It was as if a bomb went off inside Ireena's parents. As soon as her paw softly landed on her mother's shoulder, she whirled around and snarled, her gold eyes glowing with malice. Her father followed suit.

"Wait, wait! It's just me!" Ireena screeched, confused and upset. Her demonic parents only came closer, still growling and hissing. Without thinking, Ireena wacked both of them on the muzzle, hard. Her parents flew across the room. They landed on the floor, the ocean water setting them down gently. They did not move, a heap of lifeless figures on the ground.

Ireena was in shock. She stood still for a minute, waiting for her parents to get up and resume their envying. Five minutes. Ten minutes. They did not move. Ireena crept toward them warily. She tapped their cold, wet bodies. They did not respond. Ireena shouted, over and over again, shaking her parents' bodies- even nipping them here and their, screaming louder every time. Still, they were as lifeless as marble statues.

Ireena stopped her fit for a moment. She leaned in close to her father's face, and tilted her ear toward his mouth.

No sound or breath came out.

Eyes wide, heartbeat momentarily stopped, Ireena gasped and flung herself backwards. Her eyes brimmed with heavy tears. Before she could stop them, choking sobs wracked her body. What happened? What had happened to her poor parents? They already had low spirits for everything; but why this? Voluntarily, Ireena threw herself to the gravelly floor, adding her tears to the rest of the ocean water.

Suddenly she heard a yip from the entrance of the den. It was a familiar yipping. A wave of dread hit Ireena like she had never felt it before. It was a nauseating dread.

Her younger brother was coming. He would hear her crying. He would see the lifeless bodies on the floor. He would not understand, and grieve with a guilt he would not be able to explain. Ireena did not want that for him. He was barely three years old.

Thinking on her feet, she leaped up in a panic. She made a beeline for the entrance. There stood Eli, her brother, grinning from ear to ear. That smile would be as disarming as ever if it weren't for the situation she was in right now. "Hey Ireena," he said, still smiling, "You'll never guess what I did today."

Ireena giggled nervously, trying to keep the tears back, choking on her own words in an effort not to cry. "Ooh, what? I really want to hear. Can you tell me all about it near the room we keep the food in? I was thinking you would want a snack when you came home."

"Oh totally, I'm pretty hungry," Eli responded. He followed his older sister to a deeper room underground. Ireena made sure he kept his gaze on her at all times, so he would not see their parents' room, where they lied mysteriously dead.

"So anyway," Eli rambled on, "I went to training, as usual, like I do every morning. All the other wolves like to pick on me. You know, 'cause they're all black and white, or red wolves, thinking they're so cool. Anyway, we were practicing our aggression stance. That's for when we assert our strength against another wolf. So I practiced it on this one red wolf girl, and she started crying! Hilarious right!? She was all like, 'you scared me!' Waaaaah! Hahaha! Oh my gosh, I cant wait to go tell mom and dad. I'll tell them right now!"

"NO!"

Eli was stunned. "W-whu-why?"

It took all of Ireena's strength to say calmly but shakily, "They, are.. uh, asleep! They are taking a long nap. You wouldn't want to wake them up so they're all crabby, wouldn't you?"

Eli just stood their for a moment, completely confused. His eyes narrowed and his smile vanished. "They never take naps," he said.

Ireena felt oily nausea climb up her throat.

"Oh well. I guess they're just getting old. Old wolves need their naptime I guess."

His words were a slight relief but still did not comfort Ireena in anyway.

"Anyway, where are those snacks you were talking about? I'm hungry!" Eli demanded. Ireena went to a small nook in the wall where they usually kept food. But there was none there. What the heck? Ireena almost cursed in her mind. Then she remembered. Her parents had a separate storage in their room, just for themselves as they sat there, day and night, musing over their pointless lives.

Of course it had to be in there. As if her day could not get any worse.

"Eli, wait right here. I have to get some from mom and dad's room. Don't come with me, because I wouldn't want you to wake them up."

"I wont wake them up," he said, "I'll be super quiet."

Ireena almost screamed. She took a deep, hiccupy breath, tears tugging at her eyelids again. "No. You wait here. You are too little, and you will wake them up. Just, be, patient."

Poor Eli, she thought, heading into the dreaded room once again. He must have no idea why he cant just see his parents and say hi. Why he must go through this, how he will know very soon somehow. She forgot all about her little errand when she caught sight of the dead figures, still lying there. It was almost as if they were taunting her. The pitiful blue wolf felt extreme guilt with the force of a knife being twisted through her, though she did nothing to deserve this. She felt that she could have stopped this, if only she knew what it was. She would have probably ascertained this mystery if she stayed home and spent more time with her family, instead of always running off and enjoying the dry land, while her parents were obviously suffering in some way.

Once again she let it all come out, her anguish burst like a bubble. She flung herself on the dead couple, sobbing loudly. She forgot all about Eli close by, she forgot all about the beauty of this morning, and the tranquility of walking on dream-clouds. All Ireena could focus on was how guilty she felt, like this was her fault.

She gently took her mother's head in her quaking paws. She kissed her lightly on the forehead; one final goodbye and apology. She turned the beautiful head in her paws, examining the shining face, though she never saw joy on it. All of a sudden she noticed something about that face. It was smiling. The black lips were upturned into an uncanny grin. Ireena noticed it on her father too. She let go of her mother's head, suddenly afraid. The first smile she ever saw on their faces was not a moment to rejoice right now. It scared Ireena. It was more of a malevolent grin. She walked back over to her parents' limp forms yet again and examined those smiles scrupulously, trying to figure out why they looked the way they did. Did they know about death coming? Maybe that's why they were so crestfallen, because they knew the number of their days left on Earth? She gingerly took her mother's eyelid, and raised it.

The iris was red, a glossy blood-color. The rest of her eye was dim and fallow. Ireena was mesmerized by the contrast. A bright red light flickered in the eyes. For an abrupt moment, another pair of eyes were mirrored there. They quickly evanesced, but the blood-red color remained.

Ireena, trembling harder than ever, backed away slowly from what she just saw. This was not her fault after all. Only one thing was for certain at the moment.

No living soul on Earth was safe, whatever this may be.