Finding Fenrir (Underworld Chronicles Fanfiction)

Beast

I followed Hades to a room near the lab. It was a room of screens, each showing a different area of the lab. Hades sat in a rolling chair and typed in a quick precise pattern. The largest screen in the center lit up and brought up what I recognized as a start screen on a computer. I tipped by head a little. I knew what a computer was and what it could do but I'd never used one myself. Hades did some clicking with a mouse then plugged something into a slot just under the screen.

"This is the footage from the security camera I had watching you yesterday." Hades explained and motioned to a chair next to him. I eagerly sat, my eyes glued to the screen.

I saw Hades on the screen and I saw myself. I wanted to wince. I looked worse on camera than I felt I did in life. I looked tired and gaunt, and I could see myself shaking even as Hades tried to reassure me. I wondered if that was something I did without realizing it. I shook my head and focused as Hades left the screen, leaving the image of me sitting on the bed. I watched myself sit on the floor and arrange myself into what looked like a meditative state.

I gulped, nervous. I had never seen the Beast before, only heard tales of it. I saw myself start shaking harder than ever, my breath coming out in hard, uneven panting, then suddenly I stopped. I stopped shaking and my breath left in a long sigh before becoming calm and steady. My hands unclenched and my back straightened. I knew I was no longer looking at myself. I was looking at my Beast, my feral twin.

The sensation of seeing my body move without me was surreal. I watched it twist its shoulders forward and back, and I could hear quiet crunching through the speakers. It seemed like it was settling into my body like an ill-fitting coat.

When the Beast opened its eyes I felt all the air suddenly leave the room. Its eyes were a bright green and seemed to glow slightly. It didn't leave me thinking about the change. It reached up and plunged its fingers into its mouth and pulled with a sharp jerk forward. There was a sharp crunch and I winced, raising a hand to my jaw.

"Yeah. Seems it broke your jaw as the first order of business. I mean, I was going to do the same thing later today but it looks like your Beast beat me to the punch." I looked at him in surprise. He shrugged.

I turned my attention back to the screen. The beast couldn't close its mouth now and had its head tipped down as blood and saliva dripped onto the floor. After a moment the creature raised its hand to my jaw again and I heard a second crunch.

"Relocating the jaw. Seems it wasn't happy with the state of your mouth." Hades commented and I stared at the screen, dumbfounded.

Why now? I wondered. Hades again shrugged, watching both myself and the screen.

I watched the Beast moving more, shifting my jaw side to side, drawing it open and shut with occasional soft crunches. After a while it stood and casually popped it's knuckles as it walked toward the locked door.

It set its middle finger against its thumb and gave the lock a quick thump. The lock exploded out of the door with a sharp ping. The Beast then took the doorknob in hand and pulled the door open calmly. Whatever it meant to do beyond the door it was in no hurry. The door opened to a sheet of Hades' magic meant the block the creature from the rest of the lab.

It walked through the blue haze of power as one would walk through an irritating cobweb.

Hades made an irritated sound. "That's when I went to take care of the situation." The camera changed so that I was seeing the inside of the lab and I saw Hades appear on the screen a few feet away from my Beast.

"Easy..." Hades on the screen said, hands visible and feet spread apart in readiness as if to catch a frightened animal before it was put in the shelter.