Fox Life

When Iris took a step away from the limp man, she heard hurried footsteps coming down the stairs. She tensed, expecting the guards, but it sounded like only one person.     

The next second, her aunt rushed in. There was panic on her face along with worry, but they were soon replaced by shock. "What are you—" Her gaze then moved from Iris to the three men on the floor. "What did you do?" she shouted out.     

Aunt Maddie then rushed past Iris to Chris' side. Her lips tightened into a line when she saw the blood. Falling on her knees by his body, she gently touched his cheek, brushed the light bruise on his temple.     

"What did you do to him?" she demanded then, leveling her cold, bespectacled gaze at Iris. It was full of fury and horror. "How could you do something like that?"     

"I didn't do anything," Iris said in a flippant manner. She walked to where she had dropped her lab coat and put it back on, covering herself up.     

But it didn't help to smother the pain that came from seeing her aunt worry more about the person who'd tortured and killed all her family than her. Why was it that the two of them could never see eye to eye?     

"It's only what he deserves for all he's done to my father."     

"Shut up! What do you even know?" her aunt shouted out. Her hands shook as she raised them to straighten her glasses. "He was the best of them! If not for him, you'd have never had the life you did! It was because of his kindness that you were never locked in a cage, but could run around freely! And that's how you repay him? You're not better than that beast of a father!"     

It was the last straw. "Beast of a father?" Iris asked in a voice she could barely recognize as her own. Even her aunt leaned back, startled. "You're one to talk! What have you ever done with your power? You could have stopped all this, it was within your power, but did you? Of course not!     

"Even when your own sister got involved, instead of telling everything to her and trying to help, you ratted her out so even she would become a lab rat. You say you loved her, but you never really did. You were jealous of her happiness, of her responsibility-free life and love. The only reason you ever took me in was because of guilt, not because you actually cared what would happen to me."     

Aunt Maddie's face distorted as tears began to fall, but Iris didn't care. At that moment, she came to a full realization of what big lie her whole life had been. Even her aunt, the person she'd trusted the most, did never really care for her. It wasn't love that motivated her but guilt.     

What Iris had taken for strength was actually weakness born of fear. Every move of her aunt was fueled by a wish not to get hurt. The reason she accepted the role of a scientist was not because she believed in it, but because it was the simpler way. She then gave up on her sister not to help her but to make sure she herself wouldn't be seen as a traitor in case they were ever found out.     

"Pathetic," Iris murmured, more to herself than her aunt. If that woman had ever chosen a way that was not the easiest one, how different would the world be?     

'I might actually have a family.'     

It was just dreams, though. Her parents were dead and her aunt existed only in her imagination. The real person was only a shadow, afraid of change and fighting for anything.     

Iris closed her eyes, feeling the erratic beat of her own heart. "A benevolent tyrant is still a tyrant," she told her aunt. "If some evil is slightly better than another, it doesn't mean that it's good."     

There were more footsteps then, and Iris breathed a sigh of relief. It would be good to move about, do something to not see her aunt's betrayed look.     

"I'm not the one who betrayed you," she whispered, then positioned herself near the stairs with her back to the wall.     

Once the first man rushed in, she stabbed the dart into his arm with force. He turned to her, surprised, then faltered in his steps, surprising the people after him.     

"Hey, man, what gives!" the one right behind shouted out, stumbling, and Iris stabbed him with another dart.     

The two at the back then realized what was happening and grew cautious. Iris fell back, allowing them into the room. There was only one sedative dart left, so she had to use it well.     

Once the men barged into the lab, they instantly noticed the downed bodies. Their eyes widened when they realized that it was Iris alone who had done it, but it didn't last for long. One stepped forward while the other crouched down next to their comrades.     

"Sedative," he said in a gruff voice. "Darts for the escapees."     

The other man cursed and raised his baton. His posture was forward, but he didn't rush ahead with cautiousness thrown to the wind.     

Iris grinned. They thought that would be enough to defend against her? They were fools. That bastard Chris had gotten one thing right —she wasn't really human, and so she didn't have to act by their expectations.     

She crouched down behind a counter, then changed. While the men were looking for someone as massive as a human, she dashed toward them as a fennec. Then, when the man aimed to hit her small fox, she changed and caught his swing. The dart in her mouth was then swiftly thrust into his arm.     

It took longer than expected, and the other man caught Iris by the hand. But what could he do? She changed that same second, and his hold went empty. Where there had been a human arm, only a small fennec paw was left.     

Iris fell on the ground with a thump, then ran away. The man went after, swearing as he aimed his baton at her small form. If it hit her, half of Iris' bones might be crushed.     

There wasn't much place in the lab to gain speed with all the tables and counters around, but it created a lot of space to hide for someone as small as a fennec fox. In no time, Iris circled the man chasing her and changed.     

There was some kind of machine on the counter next to her, and she grabbed it for a weapon. The man heard something and was about to turn around, but it was too late. He was hit full force to the side of his head and fell to the ground.     

The machine had been too heavy, so Iris couldn't swing it much, and the man was only downed for a second. While pained clouded his mind, she snatched a sedative from his belt and stabbed it into his arm. In a couple moments, his struggles fell silent.     

With relief, Iris grabbed the coat she'd dropped before and wrapped herself in it again. Her heart was like a galloping stallion, but her mind was crystal clear. They had wanted a monster, so she gave it to them.     

Even if the price for it might end up too high.     

There were footsteps on the stairs again. 'More guards?' Iris almost laughed. How many more people did she have to hurt for it all to be over?     

Since there were no more weapons in her hands, she dashed over to the guards at the foot of the stairs and collected the darts they carried on them. There was no time to set up an ambush like before, so she just looked up from her crouched position to glare at the approaching figures who had stopped upon sighting her.     

It was Kyro with a group of armed men.