that appeared to consistently happen in their neighbouring (and completely going down in the next football tournament) town of Night Vale.
Surely one must count their blessings instead of the transgressions.
Paws pounding against the pavement, adrenaline pumping through his body though this had become a regular occurrence for him since he'd accidently given away his existence during the last Desert Bluffs vs Night Vale game, Seth sighed in irritation, trying to figure out a way to get these
morons off his back...And so, consequently, didn't see the last net before it was too late.
Running at full tilt into it, ropes digging into his fur and biting deep into his flesh, Seth yelped loudly, trying to elevate the pain, but it only seemed that if he squirmed they got tighter and he quickly dropped the useless endeavour, panting as his golden eyes glared at the blank face-masks of the strangers that held him captive.
Then everything went dark.
XXXX
When he next awoke (a surprising thing in itself, as Seth was pretty sure that he’d have been set on a laboratory table and dissected before he had the chance to see the world again,) his surroundings were a very boring, very bland
grey.Honestly, they should have gone with the stereotypes. White was so much more fear-inducing to wake up to than
grey.
Then again, blood was probably easier to clean out of grey walls than it was to clean out of white ones.
That grim thought made his joking side take a break and he sat up slowly, muscles stiff with both tension and underuse.
Obviously having been waiting for him to wake up, a whole group of humans wearing lab coats and identical faces entered the room, a bustling group that didn’t leave him anytime to try and slip out the door under their feet, no matter that he couldn’t do it anyway when his legs felt like limp noodles.
And he didn’t just mean identical in that they were all twins or triplets, or octuplets or whatever; he meant that they had an entirely the
same features, even down to the hetero-chromic red and gold eyes that they sported.
Oh Lord.
That definitely wasn’t disturbing in any sense of the word.
“Kill your double!” One of them said, and the whole group of them nodded in tandem, obviously agreeing with what their leader had said, as though it
wasn’t completely ludicrous.
Seth stared, one eyebrow raised and he leaned away from the humans ever-so-slightly, about 95% sure he was hanging around crazy people right now.
Turning in one shuffling movement, a giant hive mind of human-like creatures, they parted to let Seth see the far wall, just as it dissolved into a giant black portal. He could feel the force of it attempt to pull him to his feet, fur rippling in that direction along his skin, and the Sauron pushed back, leaning away from the tug.
“Enter! Kill your double!” One of them called, gesturing to the portal, and then
all of them were doing it and now he was about 120% sure that they were all
certifiably insane! Firm hands rested on his back and Seth whipped his head around, not even having realised that the creepy beings had snuck behind him and were shoving him off his tentative perch even as he tried to fight back, nipping and growling but finding himself unable to fight back against them.
The last thing he heard before the portal swallowed him was the words, “Kill your double!”
Great. That was
exactly what he wanted his last thoughts to be about; his non-existent double.
Thankfully (or unthankfully, depending on how you looked at it,) he
wasn’t dead when the portal spat him out, claws sliding across aluminium floors and sending him skidding.
His entire body smooshed against a wall, stopping his forwards momentum before he crashed into anything breakable, and the woozy feeling he got as he tried to clear his head was only helped in driving him towards madness when he saw where he was.
A shiver worked its way down his spine as he looked around in confusion, and his tail flicked uneasily. "Where in the world
am I?”
Where before there had been the overpowering smell of chemicals and blinding lack of colour, there now appeared to be humans bustling everywhere, chattering around and completely ignoring his presence, bar one lady who had the
gall to pat him.
Pat him! Seth almost bit her hand off for the transgression, but refrained from doing so and slunk backwards, curling his tail around his legs. This unfamiliar land and strange customs was already driving a spear of confusion and the beginnings of a migraine pulsed at the base of his skull.
Well...I suppose I'd better find my double, and get them to get me out of here. Seth gave a half-growl, half-sigh, his next thought sounding bored and yet irritated, a nonchalant thing that any other would've been shocked at for thinking, had that not known him;
Or kill them. I suppose if all else fails, that will probably get me sent back home.
