This one is quite the bit longer than the first two parts, so strap and enjoy!
“SHIT!” I yell out as I slip for the third time in the 3 minutes since I’ve left my house. The storm was not only impacting my ability to run in a straight line, the wind pushing me left and right, but is also impeccable at leaving room for 0 traction with the ground.
And this time I rolled my ankle.
I reached down and rubbed it with a groan, but I know I have to keep going.
Kevin could wake up at any moment, and lord knows what they’ll do if they catch me. If he was so confident in deceiving me to gain access to my house, what else does he think is no biggy? Plus, I don’t want to know what they had in store for me upon waking up.
With that thought in my head, I let out an exhausted breath.
I wake up after letting another person into my life, and THIS is what I get?!... Why me, I’ve already got enough on my plate as it is, I don’t need a stalking, dating, dog-person thing to complicate it anymore!
I use my self pity to fuel me as I crawl over to a nearby tree, using its sturdy trunk to help haul myself back up.
I whip my head to look at the prior path I took, a shiver crawling up my spine. I swear I just hear something, and the whirring wind only complicates my confusion and fear.
With one hand on the tree to help support my throbbing ankle, I pull up my phone and look at the directions.
It takes a moment to load, buuuuut… 0.15 kms away!!! But the bus will be pulling up in 1:45 mins…
It’s not even a question of if I should stop now. Even as I take the first step and my ankle flares up to my hip, the only attention I give it is a groan. Even if I have to jog the rest of the way, at least I’m not stopping.
I consider leaving my bag behind, it being drenched certainly dragging me down, but the thought of being completely at square one is too much. Even if I have to save up and repair any water damage to my computer, at least it’ll cost less than buying a whole new one that has none of my saved files.
At least there's no incentive to go back… right?
I jog with that thought, keeping a pace in my head, my shoulders starting to hurt and my lungs starting to burn in the cool, humid air.
It only take another minute for another sound to catch my attention, but this time, I don’t pass more than a glace.
At first, I don’t see anything but the desert sand and sparse trees around me. It takes a bolt of lightning to outline the unnaturally large creature running through the brush, and its two large eyes locked on me like prey.
I don’t have time to react as he lunges at me, teeth bared and claws out. I get knocked off my feet first, and before I get the chance to yelp or scream, the wind gets knocked out of me from the hit of the tree trunk to my back with a crack.
My mind blanks as I lie in the mud, the quick flurry of events beginning to process.
My head hurts… Did I hit my head?... Why’re my ears ringing? Where am I? Where’s Kev? Where’s the bus stop?... I need to leave before Kevin finds me.
I faintly hear the sound of a deep growl near me, but I disregard it alongside the spinning world around me as I try to gain my bearings.
Pushing away from the tree behind me, I roll onto my stomach and oh I definitely hit my head… The mud that now cakes most of my clothes now pushes through past my fingers as I try and lift myself back up. If I had left my bag behind, I might've had a chance, but the dog… no, Kevin doesn't bother to help either. I barely register their snout pushing me back down, until my weak body gives out, shoving my face back into the dirt with a loud groan.
Before I close my eyes, I see a set of familiar paws caked in mud standing over me.
My body hurts, and my ankle is most definitely sprained... At least. Why did I pack a bag! Why did I think I could escape a wolf man! What’s wrong with me!... I’m so cold. I’m so lonely. I’m so tired…. I… I wanna go home…
“Hey! MC!” I hear him call to me.
I don’t have the courage to want to return to the real world again. This state of nothingness is nice.
“HEY! You didn’t hit your head too hard, did you?!?”
It’s his claws digging into my shoulders as they shake me roughly awake that strengthen me enough to rouse myself.
They’ve got me leaned up against the same tree I had just escaped from moments ago. With all the rain that got into them, my eyes feel like they’ve been crying for hours on end, and opening them is a struggle in-and-of itself.
At first, I only look towards the ground, seeing his bare feet… wait… Looking over the rest of him confirms my suspicion that he in fact did not re-cloth himself before leaving my house.
His concerned eyes look deeply into mine, and his wet hair drapes over their shoulders. I can easily see he’s only covering himself with the corny draws I saw earlier today because of how they’re crouched down to my level.
“MC, you with me?” They shake me again.
This time, I try and shake him off. Unfortunately, he just snickers.
“I knew you were strong, my little dove❤️.” They caress my cheek. I try to swat them away, but they ignore it, “Wanna know the good or bad news first, MC?”
“Fuck-” I suck in a breath, “-you!”
He sneers, “Bad news it is.”
Without further warning, he shoves a flat hand against my mouth, and before I can reach up to pry it off, they grab my ankle and give it a gentle squeeze.
I let out a blood curdling scream, neither one of his hands moving, even as I thrash myself around and dig my nails into his arm. I don’t need to look at him to see the way I have no effect on him.
They’re breath’s suddenly on my ear, his voice confident, cocky, only slightly louder than the rain around us, “It’s broken.” I open my puffy eyes, warm tears warming their path. I’m taken aback by his tongue shooting out to have a taste of them for himself, and I gag, using my minute strength to try and push them away.
He giggles, and for once, follows through with my unspoken request for distance.
I feel so dizzy that I consider if all this is a lucid dream, a really shitty dream. If I’m being honest with myself, none of this really feels real to begin with. What if I wake up, take Kevin's hair tie out, and they only have their two ears, human ears? Maybe I didn’t even go on a date with Kev yet. Or what if he isn’t real at all. Even knowing how lonely I am, I’d prefer that over all… THIS.
“I guess you’re wondering what the good news is, huh?”
I completely forgot that there was another side to this cold, wet, miserable coin.
They giggle, “Oh don’t make that face, look!” he speaks while reaching for something behind him… something in my bag he took, “Unlike your ankle, your back isn’t broken! Yea, after I heard you hit your back, I got worried, but no trouble,” They eventually find what they were looking for. It was my… no. “Your laptop took the hit for ya, here… look at that crack! It almost split in half! I don’t know what you were thinking when you packed it, but good thinking, ha!” He pats my head lovingly.
I slide further down the stump, reality truly hitting me like bullets that I just have to bite down and accept. The dread feels colder than rain.
More tears slither down my face and intertwine with the rain above. I close my eyes, my shoulders slumping, my body relaxing. There's a certain calmness I feel as my lucid state of mind becomes more and more present.
It feels like I’m looking at the world through static, everything is here, but not clear.
I feel the pain, but only dully.
Kevin’s speaking to me, but I can’t understand him.
They grab my drooping chin, but their nails don’t bite into my skin like before. Neither does the cold.
It’s a welcoming peaceful state in contrast to the past chaos filled 10 minutes that was shoved unceremoniously into my relatively uneventful life.
I don’t have the power to care when I feel myself being lifted from the ground, my body draping over the arms under my back and legs as I begin to rock gently.
The rain feels gentle, loving even, as it hits against my chest.
I feel like I can breathe again.
An unfamiliar rumble gently stirs me, encouraging me to peer out of my swollen eyes.
The rumbling wasn’t that of thunder, or of a particular voice, but rather the rumble of an engine, and I watch the bus, no more than an 100 meters away, drive off from the stop.
It’s the last thing I see before I allow the relief of sleep to take me away.
Where this ties back into the demo:
"I woke up on my couch, Kevin was sitting beside me, his legs relaxed on my coffee table."
(EDITED TO FIT MY STORY!!!) My writs were bound with duct tape, and my broken ankle was bandaged up.
My cry for help was muffled by the wad of duct tape covering my mouth."
I hope y'all enjoyed this mini-serise as much as I enjoyed writing it! If you enjoy my stuff, pls follow, or if you have any recomandations/ideas of what I could/should do next, drop it in the ask box!
You alr know, the person who created out beloved Dingo man is @kactiikitty, and if you haven't already played the demo (or if you want more of it), check out @ourloveiselectrifying. GO SUPPORT THEM!!!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!
