Outside!

Outside! ~ Part 5, Rose

"Yes I know that but, something just doesn't feel right. Why don't we just walk along the hedge instead, there might be pray hiding behind it, we could catch it from here." Harry spoke, distress starting to become evident.
"We've got a better chance if we jump, there won't be many other hybrids beyond this point so there'll be more game for us." Rose whispered as she readied herself to jump.
"But I really just think—" Harry was cut off by Rose expertly leaping into the air, an impressive three and a half metres straight up and over the hedge. Harry heard a loud rustle of sticks and greenery and then a loud clang come from the other side of the hedge, but not a word from Rose.
"Rose dear? Are you ok?" Harry called out. No response.
"Rose?!" Harry yelled. Nothing. Harry went against his intuition and put all his energy into jumping over the hedge. What he found on the other side horrified him to his very core.
"ROSE!!" Harry screamed. But of course... the bloodied mess bearing Rose's face that lay on the ground wasn't going to reply to him. Rose hadn't been able to smell the sickening scent of the rusted steel bear trap through the hedge and the wildflowers around them, she had leapt straight into it. Harry sunk to the ground beside her desecrated body and sobbed for her.
"Oh Rose... If only I had realised sooner what was going on... I told you not to jump damnit..." Harry's glasses slipped off of his head and clattered down onto Rose's matching yet shattered ones, lying beside her lifeless face. Harry lay there beside his shockingly sudden late wife screaming and sobbing until long after night had fallen.
Harry returned home in human form hours after curfew. He solemnly entered the house, Kazuichi and Alex who were play fighting on the couch immediately stopped in their tracks and shouted in unison: "Harry!" Jesse who was also in the living room trying to tidy up a little turned her head to look at Harry in shock, "What are you doing out so long after curfew? The cops can nab you for that you know!" she said. Harry simply nodded his downturned head in response. It hit Alex in that moment, he'd never admit it but he always waited in the living room for Harry to return whenever he left, he took a little bit of joy in the cheerful aura that Harry and Rose always seemed to emit. That was missing tonight.
"What's wrong? Where's Rose?" Alex asked. There was a long and silent pause. Harry looked up with tears in his eyes and spoke, his voice wavering.
"...Rose is dead..."
The news had eventually spread to all tenants of the house, it took a couple of days for it to fully set in for everyone, that Rose... was never coming home... none of them had ever experienced the death of someone close to them before, that they could recall anyhow. Back in their more feral days it wasn't something that phased them, now however, their feelings and emotions had developed, they had personalities and memories, and most of all, friendships and even families. As often as they fought and disagreed all the tenants of this house considered each other family, Harry and Rose playing the role of a mother and father, a kind of love and caring none of the others had ever experienced before.

Even Harry and Rose were feral once upon a time, relationships meant nothing to either of them. Something clicked in their minds however when they first met, a new emotion was made apparent to them, the need to protect and take care of each other, a bond, love if you will. Rose and Harry had met in a human city, and learned very quickly that they needed to be like other humans in order to stay, Harry took an interest in this new and interesting culture while Rose opted to stay hidden away for the most part, she relied on Harry for most of her life. Then, one fateful day they were deported to Zoto and moved in with Kazuichi, Alex, Brooklyn, Banjo, Alejandra and Frank. Harry and Rose were obviously a lot more evolved at this stage than any of the others and took on an almost parental role, taking care of the others, telling them what was right and wrong and keeping them out of trouble. Some, like Jesse and Brooklyn tried to resist this process but alas, they fell victim to Roses sweetness eventually. Alex couldn't continue his ordinary life without a little bit of crime, so he tried his best to hide it from poor Rose. The only reason Alex had any success dodging the law was because he feared breaking Rose's heart more than the torture of Zoto city prison. And there was no escaping Rose if she ever found out.
A few days passed in the house, Harry had stopped talking to the others as much, and he had lost his signature soft and cheery attitude, he had stopped trying to keep clean and be involved in human society as much, Harry had become severely depressed. Even Frank seemed effected by the loss of both Rose herself, and Harry's influence. There was an overall dull mood in the house for those few days, without Rose and Harry tying everyone's mornings and evenings together with a happy "good morning, how did you sleep?" or "good evening, how was your day?" all seemed quite scattered and depressing. All seemed lost until one day, someone came up with a "game"...