Never Trust a Pretty Face
#2 of Stories in Shorts
I awoke in a dimly lit cave, hearing the echoes of water running and the sounds of someone walking around.
_ Who is that? Where am I?_ The questions shot off in my confuzzled mind as I sat up, the cold floor now underneath my butt. I was just lying in bed a few seconds ago....
"Hello, friend," a soothing female voice greeted behind me.
I looked back, startled by the mysterious voice as I saw a pair of long, slender legs in tight jeans. My eyes traveled up, reaching the figure's face, which was illuminated by a glowing torch in her left paw. The reddish, orange torch in her paw slightly revealed her face, uncovering a pretty lioness face and a pair of pretty blue eyes, while her hair was a bloodish red color. This feline was pretty, but something unsettled me about her- and I couldn't place a paw on it....
The feline anthro offered her free paw to me and I grabbed it, the lioness helping me up. "OW!" I yelped after letting go of her paw.
My paw felt as if I had accidentally touched a hot, electric stove. Examining my paw with the available lighting, I found burn marks all over my left paw. "What happened?" the lioness asked me in a worried tone, taking a step towards me.
"You burned me!" I exclaimed angrily, shaking my paw to cool it off, "are you like, Satanya herself or something?!"
The female gave me a disgusted look, "how dare you insult me! And what the hell are you talking about?!" She placed her right paw on my shoulder and surprisingly, her paw was as cold as the floor under my feet. I then looked at my paw, which appeared as if it was never burnt. I could have sworn....
"Now, if you're done accusing me of something that I didn't do, follow me this way," the anthro nodded her head in the direction behind her, adding a smile to her beautiful, dimly lit face. That smile unsettled me, as if I looked straight into the face of Satanya herself. It made me want to run the other way; but instead, I felt myself being pulled to her as the walked down the long cave-tunnel of dimly lit torches.
_ Was I really being pulled towards her, or am I just following her absentmindedly?_ Whether I knew it or not, I was following the lioness, dressed in dark red clothes, through the tunnel.
"So how did you end up here?" the feline asked, her voice beginning to sound slightly creepy and disembodied. This made the fur on my neck stand on end, "I, uhh, sort of woke up here. I don't really know how I got here."
_ And I want to get the hell out of here!_
"I know the way out," she said, smiling as we walked down the tunnel, "just trust me." Uhh, that "just trust me" phrase doesn't help, I wanted to say, but the words couldn't find their way out of my mouth.
A question popped into my head: Who is this feline? Just then, the atmosphere became humid and heavy.
I stopped and gagged, the hot, unbreathable air hitting my nostrils and face. "What's wrong?" the lioness asked in a concerned tone, stopping and turning around to face me. Her voice sounded normal, without the disembodied tone she had only a few moments ago.
"Where are you leading us to!?" I asked after regaining my breath, "is this air not suffocating you!?"
"No," she sniffed the air, a confused expression on her face, "what is it that you smell?" As if on cue, the hot air vanished, leaving only the cold stillness of the air.
_ What the....._
"Silly dog, you ask so many questions," the anthro commented, "and imagine way too many things.
_ Something is not right here! I know I'm not imagining any of this stuff, but why is half of me feeling like I am? Every little thing I feel or hear just goes away as if I just...... Imagined it._ I followed the lioness, who was beginning to walk down the tunnel again. I am probably imagining things, the alien thought crossed my mind as I caught up to her.
As the next few minutes passed by, I could have sworn that I've seen the female's features change, ranging from red horns, knife-like fangs, and even her paws and feet turning a burnt ash grey color. A few times even, she gave me a creepy grin that can make the strongest anthro tremble. Every time I blinked, the creepiness of her would magically vanish. Could this be my imagination playing tricks on me? Or was she, somehow, controlling what I see?
The mysterious lioness and I came to a ledge, overlooking a deep canyon that seemed to go down forever; however, across the from us was a way out, the sunlight shining in from the outside.
"Oh, looks like you won't be able to get out," the anthro lioness said in a teasingly evil tone, walking behind me. My eyes followed the lioness, the fur on my neck standing on end. What does she mean by that?
The features on the lioness drastically changed, the top of her head having a pair of meter long, pointed red horns. In addition to that, her blood red hair become longer to where it reached her waist, her ears becoming sharply pointed and her fangs becoming razor sharp. Her fur also changed to a blood red, glowing color.
_ Satanya! Oh floof... This isn't going to end pleasantly....._
I stood there, frozen in fear.
"We could've been here a lot sooner," the lioness spoke, her voice booming as it sounded abnormal, "but you were a tricky one. A timid dog that asked too many questions." She also grew to about three times my height, looming over me.
As she spoke, I could feel myself backing up. I looked down, seeing that my feet had a mind of its own. The edge of the ledge?! Where is it?! I couldn't look anywhere else as my gaze was directed to Satanya's pretty blue eyes.
The devil-like lioness took a step towards me, looming over me as I felt myself stop backing up. Her soul-reaching gaze made me shiver as she looked dead into my eyes, with me being unable to look away from those icy blues, no matter how hard I tried. I felt the life being sucked out of me and at the same time, my vision and strength began to fade away, darkness slowly replacing my vision.
"Good night, Rick, I enjoyed your short company!" the lunatic laughing from Satanya rang throughout my ears. I felt myself free-falling shortly after, seeing nothing but complete darkness.
As soon as I felt the burning of my fur and flesh, I opened my eyes and found myself..... Back in my bed? I sat up, panting heavily and sweating under my blanket as if I was in a sauna.
_ Am I a thing?_ I flicked out a claw from my left paw and poked myself on my arm, trying to see if I was in reality. Okay, yeah, I'm not dreaming nor am I dead. After calming myself down and drinking out of a water bottle that was on a small nightstand beside my bed, I laid back down and began to relax. I fell asleep after a few minutes.
But what I failed to notice was a face peering in through my bedroom window, the face of Satanya The Devil-Lioness staring at me....