Warning: This chapter contains detailed descriptions of torture, murder, and sadistic behaviors. Not just basic descriptions, intense violence described in detail. Those triggered by any of the above are advised to skip ahead when you see the row of exclamation points. Read at your own discretion.
Cartoon Cat stalked through the halls, the scent of six individual humans filling his nose. The sweet scent of y/n lingered in the ever-shifting hallways, a unique blend of citrusy, smoky, and fresh... with the faintest taint of his own scent underlying the whole thing. She made for a tantalizing first target. But, there were other humans here, too. The young females, for instance. They both carried a remarkably similar scent, fruity and rich like a fine wine. While he couldn't exactly eat his captive - he wanted to play with her for as long as possible, after all - the two young girls would make such a delicious meal.
The boys, too, were viable options. The youngest of the males had a warm coppery smell about him that was easy to distinguish from the dust and overlapping traces of past prey. The next one an earthy woody scent that mingled nicely with the scent of his brother. The pair would make for a hearty, delightful dish. But the third....
He was the oldest of the five newcomers, though still plenty young by human standards. His savory, spicy aroma dominated the surrounding environment, making him laughably easy to track. Such an exotic fragrance, while not quite as intoxicating as... certain scents... was more than enticing enough to start Cartoon Cat in that direction. He hadn't had a meal with such a scent in years. How fortunate, then, that the man had been foolish enough not to heed the warnings.
He stalked silently down the hallways, ears twitching as he listened for the telltale sound of human footsteps, the whisper of human breaths, the call of a human voice. His breathing slowed until he was barely doing so at all. Each move was careful, he wouldn't allow his footsteps to make any noise that might distract him. The darkness didn't bother him, each warm heat signature and cold corner painted in vibrant infrared clarity. The hunt was on.
Cartoon Cat moved through the maze he'd created, paying little attention to the shifting rooms. This was not a casual chase, not this time. The fragrance of his prey filled his nose, steadily getting stronger and blocking out all other scents. An animalistic impulse thrummed through his body, encouraging him to stalk, to kill.... To feed. A low laugh escaped his jaws, echoing down the hallway. The surroundings, most of which were blue in his infrared vision, were showing yellow traces of residual heat. Disturbed dust motes began becoming more frequent, as if something had recently moved past. A cooling heat signature on the wall indicated a warm body had been leaning against it until a little bit ago. He was getting closer.
A faint sound made him pause, tilting his head to the side. Footsteps, far away but close enough for his keen ears to pick up. The stealthy tread of someone in sneakers trying to move carefully, in a room or further down the hallways. His grin widened. That stupid human really couldn't make this any easier for him.
"Hello?! Is someone there?!" With the location of his prey confirmed, he could move on to step two... luring the man into a false sense of security. The footsteps paused, and Cartoon Cat imagine the human looking around for the source of his voice. When a minute passed with no response, he tried again. "Please, I'm lost! I just wanna go home!"
Finally, the footsteps resumed. And based on the sound... they were heading in his direction this time. A smirk crossed his face for a moment, and then his body began to change. Pale human hands replaced his gloved claws. His dark fur smoothed into a wrinkled long-sleeve black sweater and jeans. His cartoonish eyes shrunk and changed shape, becoming the wide and scared black eyes of a young human man. His ears folded backwards and shifted shape, assimilating into the messy black hair atop his now human head. His tail became shorter and shorter, melting into his new form until it looked as if it was never there to begin with. He could still see and hear and smell everything without hinderance, but as far as any onlooker would be concerned... Cartoon Cat was nothing more than a young, attractive, and very scared human.
"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.
"Well, that was fun while it lasted." The thing, it no longer looked or sounded even remotely human, gave a lazy stretch. It didn't make any sudden moves, didn't even appear threatening. But there was something about that grin, something in those wide soul-sucking eyes that kept him frozen in fear. There was a face that feared no god or devil. There was a face that held intelligence and malice in equal measure, so high up on the scale that no human could hope to compete. There was a face of a being that knew exactly what it was and what it was doing.
If he had been in any frame of sane mindset, Markus might have tried to take a photograph of that merciless, cruel face. The confidence and simple matter-of-factness it conveyed was terrifying and beautiful all at once, even if it was the face of a twisted cartoon brought into 3-D. But faced head-on with the creature wearing that face, he found that he couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't scream. He couldn't even wrangle his thoughts together long enough to pray. All he could do was stare and tremble as the thing stepped closer, looming over him.
"Fortunately though..." The creature's claws brushed lightly against his cheek. Even though the touch was gentle, Markus could feel their sharpness. He jerked violently away, half expecting to feel blood trickling down his cheek even though those powerful claws hadn't even broken the skin. "I know something even more entertaining we can do together~"
*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
The human was still staring at him with frozen, terror-filled eyes when Cartoon Cat pounced. His gloved claws gripped tightly onto Markus's shoulders, his weight forcing the man to the ground. He felt something under his hand move as they collided with the floor, finally tearing a startled scream from the man's throat. His shoulder had been dislocated, and the bone now bulged painfully under his skin. Cartoon Cat just laughed, yanking on the arm and further dislocating the joint. The human screamed again, this time from the pain. Tears streamed down his face as uncontrolled sobs shook his body.
"Awww~ Crying already?" The cryptid mocked, leaning close to purr in the man's ear. "We've only just begun~" Once again, he placed his clawed hand against Markus's cheek. This time, though, he pushed them into his face. He managed to scream again between his rattling sobs, blood pouring down his face, mixing with the tears. Grinning, Cartoon Cat began dragging his hand downward with slow and steady precision. The delicate flesh of the man's face tore beneath his claws, leaving deep gaping marks in their wake. Some places were so deep that the cut went clear through his cheek, emptying blood into his mouth and saliva out of the injuries and down his face.
Cartoon Cat pulled his claws away, licking the blood off of them with relish. The tangy, coppery taste sent a pleasurable rush of endorphins through his body. He laughed again, lifting Markus's undamaged arm. The human was starting to black out, which just wouldn't do at all. He took held the arm in one hand, gripping it loosely. Then he made a swift jerking motion, wrenching the man's wrist towards his elbow. The two bones snapped, ripping open the flesh. His wrist now dangled uselessly just past his elbow, leaving a gaping wound that exposed his torn muscle, severed blood vessels, and jagged white points of bone.
Markus screamed yet again, followed by desperate coughing as he choked on his own blood. The new injury had sent another fierce jolt of adrenaline through him, keeping him awake and very much aware of the pain. His throat was raw from screams and crying, his head spun from blood loss. He had never wished to die before, but now his only thought was to end the pain. Jack, Jamie, Marie, Gabe... he no longer had the capacity to remember they existed. His family, his home, and his life were all dim, evil memories in the far depths of his subconscious. His world was nothing but agony and dark and the monster pinning him to the floor. All he heard was the laughter of his tormentor and his own desperate gasps and gargles. There was black creeping into the edges of his vision, and passing out seemed inevitable.
There was another violent snap and pain bloomed in his chest. Cartoon Cat pushed down harder, forcing the rib even further into Markus's lung. His breath was now coming in unsteady and half-wheezing gulps, trying to fill a lung that was rapidly deflating. His heart raced, his adrenal glands working overtime to get adrenaline coursing through his system. His body's own defense system was steadily killing him, pushing blood out of his body and leaving it to pool onto the floor.
Cartoon Cat was greatly enjoying the man's suffering. He didn't waste a second moving on to the human's legs and snapping both femurs in rapid succession. The screams of his victim played like a cheerful melody in his mind, and he wanted to hear those screams over and over and over until the human was too far gone to do so. He sunk his claws into the humans soft belly, carving a bigger and bigger hole into the flesh. Markus screamed and cried and screamed some more as his intestines began to fall out of the injury.
Finally, it was too much. Dizzy from blood loss and oxygen deprivation, with no feeling other than pain in both his body and soul, Markus closed his eyes. His body gave one last shuddering breath, one last automatic effort to stay alive, and then he never moved again.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Safe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cartoon Cat licked the last of the blood from his gloved hands. His eyes were half-lidded with pleasure, and he'd been gently purring for the past twenty minutes. There was now just a broken skeleton where Markus's carcass had been, picked clean and sitting in a puddle of blood and the organs he hadn't wanted to eat.
While the human would have never earned any points for being interesting prey, the cryptid was still immensely satisfied with his catch. What he'd lacked in the way of being a challenge, he'd made up for by being entertaining and, of course, delicious. There was a new smell in the air now, too. The bitter odor of sweat and fear hormones, faint and far off, but still present.
He wasn't surprised by this development in the slightest. Sounds tended to carry in enclosed mazes such as his, and he had no doubts that all of his other unwilling participants had heard the noise. He stood up to his full height, completely clean and back on the hunt. There were still four more meal choices wandering around, along with his darling little plaything. It would be rude to keep any of them waiting much longer.
He chose a direction and made his way down the hall without a second thought. Behind him, Markus's iPhone died and covered the gruesome scene in black. In the newfound darkness and silence, only the thick coppery smell of blood gave any indication that anything had happened at all.
One down. Five left.