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The Taste of Terror

** Chapter 2: Long Term Relationship**

"What? No, no, I said I have coursework tonight, remember?...Yes, Professor McGregor again. Stupid old vulture..."

Alex tried to unlock the door of his apartment with one hand, dropped the key, sighed, picked it up, and finally entered the small flat that he'd come to call home. "No...No...Thanks, mate, but no. Yes. No. Tomorrow then? Okay, I'll - I said no, Ryan! ...yeah, see you."

He grinned to himself as he ended the call, looking happily around at his surroundings. Even after four weeks, it was exciting to simply walk into here, and know that this place was his to live in_._ Tail wagging gently, he padded through to the small kitchen, glancing at his reflection in the old mirror on the hallway wall. Alex was an arctic fox, his silky fur as white as the snow of the lands where his ancestors had been born. He was slender and lithe, average height at 5'9", with crystal-clear blue eyes and a gloriously long and fluffy tail that was his secret pride and joy. He had (apparently) the sort of innocent, wide eyed appearance that had proved quite successful in securing a very enjoyable social life. Life, in short, was going very well for him.

Wondering vaguely if he'd have time to catch up with his favourite TV programme after the essay, he padded into the kitchen...and stopped. Something was wrong. He could... feel it. Intangible, incorporeal, but definitely something real . He sniffed cautiously, and instead of the faint tang of the cheap bleach he cleaned the place with, the air was scented with a strange, exotic perfume, musky and heavy, but not unpleasant...

Deep in the fox's hindbrain, a memory stirs...

Swallowing nervously, he took another breath, and the scent seemed to be stronger...

Closer.

There was a single moment, approximately one eighth of a second, but which seemed to last an agonising eternity. It was the moment when Alex comprehended what all his senses had been screaming at him. It was the moment when he finally realised: something was behind him. Something dangerous.

It was the last moment of his life which might have contained anything, anything at all, approaching happiness.

That pause, seeming to last an hour. Then the something spoke, and that happy life of his was ended forever.

"Hello, Alex."

The two incongruous words smashed into Alex's mind with all the force and violence of a thunderbolt. Suddenly, brutally, his soul was wrenched open, and he saw at last the memories that had been buried within it:

Horror. Terror beyond imagining. An impossible creature, darker than midnight itself, crooning low into his ear as it described how he would die. He remembered his final pleadings. He remembered everything he had been, everything he could have been, reduced to the whims of his murderer -totally at the mercy of a merciless being. Trying to escape. Running, fast, faster, at the speed of desperation and fear itself.

Not fast enough.

He remembered his final, squirming journey down the hot, wet throat of his tormentor. How he had fallen asleep, for the last time, trapped in the crushing darkness, shivers of the killer's pleasure still shaking his helpless, doomed body...

Alex actually fell to his knees as the memories hit him; legs simply collapsing from under him. He knew that the gryphon would be delighted by such a display of his anguish. He did not, could not, care. How, how, HOW could he have possibly forgotten?

"Little one..." Damian's voice, smooth as velvet, sent tremors through the stunned vulpine's entire body as he padded round to sit comfortably, right in front of his prey. Alex didn't raise his head. Some desperate thought still cackled madly in his half-delirious mind: maybe, maybe, if he didn't look up, if he refused to accept that this was happening to him, it might just all go away.

A single claw, the talons as long as his fingers, gently pulled his chin up. He stared into the pitiless, golden eyes of the gryphon, feeling the first sharp sting of tears in his own eyes. Nothing went away. The nightmare was real.

"Why?" Alex spoke quietly. He remembered having said exactly the same thing, having felt the same hopelessness and despair as he died in the slick, dark stomach of his killer.

Damian cocked his sleek, black-feathered head. "Why what, little one? Why are you not dead? Why is your soul not utterly annihilated by my digestive acids? Or," his cruel talon traced gently along the contours of the fox's terrified face. "is it just: why couldn't I have let you die forever? Why can't death be the end to our little game? That's what you want, Alex, isn't it: You want me to grant you an end to all my tortures?" Alex shuddered, his vision dimming for a moment as terror overwhelmed him, and the gryphon caught him in his luxuriantly feathered arms. The embrace was almost loving, and were it not for the fear blazing through every vein in Alex's body, would have been comforting. He felt, rather than heard, the thrumming growl of pleasure as Damian breathed in his scent.

"If that's why, then..." his captor sighed, seemingly exasperated "...you don't seem to understand what happened in that forest. You see, I killed you. And it was...perfect." He stared off into the distance, one claw gently stroking his helpless captive's fur. "So, so perfect. Your struggles and squirming, your pleading... your taste. It was pure ecstasy. But that was nothing, not compared to what happened next. When I felt you die... inside me. I sensed your entire being, your beautiful, innocent, terrified soul, utterly snuffed out by my power. It was... dear gods, words couldn't describe it. You were the best meal - the best moment - of my entire existence." Suddenly, he wrenched the fox's head up to face his, eyes blazing with a burning intensity.

"Is it any surprise that I refused to let it end?"

Alex stared at him; stared into those terrible, burning orbs of gold. "Refused to..." His own eyes grew wide. "No. No, no, no...please..." He felt the tears begin to flow, and hated himself for every single one.

"Oh, but yes." Delicately, Damian's long, pink tongue licked his face, actually lapping up the droplets. Each one sent rumbling growls of pleasure through his and his prisoner's body. "Alamavetti's Pure Resurrection is actually quite a simple little piece of magic. I'm surprised I haven't felt the need for it before, really. But then..." he nuzzled the fox tenderly, nipping one of Alex's triangular ears -folded back against his skull with sheer terror- in an almost playful fashion."...I haven't found anything remotely as fascinating, as unique, as you before, either. So... I researched it, I brought you back from the dead, and then I buried those exquisite memories of our first encounter deep in your memory. And then..." the gryphon shrugged , jolting his living plaything like a child's toy. "I let you live your life again. For a few months I let you think that it was all fine, that you actually had some measure of control over your fate. Believe me, little one, you'll soon learn to cherish those memories of a "normal" existence. We'll teach you exactly how lucky you were...How about tonight, hmm?"

For a long moment they sat there, the murderer and his trembling victim, cocooned in a grotesque parody of loving embrace. The words sank in slowly, and so did the horror. "What? What do you mean? A normal...cherish...?"Alex froze, his face a mask of horror. "Wait... tonight? Oh no. Please... no..." In desperate misery, he buried his head in the thick fur of Damian's chest, searching hopelessly for some small shred of comfort in the silky warmth. "Not...not again. Please. I... I'm begging you."

"I know you are. It's utterly exquisite. But shhh... I'm afraid it is going to happen again, little foxie. Right here. Right now. You're going to begin your new life... by dying. It's just magnificent.

"Oh, but I suppose I should warn you. The Resurrection is... shall we say...inexact." The caresses were growing more intense as he spoke...growing hungrier. "It may be that even if I try to bring you back, it just won't work. There's no telling when this could happen. No telling when you die, at last, forever. Think about that..." He heard Alex's sharp intake of breath, and laughed low in his throat. "Yes...is it starting to sink in? You could die, Alex, tonight. Forever...or not. You could live again, to slide down my hungry throat a hundred times... a thousand times."

Alex thought he'd been terrified. Now, as the full meaning of the gryphon's words erupted inside him, he realised that the fear had been nothing at all. Not compared to this. A thousand times. A THOUSAND times. He was going to die, trapped in that crushing darkness, drenched in saliva and sobbing with fear, over and over and over again. "Oh no, no, no.... please....no..."

"Quiet." Forcefully Damian pulled up his head, ignoring the fox's yelp of pain. "Now... little one. Look into my eyes. I want to see this. I want to see your pain. No," he added as Alex tried to screw his eyes shut. "don't be silly. You will either open your eyes, or I open them - by ripping your eyelids off." His voice did not change at all. It was quite clear that he did not particularly mind which option was chosen.

Trembling, disgusted at himself, Alex opened his eyes. Through the haze of tears and the heady scent of the gryphon, he felt his head being turned this way and that as his tormentor examined his eyes from different angles, like a scientist with an interesting specimen of insect.

"Oh yes. This is exquisite. Shhh..." Damian placed a claw against the fox's lips. "Keep your head still. I need to see it properly. This realisation dawning in your eyes, as you understand at last..."

"Understand?" Alex whispered feebly, the tears still running down his face. "Understand what?"

"That there's no hope for you. None at all. That you're going to spend the rest of your beautiful little life, once so full of promise and potential, as nothing more than my plaything. That not even death can provide some escape from my torments. Think about that, little one. Realise the horror, and let me see your soul be crushed by it."

"H-How...?" Alex's voice cracked and broke, and he slumped against the gryphon's chest, crying weakly into the dark fur. "How can... HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE SO CRUEL?" He shrieked desperately, entire body shaking with hopelessness and hatred. "D-Don't you have any mercy...any compassion..."

"Compassion?" Damian chuckled softly. "Oh yes, little one... I have compassion. And do you know what?" he whispered tenderly into the fox's ear, claws running through his captives snowy fur. "He's screaming, Alex. He's begging me not to do this." He smirked. "I don't think he's ever struggled this hard, actually. He loves you, you see. And to watch you die...to watch me kill you like this...it's agony for him. And I find it simply exquisite."

Alex stared up at him, eyes wide with horror as another terrible revelation flooded through him. "You...You're insane..."

The gryphon growled, the thrumming making his whole body vibrate. "Little foxie... are you only just beginning to realise that? Of course I am. Insanity, psychopathic, sadism... they don't begin to describe it. I am..." Damian hugged him close, crushing him into the thick fur. "...pure and utter evil incarnate."

It wasn't boasting. It was a statement of fact. Alex whimpered with fear.

"So..." He felt the gryphon's tongue running through his snowy fur, tasting his prey, and a sudden snarl of raw, animal hunger momentarily deafened him. " Oh gods... your taste. How I managed to let you live for three months... to delay this _ecstasy..._I have no idea. But I'm going to kill you now. For forcing me to wait."

Without so much as a grunt of effort, he threw Alex across the entire room, straight into the old mirror. It smashed, and pain shot through Alex's body. He landed hard, groaning and, as he raised a hand in a wild attempt to ward off the predator moving slowly - playfully - towards him, he realised that he was bleeding in almost a dozen places. It stained his white fur scarlet.

"Broken glass." Damian's golden eyes seemed to be on fire with sadistic delight. "Don't worry, little one. There aren't any serious cuts. It's not fatal. I, on the other hand...am."

He padded quietly over to the sobbing vulpine, trapping him against the wall. Incredibly tenderly, a single claw reached out, and gently caressed his cheek. Alex tried weakly to get up, and a claw pinned his arm to the floor as the gryphon crouched down low over him, like a bird of prey shielding his kill from scavengers. Damian smiled tenderly, and licked his face again, lapping up the tears with murrs of delight.

"Look...for god's sake...Please..." Alex whimpered as he felt his muzzle and face be ravished by the probing tongue, hungrily trying to taste every last drop of his blood and tears. "I...I'll give you anything."

Damian stared down at him for what felt like aeons, his eyes smouldering with hunger. Then he sighed. "Little foxie... you just don't get it, do you?" He gave the fox a long, slow lick from chest to chin, shivering with delight. "You are already giving me everything. Your body... your mind...your whole life. It belongs to me now." He kissed his victim, impossibly gently, on the forehead. "Goodbye, little one."

He smiled, almost sadly, and his beak clamped down on Alex's head, engulfing it entirely. Saliva instantly drenched it completely, the tongue coiling hungrily around it's prey. Alex howled with despair and anger, tossing his head, trying to pull in every direction he could in a frantic attempt to escape. All around his skull, he felt the soft, dripping flesh stretch and rub against him, but it did not let him go. His head vibrated with the sheer force of the gryphon's delighted growling.

Aw... Damian's voice chuckled playfully, right inside his mind. Trying to get out, are we? I'm truly sorry, Alex... but I'm hungry . Alex could feel as the tendril of the gryphon's conciousness twisted sinuously inside his head, invading his most personal and private thoughts with ease. He sensed the sadistic delight the predator felt, like a schoolchild in a sweetshop where you didn't have to pay.

And, oh god, it hurt, so much that he felt blood begin to drip from his nose. Immediately, the slick tongue was there, gorging itself on it.

Damian swallowed once, dragging his prey a full six inches into his gullet. Gritting his teeth, and still whimpering slightly, Alex tried to ignore it all, twisting frantically in a desperate attempt to free his hand from the grasping claw. It gripped tighter, and he snarled with as his claws, all neatly trimmed, tried to tear at the tough scaly skin. They failed pathetically, and the slick muscular walls squeezing and rippling around him shook as his killer laughed mockingly. He felt another swallow bring his shoulders into the hungry throat. Then the mental agony spiked as Damian lazily touched his mind again, taunting him, and for half a terrible, terrifying second, he saw his struggling, dripping, bloodied form from the outside, inside the gryphon's beak up to his chest.

Don't you look beautiful?

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Alex screamed out in blind rage and hatred, his free hand flailing as he tried to punch the black-feathered head from the outside. It connected, but too weak - the only response he got was cruel amusement, emanating from the gryphon's mind like heat from a furnace. Damian swallowed again, letting free his right paw at last, but his arms were trapped inside the beak. The tongue was still lashing across his chest, gorging itself on his taste. He howled, squirming back and forth, his only thought to hurt his killer, make him suffer for every second of this.

And he couldn't. Alex felt tears on his cheek, mixing with the dripping saliva as Damian swallowed again, the tongue stretching to tickle his navel. He couldn't hurt this monster, he couldn't save himself, he couldn't do anything. He was utterly helpless, his fate in the hands of another - a merciless sadist. He wept with rage and fear and anguish as another gulp took him further in, his form, still struggling hopelessly, stretching the gryphon's throat so much that no natural creature could have withstood it.

"I...I hate you."

I know. It is pure ecstasy. Damian groaned with gluttonous pleasure, gulping three times in quick succession. Only his prey's calves, feet and the tip of his tail were outside now.

It won't be long, little one... and then we'll be together.

Alex felt the gleeful cruelty hit his mind like a tidal wave. He howled as it ravaged through his mind, kicking out desperately, gasping with fear, hatred and exhaustion. His fluffy tail was caught and crushed painfully by the gryphon's slick tongue. He could feel it wrapping around him like a snake. Snarling and sobbing, he tried to claw at it, but his arms were crushed by the squeezing, slick muscles of the predator's throat. The low roars of delight were deafening him, another swallow leaving only his flailing feet outside the ravenous maw.

And then it all stopped. Everything froze, except for the throbbing beat of Damian's massive heart, and Alex, who was still shaking uncontrollably. He felt a desperate hope: was it remorse? Was the gryphon going te let him go. Please. Oh please. Yes yes yes...

Goodbye, little one. Damian said gently, and swallowed, one last time.

No.

Alex broke down utterly, howling and weeping with pure grief as he slid into the confines of Damian's stomach. The chamber was far smaller than him, but it stretched with an obscene delight. He felt the acids begin to burn, and his own mind begin to cloud as the stale air granted him the kindness of oblivion. He twitched spasmodically, barely aware of the pain he felt as his eyes closed, his life ended and digestion started.

And so began the many deaths of Alexander Williams.