{"sf1_id":604997,"sf2_id":null,"title":"The Seeker","author":"TheCat","words":1475,"posted_at":"2013-10-21T07:12:00.000Z","tags":["Death","Female","Gore","Horse","No-Yiff"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/604997-the-seeker","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/604997","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=604997\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":" She woke up to a steady 'thump thump\nthump' against the door. She rubbed her eyes, peering at the door in\nthe dim pre-dawn light, as the steady thumping continued. Slipping\nout of bed, the young horse slipped into the outfit she kept by her\nbedside table - bright blue shirt, loose-fitting shorts - before\nturning to face the door. The relentless beating had not stopped.\n\"Okay, already, come in!\" she called out. The pounding\nincreased in speed and force, but the iron doorknob was untouched.\nShe walked towards the door slowly. \"I said, come in!\" Her voice\nwas shrill, in the cold gray light - but there was no answer, only\nthe sound of fists hitting the door. She reached out and took the\nknob in one hand, but an odd, prickling sensation on the back of her\nneck made her stop. Dark-skinned nostrils flared as she sampled the\nair - and caught the sickly-sweet scent of rot, combined with the\nscent of mud and spoiled meat.The hinges gave way, crashing\ninwards. She leaped backwards, grabbing for the stout club she kept\nbeside her bed. Bringing it up, she swung it at the figure that\nshambled into the room, catching them a stout blow alongside the head\nbefore she even recognized it. \"G-geoff??\" She stared in horror\nat the prone figure of her bother. His left arm had been chewed to\nthe bone, but he was supporting his weight on it like the pain meant\nnothing - and his eyes were milky-white, reflecting the light from\nthe window by her bed as the sun slowly rose.  He scrabbled, his movements clumsy and\nunnatural, and climbed to his feet. \"Geoff, what's wrong? Why were\nyou pounding on my door?\" Her brother's mouth opened, and he let\nout a long, numbing groaning wail, both of his arms reaching for her.\nThe dark-nailed fingers opened and closed, and his long, equine jaw\nbegan to open and shut hungrily as he shambled towards her. She swung\nthe club again, and felt one of his legs snap under the blow. Moving\npast him swiftly, she reached the door - then felt the cold, hard\nhand grip around her ankle, and saw the floor rush up to greet her. The world swam as she struck the\nhardwood floor, but she managed to bring her eyes back into focus as\nshe felt her brother's other arm come up to grab her leg, pulling her\nback towards him. Her eyes rolling, her breath coming in hysterical\nsobs as she struggled to make some sense of this - Geoff, the\ngentle brother, trying to grab her like this - she lashed out in\nancient equine instinct. Her leg muscles flexed and released, though\nshe didn't even notice until the hand had let go of her and she'd\njumped to her feet, and run, sobbing, down the hallway, that she was\ntrailing red footsteps, and that the long wail her brother had been\nletting out had ceased. She paused, then, outside the master\nbedroom. Two bodies lay there, their heads shattered and a scattering\nof holes in the wall beside them - wounds that she recognized as\nthe effect of her father's shotgun and his favored grapeshot, which\nshe'd only ever seen used on the assorted natural predators of the\narea. She couldn't identify the two fallen individuals, and didn't\nwant to. Taking a deep breath, and ready to shout in case her father\nmistook her for another of those behaving oddly, she opened the door\n- and let out a shrill scream at what she saw. Kneeling on the bed, above her\nfather's open stomach, was her mother, hungrily scooping out viscera\nand biting into it with what seemed like an almost vicious glee. At\nthe scream, however, the mare stopped her feast and fixed her\ndaughter with a piercing glare. A wail escaped her, not unlike the\none her brother had made earlier, and she lunged. The creature that\nhad been her mother was much faster than her brother hand been, but\nshe managed to get the club up in time to smash aside the creature's\nfirst charge. Her mother was faster to recover her balance, however,\nand charged her again, and again, forcing her out into the hallway.  Eventually, however, she simply\nsidestepped one of her mother's charges - sending the mare\ncareening down the long hallway, while she ran into the room, and\nstarted digging under the bed. She felt the long, round barrel of the\nstock under her fingers - and then she was being pulled backwards,\nout from under the bed. Swinging the gun around, she felt flat,\nherbivore teeth sink powered by her mother's powerful jaw sink into\nher ankle. Bringing the barrel into line, she fired, just as her\nfather had taught her - gave the trigger a squeeze, and felt the\nroar of the gun, the kick against her budding breasts - and watched\nas her mother's head disappeared into a bloody haze, leaving only her\nlong nose and lips. Fleeing the ruins of her mother, she\nfled up onto the bed, shaking her father. \"Please, please, please,\nDaddy, wake up, please, don't leave me, don't be dead, please..\"\nshe babbled incoherently, shaking his body. He was cold, and still -\nand she felt the bite on her ankle throbbing, the room swimming\naround her. She tried to stay upright, kneeling on the bed, but\neventually the spinning got to be too much for her, and for the\nsecond time that morning, the floor rushed up to meet her. When she woke up, she was alone in\ndarkness. She was sitting on something - could feel a hard, cold\nfloor below her - but she couldn't see it, or anything else. Then,\nabruptly, there was a white rat, clad in flowing silver-white robes,\nstanding in front of her. \"Who are you?\" she demanded. The\nbite on her ankle was gone, as was the wet sensation of her brother's\nblood on her foot, and she was -angry- as she faced the silent figure\nof the rat. \"Who the hell\nare you?\" The rat looked at her. \"Is this it?\" The voice\nwas soft, and it took her a moment to realize that the rat's lips\nhadn't moved. \"What?\nWhat do you mean, 'is this it?'\" Her voice grew shrill again, as it\noften did when she was stressed.An image of her struggle with\nher mother appeared in the air beside the rat, as though being\nwatched. She saw herself get pulled out from under the bed, saw the\ngun swing around, and saw her mother's head disappear into a crimson\nhaze. \"This happened. You are dying, becoming like her.\"\"What\nhappened? Why did they become like this?\" She found herself on her\nfeet. Even at her age - barely thirteen years old - she stood\ntaller than the rat, who was really quite short. \"An\nold curse. A virus. The random cruelty of fate. However it happened,\ngirl, it is happening, and it is happening to you.\" A sleeve rose,\nand from it a single hairless claw pointed to her chest. \"But is\nthis it? Is this how it ends for you?\" \"Do...\" She paused.\n\"Do I get a choice?\" The\nrat nodded. \"Yes. I am dead - my power is gone. It can only\nbelong to one who lives.\" The rat reached into their chest, and\npulled out something dark, and angry, and cold. \"If this is not the\nend for you - if you would survive, and live, even though all the\nworld crumbles around you - then this is for you. If not, you have\nonly to walk away.\" The dry voice in her mind spoke smoothly, and\nevenly. She\nlooked at the image again, then reached out, taking the dark thing\nfrom the rat's hand. It flowed into her fingers, and she felt it flow\ninto her. Utter darkness, the cold between the stars, and the fury of\neverything that could never be - and then she was sitting on the\nfloor beside the bed.  She\ncould feel, like an\nitch against the back of her neck, her father's body sit up, and\nstare at her with the same empty hunger as her mother's had\npossessed. Her hand moved on it's own, striking out against his\nthroat - and his head, still chewing and gnashing angrily, rolled\nonto the floor. She picked it up, and sat it the chair beside his\ndesk, then sat and stared at it, leaning against the wall and trying\nnot to cry. She\nlasted about five minutes at that, then broke down in nearly-silent,\nterrified sobs while the head of her father gnawed and mouthed at\nher. She was still sitting against that wall, staring at it, when her\noldest brother came home and found her sitting there."}