CHAPTER 5 – Thank You For Being A Friend...
We could finally see Bell’s house, it didn’t look to be in great condition but some windows were still intact, unlike my house. Plus, the doors weren’t blown off the hinges, so that’s a good sign.
Arthur took off down the road and I shot off to catch up.
“Hey! Stop! Get back here!” I quietly but firmly whisper-yelled at my dog.
He stopped and walked back, whimpering and groaning in protest.
“I understand your excitement Arthur, but we need to be careful. We can’t just run into shit head first without a plan. We need to be quiet.” Just as soon as I was done saying that, I looked up from the dog.
Around the side and back yard were Spriggans wandering around. I counted Six that I could see, this version looked bigger but less sick. There was a bright green aura surrounding them and lighting up the immediate area.
I pointed and directed Arthur to look.
The right side of the yard looked to be clear but it was difficult to see into the woods with all of the alien greenery popping up during our morning walk.
“We need to get into the house quietly. Then, we can make sure Lily and Bell are alright and get them out. We’ll have to sneak them back to our house, or clear the bad guys surrounding Bell’s house.” I explained, unsure of which plan I liked more at the moment, “Let’s just get inside first, then we can speak with Bell and figure out a plan. Maybe we can call for help.”
Arthur finally getting with the program, followed me as we crossed the road and dipped into the woods for cover. We got as close to the home as we could before breaking out of the thickening foliage and making a mad dash for the front door.
“Whew, made it.” I whispered, quietly latching the door shut behind me.
Arthur sniffed the air. I got a whiff of the same repugnant smell, and it wasn’t a good sign.
We moved from mudroom to kitchen, which looked to be the area that took the most damage. Probably due to all of the different cooking supplies Bell had, along with the microwave, electric range. Her big beautiful fridge was gone, it had the water and crushed ice on the door, I loved that fridge, I made my love and jealousy known...
“Bell! Bell! Lily, tck tck tck, ps-ps, Lily!” I whispered as we continued through the dining room, I had a dreadful knot in my stomach, growing tighter as we moved through the silent home.
It looked as if Freddy Krueger took a run around the house trying to kill something inside the drywall, or like Wolverine did his best impression of Spider-man on his way out of the house.
We entered the living room...
The grisly scene made me instantly want to vomit but I choked it down, grabbing Arthur by the collar to hold him back as he attempted to run in.
Bell was in her recliner.
It looked like she was on the phone when it happened, probably with her sister living in Florida since they talked every evening.
Parts of the plastic from her old cordless phone looked to be melted to the stump where her left wrist and hand should be. The other arm was cut off clean, like someone used a surgical saw to remove it.
Half of her face was blown off, almost like she was hit point blank with a shotgun. Her left eye hung from the socket, looking directly at me with accusation.
It was hard to look away from that eye.
When I finally did manage to look further, I noticed her leg.
Everything from the knee down was gone.
Another clean cut.
Further up the leg, a bowling ball sized chunk of flesh was ripped out. Her stomach was just an open hole with intestines stretched across her lap and the floor around her.
There’s no way a blast created this fucking mess.
“They... They violated—They—THEY FUCKING DESECRATED HER!” I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I screamed at the top of my lungs as I fell to hold Arthur who was howling.
As I knelt before this gruesome scene holding my dog, I heard movement and jolted back to my feet pulling Arthur with me.
We moved just in time, missing the strike from.
“Lily? Is that you?” I asked the cat, who was now bigger than Arthur, looking more like a demonic lion than house cat.
Lily was a good kitty, a silly and fun older cat, but just a cat.
Last time I saw her she looked like Mr. Bigglesworth before the hair loss, with long poofy white fur.
Now, she was bigger than Arthur, pushing 225 pounds with the build of a lion but much sharper and much longer fangs that paired with the deadly claws raking the floor.
Where beautiful long white hair once fully covered her body was now covering only 30 percent of it. The other 70 was blanketed by burnt, melted flesh. Small and odd geometric shapes protruded just underneath her skin, more focused under her head and legs. The once puffy tail, now thin and razor like, with what looked to be copper wires spiraling up to a deadly sharp tip.
Arthur began growling, all of his hair standing at attention.
A health bar popped into place above her that read,
[Lily – Guardian of the Spriggans]
Below that was,
[Transmogrified Native Wildlife]
As I read the name the room froze in anticipation, I heard a ding in my head followed by a notification then words appeared in front of my face,
Quest!
I read the notification,
[New Quest: Bad Kitty!]
Next to that was the description.
“Kill the Guardian of the Spriggans and clear the nest.”
We all unfroze, moving at once, I was running on pure rage.
Lily leapt at Mrs. Rowen’s body, sinking her face into the open stomach wound biting down and pulling out what was left of her intestines. She chewed on them while staring at us with her blood covered face.
Arthur was the first to react, sprinting at Lily full speed he ducked a swipe and bit down on her rear leg.
He pulled her off balance as I followed up, dashing at her with spear in hand.
My blow just seemed to piss her off as my spear became lodged in her side.
She shook wildly, throwing Arthur off of her and hitting me in the nose with the back end of my own spear as I bobbed to get out of the way.
She dashed out of reach while shaking the spear free from her stomach.
As we circled to size each other up, I pulled my Axe from my hip.
Arthur was unable to contain himself, he kept barking at the cat then lunged again, barely dodging her deadly swipes.
He went in and out, over and over, just like he used to do when they played. Only this time he was actually trying to hurt the cat. He was landing nips and slashes every attack.
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He held her full attention.
As she turned once more to swipe at Arthur, I lunged at her neck landing a clean hit on her upper shoulder.
The Axe got stuck in her shoulder and I was forced to let go.
I locked my arms around her neck as I drove my shoulder into her head to keep her teeth from gaining purchase.
While I attempted to push her over I felt her tail whip across my back, each strike sent an electrical pulse that made my muscles tense.
I was whipped and electrocuted four more times with her last attack piercing my back.
I glanced down seeing the tip of her tail poking through my right pectoral. The tail released a shock of electricity that stole my ability to let go.
I finally let go once the shock wore off, realizing I would die before I managed to wrestle her down.
Plus, I hated getting electrocuted, it happened once or twice throughout my life and it sucked.
This shock was much worse. My insides felt as if they were beginning to cook from the heat.
Arthur seeing me taken to the woodshed yet again, jumped into the fray.
Right as I let go, he scored another swipe but as he was bobbing to escape her reach she returned the favor.
I watched as the deadly overgrown claws raked the side of my dog, opening up multiple cuts across his abdomen.
My health bar was just under 50%, but I wanted it lower for the strength boost so I could rip this fucking abomination into pieces for what those claws did to my dog.
I rolled under the tail still frenetically searching for me, as I did I snagged my spear from the floor.
Lily noticed Arthur was slowed by the previous blow so she went for the kill.
I ran as fast as I could sliding on the hardwood floors under her tail.
While sliding I rammed my spear into her shoulder where the Axe was still embedded.
The strike expelled the Axe from Lily’s shoulder and it fell to the floor.
The attack opened the wound further leaving a deep punishing wound on the cat.
I thrust again, this time at her neck and I hit the bullseye.
I forced the now dull spear further into flesh.
I twisted as I ripped the spear out, watching her health drop below 30%.
I attempted to strike again but she dodged back swiping my leg in the process and finally dropping my health below 30%.
She followed up the claws by swiftly snatching my spear and biting it in half.
Arthur was still on the ground by Bell’s feet. I could see he was hurt badly but it looked like the bleeding stopped since my title aura kicked in to help regenerate his health.
Unfortunately, Lily also saw this.
She pounced at Arthur with mouth open wide.
I pushed this new speed to my advantage, jamming the small half of my splintered spear into her open maw to force her mouth to stay open.
We landed together, her mouth spread wide over Arthur’s entire head. I laid on Arthur’s side, my hand still inside Lily’s mouth holding the spear in place. I had to make a move before she broke it and took my hand and my dogs head off in one bite.
I threw a hard right cross into her snout knocking her head to the side as I released the spear.
She bit down, shattering the stick and hissing in pain as she backed away once more.
That’s the same hiss I heard from the bush at the beginning of Bell’s road.
Snapping back to reality, I made a mad dash to my Axe.
In one fluid motion I grabbed the Axe from the floor and turned it hammer side out swinging at Lily’s head to connect with her nose.
She swiped at the same time though. Her claws tore through my stomach all the way up to my shoulder.
My health was critically low, I began to falter then felt my “Bring It” title kick in.
I looked over to see Arthur getting back to his feet. I dodged follow up swipes as I back pedaled to the dining room.
Arthur should have stayed out of the fight like I told him to when his health gets low.
There’s no way he healed that quick, even with the shared regeneration.
But he is my dog, and they say dogs take after their owners.
This means my dog doesn’t listen well...
Arthur lunged at the cats front leg, biting down to get a firm grip then pulling toward her back feet.
While Arthur worked I swung at the base of her tail, separating the deadly appendage from her body.
I left my Axe where it landed in the floor and backed away. Arthur released her and did the same as she thrashed about the room.
She suddenly launched at Arthur again.
But I reached her first.
I lowered my shoulder and threw myself into her side.
I threw way too much weight as we both fell end over end, rolling across the room and wrestling for the dominant position, knocking over the recliner in the process.
When we stopped tumbling I was face to face with Bell. Lily was above me with her sharp paw digging into my chest.
Her claws extended, each dagger like nail slowly popped skin to enter my chest. Her mouth opened in an attempt to bite my face off but I reached up and grabbed on to her bottom jaw under her tongue with one hand.
It worked for a second as I forced her jaw to her chest and attempted to wiggle out of her grasp.
This technique which I learned from the youtubes, is what I used to stop Arthur from biting everyone when he was a puppy in his, “I’m gonna bite you for fun” phase. For some reason, when my thumb went straight into his mouth and pinched under his tongue, he couldn’t bite me.
Maybe that’s so with dogs, but not this giant mutant cat. She just looked appalled.
She went to bite my hand off but I slapped her paw as I rolled away from the recliner and Bell’s corpse.
I hopped to my feet then threw my shoulder into her side again but not as hard, just enough to knock her off balance and get my arms around her neck.
The ruptured wounds on my chest leaked the life that I was fighting so hard to hold on to.
“Arthur! PULL!” I yelled as I attempted to wrestled the mutated cat to the ground.
I threw a leg over then wrapped them inside her back legs as I put all of my weight on her back. I used that weight to roll her onto her side, just like I was taught in my little kid jujitsu classes that my father made me take as a child.
Thanks, Dad...
I tightened my grip around her neck.
Arthur bit onto the upper part of her leg, tearing and twisting in the same spot as blood erupted from the wound.
I finally had a good lock on her and I squeezed. Tighter then tighter.
This is when I noticed the shapes under her skin again.
One of the small rectangles was on the back of her head.
I could see “CTRL” written inside of the small rectangle.
They’re from Bell’s old laptop. I’m guessing Lily was sleeping on the laptop like she did most days after it was warmed up.
Who the fuck is doing this?
I will find them...
I’ll fucking rip them apart!
Lily was fighting with the last of her strength.
She got one more slash on Arthur with her back leg before I locked the choke in good and yelled, “That’s enough! Back off before you get hurt again!”
He backed away. Leaving to lick his wounds.
The longer and tighter I held, the less fight she had.
Again, I tightened my grip.
“I’m sorry kitty... I’m sorry this happened to you guys.” I said as tears flooded my vision.
I screamed out in agony as I tightened my grip one last time then squeezed with everything I had.
CRACK!
It was done.
I laid silent.
My vision blurry as I pushed the cat off to the side.
I cursed the world for what it was as Arthur laid down beside me.
I pet him from head to tail as we both just laid there.
Covered in our blood, and the blood of our once great friends.