The Silent Paw and The Gentle Bark

🐾 Chapter 44: Trapped in a Living Nightmare

The first thing Catnap felt was pain.

Not the sharp kind. No, this was deep, like something was tearing him apart from the inside. His body felt heavy, his limbs refusing to move.

And then—

The screams started.

Not his.

Dogday's.

Catnap's eyes snapped open, but he wasn't in his house. He wasn't anywhere safe.

He was back in that place.

The twisted version of the factory. The one where the walls moved like breathing flesh, where blood dripped from the ceiling in slow, rhythmic plops, where Dogday's voice echoed from somewhere in the darkness—

"Catnap... please... help me..."

Catnap ran.

He didn't care if it was another nightmare. He didn't care if he was falling for a trap.

He had to find him.

The halls stretched endlessly, but finally, he saw him—

Dogday was on the ground, coughing up thick, black sludge. His golden fur was drenched in blood, his eyes wide with terror as something towered over him.

The Prototype.

But it was... different.

Bigger.

More twisted.

Its mechanical frame had been corrupted, wires pulsing like veins, its metal fingers ending in jagged, rusted hooks. Its glowing red eyes burned into Catnap's soul.

"You can't save him," the Prototype hissed. "Not here. Not ever."

Catnap lunged.

He didn't think—he just attacked, claws out, ready to tear this thing apart.

But the moment he touched it—

PAIN.

A white-hot agony seared through his body, his vision going black. His mind felt like it was being ripped open, like something was crawling inside his skull.

And then—

Dogday's screams filled his ears again.

He wasn't just watching Dogday suffer.

He was living it.

Every slice. Every rip. Every single torturous second.

And the worst part?

He couldn't wake up.

Because in the real world—

Catnap was in a coma.

And this nightmare?

It wasn't going to end.