or just tired.
Pauling watched him eat while her fingers caressed Heavy's fur. She blinked slowly and looked at her hand. A tuft of hair was tangled in her fingers.
The young lady still didn't move. Her eyes were on Sniper. He was chewing slowly, peacefully. His head didn't seem that long now. Yes, his snout was retreating into a face again. The long claws were drawing back. She could hear the crack of his bones going back to normal, or maybe what she heard was coming from Heavy's body. Sniper was also less hairy—she saw the hairs fall, allowing her to see the bare skin.
Sniper swallowed and turned his eyes to her. Not only his mouth, practically his face was stained with blood. He cleaned it with the back of his hand. He then stood up; Miss Pauling did too, gently so that Heavy didn't wake up.
"Uh...Morning, Sniper. How...do you feel?"
"Sniper didn't respond immediately. Miss Pauling, to be honest, felt a little intimidated. His eyes still had a wolfish air.
"I'm pissed." he finally said.
"Oh."
"Now I understand why Medic did what he did. One more night in a cage and I'll loose my bloody mind. Werewolves should run, get fresh air..."
"I understand, Sniper, but you know I can't let you guys out. I'm sorry."
The way he looked at her after she said that almost made her wish she hadn't said anything at all.
"No, Miss. You don't understand." Sniper added in low voice, and kept staring at her as he made his way to the door.
Pauling stood there, gazing at the door, pressing her lips.
"Someone didn't pee on the newspapers."
Miss Pauling tried hard to look at Medic to the eyes when he stood up and stretched his body. He still had some hairs glued to his body, which he removed. He walked to the corner where his glasses and clothes were, got dressed and walked to Pauling.
"Don't mind him. The transformation leaves us in an aggressive mood."
"That...doesn't help me feel better, to be honest..."
"Well." Medic shrugged. "Did you take notes tonight?"
Miss Pauling handed him the notebook.
"If you excuse me, I have to go back to the headquarters. I am supposedly doing jobs for the Administrator."
"I'll tell Scout you said hello."
Medic turned to watch the young man put his foot into Soldier's mouth in his sleep and chuckled.
"See you tonight, guys. Have a good day."
The last thing she wanted was to have an interview with Saxton Hale about the quality of the last crates, but defying the Administrator was completely out of question.
Good thing she and Hale didn't notice the bags under her eyes; the Administrator because she didn't even look at her to give her the orders and Hale because he was too focused challenging her to a punching duel. Pauling looked at herself in the coffee machine and she found she looked horrible.
"A lot of work these days, heh?"
Miss Pauling turned around.
"Ah. Yes. Morning, Mr. Reddy."
"Good morning."
Pauling stepped aside to let the man get his coffee. She would have hers right there, she would finish soon. She had too many things to do. So many people to kill before the night.
"At this time of the year, Thanksgiving and Christmas coming..."
"Right..." Pauling didn't have much interest in having a conversation, but it seemed Reddy did, so she pleased him.
"I'm just glad Halloween season's almost over." Reddy grabbed his coffee, whose smell was very strong, and stirred it. "The issue with the costumes is driving me mad, but what really bothers me is how Mr. Hale seems not to give a hoot about it."
"Oh. There's something wrong with them?"
The mercs buy everything from this company, costumes included. Please, don't tell me I'm gonna have to tell them their costumes are defective too...
"Yes. Very wrong Mann Co. launched them onto the market too soon. You know, making money as soon as possible and minding about the defects later."
"But...what exactly was the problem with the costumes?"
"They're extremely flammable, and there's also the choking hazard..."
Miss Pauling sighed in relief. Nothing the mercenaries couldn't handle.
"Nothing too bad. The haunted products got the worst part."
Alarms pounded inside Pauling's head.
"...The...haunted products?"
"Oh, yeah. They have them that name to make them sound fancier and give them a higher price but this time Mr. Hale himself got involved in the development and production of the company, and it seems he said 'hey, if they have a haunted label, they should actually be haunted!'. So they found someone, a voodoo wizard, a witch, Australium, I don't know, but they found the way to put an actual hex on the products." Reddy chuckled. "But, of course, they realized soon that it was not a good idea. They removed them from the market."
Reddy fell quiet and his grin vanished when he looked at Pauling.
"Miss...Pauling...Hey. Are you alright? You're pale like a corpse."
A corpse. Yes. She would be a corpse when the mercenaries found out.
"Miss?"
"It's my fault...I started this...I can't believe it..."
"Pardon me?"
"...S-Sorry, Reddy, I gotta go."
Reddy didn't have time to say goodbye.
"That's girl's always in a rush..."
Outside, she stopped. She couldn't get on her scooter yet. She needed to breath. Hands on her face, under her glasses, on her hair, she tried not to have a panic attack.
How hadn't she noticed?
"I hope that costume wasn't rented."
No, it was not rented. She had found it in the Mann Co. catalogue. She owed one to Medic for giving her some pills which helped her have enough energy to work, being unable to stop to sleep and eat much, so she thought it would be nice to buy him something nice. She saw that costume, the Burly Beast, and bought it. The haunted effect. Medic loved haunted things, she had thought. And she gave it to him.
How could she be so stupid? He was disguised as a werewolf, and he actually became one.
The air from outside wasn't enough. She needed more. She was barely able to breath.