On the Prowl
A trio of campers run into a two-story-tall Hellhound, lurking in the woods.
"I'm tirrrrrreeed."
"Sam, come on."
"My feet are tired, my legs are tired, my tail is tired, my everything is tired."
"We're nearly to the trail!"
"We've been 'nearly there' for a hour," Skipp complained.
Shiela paused. She was hiking through the backwoods with her brother, Sam, and his mouse roommate, Skipp. Sam insisted on dragging him along everywhere. She and Sam were both red foxes, Shiela vibrant and fit, Sam breathless. All three were hopelessly lost.
"Why not make camp here?" Sam asked.
"Because we're nearly...oh, alright!" Shiela sighed.
She slept restlessly. Angrily. Another night out here because someone didn't want to hike just a bit further. The two of them probably thought she loved being out here. Nothing could be further from the truth. And she couldn't sleep anyway. Not with all that noise. Crunching, breaking branches, breaking louder and louder-
"Shiela!?" her brother called.
Shiela dashed outside in time to see a enormous dark shape among the trees - a shape with two glowing red eyes. It bounded away, tree branches snapping as it went.
"The hell was that?"
"It's-it's-" Skipp rambled. The mouse was stumbling out from his tent.
"Skipp?" A concerned Sam walked over to Skipp.
"It's-it's our friend!"
"Skipp...?"
Sam shook Skipp. As Shiela came closer, she saw that Skipp was blank: a vacant half-smile across his muzzle. He walked forward, ignoring Sam's frantic shaking. Pushing against it, pushing forward until Sam couldn't keep up. Sam's grip slipped, and he tumbled to his knees.
"Skipp!"
Skipp vanished into the line of trees where the dark shape once was. Sam ran after him.
"Sam!"
They found him in a clearing. Skipp, kneeling on the forest floor.
"Ski-" Sam cried out. Shiela held her brother back. "What are-"
"Watch out," Sheila said, pulling him behind a thick tree. "I think it's still out there."
Skipp was still smiling, the exact same half-smile. He looked like he was lost in a dream. Walking out of the forest was the dark shape: which Shiela could now see was a dog. A black-furred dog with red eyes. A dog that was two stories tall.
"Holy shi-" Sam started. Shiela shushed him.
"I'm here, friend!" Skipp yelled. "I'm here!"
The dog barked - a bone-rattingly loud bark that made the dense forest tremble. It bowed its head. Licked the entranced mouse. And then it gulped him down in one bite. The mouse didn't even fight it.
"Skipp! No!" Sam ran in, but Skipp was gone - and the dog turned its attention to the fox.
The dog barreled towards Shiela and Sam. She ran, not looking back. When she stopped to breathe, she realized the dog was nowhere to be seen - and neither was her brother.
"Sam!" she yelled. "Sam!"
Nothing. She prowled the forest some more, hoping to find him. She began to hear something distant: a light growling, a murmuring. She followed the trail of sounds, not daring to call out again, in case it was listening.
She found her brother, alright. Entranced, just like Skipp. Kneeling before the gigantic hound.
"You are my friend," he said dreamily.
The dog growled back.
"I give myself to you."
The dog jumped up and down happily. Sam pulled off his clothes, turned himself over, and...offered himself to it. Shiela could only stand transfixed in silent horror, watching as the hound pushed as deep as he could inside Sam. It pushed in and out, shaking his whole body with every thrust.
It became entwined with him, pumping him full until he couldn't hold anymore. When the hound pulled free, Sam fell on all fours and eagerly lapped up what had dripped out onto the dirt.
The hound licked Sam. And then opened its jaws. Sam looked different. Afraid. The spell broke. He noticed her, his eyes pleading.
"Sam!"
"Shiela, what's going on-!?" The jaws closed around him, trapping him in darkness.
Shiela tried to flee. Tried to run. The dog galloped forward, jaws wide open. She was swallowed in a single bite.
The dog's stomach was hot, wet, cramped. She couldn't see Sam or Skipp, but she heard distant grumblings. They were in here somewhere.
She pressed urgently against the stomach walls, trying to find a way out. There had to be away. She couldn't be dying. She can't really be getting eaten alive. But she found no exit. Breathless and defeated, she collapsed, and drifted off to sleep as her body slowly dissolved.
She woke up. Felt herself...rising. She saw clumps of fur in the stomach juices below. She must be dead. Dead. The thought was bizarre to her. She tried to rise up. Escape. But a red light closed in. She couldn't get away. It enveloped her-
Pain. The deepest pain she could ever feel. Every part of her, being torn apart. She felt herself going away, ebbing away, being dissolved into something else...
She heard voices. Skipp and Sam and hundreds of others. And she saw it. Out of a dark mist galloped the hound. Spectral, red, running up to her, licking her. Flashing its teeth. She couldn't go anywhere. She was the dog's plaything now. And she always would be.
The hellhound returned to its warm den and curled up to sleep, his tail wagging. His well-fed stomach dragged across the earth. He made so many new friends today! Friends he could play with forever and ever! Wasn't that great? He slept happily, looking forward to all the fun to come.