FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Onward! A little dark this chapter. Hopefully I didn't overdo it, but I think it makes it all feel more real. Thanks everyone for reading.

Daisy lay curled on the small twin bed across and down the hall from where Boss slept. On the edge of sleep as she stared at the far wall of the room. The light blue paint reminded her of a summer sky and vertigo gave a nasty twist as she felt herself lying horizontally on the bed and falling away from the imagined sky at the same time. She closed her eyes to better feel the spin and realized faintly that she was indeed falling asleep. Spiraling down into that dreaded darkness. Her last thought was to hope she slept dreamlessly, even as it began despite her wishes.

Light dreaming was always a misty vague place to be, and for a time Daisy hovered over deep sleep, colors and images afloat in the sea that was her consciousness. Things she wouldn't remember later except as half remembered impressions. But soon enough the doe rolled restlessly on the bed as she slipped deeper under the surface of the dream...

"Daaaaaaaaaisy.... Daisydaisydaaaaaisy..." Someone was looking for her. It was Dahlia of course. They were playing hide and seek. Daisy looked around and saw that she was in her Mother's closet, the clothes that hung down around her smelled of vanilla perfume and faintly of cedar. She huddled down among the folded clothes and the boxes of keepsakes, smiling widely as she watched the crack of light from the door. Dahlia would never find her here. But as she tried to keep quiet, the voice calling for her grew deeper, more gruff... sinister. The smile melted from her face and she trembled violently, fighting the urge to whimper. She knew that voice.

_ "Daisy....Oh, Daaaaisy... Gonna find you girl..." The voice growled from behind her now, from the darkness in the closet and she shrieked as she leaped to her feet, spinning around to see those blue eyes staring up at her from the darkness. Bodiless, the eyes seemed to slither towards her on the floor as she tripped and fell backwards out of the closet, the doors banging open with a resounding crack. She landed in a sprawl on the carpet, kicking her hooves and clawing haw way backwards across the floor as the shadows leapt at her and grew claws. The eyes stopped at the edge of the shadows and crinkled to narrow little slits as the voice chuckled all around her._

_ "Yeah... I like you.....Gonna eat you up..." It hissed from all around her. She scrambled backwards further until her hands landed in something sticky and she rolled to her knees, hands covered in blood, and recoiled. The pool of crimson was spreading from the wall behind her where a familiar figure stood on legs that no longer worked properly. White fur stained red. On her knees, Daisy stared up at the shadowy figure as the voice of the wolf echoed in the room and she began to hyperventilate. Dahlia raised one arm, with bones protruding, blood trickling from her fingers, shiny and thick and stinking of metal._

"Why didn't you stop me?" Her sister sobbed, reaching for her. On the verge of being sick she found herself on her hooves, running, running as fast as she could and she realized there was sun baked dirt under her hooves. Her lungs burned, her breath gasping out of her in harsh ragged pulls. Trees flashed by in a blur of greens and browns.

_ "I bet I could go really fast down that hill!" Dahlia's voice was in her head and then she was there, watching it unfold, the details so real. The tassels on her bike handles, the confident grin as her sister sat poised on her purple ten speed. The way her fur shone like a pearl in the summer sun._

_ "No, Dahlia! Dont! Your gonna crash!" And there she was too, all darkness next to Dahlia on the dirt road, glumly staring over the edge of the sharp hill._

"Don't be a baby, Daisy. C'mon!"

"No way. It's too steep!"

"Suit yourself, baby!" And her dream self was still running, even harder now, sobs rising in her as she tried to cry out, to stop what she knew was coming next. But no matter how she tried, she was too late, she was always too late, and in slow motion she saw her younger self stand aside as Dahlia put her hoof to the pedal and shoved off down the hill with a laugh of excitement. The laugh echoed in the dream as all other sounds were drowned out and muffed, and then silenced. And then all she could hear was her own heart and breath as she ran after her sister, and watched the truck as it rounded a corner and barreled towards the hill in the opposite lane, picking up speed to scale the steep grade.

_ "NO!" Daisy screamed hoarsely as she saw all the details fall into place. The driver had the sun in his eyes, and when he pulled the visor down to shade them, some paperwork went flying and he leaned over to reach for them. The truck drifted to the center of the road. Dahlia's bike went even faster. Daisy ran even faster. The bike's front tire caught on some loose gravel and for a horrifying second Daisy was watching from the top of the hill, hooves rooted in the dirt, too stunned to move, too scared to breath, hands gripping her bike in a stranglehold as her sister's bike twisted violently under her and she somersaulted into the air. Sound returned with the wet horrible percussion of steel meeting flesh and the squeal of brakes and the roar of gravel and the crack of bone._

_ Dahlia was thrown like a rag doll and landed in a heap, arms and legs sprawled like a marionette without its strings. Dream Daisy stood over her and watched the blood bloom crimson across white fur, spreading out like paint applied with a brush across graceful pale flesh. Watched young Daisy run down the hill, bicycle abandoned, face full of horror. Her sister's body looked up at her, but didn't see, and she could hear herself screaming, screaming, screaming..... the brown eyes slowly wicked to blue and the blood turned black and the bones protruding were the shiny white teeth of a wolf as he smiled. And reached for her._

_ "It's just you and me, doll..."_

Boss woke with a jolt, laying in the darkness with his eyes wide open and muscles tensed. Some noise had woke him, and he waited on edge to hear it again, unsure of what it had been. A crash, or a scream maybe? He sat up slowly, making no sound as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and took a quick glance at the digital clock glowing green on Daisy's desk. 3:42AM the clock read, an hour when all decent furs should be asleep in their beds... Boss' nostrils flared, his ears stiffened, and he turned towards the door sharply as he heard it again, a sobbing punctuated by a muffled cry. He recognized Daisy's voice instantly and before he could think better, he stood and padded swiftly out of the room towards the sound, his hackle bristling at the frightened sounds Daisy was making. His body was ready to fight whatever had caused those noises, and there was no calming it until he saw to her safety. His questing nose led him straight to a door halfway down the hall and he turned the knob cautiously, swinging the door inward and looking around, unconsciously adopting cop protocol for entering a hostile environment. His paw twitched as if seeking a gun that wasn't there. A quick survey of the room and behind the door revealed no intruders so Boss entered the rest of the way and closed the door silently behind him. The goat girl lay on the small twin size bed, the sheets twisted around her body, the blankets kicked away as she tossed, crying fretfully. Boss could make out a few words here and there as he approached the bed, and a sympathetic whine rose in his throat as he realized she was having a nightmare.

"No... No, No, Don't!" She mumbled as her hands clawed at the bed and she arched and kicked as if struggling to escape something. "I'm sorry..." She sobbed clearly. And then it broke down into seemingly random words again, uttered thru clenched teeth. "So red, she's so red..." Daisy moaned and her sobbing started up again, her eyes were squeezed shut but it didn't stop the tears from soaking the furs of her face. Boss knelt down beside the bed and leaned over her, careful not to get kicked as he spoke soothingly and stroked her shoulder gently.

"Hey, hey... Daisy, wake up. It's just a dream, mi Querida... Wake up now..." It was dim in the room, the only light came from a small lantern style night light that glowed an aqua blue, but he could feel little furrows in the shoulder he touched. He frowned in the poor light and tried to make out what they were. They felt like something he should recognize and it wasn't until he moved his paw a little higher so that the pads of his fingers covered the width of them that he finally realized and his blood went cold with rage. Bite marks. Deep old wounds from savage gripping teeth. Boss clenched his jaw as an image came unbidden into his mind of Julian Wilderson with his teeth on her velvet flesh and he struggled to control the growl that rose in his chest.

"Please!" Daisy begged, a scream cut off in her throat emerged as a horrible choking squeal as she fought her dream monsters. Boss pulled the tangled sheet from her twisted form and tried again to wake her.

"Sweetheart, wake up." He spoke as close to her ear as he dared. The way she was flinching and tossing, he ran the risk of getting head butted if he leaned in too close. Her thrashing only escalated until he was afraid she was going to hurt herself. So he did the only thing he could think of. Pulling her to the edge of the bed he trapped her against his chest and turned to sit on the bed with her squirming in his lap. She flexed and twitched, still lost in the dream, but her terror fed struggles were no match for his strength and he gently but firmly subdued her, pinning her to his body. Her breath came in ragged pants as she fisted his fur in her fingers and tried to push away. But he continued to talk to her, soothing words of comfort until she slowly went limp in his arms and he could loosen his grasp. Purely on instinct he tipped his muzzle down and nuzzled her cheek, and after a moment, licked gently at her salty wet face, cleaning her fur of tears. It was the act of a lover, and his heart swelled when her head tipped back and she seemed to accept the tender touch. It was a short lived moment of peace. Her eyes popped open a second later and her reaction to him was explosive. Catching him unawares she bucked and kicked out of his grip, scrambling across the room to huddle in a corner with her knees up to her chest, eyes huge and vacant. The white dog sat stunned, unsure what had caused the sudden shift, and unsure if Daisy was even truly awake.

"Daisy?" He said tentatively, not making any move to frighten her further. Her eyes fixed on him with all the dread of a mouse gazing at a cat. Mindless terror. Boss shook his head, his brow furrowing in sorrow at her expression. "Oh, please don't be afraid of me, Daisy... it's me, it's only Boss." He slowly stretched out his paws, paw pads up imploringly and leaned forwards with his elbows on his knees. Daisy squeezed herself tighter into the corner but after a few tense moments she blinked and some sanity returned to her gaze.

"Boss?" She asked, her voice a trembling mess. She looked tiny curled into the corner like that, and it wounded him that she would be afraid.

"The one and only, Kid..." He gave her a brave smile and she twitched, curled her legs underneath her and sat up with small jerky movements, as if forcing her muscles and joints to do as she wished against their will.

"You woke me up?" She hushed, her eyes still too wide, too glassy. Boss nodded encouragingly.

"You were having a nightmare." He told her gently. "I heard you from your room, I'm surprised no one else did." Boss looked down at his enormous paws and wished he didn't feel so useless.

"Other side... Other side of the house..." Daisy said absently, still staring at him. Boss looked back up at her and sighed. He had a feeling he knew why she was on the other side of the house from everyone else still asleep.

"You have nightmares often..." it wasn't a question, but she nodded with a small shudder of her head, putting her arms up in front of her face, squeezing her forearms against her muzzle and forehead, her hands fisting between her horns. A small wounded sound escaped her and Boss realized that she was crying again.

"Come here..." Boss reached out one arm, slowly, wanting to cuddle her close and give her strength. "Don't be afraid, it's all right." A ragged sob escaped from behind the barrier of her arms before she dropped them and staggeringly got to her feet. She stood there swaying on her feet and looked at his offered paw. And slowly, one halting step at a time, she edged closer until she was standing in front of him. She shook with the remains of the nightmare.

"He..." She whispered, barely audible. "He hurt me, Boss..." She whimpered, tears sliding down her cheeks unchecked. The simple words were the closest she had ever come to admitting to anyone that she remembered her abduction clearly. Boss looked up at her with brown gold eyes full of sorrow and compassion.

"I know he did, baby... I know he did." Boss murmured, and he reached for her gently, pulling her towards him with barely there pressure. She resisted for the scantest of moments before flinging herself into his arms and breaking into wracking sobs. He cradled her in his lap and pressed her to his chest, a deep pain throbbing within him for what she had been thru, whispering comforting nonsense to her until her tears had been spent and she fell into an exhausted dreamless sleep. The power of her buried pain sapping all her strength as it poured out, deep wounds reopened so that they might have a chance at finally healing.