Monster (Cartoon Cat x Reader)

Round One: Defeat

You didn't know how long you sat in that closet, listening to the silence, breathing as quietly as you could manage. What you did know was that, after an indeterminate amount of time, you still hadn't been caught. You had hoped that you wouldn't be caught, of course, but paranoia had left several nagging doubts in the back of your mind. Finally, you came to the conclusion that you had to open the closet and slip away. With luck, he wouldn't be out there waiting for you.

Suffice to say, he was out there waiting for you. When you first poked your head out, you didn't see him lurking in the corner just beyond the closet doors. You'd even taken a few steps away from the safety of your hiding place. That's when you noticed a bit of white out of the corner of your eye. The white turned out to be a clawed glove grabbing your arm. And then you couldn't help it.

You screamed.

The monster laughed, watching you struggle as hard as you could to get away. There was another scream as your sleeve tore and then you were away, blood trailing from deep scratches on your arm and his amused chuckles following close behind. "Run run run, darlin'~" His voice taunted you, close enough he might have been breathing down your neck. "You won't evade me long~"

That chilling phrase was enough to convince your legs to move faster. You threw yourself into a room at random, banging your shoulder against the door frame in your haste. You barely acknowledged it as you ran into the darkness towards the first door you could find. It led to another dimly lit hallway, like the ones at the start. There was a doorway to your left, and you ran through it as fast as you could. The room was just a bit brighter than the hallway, and there was a door directly across from you. You ran towards it. The scratches on your arm felt like they were on fire. As you opened the door and tore through, you risked a glance behind you.

Cartoon Cat seemed to have fallen behind. He was toying with you, you were sure of it. He wanted you to make this as interesting for him as possible. You kept moving. Your heart raced. There was an intense burning in your lungs and a painful stitch in your side, but you didn't stop. You walked, but refused to pause. Door after door after monotonous door passed. Room after room after random room barely registered. The scratches had stopped bleeding and begun to scab over. It didn't matter.

Finally, you stopped, falling to your knees with a hiss. The floor of this room was rough concrete, and blood from your scraped knees stained the white stone red. A dead end. No doors in this cold, dim room. Your breath came in ragged gasps, and there was the metallic, coppery taste similar to blood filling your mouth. Everything hurt. You had to rest.

You watched the door, waiting to see if that monster would come around the corner. Waited to see what new suffering awaited you. You doubted you had the energy to get away a second time. The sound of a heartbeat, your heartbeat, pounded in your head, distracting you from your thoughts. Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll just drag me back to the beginning. Were those footsteps, or was it just the slowly dying sound of your heart in your ears? It's just as possible that he'll make me suffer before dragging me back, though. Those were definitely footsteps. You could hear his chuckles too, echoing down through the empty rooms and down the hallways.

Why did you have to come to this place against all the warnings and rational thinking? Because I was foolish in my pride. I thought that the worst thing I'd face here was death. I was too confident to know better... With great effort, you stood up and stepped out of the room. You were going to face this son of a gun head on.

The chuckles had petered out and the footsteps had silenced. Another one of his games, most likely. Allowing you to think he was doing one thing when in fact he was doing another. It was likely a method that had worked for the entire millennia that he'd had to hone his strategy. It had worked on you plenty of times in this short time you'd been here, right? The darkness at either end of the hallway stretched ominously, hiding anything that may be lurking there. Anything over five feet away would be perfectly concealed.

.

.

.

The eyes were back. You could feel them on you, just watching... no... analyzing. Taking note of the way you stood defiantly in the middle of the hallway. Carefully scanning over your shaking knees, over your many cuts and bruises. Studiously trying to peer into your thoughts. Greedily, even. You couldn't tell where they were coming from. They just bore their way through you, as if trying to see your soul. In spite of your determination to face Cartoon Cat on your own terms, the hairs on your arms and at the base of your neck stood straight up. Fear and doubt wormed their way into your heart, encouraging it to beat faster in your chest. Still, you held your ground. You were too tired to do much more than that.

"You're quite unpredictable, aren'tcha?" A shudder involuntarily ran up your spine. So close sounding, but you couldn't see a thing. His voice was so light-hearted, so carefree... with an underlying feeling of a tiger luring out a young and inexperienced gazelle. "You can be mad with terror one moment, acting brave the next, running in blind agony still the next, and oh so defiant now. I wonder...." The abomination seemed to be circling you, and no matter how quickly or slowly you turned, he always seemed to be right behind you.

Something soft and fluffy, yet somehow unnaturally smooth, brushed the back of your neck and you spun around. Nothing. Cartoon Cat's chuckle sounded on your right, close enough you imagined you could feel him breathing. You turned again, even quicker than before. Nothing. "I wonder...." the monster repeated. "How much more you could take before your own delicate psyche forced your body to shut down~?"

Something white flashed from the corner of your eye. You didn't turn in time. Sharp claws slashed at your side, leaving deep, bleeding wounds. Agony like you'd never known shot through your nerves to your brain, scrambling any rational thought into nothing but impressions and disjointed ideas. You were vaguely aware that a male voice, high and cartoonish, was laughing. Your hand was pressed to the gashes, covered in thick, dark streaks of blood. Your blood. The metallic taste of the life-giving fluid filled your mouth, and your tongue hurt. Had you bitten it?

Each second ticking by felt like they passed at the speed of thought. Your thoughts were hazy, your eyesight blurry. Your cut arm... had the thin scabs broken open at some point? Or where those new cuts? Everything hurt.... there was a ringing in your ears drowning out any other noise. And finally.... the sweet release of unconsciousness.