Chapter 11: Battle For Bill's Body And Soul!


"Does anyone have any wooden poles?" Alex shouted. Everyone looked dumbfounded, but thankfully Els responded with a simple 'no'. Alex's eyes scanned the stage area, searching for a suitable replacement. Then it hit him. "Bill! Toss me your wooden sword!" Alex ordered. Bill followed Alex's instructions and threw it over to him. Alex jumped up and caught it, before laying it on the ground next to Louis.

The wolf retrieved Louis's wooden sword that was lying on the ground next to him, placing it near the other one. The wolf reached into his backpack, rifling through it until he found his blue blanket. The wolf wrapped the blanket around the two wooden swords, creating a makeshift stretcher. "Wow, Alex, how did you learn to do that?" Els asked, impressed by the wolf's handiwork.

"You learn a lot of skills living on the streets," Alex answered, giving the Angora goat a sly and confident smile before turning back to Legosi. "Now, Legosi. Pick Louis up gently and put him on the stretcher. Then, on the count of three, we'll lift the stretcher up and carry it on our shoulders to the infirmary," Alex commanded. Legosi set the unconscious red deer down on the stretcher.

"All right, on the count of three, we raise the stretcher up and start transporting our dear star to the nurse's office, all right. One… two… THREE!" Alex counted. Both wolves hoisted the stretcher up onto their shoulders and began marching to the infirmary.

An hour later, they had gotten Louis in and the deer's leg had been x-rayed. Thankfully the leg wasn't broken, only sprained, but Louis was still unconscious and they needed to wake him up to tell him the news. They tried poking him, talking to him, and even yelling in his ear. But it seemed that nothing would wake him up. "Aww, shit. I think we've got a 'true love's kiss' situation here," Bill complained.

That gave Alex an idea. "Bill, you're a genius! Legosi, kiss him!" Alex suggested.

"WHAT?!" everyone shouted, shocked by Alex's suggestion.

"He has the hots for you, Legosi. I'm sure of it. The way he looks at you, talks about you-" Alex began.

"The way that he wanted me to bite him?" Legosi blurted out.

Alex nodded, flashing a grin at Legosi. "Exactly! So come on big boy, pucker up those lips and smooch him!" Alex prompted.

"Uhh, Alex, are you sure about this?" Els asked. Alex gave him a pointed look.

"You got any better ideas?" Alex asked.

The herbivore thought long and hard for a minute, before sighing "No". Legosi's lips touched Louis's and the gray wolf began making out with him. Alex started recording the two of them with his phone. When Legosi started kissing Louis, the deer's eyes instantly opened. "Hey, this feels pretty nice…" Louis thought.

Then Louis realized that he was kissing Legosi, in real life, and in front of other animals. The deer kicked Legosi in the crotch to make Legosi get off of him, the wolf howling in pain. "Legosi! What the FUCK were you thinking!" Louis roared.

"Alex made me do it!" Legosi whined.

The deer's head twisted to look at Alex, who was laughing like a hyena. "And I caught it on video too!" Alex cackled, his phone in paw and videotaping the entire thing.

"If I wasn't in a hospital bed I'd kick you into next week!" Louis shouted. After the deer calmed down everyone explained the situation to him. Louis had a fracture in his left foot, and would be unable to perform in the play tomorrow. Alex observed Louis's eyes grow angrier and angrier, the deer's paws clenching into fists. "IS MY BROKEN FOOT AN EXCUSE TO TREAT ME LIKE A DEFENSELESS CREATURE!?" Louis screamed in fury.

Alex doubled over in laughter, extremely amused by Louis's reaction. "Ahahahahah…. HAHAHAH!" Alex laughed. The white wolf's laugh sounded like something straight out of a movie.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK IS SO FUNNY?!" Louis roared.

The wolf smirked. "You're so FUCKING stupid sometimes, Louis. We aren't looking at you like some defenseless animal. We're looking at you like this because you're our friend, and we're CONCERNED for you, you big moron!" Alex answered. Instantly the deer felt bad and apologized for his outburst.

Louis handed the role of Adler to Bill. Everyone left, but Bill, Pina, and Els were the last ones to leave. The two goats whispered words of encouragement in Bill's ear, before Bill excused himself to go to the bathroom. Pina and Els stayed by the wall outside the bathroom.

Alex handed Louis a pill and a bottle of water, similar to how he had reacted when he had found Louis sitting down in pain backstage. "What's this pill? It certainly better be more useful than the last one you gave me," Louis growled. Alex dropped his voice. "It's actually a pill that accelerates healing. Mends broken and sprained bones fast. And before you fret about any side effects or how it'll impact you, there aren't any negatives," Alex whispered.

Louis drank the bottle and ate the pill, swallowing it. It tasted like his droppings. "How long does it take for the effects to work?" Louis asked.

"Oh, it starts now. You'll be falling asleep within the next five minutes, and sleep for about eight hours. Then you'll wake up and be in pain for the next eight hours. Then you'll be able to move around with only slight pain. So you should be ready to take back the spotlight by the final act of the play," Alex explained.

The wolf then felt a tap on his shoulder. Whirling around, he accidentally whacked Els across the face with his tail. "Gah! Sorry, Els. But don't sneak up on me like that. What's the problem?" Alex asked.

"It's Bill! Something's terribly wrong with him!" The Angora goat pleaded.

"What?! Where!?" Alex demanded. "He's in the boy's bathroom," Els revealed. Alex tore off to the bathroom.

Bill was screaming. He no longer saw Els standing over his body on the floor- he was seeing terrifying visions. He was swimming in blood, drowning in it. The scene then shifted. He saw himself, but he wasn't in control of his body. The other Bill proceeded to messily devour Els, blood spattering the walls of the bathroom and limbs being torn off. Then he saw a bear attacking Tem, before the bear silhouette morphed into his own tiger silhouette. Dark, evil laughter echoed through the walls, and Bill screamed. "Oh my god! I killed Els! A-and Tem! Oh… god! What have I done?!" Bill wailed.

Fortunately, none of these horrible things had actually happened. In reality, Bill was flailing around on the ground wildly, blubbering and talking to himself. Alex slammed the boys bathroom door open and saw Els kneeling over him. "What happened?" Alex asked Els.

"Aoba went in here to check on him and saw blood covering the walls. He saw Bill throw up some black sludge, and then he said Bill collapsed and started talking in some weird language," Els described.

Alex set his backpack down and opened a special compartment up in it. He retrieved a large canteen of water that was capped with a gold cross topper, as well as a syringe dart filled with a light blue liquid, and a book with a cross on the cover. "What are those? How are they going to help Bill? Doesn't he need medical attention?" Els barraged Alex with questions.

"If I take him to the hospital, he's going to end up in deep shit for what he consumed. Plus, that would expose him to a lot of animals, herbivores and carnivores alike. I can smell the bloodlust on him. Right now he's liable to attack someone, and I have to make sure that doesn't happen. Els, stand at the door. Make sure no one else comes in. If he tries to charge you, kick him in the shins. But otherwise, stay as far away as possible from him. I'm going to sedate him and get him in a pacified state." Alex explained.

He set the canteen and book down on the ground before pulling his taser out of his belt and gripping it with one hand, whie holding the syringe dart in the other hand as if it were a knife. Slowly, Alex began to advance towards Bill, approaching the tiger with heightened caution. When Alex was about three feet away from the stall Bill was vomiting in, the tiger whirled around and crouched low to the ground on all fours.

"Shit," Alex thought to himself. He had to apply the serum directly, since he didn't have his dart gun on him at the moment. The white wolf had been hoping that he would be able to get close enough to lunge and stab the tiger with the syringe, but now he was out of luck. Alex made sure his taser was set to "medium sized feline" before charging it up. Bill let out a demonic snarl as he leapt into the air and pounced, lunging at his canine enemy. Alex fired the taser, the prongs connecting and sending a powerful shock into Bill's system which stunned him for a decent amount of time. That was long enough for Alex to jam the syringe into Bill's neck and inject the serum into him.

Almost immediately the formula began to work its magic; Bill seemed to calm down and the tension left his body, the tiger started vomiting violently into the toilet as his body expelled the effects of the blood he had drank from his system. In between hurls, Alex offered Bill drinks from the canteen of water, and read out loud from the Bible he had kept in the backpack compartment. The words seemed to help Bill back to his senses. Bill groaned, his head raising up. "Can someone explain to me what the fuck just happened?" The tiger asked. Then he saw Els and Alex panting, scared out of their mind's wits, and Bill started sobbing. The goat and the wolf ran over and hugged him tightly.


And now, a sneak peek at the next chapter!

Now conscious and free from the blood's influence, Bill comes clean about drinking blood and eating meat to Els. The goat decides to stay with him through the night on Alex's advice. Most importantly, the tiger makes a promise to Alex and Els. How will the Angora goat react? What sort of promise will Bill make to them? And what will happen to the drama club now that the replacement actor for the lead of Adler is down for the count? Find out next time, on BEASTARS: THE DIVERGENT VARIABLE!

Chapter 12: Bill's Oath To Improve Himself! The Plans for The Play Are Changed!