It was no CG trick. Your brother was turning into a mountain lion right there on the screen. If it was anyone else, you would think it was just some prank; maybe you were being punked. But not your brother. He would never disappear and leave you with some joke video. As your mouth hung open, you saw him pace a bit on four legs, as if to confirm there were no special effects, then slowly morph back into a human.
"I'm sorry to put you through this, sis," your brother apologized to the camera. "I got involved in some things, and...well...I thought maybe I could disappear for a while and it would all go away, but I realized you might become a target. I mean, you're my only family. I was afraid they might...anyway, I wanted to leave you a way to protect yourself if...things got bad."
You rubbed your temples and tried to make sense of this. Your brother was not some hellion who got in trouble left and right. He was a good guy, even without the bias of you being his little sister. In fact, he was good to a fault most of the time. What did he get himself into that he couldn't even tell you about?
"There should be a box where we used to hide our 'treasures,' inside it...," your brother hesitated, then continued. "You know what, you might want to pause this and go get it now so this will make sense."
You were lost, but you pause the DVD anyway and head over to one of the bedrooms. Behind the door, you pry up a loose floorboard, only to find an item wrapped in canvas cloth. It is a small, sleek, and heavy little metal box. It looks fairly strong and reinforced despite its small size, like something precious lay within. You are tempted to open it, but something about this whole affair has you spooked, so you just carry it with you back to the TV and hit play.
"Inside the box you'll find three vials and a syringe," your brother stated, looking visibly nervous at this point. You open the box to find his assertion accurate. "The vial contains a serum that alters human genomes in an incomprehensible way. I'm not even sure if it was made by science or...something else. If you inject yourself with the contents of one of those vials, you will become like me, able to change back and forth between being a human and a mountain lion. Those vials were all I was able to get before...well, there won't be any others, at least as long as no one else gets their hands on me or those vials. I thought about leaving only one, but...I trust you, sis. You'll know what to do. Destroy them if you want. I just figured, if someone comes after you, it might not be a bad idea to take one and hide out in the woods for a while, like me. No one else knows I took the serum or have the vials. If you want to inject someone else too...I won't be around to stop you, but be careful. Taking that stuff makes them a target too, and if those people find out...just think about it carefully." Your brother sighed, then concluded. "I love you, sis. Sorry...for everything. Destroy this DVD once you've seen it. I'll try to go to our 'secret fort' if I'm still around on your birthday. Take care."
The screen went blank, as did your mind. Your mouth still hung open in disbelief at the situation you were faced with. If it weren't for the box containing the syringe and vials sitting on the table in front of you, you would think you had lost your mind. Your brother was out there in the woods as a mountain lion because he was being chased by someone and he wanted you to turn into a mountain lion too?
As the sun dropped, the shadows grew longer and the cabin grew darker. What should you do?