Author's Note: Hello Lads and ladies

We are slowly but surely getting towards the last true calm before the storm. The dinner scene will be very important character wise and then a sweet moment afterwards to prepare you all for the monumental amount of bullshit about to come. There will be carnage. Even though I just remembered that after the small sweet moment there waits a little twist… just a little twist… ;)

Besides that Paula and I just finished Midnight Mass and are in constant amazement of how amazing that show is after all. It's really fucking good. One of the first shows that deals with religion and doesn't get overbearing on the overall message of either pushing you towards faith or Atheism. A really good show that I can only recommend going into with knowing as little as possible. It's a great ride guys, I loved it. It's essentially nothing but one big love letter to Stephen king.

Anyways, enjoy this chapter as the pack crafts a plan, a plan to end a little teddy bear that's off his rocker.

Edited by: SuperAverageFoxyboy

some random reader32

Enjoy!

-Portal

Chapter 25: Shadows unveiled

The color left Bill's face, the skin under the fur so pale that the orange fur on his coat seemed to also lose color. One might mistake him for a white tiger at this point.

His mind shuffled to the memory of the last time he looked into his investigations notebook. The list of people was long, most names crossed through as quickly as they had been written down. Bill did rigorous surveillance everywhere he could, making sure to follow leads directly and thoroughly. And Riz wasn't on the list. He wouldn't have looked into him until much later, costing time and possibly lives.

"How do you know." The feeling of fear of Bill recurred in Legosi when he saw his first reaction upon learning who the killer was. Bill lost all Youth over the count of a few seconds, even his voice losing it's edge, sounding like a much darker version of himself from times far gone. He was a more channeled and determined version of himself.

"Pina told us… He got cornered by him a few days ago."

Silence between the two fronts, nerve-wracking silence that cut Thought processes as if cables were cut from the head. Something seemed to set into Bill, a coldness Legosi had never seen before. This was more than instinct, this was civilization's doings.

"You came to me for a plan." He didn't say it as a question, stating it more as a fact. Legosi shook his head, realizing in an instant how much anger he would have to wade through in order to reach the tiger.

"No, I-" Legosi tried to start, Bill cutting him off. The first glint of urgency began to flare up in him as he realized that time was a valuable resource.

"So that we can make a move against that monster." hatred strained his voice. Come on, listen to me. Legosi thought, trying his best to reach the tiger again.

"No Bill listen-"

"We need to make an ambush and-" You stubborn tiger, Listen to me!

"Bill" The wolf's hand on his shoulder yanked him out of his hatred-fueled plans. The wolf's nervousness was gone, and so was any timidness. He was no longer looking at Legosi, he was looking at Legosi's Beast.

"Come together with the rest of us in Louis's office in half an hour. Don't interact with Riz or do anything stupid. Pretend like you don't know what he did." The wolf bowed and Bill was sure he could see veins popping under his hide. Legosi or whoever was taking control of his body turned around and walked away in a concentrated speed-walk that bordered onto a Jog.

Bill tightened his fist, anger pumping through him. His vision became tunneled, nothing in his sight but the task at hand to be done. He followed Legosi's advice begrudgingly, the knowledge readily available in his mind that if he was to cross paths with Riz he would have no control of what would then happen. A certain thought repeated itself over and over in his mind.

I know you can hear me, I'm coming for you.

Legosi crossed paths with many faces, none of which he properly registered. The task at hand had to be urgently taken care of. He entered the Drama club with thoughts the size of mountains occupying his head.

Even if you bring them together, what tells you that we'll come up with a plan to stop Riz? More so Juno's right… we're students, not mercenaries. The school and the police have to deal with this.

His mind's environment radically changed, the white space being drenched in darkness. Cones of spotlight moved over the ground towards the door. Mother's everlasting door, the hole in the middle still turning and spiraling, pulling the creaking wood with it.

The hole expanded, the creaking wood shrieking in a dying outcry as it died. The hole turned into a blank doorway, the wood compressing itself, vanishing into the concrete walls.

But instead of seeing the demonic form of what his mind recalled of his mother, the character was veiled in deep dark wisps of shadowy fog. Even without eyes, Legosi could feel his fur stand tall as the entity looked directly at him.

"Did they ever truly save us?" The voice was dark and cool, suave and untouchable. To his amazement, he thought it nearly sounded like a mix between him and Louis, as if Louis was using his voice.

"They never did and never will. It's a beast's duty to represent itself." The shadow stepped closer, the shadowy wisps not dissipating but more sticking to its form. The form was as equally smooth as its movement, pulling off a herbivore's grace. But besides the grace of one, there was nothing herbivore about the figure, its claws were visible in the especially vivid daydream.

"So why don't you stop sulking and finally do what he told you to do." The figure stood its ground straight, his form completely smooth, revealing a completely black version of himself except for the bright blue eyes that seemed to burn in their sockets.

"Take responsibility for your strength" Legosi felt the same type of shake to his core when he met the first apparition of his mother and she had uttered his name. The core shaking tremor of a voice emerging from his ears. He looked in front of him, the room still remaining empty.

"I shouldn't make a habit out of hallucinating." Legosi walked forward, unimpressed by the voice. He knew it was right, there was no reason to think about it for long. All he had in mind was to get Louis and escort him to the meeting. Even he understood that Louis was a major key factor in this proceeding. He was the one that the school would listen to.

Legosi opened the door to the backstage, the deer being right where he thought he would be… but not in the state that he found him in.

As the wolf entered the room the buck didn't react in any way. His back was turned to the door, his form loosely sitting on the chair. There was no order in his posture, he looked lost even from just behind.

"Louis?"

The deer didn't react to Legosi's inquiry at all, still in the same position of being absolutely hopelessly lost. Legosi walked closer to Louis, revealing what the deer was holding in his hands, his expression matching his lifeless and hopeless posture.

The letter in his hands was written in beautiful handwriting, even from Legosi's distance someone could tell that the person writing the letter knew his own share of penmanship.

"What's that letter?" Louis held the letter out to his carnivore friend, his posture not changing.

Just as with Louis's reaction, Legosi's first expression was a dropping jaw. The letter was utterly complex, the pure lunacy of the moment getting clear. What high schoolers could say of themselves, that they had officially beaten one of the scariest and most brutal organized crime rings of the country. It was safe to say they would be the first in normal circumstances. And now they could even say that they impressed an even stronger entity of the market, someone with enough power to stamp their letters with an actual blue wax stamp form, the bluest of blue blood mannerisms in the world of bureaucracy.

"When did you get this?" Legosi asked Louis, still completely shocked over the turn of events. The scholar and his trusty carnivore subordinate, baffled over a letter written by a royal-type character. That sure is a story to tell, Legosi thought to himself. My children will get to hear stories of all sorts of types…

"My father gave it to me. Besides the name I have no information about him…" Louis gave a chuckle that wasn't that much different from the insanity of Pina of before. Legosi had the terrifying thought that maybe all herbivores were bound to lose their mind to the monumental stress put on their normal lives, but Louis was even worse. He was the man that had to finely sow a thread through the whole matter in order to regain at least some semblance of control. That was what people expected of him after all.

"What… -What does this mean?"

Louis chuckled. It was the kind of laughter of a man on the edge. Legosi supposed that he was.

"You tell me Legosi… I guess I…" There was a glint in his eye and the Louis that Legosi knew came out from the desperation.

"You wanted to tell me something, right?" Louis rubbed his eyes with his handkerchief and collected himself, straightening his tie.

"Well yeah… just that letter makes it more complicated…" Louis looked at him with some of the passion back in his being.

"Slow down. Breathe and just tell me, we'll deal with the letter later." Louis's words got Legosi to realize that only the ones closest to him knew how to deal with his anxiety without making it outright worse. But whatever aid to his panic there was nothing that would help him with having to tell one of his best friends that they knew who the killer was.

"We know who the killer is…"

Silence between the two of them, Louis' reaction like everything being extremely measured. Legosi found that his way of hiding emotions instead of outright showing them mirrored Riz's dead eyes on some level. One did it because they couldn't let anybody see the darkness inside, the other did because they were raised on the highest level of good manners.

"How?" The answer was calculated, measured, and made perfect sense. Both Bill and Louis so far had about the same reaction.

"Pina told us how he got cornered by him yesterday. It's Riz." This was where the reactions between the two radically differed. Louis's emotion instead of composed anger was a factual question.

"Do you think he is telling the truth?"

Legosi hadn't even for a moment dared to question if his retelling of the events was true or not. Then again, one could make the case that Pina was an actor, but what on earth would drive him to give the performance of a lifetime for trying to pin horrible murders on someone seemingly completely random. A lie that would reveal itself as soon as the murders continued even if the accused was behind bars. It didn't make much if any sense.

Louis's suspicions about the Dall-sheep were not to be questioned either. The way he had presented himself, to begin with, was incredibly vain and overdramatic, a true troublemaker just for the fun of it. Yet still, Legosi was fully endowed with the story that the herbivore told.

"He had a panic in front of the gardening shack just half an hour ago. If he did pretend then he really went all the way with playing dead." Legosi didn't notice but Louis did. He didn't stutter or falter once the entire sentence. He trusted the sheep, that was reason enough for Louis to at least give him a chance.

"So Riz… It was Riz…" Louis repeated in thought.

That bear. Playing the perfect teddy bear for the world to see while harboring these horrible urges without any control over them. A friendly face with a terrible secret, a terrible-

Louis' train of thought derailed abruptly as he realized that he gave that large speech in front of the club right to the root of their problems. He felt betrayal that made him question his own ability to gauge people. He had inconspicuously moved past his radar without any single bad feeling striking up. He trusted the people in the drama club, that gave him comfort, gave him strength. To know that one of them dared to break said trust was in many ways a low blow.

Louis mused for a second how different things could've gone. If Legosi, Juno, and Bill never helped him, maybe a different animal would sit here, drawing different conclusions. A more dystopian version of himself might understand that no matter how hard they try, Carnivores were nothing but monsters.

But that universe was far from this one, and in this one, he knew not one but three great animals of the carnivore genome. And all of them had proven time and time again that they were good-natured people ready to do good things if given the right type of motivation.

"Alright." Louis looked up at the wolf, seeming to read his thoughts.

"You came to tell me of a meeting, didn't you?" Legosi nodded.

"Your office in half an hour." The wolf reported. Louis for a moment looked down, recollecting a past event. Legosi was sure it was the same event that both he and Juno had to think of today.

That day at the meteor festival seemed to be quite relevant today. Was it the civilized mind's job to look for similarities in the past maybe? Legosi had to think now how many little things seemed so familiar in comparison to past events, the brain itself corroborating events to a greater purpose. Perhaps certain people were just destined for such fates.

"What's the plan? Same as we did for Haru?" Louis' way of asking was in casual talk with a coworker. They had done this countless times over and over again, playing the vigilantes for an inept system.

"Pretty much yeah…" The meagerness returned without much say or nay, it came naturally to Legosi when other people were more assertive than him.

"Well then let's-"

"Louis." The deer stopped and looked at the wolf. He looked concerned and worried. Features that fit his canine exterior to a tea.

"What does that letter mean?"

Louis sighed, letting his arms hang, the letter laying on the chair where he just stood up from. The white bright paper shone on the brown wood of the chair like a star in an overcast sky. A sight that left herbivores fearful of every corner as they hushed home, every dubious shadow sending them into a faster scurry onwards to their home. The same effect held by the letter. It looked unassuming from afar but held terrible meaning in context.

"I really don't know Legosi." Louis sounded defeated and amiss.

"Sometimes I think my past catches up to me…" The line was incredibly cryptic and didn't make much sense to the wolf, bringing on his iconic look of confusion with his flicking ear.

"What do you mean?"

Louis looked at the wolf and his look spoke more words than any being could ever muster to utter. There was a story of sadness, guilt, and regret. A story of searching for belonging and the absolute terrifying prospect of never finding one's place. More than anything there was an unspoken tale of fear in the air, fear not unlike Legosi's own. The way Louis looked at him got his fur to line itself upwards, causing goosebumps all over his body. Legosi understood that the past Louis had to endure was haunting him as much as the image of his own mother waltzed through his dreams.

"I never told you about myself… I never really told anyone besides Haru of course…"

"What happened?"

Louis looked at the wolf and knew that he couldn't ever say another word to the friend that in many ways changed his life for the better. Louis walked to the chair, grabbing the damned letter and putting it on the desk. He sat down and bent down on his seat.

He knew that whatever scars he had in life, one thing was always going to stay in his mind. No matter where he stood, he had his friends, and that was what truly counts.

Legosi was even more confused as the deer pulled the fabric of his pants up from his leg. He carefully placed his shoe beside his foot and pulled off his sock. Then Louis propped his leg onto his knee, revealing the underside of his foot.

"What?" Legosi was even more confused, the tattooed four on his friend's foot making no sense in any way that he could properly correlate them. To aid his confusion Louis was wearing a content smile all the while.

"What does that mean?"

Louis chuckled lightly. He found the innocence of the wolf a true miracle. Such a fearsome predator that couldn't connect the dots on anything even as easy to understand like this. In this world, it was a gift to be oblivious instead of knowing. Louis asked himself if he was making a mistake by ruining the wonderful innocence that the wolf still had, but he reasoned that anyone had to grow up one day. One way or the other. And Louis preferred to be the one doing so.

"That's my product Id." Louis couldn't believe himself but he said it with pride. He couldn't fathom it but surely he had come to the moment of accepting it. The mark on his foot was no longer a mark of the horrid past but a sign of his own growth. He had made this mark his own.

"Product Id?" Legosi still managed to miss the answer to his question. Louis smiled a bit.

"I'm not the son of Oguma, I was adopted by him when I was six years old. Right out of the black market."

"Black market?" Legosi stumbled back. He couldn't believe himself. The trusted deer he had become friends with had been entangled in the darkness of the black market all along? It started to make sense why he never shied away from diving headfirst into the lion's den.

"You w-were… livestock?"

Louis nodded soberly and put his sock back on, slipping back into his shoe and lowering his pant leg.

"I had a very unconventional childhood… if you can even call it that… That's what I mean by my past catching up to me."

Legosi's respect for the deer shot through the roof. His grace isn't a birthright given to herbivores… it's earned through life's hardships!

Legosi fell to his knees, making a full bow to the ground. Louis was surprised by the sudden gesture.

"I apologize on behalf of the carnivore kind for all the wrongdoings committed in your life." Legosi stayed on the ground for a while, staying in the position to show his earnest dedication to the deer's cause.

"I promise to keep you safe with all I have."

Louis broke out laughing, the wolf looking at him confused. The deer slapped his knees laughing, leaning back as he laughed out loud. Really no one can steal this wolf's innocence. Not even me.

"I thank you for your commitment-" another burst of laughter."-I'm grateful for it."

Louis ordered himself and straightened his tie, the laughter having felt good after him panicking over the letter most of the day. He looked over at the letter once more, his thoughts taking a small unexpected turn.

He picked up the lettering and read the address again. They looked for us and found out who we are… what if we ask them for help?

"Actually Legosi, about the letter I might just have an idea."

The wolf looked at the deer and the deer looked at him. One thing was sure now. They had a plan.

The animals in Louis's office were deadly silent. Pina had retold his stories in front of the group of friends in a sober retelling. Doubts of his story died down as quickly as they had risen. Bill subconsciously picked up what Louis actively did. Pina showed the signs of shame and fear of weakness that was well known to people like him, and Legosi as it would turn out. Louis could just as easily pick up on the fact that Legosi saw the signs just like he did. It was the little things. Small gestures of kindness in the hard moments, unbridled attention towards him, and reassurance in telling the story to the group of people.

The wolf had his own story to share, Louis knew ever since his episode of complete horror in the drama club. The wolf was one of a kind in many ways, to think he had his own story of pain wasn't that hard to figure out. He was looking forward to the day that he would tell him of it. He wanted to know all he could about the wolf, it was an eager sense of fascination with a carnivore of his size. A creature powerful enough to end his life in a matter of moments, yet refusing to behave like one. The opposite of it actually, trying his best to be as meager and weak looking as possible.

Louis smiled and just flickered between the animals for a moment.

Juno had her arms folded in front of her chest, looking more like a young adult than a teenager. Louis found that in stress the true nature of animals crystallized out. And Juno was calm and collected, doing her best to not let any nervousness slip it out, even if Louis could see it easily that she of course was worried. But she held her own, which was admirable in the horrible circumstances of a literal killer in their midst.

Haru was equally well put together, looking rather courageous in the horrible circumstance. His heart swelled when he looked at her, a tough rabbit no matter the situation.

Pina rested his hands upon his knees, his eyes looking rather restless. He was the most shaken up by the events even if he held a type of aura that unnerved Louis in a way he knew too well about. His own state of mind seemed to get close to Pina's current ones back in the time when he was most haunted by the survivors' guilt of the wretched black market basements.

The last person in the congregation among the pack was the most fierce-some of them all. Bill.

Louis noticed, like Legosi had done days before, that the build of the tiger had become sturdier and more robust like he was training for a fight, which Louis suspected for a while already. Rage boiled visibly underneath Bill's skin. He pumped his fist open and close, his muscles periodically tightening into a rock hard strand of biological weaponry and then disarming back into its appendage form. His emotions were the one component in the situation that Louis tread around with most carefulness.

A rage-filled muscled packed carnivore that had active fighting competence was a risk much higher than Legosi's beast. The wolf might have primal strength and instincts that made him unpredictable, but Bill knew how to effectively end lives if he wanted to. It was crystal clear that he had the necessary rage for it.

Louis looked at the room again, the congregation of teeth and tail that named itself the new sheriffs on the settlement of Cherryton. If he had any other perspective on the matter other than being an active member of the cause Louis would laugh at this. He'd have his own biased opinion of the matter and call the whole thing an unrealistic and foolish endeavor…

How the tables have turned… The thought was a small one besides his already existing plan of using the mafia contact as an anchor point in decision making, but it was humorous how fast life turned ridiculous. It was pathetic and yet totally in line with how life had to be lived.

"I have an idea" The group turned to him and the spotlight of life moved onto him for the hundredth time this year. Sometimes he thought that how much he acted he may never tell the truth again in his life.

He pulled the white envelope out of his pocket and held it in the air.

"That night right before the meteor festival might have more influence than we first thought." Louis presented the letter with mostly confusion, the group having no inkling of an idea what the letter pertained to.

The room took on a much more reflected posture, the members of the pack all showing their own signs of awareness. With the exception of Pina, who was left with confusion.

Louis's hand fell again, the room remaining in the aware silence of their actions.

"This letter here was given to me by my father after it had been delivered to my home. I was informed that it was the Owner of the black market. And they have taken notice of our little endeavor prior to the meteor festival."

The silence went from aware and remorseful to active fear. Legosi's ear flicked, his and Juno's ears noticeably twitching. They surely smelled the fine plume of stress that pulled through them, unnoticeable for their herbivore leader. Even Bill's rage seemed to go back, his own nose twitching slightly, his face easing up from the rage-filled grimace he held most of the time.

Pina was the only one not full of fear, but confusion instead. He looked about, his eyes squinting from time to time, the cogs in his head visibly turning. But as much as he tried to understand he simply couldn't come up with any conclusive answer that made any sense.

Louis had to be honest, he enjoyed seeing the boastful sheep flail around in a panic trying his best to figure out just what they meant. It was a liberating feeling to have control over at least that aspect of his life.

"I'm sorry 'captain', but what are you talking about?" Pina asked through his complete confusion, still trying his best to get any bearings, failing completely.

Louis chuckled at the teasing little nickname, observing the sheep for a moment. He debated for a second if he should indulge himself in the enjoyment of teasing the sheep, but a quick look towards the obviously still on edge tiger told him otherwise. They all need to be on the same page in order to have a fighting chance.

"You've heard of the story that cost me my antlers right before the meteor festival right? It got printed in a few magazines to my knowledge."

The sheep nodded.

"To say the least, that story wasn't fully true… Our dear Haru there-" he pointed at the white rabbit who was a bit surprised to be put into the spotlight of a sudden "-was involved-... well, she was the victim in the case. She was kidnapped by the shishigumi"

Pina's confusion evolved from mild surprise to actual shock. Louis could hardly control his slight smirk. And you thought we were just a bunch of typical pawns in your game didn't you.

His enjoyment didn't stay for all too long as he quickly regained the grasp on the conversation that he needed to have in the complicated matter at hand.

"It's a long story. In short, we saved her out of there with the help from an outsider directly involved in the black market-" Louis didn't notice Bill's smirk or Legosi's expression turning into just a bit more fear at the mention of Doctor Gouhin. "-and as you can see we emerged victoriously… at the cost of a few things…"

Remarkably, the Dall-sheep didn't stay in open-mouthed awe for long. He scanned the room, seeing nothing but serious faces proving just the fact that this wasn't a well-told joke but in fact the truth. In disbelief and still seeable shock in his eyes Pina crossed his legs and nodded, the horrible neutral tug on his usually always smiling lips.

"And this letter." He held up the letter. " This letter specifically is their answer to that endeavor... We caught the eye of the Back alley owner himself… Mr. Tokugawa."

The room returned to the aware silence of before, with fear and loss mixed in between. Louis realized an aspect he had before not had in mind. His own role as a leader was just as invaluable as the brawns that Bill, Legosi, and Juno brought to the team. His own position was just as justified as the over millions of years perfected predator was by his own merit of kindness and strength. He was one of them either way.

"Well, friends… We know who the killer among us is, Riz…" Bill's arm visibly tensed up, his hands turning into fists. Louis didn't falter.

"And the letter is just what my idea is. They invited us to dinner, meaning they noticed our actions-"

"What makes you think it's not a trap? You read the news, right? Police suspect that the blown-up news stations over the city were mafia hits. What makes you think they wouldn't do the same to us." Legosi spoke his mind clear, his worries not unwarranted. Louis held eye contact with his carnivore friend and inspected the cards he could play. Honesty is everything, we all have to be on the same page

"Because those exact news prove that if they wanted to they could kill us any time. A packet bomb to our doorstep, a sniper on the school building when we're going to class, or a drive-by shooting while we're out of town. This letter here is a direct link to them. Why would they do that if they wanna get rid of us? Make a direct trail to their doorstep? I think that this is as simple as an invitation because someone noticed what we did, wanting to reward us for our resolve and most of all courage."

The room went back into silence for the third time, most of them looking at the ground in complete silence.

"What's your plan then Louis?" Juno asked, looking up at the deer. There was trust there, visible. He smiled and looked at the group, a terrible idea in his mind that might lead them to salvation… or damnation.

"We'll go shopping on the weekend. You will need proper suits and Dresses for that dinner."