Monsters!

Chapter Three

This Makes Reality A Little Strange

Alfred was wondering to himself if his judgement of character was as bad as Arthur said.

But dismissed it when he looked at Ivan again.

The night had been strange so far; first a power outage at Francis' place. Then a wolf came crashing through the window, even though they were in England and wolves don't live in England. Then Arthur got kidnapped by an insanely strong, extremely fast man. Then Francis died. Then he met Ivan, a Spirit, which was some sort of shapeshifter. Ivan hadn't been very descriptive of his own species.

He was now following Ivan as the tall man supposedly followed a scent trail like some sort of sniffer dog - which he wasn't, because he was some kind of mouse. Alfred's thoughts on him fluctuated wildly, one minute he trusted him whole heartedly, the next he was terrified he was making a huge mistake in following him. Either way, Alfred knew something was off about him.

But he had no time with conflicting feelings, not when Arthur's life could be in danger. So here he was. Following a supernatural creature like it was perfectly normal to do so. He had filled the Spirit in on most of what happened alongside Arthur getting kidnapped, but hadn't elaborated much.

"Say, comrade," Ivan suddenly asked, bringing Alfred's attention back to the real world, "you talked about the wolf crashing into your friend's house, what happened to it?"

"Huh? I locked it in Francis' living room," Alfred replied, matter-of-factly, before his face contorted with horror and realisation, "No! That's not right.. the window was broken.. it escaped and killed Francis.."

What if Francis wasn't the only victim? Alfred briefly thought to himself, No, no, no thinking like that, heroes don't think like that! I think...

"Um, why did you wanna know, Ivan?" Alfred asked, pushing the thoughts away for now. The taller man shrugged and continued looking ahead.

"I was only curious, comrade," He stated. Alfred narrowed his eyes, and slowed down enough that he was now walking directly behind him. There had to be more to it than just curiosity. Alfred wasn't normally this perceptive about these things, his concern for Arthur probably making him notice more than usual. As Alfred thought about what Ivan wanted by knowing what happened to wolf, Ivan suddenly stopped walking. Alfred almost walked into him, had he not looked up at the right moment.

"Uh, Ivan, dude," He began, walking to Ivan's side, "Why'd you stop?". The tall Russian turned his head to face Alfred with an expression so serious, Alfred had to repress a shudder.

"I smell something dangerous," He stated cooly, "Stick close,"

"Dangerous? Dangerous how?" Alfred asked, cocking an eyebrow. Ivan's expression remained the same, and he turned his head to face the direction ahead of them and reached an arm back to pull Alfred close. The American was very uncomfortable at bieng so close to Ivan, but the Spirit's grip was inhumanly strong - duh it is, he's not human - and forcing him to stay in place.

"I believe you will find out soon," Ivan's reply came, not quite reassuring Alfred in any way. Ivan began moving again, dragging Alfred along and not daring to remove his grip on his arm. Whatever it was that Ivan scented, made him go on high alert. Alfred thought Ivan's strange behaviour from before was unsettling at times, his behaviour right now was even more so. There was no sign of the shudder-inducing smile on Ivan's face, just a stone cold serious expression. The whole thing made Alfred very nervous, though he tried to best to hide it.

HoooOOOwwwWWwww...

Ivan stopped walking the moment he heard the distant howl. The sound sent shivers down Alfred's spine, as it was near identical to the way the wolf howled. Had it followed him here? Alfred hoped not - desperatly so. Ivan's grip on Alfred tightened, and he let out a small growl himself.

"The beast has followed us,"

That was not what Alfred wanted to hear.

xoxox

He stared. It was the only thing he could do. After all, the man in front of him was supposed to be dead.

"Oui, Matthieu, it's me," Francis reassured, or at least, tried to reassure. Matthew could not understand what he was seeing - the image of Francis' body kept popping up in his head as he tried to do so - and didn't know wether this was actually real or if he was somehow dreaming.

Oh if only... if this is just a dream then Francis wouldn't be...

"M-matthieu?" Francis inquired, looking at his friend worriedly. He gave himself a once over and looked back at Matthew. Was this going to be easy to explain? Or difficult? Matthew wasn't as frightened by ghosts as Alfred was - then again, he never believed in them in the first place. "L-look, Matthieu, I'm here! I know I've died, but.." He tried walking towards Matthew, but he kept backing off.

This isn't real... this isn't real... Matthew told himself over and over again. This was reality, not fantasy!

"Matthieu, please! I'm real, I'm here! Please see that.." Francis ran quickly towards Matthew, trying to grab his arm but cursing to himself when his hand only went through it. Matthew jumped back and yelped with shock, rubbing his arm. The moment Francis had made contact with it, it became freezing cold, enough to surprise Matthew greatly.

Isn't that.. what happens when ghosts..?

"Mathieu, will you listen?" Francis began again, this time Matthew looked at him directly, "Yes, I've died, but I'm still here, am I not?"

Matthew looked at his friend - colourless and slightly transparent - and felt sorrow at the situation. Francis really was here, but in a form that prevented him from interacting with the living world. What kind of existance was that?

"F-francis.." Matthew began, but started to sputter again, before he really knew what he was doing, he was suddenly spilling to Francis everything that had happened while he wasn't looking; namely Arthur's kidnapping and Alfred's reckless heroic search. Francis listened intently, with seriousness that looked foreign on him.

"Alfred's such an idiot, I told him not to go, but he did anyway..."

"Matthieu, mon cher," Francis interjected, "Perhaps we should search, too?" Matthew nearly fell backwards, what was Francis suggesting?

"W-what?" Was the only thing Matthew could say to that.

"I get the feeling that whoever took Arthur was not quite normal, you said he threw Alfred through a door? Then perhaps the British Law would not be able to apprehend him," Francis stated.

"T-that's the point! If he could do that, then what else could he do! We're no match for someone like that!"

"It doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Remember, Matthieu, I'm dead, there's not much more that could be done to me,"

The two stood in silence for a moment, Matthew taking in what Francis had said, and Francis awaiting a reply patiently. Eventually, Matthew sighed, and looked Francis square in the eyes.

"..Where do we start?"

xoxox

Alfred could swear if Ivan held onto his arm any tighter, it'd fall off. They stood for a minute just listening to the sound of soemthing - the wolf, Ivan said, - coming closer and closer. Alfred wondered what standing still and letting it come to them would do, then wondered if Ivan planned on fighting it. That would be epic,

"Ivan," Alfred looked up at him, "What'll you do when the wolf gets here?"

"I have quite a few things I am capable of doing once it gets here, comrade," He simply stated. Alfred had to repress another involuntary shiver, Ivan was proving to be very scary at the moment. The sounds of something pounding against the dirt eventually got loud enough that Alfred decided to look at where Ivan was staring, and when he did, he had to stop himself from gasping.

It was the wolf after all, he could clearly see it running towards them. Ivan pulled Alfred a lot closer in response, and started growling quietly again. It was the growling that constantly reminded Alfred that Ivan wasn't human, and also what partially made him nervous. The wolf eventually came to a stop a few feet in front of them, and just stared.

It did nothing else.

"You will go away, foul beast, or I will slay you," Ivan growled, though the wolf seemed to completely ignore him.

Why isn't it attacking? Alfred thought, looking the wolf dead in the eyes, And.. why do I feel calm all of a sudden? I feel.. I feel like I can trust it, but why?

The wolf broke eye contact with Alfred to stare at the ground and whine softly to itself. Alfred looked in with mixed confusion and curiosity, was this even the same wolf after all? He looked up at Ivan, whose expression was actually softening a bit for some reason.

"Ivan, what's it doing?"

"Shifting form," Ivan replied.

Alfred blinked. "...Huh?"

"Look at it, Alfred," Ivan stated. Alfred did.

And his eyes widened in surprise.

The wolf really was changing shape, become more humanoid by the second. The change was punctuated by it whining every few seconds, indicating that changing like this was painfull for it. When it finished, it was, for all intents and purposes, a human, but with it's forearms and feet replaced by brown, fur covered paws, and also sporting a pair of ears and tail. Alfred was both speechless, and amazed.

"That is a werewolf, Alfred," Ivan informed him, but he didn't need to, Alfred already knew. He squinted to look at the werewolf more closely, noticing something odd. It's wolfish parts were brown, but it's hair was a light blonde. As the werewolf lifted his head - Yes, his, Alfred realised this at that very moment - Alfred became even more suprised as he recognised who it was.

"Ludwig!"

I spent nearly two months writing this! D; It's not nearly as good as the previous two chapters...

Ahh, anyway. I did warn you guys, I'm lazy.

Haha, maybe the next chapter'll come in another month or two, who knows?

I'm writing the next chapter RIGHT NOW to get a headstart on myself (?). So yeah.

Oh yeah, Ludwig! Hmmm..

~KLFoxglove