FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Giving up and listening to the demon in his head had been immediately rewarded with a smiling bat at his door claiming to know his father and needing some muscle to move boxes. It sounded easy and bit too good to be true but if that was all he had to do for some money then he didn’t see the harm in going for it. Ertru would warn him if anything suspicious happened but even still, taking a risk frightened him. Once he got dressed, Penner and himself had gone out to the smiling bat’s car to get in and drive off. At the moment, he sat in the passenger seat looking out the window while trying to ignore the creeping sensation that he was making a mistake. It wasn’t the possibility of danger that bothered him but rather; could he trust Penner? The smiling bat seemed amiable enough but then again, most smiling bats were the poster children for charisma even the ones that were rotten like his father. Thinking about his old man only soured his mood enough that he forgot about his fear and instead felt a creeping irritation. He wished some of that inborn charisma from his father’s side would rub off on him but he also wanted nothing to do with his father or his mother for that matter. Human, demon, both were shit options. Vrede supposed that listening to Ertru would bring him closer to his father and yet, the demon in him didn’t seem to care for the bastard either so he could take solace in that at least.

“Hey sourpuss, plan on breaking the glass with that mug of yours?” Asked a voice to his side.

Vrede raised a brow and looked over at Penner. The smiling bat had his eyes on the road, body leaned back against the seat with both hands on the wheel. He thought about grunting as a response but instead, he sighed, “No. Just thinking about the old man. Hate him.”

Penner nodded while humming, “Don’t blame you. Guy’s a flake. Can’t imagine what it must’ve been like being raised by that but if it makes you feel better, you have not once presented yourself so far as anything like your father.”

His shoulders relaxed a bit and his expression softened while he peered back out the window, “Huh, that actually does make me feel a bit better. Thanks.”

“No problem. Just remember that the people that provide the gravy and the egg don’t make you who you are. Thank fuckin’ abyss for that. Neither of my parents were class acts either.”

Mental image aside, he found himself smiling a bit, “Guess I’m thankful for that too.” He then decided to ask, “Your parents were no good too?”

Penner groaned, “That’s putting it lightly. Daddy dearest was a stagnant ball of booze while momma worked her head off and took out her frustrations on me but that’s old news. I moved out early and found myself enough work on the streets to get myself started. Still get calls from mom even though I should probably just cut her off.” He then sniffed, “Tough though, to just stop talking to someone who raised you even if they’re garbage. How about you?”

Vrede didn’t have a response to that. He didn’t get asked about his life and his situation but eventually, he opened his mouth and spoke, “Mom and dad had a lil’ mistake. They like the party life and don’t care about anyone else except themselves. When I was born, they kind of just threw me off on babysitters and whatnot until I was old enough to toss out of the house. Ever since then, I worked shitty job after shitty job to get a crap apartment.”

The smiling bat nodded, “Fucked up. They didn’t send you off with any money either?” When Vrede shook his head, Penner snorted, “O’course. Anyway, forget about that stuff. This job is basic but I’ll have more lined up from little things like this to bigger deals. Just let me take care of the business end of things.”

“Plan on making it big?”

Penner stayed quiet for a second before grinning, “Yup. My own business. Multiple even. Brothels, theaters, lounges, and the sort. I already got my eye on a brothel I used to work at that’ll give me a good price.”

Vrede tilted his head and looked at the smiling bat, “You worked at a brothel?”

“Yeah. Wanna see? I can give you a discount since we’re associates now.” Penner said with a chuckle.

Instead of answering, he remained quiet and put his focus outside the window where the passing street lanterns were blurring on by. He could hear Ertru at the back of his head snickering but ignored the tittering sound in favor of closing his eyes and pushing down the warmth he felt. Vrede opened his eyes when the car stopped moving and he heard the sound of the shift being cranked into park.

The smiling bat’s voice came along with a touch at his shoulder, “We’re here. C’mon.”

They stepped out of the car and out into the cool evening. A warehouse stood in front of them with several locked shutters. Penner worked on unlocking one while Vrede looked around. The location was tucked away at the side of the building and out of sight of most streets with the car parked right next to the entrance. Penner pushed the shutter up with a huff and revealed what they needed to carry. Crates created a small pile of towers that would never fit in the car they came in.

While he approached the opened unit, he muttered, “Don’t think a four-seat hatchback is going to fit all of this.”

Penner placed a hand on one of the crates and chuckled, “That’s why the buyer is coming over in a truck. We’ll load her up, get paid and then we’re all golden.”

While they were on the topic of payment, Vrede asked, “Just how much are we talking about here?” Penner answered with an amount with far too many zeroes and he coughed, “Just what are we selling here?”

The smiling bat patted the crate and beamed, “A bit of dream in a bottle. In other words, drugs. Nothing too hard or crazy but something that anyone can enjoy. Of course, the legality is shaky outside of this city because of a few risks here and there but what’s life without risks?”

Vrede ran a hand through the back of his hair while muttering, “Right. Risk.”

They didn’t have to wait long before hearing the sound of a truck’s rumbling closer. Penner stepped out of the warehouse first with a bounce in his step and Vrede stayed behind figuring that he wasn’t needed for this part of the transaction. He heard Penner’s voice starting in an excited timbre before falling to a quiet concern. Vrede frowned and walked out of the warehouse to see what had Penner sounding distraught. Four people were standing in front of Penner and in front of the truck that had just pulled in.

The one at the front was a human with a thin smile, deep blue eyes and pixie cut hair sporting a suit that looked like it belonged to a bygone era while the other three were wide jawed canines of some sort holding bats. None of them looked very friendly so he figured standing still and not saying anything would keep things civil for now.

When the human noticed him, she smiled and inclined her head, “Good evening. Guessing you’re an associate of Penner here?”

Before Vrede could answer, the smiling bat spoke, “No. He’s random muscle I hired to help me bring the crates in so just let him walk. He doesn’t know anything, doesn’t know who you are, barely even knows who I am.”

“If that’s the case then he can stick around until business is concluded and walk his merry way. It’ll be good for him to see that you need to pay your dues so...Do you have yours?” She said with a tilted head.

Penner breathed out, “I already paid up. Paid for the warehouse and for the stuff too. Even shelled out a bit extra so the buyer could get a truck.”

“But you were planning on keeping all of the profit for yourself? What about our cut of that?” She said with a near purr that sent an electric shiver down his spine.

The smiling bat’s ears drew back as he answered, “Your bosses told me that I didn’t have to pay that, said if I could make it on my own then good for me.”

One of those large canines took a step closer as the human shook her head, “This is what it means to be on your own and what it means to have a choice. You choose to do the right thing. The right thing was giving us a cut of the pie as a welcoming gift but since you didn’t, we can take the product ourselves and maybe give you a small feeble cut of the pie.”

Penner growled, “That’s not what we agreed on! I got this stuff, I found it, I even fuckin’ paid for it and set all of this up! None of you have half the brains to even make a discreet call.”

The human’s smile faded and she raised her chin. One of the canines stepped out to Penner and swung the bat into his gut. A metal pang echoed in the hall muffled by the sound of Penner coughing, falling to his knees while the canine grabbed him by the hair. One of the other dogs stepped toward him with the bat raised as if daring Vrede to do something, but how could he?

His heart pushed against his chest as if it wanted to escape. Vrede’s mind screamed that he needed to run, needed to get away from this and that this entire thing had been stupid but something kept his feet rooted there as a quiet voice whispered at the back of his mind, “Aren’t you tired? Tired of keeping all that anger held down? Everyone pushing you, kicking you, taking advantage of you. That little punk took a bat to the gut for you and he might be one of the only people in this entire block who would do that for you. Are you just going to let him get his head caved in?” Vrede shook, muttering, “No…”

And the voice responded, “Then let loose. Resist. Fight back. Make a fucking scene and live!”

The changeling breathed in, staring up at the dog before sticking his tongue out. A few seconds passed and the bat came down in response to his disrespect but he didn’t care. Vrede stepped into the swing and latched onto the canine’s arm before biting down hard on the wrist. The dog howled and swung at him with his other arm but Vrede already ducked and rolled to grab the dropped bat, coming up with it to swing with all of his pent up irritation bursting into the dog’s knee. The crunch and pang were nothing compared to the sound of the canine howling in pain and crumpling over to clasp his knee. Everyone’s eyes were on him as he brought the bat back and slammed it down on the canine’s arm twice, his leg coming up to kick the bastard in the snout.

Vrede looked up to see them watching him, his mouth curved up in a grin showing sawtooth fangs stained with blood at the tips. The human made a motion with her hand the other two dogs came after him. One rushed fast enough that he simply swung the bat up in a blurred arch and connected with the dog’s head. The charging canine took a few steps back, blinking before falling to the floor while the other dog leaped over his fallen form. This lady mutt was bigger than the other two and upon closer inspection, he was certain that she was a hyena of some sort instead of a common dog. She swung the bat in hand with one large hand, his body moving to avoid the wide swings along with her lashing claws. One wrong move and he’d be mincemeat but he couldn’t stop smiling, couldn’t stop feeling a swell of sickening joy tainting his every movement. Vrede had felt fear creeping at the back of his mind when he started this little game. It wasn't a fear of death but a fear of losing himself to the demon but he could only hear Ertru humming as if following the tune of a waltz.

He hopped, he ducked and skipped away and toward the hyena until his back met a wall. Her arm came up to swing the bat and he thrust his into her snarling mouth. She winced and jolted her head back and swung down anyway. With both of his hands on the bat, he turned to the side to avoid her swing and yanked his weapon out of her mouth before driving it into her side. He hit her hard enough that her body jolted up before she fell with both of her arms hugging around her side. When the hyena tried to get up, he brought the bat down again onto her head and breathed out.

With that done, his gaze turned to see that the human with blue pretty eyes had a gun trained on him. Death so soon? Vrede had liberated himself after such a long time of bottling it all up. Even if a bullet awaited him then he would take it with a smile and open arms. Her digits squeezed the trigger before she doubled over with a labored cough as Penner came in from the side swinging one of the dropped bats into her gut.

The smiling bat spat on the woman and threw his weapon down on her face before speaking, “I’ll load up the truck. Watch ‘em. Any of them move, use the gun, use the bat, whatever you want to keep them down.”

Vrede nodded but his eyes watched Penner walk away. He had expected to die from the moment he had gone against those thugs but Penner had saved his life. The smiling bat could have just run away but he had decided to stay. Vrede would have been fine with ending it all with a bang but maybe this was better. A groan from one of the fallen thugs revealed a bit of movement and he stepped up to the human to put his bat on her cheek.

“Fuck...You stupid? You know we’ll kill you, right? We’ll end your fucking miserable exist—”

She stopped talking when he pushed the tip of the bat against her mouth and he leaned down to speak, “Okay, listen. A little voice is letting me know you didn’t tell your bosses that you’d be doing this, otherwise, why would Penner have tried to get their blessing? Maybe they lied or maybe you’re acting on your own. Either way, I don’t know if I should let you live.”

Those blue eyes widened and she hissed, “Bastard. I didn’t do shit wrong. Just wanted to show that little bat idiot how things are run around here.”

“So you acted on your own,” Vrede said with a smile. When she didn’t answer, he brought the bat up. He swung with all his strength but stopped before he got to her face, “Right, so I guess there isn’t a need to kill you.” The human grit her teeth and tried to move so Vrede drove a foot into her gut and sent her sprawling, “Nope. No moving.”

One last time, one of the four tried to move and he brought the bat down hard enough that that blood stained the spot and the canine that had attempted moving didn’t seem to be able to anymore. Penner grabbed his shoulder after what felt like ages and pulled him toward the truck where they got in and drove off.

When they were on the road, Penner grabbed his phone from his vest and called someone. A few words were exchanged and Penner’s shoulder untensed before he set the phone down and sighed, “Right. Buyer is still buying. These four just stole the truck and tried to muscle in on what I was doing. Vrede...I have no fucking clue what you did but I owe you my life. What you did was stupid, fucking idiotic but you saved my skin. You could have just walked off but you didn’t and...And what the hell happened to you back there?”

Vrede looked at his reflection in one of the rearview mirrors and he saw the subtle glow in his eyes like flickering embers. When he answered, he did so with a chuckle, “I have no clue. Voice at the back of my head told me to make a scene so I did…” He then paused, smile fading as he leaned back in his seat, “Voice also said that if I didn’t do anything then you’d be dead and you’re one of the few people that’s stuck their neck out for me. You even came back for me instead of running.”

The truck stopped at a red light and Penner sighed, “Guess I should be thankful I don’t like abandoning friends.”

He looked over at the smiling bat and their gazes met for a moment. Warmth sparked in his body again just like when the offer had been made before and his words came out before he could think about it, “So...How much of a discount?”

It took a second or two before Penner’s grinned, “Well, I guess if you really want to know. I’d settle for a kiss and a partnership.”

Before the red light turned, Vrede unbuckled and leaned over to grab the other’s chin to bring their mouths together. The kiss lasted until the green light began to flicker on but each passing moment that they spent connected felt like a fire had been ignited. The warmth of their lips melding together, the taste of metal he felt on his fangs shared between their mixing tongues. Anymore of such sensations and their clothes would be torn to shreds but right now, they were on the road.

When they separated, he got his seat belt on and leaned back to breathe out, “Is your apartment any better than mine?”

Penner cleared his throat, “Got two rooms. Living room and a bedroom, so I think that counts as better, right?”

He nodded, “Yeah, that sounds fine but uh, let’s take care of business first.”

Quiet followed those words only broken by the blare of the radio as Penner twisted the knob in search of a station. The buzz of the frequency changing sounded somehow relaxing to his ears as he settled against the seat and looked out the window. He could see the barest image of his reflection in the glass. His eyes still flickered and glowed like wild embers in a fire but more than that, he noticed that the expression on his face was different than the one he wore right now.

Ertru’s voice came from the reflection, “So...You went nuts. You got yourself a date. Maybe even a new job. Seems like I won’t be needing to stick around or perhaps, you’re still unsure?”

He peered over at Penner before looking back at the reflection to whisper in his mind, “I don’t know. What happened back there felt right, felt good. You told me to let go and I let go but now there’s a small part of me shaking. Was that too violent? Was that too fast with Penner? All these doubts. At the same time, I feel like what I did was better than anything I’ve done in my entire life. It was like I took the first step toward existing and Penner? He’s nice...Well, nice enough. Might turn out he’s using me but I figure giving him a chance is better than nothing. Besides, it might be good to let loose in bed too.”

The demon laughed, sound softer than he expected, “Good! Such progress...I’ll be around watching you. If you ever need me or more of my power then you know where to find me. However, if I catch you slipping up, holding yourself back too much or falling back into old habits, I’ll be here again quick as a whip.” Ertru then winked, “Of course, I’ll visit now and then to check up on you because...What else would I do? Bye-bye for now.”

Before he responded, the reflection faded away and the demon’s presence escaped somewhere at the back of his head. He supposed that was that for now. Vrede still felt like the same person but less held back, less locked up. He wanted to savor this feeling and continue making a scene as long as he lived.