FSE

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The deep chimes of a low bell echoed throughout the cathedral, the only source of light in the sanctuary where the ceremony was taking place being a a brilliant ray of sunlight through a large, stained glass window. It was the only light needed, as it was bright enough that the electric lights were rendered temporarily useless, which was okay since the lights weren't working anyway; it was almost as if God himself were shining light from heaven upon this occasion.. In the center of the light stood a male St. Bernard, Father Strauss, dressed in priestly robes, standing before a golden brazier filled with water, and looking towards the heavens, his old eyes straining to remain open in the blinding morning light..He held in his arms a small wolf cub, who wore a white gown and cooed curiously at the elderly dog, managing to bop Father Strauss' nose lightly when he looked down at him briefly. The priest smiled at the playful little tyke's antics. Derek, the wolf cub he held, looked like any other of his kind, except his tail was slightly fuzzier than normal and had coloring similar to that of a fox's tail while still being generally covered in gray fur. He also had a small patch of white fur in the shape of a diamond on his forehead, just above the spot between his eyes. Father Strauss proceeded to raise him slightly above his head, and as he held the infant cub high, he sang a prayer in Latin asking for the Lord's blessing.

"Actiones nostras, quaesumus Domine, aspirando praeveni et adiuvando prosequere: ut cuncta nosta oratio et operatio a te semper incipiat et per ta coepta finiatur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen."

He then brought the babe to the level he was at previously, musing over the beautiful child's future and hoping for the best in Derek's life whilst he made the sign of the cross on his forehead around the diamond patch. In a formal voice tinged with joy, he proclaimed, "I baptize you, Derek, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Derek was then lowered into the baptismal font gently, his soul being guranteed a spot in heaven (at least for now) as his body was drenched in holy water. The wolf cub squirmed out of surprise as the cool water enveloped him, soaking the white gown he wore and the fur beneath it. He hadn't had time to close his mouth before being dunked, so when he was raised back out of the water, he promptly spat some of it out, right into Father Strauss's face, much to the amusement and chuckling of the small congregation that watched.

In the congregation, all dressed in their Sunday best, was the cub's father, Jeremy, a 13-year-old fox, who smiled as he watched the significant ritual taking place in front of him; his girlfriend and the cub's mother, Brea, a 14-year-old wolf, who sat quietly with a bored look on her face, wondering how she had let Jeremy talk her into letting the cubs be baptized into the Catholic church; the cub's grandmother and Jeremy's mom, Cherry, a fox in her late 20's, who was trying to decide in her head where she should take the family to eat after the ceremony; and the cub's twin sister, Delilah, who looked much like her brother, except for the fact that she had a little more headfur as well as a white star on her forehead rather than a diamond. She was nestled in her mother's arms and looking up inquiringly at Brea, her infant mind pondering over why mommy wasn't playing with her and why she had to be still for such a long time.

Father Strauss sputtered and wiped the water off himself, unable to keep himself from chuckling as well, even thought this was supposed to be a serious occasion. However, he managed to quickly regain his composure and looked towards the twins' parents. "Will Jeremy and Brea please step forward?" he asked, "It's the little girl's turn to be baptized." Jeremy nudged his girlfriend and they both stood up and walked towards the priest. Brea rolled her eyes as they exchanged babies, wondering how much longer she could possibly endure this religious bullshit on an empty stomach.

*************************

Later that night...

Jeremy was in a very awkward situation. He had absolutely no idea where he was or how he had gotten there, the last thing he remembered being kissing his love goodnight and falling asleep. He looked around to try and figure out his location, and judging by the lack of light, the dampness in the air, the stone he was surrounded by, and the rocky, muddy feeling of the ground beneath his bare feet, he guessed he was in an underground cave of some kind. And then he had a thought. 'Bare feet? What happened to my socks?' Eager to find out more about what was going on, he looked down at his lower half. He meeped alarmingly when he realized he was naked, and his handpaws immediately flew down in front of his crotch in an attempt to protect his modesty. 'Oh man! Where are my clothes?! Can this get any worse?' Perhaps as a way to remind him never to even think that last question, a cool breeze came from out of nowhere and chilled him to the bone. "Fuck!" he yelled, his shout echoing into the distance to his left. His ear perked up and he turned in the direction he heard the sound from, squinting his eyes and trying to peer through the darkness. He could just barely make out a narrow passage filled with fewer rocks and many stalactites and stalagmites, among other rocky formations. When another gust of air hit him in the face, he knew that that was where the wind was coming from, too. And then he had another thought. 'If there's wind blowing down here, and it's coming from there, then that must be the way out of here.' He looked down again at his crotch and figured since he was alone, it was okay to be in the fur, so he removed his paws from in front of his parts, cringing when the cold air hit his sheath and balls, which caused his sack to cling close to his body in order to keep the family jewels warm. 'Crap. I'm gonna get major shrinkage while I'm down here.' Shrinkage should be among the least of his worries down here...

Taking a deep breath to steel himself for whatever may lie ahead and shaking his body canine style to try and warm his skin a bit, he set off towards what he thought might be the exit from this creepy place. His steps were tentative at first, as he couldn't quite see where his feet were going, but soon they became more confident as his eyes gradually adjusted to the dark. Everything around him appeared to be a bluish-gray colour, and he was confused about how he was able to see in this cave when there appeared to be no cracks in the walls or ceiling to allow sunshine inside. Then he brushed that thought aside, not really caring. All he wanted was to get out, and if the laws of nature didn't apply here, so what? When he came to the passageway he'd perceived moments before, he saw that the earthen ground inside it appeared to slope downwards at a slight angle, much like a wheelchair ramp, and then curved to the left and out of sight, the walls following suit. A little disappointed at first from seeing the tunnel go down instead of up, he took another look around to see if there was another way out. Not finding one, he shrugged his shoulders and continued, knowing he had nowhere else to go. He grumbled to himself at his current predicament, wishing he was back at home, safe beneath the warm covers of his bed, with Brea at his side, her arms wrapped around him in a loving embrace. To help pass the time as he walked, he decided to try and make something positive out of the situation. At least he wasn't stumbling and tripping with every other step he made, like he did when Cherry took him and Brea "spelunking" while on a camping trip in Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle. Those caves were much more rugged and hard to get around in than this one. He smiled when he remembered scaring Brea silly by placing a wild tarantula on her shoulder. Her reaction upon seeing it had been priceless, arms flailing while she ran around in circles screaming, "GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!!!!" He remembered having trouble breathing from laughing so hard, and she didn't speak to him for the rest of the evening after that.

When he came to the part of the tunnel that curved left, he nearly lost his footing when he discovered that the ground here was much steeper and had to take extra care in his steps. He continued going along the spiral pathway, farther and farther down for what felt like an hour or two. 'Jesus Christ! How deep is this cave?' he thought to himself. After a while, he noticed something really weird start to occur: the temperature was gradually increasing, and he began to pant because it got so hot that he had trouble breathing. "Ok, I'm officially concerned now." he said as he wiped the sweat off his brow. "Nothing that's happened so far has made any fucking sense!" As he walked further, the passage he was following appeared to grow wider with every step he took, the walls growing further apart and the rocky ceiling getting higher. He also noticed that the muddy ground he treaded upon became less steep to where it was almost perfectly level and felt drier and substantially warmer, as if heated by an unknown source. "This must be how Alice felt after she fell down that hole."

As if things couldn't get any weirder, his ears twitched when they heard a faint roaring sound that bellowed throughout the cavern as well as random pops and crackles. It reminded him of the sound firework fuses make after being lit, only these sounds were at a much lower pitch. And then as he waked further, the path ceased to spiral downward and the stone walls on either side of him had stopped; he realized that he was finally out of the long passage, and when he looked around, he stumbled and fell backwards in awe. He had never seen a cavern this big before, and it made even Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico look like a rabbit hole in comparison. The rocky walls and ceiling appeared to stretch farther than his eyes could see, and he noticed heat waves and steam in his lower peripheral vision. When he looked down, he gasped, because right beneath his feet was a stone bridge, roughly the size of the Brooklyn Bridge, that spanned at a slightly downward angle across a wide chasm so deep and so black that he dared not lean over and peak into it for fear of falling into it. He was able to smell, though, that this was not steam rising from the depths of the dark pit, but a mixture of smoke and noxious fumes, which burned his nose when he breathed and made him retch and cough from the stench. It was even more difficult to breathe here and the heat felt like an amplified version of a steam sauna, and for a moment he thought he would die. And it certainly didn't help to see hundreds of small flames materialize just below the ceiling, falling at incredible speeds to the ground below like shooting stars, their screams sounding like sentient beings in pain. Thankfully, it was not long before he became accustomed to the air and the sounds. He felt a new strength return to him, like that of a cornered animal, and forced himself to get up, knowing that even if he was screwed, he may as well go on and find out what's down here. He looked across the bridge and saw something he hadn't noticed before on the other side: a giant archway with an inscription carved into the topmost part it, and further on was a much larger passage with a faint reddish glow that made his heart sink. He had a few ideas of where he might be, but didn't want to think about them now. And so, with trembling body and a looming feeling of dread, he gulped and began moving his frightened form across the bridge, each step harder and harder to make as the heat rose and the archway got closer and closer. Halfway across, one of the flames he had noticed happened to land in front of him with a great thud, scaring him shitless for a moment, as he could make out a humanoid shape with a terrified face and blackened features within the fire for a split second before the burning "thing" rolled to his right off the bridge and continued wailing as it fell out of sight. When Jeremy finally reached the end of the bridge, he looked up to read the inscription, and cocked his head when he found that the words were in a language he had very little knowledge of: Latin. He had taken a Latin course in middle school, but never paid much attention, seeing no use for it; however, he did retain a few words in his memory and was able to make out two words that scared him shitless: "RELINQUO" and "SPES"..."abandon" and "hope".

He was almost certain of where he was now, and he made a complete 180 turn and was prepared to bolt back across the bridge to safety, when suddenly, with a mighty, thunderous crash, the bridge he had just crossed cracked and split right down the middle, collapsing into pieces right before his eyes and falling into the darkness below! He barely had time register what he'd just witnessed when he heard a new sound that made him shake and quiver with instinctive fear: shrieking, maniacal laughter (reminiscent of Dr. Bertruger from Doom 3) coming from the glowing cave behind him. He whimpered like a kit and turned back around, so frightened that he felt an invisible weight upon his body, as if the gravity in the "cavern" had suddenly been turned up.

With a grievous sigh and the flattening of his ears, he fell to his knees and weeped, covering his face with his hands and sobbing quietly, knowing there was no point in wailing at the top of his lungs, as he knew this would not save him. And after a brief moment of tears and crying, he uncovered his face, looked up, and whispered, "Oh, God, why?"

"Your God cannot help you here, pathetic fur!" an evil voice hissed, cackling with the same laughter Jeremy had heard earlier.

The poor fox gasped and shook his head in disbelief. "No. It can't be. This isn't right."

"Oh, but it is." the voice responded, the words seeming to reverberate a bit before coming to his ears, like hearing an echo, only in reverse. "Come. Accept your fate, disgraceful soul!"

An unnatural feeling came over him, and he felt himself begin to rise again, like he was being picked up by a puppeteer's strings. He was soon standing, and with mournful steps, he felt his feet carry him forward, even though his mind was screaming in vain at his body to go limp and curl up in a ball on the ground. He soon gave up and moved with the feeling that forced him to walk deeper into the glowing cave, knowing that it was useless at this point. The crackling and popping soon grew into a deafening roar, like that of a giant furnace, and the glowing red and orange lights flickered wildly on the walls, casting terrible shadows as they danced. The previously unbearable heat now began to scorch his skin as he walked further, and he howled in pain and thrashed his arms about whilst he heard himself sizzle and saw little sparks start to appear on his fur. Still, his legs continued to make him go on, his anguish never relenting. He wished he could die right then and there, and as his body began to sprout flame all over, he looked up and screamed at the heavens, "WHY?!?! WHY DID YOU SEND ME HERE?!?! I DON'T DESERVE THIS!!!!"

"Yes you do, insolent creature." said the evil voice in an accusing tone.

And with that, the fire and heat disappeared, all the light he had been surrounded by vanished, and everything went black. He no longer burned, but instead felt cold, deathly cold, so much that he could hardly move at all. And all was silent...at least for a moment. He had been shivering with fright before, but what he witnessed now scared him to his very core and made him feel sick to his stomach, too scared to even cry. There was a blinding flash of white light and another thunderous crash, like a lightning bolt had struck right in front of him, and he covered his eyes to protect them from the flash. When the thunder died out and he felt that he could lower his handpaws, he did, and when he saw what made the lightning, he wished he had kept his eyes covered. He felt like all the life and every positive emotion known to sentient beings had been sucked out of him when he laid eyes upon the thing that caused the lightning, leaving an empty void with nothing but grief and pain; it was as if he were meeting Death himself, which may have been partially true.

Before him stood a figure that had the shape of an athletic human, only twice as big, his whole body seeming to flicker and blur occasionally and blow to one side with the small breeze that came out of nowhere. He looked like he wasn't all there, like a holographic image from Star Wars made of dust and ash. Whoever this creature was, he apparently was unable to meet Jeremy in the flesh, being forced to project himself. Looking harder at the humanoid, Jeremy saw a male torso with gray, ancient-looking skin and a muscular chest with what appeared to be battle-scars of some kind, and the scars glowed and smoked like there was lava just beneath the skin. Extending out from the torso were two great arms with several similar scars, and at the end, hands with clawed fingers. Behind the torso, he saw two massive wings, which instead of having feathers like a bird's wings, were more like bat wings with thin, black, vein-filled skin, and it also had scars on it, as well as holes here and there, which made Jeremy wonder how this thing could even fly. His eyes wandered to where the wings met, and he screamed in terror when his sight fell upon the creature's face. The eyes were the first things he noticed; the pupils were slits, like those of a cat, and there appeared to be a raging fire burning within, a literal culmination of rage, hatred, anger, malice, and other evil emotions that illuminated his eyes. The eyes glared at him with indomitable cruelty. The rest of the creatures head and face was like that of a man's, but instead of hair on top, there were two large, shiny, black horns that sprouted up, curved outward slightly and then back in, like the antlers of an impala. The tips of the horns were flat and broad, looking like they had been broken at some point and never grew back. His face had wrinkles on it, almost like an elderly person, and was disgusting to look at. Small warts appeared here and there, he had a big nose, and around his eyebrows and lips were creases that made him look like his face had been frozen in an eternal, frowning glare that made Jeremy feel as if he were being stabbed in the belly with knives. He also had a thin, medium length, scraggly, stiff beard made up of black hair and shaped like the thing the pharaohs wore on their chins, and his ears were slightly pointed, like goblin's ears, with small silver loop earrings running through the lobes. As unsettling as his features were, his face had a smug and proud look about it, and the shape actually seemed a bit handsome once you got past the ugly parts, as if he had been very beautiful once, a long time ago. And for a fleeting moment, although it could have Jeremy's imagination, the fox thought he saw the eyes shimmer with a glossy, wet look, like tears were forming but could not fall, evaporating into the air before culminating completely. This creature appeared tragic as well, and had a look about him like he knew he was doomed as well, but tried to deny it. The fox curiously continued sizing up the creature before him, looking down below his belly and seeing that he had the lower half of a goat, complete with thick, black, coarse fur, stocky legs, cleft hooves, and a stubby tail. The last thing he noticed made Jeremy's jaw drop in disbelief; the creature sported a huge cock and balls, much larger than his own, covered in a thin layer of black fur. The obscenely huge genitals made Jeremy feel inferior to this creature that was much more well endowed than he was. The cock was at least 12 inches long with a silver ring encircling the base of the sheath, and the testicles were the size of softballs; they swayed and bounced with every movement the creature made, and for a moment Jeremy thought he felt a stirring in his own privates from looking at the creatures package.

His train of thought was interrupted when he heard the being in front of him chuckle. "Enjoying the view?" he said mockingly. "You should see this bad boy when it's erect." He took one of his hands and brought it down to his dick, lifting it from it's flaccid position to a 90 degree angle with his balls, lightly massaging his sheath while his fleshy cock began peeking out of the tip. "Do you know where you are?" he asked Jeremy.

The fox did not answer.

"Do you know...where you are?" the creature asked again, louder this time. "Answer me!"

Jeremy could not move his gaze from the creatures cock, like it was hypnotizing him. He could still hear what he was being asked, and with a gulp, replied meekly, "H-h-hell."

The creature smiled menacingly, stamping his hooves once or twice while he masturbated, his cock now fully erect at an impressive 15 1/2 inches and dribbling precum. "And do you know who I am? You probably already do, but I'll tell you, anyway. I have had many names for the last 6,000 years: Lucifer, Beelzebub, Dis, Lord of the Flies, That Ancient Serpent, Son of the Morning, Prince of Darkness, The Fallen Angel, Angel of Light. You, however, may call me Satan, or the Devil, whichever you feel suits me the best." He grunted while his hand glided across his massive cock, now spurting pre at Jeremy's feet. "Now here's a question that you must answer: do you know why you're here?" The devil looked up toward the black sky and roared, appearing to be close to cumming.

Jeremy could hardly speak above a sniveling whisper, but replied, "N-n-no. I don't understand why this is happening to me. I'm a devout Catholic who attended Mass every Sunday and tried to keep the Commandments as best I could, asking for forgiveness whenever I could from the priest. I never ignored the sacraments!"

Lucifer turned his gaze upon the frightened fox again and started guffawing that creepy Dr. Bertruger laugh as he shot powerful jets of hot demon cum, blasting seed all over Jeremy's face and body, making him cough and writhe in disgust. He'd wondered what it would be like to have male cum on his face at one point, but never wanted this much, and now he was getting drenched in the devil's spunk, which burned his skin and smelled like a thousand year old gym bag.

When the devil had finished ejaculating all over his captive, he released his spent cock and spoke. "Oh dear, I've made quite a mess." He chuckled and lifted a finger at Jeremy. "Don't worry. I've got just the thing to clean you up."

In the blink of an eye, Jeremy was once again engulfed in flame, and he fell to the ground and squirmed, screaming in pain as he watched his own hands, like the rest of his body, turn into a crusty skeleton while the fire consumed him. Suddenly, just as quick as he had been ignited, the fire was gone, and he gasped in amazement when he saw that his skin and fur had reappeared, looking like it had before with no signs of burning. He placed his paws on his face, and sure enough, the skin and fur there had been restored, also.

"Now, you were saying something about being a "devout Catholic"?" inquired Lucifer as he resumed his interrogation.

Jeremy made no reply, instead laying on the ground, his strength nonexistent and head bowed shamefully.

"I thought so. First of all, you never did ask for forgiveness for fucking that worthless wolf and getting her pregnant. And second, give me a fucking break, ha ha ha!" Satan had to try really hard not to burst out laughing again. "You're not as perfect as you think, for I know the things you truly desire. Did thoughts of worshiping God ever come into your mind during your wild throes of passion with Brea? Did you truly care for her or did you just want her luscious body? If you were her mate, then why did you forsake her so coldly, betraying her by leaving her not long before being forced to promise to your father on his deathbed that you wouldn't, only to return to her so you would not be alone and miserable?" He walked over to Jeremy and lifted up his chin with a finger, gazing into the fox's teary eyes with sadistic glee. "And don't forget, when you had your way with that bitch, you betrayed "Him" in your heart."

Jeremy turned away from Lucifer's clawed finger and gulped. "No, that's not true. I love my Jesus."

"So did Judas," the devil retorted with a cackle, "and we all know what happened to him. Come on, you honestly expect me to believe that? I'm the father of lies, remember? I invented the very art, and therefore can spot deception easily. Admit it. You knew what you were doing was a sin."

Jeremy shouted back, "But Scripture did not specifically state which types of premarital sex are wrong! We loved each other!"

"Even if that was true, your church still looks down upon it, no? You felt that little twinge of guilt in the back of your mind every time you gave into your carnal desires, didn't you?"

Jeremy remained silent, like a convicted criminal who had just gotten the death sentence.

"So typical of your kind. You're a lying, deceitful, sinner, just like all the rest that came before you."

Lucifer stretched out his left arm and pointed off into the blackness, indicating that Jeremy should look in that direction. The fox turned to his right and suddenly found that they were hovering high above a crowd of billions of other souls. They were being tortured in numerous ways, some blown about by wind, some immersed in boiling blood, some consumed in flame, some hacked apart by demons, some forced to march, and several other forms of torment. The sound of their suffering and cries for mercy overwhelmed his ears, and he tried covering them to block out the awful sounds he was hearing, but it was no use.

"These are the 9 Circles of Hell, where each soul is punished according to his or her deeds in life. Some gave in to their flesh, like you, and others indulged in gluttony, hoarded money, murdered countless innocents, or denied God, to name but a few transgressions. Can you guess which spot is for you?"

Something about the terrible wind struck a bell within him, even though he didn't know why those souls were being punished in that particular manner. With a quivering lip, he answered, "The raging storm?"

"Mmm, correct, but not entirely." Jeremy noticed that they were gradually descending into the bowels of Hell, and his blood curdled when he heard piercing shrieks strikingly different from the rest and the flapping of wings. "You see, Lust was your major sin, and therefore, you will be pummeled and molested by the wind without hope of rest forever; however, you are a special case." A small flock of ravenous harpies appeared out of nowhere and encircled them both, their teeth and claws covered in blood, their bodies scrawny and ugly. "You allowed hypocrisy to take root, which led you to betray God by taking Brea's innocence."

The harpies each took hold of Jeremy's limbs, and he struggled to break free of their grasp with no avail. "No, please, I'm not supposed to be here! I didn't mean to betray you, God! I'm so sorry!! SAVE ME!!!"

"Oh, you poor, helpless fox," Lucifer mocked, "you still don't get it, do you? You're damned, Jeremy. You can't go anywhere, and will never know God's grace, only pain. But don't fret, because it would be awfully cruel of me to send you down there all alone, now wouldn't it? I'll be sure to make reservations for your girlfriend and the twins!"

Jeremy gasped and struggled ever harder. "NOOO!!! YOU STAY AWAY FROM THEM!!!" he cried.

As the harpies dragged him to his final resting place below, the devil waved goodbye and shouted with wicked joy, "Welcome to eternity, Jeremy! Welcome to HELL!!!" And in a flash of light he disappeared, the Dr. Bertruger laugh lingering and echoing for a moment.

Jeremy's captors then flew straight down at breakneck speed, the dark, desolate plains of the second circle getting closer and closer. He closed his eyes and braced for impact, but never felt rock smashing into his face. Instead, he felt that he had stopped somehow and that he was being turned over onto his back. He opened his eyes and saw a multitude of spirits being thrashed about by the hot wind he was now being subjected to. The harpies, however, kept a tight grip on his arms and legs with their claws, and he howled in pain as the cuts from their talons began to creep deeper and tear into his muscles while the wind threatened to blow him away, smiting him with cruel and terrible speed and only intensifying his pain. He looked underneath himself and saw what appeared to be naked, decaying zombies lifting a pillar of ice a little larger than he was so that it stood upright. Upon closer inspection, he realized this wasn't just any piece of ice...it was in the shape of a cross, and the dead were lifting it so that the long end pointed up, resulting in the cross being upside down. When they had gotten it fully upright, the harpies flipped Jeremy upside down too and pressed his hands and feet against the cross. It was bitterly cold, like liquid nitrogen amplified 1,000 times, and he could feel his fur and skin freeze and bind him to it. The hot wind did not melt the ice and continued to blast and scorch him from the front, resulting in two excruciating forms of pain at the same time. He wanted to die as he screamed out for it to stop, but he knew there was nothing he could do. The harpies departed briefly, then returned with a set of 3 mallets and 3 razor sharp icicles that looked more like nails. With these tools, they crucified Jeremy to his icy cross slowly and painfully, the cold and piercing equally unbearable; he could feel his bones shatter as his hands and feet were nailed to his cross, binding him to it further. Blood began to trickle from the spots where he had been pierced, only to freeze and form crystal red lines on and beneath his paws. He began to feel dizzy from being upside down so long and having to endure the horrible pain. When the harpies were finished crucifying the fox, they cast aside their mallets and proceeded to fly at and around Jeremy, using their clawed hands and taloned feet and sharp teeth to slash and cut and bite at his helpless body, exposing his entrails, getting more screams out of him than ever before. And just when he thought the pain couldn't get any worse, he suddenly found that two large chunks of what looked like gold had been suspended by a wire on both his arms. The shimmering nuggets were much too heavy to be just gold, though, as he quickly felt how they were extremely heavy and cut into his skin, tugging his arms down towards the ground without snapping them off his body, but he heard two great pops in his shoulders and howled in torment as he felt his shoulders dislocate gruesomely. When it appeared that the punishment would not escalate further, he immediately cursed and spoke hideous blasphemies at God for abandoning him, and at his parents, the time of his seeding and birth, the race of furs, and Creation itself, furious at everything around him and blaming everything he could think of for his sad predicament. It wasn't long until he became quite guilty, and he felt sorry for everything he had ever done and wished he could ask God to forgive him, but he knew that he was outside His love now and would be eternally separated from him, and this hurt him more than all the torments inflicted upon him. His will long gone, he saw a large horned demon that looked similar to Lucifer but was smaller and blacker walking his way through the souls being blown about. He wielded in his hand a mighty, flaming scimitar, which he held above his head menacingly. When he reached Jeremy, he snorted and poised his arm to strike at Jeremy, angling the weapon so that he would cleave the fox in two horizontally. Jeremy uttered a final whimper, accepting his fate at last, and shed a tear for his mate and children who would soon be tortured also. The demon roared, Jeremy shut his eyes, and the sword came flying at his waistline with tremendous force...

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"NOOOOOOOO!"

"Jeremy, please, wake up! It's okay! I'm here! You'll be alright!"

"GOD HELP ME!!!!!!"

His screams lasted a bit longer until his breath gave out at last, and he lay there, panting and shivering with fright, the soft ground beneath him saturated with his sweat. The harpies and zombies and demons were gone. There was no hot wind blasting at him, no icy crosses, no flames, no tortured screams, no scratching and clawing, no pain, no bitter cold, and no weights on him, except for a light pressure he felt across his belly. Everything was again dark and quiet, and also warm. His eyes were just starting to adjust to the lack of light when he felt whoever it was that was pinning him down lay on top of his body completely and wrap his or her arms around him. He could hear sniffling and a faint sob below his neck. The voice had sounded feminine, and he realized that his mate had been shaking him violently and crying out to him in an attempt to pull him from his fitful dreams. His eyes finished adjusting, and he looked around and saw that he was in his room again, he was wearing a pair of boxers and socks, and Brea was sprawled out over him, crying to herself and to him.

When the sniffling ceased, she whimpered, "Oh, Jeremy, you had me so worried!" She kissed him on the cheek and hugged him tighter. "Did you have a nightmare?"

Jeremy took a deep breath and hugged her back, tears welling up in his eyes. "Yeah. I guess I did."

"Well, whatever you dreamed of, just forget about it, ok? I'm here. You're fine now." She kissed him sweetly and nuzzled his muzzle assuringly.

The door to his room suddenly slammed open and Jeremy's mom rushed in, making the cubs jump and waking the twins.

"Honey, what's wrong? I heard screaming. Are you ok?" Cherry asked, the babies crying crankily in the background.

"I'm...I'm alright mom," Jeremy hesitantly replied as he reached for his black rosary on his nightstand, clutching it to his chest and quivering, "I just had a bad dream is all."

"Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry. Was it scary?" His mom walked over and sat on the edge of his bed, placing a paw on his back and stroking it affectionately, trying to calm him down.

"*Sniff* Yeah. And it was so real. I could experience every detail, it was so horrible, mom!" He buried his face in his mother's chest like he did when was a kit, his cries muffled.

"Shh, there there. It's over now. I'll protect you, baby. Brea's here, too."

Jeremy sighed, knowing he was safe in mother's arms, just like he'd always been. Everything he had just been through never happened. It was all a dream, a nighttime illusion, and he did not need to be troubled by something so silly, not while he had a mate and two cubs to look after. He sat up and was about to give his mom a thank you kiss when he felt her paw stop for a moment on his back; it palpated him briefly and withdrew away from his body. He looked at his mom in confusion. "What's wrong, mom?"

"There's something slick and sticky on your back." She brought her paw up to her nose and took a whiff, cringing at the stink and trace odours of metal. "Honey, what happened to you?" she asked with concern as she reached for the lamp beside his bed and turned the knob, the electric bulb illuminating the room.

"I just told you, I had a bad drea--."

The girls' screams interrupted him. "What is it? What's going on?!"

"Oh my God, Jeremy, you're bleeding!"

TO BE CONTINUED...