As any good friend would do, Cass chose to not remark when Flynn claimed he would never make up something so outrageous. Based on many years of friendship, that was exactly the sort of thing that Flynn would do. Creatures like Bloodeye Nutters were not animals that should exist in any world, in Cass's opinion, and yet, the living proof stood right in front of him, chomping on Cass's beloved cricket, Jiminy. Cass tried not to appear so broken up about it, however, as that would give up the whole charade and Flynn would know everything.

Jiminy's legs had barely disappeared into the black hole that was Bloodeye's mouth, before the world-worn rodent found a new object to attack. It hopped onto Cass's shoes, the penny loafers that had adorned the wizard's feet for far too many years. Though it was high time that Cass traded in those old shoes for new ones, he was not prepared to lose them to this crazed squirrel.

"Get off of me, you bloody mongrel!" Cass shouted, shaking his leg until the squirrel went flying off into the wall. That creature was a rascal. A rascal with no respect for wizards.

Looking to Flynn for answers, Cass gave his friend a horrified stare. "How did he even get in here?"

Bloodeye flew into the wall with a sickening crunch. He laid there, prostrate on the floor, what was left of his tail twitching ominously. Was he dead? Dying?

He slowly stood up, a chunk of leather from Cass’ nearly-useless loafers in his mouth. Bloodeye tilted his head to the side and it made an eerie creaking sound. How was this rodent still alive? It must’ve had some sort of magical resilience. Perhaps he had been someone’s pet. Was it even a squirrel?! It was not of this world.

“Not even my strongest potions could keep him out.” Flynn replied solemnly, keeping a wary eye on Ol’ Nutters.

“Every single time I get him to leave… He comes back. Stronger and more resilient. Even having a pet niffler would be better than this. You don’t understand the chaos he puts me through.” It seemed, though, that the squirrel was scoping out his newest victim… Cassidy MacQueen. Flynn very nearly thought about pawning Bloodeye off on his friend.

No. He couldn’t do that. Not even to teach a lesson.

“None of this would’ve happened, if you didn’t release a bug army into my flat!!!” The wizard exclaimed, flailing his arms in the air.

Focusing his eyes on the mangy squirrel, Cass waited with bated breath for the thing to move, even wiggle one of its few toes. It couldn't be dead, right? Cass hadn't meant to kill the creature, but it was just self-defense. If Bloodeye Nutters really was dead, at least he hadn't been murdered in cold blood. No animal deserved that sort of ending.

Of course, Cass hadn't met Bloodeye Nutters before. The moment that it got back to its feet, strips of Cass's beloved shoes hanging from its lips, Cass almost wished that he had killed the monster. Now that the penny loafers had been targeted (and one navy sock could be seen from the hole where the leather used to be), Cass was not going to hold back. This meant war.

"That is not a normal squirrel," Cass decided, his eyes fixed upon Bloodeye in horrified wonder, "I'm confident that someone bewitched it at some point." What sort of a nutter would be off their rocker just enough to cast magic on such an insignificant rodent. Staring at the animal, Cass got flashbacks of Watership Down, a Muggle story that his mother had thought was appropriate for a small child. Bloodeye Nutters looked like something straight out of that book.

Another matter was at hand, however, when Flynn accused his friend of setting the insects free in his apartment. Sputtering wildly, Cass attempted to dissuade Flynn from such a ridiculous notion, and perhaps put the focus back onto their new common enemy. "Well that's just -! You...You don't know what you're saying!" Cass assured his friend, determined to not let the jig be up quite yet, "Honestly, Flynn, you think of the silliest things. Why would I do something so childish?" Yes, good, go the route of condescension, distract him. Though he was the more serious one of the pair, Cass did have his moments of immaturity. This was one of them.

Bloodeye looked as though he was beginning to circle his prey, and so Cass did his best to keep one eye on the squirrel while he talked to Flynn. He knew that the beast was going to come back for the other shoe, and Cass was not about to let his ancient loafers go down without a fight.

From down the hallway, you could hear the door creak open.
It seemed that Mildred had found a way out. Flynn had yet to notice, as his focus was exclusively on Cassidy MacQueen and Bloodeye Nutters.

“Of course it’s not a normal squirrel! I swear, one of our neighbors does freak experiments on rodents. Bloodeye has been haunting me for ten years. TEN YEARS, CASS!” The squirrel chattered demonically in agreement. It knew. It knew about the torment he caused. In fact, he was half the reason that Flynn’s plants had to be charmed in the first place.

His friend’s denial only confirmed the atrocity he had committed. It wasn’t the fact that he denied it, but the way that he did so. Flynn knew Cass well enough to know when he was lying or trying to cover up something. “Was this another one of your silly lessons?!” He exclaimed, “I know what I’m saying. Who else would have a purple diamond-winged beetle?!” Flynn pointed at a rather sparkly purple beetle creepin’ on the ground. “Who else would have giant arachnids that terrorize my sweet Henry?!”

Mildred lept down from one of the hanging plants and landed on Cass’ head, yowling and not scratching intentionally. She was balancing herself on the bug-lover’s head.

The Watership Down Squirrel used this as a chance to pounce on the other pennyloafer, clawing it up and chewing with it’s razor-sharp teeth.

With so many things going on at once, Cass didn't even hear the bedroom door open and so had no knowledge of the demon cat's grand escape. He wouldn't have paid much attention had he known, anyway, because there was a new enemy on the battlefield that went by the name of Bloodeye Nutters. Well, it probably didn't go by that name with its friends (Cass doubted the monster had any pals to begin with), but that was certainly what Flynn had dubbed it and that was good enough for Cass.

"Blimey, has it really been ten years already? That's got to be some sort of life record for a squirrel," Cass raised his eyebrows, unable to deny that he was a little impressed with the squirrel. It had to have some sort of vendetta against Flynn to have spent the majority of its life tormenting the poor man. Cass made the mistake of looking Bloodeye square in the good eye, hoping to glare at it until it ran away in fear - to no avail. This just seemed to anger the beast as it frothed at the mouth and prepared itself to pounce.

Cass knew that Flynn would come to the conclusion of just where the bugs had come from, but he had hoped that it would be in a calmer situation. Instead, Cass was not only going to have to explain his reasoning to his best friend, but also fight off a rabid squirrel in the process. Looking to Flynn, he tried to give his best apologetic look.

"Alright, maybe I did set my insects loose in your apartment, and admittedly if I did - not saying for sure, but let's just say hypothetically -  it was not my most brilliant idea," Cass gave a hopeful look, his peripherals keeping track of the squirrel, "But, in my defense, I didn't expect the rodent from hell to actually exist and choose this exact moment to attack. And really, Flynn, if you hadn't been so irresponsible and left your window open for days on end, then maybe I wouldn't have - AHHHHHHH!!!"

Seeming to materialize out of the shadows, Mildred pounced onto Cass's head, using it as a platform while she surveyed the mayhem in Flynn's apartment. Simultaneously, Bloodeye made its move, tearing at Cass's good shoe (the 'good' one still being beaten up worn down from years of life). Shaking the rodent off this time proved to be a more difficult task, however, as Cass now had a cat atop his head, whose claws were threatening to unsheath if the healer moved around too wildly. In a last-ditch effort, Cass threw the entire shoe off of his foot and took a few quick steps backward while the squirrel was distracted. This play to teach Flynn a lesson had so far gone completely awry.

“This is not a normal squirrel, Cass. I swear it’s enchan—“ The next thing Flynn knew, Cass’ shoe was flying at his face, a loafer plane with a rabid squirrel as the pilot. Flynn dodged the shoe, ramming himself into the wall in the process.  When Bloodeye finally landed, he rose, victorious. He shuffled around inside what used to be the penny loafer, and tore off another bit.  He stuck his head out of the new hole. It was now the squirrel’s…. Shirt? Dress? Either way, it was his new outfit.

He shimmied through it some more and stuck his arms out. The shoe was being worn around Nutters’ waist.
He made a squawking noise and climbed up one of Flynn’s plants, mocking Cass from above. The loafer thumped against the plant’s bark as he did so.

Mildred decided that Cass’ head was not the best place to survey the area from, and jumped off casually, as if it was a perfectly normal thing to do.

“THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TRY TO TEACH ME LESSONS!” Flynn exclaimed, “Everything gets out of hand! Remember the fish and chips debacle of 2008?! How hard was it to share chips with me, Cass?!” He didn't even care that Cass' shoes were utterly destroyed. They needed to be replaced long ago.

As 6R’s front door creaked open a little further, Shona peered around it, brows lifted eyes wide, and expression caught somewhere between intrigue and concern.



Earlier that day, plans had been made to meet with a certain witch– one who was both a barista at popular cafe and a famous children’s author promoting her latest book –but more importantly, a younger sister in need of some sibling bonding time. They were close (–or rather, close to their brother, who despite his surliness acted as a buffer between them more often than not), but were adults, and as such had their own lives. Even if they all lived within the same country continent now, it was difficult to find the time (and, yes, even the will) to meet up in one place.

Today, however, was a different story—or was supposed to be. CeeCee had mentioned needing to pick up some drafts from her illustrator, Layla Styles, and Shona, embracing that ever-present need to hit two birds with one stone (except not literally because she was a wolf, not a monster), had offered to pick them up for her before her meeting was over. SW9 7JB, Barrington Road, Brixton, London, she’d said, Dorothea’s Apartments, apartment #6T. Grab and go. Easy enough, right?

But then, as she neared the building, her sensitive ears picked up a great deal of noise—yelling, yowling– chittering, even. And after that – at which point she and Rick had entered the lobby, staring up the stairway with lifted brows – there had been only more vociferous expressions of upset.

She and Rick had glanced at each other then, brows still lifted in silent communication before Rick ended it with a slow shake of his head. “Sixth floor,” he’d said, in a very final, meaningful way. No fricking way.

Her brows had risen even higher. So?

He glared. No.

Two minutes later, they were both rushing the stairs, swift and quiet. He’d wait on the fifth floor, they had compromised. He’d go further if she needed him, but only then.

Which was just as well, perhaps. It didn’t look like she would– there were only two men, and they seemed fine with just shouting at each other, if the apparent lack of spell-throwing were anything to go by –but both of them were screaming bloody murder, there were stains splattered across the floor, and there appeared to be a… squirrel?– wearing someone’s loafer and smelling downright predatory for a tree-climbing rodent, all musk and dominance and evil intent.

Merlin, it didn’t look like a squirrel anymore.

“Wow,” she breathed, leaning against the door and looking thoroughly impressed. It was both the wolf and the magizoologist who asked, “What the hell is that?”

For a moment, time seemed to slow down as the squirrel piloted the shoe in Flynn's direction, and it looked as though Flynn was going to pull a ninja move...until he slammed into the wall to avoid Bloodeye's crazy train. Cass was powerless, looking ridiculous with a cat taking up residence on his head, as the squirrel squeezed itself through the penny loafer and turned it into the latest number in the rodent's spring fashion line.

"Brilliant. Just brilliant," Cass muttered bitterly (and somewhat fearfully), as Mildred leapt from his head and Bloodeye Nutters began mocking him, "I'm going to need a new pair of shoes." And he was most definitely going to get Flynn to pay for them. It didn't matter that Cass had really started the entire mess when he set his beloved insects loose in his friend's flat. Someone was going to pay for what had happened to Cass's shoes, and since he was entirely afraid of taking revenge on the actual culprit, Flynn was just going to have to do.

Meanwhile, Flynn was shouting at Cass, clearly trying to reprimand his friend for everything that had gone wrong. "Oy, d'you have to bring up the whole fish and chips mess again?" Cass furrowed his brow, not wanting to get onto that subject for another time, "Just let it go already, mate! You needed to learn personal boundaries, and there was only one way to go about that, and - you know what? I don't need to justify myself to you! You learned your lesson that time, and maybe you'll learn it this time, as well!" If anything, maybe Flynn would just remember how badly things went when Cass attempted to teach a lesson.

A voice from the door caught Cass's attention and his head quickly turned in that direction. A woman was leaning against the door frame, clearly having been drawn in by a scene that was more than a bit unbelievable.

"Oh. Um," Cass cleared his throat, straightening his shirt out and attempting to look less insane, "Hello." He knew how preposterous the flat looked: bugs crawling across the floor, a dog shaking in the corner, three-quarters of a squirrel wearing a penny loafer around its neck, two grown men shouting each other (he himself wearing only one shoe, out of which his toes were peeking), and a cat watching over the whole place like some sort of evil overlord. The woman didn't look familiar to Cass, so he assumed she was most likely just visiting. Or a new tenant, in which case, Cass knew that he and Flynn were making a fantastic first impression.

"That?" Cass repeated in reply to the woman's curiosity, gesturing to Ol' Nutters atop one of Flynn's plants and shoving his hands into his trouser pockets, "Oh, that's nothing. Just a squirrel wearing my shoe. Perfectly normal." When it came to Cass and Flynn's friendship, it really wasn't too far from normal.

At the sight of a new person, Henry’s little nubbin of a tail began to wag so fast that it was nothing but a blur. It was as if the guest made her totally forget the trauma of being surrounded by idiots, insects, and squirrels alike. She pranced towards Shona and sat on her shoe, leaning against her leg and sniffing it.

Flynn rubbed his shoulder, it would probably bruise from it’s encounter with the wall. Nothing that episkey wouldn’t fix.

“Of course I have to bring up the fish and chips thing, Cass! EVERYTHING GOES BACK TO FISH AND CHIPS!” It was then that he noticed Shona standing in his doorway, asking what in the world the squirrel was. She was vaguely familiar. Oh yes! She was his sister’s friend! He had visited Audrey awhile back, and was introduced to… What was her name? Sean? Sean Donowhatever?

“Shona!” He exclaimed, looking from her to Cass. “Er, Cass—she’s one of my sister’s friends. I know, I know—Audrey actually has friends.” Flynn wasn’t sure what she was doing here—he’d never seen her at Dorothea’s. She didn’t live here… Perhaps she was visiting someone she knew? A family member?

“Er—yes—that—“ he pointed at the one-eyed creature, “That’s Bloodeye Nutters, the bane of my existence. Resident rodent and destroyer of dreams.”

The shoe clad squirrel's eye focused on Shona and it jumped down, leaping onto Flynn’s head and launching himself at the werewolf. Henry dog-screamed once more.

---

Bright green eyes drew up from the floor, the thing, with those very same amounts of amazement, amusement, and– however small –concern. People freezing upon her appearance was a common occurrence, but one that was more often limited to guilty siblings and children. Who, given age gaps, and even complete disregard of them, were so very often one and the same.

One man she recognized—Flynn, was it? A Healer, but more importantly the brother of one of her greatest friends, Audrey Hughes (and by extension, uncle of a well-known firstie Shona was quite fond of). The other, not so much—but he seemed rather close to Flynn, if the man’s shouting was any indicator, as well as the levels of dishevelment and tension they shared were anything to go by. This was one of their apartments, if not theirs, although whichever case it was, couldn’t be decided at the moment. A domestic spat, perhaps?

But there was hardly more than a second to spare after that, even for Henrietta, for whom Shona let down her guard (which had been at least somewhat up, if not completely, because there were, after all, very few things to be found in a Muggle complex that could make her feel sufficiently threatened), and it was because of that that Shona could only straighten—right into the squirrel’s projectory.

Ye gods, the thing was somehow even more hideous up close, she thought. Right before it landed on her face.

“!!” she breathed– and instantly tried not to, because ye gods the thing stank. It– he– smelled of everything she’d gotten a wisp of and more—of filth and blood and dead things, and wicked sharp claws threatened to pierce her skin—did, in fact, because blood welled up on her face as Henry screamed, the sound ringing in her sensitive sensitive ears, and just, no. Hell no.

Hands flying up to grab the thing– her own nails digging in through the matted fur, just as the first drop of blood began to streak down her face –Shona clutched at Bloodeye and yanked.

Claws caught on her skin, dragged, leaving lines across her face that immediately swelled—more pain, of course, but a small price to pay so long as she could breathe. And on the next breath, she could, and—

Bashed Bloodeye against the door frame, before hurling him down the stairwell with a solid pitch of her arm.

She turned then, somewhat facing the men in the apartment again, although much of her focus was on gingerly wiping her face, which was streaked with scratches that were now starting to bleed, and eurgh, she was totally going to have to disinfect them–


And then, a furious, startled swear: “What the fuck–”


Shona looked up, expression smoothing into one of guilty innocence. Oops.

There wasn't much Cass could do to stop it from happening, and so he simply watched in petrified horror as the squirrel launched itself in Shona's direction, aiming to land square on her face. The beast was successful, claws digging into the newcomer's skin, doing far more damage than it had to either of the two healers standing in the apartment. Shona appeared to take a much more combative approach, however, and Cass stared in relief and wonder as the rodent sailed out the door and down the stairs. His eyes darted back to the stranger, unable to hide the fact that he was incredibly impressed at how quickly she had dealt with Bloodeye, when Cass and Flynn had been scrambling around for god knows how long.

Turning to Flynn, Cass arched his eyebrows in question. "Your sister's friend, huh? Yeah, I could see that," he concluded, replaying the image in his head of Bloodeye being smacked against the door, and how merciless it had been (though well-deserved).

Cass gave an apologetic smile in Shona's direction, even though he had nothing to really apologize for. After all, she hadn't been invited into the spectacle, and it wasn't as though Cass was responsible for Bloodeye Nutters and all of the evils that it committed. Still, she certainly hadn't asked to be attacked by a rabid, demonic squirrel. "Sorry about all of that," Cass offered, shrugging sheepishly, "I'm sure that being bombarded by one of hell's rodents was not on your agenda for the day. Things like this don't usually happen." He chuckled lightly, though he was bending the truth a bit. When it came to Flynn and Cass's adventures, strange things happened more often than not.

"We should probably get those cuts cleaned up," Cass pointed towards the damage to Shona's face, "Who knows what sort of diseases Bloodeye has? You certainly don't want to leave them unattended for too long." Out of the corner of his eye, Cass saw that the majority of his insects were either frozen in fear, or else had been stomped to death in all of the excitement. Mildred, darling that she was, seemed inclined to go back to tormenting the poor things, now that the room had calmed down a fair bit.

As soon as Flynn saw Bloodeye claw at Shona’s face, he ran down the hall and into one of the back rooms—not wanting to stay to watch the horror without at least doing something about it. Or trying to do something about it. He picked up a small glass jar and rushed as quickly as he could back into the living room. Flynn was just in time to see Shona throw the squirrel down the hallway, towards some poor unsuspecting bloke. Who also sounded like he would be in need of the cream in just a second.

As far as the healer could tell, Shona’s wounds were only superficial. The cream would heal them quickly, with no complications.

“You look like, well, like you were just attacked by a squirrel wearing a shoe.” Flynn said with a little too much cheer in his voice, “Here, put some of this on those scratches.” He held out the container and turned to look at Cass.

“And you, my friend, look like you’ve seen war.”

Down the hall, Flynn could hear rabid growling and snarls. He wasn't sure if it was Bloodeye or the squirrel's newest victim.

As the oh so familiar sounds of violence wafted up the stairwell (–punctuated, of course, by a liberal smattering of livid snarls and the sound of cloth tearing), Shona… forgot about them instantly. Focusing on the men before her instead, she blinked, cocking her head in surprise before her expression cleared, recognition taking its place. It was an oddly innocuous look, with the blood streaking down her face. “Oh– yeah,” she hastily agreed, at first sheepish at being so slow on the uptake before the enormity of Bloodeye’s vileness sink in. Then, then there was a fervent grimace, “ugh, god, please.”

She accepted Flynn’s offering with a quick but no less sincere “thanks!” and quickly unscrewed the cap. The cream smelled, for lack of a better word, medical, but it was easily ignored; it was hardly the worst she had ever smelled. There were worse things, like corpses—or probably undead squirrels, as it were. “Thanks,” she said again, as she spread some over the scratches, and gave the men – both of them – a big, grateful smile. Flynn’s observation drew a laugh.

As if on cue, the stairwell thundered with footfall, steady, even and angry. It wasn’t even all that loud, actual stomping, but there was a measured pace to it that boded nothing good for the source of its displeasure.

Rick’s eventual appearance at the height of the stairs– livid, disheveled, and even bloody in some places– only proved it true.

“Rick!” Shona brightened, undeterred by this in the least, and beckoned him inside as if it were her own flat.

True to form, Rick stared. But he did as he was bid and came to stand by the door frame, surveying Flynn, Cass, and the rest of the apartment with an unimpressed look on his face, before pinning it on his sister. “A fucking rat attacked me,” he sneered, in a tone too pleasant to deceive anyone. He met Cass’s eyes again, then Flynn’s, light-colored eyes like searchlights beneath the decidedly unpleasant set of his brows. “Yours, I take it?”

Aside from raising an eyebrow in slight concern, Cass mostly chose to ignore the noises coming from outside the flat; as far as he was concerned, so long as Bloodeye Nutters was out of their lives (for the time being, at least), then he needn't worry about whatever poor soul happened to cross paths with the rabid squirrel afterwards. The ointment that Flynn had provided for Shona's use seemed to do the trick, and Cass only wished that there was such a fix for his shoes. He could certainly figure out a way to magically mend them, but unfortunately, it seemed that Bloodeye had left (or, rather, had been forcibly removed) while still wearing one of the loafers as a dress. Cass wasn't sure if he wanted it back after that, anyway.

As if the entire scene hadn't already gotten out of control, a second stranger appeared, looking as though he had seen his fair share of rodent war on the way up. "Well, that explains the noise," Cass observed rather quietly, just as Shona called the man Rick and expressed signs of familiarity. Cass was genuinely surprised that Rick assumed that Bloodeye belonged to one or both of them. Did they really look like the sort of blokes who would keep a frothing squirrel as a pet? And then, as Cass took a glance around the room to see Mildred pouncing on his rare insects and Henry still shaking (possibly from fear or excitement), he realized that yes, yes they were those kinds of people.

"Oh, ah, no," Cass mumbled, somewhat confused still, "No, that beast does not belong to us. Sorry that you happened to run into it, though. Bloodeye Nutters seems to be the common enemy of us all." Oh, how Cass longed for the blissfully unaware days before he had encountered such a vile creature.

"You look like you've got a few cuts," Cass pointed toward the container in Shona's hands, "There's some cream there. It'll help, if you need it."