Chapter Text
Heavy breathing rasped around the field of flowers as a man ran desperately. His hair matted and tangled with branches and dirt, his clothes, once a nice average outfit for a summer day ripped and bloodied, his skin bruised and covered in small scratches, and finally his back, bearing the mark of scratches not big enough to be a bear's but too small to be a wolf's.
The man ran and ran, periodically turning his head to see if whatever was chasing him was still following him before continuing on desperate to escape. And as he saw the edge of the field a clawed hand grabbed his ankle pulling it backwards and hard, causing the man to fall forward and hit the ground hard.
As he desperately clawed at the dirt in front of him and kicked at the hand that grabbed him, he could feel it pull him closer and closer, his attempts to run futile and useless as he felt the grip strengthen and start dragging him backwards.
As the thing pulled backwards he could make out a voice from, whatever it was. It was raspy, old, yet still had a formality to it. "Come on that's no way to treat a new friend now is it?" It asked, adding in a mocking tone as if to rub it in that this man couldn't run away.
The creature rolled the man over and lifted him up to look him in the eyes, and the man could get a good look at this thing. It had a cat-like head, but it's eyes looked too human. it's body furless and skinny as if it's been malnourished since it was young, so skinny it's ribs were countable, and where it's lower abdomen should have been was just a spine that stretched as far as the man could see and without an end in sight. It's neck much longer than it should be, it's arms reached and clawed at distances they shouldn't be able to reach.
After watching the man as he froze in place, it let out a laugh, not one of amusement, it was one of pure sadism and it realized just how helpless the man was. The man, panicking could only bring himself to ask one question "what are you?" And to that the creature responded, "why, my dear friend, I'm usually just called 'the cat' but that's not what I'd like you to call me." It laughed again before getting back to talking, "what I'd like you to call me is 'friend' since I know we'll be really close."
And with that the cat lifted its head and opened it's jaw, the jaw opening much farther than normal, and it raised the man closer before snapping it's jaw shut, taking the man's head off with a single bite.