Tom sat on the front porch of their house, wiping his glasses clean as he gazed into the streets of the slumbering village. His mind was deep in thought when Tony Waterback walked out onto the porch. They both looked at each other for a moment and then Tony looked at the sky, trying to find his home planet. He spotted his little, bright planet to the left of the constellation Thesus.
“Have a seat.” Said Thomas and Tony accepted the offer. “That’s my home planet, over there.”
Thomas looked, without responding. Sometimes, silence was enough to comfort a person he thought to himself. “There will be a busy time ahead for us.” Thomas finally said. Breaking the silence and trying to get Tony’s thoughts off of his home planet. It seemed to work.
“You are right, the refugees will be arriving shortly, and we have to get the mansion ready for them.”
Thomas nodded. “After we get Louie to claim the mansion.”
“Yes, exactly, after we get… What?” Tony said in surprise.
“Well, we need him to record a message on video, telling the council that he is still alive. We will need to hurry though. Remember me telling you about the death verification …”
“Oh yes, let’s not go there again.” Tony said. “We’d better hurry up and find him instead of sitting around on the porch.” Thomas nodded “We’ll get a good night sleep first. We will go look for him first thing in the morning.”

Alexander Garand pulled the trigger and as in slow motion the bullet spat out of the gun, piercing trough the body of what seemed to be a young and very hungry werewolf. It collapsed on top of the undead hunter, who could hear the rest of the pack draw in closer. The stench was unbearable and the heavy wolf on top of him prevented him from moving. He shook his body, trying to get out from underneath the corpse. The hairy body of the beast did move, but unfortunately shifted slightly upward and fell on Alexanders’ chest, weighing heavy on his lungs. The hunter cursed under his breath for all it was worth and heard that the other wolves had almost reached him. They would not just devour them like they usually would do too their prey. They would want to make him suffer for killing one of them. Alexander would die a thousand deaths tonight. The shadowy figure of what appeared to be a rabbit came moving towards him. “Help.” His lips formed the words, but he could not utter a sound. “Save your breath, on the count of three, you try to push this thing off. We don’t have much time. Six of these things will be here in about 30 seconds.” The shadowy figure and Alexander combined their strengths and managed to push the werewolf away. “Grab my hand, we have to make haste.” The hunter did not resist, this person had just saved his life. This made him trustworthy enough by his book. “We are near Greenthorpe. It’s our only chance to survive; these werewolves do not leave the woods.” They ran as fast as their legs could carry them. They could almost feel the warm and moist breath of the disgusting beasts in their necks, but the wolves stopped as soon as they arrived at the edge of the woods. “Allow me to rest for a moment.” The hunter said. “The night holds many horrible secrets, it may be best for us to proceed directly to my current habitat.” “What is your name?” The young hunter asked as they walked on.
“My name is Louie Greenthorpe.” Louie turned around, the paleness of his skin could be seen through his fur. “And you are…?” Alexander pulled out his gun and held it inches away from Louie’s face. “…Very sorry about this.”

In the midst of the night a young woman made her way over to the office of Gary Parker.
The dark corridor made her nervous. The moonlight fell over a dark and gloomy portrait of a man that makes his success over the corpses of others.
“Please, step into my office miss.” A voice said over the creaky intercom.
The young rabbit almost fell down straight on her face. The high heels she was wearing were not at all comfortable and her shivering legs made it even harder to keep her balance.
But working in the office of the wealthy young man who was sure to become governor was the dream of every young secretary. She opened the door slowly and walked in. The curtains were drawn shut and the room was lit by a few candles. Gary Parker leaned against his desk and smiled as she walked in. “Miss Jones, it’s a pleasure to see you here after all. I’m sorry that this interview had to take place at such a late time. But we want our people to be prepared for everything.” He told her with a tone to his voice that made her shiver even more. His voice changed immediately when he asked her to take a seat as he took her resume in her hand. His voice so enigmatic.
“Let’s get down to business, shall we?” Gary opened a drawer in his desk and took out a small letter opener. He walked over to the young woman and pulled back her hair. She could not resist his soft touch, a warm feeling grew in her belly and spread down to her lower pelvic area. Her breathing became a little heavier. Gary was in no mood to fulfill the fantasies that popped into the young womans’ head. He jammed the dull end of the opener in her throat with one forceful stab. He pulled the blood red object out of the soft flesh and licked it off before he placed it back into his drawer. Gary Parker’s monstrosity was only topped by his grace. He cleaned a few droplets of blood from his shirt and enjoyed this moment. The girl had fallen on her knees in front of him and clawed at his legs while gasping for breath. She wheezed as she left a trail of blood on his floor. He had no interest in her blood, or the flesh and fur on her skin. Gary was a man with high standards, her heart belonged to him, the scraps were for his dinner guests.

Alexander Garand stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do. Being unsure of what to do was not in his nature, but something was different here. This man, or beast had saved his life and in return he would be taking his. It didn’t seem like the right thing to do. No matter what this man had done to those people. Had he changed so much in the time he had spent behind his desk and away from the field work? “Can we get this over with, please?” Louie whispered.
Alexander felt the little droplets of sweat roll down his face. He moved the gun away from Louie’s face and pulled the trigger several times. Releasing a series of wooden bullets into a thick tree.
Louie got up “I don’t have the time for this” and he hit him across the face. Knocking him out cold ‘I guess I did change’ was Alexander’s last conscious thought.

Lawrence sat down at the same desk he had been sitting down at all those years ago. He looked at the same cradle Louie had lain in on the night his fate was sealed. Everything had gone according to plan and yet everything got screwed up horribly. He found Audrey, sitting fully clothed in the bath tub, surrounded by bottles from his liquor cabinet and bottles from her medicine cabinet.
Wet strains of her covered her lovely face. Her eyes were hollow; they had been ever since they put their son in his final resting place in the family tomb. Tobias’ pleas to spare him had fallen on deaf ears. He listened now, now that it was too late. The words of his long time friend seemed stuck in an infinite loop in his head. ‘As it was before, so it will be again.’ He would not be there to see it however; that much was clear to him. He had played his part in this game.
Lawrence retrieved his trusty service revolver from a drawer in the desk along with a box of ammo.
One bullet entered the chamber, click.
One bullet entered his brain. Sleep now, the rest was up to them.

Tobias found their bodies the next day. Audreys flesh already soft and weak from the water.
The necklace that hung around her neck formed little rippled in the water as it bopped up and down.
Lawrence had fallen from his chair and lay on the ground. The back of his head had been blown away almost completely. The soft and charred flesh around it had the consistency of rotten fruit.
Tobias stumbled back, sickened by the sight. His long time friend was death and he would never return. “Oh, Lawrence, you old fool. What are we to do…” A folder lay on the table, labeled ‘The cycle’. Tobias knew of its contents and kicked against the table in a fit of rage.
“What do you think would have happened if this had fallen into the wrong hands?” Clumsily he took the folder into his hands, the many papers inside fell on the ground. Tobias fell down on his knees to collect them and noticed to his surprise that the file had been updated. One of the pictures was labeled ‘Arcania’ “A zombie, of course, this must be him.” He flicked through the rest of the photos. One of them he recognized as the Bradhurst residence where Aruth and Moira lived with their son Damon. There were several more pictures in the folder. “Technoir, Crysallis, Pneum Arlik.” And there it was, the picture of Louie. Tobias eyes grew larger at the note Lawrence had attached to it ‘This is three hundred and seven.”

Tobias walked into the garden a short while later, after having informed the local authorities.
He had the folder with him and walked to the edge of the Greenthorpe estate. The several pictures he needed, he took with him and the rest he burned to a crisp.
He walked past the garden of lyac, which only grew on a few places in the galaxy and which would make sure this place remained profitable enough for it not to be torn down.
The police arrived, Louie lay dormant and he had just found out who the remaining people in this play were. It would be up to him now to get them together.