Jaguar and the Stories
#4 of Surviving a lost mind and a lost soul
Darrek looks down at his foot paws, trying not to stutter or make eye contact with the shadowy jaguar to his left. "813 Highland..." The wolf manages to force out his words.
The feline smiles a little, looking over at the lupine with one eye and one fang protruding from his muzzle, "I live in between, don't suppose we could stop by my house first?" Vince snickers, maneuvering the bulky automobile through traffic. Darrek nods slightly, enough for Vince to catch it. The feline returns the nod of approval with a vicious looking smirk.
Darrek keeps himself busy, reading license plates and looking at other furs, studying them and giving each one a unique story of their lives. The brown bunny walking into the supermarket, her name's Clair, she has two cubs waiting at home with a babysitter getting paid a lot more than what she's providing. She probably has a whole lot of coupons in her purse so she can save as much money as she can so she could put it away in her savings account.
The babysitter is only watching Clair's cubs because she needs the money, not because she wants to look after the cub's well being, saving money so she can buy her boyfriend another gift, or to buy another dress at the mall.
Isn't that how everyone lives, on their hands and knees for money? It sure seems that way to Darrek, and what about the large feline to his left? He probably worked at the clinic the wolf was just at and got off early. He knows the furs that come and go through the building and jumped at the chance to help someone out, right? The lupine'll find himself home before he knows it, eating his ice cream and watching some T.V. in the living room.
Darrek focuses himself and the streets are more residential, though not mush distance had been traveled from the clinic to where they are now. Vince pulls into the driveway presumably his house as Darrek recalls to himself in near photographic memory every turn and street name they took to get where they find themselves parked, an incredible feet since the lupine made at least three back stories to the random furs he saw on the street. "Well we're here Darrek, come follow me inside" The ebony panther coos in a taunting sort of way that Darrek fails to catch. He gets out of the large pickup truck and has to jump out of it, Darrek trots up right behind the jaguar, enough to feel his own comfort sink back in. The large paw of the feline makes the door key seem miniscule, as Vince fiddles with the front door the wolf keeps busy by just looking around the neighborhood, even leaving the feline and walking slowly to the front sidewalk, so he can get a full view of the feline's house.
The neighborhood seems really nice, not a brown spot on any house lawn or fleck of peeled paint. The only concern that raises up in the lupine's overly critical mind is that all the houses in a way melt together, none really stick out to him, just the same dwelling over and over. Though these houses aren't track homes they do a good job of seeming that way. There's a breeze softly blowing and Darrek can't help but crack a small smile in remembrance of his cub. Even from the sidewalk Darrek can hear the tumblers turn as Vince gets the door unlocked, the smile on his muzzle fades away as well as his lucid imagery of him and his cub, quickly doing an about-face and half trotting back to the feline's front porch. Vince pushes the door wide open and gestures the smaller wolf to go inside, Darrek just responds by nervously taking his tail into his paws and looking down at the ground.
"Wâ€"would...you go first? P-please...?" Darrek stutters out in wait of the towering feline.
"What're you scared of wolf?" Vince asks, staying in place to the side of the threshold.
"I...d-don't...like going...first..." The lupine says to the ground, his ears back against his skull.
The jaguar tilts his head to the side, looking down at Darrek. "Ah, I see...alrighty, won't press the issue" Vince walks in casually while looking back at the wolf to make sure he's right behind him.
The walls are a rich mahogany with a nice bold and detailed grain pattern, there's three sofas pushed up against the three deep red wooden walls with a coffee table in the middle of the leather seats, and the fourth wall connected with the front door holds up a huge flat screen T.V. almost as tall as Darrek stands. "Wait here wolf, make yourself at home." The feline walks down the hallway and disappears in a left turn. The lupine finds himself confused and lost, but given his new surroundings is engulfed with observations, he doesn't dare sit down and give a chance to mess up the refined ebony leather. The wind behind him vacuums shut the front door which scares the nervous wolf out of his fur, the jolt catches Darrek off balance and before he realizes what's going on he's on his rear end and yelping quite loudly. Darrek gets back up quickly, his rump stinging as he tries not to whimper out, hoping in his mind that the jaguar didn't hear any of that. He stands in place, bending his knees slightly, his ears flat against his skull and tail curled up around his chest on its own.
Some time passes, how long Darrek can't be so sure of, but his legs beckon him over to the inviting leather sofa. Darrek gets the idea of sitting down on another person's furniture without their specific permission out of his head quickly, though he does give in a little bit and walks on shaky legs into the feline's dwelling some more, just so he is out of the threshold as to not show disrespect to the jaguar.
Darrek's ears perk up, music outside, coming closer. Down the street just in view from the front window, an ice cream truck! The lupine rushes over to the window, leaning over the couch to stick his twitching nose right up against the cool glass, his tail going a mile a minute back and forth. That not being enough Darrek climbs onto the leather sofa on his knees, rubbing both of his paws over the glass as well happily like a cub trying to get someone's attention without using words. Whining sadly watching the ice cream truck drift steadily out of view, he turns around and plops himself in the big leathery sofa, sighing quietly to himself and forgetting all about not wanting to sit down on the feline's furniture.
Footsteps coming from down the hall soft and slow, Darrek scammers back to his standing spot, lowering his ears and tail for the huge feline. "H-hey Vince...a-are we ready to go...?" Darrek stares at the ground. All of a sudden Darrek finds himself pinned against the dark wooden wall, the jaguar an inch away from the wolf's muzzle. Darrek stands there paralyzed, cornered, and nearly lifted off the ground as he just now notices his paw pinned above his head. He feels his stomach sink lower than the floor, the paw above his head aches as the feline's claws dig into his skin. The wolf opens his muzzle and tries to speak out, to say something, anything, but everything feels frozen in place, the sound of clicking and cold steel on his free paw makes Darrek flinch and look down at a dull pair of handcuffs. His cuffed paw gets slammed against the wall above his head as his other wrist is cuffed as well.
"Now, wolf...don't scream, or do anything loud, ya hear wolf?" Vince flicks open a pocket knife, holding it in front of Darrek, making him look at it. "Wouldn't want anything to happen to you, would we?"
Darrek tries to scream again, the jaguar leans in and nips hard at his nose, grazing off a few layers of skin. The wolf's eyes start to burn; he whimpers and whines, his mind starts to go numb, barely remembering being lead with a knife at his back through the house to the bedroom, or being thrown onto the bed.
This can't be happening, this can't be real. No way can this be real. Vince is a nice person; he's giving me a ride home, just another one of his delusions, another episode that will pass. Just do what Roxy said to do if this ever happened, keep focused and busy. "This is real Darrek, you know it is, you know what kinds of furs are out there, the furs that want to hurt...Remember?"
The sharp pain from Vince's clawing at his sides snaps Darrek back out of his head. "Ya look like such a girl...I'm gunna enjoy this wolf..." Vince rubs a paw pad over the raked skin on Darrek's nose, taking pride in the pain it causes, the wolf groans as he shakes his head left and right trying to keep his nose safe from more abuse. Paws tug feverishly at the paralyzed wolf's pants, nearly ripping them off as they, along with his boxers, get lobbed across the room.
Looking down at the jaguar undoing his pants knocks some sense back into Darrek, he regains some lucidity to what's happening, his wrists struggling against the cuffs sends a small shock of pain up into the wolf's mind. This is real, this is actually happening to him, and why is he just laying there incapacitated like a scared little puppy? Must think of something while Vince is distracted, he had a knife in his paw, where did it go? Where was his paw last? They were to Darrek's sides. Looking around inconspicuously he spots it, right next to his hip. If he can be quick about it he can take it before the jaguar can react.
Things get hazy, everything starts to slow down, and Darrek's ears ring loudly. "You have to do it, you know. It'll be easy, just do it quick and he won't know what happened, you'll be home free, you won't have to worry or get hurt. The quicker you do it, the quicker you can get home. You have ice cream waiting."
There it is again, that voice. The thing that is quickly turning into something of dread just hearing it, just registering that it has substance and knows what is happening. Can't acknowledge something that doesn't exist, let alone follow what it's saying to do. That would just insane, to take this feline's life because a voice suggested it. Darrek knows his mind isn't all pieced together properly, but that's how it is and how it will be, doing it will just prove that Darrek susceptible to any kind of suggestion.
Darrek just closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths, trying not to cry as much, trying to calm down. The jaguar makes it impossible to keep concentrated on nothing, raking his huge claws over his body. Everything kind of hurts, and for some reason the fur on his chest is wet, where Vince is clawing.
"Get ready wolf..." The feline coos evilly in Darrek's ear as he pushes up the wolf's leg by his inner thigh, a wet feline member prodding at his rear. An incredible pain shoots up his spine, Darrek's lower half goes numb, his stomach burns. Vince clamps down onto the helpless wolf's neck, his throat burns, his body unresponsive, paws gripping a hold of the bed sheets like a vice. Darrek keeps his eyes closed, keeping quiet, not so much as a whimper or another tear escapes.
"Was it worth it? I bet you wish that you'd do what you could have done ten minutes ago, huh? But I don't know anything right? I'm nothing, I don't exist. Ignoring me will prove your sanity right? Sure it does."
Nothing hurts anymore, nothing specific at least, just a dull, hard throbbing in his stomach, a sharp, searing pain every once in a while from Vince going in too deep, or from the feline barbs raking their way at his insides. The jaguar lets out a deafening growl into Darrek's neck, giving one last rough thrust inside.
Then, everything bad seems to melt away in that instant; Darrek even relaxes his body for the first time, lying limp under Vince, enjoying both the feel of the soft bed under him and the incredible warmth in his stomach. Darrek lets out a sigh, closes his eyes, and floats.
"I guess it was worth the pain."