{"sf1_id":172550,"sf2_id":"JewYDOVn","title":"The Darkness Within","author":"Catso","words":740,"posted_at":"2010-08-26T08:19:00.000Z","tags":["Horror","catso","lovecraft","necronomicon"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/172550-the-darkness-within","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/JewYDOVn","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/94/cc/94cc4353-824b-471b-a618-6a0d4c374728","description":"","content":"\u0026nbsp;\"How do I get myself in these situations?!\" Catso continued fleeing down the\n\nterrible hallway, a deep abyss of maws and claws consuming the hallway behind\n\nhim, and random shadows attempted to impede his escape. He slashed through them\n\nswiftly, not losing any speed. He was nearly out of this hell hole, he hoped.\n\n\"This is the LAST time I offer to pick up Noxi's 'required reading'!\" Feeling\n\nhelpful, Catso had asked her what she needed done that day, as he had nothing\n\nbetter to do (he thought) and wanted to get something done for someone. She told\n\nhim she required a certain tome, what for, he didn't ask, where, a derelict\n\nlooking mansion at the end of town.\n\nNot thinking too much about it, he set out, at first by rooftop, but as the\n\ntown seemed to fall apart the closer he got to the mansion, by a dead sprint on\n\nflat road. He knew he had found the mansion five minutes before he got there, it\n\nloomed over every other thing in this part of town. The door was wide open, so\n\nhe assumed it was a really old public library of some kind.\n\nHe started to explore the deserted place, realizing pretty fast that there\n\nhadn't been anyone else there in perhaps decades. Just as he was considering\n\nNoxi was messing with him, not expecting him to actually go, he fell through a\n\nweak part of the floor, and managed to break his fall nicely with his head.\n\nHe woke up with a headache, but otherwise OK, with the very book he was sent\n\nout to find a few inches away from his muzzle. He grabbed it, got up, put back\n\non his hat, brushed himself off, and started looking for a way out... when\n\nsuddenly lights turned on and a terrible crunching sound started.\n\nNow he found himself running with the book tucked inside his coat, some unknown\n\nbeast behind him and somehow keeping pace, even gaining on him, as more and more\n\nstrange shadowy things reached out for him. He wondered if there was a way out,\n\nif anyone at all could help him...\n\nThen he tripped, the book flew out of his coat and fell open, and he sprawled\n\nover it. He knew he couldn't get up in time, so he decided to see just what was\n\nin this book...\n\nLegion nearly had their prey, no one would take the Nekomicon away from them\n\nthis time. They were a yard away, soon they would snap up this foolish cat and\n\nhave the powerful scripture back in their possession. Suddenly they were stopped\n\ndead in their path.\n\n\"I don't think the likes of you shall be consuming me today. I'd like to think\n\nI belong to no one.\" Legion felt searing pain as the (beast?) cat stood up,\n\nbrushing off its clothing. The feline looked up eyes now glowing a deadly green,\n\nand they were suddenly aware that they were no longer dealing with prey. They\n\nhad become the prey of the Nekomicon's new host. The shadows gathered around\n\nthe fairly small figure, and shortly thereafter Legion was no more.\n\nCatso woke up on a subway headed back to Noxi's, a totally blank book in his\n\npaws. He had no recolection of why he had it, or what he was doing that day.\n\nChalking it up to not enough sleep, he got off the subway near Noxi's house\n\nsince he remembered where it was, and knocked on her door.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\"Hello?\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\"It's Catso.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\"Where have you been?\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\"Er, on a subway?\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\"You don't use\u0026nbsp;subways!\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\"Good point...\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;She let him in, and spotted the totally blank book in his paws, and knew. But\n\nshe said nothing. She had planned on getting the tome herself, seeing as she was\n\na monster, and immune to the worst of the effects of the tome. She had been\n\njoking when she asked the poor cat to go get the damned book, but she forgot his\n\nhelpful nature, and now here he was, with a totally blanked pile of paper. She\n\nlied to him about the tome, and said he must've dozed off after wandering\n\naround, and someone must've set him in the subway as a prank. Mildly pissed off,\n\nbut otherwise satisfied with the explanation, Catso went home. Noxi now wrestles\n\nwith the knowledge that Catso and the Nekomicon were one and the same, and\n\nwonders if \"it\" knew she knew...\u0026nbsp;\n\n  \n  \n\n"}