FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

In the corner of my eye, I could see it. Just lying on my periphery. A creature conjured up by my subconscious to make me feel guilty. A miniaturized lion with no fur on it save for the scruffy and unkempt mane that hung around its neck. The eyes a deep and lifeless black, deeper and richer than the black I felt last week. It's mouth a contradiction, both open and closed. The body had a sickly thin neck that barely supported the much larger head. It's body was closer in proportion to a stuffed animal with its rounded belly and stocky arms and legs. The paws on the ends of its arms were the healthiest part, with white tipped claws at the ends. The color was a shifting hue of grey and brownish-yellow that never seemed to stay one color for very long. It stared at me for hours yesterday before leaving. Today the creature was content with keeping it's eyes fixed elsewhere and made it a point to avoid my eyes. I tried to focus on anything else but the creature's presence was extremely unnerving to me. It was like it knew that I had done something horrible and was judging me. Silently, but always there.

I've decided that it needs a name and have chosen "Li" for it surely is one. There's no way that this thing could be real and I should stop worrying about it. This won't help me to finish the work I've started and I don't have the time to waste on such silly distractions. I rub my paws over each other in nervous tension as I think of my next goal. The red in my fur still hasn't completely washed out but I know it will come out in time. I've done this enough to know that it takes about three to four weeks for it to completely come out. Without chemicals, at least. But that's too risky now, the fumes would cling to my fur and those damned police dogs would find it before I could even react. My tail curled at the thought of those oafish dogs sniffing me left, right, and center. No concept of personal space! You'd think they'd want to keep away from a cat as ferocious as myself. Especially after what I did to one of their friends. Thank goodness they never found the body, or at least most of it. I was more careless back then. I have to be safer now, not so brazen and rash. It was much more fun when I started, but then when is any project not a chore to finish? I'm the only one who can do it now. I'm the only one who can...

Wait a minute, where did Li go? I looked around the room and found that Li was not there. I turned around in as tight of a circle as I could and ended up making myself dizzy from the effort. I put my thin arms up to steady the imbalance and found my grey and black tail was curled tight around my waist. When the world stopped spinning, I tried in vain to scan along the line of my peripheral with both of my green eyes. The slit in my iris narrowing as I focused in on the areas I knew Li should be. After a few minutes I felt sure enough that I breathed out a sigh of relief and slicked back my short ears as I stood up. Li was done torturing me for today, so it was time to get to work.

I stood up and checked the time on my watch. 11:30PM, she'd be getting off the train at the station any minute now. I had to hurry if I wanted to make it in time. As I ran through the dimly lit streets, rain pelted me from all angles. The night was brisk and the water clung tightly to my fur as I made my way through my tried and true shortcuts. A path only I knew that got me around the city faster at night. It wasn't possible to get to some of these alleys during the day. They were usually blocked off by cars parked along the streets. Every profession has tricks of the trade though, so it shouldn't be surprising to me.

As I near the train station, I can make out her familiar silhouette. She's just gotten off the train and started walking back to her apartment. Plenty of time to finish this little job then! I duck behind an advertisement sign closest to her and wait for her to get a long enough head start. I peek my head from behind the sign and watch her as she walks away. She was beautiful. Long brown legs that ended in sharp claws and a curvy frame that was covered in soft grey and brown feathers. Her tail swished behind her as she walked and I could feel my heart begin to pound harder in my chest just thinking about her. I remember months ago when I first saw her and was so completely enraptured by her delicate beak that I stopped in the middle of the last job. I'd never seen a peahen as radiant as her. This night was a long time coming and it was about to pay off.

I made sure that she hadn't looked over her shoulder and then began to walk slowly towards her. Don't want to spoil the fun all at once, if I can help it. I picked up the pace, letting my shoes hit the ground a little harder. The sound was enough to get her attention and she turned around to take a look. Oh my, that beak almost drove me to give chase right then. But a good chase is a mix of push and pull. Rising and falling tensions between the animals involved. I had to be patient. She walked faster away from me, her long talons clicking along the sidewalk. I let myself start to jog, inching closer to her. Waiting for her to make the next move. She turned her head back again and the look on her face was pure terror. Now, we're talking.

She squawked and dropped her purse before running away from me. I stopped jogging and let the rain fall in my face for a few moments. My senses were always so heightened on the job. Guess that's why I keep doing it. I crouch down and get into a runner's stance. My tail lifted well above me to help me balance. I opened my eyes wide and focused in on her fleeing form, my pupils narrowing to help me see clearly. With a small push off the pavement I was off and running. The rain stung as it hit me, but I was too focused on the peahen to care. She was squawking and sobbing now, the realization that I was faster hitting her. I got close enough to let her see my claws and that got her to speed up some. But she was running out of energy fast and it's just not as sporting when they collapse from exhaustion. I pounced on her and we rolled along the ground until I pinned her under me. She was screeching at me now and I closed my eyes to really let her fear wash over me. But then something felt off. It was a small thing, a shift in the wind blowing over us but it was still noticeable.

I opened my eyes and found that the peahen was no longer pinned under me. Instead I saw a tiny deformed lion with sharp claws attempting to grin at me. Li had managed to find his way between me and my prey. I could see the peahen running down the street and knew that if I got up I could make it back to her in little time. I looked down at Li again and seethed in rage. How dare he interrupt my work like this? It was well past time to teach Li a lesson. I grabbed him by the waist and tossed him like a ragdoll into the nearby trash can. I lined myself up to run after the peahen again and pushed off, but something was in my way. Li stood in front of me somehow, wagging his paw at me back and forth in a gesture I took for defiance. I wouldn't be denied the simple pleasure of a job well done though. I went to grab at him again with my left arm, but this time he was faster than me. He raised his long white claws and slashed at my arm. I grabbed at it in reflex and found it burned horribly. Li giggled and the laugh sent chills down my spine. It was a laugh that knew much about taking pleasure in another's pain. I knew since it sounded so close to my own. I took my right paw off of the wound and found that it wasn't bleeding. There was a single long slice in my left arm's flesh that went from the inside of my elbow down to the wrist, The grey fur was parted along the line and the muscle was exposed to the open air. I could move my arm and see the muscle move along with it. Other than the initial sting the pain had worn off as well. It felt as if there wasn't even a wound at all. I went to scream at Li to explain this but he was gone. And so was the peahen. Dammit.

The night passed uneventful. I slept well, despite now having a gaping gash in my arm. I made sure to dress the wound with alcohol and some gauze I had left over in my medicine cabinet before heading to bed. The alcohol didn't seem to sting the wound either, which was also odd. But I figured it was better to be safe and sterilize it anyway. I didn't dream of the peahen, she was a lost cause now. I had to move onto other projects and thankfully I had a few backups saved for just such an occasion. None of them as pretty as the peahen, but they would do just as nicely.

When the first rays of the morning light shone through my dreary apartment window I decided to figure out the best way to stop Li from interfering in my next job. I had a gun hidden away that I could use but it was much too loud to be subtle. I couldn't risk alerting the cops and having them catch me. I settled on a sizable foldable knife that I could store in my pocket and would be quiet enough not to arouse suspicion. The next time I saw that little lion, I'd make sure to slit his throat open.

Work didn't start for a few hours that day and so I had some time to try and better look at my gash. I used the rest of the alcohol to sterilize a needle and got some spare thread from an old shirt to create some makeshift stitches. I went to insert the needle into the skin flap on the left side but it wouldn't go in. So I tried it again and found that I missed once more. I tried a final time, putting my whole weight behind the thrust of the needle. My paw slipped at the last second and jabbed it deep into the fur next to the wound. I yelped out in pain and pulled it out quick. To my surprise, that part of my arm did start bleeding. I grabbed some toilet paper from the roll next to the toilet to blot it up and keep pressure on it. It didn't make any sense. Why would Li give me a wound that didn't hurt, wouldn't bleed, and I couldn't touch? Was he trying to teach me some contrived lesson to make me a better cat? He'd have a better chance at getting me to let the cops search my apartment before that would happen. Checking the time on the wall clock I found that I was almost late for my next job. I grabbed the rest of the gauze and bandaged my arm so that I could still move it, then left the apartment for the corner bookstore.

The dove running the store had caught my eye before, but since she was secondary to the peahen I had forgotten about her. I struck up a lovely conversation with her and when asked about my arm I told her that I had recently gotten into an accident. She seemed to buy it well enough. Her voice was soft and soothing and she was more eager than I to set up our next date. I told her to meet me here around closing time and she happily obliged. Leaving the store I went back home and waited for the evening to come. I had always planned on standing her up, giving her just a bit of unease as she left the shop half an hour after closing to walk home. I followed close behind her and before she could start to run grabbed at her wing.

A shuffling of feathers later and I was holding onto the cold and lifeless skin of Li again. But this time I was prepared. I drew the knife with my right paw and slashed across the creature's throat. The blade hit its mark and Li slumped down in a heap in front of me. Laughing, I went to walk past its corpse when the arm closest to my knife shot out and grabbed my leg. It wrapped its arm around my leg multiple times so that I couldn't get away and used the knife to cut a new gash in the outside of my thigh. I grunted in pain as the familiar burning sensation resurfaced and I felt the gash open up. I went to reach for Li to throttle him but he wasn't there anymore.

This continued on for several weeks. Each time I found a new job and wanted to further my work, Li would show up at the last second and ruin it for me. I would get so tantalizingly close to finishing my work for the night and then he would stop me. It also didn't help that each time he would give me a new cut that wouldn't heal. No matter what I tried I couldn't find a way to make the cuts go away. I tried medicines, leaving them out in the air, and even rubbing dirt in it. But nothing worked. It was getting harder and harder to keep up my alibis with my potential clients. The accident excuse seemed to be working more and more as I got covered with more and more bandages. But the longer Li tormented me the worse it became. It got to a point that I couldn't even look in the mirror without seeing a disfigured and grotesque monster staring back at me.

It was the last week of September when I found out what Li was and what he wanted. I had been driven to my wits end and found no other solution than the gun. Cops be damned, I would be rid of Li tonight even if I had to go to jail. I went to an abandoned section of town and waited for him. Sure enough the shifting of winds brought him in front of me, but something was different this time. He was frowning, I think? It was always so hard to tell with that crooked mouth. I didn't hesitate though, pulling the gun and shooting into his head. The bullet passed through the lion's eye and ended up on the other side. He was completely unscathed. My heart sank and I felt something in me snap. All at once a bundle of muscle fibers released on my arm. Exploding in a shower of blood and tissue. The pain was enough to get me to drop to my knees, but then the gashes on my legs opened up and blood and tissue exploded from them as well. I could barely think straight but I knew I had to run. I had to get away somehow. I went to get up and saw the look in Li's face. And that look made my blood turn to ice in my veins. Because Li liked to give chase too.

I hobbled the best as I could down the alley. Dragging my legs along the ground as fast as I could muster as more gashes opened and blood came pouring out of me. I left a long sticky red trail as I made my escape. Li just watched, not moving for a time. But as I was nearing the end of the street I could hear bones crunching and wet squelching from behind me. I pumped my arms faster and faster until they too burst with blood loss and I couldn't move them anymore. I tried in vain to drag myself using my chin and my torso but I wasn't moving anywhere. I rocked back and forth in a mixture of my muscle tissue and blood as I tried not to think about how much I ached. About how desperately I wanted to scream but my throat had lost too much blood already. I felt a large paw turn my body over and while coughing up blood I saw Li for the first time. He was a massive lion now, Same eyes, same claws, and same color of fur. But the frame was thrice my size and his mouth was open to show me the rows and rows of yellow teeth that resided within. He lifted my head up to meet his gaze and gently stroked my ears back. Then I heard a voice carried on the wind, gruff and forceful but kind and sad as well.

"My work is done."

Li ate me over the course of the next hour and when he was done licked his paws clean of my blood, shrank back down, and disappeared with the shifting of the wind.