FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Rekiz was generally a trusting otter.

He wasn't naïve though. He wasn't the kind of person to trust in obvious scams, invest in Ponzi schemes or click on suspicious links. More than once, he'd been told by his friends to keep his backpack close whenever they were travelling in a particularly crowded subway car. If it were for him, he'd just leave it on the floor and space out during the small trip. And still, he hadn't been pickpocketed, not even once.

However, even the short horned otter could notice that there was something weird going on in the dimly lit bar he found himself at. Something was clearly off.

For starters, there weren't many people. The friend Rekiz was meeting was finishing his classes in an hour, and after leaving home a bit too early the otter had decided to wait in a bar right across the street. Being in front of an Arts school, Rekiz would have thought that the place would be crowded with students looking for something to eat or drink between periods, but that wasn't the case. Just a few people had walked into the bar since he had arrived there.

Perhaps the students had a cafeteria in the school.

The other problem was... the door. It stood right at the other side of the room, and many of those who had entered the bar had walked to that point without even saying 'hi' to the bartender, who by the way, turned out to be a very attractive arctic wolf that Rekiz had felt slightly flustered by. Those visitors would open the door, walk in and close it behind their backs.

None of them had walked out.

At first, Rekiz had thought those might be toilets, but there was another door leading to those. Plus, that wouldn't explain why people were... taking their time inside. Then, he'd thought maybe that was the entrance to a residential district and, even though the possibility made sense, he found it very unlikely.

He remained on his seat, sipping at his orange juice quietly, until the handsome bartender turned his deep yellow gaze to him and gave him an amused smirk.

"Thinking about where that door leads to, yeah?"

Rekiz would have been taken aback by the wolf's question if the fact he'd been thinking about it for the last minutes hadn't been so obvious.

"Uh, yeah! I mean, I see people walking in, but... Hm! It's getting a bit suspicious," he answered with a bashful smile.

The bartender, still wiping an empty tankard, raised an eyebrow.

"Suspicious? Really? I had never thought about it that way."

For a split second, Rekiz wanted to crawl into a hole.

"But yeah, I guess you have a point," the wolf conceded, placing the tankard in a shelve and the piece of cloth on the table. Rekiz relaxed a bit. "I've seen many people go in, but they never go out. It is a bit suspicious."

"So what's on the other side?"

"Huh, beats me." The arctic wolf shrugged. "I admit I've always been a bit curious, but I've never checked it out."

"You're kidding!"

"No, I'm not. I'm just the bartender. I'm supposed to be working here, behind the bar." He walked closer and leaned on his elbows, giving Rekiz an interested look. "I suppose I could ask the owner of the place where that door leads to... but I'm not sure he'd answer. He mostly keeps to himself, you see."

"There wasn't anything on your contract?" Rekiz asked, trying to find a plot hole in the bartender's tale. He couldn't believe someone could be working somewhere without being told where mysterious doors in his establishment led to.

"... I don't think so. Maybe I skipped it. I really wanted the job, so I just signed the contract, you know?" The wolf seemed lost in thought for a few seconds. Then, he turned his yellow gaze to Rekiz again, who shivered. "I mean, you could walk in and tell me. Tell me what's on the other side."

The otter snorted.

"What if it's private property? I may be committing a crime."

"Uh, I don't think so. So many people come in I don't think it's private at all." The arctic wolf scratched his head. "Besides, if you get told off or something, I'll take full responsibility. How does that sound?"

Rekiz thought about it. He was really curious about the door, but the idea of walking in uninvited made him feel uncomfortable.

"My name's Seth, by the way. You can use it to get out of trouble if it comes to that," the arctic wolf said reluctantly.

"What if it's dangerous?"

"Dangerous?" Seth asked, chuckling. "What do you think is there? A pool of acid? A giant boulder? Come on."

The horned otter closed his mouth. The bartender was right. It was very unlikely that anything that could be a potential danger was kept behind that door, in a bar right across an Arts school, in the middle of the city. The worst thing that he could get was a scolding and the wolf had said he'd take the bullet for him, so was it really such a terrible thing to do?

"Look, I'm asking for your help because I really want to know what's there," Seth said, looking at him urgently. "I've been working here for years and no one's ever done me the favor, okay? I'm just really eager to find out. I'll even pay for all your drinks if you tell me what's on the other side. I promise."

"Okay, okay! You don't need to pay any drinks, but I'm just..." Rekiz shook his head. Was he going to say he was nervous?

Why? It was only a door.

He walked to the other side of the room and stood in front of it, thinking about the whole deal one last time. He turned to the bartender, who gave him a thumbs up and a big grin. What a dork, Rekiz thought to himself before placing his hand on the knob and pushing the door open.

When other people had opened the door, the horned otter had seen just shadows. Now that he was closer, Rekiz could see that what he'd thought was black was actually dark blue. Dark blue walls in a long, straight corridor that seemed to go on forever. And the light inside was... strange. He wouldn't have been able to say why, but there was something weird about the lights.

"What is it?" Seth asked from behind the bar. His voice didn't sound as interested as the otter had thought he would be, but he was too focused on his discovery to make that connection.

"A corridor," Rekiz answered, barely loud enough for the wolf to hear.

Now he was the one that was curious. The corridor couldn't be so long - the building hadn't been so wide when he'd seen it from outside. It had to be some kind of optical illusion, like the ones you see in carnivals. Maybe there were mirrors somewhere or a painted wall at the end of the corridor that made it look much longer than it actually was.

He walked in and closed the door at his back. Taking a closer look couldn't hurt.

The first thing he realized was that the strange lights were probably strobes. Rekiz had seen them at work when he'd been at concerts or conventions in the past, but they were generally a bit more aggressive.

Here, the strobes were... subtle. They were blinking at a rate his eye couldn't completely process, creating a disorienting feeling. That was probably part of the illusion, Rekiz thought, extremely proud of being able to see through the ruse.

Now he wanted to know how it all worked. He walked a few steps in, enjoying the subtle tingle in his eyes whenever the lights blinked. The walls were painted dark blue, but from time to time he'd think they were actually some other color. That must have been the lights, and the fact that there were words written all over them.

Rekiz found himself getting to that conclusion without even seeing those words. As it turned out, the lights were expertly designed to keep them hidden. He had no idea where his brain had got that information from, but he had absolutely no doubt it was right. Of course, whenever he tried to check the walls he couldn't read the words, but a part of him knew they were all over the place. The strobes blinked again and he kept walking.

There was also a pleasant buzz in the air. A constant sound, adequately pitched, vibrating and making him feel fuzzy on the inside. This is a very pleasant illusion to look at, Rekiz found himself thinking. He could totally understand why no one had come out until then.

Wait.

The realization made him stop right where he was. Nobody had walked out of that corridor, so how could he be so sure that he wasn't walking right into trouble? The strobes blinked again. The buzz was pleasant.

The tension in Rekiz's shoulders melted almost imperceptibly. Trouble? That was silly. There was no way trouble could be found in that silly fake corridor. The worst thing that could happen to him was hurting his snout when he bumped into the painted wall at the end of the corridor. That was, if he didn't figure out where it was before. Besides, there could be a side door leading all the people who had walked somewhere else, just like a carnival ride. He smiled.

It wasn't a completely straight smile, but he had no eyes to look at himself, so he'd never know.

He walked slowly. He didn't want to hit that wall and the strobes and the buzz and the dark blue walls made the experience pleasant, so he wanted to enjoy it for as long as he could. What did the words in the walls say? Probably nothing, said Rekiz's conscious mind. They must be some kind of edgy, Joker-like decoration.

But he was getting more compliant. Walking slowly towards the end of the corridor. Breathing in, breathing out. His mind was filling with that buzz as his eyes let all those blinking lights in. His shoulders were slumping and his arms were dangling limply at his sides. And there was no correlation between those things happening and the hidden words in the walls, which weren't commands.

The horned otter kept walking. At some point, it became part of him - natural and automatic, like taking deep, slow breaths or leaving his mind on autopilot mode. He was happy. The dopey grin in his face was good proof of that. Rekiz felt in peace with the world. He was right where he was supposed to be and doing exactly what he was supposed to do, which was what he was being told to do, which was what he'd wanted to do in the first place.

At some point, he began to drag his feet with every step. His legs were getting so heavy. His body was tired, but he must keep moving to find the end of the corridor. It spread further and further. Rekiz had a feeling he'd been walking for hours, but he didn't care. His eyelids were beginning to close as the strobe lights hit again and again and again, relentlessly attacking his already dilated pupils.

Everything had become sort of hazy. It was like walking in a dream. He could tell because at some point he met Seth along the way. The bartender placed an arm around his shoulders and whispered a few words into his ears, then helped him get rid of his clothes and handed new garments to him. They looked black and leathery, and there might have been a hood involved, but Rekiz wasn't completely sure. He just did as he was told and put those on.

Then, the arctic wolf patted his back and forced him to keep sleepwalking. Mere seconds later, Rekiz wasn't even sure he hadn't dreamed all that. It couldn't possibly have happened, but the blurry recollection was buried somewhere deep in his brain and flashed from time to time, together with those strobes.

A big, previously functioning part of Rekiz's mind didn't even get to see a single thing beyond that point. The small, pliable part of his mind, however, was completely aware of every single detail about the corridor.

Every single blink of the strobes, numbing his feelings even further.

Every single rise and fall of the binaural buzz in his ears.

Every single word in the walls. Rekiz could see them now, clear as day. Be a good boy. Keep walking. Obey the wolf. Relax. They had been repeating over and over for the last few minutes and he'd been drinking them in. The words felt so right that he was glad someone had painted them there just for him. That way, he could just let his eyes wander all over the corridor and keep absorbing every single command.

Be a good boy. Keep walking. Obey the wolf. Relax.

New commands started to pop at some point. At first, Rekiz's disoriented mind couldn't notice. Then, Be a good boy became Be a good dog. Keep walking became Drop on your knees. Relax seemed to turn into Submit.

Only Obey the wolf remained.

His knees trembled. His body wasn't sure what to do.

A heavy paw dropped on his shoulder and the otter's confused gaze met a pair of deep, yellow eyes.

"What are you doing, boy?" the arctic wolf asked. His voice was low and seductive, the rolling consonants sending shivers down Rekiz's spine as they blended with the deep buzz in his mind. "You're supposed to be on all fours."

A distant part in Rekiz's mind tried to resist.

"Oh, come on. Drop on your knees."

The otter's kneecaps seemed to be made of jelly. His legs trembled.

"Theeeere we go."

Seth gently pushed him to the ground and his legs bent, forcing the otter to a kneeling position. That part of his mind that was about to extinguish let out a distant growl, complaining.

"Now on all fours."

Rekiz tried to?

"On all fours, boy."

The otter whimpered and did as he was told. The position felt right for some reason he wasn't currently able to understand. Obey the wolf. Submit. Be a good dog.

Once he was lying on all fours, Seth crouched in front of Rekiz. There was a wide, pointy grin on his face and the otter could tell he was very proud or happy about something. One of his strong paws moved the otter's chin and scratched it tenderly, prompting him to let out a pleased, helpless growl.

Were they in the corridor anymore? He wasn't too sure about that. The arctic wolf pushed him away from those thoughts with two questions that pierced through the swirls in his mind.

"Isn't that much better? Doesn't that feel good?"

"Hmmrrrr... I..."

"Ah, ah, ah! Good pups don't use words."

Rekiz struggled to think what that meant, but only because he had no words to think it with. Obey the wolf. Submit. Be a good dog.

"Hmrrrrr... Awoof?"

"Thaaaat's a good boy," Seth praised him, chuckling softly. "I have a feeling you're gonna fit right in..."