FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

!!!CONTENT WARNING!!!

Please be forewarned; this chapter contains an uncomfortable rape scene.

***

Today had started like any other. Echo had gone to bed as the sun came up, and roughly about the time it'd set, she'd gotten up for work, just as she'd done the day before and the day before that. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the high rise until she realized her boss hadn't texted her the schedule for the day.

Given her line of work, Echo was used to finding out what her schedule entailed right before it began each day; however, it was unusual for her employer to forget something like this. Quickly deciding to take a jaunt up a couple flights of stairs for some early morning exercise, she reached her employer's apartments. Upon knocking, Echo was promptly greeted by a tired-looking servant - tired-looking, and with a nasty black eye. Not an unusual sight found among the servants found here, unfortunately. He quickly apologized before starting to explain that his mistress had stepped out to deal with an issue and would hopefully be back shortly.

In the back of her mind, she had very little doubt that this mussed, oddly-colored feline had once been clean cut and of decently high standing - exactly the type she knew her boss preferred - but as he invited her in to wait, the Ragdoll simply shook her head, "Thank you, but if you'll simply point me in her direction..."

It wasn't odd for the woman to be in the salon. This was especially true given how often she liked to change the color of her somehow still miraculously healthy fur, but aside from a petty "fashion emergency", what on earth would have her there before work had even begun for the day? With any luck, Echo hoped that a short elevator ride down to the first floor would give her a reasonably satisfying answer.

A few minutes passed before the doors opened smoothly with a soft ping, and once she could see out, Echo quickly recognized Buff - a Maine Coon whose name doubled as a descriptor - walking down the hallway toward her. One of the high rise's best bouncers, he seemed too busy wiping the back of his hand against his cheek to notice her at first, but as his deep, blue eyes scanned upwards, recognition dawned on his face and he moved his hand to wave. With his face now unobscured, Echo realized he'd been nursing a small cut. Concern flooding her thoughts, she stepped out of the elevator and towards the imposing figure of her friend, a hand instinctively stretched out towards his face already, "It's unlike you to get into fights this early in the evening. Are you alright?"

Buff chuckled, swiftly inserting both hands into his oversized pants' pockets, "I'm fine," he stated, casually drawing out the final word before adding a shrug, "Just some new guy causin' issues for Boss Lady, nothin' more."

'New guy'? "Not another new pet...?" Echo sighed with a shake of her head, "She really doesn't need any more..." Her thoughts briefly returned to the mistreated servant she'd just encountered upstairs.

Again, Buff shrugged, "Ya know how she is; she gets bored easily."

He was right, and she hated it. Choosing not to linger on the subject, the cream-colored Ragdoll only nodded before pressing on, "I take it, then, that she's in the salon with her new acquisition?"

The lanky Maine coon snickered as he crossed both arms over his chest, "Oh yeah, and hell only knows what she's gonna do now, but I wasn't gonna stick around an' watch..."

"Understandable..." Their boss was not known for gentleness or patience - especially not towards newcomers. With yet another sigh, Echo offered the best smile she could muster under the circumstances and stepped to the side to allow Buff to pass, "Well, I'm headed that way, unfortunately... You have a good day, Buffy - don't get into any more fights, alright?"

Removing a hand from his pocket, the light-tan cat gave her a short wave before walking on past her and into the elevator, "You too, Bright Eyes. Good luck..."

His half-hearted vote of confidence did very little to help her in any way; regardless, she waved back as the elevator doors closed, and suddenly Echo found herself very alone in the hallway. Instinctively, her long, cream and tan tail curled against her lower leg, but she quickly shook it all off. This was nothing she hadn't seen before - and very likely something she would see more than once again.

With renewed confidence, Echo started down the hall, steeling her nerves further as she made her way towards the entrance of the salon. At first, she thought something was humming, but as she got closer, she realized someone was growling. The irritated, feminine voice that roared over it indicated that it was not her boss - not yet, at least. "Shut the fuck up, you little bitch, before I teach you some manners!"

Inhaling and exhaling one last time, Echo forced herself into the large parlor, simultaneously trying to prepare herself for anything and to relax. Rigidly, her icy-blue eyes scanned for the brightest-colored thing in the room, and promptly found her boss sitting on a white, faux fur-covered vanity stool next to what looked like hell's gynecologist's chair. Echo happened to know that most of the chairs in the salon were normal, bearing no restraints of any kind, but that one had been installed specifically for _certain situations_like this one. It was a painfully conscious effort for Echo not to look at the chair itself, or the reflection in the mirror in front of it. She didn't want to see the newest victim.

Before she'd even had the chance to clear her throat her boss seemed to notice her presence, "Ah, Echo; just the person I wanted to see! Come in; come here! I want your opinion..."

The way the woman's voice trailed off made the fur on Echo's neck stand on end, but she obeyed her employer's instructions, nevertheless, offering in response what she hoped sounded like a pleasant, "Good morning, Neon."

With entirely too much enthusiasm, the rainbow-colored feline practically jumped up from her stool and moved to position her taller employee where she had no choice but to look at her new toy. "Good morning!" she returned hastily, "I was just getting ready to start, and I thought _maybe_I could bounce some ideas off you?" Neon's tone indicated that this wasn't a request, and that this situation was about to become infinitely more horrible than Echo had hoped it would.

"Certainly." Anything to make this go faster so that she could get her schedule and leave.

Something about the way her employer smiled indicated that she knew all too well just how uncomfortable her employee was, and the look in her eyes conveyed that it made her even more excited to continue. "Well, you see, I'm struggling to decide just how I should decorate this little cutie." The woman swiftly gestured to the person in the chair, and unable to stop herself, Echo accidentally looked, if only for a split-second, and then had to do a quick double take.

'Little cutie', indeed; the tip of this one's head barely reached the top of the chair's back. Without properly looking - she still refused to do that - Echo thought it was a child, and the concern on her face must have given her suspicions away. "He's legal, Echo, don't worry. A runt, and barely able to sip heavy cream, but still perfectly legal." The growling became momentarily louder, but Neon ignored it, pulling a pocketknife from between her generous breasts and flicking it open with a practiced motion. The restraints rattled for a moment as he struggled, and then died down. "Seems he's quite a little spitfire, huh? Let's see what we're working with, shall we?"

Without waiting for her unwilling assistant's answer, the shorter woman slipped her knife under the first closed button of her plaything's white, popped collar shirt, and began slicing it open slowly, one button at a time, until his fluffy, white stomach showed through. Focused on slow, steady breaths, Echo stared at the floor as her boss shredded what was left of his shirt and tossed it into the garbage bin she'd pulled to her side. A sultry chuckle emanated from Neon's throat as she moved on to his next article of clothing amid garbled protest from the boy. It was a small mercy that years of working for this woman had made her a master of pretending to see without seeing.

It felt like a hundred years crawled past as the slow peeling and growling went on in the distant background. It almost came as a surprise when, at long last, the sound of her boss clicking her tongue indicated that she had finished. "Ugh! He's just so tiny."

"Then why keep him?" She hadn't intended for her voice to sound so pleading, but he clearly wasn't her type, and this game her employer liked to play was simply no fun to Echo.

Neon sighed irritably, "I have no choice with this one. I was paid a good chunk of change to keep him quiet and out of the way." She momentarily brightened when his shackles started clanking again. "So, I figure I just have to make the best of it." Making a show of it, she turned away from him and began admiring her long, manicured nails, "I figure I'll bleach and dye his fur just like the rest of my pets, and then maybe I'll buzz him. After all, he doesn't need all that extra fluff; it'll just make him look filthy after every use."

He started to hiss and was promptly silenced, the sound replaced with gagging as Neon shoved a pair of fingers past the o-ring forcing his mouth open. "I'm sorry, does that not please you? _ Good ." The awful choking noises continued as she berated him further, "You're _my plaything now, so you'll do what I want you to, when I want you to, _ how _ I want you to. _ Your _ discomfort doesn't matter to me. Understand?" There was an uncomfortable pause before Neon finally removed her digits, wiping his saliva on his exposed chest before sitting down on her stool once more.

This was exactly what Echo had expected. She knew her employer liked to thoroughly break people, and this boy would be no different. Adding gasoline to the flame, his temper would only serve to fuel Neon's sadistic tendencies. Thinking about it made her nauseous. Maybe now would be a good time to ask for her schedule and excuse herself. "Neon, as I'm already running late, I wonder if you might be obliged to-"

"See just how big his tiny dick can get? Only for you, Echo." Well, so much for that. It had been a good attempt, but somehow Echo knew it wouldn't be that simple. In all honesty, she wanted to apologize to the boy; she truly wanted no part in his torture, and it was obvious that this had not been a willing decision - not that they typically were, at least not for long - but showing him any form of tenderness or mercy now would only give him hope. Neon did not take care of her toys, she only broke and discarded them.

Her employer made another grandiose demonstration out of putting a pair of latex gloves on, and without warning, the rainbow-colored cat thrust her fingers back into the boy's mouth, forcing him to service the digits as she slowly moved them in and out. Once again, he gagged - loudly - but his new mistress paid his discomfort no mind, "Such a good little slut," she purred, "make sure you get those fingers good and coated, and maybe you might enjoy this!" Doubtful, Neon never let a toy enjoy anything, let alone something _she_gained pleasure from. In fact, psychological games were just as important if not even more so it seemed. He coughed profusely as she finally pulled her hand back and lowered it to his naked, presented rear. "Alright, let's pop this tight, little cherry!"

Roughly, she circled his anus a few times with a lubricated finger, making sure he knew exactly what was about to happen, waiting for him to struggle against her in horror before plunging a single digit into his tight, likely virginal hole. If his brief, distorted pleading had made her nauseous, his garbled cry of pure pain a moment later made Echo want to vomit. "Aww, crying already? Guess you really are just a baby, after all."

"Neon, please..." Although her eyes were currently closed in a closely moderated attempt to keep what was left of her breakfast and composure, Echo could almost hear her boss rolling her eyes.

"Oh, for fuck's sake - fine! Let me find his fucking prostate, then." The angry, strangled sobs and rattling metal indicated his lack of pleasure, but a sudden, loud gasp meant that Neon had quickly found what she had been looking for, and she set to work abusing that, too. "C'mon, get it up, already!" she hissed.

Echo felt overwhelmingly filthy for just standing there. She hopelessly wished that there was something she could do, but her hands were well and truly tied; Neon owned this boy, that was the absolute long and short of it. "Well, that's about as "big" as I expect this little fucker to get." Without thinking, the Ragdoll turned her head to see.

Even with Neon's free hand coiled tightly around the base of his pale, flesh-tone shaft in what she was sure must be the most painful grip possible, the boy still tried to buck his hips beneath her. Pointless; she'd never allow him to cum. "He's proportionate," Echo offered gently. In truth, she wouldn't have considered his length irregular. Granted, it was certainly not something to write horror novels or porn shoots around, but at the same time, he wasn't too small or thin.

"Ha!" her boss cackled, "You're too kind, Echo." She pulled her hand away, leaving his shaft swollen and throbbing; it even twitched for a second as she swiftly removed her finger from his ass. Instantly, the boy began to growl again, and just as quickly Echo wished he hadn't. The wicked grin that tugged at the corners of Neon's muzzle made her shiver. "I hope your last load was a good one; your poor, little cock just isn't going to do that sort of thing anymore. Maybe I'll wax all of your fur off and cover you from ear-tip to toe in rubber so that I don't have to look at it, or your face anymore; you'll just be a drone to pleasure my guests, kept in a closet when not in use. Or _ maybe _ I'll just have it removed altogether. I don't want it, so you're not going to need it." Complete silence. "Hm. So, you _can_be taught. I just have to speak the right language, it seems. Well then, good boy." Her voice was flat, and praise obviously insincere, but at long last she turned to Echo, "You're clear today; just head on up to the bar and do your thing."

With a quick bob of her head, the Ragdoll excused herself, "Thank you, Neon..."

It came as little surprise that the air outside of the salon seemed like the coolest, sweetest air she had ever breathed, but her heart still felt heavy. She hadn't even looked at his face, and without a doubt Echo knew that had been the right decision, but at the same time... No one deserved the kind of torture Neon liked to inflict. Whatever the case, she slowly pulled in another breath, and then released it along with any other thought about the cat in the chair. Now she had a job to do.

The bar was exceptionally crowded even for a Friday night, but a quick glance to the corner where she saw Buff keeping a close eye on the patrons gave her a sense of safety as she made her way towards the decent-sized stage.

The band began playing a random tune; judging from the sound of it, they had just finished their warmup, and were ready for her to take the mic - assuming she was free to do so. On nights where she was scheduled to be elsewhere, they simply played background music, or for a small fee, had an open mic night. Fortunately, tonight Echo was right where she wanted to be - center spotlight with said mic in her hand. For a moment, she hummed along to the familiar melody before the band transitioned into a jazzy number she knew by heart, and she began to sing.

_You had me at hello, that's all you had to say

I couldn't tell you why, it just ended up that way

Just one look, and I was through

Nothin' mama said could've ever prepared me for you

Daddy says you better treat me right

But he don't know how good you are when we turn out the light

Please don't ever stop lovin' me the way you do

Please don't ever leave me blue_

Of course, the crowd was either too inebriated or engrossed in their own conversations to hear her, but as usual, there was a loud hoot from Buff, who somehow always managed a loud cheer just for her. With the band already starting into the next song, her unease melted the more her vocal chords warmed up, and soon enough she began to feel right at home in the familiar ambient noise.

The hours passed quickly, as they often did when Echo was performing. Before she knew it, she'd taken a brief break in the middle of her set, and just like that, it was now nearly two in the morning. The last of the patrons were quickly being escorted outside, and though the band had stopped playing nearly thirty minutes ago, her head still swam with music as she sat on the side of the stage.

Still coming down from the high, Echo didn't even notice Buff approaching until he called out to her. "That was a great show, as always, Bright Eyes!" Beneath her fur, she could feel a brief heat rise to her cheeks due to the personal compliment. For a Ragdoll, it was natural to have bright, blue eyes, but he'd always told her they shone the brightest when she was on stage and having a good night. Ever since, it'd been an inside joke of sorts.

"Thank you, Buffy," she sighed airily before taking a sip of her bottled water.

In response, the tall, tan cat smiled his usual crooked smile, "I'm just glad that encounter with Boss Lady earlier didn't ruin your mood. Ya were in there a lot longer 'n I thought ya'd be."

Just like that, it all came crashing down. Echo remembered everything, from the threats Neon had made to the sound of the boy's strangled, helpless cries. The rest of the night had gone so well after all of that. Why did he have to mention it again? Instinctively, her long, fluffy tail curled around her lower legs. "Yeah, I guess I was..."

The sudden tilt of his head and slight flattening of his ears added to her guilt, but before she could tell him not to worry, he had already started in, "I'm sorry Echo... I didn't realize, and I should have..."

The Ragdoll shook her head, "It's not your fault-"

"I know it's not my fault, but we all know what Neon does t' her new toys, and with you bein' gone as long as ya were, I should'a known better." He sighed roughly, "Are you okay?"

There was no point in lying - not to Buff. He wasn't always the sharpest, but what he lacked in tactfulness, he more than made up for with empathy. Echo smiled, "It's alright, Buffy, really. I just wish there was something I could do. I don't know why - maybe it was because he was so small - but something about him being in that situation felt even worse than it usually does..."

"He was pretty fuckin' tiny...and I recognized th' goons that brought him in, too." After taking a moment to make sure no one else in the rapidly clearing room was listening, Buff leaned in, "They're in with one of the _big_mafia families in Tomston..." For a moment, Echo thought she'd misheard him. Everyone knew the mafia was in the city, and it certainly wasn't unheard of for them to...dispose of people they deemed "in their way", but that kid...?

"Buff, he was so small. Are you sure? What could he have possibly done to get on their bad side?"

"I'm sure, Echo. My Ferals have tangled with them almost as much as the Alley Cats and Strays." He was, of course, referring to the gang that he was a part of and their rivals - none of which she pretended to understand despite how highly he spoke of it. "An' I wouldn't count him out so easily," lifting a hand he pointed to the mark on his cheek that had scabbed over, "After all, he did swing at me hard enough to draw blood, and if I'm honest...that wasn't the only blow he landed. He's a scrapper for sure."

A hand found its way to her hip, "I thought you were getting out of the gang, Buff..."

Reflexively, the taller feline brought a hand up to scratch one of his ears, "I'm workin' on it, Bright Eyes, I'm workin' on it! Ya know it ain't that simple!" That much she had been able to discern from previous conversations on the topic.

"Right." With a sigh, she tossed one last stern look his way before laying that issue aside. Echo moved the hand on her hip to her lap, where she focused on needlessly smoothing a few wrinkles in her dark capris, all the while shaking her head, "Something about this just doesn't feel right..."

The taller feline shrugged, "I dunno why this kid's makin' more of an impact on ya than the others, but I've always known ya to do the right thing, Echo."

Lifting her bright blue eyes at his statement, she unexpectedly made eye contact with her coworker. The way his cool-blue hues stared into hers made it seem like he was looking for something, but before she could ask what, he'd apparently found whatever it was and nodded. Straightening with a satisfied grunt, he starting to turn, "Whatever the case," he began, before a yawn interrupted him halfway through, "It's late, I'm tired, and I got an early mornin' tomorrow." After a brief stretch, he leisurely placed both arms behind his head, and started for the door, "Catch ya later, Echo - take care of yourself."

What had that been about? Unfortunately, Echo had very little time to ponder over it, as the other employees were getting ready to lock up. Slipping gracefully off the stage - _her_stage - the Ragdoll quickly exited, not wanting to hold anyone up. Standing in the hallway, with Buff now gone and the high of the evening finally out of her system, she felt alone and even more unsettled - but why? Was it the boy's small stature, or his odd indoctrination? Or was it, perhaps, that she'd just been a little too close to Neon's workings, earlier? Whatever the case, now that there was nothing else to occupy her thoughts, the boy - whoever he was - just wouldn't leave her head.