Chapter 7

"Thanks for driving Kirk home," Eddie said as they made their way to Felicia's car, which was parked by the curb.

"I wasn't about to let a blind man try and drive home. You were right about one thing, it would probably be a good idea if I were to leave the pepper spray at home."

"Get a set of brass knuckles." Eddie joked. "Lenny tries something then you can clock him in the head."

"That's something that I might have to invest in-"

There was a rustle in some nearby bushes, causing both Eddie and Felicia to look in that direction.

"It's probably nothing," Eddie said. "We've got a lot of wildlife here, rabbits, the occasional deer-"

A low growl followed the rustling.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not a rabbit or a deer," Felicia said in a nervous tone as she started to slowly back up.

A Rottweiler emerged from the bushes, snarling at the two, its teeth bared.

"Oh my God…" Eddie whispered, afraid to speak any louder in case it caused the dog to attack.

The dog lowered into a stance like it was getting ready to pounce.

"Eddie, don't move," Felicia whispered.

"Trust me, I don't plan on it."

"What's going on?" The front door opened, and Kirk's eyes widened when he saw the vicious animal.

With a bark, the dog ran towards Kirk.

"No!" Felicia lunged at the dog, bringing both it and herself to the ground.

"Kirk, get back in the damn house!" Eddie shouted, and Kirk wasted no time in slamming the door shut.

The Rottweiler was on top of Felicia now, snapping and aiming for her jugular. Felicia had her hands around its neck, and that was the only thing keeping the dog from ripping her throat out.

Eddie wrapped his arms around the dog's chest, pulling him off of Felicia. He threw the dog, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a large branch. Grabbing it, he swung at the dog as it lunged again, and the branch connected with the creature's head, and the beast let out a yelp before running off into the night.

Eddie was panting heavily, sweat beading his dark forehead. He moved to look at Felicia, who was still on the ground.

"You okay?" He asked as he helped her up.

"Yeah, I think so."

"I recognized that dog, it belongs to the Willems family down the road. He was always such a gentle thing."

"Yeah, well something happened to turn him vicious. I'll call animal control and report it, you better get in contact with the Willems' and let them know that something is up with their dog."

They walked back into the house, where Kirk began to pepper them with questions.

"Now now, Kirk," Eddie said, trying not to speak too harshly to his boyfriend. "The Willems' dog just attacked us, we need to call animal control, as well as John and Winifred.

Felicia assumed that John and Winifred were the aforementioned Willems', and she wondered how they would react when they found out that their dog had tried to attack three people.

"Geez…" Kirk muttered under his breath before speaking so that the others could hear him. "This is so weird, first Shadow goes crazy, and now Peaches?"

"The dog's name is Peaches?" Felicia inquired. "Odd name for a dog."

"Winnie was pregnant at the time," Kirk replied. "And she was craving peaches all of the time, I can't even tell you how many times Eddie or I had to go to the store to get her some when John was working."

"Okay then…so Peaches didn't act like this before?"

"Hell no, he was as gentle as could be, the only time he got even mildly aggressive was when he thought that someone was posing a danger to the kids, and even then, all that he did was growl."

Felicia rubbed her chin in thought. "Two completely tame animals suddenly become aggressive, without any rhyme or reason? Something is definitely going on here."

~

An hour later, two animal control officers were out looking for Peaches, and John and Winifred were over with their two little ones, apologizing to Felicia and Eddie over and over again.

"Please, you don't have to keep apologizing," Felicia said in an attempt to calm the young couple down. "Eddie and I weren't hurt, and that's all that matters."

"I just don't understand," Winifred said. "Peaches has never acted this way before, not once."

"My cat Shadow has been acting the same way, just bit me out of nowhere. He's at the vet now, they're trying to figure out what's going on with him. When the animal control people find Peaches, I suggest that you do the same thing. Eddie and I aren't going to be pressing charges or anything, so Peaches should be released back into your care."

"Thank you so much," John said, picking up the small toddler that was trying to climb up his leg.

"Look, I'm a scientist with the CDC, and I want to do some investigating of my own. Would it be alright if I stopped by sometime and got some blood samples from Peaches, before you bring him to the vet?"

"Of course," John replied. "Whatever you need, it's the least that we could do. If you had come across him any other day, the worst thing that he would have done was lick you to death and drown you in his slobber."

Felicia chuckled softly. "He sounds like a real sweetheart. I promise that I'm going to do everything I can to try and figure out what's going on here, and see if there's not some way that we can reverse the effects."

"Thank you so much." Winifred looked like she was about to start crying, and Felicia gripped her hand. "I know what you're going through. It's painful and heartbreaking and confusing, all at the same time. Just try to hang in there, okay? Go home, put the kiddos to bed."

John gave Felicia his number before the family left, and they had just walked out the door when Felicia's phone rang, the caller ID identifying it as the vet's office. "Hello?"

"Felicia, it's Dr. Blake. We ran the tests on Shadow. Whatever is going on, it's affecting his genetics, changing them, almost making his DNA similar to that of a lion or a cougar. There's something else too-" He then went quiet.

"Dr. Blake?"

There was a scream, followed by a loud popping sound, and the line went dead.

"Dr. Blake? Dr. Blake!"

"What's going on?" Eddie asked, a look of concern on his face.

"I don't know. It was Shadow's vet, he was talking to me about the results of the tests that they ran on Shadow, then I heard a scream, then a loud pop, and then the line went dead. Something happened, I'm gonna go and check it out."

"We'll come with you," Kirk said. "If something happened, then it might be too dangerous for you to go alone."

Felicia nodded her head. "Okay, thanks."

~

The drive to the veterinary office was an extremely tense one, and Felicia hopped out of the car before it came to a complete stop. The entry door to the building was ajar, immediately setting Felicia on edge.

The front room was dark, and Felicia felt her way in the pitch black until she reached the light switch. She flicked it, but nothing turned on. Fumbling in her pocket, she pulled out her phone, using the light from the small screen to see around the room. What she saw made her scream and drop her phone.

A large pool of blood was on the floor, and in the middle of that blood was Dr. Blake.