Obsession

Chapter IV

Fox was inconsolable, cradling his hand as he tried his best to calm down and stop crying, but the pain, shock, and overwhelming fear of being kidnapped and taken to someplace he'd never seen before and only heard about as a myth was all too much for the poor boy who, not even two hours ago, learned his parents were getting a divorce.

For what felt like hours, they'd been walking on foot through unfamiliar woods until they finally made it to a clearing with a large plain house, that looked as big as a mansion, sitting in the center of the vast private property. He'd only heard rumors about the place; it was said that it was owned by some occult family and passed down through generations, but the use of the property was never made clear. Some say it was an orphanage; some say it was a homeless shelter, but no one ever said the same thing or could agree on one theory. He, for one, never wanted to find out. Being there, in front of the terrifying house of horror from the stories he'd heard made him start to shake worse and could barely breathe through his sudden panicked sobbing.

Fox yelped in surprise when the man suddenly pulled him back and pressed him against his body as he muffled cries with a hand over his mouth. Having to lean down to reach Finley's ear due to their height difference, he shushed him rather aggressively. "Shut up; I'm not the only one who lives here." The man eerily explained, hinting there were worse things around than himself, which made Finley sit still in his hold, having to be forced to move forward because he'd frozen up with fear.

Fox was being led by the arm through the house, the tall man stalking the winding corridors and long hallways that seemed endless. The inside resembled a hotel with how the halls were filled with small nightstands adorned with fake plants and lamps but nothing else, no names or pictures or identifiers other than the number plates sat right next to each door frame. He'd counted but they weren't in sequential order, the numbers made no sense, they didn't count up or down so there was no way of finding a specific door and no way of knowing exactly how many truly existed.

He'd finally calmed down from the sobbing after the initial shock and pain of his finger being broken, managing to cry silently without alerting anybody else of their presence, but his hand throbbed worse without the distraction of his hysteria, and it was starting to make him dizzy. His stumbling feet irritated the man, who has yet to reveal his name, growling at the boy in his arms, "Fucking hell, Fox, if you don't pick up your feet, I'll break the rest of your fingers." Finley almost began sobbing again with the threat the man growled into his ear. He'd pressed him to one of the doors in the hall that had a scratched out number plate while he unlocked it, shoving him roughly into the room afterward, and quickly spinning to lock the door behind him.

Finley landed hard with a loud thud on the dark wood floor, holding and protecting his injured hand as he crawled backward away from the monster who had broken it. "Why are y-you doing this? p-please l-let me go. I won't say anything, I-I promise" He'd cry as he begged the scary man, whimpering when he lost his footing on the floor and his elbow slipped out from under him, causing him to fall onto his back, the jostling movement hurting his finger worse, which he kept close and cradled to his chest.

The man chuckled as he took slow steps closer to Finley. "That's your fault." He'd point to the injury he caused, saying, "I wasn't going to hurt you like that, but you shoved me pretty hard and tried running away... C'mere, Foxy, let me kiss it better." The man's eyes changed further as he tilted his head down and grinned; the look alone was terrifying, but Finley couldn't believe his eyes as he watched the normal grin turn sharp as his top canines grew into two sets of fangs longer than what should be possible, but nothing made sense recently.

All Finley could relate it to was superhero comics, so he started matching them up with the man slowly stalking closer like a predator with prey. He had supernatural strength like the Hulk, speed like the Flash, and now fangs like Sabretooth from the X-men... Wait...