FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Much alike to the diner she was in only a few long minutes before, this building was in a state of incurable disorder. Once more Serena gave a snorted cringe to the layers of dust collected upon the surfaces she examined, it nearly causing her to sneeze at times, if she hadn't caught herself.

Serena had forced herself into a small den whose function seemed to be along the lines of a sort of sitting area, at least from what she gathered. Small cushioned chairs dominated the chamber, the lot of them looking quite comfortable if it wasn't for the fact that they were covered in dust and garbage. In one corner there was a heap of clothing that made the feline suspicious, assuming right off that one of the shrouded figures was within it. Carefully she approached the bundle and nudged it with one of her feet. Nothing happened. Relieved with the fact that it was just an ordinary pile of clothing, Serena continued her examination of the room she was in. The wall adjacent to the clothing was home to a wide windowless booth with a counter and, amusingly enough, a bell. She looked into the booth, noticing then a number of keys that hung from numerous dull hooks upon the wall beyond the counter, obviously the guests checked in here.

As she took in her surroundings the racket continued on. Outside the door the mob continued running down the street, to an unknown destination. The shouts were numerous and panicked, indistinguishable in their complexity, as it seemed like many of the figures were trying to shout at once, there by succeeding in only producing a sort of loud cacophony of nonsense. Serena wouldn't have given the mob another look, for something else was making it hard to hear, and that was the dull but intimidating boom of the bell. Being indoors hadn't silenced its overpowering song, how many times had it rung so far? More importantly, when was it going to stop? No matter how Serena prepared herself for the next ring, it'd always startle her, sending a shiver of surprise along her spine which made her want to find a place to hide all the more faster.

She stretched her arm over the counter and snatched one of the keys from the wall, figuring it better then not to get one of the keys incase the room she choose would be locked. Serena hurried herself to the stairway that rested upon the wall opposite the entrance and moved herself up to the next floor. The key she had snatched had '2E' etched into the wider portion of the small metal tool, and she assumed that this meant her destination was to the second floor of the building.

The ascent made her calm, just knowing that it was very unlikely to be discovered by one of the shrouded figures put her mind at ease. Even the simple notion that she wasn't on that blasted street made her happy, though, the tolling of the bell disquieted her newly found calm. At the same time, it fortified her want to get to her room, which shouldn't be much longer now. Even now she was overcoming the last step that introduced her to the second floor. Without pause she moved through the semi-cluttered hallway where the most obtrusive of garbage was in the form of clumps of papers and the occasional broken chair. Through process of elimination she reaches the appropriate door and was delighted with the fact that she was right about her assumption.

Quickly she moves the key into the doorknob and gives it a few twists before a familiar 'click' resounded within. She opens the door and moves into the room, ejecting the key before shutting herself from the hallway. The room was quite plain, it having followed the wall pattern of the hallway in its own design. In its day the room would have been charming, but now, like the rest of the town, it was simply decrepit. The wallpaper was beginning to peel and bubble, and the single bed that she could see was all tousled about, the blankets strewn about the room with the mattress itself wedged against one of the corners. The pillows themselves must have been entangled within the blankets. Opposite from the bed there rested a desk of drawers with a television upon it. Serena would have blinked in surprise to the site, for it was the only technological thing that she had seen in some time, that is, aside from the power lines and the empty lights. A bathroom, the room had as well, but the feline didn't dare venture into there.

Then something changed. It took Serena a few moments to pick up on what exactly it was but when she did, she again felt that sense of relief. The bell had stopped, and the shouting in the street was quieted. The silence she had endured before surrounded her once more, but now she felt secure, safe, away from prying eyes and the looming gloom of the town. Indeed, her situation hadn't improved much, and she knew this, but she could spend the night here and start afresh in the morning. The only thing that bugged her now was the absence of a clock, but even then, that did little in harming her current spirits.

"Well, might as well make myself at home!" She chirped to herself, almost cheerfully. Serena's dainty figure would step forward, surveying the extent of the room's damage once more before paying heed to herself, she gasped, aghast with the condition of her precious outfit. There were streaks of dust clinging to the black material, dust bunnies fraying the ends of her skirt, and even tears! She would have shrieked if it wasn't for fear splitting the dense silence about her, so instead her frustration is soothed with a slew of mumbled curses and a series of patted strokes along her abdomen and the layers of her skirt.

It's then that another sound occurs.

The sound would travel as a vibrating murmur through out the all of the town, moving through the streets and into the buildings, choking out the silence with an imposing force. It enters into the room Serena had fled to, raising now in pitch. The ascent is dreadfully slow, it causing Serena to tense herself, her paws moving to clasp down upon her flattened ears for fear of them splitting from the insurmountable volume that the sound rose to.

The siren bellowed, encompassing the entire town in its call, its warning, and everyone but Serena would know what exactly it was warning for.

The feline would have been holding her ears so tightly that they themselves would have been ringing from the pressure. Not realizing until some moments later that the siren would have stopped, or was it fading away? Things were happening quickly, her senses were having a hard time keeping up. She looked around herself and watched as the shadows in the room started to stretch across the room, crawling with a slither up the walls and along the floor, formless and complete in its metaphysical composition.

Serena stammered as the calm that she had felt left her. The world of reason that she knew existed was being torn apart and unmade. The shadows around her continued, hazing her vision with its thickness as it seemed to strangle the very space itself. The room was now nearly fully engulfed, save for the sparse inches that surrounded Serena herself. She sighed with tense whimpers, muttering feeble restraints to the darkness as it began to close in upon her,

"No... Stop, please!.." She choked out, but the darkness didn't heed her. It felt neither cold nor hot, but neutral in such a way that only the absence of space could cause one to experience it fully. A scream would have left her throat, that is, if she had a voice. The darkness seemed to even consume sound in its wake, or did it? She couldn't see, couldn't hear, everything now was blank and devoid, there was nothing.

But, wait... What was that? Slowly her vision began to return to her as the complete haze of the darkness began to subside. What it revealed was a coming horror. She looked around herself, the shadows retreating now to their little abysmal crags that began to form along the walls. She was in another world. All about her the dull color of what she thought to be a deep copper, or a burgundy, reigned supreme. Around her the room was changing as the wallpaper tore itself upward in little streaks, revealing a sickly flesh like composition below. Solid, but ravaged by some eerie force that she knew not the origin. The devastation didn't stay with the walls however. All around her, everything was changing, the mattress and the blankets tore themselves apart until they were stained heaps of fabric with only the merest of hints of what they once were. The stains... Blood. It had to be, only blood could make that sickly maroon color, and what was worse, it seemed to be smeared. But it was everywhere, that burgundy on the walls had to be the same thing, for it was dried upon the disgruntled surfaces of the room in meandering and random patterns. A struggle had occurred, some time ago, and it was gruesomely violent.

Serena would have been shrieking, screaming at the changes that were surrounding her, for fear had gripped her like a vice and wasn't letting her go. The transformation was complete. She was in some horrid nightmare of macabre images and sordid surroundings. All about her the dim haze of the darkness that had faded still seem to cling to the air, making it difficult to see even the ceiling, and impossible even to see far off corners.

The palpitations of her heart were rapid, causing her chest to clench in a strain whenever a shriek left her sore throat,

"Wh-What is this?.." She whimpered out weakly as she set one of her paws upon her pumping heart, trying to slow it as she caught her breath, taking in long draws of the stale and strangely pungent air. As all this was developing Serena would have been taking small steps backwards, and she nearly gave another shriek in surprise as she connected with the wall. She'd turn to make sure that it was, indeed, nothing more but a wall. But even so, the surface was ripe with the dread surroundings that befell.

Slowly her composure would retain itself, at least as far as to keeping herself quiet aside from the trembling of her jaw and the deep breaths moving through her snout,

"I... I have to get out of here." A conclusion is quickly drawn as she hurries towards the apartment's door, reaching now for the rusted doorknob and opening the door with as much haste as she could allow herself. What awaited her made her mind numb.

Before her stood dozens of small beings, all of them looking up to her and fidgeting around as if to some cryptic rhythm that only they could hear. They were bulky and ill proportioned, their heads being nearly the size of their bodies and having stubby little arms and legs, of which were without hands or feet. The composition of their bodies was what made Serena freeze. They were black, with small smoldering spots scattered throughout the entirety of their forms, as if they were large chucks of ever burning ash. What she considered to be eyes within the featureless faces would be where the dim red glow burned brightest,

"W-What..." Once more her words are unclear, as she can't think of what to say, while at the same moment she is interrupted. The creatures give her a reply. It started with one, yet with that one started the cue for all the others. Low in pitch it would have begun itself, though this would have been but a mere dipped prerequisite as the whole hallway was soon engulfed by the shrill cry of the beings. It was piercing, and horrid, sounding as if it were a scream being amplified by a loud speaker. Then, they began to advance.

Serena's paws would have been clamped down upon her ears once more, eyes wide with unbelieving horror as she again started to retreat, stepping backwards awkwardly. The beings before her moved in erratically slow movements, thus so because of their scrawny legs. At times they would be climbing over each other, moving as if they were some sort of obscene mass of ash and smoldering flames, ever screeching, filling the air with the sound of unavailing rage and sorrow.

"No... No! Get away!" She cried, but her voice was drowned out by that of the creatures. Serena continued her backward track until she again met with the wall. But it felt a bit different then before, why? With her eyes glued to the coming mass she had her paws spread themselves against the flat surface behind her, which felt remarkably cool. Refreshing when compared to the gripping heat that had arisen. It was glass. The feline's heart would have jumped to her throat as she discovered this. She wheels around and grips the bordering frame and heaves it upwards. With little effort the window slides up, revealing a fire escape. With a tumbling jump she leaps out and strains herself to turn in order to close the window on the coming horde.

Serena barely allows herself time to actually check the integrity of the window as she heaves herself across the level of the iron clad platform and then begins to scramble down the steps. The creature's screams were still echoing within the building, but there were answers, all around her the shrill screams were rising, deafening her sense of hearing as she continued down the steps.

Her thoughts were in tatters, just where the hell did she get herself lost? How was this happening? Was she dreaming? She didn't want to think about it. All she knew was that she had to get herself to the street and run, and keep running until she was out of this place, or until she collapsed.

She reached the final stair and descended, frantically her head turned about in every direction for any sign of the street, but it wasn't in sight. Darkness loomed all about her, it was thick and made the changed scenery all that more unfamiliar to her. Suddenly, she hears a crash above her, and then the rain of glass as it fell against the steps. Without thinking she ran, moving along the narrow alley she had found herself in.

This alley was jagged, shifting and leading her into different directions. At times the screams lessened, while at other times they grew to a fever pitched howl. Confused and disoriented Serena continued on, dodging trashcans and rubbish along her way. She felt dizzy; the weight of her current reality was playing its part well as the hopelessness she felt made these few moments stretch themselves into minutes. It was hot; the chill air that she knew before the sounding of the siren was replaced with its polar opposite. The heat gripped her parched throat and gnawed upon her endurance, such only adding to the mental fatigue that she felt from the terrors that assailed her.

Her haste was ebbing, she would have began to use a nearby wall to steady herself as she continued. This couldn't be right, she hadn't found the street yet, but she had tried to meander through the right passages in order to do so. The only other explanation would be that she was leading herself deeper into the block. Whatever it was, she knew that eventually she'd come out onto the street, she just had to keep going, and not stop. But this seemed near to impossible. Serena's legs felt wobbly, and her head was pounding from the constant noise of the screams about her, she needed to rest, but for fear of the creature's discovering her, she couldn't. It would be now that her eyes perceived a definite 'opening' within the darkness,

"Finally!.." She gasped as she trotted forward, believing now that she had finally made it to the street, and best of all, undiscovered. Onward she moved, and sure enough the darkness opened up and revealed the familiar texture of concrete and tar. Hope was rekindled, and with this came a spurt of adrenaline as she began to run again onto the tarred surface... Only to careen headlong into a barrier that launched her to the ground upon impact.

Serena groaned, moving a paw to rub at her snout as she looked up to what she had run into. It was a fence, and it was still singing and fluttering from the impact that was inflicted upon it. She blinked a few times, taking in the recent development as she turned to gaze along the length of the fence, seeing as it connected to the hazy but definite wall at the far corner... Or did it? A thought came to her,

"No... No, not here!" She squealed to herself as she got back to her feet and clutched the rings of the fence, looking up only to see the jagged and disquieting feature of barbed wire,

"No!" Serena screamed as she began running along the length of the fence, pawing at the rings and reaching a corner. She turned and now took notice of the basketball hoop some feet to her side. The kitten's legs now gave out and she sunk to the ground, realizing the critical error in her thinking. She would have begun to cry if she wasn't so exhausted. But also, came the horde.

Coming from the alley that she had exited was the tiny dilapidated forms of the Screechers, numerous and wailing still as they walked and crawled towards her. There was no escape, and Serena knew this, but it was accented as she felt tiny little prods against her back. The tactile sensation made her scream as she wheeled around and started to crawl backwards away from the corner. The Screechers were there too, gathering all around the fence and even attempting to climb it.

Serena was silent, save for her tiny whimpers,

"Help me... Someone?.." Upon the ground, beaten, shaking, and exhausted, she awaited the fate that these things had for her.