Aria, after having hugged her son to her heart's content finally stepped back to appraise him. Seeing his healthy body, her eyes widened in surprise, "Fe-Ferrin, yo-your arm!" Aria turned around and sure enough, his severed limb was right there.
"Ho-How did you suddenly..." Aria's words trailed off, the images of the earlier fight flashing in her mind back and forth.
'My... arm! I turned into a monkey... didn't I? How did I do that? How did I do it?... How could I?' Ferrin gulped nervously, trying to swallow the strange feeling that sudden started seeping put of his heart, 'What... am I?'
Aria seeing Ferrin's face become odd instantly realised she had said somewhat she shouldn't have, "I-It's fine, whatever it was. It was good as long as you are safe and healthy again." Aria stepped forward and hugged Ferrin again.
She looked around and asked, trying to distract him, "Should we stay here for tonight? I think we shouldn't travel during so late in the night."
Ferrin gazed at her face before nodding his head, "Hmm! That would be for the best."
"Um! H-Hello! I saw how you fought against that monkey. You were rather unique in your tactics." The man that had helped Aria earlier by snapping her out of her daze and had been secretly observing them all this time came down the stairs. He clapped his hands and nodded his head approvingly.
'Huh? A survivor?' Ferrin frowned seeing him, he felt something was fishy with this guy. 'I wonder who he is?' He didn't know why but he felt slightly... repulsed by him.
Aria also felt that he seemed odd, "Um! Please, wound you mind staying away from us?' Aria halted the man who was approaching them with an easy going smile.
"Hmm? Oh, my! Please do not be weary of me. I am but a pitiful survivor like you, I happened to be lucky enough to escape and hide while that monkey had suddenly started its slaughter. I am just happy to be alive right now.' The man smiled helplessly. His narrow eyes scrunthised Aria from head to toe, judging her from every aspect before moving towards Ferrin, 'Oh! He's a boy... humph!'
Ferrin returned his stare, he could sense the hidden scorn in his eyes but all he could do was frown deeper.
"Um, would you like to come to where I am staying? There are other survivors as well there, we all managed to survive and decided to work together for a while. Though only I came outside while hearing your desperate plea, the others were somewhat apprehensive. Would you like to come." The man smiled politely and without bothering for their reply motioned with his hand and started walking away, "This way."
Aria and Ferrin exchanged glances before tactically agreeing to play along for now. 'Strange, very strange. If he came out when mom was shouting aloud then he should've clearly seen my strange transformation... shouldn't he be weary instead? Why is he so calm right now?' Ferrin increasingly felt his heart getting engulfed in greater turmoil. His instincts, which were rather sharp naturally told him that he was dangerous, very dangerous.
As they went up the stairs, the man led them towards the end of the floor, near the staff room. "We are gathered in here." The man explained while taking out keys from his pocket and opening the door.
As they stepped inside, Ferrin's nose twitched slightly, 'There's something fishy in the air, it's not like the outside, it's not blood... what is it?' He gazed around the room, there were two iron lockers placed in the room, probably for the workers. Besides that, there wasn't mush of note except a washroom.
Aria glanced around, failing to spot others in the room, she asked doubtfully, "I don't see anybody here."
"They are over there, behind this locker stand." The man pointed towards the locker stand on his left and started walking forward.
As they were walking forward, Ferrin's eyes fell below the corner of the locker, he could see some oddly circular things, he couldn't make put their clear shape due to the shadow covering them, "Are they... clothes?" Ferrin frowned.
As Aria gazed behind the locker, her eyes fell on 4 girls, they were all sleeping on the cold floor, covered by a single blanket Their faces looked stained, as if they had been crying a lot. Moreover, she could also spot a few bruises on a few of their faces. She couldn't see anything other than their faces, the rest was covered thoroughly by the blanket. Seeing them Aria had an extremely weird thought, she gazed at the man who kept smiling all the time and clenched Ferrin's hand tightly.
'Disgusting... Utterly disgusting!' Ferrin's eyes became cold. In his mind, the figure of two monkeys appeared. At that moment, he felt as if he could transform again. '...So, I need to concentrate deeply inside my mind in order to see these forms?'
Ferrin once again focused on the 4 girls before focusing deeply inside his mind again, sure enough, he could see the two figures again. 'So... how did these monkeys become two? No, what is all this even? I think there was only one when I transformed earlier... I also felt something being carved inside me after I killed that monkey... can I transform into anything I kill? What is this? Some kind of mutation awakening in people due to this apocalypse? Or is it unique to me alone?'
"Why don't you also go asleep for now? Tomorrow morning we can all think together on what to do?" The smiled and gazed intently at Aria.
Aria stared at him in silence for a while before shaking her head, "No, thank you for your kindness, but it's not needed! We will make do with ourselves just fine. Also, I think you should also sleep somewhere else, an adult sleeping alongside four young girls doesn't seem appropriate." Aria nodded her towards the man and started walking away.
The man gazed at her, his eyes wandering somewhat lower than her waist before he gulped and started walking towards them while saying, "Why don't you reconsider? It's dark outside, there are monkey's, other survivors as well. Who knows what kind of people you end up meeting? People might be more dangerous in current situation than monkey's." He reached out his hand towards Aria, intending to stop her.
Ferrin's ears pricked up, he turned around and took a step forward, gazing fearlessly into the man's eyes, he spoke out in an extremely chilly tone, "Don't touch my mother with your filthy hands."
Aria heard his words clearly but she didn't turn around, her hand was still tightly holding on to Ferrin's.
The man halted and withdrew his hand, he snickered and said, "Lady, in these dangerous times you need a man to protect you. This fat kid will only weigh you down, you should leave him to rot for himself. How about this, you kick him outside the room and tell him to sleep there and I will allow you to sleep here? Aren't I very magnanimous for forgiving him at such a low price?" The man, before he could form a cocky grin on his face saw Aria's figure turn around.
PA!
The crisp sound of a clear slap reverberated throughout the closed room, it was loud enough to awaken the sleeping girls. They sat up, using the blanket to cover themselves whike gazing lifelessly at the man who was holding his cheek in disbelief, their bodies trembled unvoluntarily from his mere sight.
Aria pointed her finger towards the man and said through gritted teeth, "You had the guts to say that right now. Say it again and I will rip out your tongue!"
The girls' eyes flashed with fear, miserably gazing at Aria at her up-coming cruel fate.
The man straighend his back and tidied up his clothes. He felt his mouth was somewhat dry so he reflexively licked his lips.
Aria seeing him not barking anymore turned around and started walking away, "Lets go, Ferrin!"
The man opened his mouth wide and stretched his jaw, he stepped towards the locker and opened one of the doors before taking out a bag from inside it. His blank eyes gazed at Aria, followed shortly by the fast movement of his feet.
Ferrin felt a strange sensation behind him, as he turned around his head, his eyes were just in time to see the physco man raising a bat high and swinging it straight at Aria's head.
THUD!
Aria stumbled froward a few steps, her vision spun in random directions. She raised her hand and touched her head, she brought her hand in front of her tried to understand what red substance had attached itself on her hand, 'Is it... blood?'
With a light thud, Aria's figure crashed into the floor. Ferrin stood still like a log, his eyes unmoving from the man. Suddenly, something inside of him started boiling like it had been dumped in burning water.
'Kill this bug.' A calm thought popped up in Ferrin's mind but his instantaneous transformation into the 7 feet monkey wasn't. His eyes glowed a heavy green, appearing next to the man in an instant. His blood-thirsty claws dug out of his skin, follower by a wretched, piercing scream.
"KEEEEE!!"
Whoosh! Thud! Splat!
The girls' could only see blurs of what occurred. Even after everything ended, they needed quite a lot of time to comprehend what occurred.
All they could see now was the man who had been cut in several pieces, a few pieces only the size of the monkey's claws, who had appeared out of nowhere and his extremely long claws which were still dripping the blood they had spilled.
"KEEEE!"
Hearing Ferrin's piercing scream, the girls' snapped out of their daze. Their eyes which were empty like they had been ducked clean from vitality earlier trembled in shock, their hearts beating out of their chests.
'Just like that? That wretched animal... he died?' Their numb hearts started throbbing again, more powerfully than ever.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" A blonde suddenly begun to laugh excitedly. Tears of pure relish came out of her joy, while clapping her hands admits her laughter she got up from the floor. Uncaring about her open display, she walked towards Ferrin.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She gave Ferrin a tight hug with a bright smile before stepping back and kneeling down on the floor. "Please, do away with me now as well!"
Ferrin's bloodshot eyes flickered, he stepped back and kept down on his feet, next to Aria.
His body rapidly transformed back into his human form. He reached out his hands and held Aria's head gently. "Mom! Don't sleep on the floor, wake up! Mom!?" Ferrin felt some warm liquid spread out on his hand.
He supported Aria's head with one hand and used his other hand to see what had stuck to it. '...Red?' His eyes twitched uncontrollably, a piercing headache causing his mind to shut down and he collapsed next to his mother, his hand still gently supporting her head.
The girls' entered another daze, 'The monster kid... collapsed?'