Monster (Cartoon Cat x Reader)

Fear and Death

"Hello? Where are you?" The warm human voice calling out to him made the predator smile. A stranger like the warm-blooded body heading toward him might have assumed it was a smile of relief. Any being - human and cryptid alike - that had the misfortune of entering his territory would have known better.

"Over here!" The shifting darkness retreated in the glare of an iPhone's flashlight. He shielded his eyes, hiding his pupil's dilation as the infrared vision he'd been enjoying shifted to regular light-based eyesight. After a moment of hearing rapidly approaching footsteps, he peeked over his arms to look at the human. "Oh, thank heavens...." It took little effort to disguise his 1920's cartoon drawl, he'd had plenty of practice doing so. "I thought I'd never be found!"

"My name is Markus." The human said worriedly, looking over him with compassionate eyes. Cartoon Cat didn't mind being looked down upon in such a manner. It merely meant his disguise was working. "Are you hurt, can you see properly..?"

"N-no... But I have no idea where I am or how long I've been here... I don't even know where my companion is..." The lie was delivered so smoothly, so perfectly. The little notes of painful uncertainty, the nervous trembles, each one performed to absolute perfection. He felt a smug little twinge of satisfaction inside himself as the human, Markus, nodded. He'd eaten it up without a second thought.

"I lost my charges, too. And I won't lie, I have no idea how to get out of here either." He gave the cryptid an uneasy smile, rubbing the back of his neck. "But it'll be easier to make some sense of this place with two heads than just one." Such futile, unwarranted optimism. Cartoon Cat had to admit he was slightly impressed. This Markus character would have made for a fun temporary plaything if he didn't smell..... so...... deliciously..... tasty. He swallowed the saliva building in his mouth before speaking again.

"I'm not so sure.... this place shifts every now again. It's pretty hard to find your way." This wasn't a lie. Anyone not connected to the house like he was might very well be lost in this maze for days without making progress. He'd specifically designed it that way for his little games with y/n.

"Well then, let's focus on finding our respective people first." He gave a less worried, even more optimistic grin this time. Had Cartoon Cat possessed any semblance of empathy, he might have felt sorry for what he was about to do. But there were only two things on the monster's mind now. The first was an intense desire to play with his food... to make Markus scream, to see how long it would take him to die. The second was hunger.

Markus wasn't looking at him, too focused on walking back down the hall the way he'd come to pay any attention. That suited Cartoon Cat just fine, it meant the human was comfortable. And he had certainly gotten comfortable fast. Most people would be suspicious of other random people in spooky dark places, at least at first. This human must be from one of those safe small-town places where everyone knows and trusts each other. A place, ironically enough, like town his home was technically a part of. Such a shame.

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They walked in silence for a little longer before Markus spoke up again. "You're awfully quiet for someone " He turned towards his new companion, only to pause. His hazel eyes widened in terror, his knees shook. The horror of the sight before him killed the scream that had been rising in his throat and kept his feet rooted to the ground. In the light of his phone's flashlight, the young man that he had assumed to be human was growing, stretching.

His limbs, already fairly lanky, were approaching disturbing length in proportion to the rest of his body. A sinister grin was stretched across his face and growing wider all the time. His glittering black eyes were expanding, their definition disappearing into large flat cartoon pupils. The messy mop of black hair atop his head writhed like snakes, covering his face and growing into a pair of fuzzy cat ears. The black sweater and pair of jeans he wore melted into his skin, turning slowly into inky black fur. A long tail swayed behind him. The entire transformation was accompanied by the sickening sound of bones cracking and popping as the body distorted and changed.