Monster (Cartoon Cat x Reader)

Capture

You had been right to assume the hair-raising fear would intensify the closer you got to the door. You were barely keeping your knees from knocking together when you got to the base of the stairs. It was getting increasingly difficult to move forward through your growing terror. Then you stepped onto the first step. The anxiety vanished almost immediately, taking you suddenly off guard. "A perimeter... either a lure or a deterrent..." You whispered, looking around. Everyone had vanished inside with the setting of the sun, and it was nearly dark now.

You pushed the door open softly, finding yourself looking down a long and very dark hallway. You could only see the first couple of doorways, and then it all faded to black. She still felt eyes on her, staring from the darkness. She must be more afraid than she thought.... or there was actually something in there.

You lifted the camera to your eyes, turning on the flash. You didn't dare step inside that intense darkness with night quickly approaching, but a picture would give you a good idea of what to expect when you went inside in the morning. A click, a flash of light, and then it was done. You smiled uncomfortably, looking down at the image appearing on the small camera screen. Then your smile faded. You felt your eyes go wide, but you couldn't even draw in enough air to scream. You just stared at the camera screen, horror practically leaking from your pores.

On the screen was the dark hallway lit up as you had expected. But there... peeking out of one of the doorways....

A sound from inside the still open doorway startled you into motion, making your head and body jerk back up. The light of the rising moon illuminated the abomination before you. You thought the image was terrifying. The real deal was so much worse. You were breathing heavily, nothing in your face but pure, unbridled horror.

To start, it was tall. It towered over you, the top of it's head brushing the ceiling. It was slender as well, bearing a strong resemblance to a rubber-hose cartoon cat. It's eyes were pure black and white, the black blending into it's fur as it stared down at you. It's arms were slowly lengthening, white and apparently sharp cartoon gloves slowly dropping to the floor with them. But perhaps the worst part was it's smile.

The grin stretched across it's full face, it seemed. A Cheshire Cat grin straight from the deepest depths of primordial Chaos. The grin of a predator that has spotted easy prey. Alarmingly realistic looking gums and sharp teeth looked stained a strange reddish brown color, like dried blood. The teeth themselves were designed to rip, and tear, and cause pain without outright killing the victim. The edges were serrated, and there were too many of them. It looked too human and too much like a creation from the tortured mind of Lovecraft all at once. The only thing portrayed by that horrible smile was intent so malicious the devil himself would run for his life. It promised pain, a slow demise as you were torn to shreds, piece by piece. And you believed that smile was coming from a creature capable of doing just that.

You glanced towards the floor, trying to look away from the grin, and noticed that the arms had reached the floor and KEPT GOING! The sharp, clawed, gloved hands were inches away from your feet. The arms they were attached to slithered along the floor like they had minds of their own, disappearing into the darkness only to reappear going back up to connect to the creature's shoulders. All the time, from the corner of your eye, your mind registered that the cartoon cat didn't move, just continued to smile and wait patiently for you to end up in it's grasp.

Finally, instinct took over your body. Adrenaline flooded your system. There was only one thought on your mind now. Run. You took a hasty, terrified step backwards. Your foot slipped as they found only the empty air leading to the stairs. The hands and arms suddenly lunged forward. There was a blur of black and grey and blue and white. Your back hit something hard and you slid downwards. You came to a rest at the foot of the stairs.

You weren't even laying there for a full ten seconds before you were scrambling into a sitting position, crawling backwards toward the gate and the safety of the sidewalk as fast as you could. You and the creature made eye contact. It no longer had malicious amusement in it's eyes. It was angry. An anger so terrifying you couldn't think of anything suitable enough to compare it to. Your heartbeat pounded in your ears, fast and loud. The sound of a life about to end. Rational thought wasn't an option. Only pure, primal fear. Run. Run as far away as you can from this thing that you can't understand. That you should never have to get close enough to understand. Your frenzied mind took a moment to register that the thing now had a lot more arms and hands than you remembered, and it was moving quickly towards you.

And then you were on your feet and running as fast as you could towards the gate. But that thing was there, arriving as fast as only a cartoon or Superman could have, blocking your exit. Your feet skidded on a patch of milkweed as you hastily made a complete 180, nearly sending you flying straight into it. But you gained your footing and ran along the side of the house. You wouldn't go inside. Inside meant death. You could feel the thing moving, reaching, hands grabbing for you. You zipped around the corner without slowing down, almost ramming into the fence on the back side of the house in the process. You didn't stop. You couldn't feel the burning in your legs, the fire in your lungs, or the agonizing stitch in your side. All that mattered was escape. You heard the thing round the same corner with unnatural fluidity and grace, gaining on you. Around the final corner. The gate was dead ahead. Unguarded. Just a little further-!

Something yanked your feet out from under you, forcing your body to slam forward onto the hard dirt and razor-sharp grass. A thousand tiny scratches covered your hands, arms, and face. The camera flew forward, off your neck, over the fence, and shattered against the asphalt. The somethings around your ankles were dragging you backward along your stomach, what looked like an arm began winding around your legs, then pinned your arms to your sides, then the hand at the end covered your mouth to stop the screams that weren't coming. The world looked blurry, you were seeing double, and you could see the black creeping in at the edges of your vision. But that smile... that accursed smile...

Your eyelids slid closed as your brain, exhausted and overloaded, gave up and shut down. You would be unconscious for quite a while. Cartoon Cat looked at you, passed out and helpless. Trapped in his grasp. Had he been a second slower, you would have gotten away. Just one second of hesitation and his finest prey would have been gone for good. He couldn't have that. Not with the fun only beginning. He carried you inside the abandoned house. The door closed, shutting out the last bit of natural light. There was only the darkness, and Cartoon Cat's sadistic chuckle as he bore you deeper into the twisted world that was your new reality.