Beastars: The Discover Check

Chapter 126: A New Way of Living (At Least It's Orderly)

He was all alone in the cage. Which was different from the actual events. He hadn't been alone. There had been other children with him. But in this particular retelling by his subconscious, the feeling of isolation had been amplified, along with the cage being made smaller. Too small. He couldn't move. In fact the walls, floor, and ceiling were getting smaller and closing in on him. The iron bars were squeezing the air from his lungs and pressing him smaller. His foot burned just as the cage broke open and he was free. His foot continued to burn as he sat in the dark, silent abyss. He cried out with a child's voice right before a larger animal came in from the darkness. He looked up to the dark silhouette of his father.

The faceless animal held out a hand and he reached up to take it. Upon contact the adult lifted him and he felt his bones stretch and his joints bend properly. He felt free for the first time in a while before his father began to bend and twist him like some puppet. His foot continued to burn before the ground fell out from under him. He fell flat on his back with the wind knocked from his lungs. He struggled to breath while a small gathering of other animals surrounded his field of view to look down on him. He felt the pity before his father pulled the puppet strings that were hooked into his body to lift him to his feet. He fought but was only able to remove half of them, the other half being too deep.

Then they came along.

The first one was small, and despite his wishes, he still let her in. The dream was in control. His foot still burned though she helped numb the pain. He was able to forget his past but his father still pulled a few strings, the hooks digging into his flesh and pulling at his skin. He wanted to get closer to her but they pulled him away. A larger canine shape came in like a loose canon. Out of control and too dangerous to get too close to. He took her. For the best. It never would have worked with her in the long run, and she was better off with the other, but she tore a chunk from him as she left; with a previously unseen fishing line hooked into his heart. Ad still his foot burned. And it was spreading, like an infection in the blood, up his leg. He turned and ran into the dark. He didn't see where he was going but he just ran. He had to escape. He couldn't face that part of the world any more. What world? He was in an abyss. It surrounded him and had always been there. At least that's what his brain was telling him.

He ran until he tripped over the burning in his foot and he picked himself up, surrounded by a larger group than before. They were vicious looking and started to revolve around him, orbiting like planets around a black sun. The longer he was around them, the more comfortable he became. One came into more focus than the rest. As he got closer he felt more at ease. He let his guard down and that was an immediate mistake. The larger shape lunged and tore through his side. He felt the pain and saw the blood, having no time to react before the canine returned from the dark and tore his leg off. The burning was gone, but it had just opened up the floodgates. Shadows gushed from the wound, forming many shapes that melded with the shadows around him. Each one reached out and grabbed a part of him, tearing through his skin and flesh. His father fell below him and the hooks still in deep ripped pieces of skin off.

He was bleeding profusely, and they kept coming. Everyone flying in to eat away a piece from him until he was left lying in the fetal position on the floor, bleeding out and in pain worse than before. Then, clad in black leather that melded with the shadows he stepped from and a gas mask with eyepieces that reflected the invisible light source, the devil stepped forward to him and just stood there. He stared down at him with indifference. He didn't want anything but he just stared, his fingers elongating like a spider's as he poked and prodded the scars and open wounds which still stung as the needle-like extensions stabbed into him.

Eventually he stopped bleeding. Someone came from the shadows and slowly started to help him get back up. The demon continued staring as it poked. Then, as he put both his feet on the ground and stabilized, the demon retracted its fingers and lunged forward, snapping his neck and he fell right back to the ground. Whoever was helping him up was grabbed away, pulled into the dark abyss. Then the demon took on a more hideous and twisted form, as it began to tear him apart. Bits of skin were peeled off flesh and the resulting bones were picked clean. His skeleton was torn apart at the joints before being smashed into dust. Except the skull. The skull the demon lifted in front of his face, staring into the empty eye sockets with a twisted grin. The eldritch tore off the antlers and crushed the skull, leaving the brain. This they carefully lay in the abyss before fading into a black cloud of dust.