FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sometimes, in his dreams, Rory took a bus.

There was something about transportation that fascinated him, or at least had fascinated him in the past. It was the simple fact that one could get on a bus, or a train, or a plane, at a particular place and then spend a few hours in an enclosed space without being completely aware that, outside, the world was moving. The trip started somewhere and ended somewhere else, but the period in between was blurry, indefinable - dreamlike. It disappeared once you got off. In some ways, it was closer to teleportation than many people thought. And the person travelling, were they always the same? Did every kilometer slowly change the cat sitting on a bus? Did he change by himself, or did he even change at all?

Now Rory could see himself through the window. He was in the detention room, grinning as the grey wolf went on all fours before him. The practiced trigger echoed once more and his classmate melted into the obedient pet he'd been conditioned to be. Teachers wouldn't see them, as usual, because if there was something teachers were really good at, it was not seeing. Minutes later, the wolf would make a mess on the floor and then Rory would ask him to clean it. In that particular place, things weren't complicated. The cat could do what he wanted.

Traffic lights flashed on the glass, colorful sparks exploding in the quiet night, and then the picture changed. They were in a storeroom now and the grey wolf - name irrelevant - was kneeling. He seemed to be trapped in the middle of some trip, too, and he was so, so pent up. That had happened before, so it meant time was moving backwards, withdrawing. Was that a journey back home? The cat couldn't know, but he liked the determination in his reflection's pupils, shining in the dark road like flames in the middle of a storm.

And it was raining. It was getting colder now. Raindrops splashed on the window, deforming the image and turning it into something else. There was some kind of humidity there, too - it was a locker room. There was a cat inside a changing stall and a grey wolf had collapsed on him, falling into his arms. He was hardly holding the bigger beast, and he looked... disappointed, for some reason. There was a certain coldness in his features and it was beginning to settle in. But among the ice, that flame of determination was growing, the power and self-confidence fueling it unstoppably.

And then they were home, but Rory wasn't home yet. And the black cat was trying a few things, and he looked nervous, agitated, and he was making so many excuses. The grey wolf, as usual, was as close to being asleep as anyone can while still being awake. There were lies in that room and there was something that smelled really bad, as if it had been left to rot there for a long period of time - two years, maybe. Maybe just a few months, though. Rory couldn't tell, but he knew at that moment he didn't like the black cat he was seeing. The flame was out. There was nothing interesting.

Nothing.

In the road, the cat and the wolf seemed to always be together. Trapped in an endless dance, fighting a battle of wills whose result had already been decided. The relentless rain was flooding everything and they were like islands standing in the middle of an ocean of time - close enough to see each other through the mist, but still so far that waters kept them separated. Did their story go further back? Rory didn't know. Rory didn't care.

In any case, once the trip was over and he got off the bus, all those images would be forgotten. Time would erase itself and those scenes would be omitted - and it would seem as if they had never existed, because the important thing was that all those things had started somewhere, and would end somewhere too.

Suddenly, the bus driver slammed on the brakes and the illusion of that enclosed space being completely still was shattered. Someone complained at the back of the bus, but nobody listened. Rory looked through the window again and watched as time folded back, pulling them towards the recent past.

He was waiting... somewhere. Just like now, but in an actual, motionless space. Waiting for someone that was supposed to come there, but he was late and the cat was beginning to worry - the wolf was never late. And the flame of his determination quivered, but never went out. Even then, Rory felt uneasy as he watched through the window, and he wanted to warn the cat that something terrible was about to happen, although he didn't know what.

The bus took a sharp turn. Someone screamed.

There! There was someone in the shadows. And there was something reaching out, pointing at the confident cat - was it tusks? Whatever it was, it was approaching him slowly and the cat hadn't noticed yet, because he was expecting to see the wolf there, not whoever that was. And Rory squinted from his seat, and could see that the boar - it was pretty clear now - was carrying something in his hoof that looked like a handkerchief. What was he doing with something like that? He thought he knew the answer and he didn't like it.

The driver hit the brakes again. The world seemed to lose its balance and a feeling of imminent disaster filled Rory. The boar jumped on him, putting that handkerchief on his nose, and there was a smell, and then the bus skidded on the road and tires screeched, they screeched so, so loud, and Rory wanted it to stop.

Then something crashed. Sharp pain in the back. Traffic lights went out.

Comatose for two weeks.

***

Rory took a sharp breath in and woke up. His head ached with a pulsing, intense pain.

The bus.

Where was the bus? They were crashing... Again, and...

It took him a while to realize there wasn't any bus and that he was actually in a very different place. Trying to get rid of that splitting headache, the black cat rolled his head left and right, but that only worked to let him know that his neck, too, was sore. In fact, his whole body felt like he'd been beaten up. He tried to raise one paw to check his head, only to find that they were tied to the chair he was sitting in.

A shiver ran down his spine.

Where was he? Trying to become more aware of his surroundings, Rory looked around. He seemed to be in someone's room, so that meant he'd been taken to someone's house... No. Actually, it appeared like he was in the hall of residence associated with his school. He'd only been in one of those rooms once, but the furniture looked familiar. The room wasn't very tidy either, so that meant someone had been living there recently.

Once the cat had a rough idea of his location, he turned his attention to himself. He was sitting in a chair and his wrists and ankles were tied to it with strong ropes. If he tried to move, it actually hurt a little. Who had done that? And what was their purpose? Maybe it was a prank, Rory thought, but he'd never seen anyone go that far before.

He was trying to remember what had happened before he lost consciousness when he heard a few heavy steps behind him. Frightened, the cat tried to turn around, but the chair didn't allow him to do so. He could only tell that someone was getting closer, closer, closer...

Until they passed him by.

"Lo... Logan..." Rory muttered, surprised.

The boar didn't turn to look at him and just kept walking towards the door. He'd probably been waiting until he woke up, or at least that's what the cat thought, but it didn't look like he was paying him any attention now. In fact, and even though Rory couldn't see his face from that position, his way of walking suggested that he was... absent. The black cat wasn't sure if he could have explained it any better, but...

There was something about it that seemed familiar. Too familiar. Rory had a bad feeling.

"Hey, Logan..." he said. His voice quavered as he spoke. "This isn't funny. P-please, let me go..."

But the boar never even glanced at him. Instead, he reached the door and left the room with no hesitation.

Once the boar left him alone, Rory tried to remember again. That was clearly Logan's room - the cat knew he was staying at the hall of residence that year because of some silly argument he'd had with his parents - but the cat didn't know how he'd ended up in a place like that. There was something he'd dreamed... No, something that had happened. He remembered waiting for... someone... in a room, in their school. That person was supposed to be there at the right time, but they hadn't appeared, and he'd been worried that something might have happened.

And then Logan had sneaked up on him and had put something on his muzzle and...

Rory gasped.

Have they chloroformed me? he asked himself, feeling outraged. That was way beyond any prank he'd ever heard of. No one would dare doing such a thing publicly, in the school.

Right?

Outrage left way for fear once he realized if they had done that, there were few things they wouldn't dare doing. Who could it be? Logan didn't look like he could do that on his own. He had to be in cahoots with someone, but who? Rory refused to believe most of his classmates would agree to something like that.

People still had limits, or so he wanted to believe.

Then, the door opened and someone walked in. He was wearing gym gloves and a pair of red headphones around his neck, and he came into the room as if he owned the place, even though it was pretty obvious to Rory that he didn't. But the cat had no time to think about that.

Instead, he only felt a new shiver as he looked into those yellow eyes.

"Hey there, pussycat," Bryan said, giving him his best cocky grin. "How are you doing?"

At first, Rory didn't know what to say. He hadn't expected to see the grey wolf there, basically because he knew he wasn't on good terms with Logan, so he had dismissed him as an accomplice pretty soon. Besides, it wasn't as if Bryan could do something like that after... all the recent circumstances.

The possibility that he could filled him with terror.

"W-what..." he began, but then decided to start all over again. "Bryan. How... What am I doing here?"

He tried to sound slightly commanding, but it wasn't easy to do that in his position. The grey wolf towered over him and the cat just felt the need to lower his head.

"Surprised, huh?" Bryan said. "Guess that's normal. You probably didn't see this coming, did you?"

Rory's bad feeling only got worse. Why did he look so confident...? And where was Logan?

Why had the boar allowed Bryan to enter his room?

The cat's fear decided for him and he gave into the impulse to snap his fingers, which he could do in spite of his wrists being tied to the chair. The snap echoed in the room, loud and clear. Rory had gotten good at those recently.

Bryan's body seemed to melt in place, legs suddenly too weak to hold his weight. He staggered for a few seconds, eyelids falling down as if he was about to sleep... and then he stopped, stood still and gave Rory a wide, toothy grin. Completely awake.

"What..." The cat was confused for a second. "Why isn't that working?"

His voice sounded a bit desperate. He didn't like that. It hadn't sounded like that in a long time.

"Yup, you definitely didn't see this coming," the wolf said, taking a few steps closer as he raised one of his paws. For some reason, Rory thought he was going to punch him, or smack him... but in the end, his classmate simply grabbed a chair, turned it backwards and sat down right there, arms resting on the back. "I really want to know... How long is it going to take you to realize?"

Just a few seconds after that question was formulated was all that Rory needed, apparently. Suddenly, a light shone in his mind and the cat turned pale.

"N-no..." he muttered, as he looked back at the wolf, terrified. "It can't be!"

"Well, it is," Bryan answered, that terrible grin never leaving his face. "You've lost, pussycat. Sorry. Your control over me doesn't exist anymore."

Rory's whole body was shaking. That couldn't be happening. It simply couldn't.

He tried to get a hold of himself. The cat wasn't sure what was going on, but freaking out wouldn't help him get away from that situation.

"When did you know?" he asked, in a low voice.

"I guess it was last time, after we got in detention together. It was just... odd that you'd be there, taking into account you're such a nerd," the wolf explained. "But I don't think it was too difficult to notice, anyway. I just had to tie up some loose ends. You weren't particularly discreet about it, were you? Oh! Do you really think you were?" Bryan asked once he noticed the shadow of doubt in the cat's face. He seemed to find that possibility hilarious for some reason.

"And how did you get rid of it?" Rory asked, succinctly. He was terrified, but he needed to know.

"I found a forum online. It took me a while, but I ended up meeting a guy that helped me get rid of all your suggestions. Took him about five minutes, by the way," he added, with a charming smile.

Rory didn't answer.

"You know what else I found out that day? That your little trick was really basic stuff. Anyone could have done it. I really hope you didn't feel particularly proud of that, hmm?"

"Well, it worked," Rory dared to say. Even though the wolf scared him a lot, he had the urgent feeling that he needed to stand up to the wolf as much as he could or else things would be worse.

"Yeah. And for a long time. Did you enjoy it, pussycat?" Bryan asked, tilting his head. The cat thought it was a rhetorical question, but he was soon proved wrong.

Suddenly, the grin was gone and the wolf's gloved paw closed around the cat's jaw with such strength that Rory thought it might break.

"I. Want. To know. How much. You liked it."

The words weren't particularly threatening but the cat felt really small and powerless all of a sudden.

"I... d-did..." he managed to stammer. It was difficult to talk with the wolf's paw preventing his mouth from moving too much. "I... I loved it..."

"Goooood. At least someone did," Bryan said. He grinned again, but he didn't look happy.

The wolf pulled his paw away and Rory rolled his head once again. His neck hurt a lot.

After a few seconds in silence, he tried to gather his courage and ask the question he'd really wanted to ask from the very beginning.

"What are you going to do to me?"

"I don't know," the wolf answered, shrugging. He looked calm, but Rory knew he'd seen that kind of calm before. It was Bryan's preface to a storm. "What should I do with you?"

Rory was about to answer and he opened his mouth, but then a realization went through his mind. He looked back at the wolf, as if still trying to believe that was happening, and then whispered:

"Oh. You hypnotized Logan."

"Of course I did," Bryan growled. His cocky grin returned to his face. "It wasn't too difficult. Of course, I guess it wasn't too difficult for you either. It's never difficult for anyone, really. All it takes is for someone to trust you. And earning someone's trust can be... easy when people are desperate to trust anybody."

Why was he talking like that? What had he missed? The Bryan Rory knew had nothing to do with that wolf. He'd never seen him speak with those words, so calmly and so... coherently. And yet, there was something behind that façade that suggested his classmate was very, very angry.

Rory wasn't sure he wanted the mask to fall off yet.

"I told him I'd help him get stronger," Bryan continued. "I suggested we might hit the gym together sometime. Then just played the good ol' Iron_Wolf.mp4 on him."

"Ah," Rory said. He didn't think there was much else he could say.

"So I guess that also explains what I'm going to do to you, don't you think?"

Rory felt a shiver.

"B-but..." he tried to argue. "You can't..."

"Oh, weren't you listening to me, pussycat?" Bryan asked. He sounded as if he was explaining something very easy to a child. "_Anyone_can. It's not that difficult. So yeah. Of course I can do it."

The black cat couldn't believe it. He struggled again, trying to break free from those ropes, but it was impossible. Whoever had done that job had thoroughly prepared and knotted every single rope, and they didn't move an inch. Bryan watched his efforts, still grinning, and Rory felt humiliated, but if a little humiliation saved him from the destiny that the wolf had reserved for him... he was willing to take it.

"Yeah, Logan tied you pretty well. Think he might be a pervert." Bryan shrugged. "Anyway. The important question, the question you should be asking yourself, is not if I can hypnotize you. The important question is..." He paused for a few seconds, leaving his words hang in the air teasingly. "Did you think I was stupid?"

Rory stopped struggling and looked at the wolf. His heart was beating fast and he definitely needed to get out of that place, but those words had caught him off guard.

"Sorry?" he asked.

"Oh, come on. I don't think you need me to repeat it," Bryan said, with that apparent calm that Rory thought could only mean he was in really, really bad trouble.

He considered his answer. Of course he had thought the wolf was stupid. He'd never realized what was happening to him. It had been so easy to put him under his control that he'd never even thought Bryan could break free. And even if that hadn't been the case... he was just a bully! He had harassed everyone in their high school and he... And he had really, really acted like an idiot when he had talked with him over the dating app!

But he wasn't so sure now. The wolf he had in front of him... He couldn't recognize him. Had he been blind all that time? But I was watching, he told himself. I liked him a lot. Then why?

And what was he supposed to answer? If he told Bryan he hadn't thought he was stupid, the wolf would know he was lying and the consequences might be even worse than if he plainly admitted that yes, he had thought he was a moron.

"I don't really have all day," Bryan insisted. It didn't seem as if he'd have another thing to do either, or at least the cat didn't think so.

"I..." Rory felt nervous. The fact that he didn't know what was going to happen wasn't helping. He was scared. "I... I don't know... I guess I did..."

"You guess?"

There was no point in denying it. Bryan knew the answer.

"Yes. I thought you were stupid," he admitted, lowering his gaze.

The wolf's smile widened.

"Good. Now I know I won't regret anything I do to you." Rory gasped and tried to escape again, but Bryan laughed. It wasn't a happy laugh. "Oh, come on! You should have known there was no right answer. But don't worry. It seems you've got it all figured out now." He paused for a second, standing up. "And you're right. I'm clever enough that I'm not going to let you get away from this. Oh, no. No waking up for you after I've put you under. This is a life sentence, pussycat."

"B-but you can't do this!" Rory screamed, desperate. As the wolf's plan began to take form in his mind, he was feeling more and more terrified. "I... I promise not to do it again! I promise if there's any t-triggers or anything still there, I'll remove it!"

Bryan chuckled.

"Oh, that's easy to promise. Look, I'll promise the same thing." He put one of his paws on his chest and said, solemnly. "I promise I'll just put you under once. There. Do you believe me?"

Rory gulped. Of course he didn't.

At that point, Logan came into the room again. Rory was so tense that he almost let out a yelp when the door opened, but it looked as if Bryan had already been expecting it. The boar was carrying something on his hoofs, something that the cat couldn't see from his position.

He perceived... a funny smell, though.

"What is that?" he asked, a bit anxiously. "What is he carrying? What is that!?"

The wolf turned to him and held his gaze. He didn't look particularly pleased.

"You know, I've been thinking about this for a long time," he said, "and I've realized something. I can't just do what you did to me. That would be too easy." He scratched his chin. "So, I made a decision. I'm going to make this as unpleasant for you as I can. I won't be satisfied only by seeing you humiliated, which... in a way, you already are. I also want to see you repulsed. I want to see you sick."

"What is that...? P-please, tell me what..." Rory needed to know what it was and at that point he was practically begging. He had the terrible feeling that it would be something he'd hate, but he still needed to know the answer. "What are you gonna do..."

Bryan crossed his arms on his chest.

"There's something I noticed. You don't like intense noises. You don't like intense odors. It seems as if you're very... sensitive. Literally." A sly grin appeared on his face. "So I've decided I'm going to start with that."

He grabbed whatever Logan was carrying and showed it to the cat. He just stared back in disbelief, trying to convince himself that wasn't happening.

"No..." he whispered. "No, no, no, no..."

"Don't worry, I've only worn them for a week, pussycat," Bryan assured him, waving a pair of boxers in front of the cat's face, who could already smell the penetrating scent. He could only guess what the wolf wanted to do with his underwear, but he found every single possibility horrifying. "Ugh. I have to admit, it's disgusting for me too. But you know, vengeance requires sacrifices sometimes."

"P-please, don't do it!!" Rory screamed, trying to kick, trying to punch, trying to get away in vain. "I... I hate that... You can't do that!! Stop!!"

"Why should I stop? I have no reason to stop. I have you under my control after all. Or will have you pretty soon, anyway. Heh."

"No! No no no no no!! Please, Bryan!! Stop it. Please. PLEASE!!" Rory felt something warm on his face. At first the thought of what it could be terrified him for a second, but then it noticed it was his own tears. "I promise... I won't... Please, I don't like this..."

Bryan had been removing his headphones from around his neck, when he seemed to freeze. The black cat guessed it was something he'd said, but he wasn't sure what.

"... 'You don't like this'?" the wolf repeated, in disbelief. "Are you fucking serious?"

Rory knew the storm was there before the first thunder stroke.

Bryan let out a frustrated groan and grabbed the chair, then threw it to the wall. The sudden sound startled the cat, who whimpered and felt the fur on his tail standing on end because of the shock. But Bryan hadn't finished. He got really close to the cat and grabbed him by his collar, so strongly than it hurt. It hurt a lot.

Rory gasped for breath. Those fangs were really close now. He couldn't stop crying.

"Do you really fucking think I LIKED IT!??" Bryan shouted, so loud that Rory's ears hurt. He wished someone would hear them. "Did you think I was ENJOYING IT?? Because I WASN'T!!! It was HORRIBLE and I HATED. EVERY. FUCKING. SECOND OF IT. And you just KEPT GOING!!!"

Through the veil of his tears, Rory could barely see Bryan's face now, but he could have sworn the wolf was crying, too, if only that hadn't seemed completely impossible. He didn't know what was going on anymore. Everything was so blurry and he was so scared and he couldn't move and he couldn't breathe. He just wanted the wolf to let him go back home.

He didn't want any of this. It had only been a game. He...

"I'm tired." Bryan interrupted his trail of thoughts. The wolf rubbed his eyes with one of those big paws. Suddenly, Rory could breathe again. "I'm tired," he repeated, as if one time hadn't been enough.

"Please..." Rory sobbed. "Please, don't..."

"Oh, shut up," Bryan complained. He took off his right shoe and then removed his sock. Rory's eyes went wide when he understood what the wolf was planning to do, but it was too late. Bryan's paw was suddenly grabbing his maw again, making it open, and his other paw was forcing the sock in. "Shut. Up."

The wolf didn't look so angry right now, but Rory couldn't care. He tried to spit the sock out of his mouth, but Bryan had pushed it deep enough that he wouldn't be able to do that. He could feel himself choking on it and new tears flowed from his eyes. The wolf had been right - he found that absolutely disgusting and he already felt nauseous.

But it was even worse when the wolf just wrapped those overused boxers around his head. He could feel the scent filling everything and he had the sudden urge to vomit right there, but it just wouldn't happen. He was still crying during the whole process, and even though the only thing that he could see through the fabric was a bunch of shapeless shadows, he still wished that Bryan would have mercy on him. He wished and hoped and prayed that there was still one way he could escape from that situation, but he was beginning to believe that the wolf had been right all along and there was nothing he could do.

He had said this was a life sentence.

Feeling the lacerating pain around his wrists and ankles as he still struggled to break free, the cat discerned someone bringing something red closer to his head. He tried to move his head so that they wouldn't be able to put the headphones on him, but then someone's hoof closed around his nape, keeping it in place. He let out a desperate scream that was muffled by the sock in his mouth. Then he screamed again and his throat hurt.

But the sound of his screaming suddenly disappeared behind a curtain of intense noise that filled his head like a waterfall. It's... it's too loud!, was Rory's only thought, as he wriggled and squirmed in vain. He could feel the sound pounding on his brain, hammering continuously. His whole body reacted to the pain and was shaking, sending involuntary impulses in order to get rid of whatever was attacking it. The terrible musk filled all his senses and the noise seemed to get louder, and louder, and louder, like drums getting closer announcing the end of something. He could have sworn he was still screaming, but he couldn't hear anything but the noise, the never-ending noise, that looped and buzzed and made his head hurt so much.

Rory wished it would end. He wanted to split his head open. He wanted to die. And he could feel every single thought committing suicide, dropping like rocks into an endless abyss of nothingness and shattering mid-fall like glass on a bus crash. And his back hurt so much that he wished his body wasn't his anymore. And there was nothing, nothing preventing him from falling down but that little stupid voice of his consciousness, screaming in panic as it held onto something that didn't exist anymore.

Then it broke and it fell silent and darkness swallowed him whole.