For a while, time and everything in it stood still. There was no sound, no movement around a stunned Ireena. Now she could not bear to even look at her parents; they weren't her parents anymore. Ireena did not know whether to cry, be angry, or feel sorry for them. The only emotion she could show was utter shock. And that shock grew to terror when she heard a small, squeaky voice behind her.

"Ireena?"

The terrified wolf whipped around, and almost fainted at the sight of Eli by the entrance of the room. She desperately hoped he could not see the horrid scene behind his older sister. But Ireena knew better.

"Y-y-yes, Eli?" Ireena asked, trembling, the tears welling up in her sore eyes again. She saw his face; confused, anxious, intimidated. "What is that behind you?" He asked very quietly.

Ireena looked back and forth between her parents and Eli several times before she answered as calm and collected as she could. "Mom and dad are sleeping! I told you already."

Unfortunately, Eli did not take that as a suitable answer. "I don't think so," he said, getting assertive, "I just want to say hi and give them a small hug, even if they are sleeping." He started to stride on over to their parents, unaware about their sudden demise. Ireena did the best she could to block him, shouting and cuffing him. Poor Eli had no idea what was going on. He began to cry out to the dead bodies on the floor, trying to see if they would wake up. Ireena finally grabbed her brother by the shoulders and set him hard on the ground while he wriggled and thrashed this way and that to be released.

"Eli, I need you to listen to me!" she cried. Eli escaped once again from her grasp. Ireena had had enough. She snatched Eli by the scruff of his neck in her mouth and ran out of the room, and out of the den. She dashed across the territory, and through the gate, not looking back, with Eli screaming the whole way.

Ireena finally stopped and rested in the middle of nowhere, sobs wracking her fragile body. She released Eli, who was also starting to cry.

"What is happening!?" He cried, "Ireena what is going on? Where is mom and dad and why wont you let me see them?" He wailed and pestered his despondent sister until she finally responded with a terrible scream.

"I don't know!! I don't know okay Eli!? Something happened and now they're dead! Gone! Never to be alive again! Now do you understand!? There is nothing I can do!!" She turned around, her back to her brother. For a minute she realized he was completely quiet, no sound except the ocean currents. She turned back around slowly.

There could never have been a more pitiful face in Ireena's life. She felt hit by a heavy wave of guilt. For a moment her and Eli just locked eyes, waiting for somebody to say something that would make this all go away. Ireena opened her mouth to say something when Eli interrupted her.

His face was crumpled into a half-angry, half-sad cringe that Ireena could not bear to look at. He stood there for a moment, as still as a stone. Ireena panicked, wondering if he was about to go through what their parents just went through. Voice cracking severely, Eli muttered something and turned around, running off into the deep sea wilderness, hoping to find comfort in the blue beyond.

"Eli NO!" Ireena shrieked. She tried to chase after him, but all her energy had dissipated. She tripped several times on coral plants and pebbles, and finally gave up. She sat still for a painful moment, listening to her brother's cries echo quietly through the water, then nothing at all.

Ireena did not have the strength to chase after him. She did not have any strength left in her to even sob once more. She felt dizzy and hollow. Her whole body trembled involuntarily. She tried to lift herself up so she could try and swim after Eli, but her legs did not cooperate. Ireena fell to the ground, defeated like in her nightmare. Black spots began to impede her thoughts and vision, until the world and everything in it around the blue wolf was enveloped in blackness.