Feeding Day
Ana was drunk, leaving the party in a huff because she'd just got done arguing with her boyfriend about how he wasn't paying enough attention to her at the moment, or something; not even she could really remember. All she knew was that she was angry, and therefore, was going home. The fact that her house was a good twenty blocks away and she didn't have a ride didn't bother her in the slightest.
She was a young anthro canine, a dog of purebred status: a golden retriever to be precise. Although their non-anthro counterparts tended to be very easy to get along with, this one was proving quite the contrary. Clad in nothing but a pink tank top, an obscenely short skirt, and a pair of decorative black socks she was really in no shape to be out on the streets alone. After about five shots of tequila and an equal or greater amount of beer, though, one tended to stop caring about their own safety.
About three blocks away and she was talking loudly on her cellphone, likely to a friend, maybe asking for a ride or just using them as someone new to complain to on their way back home. This would continue for another six blocks, the whole time the canine failed to notice the dark figure tailing her.
On the seventh block, she finally took the phone off her ear after saying her goodbyes, and was looking ready to dial another number. Before she could press 'send', the slightly taller anthro that had been stalking her up until now came up fast behind her, putting one arm around her throat to pull her backward and successfully arrest her. Before she could scream or even put up much of a fight, a hand clasped over her muzzle, covering her nose and mouth with a cloth saturated in a very powerful smelling liquid. Her struggles lasted about five seconds, before she passed out in her attacker's arms.
She would awaken, still drunk and extremely disoriented inside of a very dark, very cramped space. She could feel herself being jostled about, but with how out of it she was she could hardly comprehend why. Her head was still spinning by the time the jostling stopped, and the lid to her containment was opened. The cool night air washed over her face, and she saw the dark silhouette of someone hovering over her through nothing but the light of the moon behind him.
When he grabbed her and shifted her, a wave of nausea hit her hard and she ended up throwing up over the edge of the container onto the ground below, which earned her a few sharp blows against the side of her head. Unable to really feel pain, the rebuttal only made her feel that much more dizzy and confused.
She thought she heard her attacker say something, but she wasn't sure as she was then roughly dragged out of her containment. The feeling of dead grass and gravel was barely registered under her sensitive foot pads as her attacker tried to force her to walk, which of course was largely unsuccessful as she was soon lying dazed on the hard, cold gravel below. The smell of motor oil was surprisingly strong, biting through her desensitized state and straight into her olfactory nerves.
She was soon being dragged across the gravel, through dirt and sharp blades of dead grass as her attacker proved himself more than capable of handling her dead weight. Through everything else to follow, she continued to drift in and out of consciousness, knowing nothing more than darkness and being manhandled.
It was only when he was dragging her down some wooden stairs that she finally began to have some sense return, the dull throbbing pain in her head and her body finally beginning to register.
"Where... where am ... I...?" She mumbled, nearly incoherent.
Her kidnapper didn't say anything, as he continued dragging her down until they were once again on a flat surface. Concrete, the bitter chill of it creeping through her fur and aggravating wounds she was only now realizing she had. Fear slowly began to creep into her heart, real fear that finally broke through her drugged haze, and she felt tears starting to well up into her eyes.
"Where am I...?" She whimpered again, "Please don't hurt me..."
She knew what guys did to young girls they kidnapped, she knew the horrible stories and had seen it on the news. She began to cry harder, a gentle sob leaving her as her kidnapper finally dropped her, letting her lie there on the cold, hard floor. She heard his footsteps, soft and quiet as he walked away from her.
Slowly she looked over to watch him ascending the stairs; absolutely nothing of his person was showing, completely cloaked in a long black hooded coat and loose black pants. She couldn't even really tell if his feet were digitigrade or not. All she knew was that he must have been about six feet tall at least, and wasn't exactly small by any standards. His tail was hidden beneath his coat, so not even that gave a clue as to what he looked like or his species. He disappeared upstairs then, and shut the door. The sounds of multiple locks sliding into place was heard, and then, nothing but the sounds of the floorboards creaking under his weight as he made his way leisurely to a different part of the house.
Ana was confused. Why was he leaving her behind like this? And more importantly, how long was he going to leave her down here!?
She sat up and looked around, for the first time really noticing the huge gaping hole in the floor across from her near the wall, off in a very dark part of the basement that was hardly visible. Still dazed, she could only stare in confusion when the loud scraping coming from that direction started, growing louder, and louder, until she felt fear from it and crawled back quickly to press her back against the wall.
An odd deep gurgling resonated up from the cavernous hole, the sound so wildly different from anything she'd ever heard before that it took her a long time to realize it was the sound of some creature's hellish growling. Its breath was like a gale, coming up powerfully and taking grains of loose dirt up with it to fall in showers down upon the concrete. The sound of its unimaginably huge body writhing around in there filled her with absolute terror, and even with her limited brain functions she still managed to come up with multiple mental images of what that horrific beast she was about to get acquainted with could possibly look like.
Trance broken, she got up, tripping over herself at least three times as she ran for the stairs and ascended them as quickly as physically possible. She was letting out little shouts of terror, unable to get the breath to actually scream just yet. Throwing her full body weight against the door, she began to pound on it, though it was truly a pathetic sight considering her massive fatigue.
"Let me out! Please, I'll do whatever you want," She screamed, her voice cracked and dry.
The growling of the beast down there was now so unimaginably loud she could hardly raise her voice above it.
"Let me out!" She screamed one last time.
Her cries were cut off when something long and slimy wrapped around her ankle, and she was yanked sideways violently. She crashed into the wood plank that was a makeshift handrail, before falling down hard onto the stairs. Dazed, she was easily yanked down where she fell and landed hard onto the concrete. Her head bounced off the floor, and for a second she appeared knocked out cold as she was dragged slowly across the room.
A streak of dark red was left in her wake from where her head had been cracked open, and for now she was mercifully unaware of the massive form of her true attacker that had just pulled itself from the hole in the floor. Saliva from the creature's jaws fell to the cement floor in great globs, one particular drop falling right onto the young canine's thigh.
She twitched, and with a start looked up into the face of her demise. Four huge shining black eyes stared back, and she could see the silhouette of its head, wider than she was tall. She could only groan, unable to force a scream through the pounding in her head and the bone chilling terror that threatened to immobilize her completely.
The beast lowered its head and suddenly she was yanked forward hard, her foot pressing right up against something very hot and wet. The monster's moist breath wafted over her, humid and unbearably warm, and at last she began to struggle. She kicked with her one foot that wasn't wrapped up with a tongue, her paw skidding over the beast's smooth, scaly snout. It hardly even took notice of her attempts at struggling, as it opened its mouth unimaginably wide and yanked her forward again. Its jaws closed around her middle, and she wasn't sure if she was relieved or not that there were no teeth to impale her. She tried to continue kicking, but the very tight space of the monster's throat prevented her from even moving her legs. That tongue was now working its way around her torso, hot and slimy as it tore her already tattered tank top open.
Suddenly, the monster threw its head back and she was vertical, the sudden movement jarring her. She hardly noticed when she started to rapidly slip down, the beast's powerful throat muscles pulling her in. She tried to grab on to anything she could, her heart racing as her hands clutched hopelessly at the beast's snout. She even attempted to hit one of its eyes before she was pulled in further still and her arms were forced above her head, thus rendering her completely helpless.
As she was pulled completely into the creature's maw, she tried one last time to grab onto its scaly lips, but the surface was too slippery with saliva for her to get a grip. Past the point of no return, she still tried in vain to claw at the inside of the creature's mouth to pull herself free, already panicking from the severe heat pressing in all around, claustrophobia setting in. She began to scream, loud, but it only lasted a couple seconds before her head was swallowed up along with the rest of her with one final gulp.
Gurgling softly, the monster slipped back down into its hole, the sounds of its scaly body and its claws scraping the sides of the tunnel growing steadily fainter as it went.
From upstairs, even on the third floor Hector could hear the final screams of the victim from where he sat, head in his hands, at the edge of a bed. The sound had grown so commonplace by now that he no longer even found it particularly noteworthy. Just another feeding, just another member from the herd swallowed up by the monster he'd willingly brought into his home barely ten years prior. He felt no guilt for what he did anymore, it wasn't like he was actually the one doing the murdering, was he? No, Shawnee did that; the beast in his basement, his beloved pet.
They deserved what they got, anyway, the sluts and the criminals all the same. He was doing society a favor, and if they didn't want to say 'thank you', well, that was fine with him. Every day Shawnee became more and more restless, it had become hard to sleep with the creature's constant loud writhing and snarling echoing up from the basement, keeping him awake like the clamor of his own thoughts. Sometimes he forgot who he was, who he used to be, and even now he couldn't fully remember.
From a wide open window light from the full moon outside shone, casting a ghostly bluish glow upon everything in its path. The room was large and mostly empty, save for a vanity that resided across him, and a couple bedside tables. Everything else remained hidden in shadows.
Hector had removed the black ski-mask that had been completely hiding his identity until now, and his hood was down, revealing the large, rounded ears at the top of his head. To those who knew feline species well, it was clear that he was a serval, a breed not too common so far north. To most, the lanky, athletic cat was quite an exotic thing to see in a nation mostly dominated by dogs, bears and rabbits.
Slowly, he stood up and moved to face the wide open window, to stare out at the city lights, they seemed so far away. He'd inherited this mansion from his grandparents, and ever since he moved in, things were never quite the same. Mostly because of the little creature he found here, the one who he at first figured was a cat his grandma must have left behind. Slowly, it became apparent that this little beast wasn't just an ordinary feline, the four pitch black eyes it developed was the first sign.
He should have gotten rid of the thing then, but he'd grown attached, and admittedly, he was still just as attached. She'd been the only thing to keep him company here, and sad as it was, so she remained. It was only right that he pay her back by continuing to take care of her, even if it meant the lives of a few stray dogs and cats... or people.
His yellow eyes remained in shadow even as he stared out at the lights outside, pondering the people that thrived out there and their pathetic little lives. All their problems and all their pain, all their thoughts seemed so insignificant when he knew firsthand the fragility of life. One moment you could be at home, safe in your room, and the next you could be dragged off to your death, it made no difference; the world continued to turn, the sun continued to rise, life went on.
Turning, he looked at the mirror across him, at his silhouetted reflection. Where he once would have seen himself with disdain, he felt absolutely nothing at all. Emotions had long since evaporated from his psyche; they were as useless as everything else. All that was left of him now was ritual, blind habit, attachments, but he no longer cared.
Slowly he slid off his coat and let it land upon the floor, before he made his way to the bed. There he would continue to lay and pray for sleep, trying to ignore the sounds that he was starting to wonder were just all in his head. Curling up on top of the covers, still half clothed in his 'hunting' gear, he nuzzled into the pillows, covering his head entirely with one and hugging it there tightly.
Where he once couldn't wait for the time, he was now glad feeding day only came four times a year.
All characters and scenario (c) 2011 GJD, all rights reserved.