"Oh well, I really am sorry…" The man continued, dropping his blade before proceeding to take out a shotgun from the seemingly infinite space behind his cloak and cocking it right after without taking his deep blue eyes off of her. "With all the intrusion and the breaking off doors but trust me…" He looked at her, still with his eyebrows slanted, and raising his hand and pressing it against his chest. It was supposed to suggest that he's in pain if it weren't for the twisted smile that he presented to his audience without any shred of shame. "...it was hard for me too, you know. Sorry about blowing the girl's head off… firstly. She looked annoying as hell so I told them that she should be killed first and for the second one… I think she was asking for it…"
"You…" the woman sitting on the bed tried to interrupt him but she held her breath at the moment he stepped forward, with his shogun now hanging by his left hand, towards Nina who glared at him as if she was a beast backed into a corner together with her children.
"I mean… out there we-I mean, I was wondering what kept you in here for so long. Really, she looked like the type who would drag others down but holy shit, when I got here, it turned out I was right, like look at that leg—"
They were so wary and was caught up with his dominating shadow, his figure that looked as if it towered over them and that smile carrying a dark yet endearing tone behind it to the point that when... still with his right hand pressed against his chest while displaying his utmost pained expression, no one saw his arm being raised with his finger resting on a trigger. No one had the time to react as all they heard was a shot, followed by a splatter of blood that ended up with a body going down from the bed to the floor with a heavy thud.
Nina, along with her two other friends who were left, stared at the man with their mouths spread open as they could not even let out as much as a scream.
"—I mean no one could run away in that state… that explains why you were playing your cards poorly!" Bathing in that awkward silence made worse by this heavy air that reeked with blood, this man, who as if had magic that kept them from moving or even speaking, widened his sinister grin as he stroked his unkempt beard.
"Ah, who am I kidding…" he broke into a laugh, dropping the gun that he held on his left hand so he could cover his face with both of his palms. His reaction was cut just a second after as if his mood took a sharp turn and now with a passionate clap, with his voice that was stained with a smug sense of pride, he continued, "Gentlemen, and the women, that clap… no… this clap is for me. I really think that my acting is nice and all… I mean, did you see that girl? She thought I was going for you, Nina, for you!" He chuckled and licked his lips, still with that twisted grin. "I bet her last words were 'oh shit' before she went out!"
"Dick, Norman!" Nina called out as she grits her teeth, looking at them instead of the man before her who sounded like he was shrieking instead of laughing. "I'll keep him here… I need you guys to run."
"That's quite heroic, don't you think?" The man continued with a mocking tone, injecting her with this sense of uneasiness that seemingly forced her to look at him just to scan if he was carrying any weapons. He then met her gaze with his eyes that looked so full yet depraved and with his words seemingly overflowing with excitement, he clenched his teeth and followed, "I really can't wait to pick apart that rationality of yours."
"W-what do you m-mean?" She replied with her voice shaking, smiling confidently as she lowered her stance with her legs soon bending backward until it resembled a pair of muscled hind legs of a lion complemented by a coat of brown fur.
"You see, among other things that I love hating on… I really, really love shitting on heroes, so when I see one that behaves like one, a hero that is, and drops his or her character for a moment… I, myself, cannot contain the urge to make them see how they failed. Like the mere fact that you claim to want to protect them with your life, with your powers and yet… the way you look at me, the way you are so wary of me instead of others… the way you try to think of what I could do to you instead of what I could do to those who you want to protect… it unnerves me and yet, pointing it out and saying it to your face brings me great pleasure," he said, taking his time with every step and making sure that his twisted grin would let out this grim tone hiding behind this rhythmic joke that froze her body. It was so she could gaze at his act without finding her own will even if she cried, shouted or to look away or run.
"The mere fact that you're standing here, getting ready as if aiming to go out to buy some time like the hero you were or perhaps to defeat the villain, not realizing…" the man turned his head to the side, making Nina do the same too, who looked like she just remembered something.
"Dick, I need you to—"
She froze once again, now feeling that her heart too had stopped, letting herself only hear his words saying,
"The mere fact that you claimed that you're going to protect them while you stood there, smiling at me while one of your fat friends got his head blown off without you knowing..."
Nina let out a defeated breath that made her body relax as if she was losing her strength but then, she filled her lungs with air. She pulled up all of her strength to drive her foot into the man's body, making her right leg bleed and crack as if she had kicked a slab of metal before sending the reaper out of the room through the window.
She screamed a moment after, raising her head to face the ceiling and gritting her teeth as hard as possible so she could then muffle her pained shriek as her eyes winced. There, with the room that was once filled with the faces of her friends instead of blood mixed with the bits of their brains and skin, Nina pressed her fingers into her calf. She tried her best to keep it together as her flesh melds once more before taking another shape that now resembled a thin hind leg of a cheetah.
There, as her arms grew longer and larger with its thick layer of blubber and fur that reached up to her black claws and as her face deforms to make room for her protruding fangs, she glanced at the safe haven where her friends had been murdered. There, those pink walls that now were dyed white that she once thought were cute had closed in, as though forcing her to look at the bodies of her lifeless comrades that had their heads turned to mush. It began to hurt her more at the moment she realized that she no longer remembered who they were.
"Run, please… don't let their deaths be in vain. I'll protect you I promise… I'll do my best to buy some time… I won't let you down… never again… never again..." Nina looked at him with a single tear dripping from her left eye and with her voice about to break. After talking a moment of her wishing that time would stop, she flashed him a broken and defeated smile right before she dashed out of the room to bathe under the pale moonlight.