It wasn’t the fact that she had chosen to lay with another male. Ozzy had known that was going to eventually happen.

It was the fact that it was him.

Drumming his claws against a tree stump, Ozzy mulled over what he had witnessed the night before. The sun was sinking slowly in the sky, and all day he found himself unable to sleep. 

“You’re so much bigger than my dad!”
“I’m an incest slut!”
“I deserve to be bred like this every night!”

Dug into his mind and plunged deep within his heart like the fangs of a predator. How could his sweet, innocent baby girl have such a warped view of her purpose? And for her information, he was very well endowed for a possum. Over and over he mulled how to get his revenge on that damned raccoon, his mind racked with impossibilities and improbable scenarios. 

A sudden screech from a human from the other side of the hedge broke his concentration.

“RABIES!” 

A pause. His attention turned to where the voice had trailed from, quickly running to the green monolith that encased the unassuming desidens of Suburbia. Poking his claws through and fighting the constantly maintained barrier, he got a view of what could only be described in short as absolute horror. A fairly large rat stumbled drunkenly around, hissing as humans approached it. 

“The fuckaway from me!” its voice, strained and struggling to speak over the copious amounts of saliva, came out as more of a terrified whine than a threat.

“I’ll get my BB gun!” one of the children excitedly exclaimed, running inside.

“BB Gun?” Ozzy paused, trying to think about what that could possibly mean. He knew that humans were dangerous. They were sneaky. And they were armed with things called ‘guns’. He let out a hushed “Hey! You there!” as the rat turned around, stumbling in his direction.

“Please…” it whimpered out as it staggered left and fell over. “Make these humans leave me alone!” 

“Just a little further, come on buddy, you can make it!”

“Everything’s spinning…” it slowly got to its feet as it stumbled forward once more.

“Come on! Get up! That human has a gun...You know what that means!”

Looking up to Ozzy, the rat gave a defeated grunt. 

“I can’t get -”

Before it could complete its words, an air powered pop echoed out. And then another. And then another. The human made strides in its direction as it gave one final deep breath, another shot ringing out and causing it to grow still. Armed with a plastic grocery bag, the human scooped the remains into it and tied it off tightly, disposing it into a bin next to the house.

A thought of a sinister fashion flicked in Ozzy’s mind. When he was sure the humans would not return to the scene of the execution, he quietly slipped between branches and made his way to the bin. Quietly arching up on his toes, he attempted to quietly pull the body out of the disposal.

A door opened, and a fairly large mutt mix made its way out to do his business. A quick sniff, he turned on his heel and glared in the direction of the noise.

“W-who’s there?” he growled out.

“Shit. Shit. This was a terrible plan!”

“Look. I can smell you’re over there, come out where I can see ya!”

“I don’t mean any harm…” he quietly walked from his hiding place in the shadows, his hands up.

“What are you doing here?!” he barked low to not alert the humans inside.

“I am simply here to retrieve a body. Nothing more, nothing less. The rat that the humans killed had rabies.”

“And what use do you have of it?” his growl became slightly more menacing.

“I simply wish to return its body to the earth in which it came.” he relaxed his muscles in case he would have to suddenly faint.

“Take it and be gone.” the dog turned away, walking. “And don’t let me catch you around here again. Understood?”

“Y-yes sir.” One hand on the bag, he quickly grabbed the remains and leapt into the overgrown wall, pulling the bag through the branches carefully as to not rip the thin plastic.

“Okay...so, here is the plan.” Ozzy hefted the bag onto the stump, sitting down and catching his breath. “I use your blood, infect RJ, lead him into a trap where he falls into a large hole and then leave him there to starve or whatever happens after you get rabies.” he nodded to himself, then brought a hand up over his face. 

“God, what am I doing?” he groaned under his breath.

“You’re right Ozzy, what are you doing?” Verne made his way from the shadows as he eyed the bag and then his friend.

“Verne! Voice of reason, heaven-sent-sanity in the grips of this chaotic reality!” he draped himself over his friends shoulder, hugging him tightly. 

“Ozzy - I...I don’t know what you’re planning on doing, or why you’re doing it but -”

“He has to die!” As swiftly as he had went limp, the turtle’s shell was gripped and shaken. “That damn raccoon has violated my sweet, innocent little girl!”

“No more so than you did.”

“You knew?! And you didn’t even try to tell me?!”

“Ozzy. We’re animals. It’s what we do.” Verne slowly pried himself free of his friend’s grip. Sitting down, he sighed and shook his head. “Look. Sit down and think about this for a moment.” he patted the ground next to him as Ozzy slumped against the tree next to him.

“What’s this really about.”

“Him fucking my daughter isn’t enough?”

“No, I mean...what are you feeling? Yes you’re angry, but why? Heather and you aren’t in any official kind of relationship…”

“I guess I feel…” he sighed, his shoulders slumping. “Hurt? Betrayed? She is carrying my offspring -”

“Both of yours.” Verne quietly interrupted him, patting his hand.

“...Our offspring…” he sighed quietly. “And I don’t know, I wish she would have come to me before? I mean we’ve been sleeping together pretty much every night since I found out she was pregnant…”

“And..?”

“I guess it makes me feel...inadequate? Like...we weren’t nearly as close as I thought we were…” his eyes welled with tears. “I thought we had something...special, you know?”

“Ozzy...we’re animals. We have sex. We eat our young - well, some of us do...What the humans have? What you see on that television box?” he motioned to the hedge. “We can’t have that. We see what it does to the world around you - If you live like they do, you’ll never be happy.”

Ozzy completely lost it, sobbing hard as he broke down, burying his face in his hands. Verne quietly patted his shoulders, rubbing his back.

“There there...Is that any better?” Verne quietly lifted his chin up as Ozzy looked up, his eyes puffy. Giving a sniffle, he blinked, looking to the side as something caught his attention.

Something moved.

Something brown.

“RJ…” His once tearfilled demeanor changed to absolute vicious bloodlust. The fur on the back of his shoulders bristled as he stepped forward.

“Woah woah woah, Ozzy, calm down!” RJ backed up as he held his hands up. “I can explain.”

“Ozzy stop!”

“Oh no, it’s far too late for apologies, RJ.” He stepped forward as RJ’s eyes flicked from the bag to Ozzy. “W...what’s that?”

“Rabid. Rat. Or was.”

“Ozzy…” RJ’s voice dropped. “Were you going to…”

“Yeah. I was.” another step. “But I think tearing you apart myself would be far more rewarding!” In a flash, RJ was wrapped by Ozzy’s tail, his claws digging into the back of his head as the possum snarled, his teeth bared. One claw pulled RJ’s eyelid wide open.

“I think I’ll start with the eyes…”

“OZZY!” Verne dived into the possum, pulled deep into his shell as he knocked the two apart, pulling Ozzy into a headlock.

“RJ, TREE. You. Sit.”

Taking this as his cue, RJ quickly climbed up onto the nearest tree, looking back.

“What’s wrong, Verne, I thought you said we couldn’t HAVE what the humans did!”

“That’s not what I, ugh.” Verne pinched the bridge of his snout. “Okay. Look, RJ, you and Ozzy need to talk this out!”

“Tell that to mister assassan over there!” RJ called out, sitting on a branch.

“It would have been equitable to the constant heartache I will live with for the rest of my life!” he spat back.

“If you two don’t stop, I’m gonna banish both of you to fend for yourselves from now on!” Verne had lost his temper as the flurry of death and him in control of a, quite possibly, fatally volatile situation finally sank in. 

Their attention snapped to him as they both went dead quiet.

“Look. RJ, you should have talked to Ozzy a few weeks ago when you started to have interest -”

“And how am I supposed to broach that with him?! ‘Hey Ozzman just so ya know, I wanna FUCK your daughter?!’ “

“Simple. Hey Ozzy…” Verne’s gaze met the possums’. “I have feelings for your daughter. Out of respect for you, may I have your blessings to -”

“Oh.” RJ paused as he clasped his chin in his hand. “I...guess that would be a better idea…”

Ozzy looked away, his eyes closing as he sighed.

“Look RJ. I am very, very angry at this whole situation. Heather is my pride, my joy, and soon, will help bring my kids into this world.”

“Our.” Verne interrupted.

“Our kids.” he rubbed his face with a hand. “Jesus. I’m going to be a dad, again.” reality slowly sank in as he looked at his fingers. “I’m gonna leave this world with two generations brought into it…” he blinked as suddenly, things became even more.

“Just curious, Ozzy, how old are you?” RJ called his voice calm and without emotion.

“Seven years...Why?” Ozzy’s ear pinned back.

RJ nodded, counting on his fingers as his eyes went wide.
“Dude! You’re like ancient in possum years!”

“W...what do you mean?” Ozzy’s inflection shifted.

“You wanna know something unnerving, my friend?” RJ climbed down as he approached the two. “The average lifespan of an possum in the wild? Two years. You’re kicking Deaths’ ass! There’s no WAY I could have beaten you!” RJ gently tapped his paw against Ozzy’s.

“I - I am?” He looked at his palm and then back to RJ.

“Yeah. But honestly, you’ve maybe got five years at most left. And what then? Who’s gonna take care of Heather then? She’s never had to fend for herself without you around.”

Ozzy’s eyes flicked down to the ground.

“I...I don’t know...I never thought that far into the - “

“Future? Look...what I did - it was wrong. But PLEASE, Ozzy, let me be a part of this family. I care about Heather almost as deeply as you do…You don’t want her or your kids to end up like that rat over there in the bag, right?”

“..Right…” his own mortality - he had never thought of it before. Once he was gone, who was going to take care of his offspring?

“So...I’ll make a deal with you - for Heather’s sake - You let me be a part of this, and I’ll make sure they’re kept safe, no matter what.”

“Promise?”

“Past what we have here, I’ve never had a family of my own...I’ll help take care of her and the kids as if they were mine. I promise.”

Ozzy sighed, nodding. “Alright. But we’re going to have to plan out how we’re gonna handle sharing her.”

“Guys, I hate to ruin the mood, but we really need to get this body taken care of.” Verne’s eyes darted around as he tried to focus on sounds he heard around them.

RJ looked to Ozzy, and smiled.

“What do you think, old man, got it in ya to dig a deep enough hole in one night?”

“Not alone...but maybe…” he grabbed RJ’s hand firmly. “If I have someone help me, we can!”