FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

2

Reflection

Peter

Peter stared at the message, struggling to rationalize why he would get that message again. Dead people can't send messages. A glitch? The number got deactivated, someone new has the number. The service provider accidentally sent the last message. Peter's mind raced, trying to find a reason. Sometimes things just happen. He stood there, debating on whether he should respond to the phantom text. He wiped the blurry tears from his eyes, fighting the memory.

He shoved the phone back into his pocket and headed down the path, putting the negative thoughts out of his mind. He walked briskly, his mood had soured and just wanted to leave. With his palm on the walls, he kept to his strategy. He rounded a corner and felt a breeze. Though he saw no door. It looked like a dead end, though it was to his left, so he headed down it anyway. At the end of the mirrored dead end, the mirror gave a little. It was some kind of door, an employee area.

Curious, he opened the door further. It swung open to reveal an old wooden staircase. The kind you'd see for a basement. He looked back at the mirror maze. There was little more he wanted there. He pushed himself into the door, into the underbelly of the mirror maze. The stairs led into a familiar basement. The kind of basement he had back at his parent's place. The room was empty. The shelves looked old. The walls were concrete. Only a single light bulb lit the room. Across the way was a single window, on the ground was a dusty old couch and an old television. The same television, Frank, Patrick and himself would spend hours playing games on in high school.

He walked through the empty room. Everything was still in place. Like they had never changed it. He could even hear the rain outside. The sound of the cars driving by, splashing through puddles in the road. It was so calm, here, like always. The room he hadn't stepped into since Pat's funeral. It was here now, under some traveling fair attraction.

He walked towards the window, to search for some sense. But what he saw made him reel back towards the center of the room. It was Patrick's street. He saw the sky, the lawns, the cars. It was like he had somehow transported back to this spot. His breath had been taken from him, his knees shook violently. He crumpled to the ground, engulfed by the dread he felt that day. It was like the first time. Even after years of growing, learning from it, None of it meant anything. The moment was as strong as the first time, but condensed into a single gasp.

"What am I doing wrong?" Patrick's voice was heard behind him. He was talking to himself. That wasn't that abnormal for him.

Pete looked back towards the workbench. Patrick was standing there, a mess of rope in his hands. His mane was unkempt, hair was either split or clumped together. The ratty sweater he always wore was covered in band patches and holes.

"Pat?" Pete said, weakly.

The lion ignored him. Continuing his sad attempt to try and tie a noose.

"Please, Pat." Pete walked over to him. He wanted to hold him, but he learned not to just run up behind him for a hug a long time ago. Instead he reached out to touch the lion's shoulder. Though, before he could make contact, someone's voice startled him.

"Pete." Came Frank's voice. A panther, and the third male of their group.

Pete twisted his neck towards the solemn voice of his childhood friend. Frank was dressed in a suit, his eyes were bloodshot, his nose was still wet from a fit of crying.

"It's time to go, man." Frank said, "We're heading out."

"But.." Pete looked back to where Patrick was standing, seeing only the workbench with a pile of loose rope.

Frank had already started going back up the stairs. Pete followed behind him. Frank had made his way into the house by the time Pete got up to the door. He turned the knob, pulling the door open to find the mirror maze waiting on the other side. He walked through the door, hearing the click of it closing behind him. He turned around, seeing some old paint scribbled on the mirror.

Written on the mirror: "What did you say to him?"

Adrian

"Not now!" James repeated, over and over. He was helping his wife to the ground as she clutched her pregnant stomach, breathing heavily.

Adrian stared, dumbfounded. The woman's water had just broken. He had no idea what to do.

"Call an ambulance!" The woman screamed.

Snapping out of his stupor, Adrian nodded, grabbing his phone from his pocket. He tried to call emergency services, but an automatic message said, "I'm sorry, our lines are full, please try again."

He tried the phone again, but got nowhere.

"Looks like we're having it here." The cheetah said, disappointed.

Adrian sighed, nervously running his fingers through his mane, "Need help?"

The cheetah nodded, "Can you get on that side and help the baby out?"

"I don't know what I'm doing."

"Guess we'll be learning something together, huh?" The cheetah half laughed

He knelt in front of the woman, who was lifting her dress up.

She tried to calm herself, "You'll need to get my panties off."

"Oh Jesus.." Adrian thought to himself, wishing he were anywhere else as he grabbed the woman's underwear, peeling it off the soaking leg fur. He vagina was stretching obscenely, leaking blood and other liquids. She pushed, trying to bring the child to the world.

"How is it looking?" James asked.

Adrian shrugged, "I think it looks normal." The situation was so strange he had to laugh as he set the soaking piece of fabric aside.

"What's funny?" The man stated, holding his wife.

"Y'know, I had a dream like this once?" Adrian replied.

"Helping with childbirth?"

"I was the pregnant one." He chuckled.

"But you can't get pregnant." The man stated, coldly.

"I.. I know." Adrian said, feeling attacked.

The woman pushed hard, blood poured out of her causing her to scream, "What's that?!"

"I don't know!" Adrian shrieked, his paws covered in her blood.

"Something's wrong! Something's wrong!" The Lynx yelped. Blood squirting onto Adrian.

"Do something!" The man yelled.

Adrian shrunk back, "I don't know what to do!" He reached forward, for the child, hoping help pull it out.

Something vaguely baby shaped dripped out of the woman. It was small, covered in blood. It's eyes opened wide and stared at Adrian. It had Peter's eyes.

"Shit, what the fuck?" Adrian said, looking up to see the woman still bleeding all over the floor. In the mirror he could see himself holding a lump of bloody flesh. The lump in his hands screamed in pain as it writhed and moaned.

"This is the best you will ever do, huh?" The lynx. She sounded mocking

"Can you grow anything in that twisted up uterus?" The woman said.

"I'm sorry?"

"Yeah, I know what you are. A cuntboy." The woman said between heavy breaths.

"Please don't call me that, it's mean."

"Your plumbing might look the same on the outside." The man said, "But it's all fucked up inside." The man said, laughing

Adrian yelped, dropping the thing on the ground, where it continued to let out it's death cries. He stood up, backing away from it, watching as it shriveled and died.

"What did you do with the child?" The cheetah asked.

"What the fuck?" Adrian whispered, looking at the blood covered image in his reflection. Began backing through halls, trying to find another way.

The woman's mocking voice echoed, "Every child you try to have will shrivel and die."

"You are a combination of two things, but never quiet enough of either." Her husband's voice rang through the halls.

"Shut up."

"Peter doesn't want a child, you know." The whisper felt closer, "He resents your lack of.. How should I say this.. Cock. He wants cock, you know?"

"Shut the fuck up!" Adrian yelled.

"Just look!" The voices said, "Over there."

Against his better judgment, Adrian followed the instructions. It was close by, he could see it in the mirrors. Peter was on his knees, tail wagging excitedly as he serviced a well endowed canine. The man looked over at Adrian, pulling Peter off his member. Pete struggled, clearly trying to get back to his task. But the other dog pulled harder, grinning as he forced Peter to look at Adrian.

Peter gasped, trying to get back onto his feet, "Adrian! It's not what it looks like!"

Adrian shook his head, he heart felt torn to pieces. He turned around, running down the hall. He slipped on the bloody floor, he head smashing into a mirror, causing the wall to crack. He stared at his face in the spiderweb pattern he had made in the mirror. He turned to the wall on his right to watch his wound drip down his face.

He took a breath, he felt hopeless. The voice calling attention to the small piece of broken mirror didn't help. This was what it wanted. He took the glass shard. He only had one thing left to do now.

"I know what you are." Adrian said. He cut the tip of one of his fingers and reached far back into his memories. His childhood dreams of another world. Something in those dreams had the answer. A desperate, primal part of his mind told him the spell.

He drew the symbols on the mirror, letting that deep, forgotten part of his mind take over. When the spell completed, he said the words, "I cast your illusion back into the void!" He commanded. Around him, the world went dark.

Slowly, the light returned to the world around him. He was alone again. There was no broken glass, the blood that covered him was gone. He was no longer carrying anything and the wounds were gone. He sighed deeply, relieved.

He felt a paw on his right shoulder and a deep, terrifyingly familiar voice spoke into his left ear, "Oh, you know what I am, huh?" He laughed, "Or were you expecting something else?"

Adrian looked into the mirror to see the pure powdered white color of the fur, the pitch black mane. Those sinister eyes. The crooked crown atop his head, accenting a body clothes in only the finest royal clothing of his dream world.

Adrian tried to speak, but nothing came to him. Fear gripped him as tight as the nightmare king's grip on his shoulder.

Jeff

Jeff felt like a man waking to find he was lost at sea after a night in the desert. He couldn't determine if his confusion had blossomed into hurt yet. So he sat and waited for it all to make sense. But it never did. Quietly, he cried, his wings wrapped around his legs, pulling them into his chest. Just as he did as a child. Those days when his parents were together. Fighting about one thing after another. The ones that always ended the same way.

There was a crash. Like glass plates falling onto linoleum. Jeff looked around for what caused it. There were muffled voices a small distance away. He crawled towards the sounds. He was drawn to it. A few twisting corridors and dead ends later he a child through one of the mirrors. Like a window into his old home. The child was a bat, like him. The child was crying. The kind of crying a kid does when he sees his drunk father backhands his mommy. Jeff knew the cry. He could hear his mother from the other side of the glass. He tried to follow but was met by only glass. Another dead end.

The child looked over to Jeff, "They were happy until I came around."

"No, that's not true." Jeff said, but the command in his voice was gone. They were his thoughts once.

The child only nodded, "They don't like me."

"Everything will be better after tonight." Jeff remembered this night. It was the night his mom finally left. "I pro.." He couldn't finish the word. He couldn't promise anything. Remembering the last conversation he had with David.

His mother exited the kitchen, holding her bloodied nose. She was furious. Her eyes were determined. This was when she would pick him up and they would leave and the abuse would be over. She crossed the room, opening their front door.

"I never want to see you again!" She yelled towards the kitchen.

His father's voice yelled from the kitchen, "Don't forget your little brat!"

"He's your problem now!" She looked at the child coldly, "There was always something about him I didn't like." She then slammed the door.

This wasn't how it happened. Jeff looked at his younger self, who's eyes began to water.

"Jeffrey!" His father's voice boomed around him. The way he said it still filled him with dread. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. He looked at the child get up and cautiously walk towards the other room. Jeff wanted to stop him. Tell him to get out of the house and never return.

Jeff shook, clasping his hands over his large ears, "Stop!" He held his eyes shut. I wanted to get off this ride.

"Please." He said, weakly through his tears. He felt the world close around him. A darkness he could feel crept over, threatening to consume him. He let it.

Nothing had happened. He opened his eyes to see that he was back in the house of mirrors. I looked at where his old living room was and saw only his tear stricken face.

"Jeffrey!" A voice called out from somewhere in the maze. He shook his head. He didn't want to hear it. He closed his eyes, shaking his head.

"Come here, Jeffrey! I'm not gonna tell you twice!" His father's voice echoed through the mirrored halls.

"Shut up! You're not here!" Jeff yelled to the other.

"Not here!?" His father's voice was on him now. Someone grabbed his arm.

Jeff let out a squeak, trying to pull away, "No! Let go!" He lunged away from the hand.

"It's time to go, Jeffrey!" He father pulled on his arm, hurting him.

"No! Let me go!" Jeff pulled hard until the older bat let him go. Once free, he ran. As far as he could through the maze. He tried not to look back, hearing the pounding steps behind him. Just when he thought he was maintaining his distance he found himself at a dead end. He could hear the footsteps getting closer. In his desperation he pushed on the glass. With a click, it gave way. It swung open like a door. Thinking it could be a place to hide he entered the dark room, shutting the door behind him.

He slumped down to the floor, feeling the carpet on his wings and palms as he sat on the floor. Catching his breath he looked at the room he was in. It was familiar. A room he spent the best days of his life in. David's room back home. Pulled straight from his memories. It was just as he last saw it. He fell on the twin bed they'd sleep on. It still smelled like David. He became more unsure now about their fate. Was this all over?

He looked around the room, recollecting every event they shared in this very room. The SNES still plugged into the TV, David's laptop sitting at his desk. Trophies sat collecting dust on the rickety bookcase David and his father built together. He looked out the window to see rain gathering on the glass. The gentle patter of the water dropping on the roof above him relaxed him a bit. He wanted to rest, but the unease was setting in. He was miles from this place, in some nightmare. He took the moment of respite to think of a way out. He was in danger here. Was the David he saw even real? The things he said earlier were too out of character. Almost scripted.

Sitting up, he stared through the window. If this was an illusion, he needed to know the extent. Determined, he stood up to walk towards the window. He knocked on the glass, causing it to rattle like it always would. He could even feel the cold air flow through the cracks. As real as it felt, he could not open it, no matter how hard he would try. He grabbed one of the dust covered trophies, using it to smash the window open. The glass remained intact, without a scratch on it.

"You won't be able to break it." David's voice came from behind him.

Jeff turned around, brandishing the blunt object, "David?"

David nodded, "I'd like to believe you're real, but I hope you'll keep your distance."

"I'm the real Jeff."

The German Sheppard smiled, "That's what the last one said."

"What's going on?" Jeff lowered the trophy, setting in on David's desk.

David shrugged, "Not sure. How are you handling things?"

Jeff sighed, he wanted to break down, but didn't fully trust this David, "Not well. It's getting into my head."

"Mine, too."

"What should we do?"

"As far as I can tell so far it can't hurt us physically." David looked at Jeff hesitantly, "If you are the real Jeff, I'd say we stick together."

"So it's just showing fears?"

David nodded, "I think so."

"Can we stay here a bit. Catch our breath?"

David sat down on his bed with a sigh, "Sure."

David

The chill of the night air was getting to David as he sat there. The longer he waited, the more he felt something was wrong. He turned to the internet to see how long it would take for the group of college level intellectuals to find their way through a maze meant to amuse children. Frustrated, the dog grabbed his phone to look up the place. It didn't take long find the info he needed. Though the pictures online were completely different. Curious, David stood up and walked around the building. The goat was starting to pack the place up for the night. David looked at the map on the website to find that the maze should have been in another corner of the fairgrounds. David walked past the goat, not wanting to give his investigation away.

Across the fairgrounds, he walked to where the internet showed there would be a house of mirrors. The large building was exactly where the map said it would be. It looked cleaner. A tiger was packing up the entrance of the large chrome box. The place looked a lot cheaper than the one his friends had yet to return from. Needing answers, David walked over to the tiger.

"Sorry, we're closing for the night." The tiger said when David reproached.

David shrugged, "Not here for the maze, just wanted to know something."

"Yeah? What's up?" The older cat asked, locking up the entrance.

David tried to talk casually, "There isn't another maze like there here, is there?"

The tiger shook his head, "No." He seemed annoyed.

"Someone else asked?"

The tiger laughed, "All day. Mostly complaining about the attendant."

"A goat?"

"Yeah, that's the guy. You see him, too?"

"You didn't?"

"I went back there." The Tiger said, looking over to the direction of the other maze, "All I saw was some, I dunno, electrical building? Some kinda maintenance thing for the city?"

"Not part of the fair?"

Again, he shook his head, "Built into the ground, by the parking lot. Nothing to do with us."

David nodded, "Alright, thanks." he turned to leave.

"Hey!" The tiger said, "One sec."

David turned around to see the tiger approach him, "What is it?"

"I don't wanna feed into the conspiracy, but..." The tiger sighed, "Look, people usually turn up. No one's gone missing forever."

"That's a conspiracy?"

"Someone was saying that building is some government thing. Like M.K. Ultra kinda shit."

David nodded, "You believe that?"

"I really don't know, man." He looked again towards the other maze, "Just sayin' I'm glad tonight is my last night here."

"Well, thanks." David said, waving at the man before heading back over to where the other's should be.

What the tiger said was true, for when David returned to the other maze, there was just an industrial looking concrete building. It was just off the grounds of the fair itself. He had to squeeze through some gates to get to it. The building was small, out of place. They were up on a hill away from the city itself. There was no reason for there to be a maintenance shed in there area. There were warnings all over it. The usual kind of thing you'd see in a government facility. Though, the closer David looked, the less they made sense. Half were for plumping, water works and the other DWP standards. Though some of the labels were for stuff like quicksand, tornadoes, shark attacks and train crossing. Just things that are generally dangerous. He felt that it could have been a joke by a bored city worker. Though, considering what he'd already seen, he was cautious.

He went back to his phone, going onto reddit, going into the paranormal boards he'd browse every so often. He made a post, stating his experience. He gave every detail he could remember to help someone, just in case going into this building in this state was dangerous. He didn't like leaving anything to chance. Best case, people get into it and it becomes some fun story online. Worst case, he'd have to rely off some budding paranormal investigator from the internet to save him from whatever was going on in there.

With the post made, David put his phone away and walked closer to the building. The only thing that looked the same was the door. There was a lock on it, but the latch had been undone. A rusty lock hung open on a hinge. He put his hand on the knob, taking in a deep breath. He turned the knob, opening the door into the darkness inside.

"Okay, asshole, do your worst." He said, walking into the building.