Part 1: https://www.weasyl.com/journal/75984/rot-part-1-pierce-and-rose-s-story

Part 2

Rose froze up with seeing these movements. This was too soon! Why was he waking up NOW?

Blaise had just gotten the phone and walked back in front of the room where Rose was when he had also heard the sounds.

“Rose! That thing is waking up! Get out of there!”

Rose jolted when she heard her brother speak so suddenly. She quickly looked to Blaise, then back to the creature. He was right, she had to move!

She stood upright, dropping the wrappings, and ran to the door. Once past the portal, Blaise shut the door.

“Get the keys!”

Rose moved hastily to the kitchen, which the entrance was only a few feet away, and moved over to the drawer by the fridge. She opened it up and it made a loud screeching sound. It was very old, but it did not fall apart. This was the junk drawer, so there were various small things inside, including batteries, a flashlight, a few kitchen utensils and several keys on a circle keychain. She grabbed it and turned back towards Blaise without closing the drawer.

Once back by the door, she fumbled with the keys and tried several of them into the lock before getting the right one.

Right as she locked the door, a loud THUD came from inside of the room, and then a groan. She took a step away from the door. Blaise didn’t move.

“Okay, good, it can’t get us now… SEE? This was a bad idea with bringing this creature into MY house!”

“I didn’t think he’d wake up… It was such a short time… why is he waking up?”

More groaning sounds came from inside of the room. Both Rose and Blaise stared at the door, not knowing what to do.

“Rose, we need to somehow get it out of here. We should have NEVER brought it in here!”

“But he’s not healed! He still needs help!”

Another loud THUD came from the room, then a quiet, yet rough voice that said, “fuck”.

Rose looked back at Blaise, heavy confusion in her eyes. She almost looked annoyed. “Did he just swear…? Blaise, I thought you said these ones aren’t like humans!”

Blaise glanced at Rose, then back to the door. He, too, was very confused with this sudden word the creature had spoken.

“Yeah, they aren’t like humans! I don’t know why it knows that word. Maybe we misheard? I’ve never heard one talk before! It must have just sounded like it, but wasn’t really the word. Yeah, that’s what it must have been!”

Rose looked even more annoyed. She knew what she heard wasn’t fake. It was a real word! I curse word… but an actual word!

“Blaise, I’m going to help him out,” she said, having herself take that step back towards the door. The fear seemed to subside quite a bit just by hearing that one word.

Blaise moved himself right in front of the door, blocking her path and folded his arms across his chest. Rose had to back up once more.

“Rose, you’re crazy! I’m not letting you go in there! Just because it can say a few words doesn’t mean it’s suddenly safe!”

“You can’t stop me, brother!”

Blaise grabs her shoulders and holds her tightly. “Rose, please, listen to me. These things won’t hesitate to hurt you!”

Rose looks down and away from Blaise, slightly shaking. She can’t stand to look at him right now. “I don’t care what he does to me. I want to help. I wanted him in here, away from the poachers, so let me help him…”

Blaise just stared at her, dumb founded. “You know what? Fine!” He let go of Rose and threw his hands in the air, feeling even more defeated. “Do what you want! Don’t come crying to me if he ends up hurting you!”
Blaise balled up one fist and smacked the wall with the side of it pretty hard making a loud thump sound, but not enough to make a dent in the wall. “I’ll be in my room, calling the police.”
He walked away from Rose, phone in hand, and went up the stairs, going to his room, and then slamming it behind him. He wasn’t thinking too clearly anymore. But, if anything bad happened he’d be down to help, even if pissed.

Rose stood there, still shaking, and then tears began to fall down her cheeks. She really didn’t know what the right thing to do was. She held her breath for a few seconds, letting her heart slow down and the emotions to calm, and then she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She had to help him and ignore Blaise.

Her sadness was slipping away, but in its place fear was building once again. This creature was now awake and inside the room… though, he could speak. That should be enough to keep calm, right?

She clenched her teeth and put the right key back into the hole. She paused, realizing it has been rather quiet ever since she and her brother had been arguing. Was he alright…?
She turned the key and the knob at the same time and slowly opened it up, peering through. She couldn’t see anything. He must be hidden on the other side of the bed.
She could now start to hear some heavy breathing, but it almost seemed like the creature was trying to hold back from making any noise.

“…Hello? I’m here to help you… you have some very bad wounds that should be—“
Before she could finish, a low growl came out. It sounded deep, and very angry.
Rose put one hand to her chest, clenched in a fist. Her heart rate had escalated again.
“I won’t hurt you, I promise…”
The growls continued, but the creature did not move at all.
She now felt like she wanted to turn away and stay away, but she instead started to walk forward, and around the bed, but very slowly.
“It’s okay, I know you’re hurt…”
She came into slight view of the creature’s line of sight and he immediately hissed at her, but then clenched up and almost made a yelp-like noise. He had moved his hand too much, so the pain instantly hit him.

Seeing him in pain like that gave her more courage to get closer, about a foot away, before he hissed at her again. She stopped and stared at his face. It looked very intense, with his red eyes having very thin, cat-like pupils and his sharp teeth bared at her.
It looked like he was guarding his hand. He didn’t know what else to do.
“Please show me your hand. I’ll try to make it better.” Rose began to stretch out her own hand towards him, trying to show she really wanted to help.

The creature didn’t see it that way. He used his left hand, the one not hurt and facing her, and slashed at her hand, causing several cuts on the palm. She yelled out in surprise and sudden pain and fell backwards. Blood was now seeping out of the wounds.
Loud thumps and foot steps could be heard from upstairs, then quickly going down stairs and right into the room.
“ROSE, what happened??”

Rose watched as Blaise rushed over to her, and then suddenly jolt from the sudden growls and hisses. Blaise didn’t waste any time and quickly went to pick Rose up, though half-hazardly because of her weight, and got out of the room as quick as he could. He set her down on a couch in the living room near by, then went back to the door to lock it. The growling had stopped, but it was clear this beast could have killed Rose if she stayed in there any longer.
He walked back over to Rose, not knowing how to feel about everything that is happening.
“Let me see your hand, Rosie.”
She showed him, tears coming down her face again. She felt so scared and in pain. Her whole hand was bloody and trembling.
“Is there any more of the first aid outside of that room?”
Rose shook her head very slightly.
“Dammit!”
Blaise ran into the bathroom, which was right next to the guest room, and grabbed a bunch of toilet paper. He went back over to Rose, wadded it up and pressed it against her palm, soaking up the blood.

“Ow! That hurts,” Rose muttered, wincing as the pain seemed to pulse through her whole arm.

“We’ll need to take you to the doctor. There’s nothing else here to help something this large.”

“Did… you call the police?”

Blaise looked back at her, confusion in his eyes. “Yes, but why are you worrying about that? I’ll have to call them again, anyways, to remove this creature from my home.”

“NO you can’t! He needs our help still! Ah…” Rose gingerly held her hand. The yelling seemed to hurt it even more.

Blaise sighed. Maybe it would be best to not mention it. “Come on, let’s get you fixed up at the doctor.”

---

Several hours had passed. Blaise was fine with having the beast home alone for that long since it was so hurt it could barely do anything. Plus, Eduard wouldn’t be back for a few days anyways.
The doctor visit went smoothly. Rose’s hand was cleaned up, given a few stitches, and then wrapped up tightly in an anti-bacterial cloth. She was informed to have it on for a few days or so before removing it.
That whole time Rose couldn’t stop thinking about the poor “man” in the guest room. He must have been terrified, not being able to do much. She rationalized that’s why he had attacked her. He was scared and she was too close.

On the way back to the house (in Blaise’s car), Rose had made her brother promise he’d not call the police on him. In return, Blaise made Rose promise to let the creature go when he was healed enough, even if he wanted the thing gone right now. That’s all that Rose wanted, so she easily agreed to it.

It was close to midnight now as they got back to the house. Blaise told her to go straight to bed.

Blaise went up to his room, and Rose went to hers. Rose changed out of her clothes and put on a one-piece nightgown. She got into bed and just lay there.
She had gotten the help she needed to help her hand… but what about the creature? His was way worse.

Rose stayed in bed for about an hour, thinking it over, not being able to fall asleep. She couldn’t stay in bed any longer… he must still be in pain.

She got out of bed and walked as quietly as she could out of the room and down the stairs. She didn’t want Blaise to wake up, as she knew he’d be against this. The floors were creaky, but she managed to make as little noise as possible.
She made it to the guest bedroom and noticed the door was still locked.
She moved over to the living room couch and found the keys on the coffee table. Good thing her brother didn’t keep it with him… he must not have been thinking about it.

With the key back in the keyhole, she unlocked the door and slowly opened it up. She walked in and closed the door behind her, being careful all the while. The streetlights from outside were shining in, which was good because she didn’t want to turn on the bedroom lights. She could at least see the room clear enough.

She stood there for a few seconds, anticipating growls or some kind of sound from him… but there was none. She could see that he had moved his location to the corner of the room, which was only a few feet from where he had been before. That calmed her some, being able to see him before moving across the room.

She took a few steps, heading around the bed, watching how he may react. His head was against the wall, and not looking at her. It was hard to see the details of his face, but his position didn’t look that comfortable. Did he even know she was there?

Rose was able to make it to the other side of the bed, and had herself sit down on the floor, just a few feet away from him. She brought her legs up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them, and had her head low.
An instant sinking feeling hit her when she noticed he was finally looking at her, though he did not move his head at all, nor did he make a sound.
Her eyes darted away from his, and then saw something shredded on the ground. It was the wrappings that were on his foot. He had ripped them off, most likely with his un-damaged hand. She couldn’t help but sigh at that. It was there to help him.

“You’re supposed to keep that on…” she said, rather quietly. He still didn’t make a sound, and continued to stare at her with uncaring eyes. Her eyes moved away from the bandages and focused on his feet instead. They looked cute, being paws like a cat or dog. She knew the arctics had paw-feet, but she had never actually looked at them before. Though, she still couldn’t see the fine details of them, being mostly in the dark.
Maybe she could get him to talk… she was sure he knew how.

“So… I heard you say a word earlier. Can you say anything else?”

Silence.

She couldn’t help but look at his face again. He now was looking away from her.
“I won’t hurt you, if that’s what you’re thinking. I just want to talk…. If you can.”

More silence.

“Then maybe you can shake your head up or down to anything I say?”

He didn’t move at all. Maybe he was sulking? Or really didn’t understand her…

“Maybe that was the only word you know… or it just sounded like a word… I wish you could talk.”

From the silence came a stomach gurgling sound. It was from the male, yet he still didn’t move or react to it.

Rose brought her head more up, surprised with hearing anything.
“Oh, you’re hungry. What would you like to eat?... Oh, wait, you can’t talk…”

She stood up and began to walk to the door. “I’ll go find something for you. I’ll just have to guess. Maybe a few different things.”
Even though he wasn’t responding to her at all, she felt comfortable with continuing to talk about things, even if he could possibly not understand.

She was already in the kitchen, looking through the cupboards. She had no idea what he’d like to eat. The arctics seem to eat all sorts of things, so he most likely did as well, right?
Cooking can’t be an option right now, either, or else that would wake up Blaise…

There were crackers in a box on the counter, so she grabbed a plate, opened up the package, and quietly placed several on the dish. She opened the fridge next and took out some goat cheese, cut up some slices and also placed them on the dish. The last thing she took out was salami, cut that up as well, and put it on the plate. She felt proud of herself. It was a simple meal with no cooking required, and it just felt nice doing something for someone else without being demanded to do so. He had to like one of these, right? All the while she had been careful about her hurt hand. The pain was still there, but not as strong as before. She could easily ignore it. She has dealt with worse before…

She walked back into the guest room with the plate of goodies, feeling more confident in herself, and not afraid.
She set down the plate a foot in front of him, and then sat back down, like she had before.

“Go ahead, you can eat,” she said, smiling.
She watched as he looked down at the plate, stared for a few seconds, then looked away, making a huff sound.
Rose felt a little offended. “I swear I didn’t put anything bad in it. It’s clean!”

“I’m not going to eat crap human food,” the creature said, finally. The sound to his voice was deep, and almost raspy. He was still glancing away, looking disgusted. Rose had a shocked look on her face from what he just said… or just saying anything at all.

“You… you CAN talk!” she said with an excited tone.

“Yeah. So?” He sounded more annoyed.

“Do you have a name?” she asked, sounding cheery.

Silence filled the room once again, besides some more huffing sounds he made. He was very stubborn.

“Um… Can you tell me anything about yourself?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Her cheeriness was beginning to fade. What good is it to talk but refuse to say anything?

“Leave me the fuck alone, human,” he said in a very angry tone. Not once did he look at her.

Those words hurt. More than she thought they could. Was she really that annoying of a person?

“Alright…” She didn’t want to fight with him.
Maybe Blaise was right. Maybe it was a bad idea to help this guy out. He didn’t seem grateful at all… and was instead very rude and mean. If he could understand her, why was he being like this? It didn’t make sense.
She could feel tears well up in her eyes. She got up and left the room without saying anything else. The creature, still nameless, didn’t move.

Rose closed the door behind her and locked it, then walked back up the stairs, into her room and into her bed. Her grey tabby cat, Cesar, was there this time, and he greeted her lovingly, meowing and wanting to snuggle. Rose hugged him close to her while she curled up on her side and began to quietly cry.

What was she going to do with him?