Work Text:
They find themself somewhere dark. Not the comforting kind that soothes them to sleep - something that chokes them and whispers voices of shattered glass in the distance. Their chest tightens and they feel dizzy, almost. Is this the shelter? Where is this? Where are they? …Realizing they’re laying on dirt and almost sharp grass, They begin to get back up on their feet. They have shoes on, but they feel the wet soil like they’ve only got socks, and it smells like a mix of something metallic and rain. The familiarity of it makes them want to vomit.
Their eyes struggle a bit to focus, but they see faintly scarlet silhouettes of trees around them. They’re all so painfully familiar, bringing an aching in the cores of their bones… huge claws gauged deep marks out of the rough bark, and Kris can swear they almost hear the trees weeping. Like a magnet, they find their feet drawn slowly towards it until they realize the weeping is coming from somewhere else.
As if they’d memorized the place, they try to follow it, powering through the nausea. The sobbing gets louder and louder, the blurriness of it melting away. And in a clearing in the forest lies the bunker, its doors embedded into the hill now barely open, enough to let the thick smoke out. Enough for a tail to slip through, pointed at the end lying limp on the grass. And just barely can they see pink and yellow eyes through the small crack, waiting. As soon as they make eye contact, all goes silent.
They only take a single step backwards, but the tail whips forward and wraps around their ankle, yanking them towards the shelter. And they fall on their back with a short yelp. Kris squirms but it doesn’t really do anything, and neither does breathing heavier or their heart beating faster. Their hands grasp at the grass, their vision going blurry again, and all they can hear is their own heart beat… but once they're close enough- sharp teeth tower over them, bracing to bite down,
And they’re jolted awake. Susie’s kneeling over them, warm claws on their shoulders.
Oh. Right. They’re sick and Susie came to sleep over.
“Are you alright? …Nightmares about that cat again?”
“I… mmh…” They rub their eyes, coming back to their senses. It’s still seemingly at night and the lamp next to their bed glows enough for them to see each other’s faces. “...yeah. Sorry.”
“Why are you sorry. What.”
“I… I feel bad ‘cause you had to wake me up, I think, I dunno-”
“Well, stop it.”
“No promises.”
Susie affectionately rolls her eyes and grabs their water bottle. “Whatever, you gotta drink water. Pretty sure that’s how humans get un-sick or something.”
Kris begrudgingly grabs the water bottle, adding, “thanks,” before they take a long sip from it. They’re mostly okay now anyways but they won’t argue with Susie. “Weird how I keep getting those nightmares, tho-” a yawn interrupts, which Susie finds oddly adorable, “like, we got past the roaring 6-ish months ago. We haven’t seen that fuckass cat since then.”
Susie just shrugs, sitting back down on Kris’s brother’s bed on the other side of the room. She takes the blanket and wraps it over her shoulders like a big, fluffy cape. “What actually happened in it this time.”
Kris tries to remember, rubbing their eyes again with another yawn. “Um… it was kinda brief. I was in the forest around here, but it was all dark n’ red. And it smelled weird? Uh… I… heard someone crying and it kinda made sense in my head that it was… Dess… even if it didn’t really sound like her.” Another sip from their water bottle, and then they continue, “I tried to follow it. And it led up to the bunker. And… that cat’s tail was sticking out of it. It sorta… grabbed me by the ankle I think, and tried to pull me in. And it almost bit me but I woke up before then. Reminds me of that night Dess went missing but if I didn’t run soon enough. I dunno.”
“Oh. Shit.” Susie looks down at her feet, not sure what to say. “Want a hug?”
“I mean, I wouldn’t mind.”
Susie gets back up on her feet, approaching Kris, and they stand up as well. She hugs them, lifting them off the ground as she sighs, “at least I’m a monster so I can’t get sick with ya, hehah,” she then releases them. Kris chuckles with her, though remembering they’re a human is… well, not something they like to be reminded of.
As they sit down, Susie joins them.
…Kris asks, “is it alright if you stay here? I mean, um- it’s fine if you, don’t want to, uh…”
“Wuh? Yeah, that’s chill,” she tries to seem like she’s okay with anything though she’s actually quite overjoyed at being able to cuddle Kris. “Hold up, c’mere.” She lifts her arm up while still holding the blanket. Kris scoots closer and she holds them to her side so the blanket is draped over both of them.
And Kris, sort of self-indulgently, leans into Susie and they close their eyes for a moment.
“Um… I just remembered, but, uh… tell me to shut up if I’m prying too much but you haven’t actually told me that much. About that night when Dess… went missing.”
“Oh- I haven’t, actually… I prolly should, uhhh…” They sit there for another small moment, curled against Susie, trying to put together the words.
“You don’t have to tell me if- sorry, you- no pressure to say anything, um…”
“No, no, it’s fine. I’m chill with it and you kind of need the context anyways. Like, all you know is that I was with her when she went missing n’ the thing with that cat.”
“Oh- I… if you’re okay with it.”
Kris nods and starts, “she used to go wander around in the forest a whole lot when I was younger. My brother or I or Noelle would go with her sometimes but it usually wasn’t that big of a thing. But once she did it at night ‘cause she was arguing with her mom and wanted to get out of the house, I think? I don’t have much to say about that bit, honestly. Uh… everything was going well til’ she found some tail and chose to follow it. Like those idiot protagonists in horror movies.
But uh… yeah, we found that huge cat thing eating a deer carcass. We both flipped out and tried to leave but it chased us and grabbed Dess and it- ... It took her to the shelter and…” Their voice starts to get a little shaky. “...sorry, I just… ugh, my voice isn’t cooperating. fuck.”
Susie just pulls them closer, not sure what to say. Kris just melts into it more. “And the dumbasses in this town didn’t believe me.” They try to laugh it off. “I guess that’s reasonable to not believe but I was still equally reasonably mad about it.”
“...Are you /okay??”/
“Prolly not but at least I got to prove it with the huge ass cat bite on my side.”
“Wuh- I guess. But that’s not something to flex, Kris.”
“I can flex what I want- hh-” they suddenly sneeze into their elbow. “snff- sorry- blegh. But I do kinda wonder if that cat thing is still out there. We didn’t really kill it. You just kinda… thwacked it with your axe real hard.”
Susie shrugs. “Maybe let’s not think about it. I don’t wanna keep worrying about some demon stalking you.”
“Fair. But imma keep thinking about it. You don’t have to, though.”
“Maybe think about less bad things instead. That’s stupid. You’re gonna get nightmares again, and it’s like…” she glances at her phone, taking out of her pocket for a split second, “oh, shit, it’s almost 3 AM. I think we should go to sleep or something.”
“Oh, for real?”
“Why would I lie about that.”
Kris shrugs. “But yeah, let’s, uh, do that.” Susie lays down while still holding Kris, and while they’re stuck in a sort of cocoon, she manages to reach for the other blanket on Kris’s bed and she pulls it up over the two. Meanwhile, Kris reaches for the lamp, adding, “um, thanks, also. For the hugs and waking me up n’ stuff.”
“Wuh? Oh, yeah, of course, dumbass. Now let’s get some damn sleep.”