A Tale of Fur and Fangs: The Facility (working title)

Chapter 5: The One Who Hunts

 The massive brute's form rose and fell as he rested on his cot. It had been a couple of hours since he'd seen off the latest of The Facilities test subjects, but their scent was still fresh in his nose as he read through an old book that he'd been allowed to keep.

The looming figure had been granted a TV once, but after throwing it at one of the guards when he was denied his favorite meal, he had not been granted another one. The Facility's guard dog, he may have been, but that didn't mean that he was completely free to do and act as he pleased. Intimidation got him far at this outpost, but he was reminded on occasion that he still belonged to the main Facility.

After flipping through several more pages, he heard a knock at his door. Groaning and rolling his eyes, he dog-eared the book and closed it. He then sat up and set the book on a small table beside his cot. He raked his clawed fingers through his dense fur, scratching an itch on his massive chest before talking to his closed door.

"What do you want? You're interrupting my reading time." came his growling voice.

"Doctor Sullivan wants to speak with you, sir. He says it's urgent." the voice on the other side of the door replied. It sounded younger than most of the other voices he knew, and Kujo could already see the young aide's form in his mind before getting up to open the door.

Once the door was open, Kujo was able to look down on the young assistant. She stood around five feet, eight inches tall and had her long, tightly-curled, brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She looked up at the huge beast before her. He was shirtless and was resting one of his arms against the door frame to his room. He had to duck his head to clear the frame and get a good look at her. He was grinning down at her, his yellowed teeth still stained with the blood from his earlier kill.

"Well, well~" he said. "So the good doctor decided to send your pretty little ass down here to call upon me?" Jerking his thumb back towards his cot he added, "You know, I'm sure you could say you got lost if you wanted to come in and have a little fun before we go and see whatever it is that derange doc wants to talk about~" He licked his teeth and his eyes narrowed upon the woman.

The assistant adjusted her glasses before taking a strong step towards the beast-man. "I will only repeat myself once." she said in a stern tone. "Doctor Sullivan wants to speak with you, and he says it's urgent. I retract the use of the word 'sir' to describe you. Let's go."

Kujo let out a guttural laugh at the hardness of the smaller woman. He then got a good look at the access badge pinned to her lab coat. He saw that her name was Diane Evans. She was still new, so he forgave her arrogance... this time.

"I see why he sent you now. You'd have to be a hardass bitch to not fall for this animalist charm." He cocked his scarred face to one side and set his chin in his hand between his pointer finger and his thumb.

The dark-haired aide simply rolled her eyes before turning her back to him and saying. "Yeah, I'm more of a cat person. At least they have the decency to clean themselves. Now come with me."

Kujo had to laugh again, but he nonetheless grabbed a shirt and followed her. Diane led him down the clinical hallways until they were just outside Doctor Sullivan's office. She knocked twice and waited until she heard a muffled "Come in." before opening the door.

The office space was devoid of most decorations. There was a small area rug in the center of the room and a couple of chairs for guests, but aside from that the rest of the room's décor consisted entirely of bookshelves filled with research books and binders that Doctor Sullivan used during his experiments. The doctor was sitting behind his desk with a telephone to his ear. He waved Diane and Kujo in as he told the person on the other end of line, "Look, I understand. I'm putting my best man on it. We took precautions just in case something like this would happen." He was silent for a moment before adding, "I understand. We will do everything in our power to retake the subjects and get them sent to the Trigger labs as soon as possible." With that, he hung up the phone and looked at the two people now standing in his lab.