The Dream That Turned Real: The Canine Underworld - Part 9
#9 of The Dream That Turned Real: The Canine Underworld
A temporary ending for the series due to writer's block, as well as other stories that need to be worked on. There shall be more in the future.
The Canine Underworld #9
Part of The Dream That Turned Real series
Earlier...
(Third Person)
The minotaur looked around, everyone wide-eyed, Mike even shaking from listening to his tale.
"Something troubles you, Mike?" he said.
"I think Mike's a lightweight when it comes to horror stories. I swear, if he were wearing boots, he'd shake'em to bits." Dan told Gorn before looking at Mike. "Don't worry, I'm not making fun of you. I mean, you've gone through so much already."
"Good going, now he's not gonna be able to sleep anymore because of that." Ryan told the minotaur before tending to his mate.
"That was kinda harsh." Gorn mockingly said.
"I wouldn't say anymore, Gorn, 'till Mikey's all better." Dan told the bull-man.
Dan, Gorn, and Lupo left the shelter for awhile, to let Mike recover, and split off to do their own thing. Dan was rebuilding his skateboard, Lupo tended to his dragon, and Gorn was weightlifting with boulders.
"That was, ah- wow. Pretty nasty story, that was, huh, Mike?" Ryan asked the still-trembling werewolf.
"Y'know what? I now regret even thinking about asking that question." Mike replied. "I guess I had that one coming, payback for hurting Dan."
"Hmm." Ryan confusedly agreed. "So, wanna tell me why you freaked out earlier? What was the worst part of Gorn's recollection?"
Mike and Ryan cuddled up against each other. "I can see things in disturbing detail. So disturbing, it's just... scary." Mike said.
"Well, that's something I'll need to know about for later, so if you can handle it, can I ask how scary your thoughts are? I know I've MindLinked with you countless times, but I've been respecting your privacy, so I never went past communication."
Mike turned to look into his lycanthropic mate's eyes. "Are you sure you wanna know? Some stuff in my mind is, in a way, so morbid, only a peek you'd take, and you're screwed for life."
"Hopefully they're not the kind you commit suicide after looking."
"You'd be suprised."
"T-They are?"
"Picture yourself in Gorn's dream, on the chopping block. Now take it frame-by-frame as the knife comes down on you. You can feel it, pushing down your skin for a split second before it breaks through and severs your spinal cord, tasting blood and metal as it cuts your jugular and throat, as the blade comes to rest on the wooden block."
"Now, envision your surroundings fading to blackness as your head falls into the basket set before you, your ears hearing nothing but that blade effortlessly slicing your head off your body. Your brain only has a few seconds of useful life left, so what does it do? It pushes the self-destruct button. All your memories, experiences, everything disappears... and you become nothing." Mike finished.
Ryan's jaw hung open, his eyes opened wider, as he took in all that information.
"Whoa," Dan said as he and Gorn stood in the doorway, "I can't tell if that's happened to you before, or if that's a fetish you want to try out."
"Well, if that freaked you out, I got one worse." Mike told the dingo. "This one comes from a movie I saw when I was younger. There was this guy, who was strapped to an electric chair, but instead of electrocuting him, the bad guy had the victims' head.. in a table vise."
"Now, the bad guy's assistant got the honor of cranking the vise tighter and tighter, until the victims' skull was crushed to bits. Now the fun part: the breakdown."
Gorn and Dan looked at each other, the same thought flashing through their minds: How does he know what it feels like, to be killed in such a manner?
"If you imagine yourself as the said victim, you're in the chair with the vise at either side of your head. Evil assistant starts winding the crank, and suddenly you can feel the pressure, and it's more worse than the worst headache you've ever had. In your head, you can hear your skull starting to fracture, even as you're screaming from the intense pain, while you start bleeding out from your ears, then your nose, then your mouth."
"Your brain pulls the alarm, and tries to save itself, but then... " Mike paused. Holding a small Demon's head a bit larger than his fist, he crushed it between his palms using half his full strength, as all the blood and brain matter spewed out from between his hands, the eyes popping from thier sockets at the three.
"You're instantly blind from your eyes exploding, and your brain turns into mashed potatoes. A slower, more painful execution than the quicker guillotine method, I'm sure." Mike finished.
Dan looked at the werewolf, amazed at the graphic detail Mike had put into describing death from the victim's point of view.
"After hearing your breakdown of my execution, I can actually feel it, like I were still asleep." Gorn said.
"So, you've had 'those' thoughts before?" Dan asked Mike as they sat across from eatch other. "The ones where you're the one getting snuffed?"
"Sadly, that's for real. Had'em going through here for a few years."
"You must've had it rough at that age." Ryan said.
"I've heard of some who had been tortured so by thier own thoughts; They could not handle it, so they acted upon their thoughts, and, well, you can figure out what happened after that." Gorn said.
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It had felt like days had gone by, weeks maybe, since Mike and the others had entered the realm. So far, they had battled at least twenty-one thousand Demons, built and destroyed stuff, were contacted by Lycaon, and of recently, scared each other with horror stories. Gornak, having been in Hell longer than them, was more at ease, while the others tortured thier minds as to what to do to keep active. Having exhausted nearly every reasonably mature activity, they resorted to going into a sort of hybrid sleep, where they were deep in thier sleep, yet were aware of anything from outside sources, i.e. any threat of danger, and they were up and ready to fight once more.
"Gorn?" Dan said.
"Yes, Dan?" came the deep-voiced reply.
"If we're ever destroyed by any demons... I want you to know that it's been a pleasure to have seen you again, and to have fought by your, and the others' sides."