Reaper - The First Death
_I've been working on this all day. A little introduction to some of the characters that are in the "Reaper" series that I'm working on. I've decided that the human version is gonna be kept for me. For now a Furry variation is being made. This is the introduction to that. I hope people like this~ Comment, rate, favourite and lemme know what you all think. Peace out!
© All characters and storylines involving said characters belong to me: Eben Black._
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It was nicknamed Heaven, but the unnamed orphanage was anything but heavenly. I'd been sent there at the tender age of twelve following the death of my mother and the disappearance of my father. The social services were a little concerned because of my attitude and behaviour around other children. I wasn't a bad kid, its just I seemed to attract the wrong crowd and as a result ended up in a lot of fights, fights that ended far too bloody for a kid aged twelve to be in. I always figured I was different, but never would've anticipated it would earn me a place in the middle of the Nevada wastelands in some God-forsaken orphanage where the slightest disturbance to the routine had dire consequences. I'd been there for five years when that man turned up on the doorstep of the sanctioned orphanage. I remember seeing him for the first time while out in the yard. He was walking with the warden, and several careworkers who had been "looking after the children". It was summer and the heat was monstrous, it made more sense to keep the kids indoors, to save them from sunstroke, but these kids were here because they deserved to be punished, or at least that's what the warden and her staff believed.
From what the rumours around the sunbaked yard told me, the man's named was Xander Hanes. He was a businessman of some sort who'd been visiting this place for about a month, once a week to hold meetings with the loving warden. It was rumoured that he was looking to adopt. A possible future heir to his well-run businesses. The child that was adopted by this man would be set for life. Problem is, when your seventeen, you don't get considered for adoption. I had around nine months before I was allowed to move out of this prison and live my own life, not that I knew what I was about to do. Heaven had been my world now for the better part of my life and I had no idea if I would be able to live in the real world alone. I figured I was mature enough, and had learned a long time ago how to read and write. But what kind of job could I get with those qualifications? Not one in this economy. Then again, I didn't know if I wanted to leave. Believe it or not but there was some happiness with me behind these towering mesh fences with their barbed-wire and locked doors.
His name was Micah and he was one year younger than me, and someone I'd come to love and adore more than anyone else. To see us both you wouldn't have pegged us for homosexual lovers. I was a tiger and he a doberman. I stood at around five-foot-nine to his five-seven. The pair of us were broad through the shoulders but slender at the waist. We both used the weights on offer in the yard from time to time and even jogged together in the cooler months. It seemed to kill the boredom more often than not. The two of us were dressed in the usual Heaven attire, dark blue jumpsuits that we'd both stripped out of up top to let our chest and stomachs breathe a little. I donned a vest while Micah had a black fitted tee. We donned black running shoes and belts around the waist. Micah also wore a small, silver Star of David around his neck. He had lost his faith a long time ago but seemed to keep wearing the trinket for one reason or another. That afternoon when that man visited the pair of us were together in the yard in a shaded corner, hiding from the immense heat that the Nevada sun bore down on us. I watched him, while I sat, slumped against the cool wall of the building. Micah sat beside me, he was a good three inches from me, but in the shade of that building his hand lay across mine, sometimes rubbing over my knuckles and sometimes taking my hand and holding it tight. It varied, depending on his mood.
I raised my other hand and shielded my green-and-yellow eyes from the glare of the sun while I looked across the barren yard and watched them. The warden walked ahead of him, while she talked loud and proud of Heaven. He stood at around six-foot-one and was all slender and sleak. The panther had long whiskers that flared on either side of his maw in sleak lines, while his yellow eyes watched over the top of slender, black shades. He'd donned a pair of trouser pants done in black and grey pinstripe, black polished shoes and a leather belt. His suit jacket was strung over one folded arm, while he wore a button-up white shirt and had the top undone and flared around his toned, black chest fur. He nodded along in agreement to whatever the warden was talking about and glanced across the yard. He looked some of the inhabitants up and down, one or two glaring back in response.
For an orphanage, this was one of the friendliest places, but that was in comparison to other orphanages, and even prisons. So technically, not so friendly. Ah well.
I still remember the feeling I had when I clocked the panther and his small entourage in the warden and careworkers. There was a strange, ominous presence about him that just unsettled me. It wasn't so much a hatred, but more a familiarity that shook me from the core. Had I seen him somewhere before? Not as far as I could remember, but it was still an eerie sensation. I shuddered and looked away from them as they headed indoors. He'd been coming here for four weeks now, and I'd never seen him until now. What did he want with the children here? I wanted to know, but was I willing to push for the answer I seeked? I shuddered again and this time Micah squeezed my hand. He'd been slumped against the wall beside me, one knee drawn up to his chest and his head resting there. He watched me with those pale, brown eyes, a slither of caution there as he asked, "What's up?" I shook my head and replied, "Nothing. I'm fine. Just having odd thoughts." "Odd thoughts?" he repeated. "Yeah. Nothing to get worked up over," I grinned back. "Who's getting worked up?" he shrugged as he turned his face away from mine. I bumped his shoulder with mine and grinned as I said, "You do get worked up over me, one way or another." He shrugged and mumbled, "If you say so." I watched him with a quiet content and realised how much I loved having Micah around. He was an amazing lover and a close friend I'd never want to lose. It made me wonder what would happen when I was released in months to come. Would I want to leave? If I answered honestly I'd say no. I loved him and didn't want to lose a year's worth of time with him. Then again, if I could smuggle him out I'd happily take him with me in nine months. I laughed. A comical mental image of me packing him up in a suitcase filled my mind. "Something's amusing the Hell out of you," he murmured as he rolled his head again and looked back up at me, still leaning on that raised knee. "Mental image," I explained as I looked back at him with my own multi-colored eyes. "Is it a rude one?" he asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. I raised an eyebrow back and added, "A rude mental image that makes me laugh?" He thought about it for a moment and then said, "Fair point. I don't wanna know." "Oh yeah, I forgot. Its your birthday tomorrow, right?" I asked, changing topic. "You forgot?" "Well, I say forgot. More like, lost track of the date." "That's the same thing." "True, true," I grinned back. I added, "So what do you want for the big b-day celebrations?" He thought about that for a moment and then laced his fingers with mine. "I have what I want already," he murmured before a trickle of blush showed through the trimmed black fur over his muzzle. I couldn't help but smile down at him and then feel a blush of my own flare to life.
Like I said, I loved him and hated the thought of losing him.
~~~~~
The day toiled and passed without much event. Micah and I shared a wing in the orphanage but not a cell. I had a roommate, but he was in confinement at that moment. A bear named Tyson who'd been institutionalised with me. He had been twelve too and it made sense to keep two newbies together. I liked Tyson as a close friend and we'd watched out for one another while being here. Problem is, Tyson and I tended to attract unwanted attention. I let my anger wash over me now for Micah's sake, while Tyson had no lover and allowed his anger to flare whenever he was pissed at someone. He spent more time in confinement than in his cell these days. Not that it bothered me. I liked having a cell to myself for the time being at least. Darkness ebbed through the barred box window in the right-hand corner of the cell and soon I was disturbed by the sound of a metal truncheon slamming hard against that open door. It was a careworker named Randal. Not the friendliest careworker here at Heaven, but he was a stickler for rules, and funnily enough I respected that about him. Don't fuck with a careworker, and they don't fuck back. It was an unspoken rule here. The broad-shouldered, muscular hyena, with his dark brown eyes and trimmed, shagged brown and red fur glared around the cell once. "Sasha," his voice boomed unnecessarily. I lowered my copy of "Angels and Demons" and replied, "Is there a problem, careworker Randal?" "Shower time. Get your things and move your ass," he growled. "Fair enough." I folded the corner of my page, and closed the book, resting it on the bedspread while I hopped down from the top bunk and landed with a dull thud. I grabbed a towel I'd draped over the bedside table and paced after Randal as he lead me and a couple of other inmates to the shower block.
The shower block rotated so that you showered on alternate days. One night, a warm shower, the next night nothing, then the following night a warm shower. It was to save on water bills according to the warden when she started the rotation system. Not that it bothered me much. In mere minutes Randal closed the door behind us and let us have the freedom to shower alone at least. He'd made us all strip and checked for concealed items and such, but it soon revealed we were all unarmed and had nothing but the towels and our modesties about us. I padded barefoot and nude across the cold, tiled floors on that square room. There were sinks lining one wall with mirrors over the basins, and even a couple of toilet cubicles. The rest of the room was designated showering zones, five-foot-high walls sectioned each shower off and offered a miniscule amount of privacy from the other inmates, not that it even bothered us. The routine for showers involved stripping us before we were allowed inside, so the partitions made no sense to me.
I headed for the shower at the back and stepped under the showerhead. Towel draped over the wall and out of range of the water, while I turned the tap and hissed as cold water flooded me. It soon warmed up and in no time I'd started to move under the hot water. Each cubicle had a shampoo-dispenser mounted on the inside of the partitions, and a bar of soap to boot. My, how the prison system spoiled us. I took the soap, and rolled it in my hands, with my head still under the rush of water. I let the soap fall and then started rubbing my hands over my chest and stomach, the soap lathered like shampoo and soon I was covered in soap suds all over. I washed thoroughly and then a moment later stepped right under the showerhead and let out a deep, internal moan as the warmth washed over me and spilled the soap suds down the drain. I basked in that warmth for a moment, letting thoughts of this place ebb away like the tide. I hated it here, but soon thoughts of Micah filled my mind. I blushed again and felt a stirring down below. I shook the mental images of him in the shower with me, and focused on the next task. Last thing I needed was to get a hard-on in a public shower.
I pushed the lever on the shampoo-dispenser and felt the cool, green ooze pool in my open palm beneath the machine. I rubbed the ooze between my hands like the soap and in moments had smeared it and caressed it through my head fur, chest fur and even along the length of my tail. For a tiger, my tail was one of the longest I'd ever seen. The fur along my body was a deep, charcoal grey colour while the stripes were jet-black. I was unique, according to the warden's first encounter with me. I lowered my head and let the warm water wash over me again, swilling the shampoo suds from me. I sighed and basked for those couple of seconds. Having a warm shower in here was like winning the lottery. I suppose, that's what happens when most of the usual commodities that we take for granted are taken away from you.
I'd had enough. I turned the shower off and wrapped the towel around my waist. I stepped out from the small partitioned shower cubicle and stopped dead. The door opened and another small, cluster of inmates were brought in. They were three of them and none of them ideal people to have in a locked room with me. As I'd said earlier, I didn't get along with others as well as I got on with Micah or Tyson. Especially the cobra standing in front of me. He was tall, broad-shouldered and looked pissed off when he clocked me. Dark green and pale brown scales lined his body, while his hood remained sheathed. Piercing yellow eyes glared at me across the tiled room, with muscles on his arms and chest tensed. He balled his fists and squeezed the towel he held in one hand. His lower body consisted of a thick, long tail that coiled beneath him and kept him balanced. His name was Faust. He and I had had to be separated once or twice and as a result I'd been locked up in confinement once or twice. Faust had a love of bullying people smaller than him, and I had a thing about not being taken for a dickhead. It resulted in our clash.
He wasn't alone tonight. At his right was a rhino named Danz, big, broad and muscular, and a little small in the downstairs department. I tried not to mention it as he was one beast I had no intention of facing off against. At Faust's other flank was a bull named Jase. He was as big and broad-shouldered and muscular as Danz, but he seemed to be more impressive than his rhino counterpart was down below. "I had no idea the rotation blended our two wings together, nowadays," Faust hissed from across the tiled floor. "Me neither. Must be more cutbacks from the warden." "If I'd known I'd have refused a shower just in case I saw your fucked up face," he spat back. He was baiting me. I'd learned long ago not to make the first move where bullies were concerned. I simply shrugged and padded across the tiles. I wanted out of here now. I had almost passed the cobra when his hood flared open and his hands wrapped around my exposed bicep. I glared at him from inches away and growled, "Let me go before you get hurt." "Before I get hurt? Your the one acting like your better than me," he sneered back. "I don't have to act better than you, Faust. I just am," I shrugged his hand from me and took another step. "Still fucking that pup of yours?" the cobra taunted. "None of your business." "He's a fucking faggot?" Danz growled suddenly. "Oh? You didn't know?" Faust hissed back with a casual shrug, "Our feline friend here's been fucking some dog from the same wing as him." "You wouldn't think he was a cock-muncher," Jase grinned from beside the cobra. "I heard that you definitely know how to make that pooch howl," Faust grinned. He added, "Is there a special trick to doing that, or can anyone make that bitch howl?" I considered Faust for a moment, wondering why he'd ask me something like that. Faust smirked and added, "I mean, sooner or later we'll probably meet up with him in here and who knows, he might want to entertain me and the boys here." He placed a hand on a shoulder of each henchmen. Anger flooded me as I shook where I stood. "Don't ever go near Micah." "Micah? So that's the little bitches name?" Danz grunted back. "I mean it, Faust! Don't ever go near him, you hear me? He is off limits where your concerned," I growled. Faust raised his hands as if to surrender and replied, "Fine. I understand, but you do realise I hate rules and regulations? I just can't help but...break them!"
Several things happened at once. I don't remember doing it, but I somehow cleared the tiled floors, wrapped a hand around the serpent's throat and in one leap cleared the floor and slammed him back against the tiled wall of the room. The tiles shook and the ones that the cobra hit splintered from the pressure. I pinned him as he hissed and flailed. His henchmen were still gobsmacked at what had happened. Deep, loud growls escaped me as I suspended the snake with one hand. Anger and fire burned through me. I wanted this serpent dead. He'd endangered the one thing that meant anything to me in Heaven. I squeezed that little more as the cobra gasped for air. There was a sudden movement behind me that forced me to release the snake and duck. The rhino's clenched fist sailed overhead and slammed into the tiles beside the snake's head. I crouched and then without thinking, backflipped across the tiled floor, landing crouched, one hand to the tiled floor for balance. How had I done that? I'd always known I was a little stronger than most, but I'd never been flexible like this before. I could feel something else beside me as the bull swung an arm round and caught me in the groove of his elbow. I'd raised my arms and blocked, but the momentum sent me flying backwards.
I flipped back, hands touched the tiled floors, while I landed with my bare feet against the tiled wall, I was horizontal against the wall and crouched as I launched myself at the bull. I sailed in midair, wrapped my hands around long, black horns and flipped overhead. I pulled down as I touched my feet to the floor. In one full swing, I launched the bull overhead and into the rhino. The two slammed into their serpent leader and all three slumped to the tiles. I'd let the anger wash over me and soon I was shaking. I staggered backward, looking at what I'd done in a matter of moments. I collapsed to my knees, hands shaking furiously. I heard the door open as deep breaths escaped me. I listened as hurried footsteps piled into the shower cubicles and suddenly I was slammed to the tiles and pinned. I submitted without hesitation, while still making an effort to look up at the pile of muscular, battered beasts I'd took down.
Man, was I in serious trouble.
~~~~~
An hour later and the warden had decided I should be sent back to my cell. It seemed she was still in the middle of visitations and her ruling would be assured tonight when she reviewed the tapes. I sat on the bottom bunk of the cell's bed while I stared down at my hands. The shaking had slowed but it was still there like a fine tremble. I took several deep breaths to calm myself, but nothing had worked and the tremble was still there unfortunately. I heard hurried footsteps and a moment later Micah clattered into the cell. He was panting heavily as if he'd been running. He took a couple of deep breaths and then stammered, "I heard you got into a brawl with Faust and his boys?" "It wasn't so much a brawl, to be honest," I replied in a choked breath. I was in shock. It had been like my body had moved on its own during the confrontation. "What happened?" he stepped into the cell and closed the door behind him. I looked up at him and remembered why I'd launched for them. Micah had been threatened. I stood up and reached for him. He came to me without hesitation and soon I held him close and embraced that warmth. I touched a hand to his head fur as he rested his face against my shoulder. I could feel his heart beating franctically like he'd run a marathon. I ran my fingers through his head fur and a deep growl escaped me as the trembling slowed and in those few precious moments stopped altogether. Love can do that to you. You can be in the middle of a panic attack, and one touch, one smile can slow all aggitations and calm the soul of the wildest beast. I pulled back so I could still hold him but look into those pale brown orbs. I whispered, "I love you." He never replied, just looked back up at me and then closed that small distance between us. His lips touched mine. A brush of warmth between us. I reached down while we kissed and my hands slipped down beneath his waist-band and across the mounds of his tight butt. He moaned into the embrace as I squeezed and carressed those furred mounds. There was a demand there in my touch that screamed my need and desire for this doberman. He was as dominant as I was, but for now I wanted him to submit. I wanted him to be mine and mine alone.
I released him momentarily and yanked my vest up, revealing the toned muscle definition beneath my black-and-grey striped fur. I watched as he ran hands over my chest while I lowered my maw to his muzzle and kissed him as deep and hard as I could. A whimper escaped him as I ran one hand back across his ass, and another up under that fitted black tee. I ran that hand over the mound of his right pectoral before squeezed the muscle there. I broke the kiss and watched him raise that shirt up, he was blinded for a moment, and in that second I took my chance. I reached up and held his wrists where they crossed over. The material of the shirt had passed his muzzle but was as tight around his eyes as it could be without harming him. He was blindfolded and I liked it. I kissed him again on the lips, tasting him before running my flat tongue across his neck and lower still. I circled that flesh around his hard nipple while the hand over his ass now slipped between those mounds, and with one slide of my finger I made him shudder. He was tight, so fucking tight and warm down there. He shuddered in my hands as I backed him up.
He touched his back to the door and a second later it slammed shut behind him. I turned him one-handed so that his chest was pressed to the cool metal of the door. I pinned those wrists and the balled up material against the frame while I pushed down his waistband and exposed those beautiful, tight buttocks. He moaned as I pressed my own heat against his rump. Still secluded in the folds of the jumpsuit, I moved my hips and felt my member rub against the curved flesh of his backside. I slipped my free hand around his side, feeling him tingle, as I stroked and caressed the fur along his naval and then lower. I took him in my hand. His member thick and hard and oh so warm.
That one squeeze of his member drove him to whimper with pleasure while my own humping of his backside made me growl deep in my chest. I released him, not being able to contain myself much longer as I stepped back and tore at the jumpsuit. I spilled out of the material and padded back up to the doberman, naked and hard. Micah had released his eyes from the material, but still had it coiled around his wrists while he let his own jumpsuit gather round his thighs. He leaned his forearms against the cool, metal door while I used my hands to spread that delicious looking backside. I could feel my tongue loll from my open maw as I pressed my hard member to that tight opening.
I pressed forward and heard that doberman whimper for me in both pleasure and pain as it shuddered up and down his spine and mine. I could feel him stretch around me and soon that first gate opened and accepted me. It held me and seemed to suckle on me like a welcoming muzzle. I shuddered as I pushed the next few inches deeper, stopping to let Micah grow accustomed to the new appendage that was stretching and invading him. I soon found I was sheathed inside his rump, secure and warm. He growled, a deep sound that Micah hardly never made unless he was in this predicament. I spooned him from behind, even in this position, it was like our bodies were meant to fit together. I trailed hands along his hips, along the black-and-orange fur, and squeezed him where I touched him. He shuddered and moaned his pleasure as I proceeded to drag my member from inside him.
His inner walls seemed to tighten around me, as if to say "Don't leave us, please don't go". I pulled and then when I was about halfway out, pushed in again, stretching him again, and again. I repeated the process, each thrust was a little harder, a little faster, a little deeper. I soon found a pleasant speed and was pounding into the pup beneath me as he whimpered and whined and moaned his pleasure at being mine for this very moment. I released his hips and touched my hands to the metal door over him as I bent my knees for balance and thrust harder and faster. My own hanging balls tapped his furred orbs with each thrust forward. Sweat beaded under our fur while I growled my pleasure. His hands loosened in their material entrapment and soon he freed them, the black fitted tee coiled around one wrist. His hands found mine and without thinking we laced fingers together. I dipped my hips and with one thrust drove my member as deep as it would go. Micah howled at the effort and looked back over his shoulder at me, his pleasure racked through him and in that instant he shuddered. It was a familiar shudder. I'd seen him do it a hundred times before. I glanced down and saw the mess that he'd spattered against the door's surface.
I grinned and without speaking continued fucking him, continued probing his hole with my own member. He moaned and winced and whimpered. His orgasm had left him with more pain than pleasure as the endorphins began to receed in his body. I needed to finish soon before it was all painful and no pleasure. I could feel my own orgasm building like a warmth inside me, flaring and growing with each thrust, each stroke of my member inside of him. His inner walls clung to me still and remained tight and wrapped around me. I could feel my testicles draw up and in the final deep thrust that left him howling beneath me, I let out a deep growl while a rush of seed spilled along the doberman's inner walls. I leaned heavily on him as my legs seemed to buckle a little while the orgasm racked through me like a fire. It burned and seared and left me shuddering along Micah's back. I leaned my chin against a slender, black-furred shoulder as several deep breaths rattled through me. I could feel myself shrinking inside the pooch's rump and with a resounding growl I spilled out of him. A rush of seed spattered the floor underneath us, as he raised one hand and played with my whiskers and furred cheeks. I murred at his touch as exhaustion swamped me.
It was black outside and without much light inside the cells the room itself was thrown into shadows. No doubt lockdown would be initiated in no time and we'd be seperated for the night. I wrapped my muscular arms around the canine and held him close. He leaned back against me and we cuddled, cuddled like we'd never see one another ever again. He broke the silence a few minutes later when he murmured, "Sasha?" "Hmmm?" "Did you mean it when you said you loved me?" he asked in a hushed voice. I froze in that moment and realised that that had been the first time I'd confessed my love for this male in my arms. I opened my mouth to answer him but he stopped me. He shook his head and smiled up at me. He drew my arms tighter around him and basked in the afterglow that shrouded the pair of us. It was like some kind of unspoken understanding. I did love him, but he seemed unable to form those same words back to me. Did he not love me? No. That wasn't it. If he'd found it odd he'd have abandoned me then and there, but he'd remained. So where did this leave us? I wanted to know. I wanted an answer. I should've demanded an answer. But before I could consider what to say a loud noise shattered the quiet of the dormitories. "Lights out! Back to your respective cells, now!" a deep voice boomed over the speakers dotted around the dorms. We remained there for a heartbeat. Almost rebellious against the rules and regulations that this establishment had set. But then Micah loosened his hold on me and we peeled apart. He gathered his things, dressed as best he could and then turned to me. He wrapped his hand around mine and drew me in close. He kissed me, a gentle brush of lips before he whispered, "I'll see you tomorrow." He turned and walked out, leaving me alone in the cell. I'd never felt more alone. I raised my arms and ruffled my head fur, still naked and feeling more lonesome than I'd ever felt before. Tears welled behind my eyes and for a moment I could feel a breakdown coming along.
But that was stopped dead when someone knocked on the cell door. It was Randal again. "Sasha." "What's up?" I asked, wiping at the tears without turning to face the hyena at my door. "Get dressed. The warden's determined your punishment. Two weeks of confinement." "Two weeks?" "You hospitalised the cobra and the bull." "Hospitalised?" "Faust is in critical condition, his windpipe was almost crushed. Warden believes two weeks confinement is enough for self-defense with murderous intent." "Self-defense?" I repeated with a bemused expression. Randal shrugged and then said, "Get dressed and get out here before I loose my cool and chuck you out here butt-ass naked!" I nodded and gathered what I'd need. I dressed and soon stepped out of the cell behind the hyena.
Why in God's name was the warden being so lenient on me? I'd hospitalised two other inmates. I should've been sentenced with a possible transfer to a proper prison come the end of my last nine months. Someone up there must love me, big time.
~~~~~
The confinement cells are a serious of small sealed rooms, Each room is around five feet in width and length. No windows. No beds. Because those in confinement are shackled to the far wall. Water and bread is offered twice a day while your serve your confinement. Its designed to knock you off kilter where days and nights are concerned and to numb your body and loosen your mind. A true punishment. Two days in here would unsettle anyone, and an extended punishment of two weeks would no doubt leave me a little unnerved. But I'd been here before and I knew what was expected of me. I was here because I'd done something that went against the regulations of Heaven.
I padded along the slender hallway behind Randal, and realised that is one of these confined cells was Tyson. I had half a mind to call out his name, but that was against regulations too and would earn me another week in here, as well as earning Tyson another week in here too. Randal suddenly stopped at an open cell door and gestured for me to walk in. I padded in and headed for the back wall, the chains draped there seemed loose, they wouldn't be as loose in a few moments. I held my hands out at my sides and Randal bound them in the shackles with dull clunks and the locks tightened around my wrists. He nodded to me and left without another word. The door closed with a deafening slam and a second later a dull click locked the door tight. It was pitch black now. The silence that swamped me was deafening and made me want to make noise and shatter that quiet world I'd been locked inside. Then that silence broke when a rush of metal echoed and a moment later I was thrown backward, slammed into the wall and had my arms snapped up and pinned to the walls. The chains had receeded and were holding me, pinned to the cold brick of the cell wall.
This was confinement. And for the next two weeks this is what I had to look forward to. I shuddered at the thought and then loosened up. Tensing in this situation would make things work. Think about Micah. God, think about that doberman. Think about being with him again. Think about being able to touch him again. Think about being able to kiss him.
~~~~~
Hours. Days passed and still the darkness shrouded me, enveloped me like a second body tightening, choking me, keeping me hidden from the remainder of the world. I breathed slow and deep, never focusing on anything but a certain doberman who I intended to be with for a very long time following this stint in Heaven. The shackles felt like they were tightening more and more, rubbing against the flesh under my fur. I had no idea how much longer I had in confinement, but the darkness and the eternal quiet was shattered when light blazed to life in that small, secluded area. I was blinded for a moment and closed my eyes tight. I winced as I tried to open my eyes and relearn how to see. Lack of light for so long had blinded me somewhat. "You've looked better," a deep, unfamiliar voice broke the quiet around me. I opened my eyes a little bit more and asked, "Is confinement over?" A deep, laugh echoed off the dark walls. The voice asked, "Do you want confinement to be over?" "A little." "You've been here around one week already. Can you not see me yet?" the voice asked. "No." "I've been watching you though for quite some time, Sasha." "You've been watching me? Take it from me, I'm surprised you haven't gotten bored yet." "Bored?" "Yeah. I'm just a normal inmate here, what's to watch?" That deep laugh racked through the air again. "You truly do not know how much of an understatement that is, boy." I took a deep breath and opened my eyes wide, the light blinded me but soon receeded and the room came into focus. The door was shut tight but a light overhead had been turned on. I didn't even know these rooms had the overhead lights. I focused on the newcomer standing before me. Sleak, black fur and piercing yellow eyes. A tailored black suit and dark grey shirt underneath, a thin black tie fastened at the throat. His sleak, black tail trailed right behind him, while a silver ring was fastened around the end of his tail. "Your that dude who visited a few days ago?" "That dude?" he raised an eyebrow. "I don't remember your name." "Xander Hanes." "Xander? Your that businessman that everyone has been murmuring about for the last month?" "I had hoped you wouldn't have learned of my presense here until things had been settled, but your little stunt in the showers has forced my hand a little." "Forced your hand? How so?" I demanded with a bemused expression. "I'm here to release you, Sasha, release you from Heaven and bring you back to the true world where you belong. Plain and simple." I looked at Xander and realised he wasn't pulling my leg and was being serious. Xander grinned and asked, "Questions?" "Yeah. Are you out of your mind?" I grinned back. "I still have nine months here. I can't be released for anything. Those are the rules and regulations of this place." "You were incarcirated because you've never been able to play nice with others. That much was proved judging from the condition the one named Faust is in. Your mother passed away and you were abandoned by your father. It left you unable to interact with others. You were sent here for bad behaviour, but over time your time here became more of an imprisonment instead of being a foster home. I posed as a possible foster parent and found you had been taken off the market, so to speak because of your behaviour. That alone caused me problems, but it made sense to keep you somewhere out of trouble where you could be confined." "Your making no sense." "None of it will make sense right away, but in time you'll understand. Regardless, I have spoken to the warden and she orchestrated this for me. Your free from here and your coming with me." "Am I now? I don't think so." Xander grinned a little more and added, "I'm taking you to see your father and explain who you really are." That stopped me dead. He wanted to take me to where my dad was. To where the one who abandoned me was? Why in God's name would I want to see him? "I'm sensing some hostile tendancies against your papa?" Xander smirked. "If you know so much about me, then you should know that that bastard abandoned me when my mother passed. Why would I want to see him?" I demanded in a low growl. "Because he had a good reason for abandoning you. He was imprisoned just like you are now." He grinned and added, "In fact I'm finding it hard to determine whether I'm speaking to you, or back in LA with your dad." "Your truly out of your mind," I growled back. "Am I?" he asked. I nodded. A sudden click splintered the quiet cell and suddenly I dropped to the floor. The shackles had loosened and released me. I landed hard on my knees and slumped forward, forearms pressed to the cool floors while I let blood rush back to my shoulders and arms. I was numb all over. "Feel better?" Xander asked. "What do you want from me?" I demanded. "I want you to understand who you are and what you are capable of," he explained as he turned and opened the cell room door. "Follow me." "Where are we going?" "I'm taking you to Los Angeles. But before that, we need to make a stop at Heaven's infirmaries." "Infirmaries? Why there?" I asked. "A doberman was hospitalised last night. He's been asking about you." The words dropped and the world around me seemed to slow down and stop. A hospitalised doberman?
.....Micah?
~~~~~
He'd been ambushed in the showers and beaten badly. There had even been evidence of rape. Xander had remained outside while I'd walked up the ward and found him. He was unconscious and hooked up to various machines. I had been told the machines were designed to keep him alive and without them he'd die. Problem is, the damage was too severe. He would pass away when that machine was shut off and the doctors had given me half an hour. Half an hour to say my last goodbyes before he passed on. It all seemed so precise. I stood at the end of his bed, looking down at him as the machines beeped and whirred and kept him going. I walked wide around the hospital's bed. That black and orange fur scarred and rough in places. His shoulder and right arm were bandaged, while a thick bandage had been wrapped around his throat. From what I'd been told the ones responsible were locked up in a confinement cell each. There had been a group of them. The head honcho being a rhino named Danz. I tensed at his name and clenched my fists. It had been an act of revenge on me while I'd been locked up in confinement? I bit my lip and felt the tears well behind my eyes.
I stepped up beside the bed and collapsed to my knees. The one other being in Heaven who I'd accepted and sworn to watch over. The doberman I'd said "I love you" to. And now here he was, because of me, on death's door. I'd never felt anything like this before. Part of me wanted to hunt down Danz and tear him limb from limb, while the other part of me wanted to be here and stop Micah from dying. Why? Why did he have to die? Tears spilled from my green-and-yellow eyes while I looked at the bloodied and bruised form that was Micah. His chest rose and fell with rattled breaths while I shuddered with the racking sobs that escaped me. I rested my forearms on the bed, his body mere inches from me. Live. Please live. Please don't die here and now. I watched in sheer amazement as Micah slowly opened his pale brown eyes and stared up at the ceiling for a heartbeat. He looked around and then he focused on me. Tears spilled from his eyes as I leaned over and took his hand in mine. I touched my lips to the back of his hand as he squeezed mine back. He sobbed gently while he looked over at me. "Where am I?" he breathed in a hushed tone. "Heaven's infirmaries." "What happened?" "You don't remember?" I asked. "I can just about see you, Sasha. I don't remember anything and I can't move anything below my waist," he sobbed as panic settled in. Fuck. The nurses hadn't explained anything to him. He'd been unconscious since the assault. "Sasha? Sasha please, tell me what happened to me?" he demanded. "You were...attacked last night in the shower block. You were attacked and beaten and...raped," I breathed in reply. "Raped?" he whimpered, more tears welled at his eyes. I nodded and smiled, "But its alright now, baby, its alright. Your safe now, I promise you." "Am I?" he stammered. I wanted to save him. I wanted to lie to him. He was going to lie here and die. I had to tell. I needed to tell him. I paused and looked down at those pale brown eyes, and murmured, "Yeah, your safe now, Micah." He looked at me and then a peaceful smile curved that muzzle. I smiled back and kissed the back of his hand again. "Your a bad liar." "W-What?" I stammered. "Its alright. I know what's going to happen. I can feel it. I'm slipping. The world's getting darker and darker each second. I can barely see you, Sasha," he whimpered with that sad smile. "I'm s-sorry," I sobbed as fresh tears spilled down my face. "Its fine, its fine, seriously Sasha, I'm fine with this happening." "What do you mean?" I asked. "You leave in nine months time and I won't see you for a whole year. In that time you'll meet someone else and forget about me." "I would never do that-" "Enough, Sasha," he interrupted me. That sad smile still in place. "I'd rather leave this world knowing I had you, knowing that you were mine til the end. Sasha? Sasha, please know that I always loved you." The machines stopped a second later and a loud droning sound echoed out across the ward. I watched with wide, frightened eyes as nurses rushed in and checked over the machines. Micah squeezed my hand and then slowly that squeeze softened. The doberman smiled up at me and slowly his eyes closed. His breathing slowed while I watched his chest rise and fall for the last time. The machines were turned off and the doberman was relieved of all the pipes and wires that had been hooked up to him. The nurses nodded to me without another word and then left us there alone. I'd frozen in that moment, holding his hand and feeling his warmth slip from him. Tears spilled from my eyes while someone's presence tore me from staring down at the doberman I had loved and had been loved by in return. Xander bowed his head as a sign of respect and then looked at me, a determined expression burned in those piercing yellow eyes. "What do I do?" I sobbed as I squeezed that cold hand in mine, "He's dead. The one I loved is dead. What do I do now? Tell me!" "Give him a memorial service and go on living. Its what he'd have wanted if he truly loved you." "A memorial service?" "Micah never had family, like you, and has no friends whatsoever. He lived for the moments he had with you. So give him a memorial service, as a friend and a lover. Then continue living like he wanted." "A funeral then?" I murmured under my breath. I looked down at the beautiful creature on the hospital bed before me and fresh tears burned to life. Xander stepped up beside me and rested a hand on my shoulder. Fresh sobs tore through me as I held Micah's cold hand and slumped against the sheets of the bed.
I wanted him back. Please someone bring him back to me now! I didn't want him gone! I didn't want to have to bury him. I loved him. I wanted him here with me.
~~~~~
The funeral had been a quiet affair, one that I'd attended alone. Xander had waited outside the cathedral for me while the sermons had been taken. Micah had truly had no family or friends to speak of besides me. I sat there on the front row in a suit that was tailored and done in black. I had worn a charcoal-grey shirt underneath and a black tie fastened at my neck. I donned black, polished shoes and realised while I sat there that I looked alot like Xander, when he'd freed me from confinement. It had been a week since I'd been freed from Heaven, and even though a piece of me had shattered with the loss of Micah, I was still happier than I would've been locked up and missing a certain doberman. Micah had not had much in ways of personal belongings, but there was one thing that I'd been handed when his body had been taken down to the morgue. The Star of David that he'd almost always donned. I'd wound the chain around my wrist and now the Star of David dangled from my wrist as a constant reminder that I had once been in love and had been loved back. It was a reminder that I had known Micah.
The service finished and while the pastor assured me he'd finalise the procedures behind the actual funeral, I headed outside to where Xander awaited me. He was dressed in a black suit now, a dark red shirt underneath and a tie that billowed in the breeze that had beset the surrounding graveyard. He adjusted the tie and saw me coming. He gave me a sorrowful smile, one full of apologies and condolensces. I nodded back as I stepped up beside him and murmured, "I'm done. I don't want to see them bury Micah, so can we go now?" "You want to leave?" Xander replied with a raised eyebrow. "You said you'd take me to where my father is. So take me there." "Your absolutely sure about leaving so soon?" I nodded and explained, "Seeing the tombstone would make me realise that he's gone, gone forever. I've said goodbye. There's nothing else to do. So come on." Xander considered me for a moment and then nodded. "Alright then." "Do you have a car? How are we getting to Los Angeles?" I asked. "This is how." Xander raised a hand and snapped his fingers.
The world around me shattered and swam in streamers of colour. It was like a delicate window had been broken and then fixed back together in that instant. A whole new image surrounded me though. I was standing beside that mysterious bastard Xander, but the world had transformed around us at the click of his fingers. The room was dark, a thick velvet red carpet beneath us and the sound of numerous machines splintered the quiet around us. Nausea swam up and I doubled over. I fought back the sickness but felt dazed and confused at what i was looking at now. Xander touched a hand to my shoulder and smiled down at me. I looked up at him with a distant look of disbelief. He turned away from me and looked behind us. I followed suit and staggered backwards at what I saw there.
A square pool stretched out behind us, several machines were stood around the edge. Each machine was hooked up the surface of the pool. I looked again and realised the liquid that filled the pool was frozen. I took another look and realised that someone was beneath the surface, horizontal and staring up at the ceiling. The figure that was suspended there was a tiger, standing at around six-foot-three. He was muscular and covered in dark grey fur with a black stripe pattern. Just like me! His eyes were a green and yellow colour as he gazed up at the world above. He was dressed in black three-quarter-lenths. There were red cords binding his forearms, knees, shins, waist and throat and fastening him to the bottom of the pool. His thick tail floated upward while the unknown feline remained trapped beneath the liquid. "What is this place?" I stammered, staring down at the scene before me. "We're in an office building based in central Los Angeles. Its a law firm that's been up and running now for almost seven months. But there's more to it than that. You are currently in the imprisonment section on the eighteenth floor of the law firm's building. It is on this floor that the Bureau of Death operates," Xander explained. He smirked and nodded at the pool behind me, "And that there is an imprisonment tank designed to restrain Reapers." "Reapers? Real reapers? As in grim reapers?" I stammered. "Grim reapers? No. That's a stereotype that Reapers don't appreciate. Reapers being the preferred term. And those Reapers are those who deal with the dead, the departed and even the undead." I simply stared at Xander, confused more so than I'd ever been. He grinned again and said, "Ask the question your dying to know the answer to." I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. I stammered, "W-Why did you bring me here?" "I brought you here so that you'd understand. I brought you here because you have the blood of a Reaper coursing through your body," he explained. He looked at the pool a second time, and added, "His blood in fact." "What does that mean?"
The whole world stopped then suddenly as a deep voice filled the room. Welcome home...son.