Rest Stop Chapter 3
All the characters in this story belong to me and no one else. Please enjoy and comment.
Again, the hollow musty smell flooded their senses. "All right, guys," Xavier said with a grin of confidence, "help me find my keys." The two felines nodded and all three split up to find the Rustbox Eighty Eight's key ring. The restroom seemed spookier than before, as if a shroud encompassed the entire building in silence and darkness. The sun was setting. So, naturally, the place would seem slightly more foreboding than before if it wasn't for the slightly lit room. The others were unfazed by this suddenly darker atmosphere as they searched, except for Joey who shivered as he stood, frozen in place as his memory flooded his sights again. Seeing the creature slither beneath the stall, sneering and growling as its tail swayed and cracked like a whip in the musty air of the restroom. Joey cursed himself for his overactive imagination, but he was still very frightened of the restroom and what it held, but he promised his friend that he'd help look.
Mark was in the first stall on paws and knees, searching the dirty and dusty floor for the Rustbox keys. Those paws of his glided gently across the floor, his paw pads bumping over the separate tile crevices as he felt for anything odd-shaped or out of the ordinary. After about five minutes of searching the floor, his paws met behind the bowl and U-bend of the toilet. He looked over his shoulder towards the toilet paper holder. Empty. 'Nope,' he thought as he turned back to the toilet, 'not up there.' Now on his knees, he was staring at the toilet lid with a slight grimace, thinking the worst. Placing a shaky paw onto the lid and gripping the lip, he thought, 'Please, God, no,' as he shook his head at the lid. He lifted the lid fast and a diabolical stench curled from the bowl to singe his nostrils as the vile black and brown stew in the bowl gurgled and belched below the lip. His nose curled hard as he kept his lunch down and slammed the seat shut, waving the terrible smell from the air. "Nothing in here," he choked out, relieved as he held his muzzle shut while he sat up straight.
"Keep looking," Xavier called back as he searched the next stall. Slinking around the floor, the white flying fox turned up nothing but dust bunnies and grime. He came to the bowl in the stall and lifted the lid. Unlike his two previous friends, he wasn't graced with a vile soup in the bowl. Instead, the bowl was bone dry and rusted out as he looked into it. 'At least they aren't in here,' he thought. He closed the seat in a slight huff of irritation and continued to slink around the crusty tiles in search of his beloved keys.
Joey was stuck, luckily, with searching around the rusty private sinks as his close friend and boyfriend slithered and nosed within and around the stalls. Joey looked above the first sink to find a glimmer of hope that the keys were there. Nothing. 'Then maybe underneath,' he thought as he looked. Nothing as well. His eyesight wandered over to the second sink. 'Maybe there,' he thought as he stood up and crossed over to it. The top revealed the same as the one before, but below held a wonderful sight. A spider web was housed in between the U-bend of the sink's plumbing as it glistened in the dimmed flickering light of the restroom. A spider sat on the web and chowed down on a wasp as it writhed in the web while Joey watched in awe. 'So cool,' Joey thought as the little black spider sank its fangs into the golden hide of the insect and sucked it dry with the poor thing struggling under the spider's grasp. The display of ravenous hunger kept his interest for sometime until . . . a sudden sheen in the corner of his eye caught his attention. A shiny object sat six feet below a vent and a glimmer of hope washed over him as he purred softly. "Found them!" he called out happily as he stood up and crossed to the far end of the room towards the keys on the floor. Something was odd about the keys just being there on the floor, but Joey didn't care in the least as he bent down and clasped his right paw around the key ring. He stood up and the keys clinked and jingled as he spun them on his index finger, showing off his find to the others as a smile curled on his lips. The other two stood up and poked their heads out of the stalls to see if he had them or not. "Now let's blow," he said with his tail swaying cheerfully as the keys continued to spin on his finger triumphantly.
"All right, baby," Mark said, purring softly at Joey.
"Yeah, let's get outta here," said Xavier as he grinned as well.
"And the crowd goes wild . . . aaaaahhhh," Mark said as he cupped his paws over his muzzle to mimic a crowd cheering. Joey smiled happily as he clasped the keys in his paw tightly while he leaned up against the wall behind him and sighed; relieved . . . a pair of yellow eyes glowed suddenly from the vent up above Joey's head. Mark noticed the glowing twins in the vent and stopped cheering as his muzzle fell open as a puzzled expression crossed his face. Xavier's eyes widened as he noticed it as well. Joey noticed the sudden silence from his friends. Puzzled, he was about to say something when Mark whispered calmly, "Don't move, Joey." Joey's eyebrow lifted, puzzled, but was answered his silent question as a hiss broke the silence up overhead. Joey tremblingly looked up just in time to see the grate crash open and slam on the floor with a loud bang. A bony and fleshy arm flew out of the hole and the clawed paw groped painfully below Joey's muzzle, causing him to shriek in terror. The claws dug into his chin and blood curled around them as the creature started to retract its arm up into the vent, bringing a flailing Joey up with it. Joey's paws shot up and gripped around the bony arm as he struggled and screamed in this creature's clutch, wanting to get free with his legs dangling and kicking as he was hoisted a foot off the ground.
Xavier, in a panic, searched for something, anything hard to hit it with. He noticed the discarded old crowbar and thanked God as he snatched it up from the corner of the room. His paws tightened around the shaft as he swung hard for the thing's vulnerable arm. The bones in the thing's arm snapped audibly as the crowbar connected hard with it, causing the thing to shriek as if it were a wounded animal in a bear trap, and let Joey hit the floor as it disappeared into the shaft, scuttling away with its nails clacking along the cool metal of the vent. Joey sat on the ground, panting heavily in terror as he clutched his beating heart in his chest with the echo of the claws in the vent dissipated.
"Are you all right, baby," a frantic snow leopard asked a shocked lion, "speak to me." Joey's left cheek was carved open and seeping red syrup, quite the same red as his hair as the blood flowed down his chin and onto his Slipknot shirt. 'He must not have felt that,' Mark said as he saw the blood pouring from Joey's cheek. Mark stroked the lion's quivering cheeks gently, staining his paws scarlet in the process. Xavier noticed the blood as well and dropped the crowbar as he quickly went to find some toilet paper to sop up that wound. Mark held his trembling kitten's muzzle in his paws and nuzzled the poor boy tenderly. "Are you all right, sweetheart?" he asked again as he looked deeply into Joey's eyes, searching. Joey only nodded in response. A blank and lifeless stare filled his eyes as Mark continued to nuzzle him gently.
"Wuh . . ." Joey began after a while, stuttering, "what wuh-was t-t-t-that thu . . . thing?" The lion trembled in shock as the snow leopard embraced him tightly, trying to calm him down. Joey couldn't help but shiver in Mark's arms with the blood still dripping red fluid as Xavier came back with some clean and cool, slightly wetted toilet paper to dab at the wound. Xavier placed it carefully on Joey's bleeding and throbbing cheek and patted it gently and firmly on it, applying slight pressure. He removed his paw and Joey replaced it with his own paw to press against the reddening two-ply as Mark continued to cuddle and comfort him tenderly.
"Whatever it was," Xavier said startling the feline couple, "it's gone now."
"Muh . . . maybe it w-w-was the creature I saw in heh . . . here b-b-before," Joey said struggling past the shivers. He still clung to Mark tightly as he pressed his paw on the toilet paper against his cheek, wanting to stop the blood from flowing.
"Well, I hope it doesn't come back ever again," Mark said as he cooed and stroked Joey softly, trying to calm his still trembling lion.
"Anyway, you got the keys," said the flying fox, "so we can get out of here?" Joey blinked at the sudden realization and looked up at his tall friend in bewilderment. Joey's paws were empty; he must have been distracted because when he flung up his arms the key ring must have snagged on the creature's claw. Joey explained the best he could behind stutters and shivers about how he lost the keys. Xavier interpreted it all the best he could and looked to the vacant vent as a terrible hollow echo called from it. "Well," he started as he stood pointing at the vent, "the only way to get out of here is to get my keys back from that thing."
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