The Beast in the Basement

Decisions, Decisions

Mason felt like he should've answered right away, but he didn't; he had to think about his options here. There's the choice of murdering people to keep Banehound fed and to save himself from being eaten, or he could refuse the beast's offer and get eaten to keep Banehound from harming others, but then that would mean that someone else could move into the house and the same thing could happen to them. It appeared that no matter what choice he made, a lot of people were going to die. He didn't like this at all, he didn't like this situation that no one had ever prepared him for. He didn't know what to do.

He was torn out of his thoughts as he heard the doorbell ring. Banehound's long ears twitched at the sound. He smirked and grabbed Mason by the collar of his shirt and brought him upstairs telling him to answer the door and not look suspicious. Mason was practically thrown to the top of the short staircase and it took him a second to regain his balance and not fall back down the steps.

He made his way over to the front door with Banehound watching closely from behind the open door to the basement. Mason hesitantly opened the door after wiping the sweat from his brow to find a nice looking woman standing on the other side. She had long blonde hair and tanned skin. He relaxed very slightly, not wanting to let his guard down knowing there's a hungry man-eating monster a few feet away from him. He said almost awkwardly, "H-Hello- hi... uhh who are you?"

"I'm your next-door neighbor, my name is Carol Otterson. I actually came to see if you were maybe still here..."

"Why wouldn't I be here? I only moved in yesterday."

"Well, it's just that whenever someone moves into this house they disappear after a day or two sometimes after a month. I also heard some loud noises coming from this house last night. Thought a monster got ya or something."

"Oh, n-no some pots I'd didn't put away just fell over, nothing serious." Mason wasn't lying, the pots actually did fall over. It was because of a monster, but it wouldn't let him say anything about that to her.

"Oh well in that case," Miss Otterson held out a plate of fresh brownies, Mason hadn't noticed them before, "would you like some brownies I made this morning?"

"Oh! Uhh, thanks but uhh..." Mason couldn't think of what to say, he didn't want to seem rude to his new neighbor. He also thought, "Did this woman seriously wake up at five AM just to make brownies? And I thought the price of this house was weird."

Luckily Miss Otterson had said something and moved past the young man shoving the plate into his hands before he could think of anything, "Oh my heavens! You got the basement door open. I haven't seen anyone get that old thing to budge." Mason panicked and quickly tried to stop her from getting any closer to the basement, "Excuse me Miss Otterson, but I don't think you should-" The man was interrupted by the woman's and his own screaming as Banehound snatched the young lady and threw her down the stairs; the plate Mason was holding dropped to the floor and shards of glass flew across the ground.

Banehound ran down the stairs and the door slammed behind him. All Mason could hear was the scratching of the monster's claws against the wood stairs and the concrete flooring of the basement then screaming from the woman before it stopped suddenly with a loud crack. Listening to the horrific sounds through the door was like listening to that Rice Krispies Treats cereal: snap crackle pop.

Soon after the sounds stopped, the door slowly opened. Terrified but curious Mason inched his way towards the door carefully trying to avoid the broken glass that littered the floor, and down the creaky steps. Upon reaching the bottom, he found Banehound sitting by the back wall with his belly visibly very full and licking himself clean from all the blood of his victim with his long pale blue tongue.

The monster belched out a long loud burp then proceeded to lick his lips still cleaning the blood off of himself. Mason looked around; there was a huge puddle of blood where he was standing and a few scraps of clothing, but that was it. There was nothing left of that poor woman; she was completely gone. Banehound must have a stomach lining made of elastic if he's able to eat an entire adult human. She was a small woman though, but even so, the beast was able to devour her entire body. Although, with such a large meal like that the beast shouldn't be hungry for the next week or two.

"So," said Banehound suddenly, still cleaning himself, "do you accept my offer, Birdie, or do you want to end up like Miss Otterson here?" The beast licked his black lips again and stood up with little to no effort. Mason's thoughts were going a mile a minute, "Should I do this? Should I not do this? Should I feed him? Or should I be eaten? I can't move out, I just got this house and I don't enough money to go anywhere else! I guess I only have one option..."

"I..." Mason started, and the beast's ears perked up slightly, "I'll do it, but you have to do a few things for me if you want me to feed you!"

"Shoot, I'll play fair, what do you want me to do?"

"For starters, I'd like it if you stayed in the basement whenever I have guests over at least. Also, we need to do something about your crap, we can't have you stinking up the whole house with it."

"Fair enough, just think of me as a giant-man-eating-pet-cat then. I barely leave the basement unless it's night and the best I can do about my shit is to do it in a large bucket or something. Also, as a bonus, because I'm feeling generous today, don't worry about the messes I make. I get a little crazy while feeding, but I always clean up after myself. Speaking of which," he walked over to Mason, "sit down."

"Wait, w-why- oof!"

Banehound didn't wait for a response and had pushed the human to sit on the stairs. He lowered himself down and gently grabbed the man's legs. Mason was very concerned about what Banehound was going to do, but he couldn't seem to voice his nervousness.

Banehound didn't seem to notice the man's tense body as he lifted the legs up a bit and started to lick the blood off his feet. Mason let out a short breath of relief, letting his body relax ever so slightly. This was noticed by the beast, however, and he smirked and purred out, "Why so tense little Birdie? Thought I was gonna do something else to ya?"

The man had no words for a moment, but he had managed to find some eventually, "What! N-no... I just... umm... ugh... You can blame my boyfriend for me being like this... He's on a trip with his family right now." Mason smiled at the thought of his boyfriend, briefly forgetting about the monster that was currently licking the blood from his neighbor off of his feet.

"You're dodging, Birdie" Banehound deadpanned, "I wasn't asking about your goddamn love life."

"I was afraid you'd eat me!"

The beast burst out into laughter, sounding too much like a hyena for Mason's comfort, then he said while still giggling, "Why'd you feel the need to hide that? Hahaha!"

Then it dawned on Mason, "Hold on a second, what are we gonna do when people realize Miss Otterson is missing?" Banehound stopped licking up the red liquid for a moment to say, "Don't worry about it, she lives alone. I've never seen anyone else go in or out of that place. Besides, even if the cops did get involved, they wouldn't find anything here. I eat everything," he lightly patted his fat belly as if to prove his point. Mason looked over at the pile of bones on one side of the room. Then he said grimly, "What about those? Surely they'll be able to connect those with other missing persons. And if you eat everything, how come there are bones over there?"

"Yeah, bones, along with clothing, is kinda like corn is for you. Doesn't always digest thoroughly. So my advice for you since you're so worried, burn whatever clothes you find in my shit and leave the bones to me. I like chewing on 'em. What do you think most of this dust down here is?" Banehound said cheerfully, tail wagging in delight and a proud look on his face. He looked like a kid that was proud of an art project he did or something. Mason had to be honest with himself for a moment; if it wasn't for the whole eating-people-thing he could maybe be friends with Banehound.