Senses, he was slowly regaining them. Consciousness, he was slowly obtaining it.
Regaining basic qualities that any human has and acquires, Lior was slowly waking up.
His consciousness began to review the last moments before falling asleep, trying to get a general idea of what he was about to see, but he never expected what was truly going to happen next. It is part of the process called "awakening" that everyone goes through.
Slowly, he kept waking up, with an incredible inner peace. He felt how his body began to gain strength. He felt the cortisol rising and the melatonin dropping. His muscles began to make themselves felt, his thoughts began to work, and just as his body dictated, his eyes opened…
[Lior: Eh?...]
"What is this?" he thought.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he noticed several inconsistencies, both in his surroundings and in his body.
Lighter, shorter, thinner, hungrier, weaker, and more delicate.
His arms did not respond like before. Every muscle trembled—heavy, strange. His chest tightened with each breath, as if he had forgotten how to inhale. His entire body felt alien to him… as if looking at himself from the inside were an impossible act.
[Lior: Wha… Wha… What?]
He felt new things, as if he had more limbs, as if his body were not his own.
[Lior: Where… am I…?]
He felt fatigued… extremely fatigued… far too, far too fatigued… as if he had not eaten for a long, long, long time. Soon, among all the sensations contained within his body, the truly predominant sensation reached him.
[Lior: It hurts…]
It hurts. It hurts? Why does it hurt?
Before getting home, he had not gotten into any fight and had not had an accident, yet his body was damaged. He had severe pain in his back, but he did not have the strength to say it out loud.
He felt weak, extremely weak. There was no explanation for any of these feelings, yet he still felt pain and fatigue. His body felt strange. It was a mix of curiosity and strangeness. It was such a—such a strange sensation. Somehow, it was different, but not in a bad way. He was confused, and for that very reason, he understood that he had to explore that strangeness and satisfy his curiosity.
He slowly brought a hand to his head unconsciously, more specifically to his hair. But he felt something strange. Two furry things, triangular in shape and quite soft. He stroked them a little purely by instinct.
[Lior: Ahhhrrrññmm…]
What a good sensation…
[Lior: aehh… Eh?]
Wait.
[Lior: What?]
Why does he have two strange things on his head?
[Lior: What did I touch?]
What did he touch?
[Lior: Why is that connected to my body… What is it?]
Quickly, he tried to stand up, but he felt something strange near his backside. He felt something long and undulating behind him. He turned to look at what felt so strange… but he froze.
His eyes widened when he realized what it was.
[Lior: A… a tail…?]
A tail.
"A tail?!" he thought.
It was a tail. It came directly out of his body, right from where he had felt the presence of something new near his backside.
He had a cat's tail near his rear and two cat ears in his hair.
"Why do I have a tail? Why do I have these cat ears? Who put them on me?" he thought.
He was extremely confused. Where had that tail and those ears come from? It made no sense.
He brought his hand to his head for the second time, wanting to confirm whether what he had seen and felt was real. His fingers brushed against the soft, warm fur of his ears. For an instant, a strange thought made him smile… and then he looked at his own tail swaying in front of him.
[Lior: What?]
He was not in a dream, since it felt far too real compared to when he was dreaming. At this moment, he had so many unanswered questions that it was uncomfortable. What kind of fetishist had put those cat things on him?
He quickly lifted his head to check his surroundings, but directly—instantly—his attention fixed on something.
[Lior: A door?]
It was a giant metal door standing in the middle of the room.
Suddenly, a thought came to his mind—a thought that made him stand up on his new, weak legs. Seeing the door in the middle of the room, he felt an extreme need to go toward it. He had to get there. He needed to reach it, but, from one moment to the next, he felt something large around his neck as he tried to run toward the door. That thing made him choke and violently pulled him backward. Chains rattled, and he crashed harshly onto the stone floor.
[Lior: AHG!— Cough— cough—]
He coughed violently after feeling the strong yank around his neck. It hurt, and it made him choke. He tried to grab his neck, but something large and hard would not let him…
What was that?
[Lior: E-ehh?]
He felt something hard around his neck, followed by a sound. It was metallic. He began to fumble with that metal, trying to understand what it was. He could not see in the darkness, since his eyes had not yet fully adjusted to it. He followed something continuous with his hand—it was metal, and it was quite long—until he reached a wall. He carefully felt the wall and the place where that piece of metal came from. It was flexible… but it was metal… How could metal be flexible? He felt something that he associated with a rope.
[Lior: A… rope?]
That was impossible, since it was made of metal.
His brain began to process the information it had received, comparing and searching through his knowledge and thoughts. It processed and processed. As a result of that slight machining of neurons, something new emerged—something strange, something miserable, something intimidating, something shocking, something despairing, something terrifying, something truly horrible. As a result of his thoughts, he felt a horrible, blasphemous, and truly… despairing emotion.
[Lior: I-Is… th-this… I-I'm… ch-chai… ned?]
He was chained.
[Lior: Aa… aaaaa… ahhh…]
Fear and terror consumed him in a second. His hands began to tremble, his legs began to tremble, his eyes began to shake uncontrollably. His mind went blank, and only one question remained there, in that white space called the mind: why was he chained? Soon, he began to be consumed by more emotions that quickly started to overflow, leading him to fully grasp what was happening to him.
He was chained. This chain did not allow him to move freely. Why was he chained? He had not committed any crime. What was happening? What? Why was he no longer in his house? How did he appear here? Why was he chained? What was going to happen to him?
[Lior: What am I…?]
Aside from the main confusion, another, secondary one began to surface in that moment of sudden desperation.
He had another body that was not his own. He had another voice that was not his. He was in another place that was not his home.
Suddenly, an extreme sensation of terror came over him. He felt extreme anguish. He felt extreme fear. And little by little, he began to grow more and more desperate. Many sensations and emotions followed, beginning to devour him. He began to feel emotions he had never felt before. He felt bewildered, stunned, incredulous, confused, dumbfounded, surprised, disoriented, shaken, alarmed—emotions, emotions, emotions.
"Why?" he thought.
Fear burned his throat. His hands trembled, his legs could not support his weight. He understood nothing. He could not scream, he could not move. And even so, desperation devoured him.
But…
In a moment of loss of control, his body forced him to look around, searching for the exit he had seen moments ago… but.
[Lior: Eh?]
He looked around and noticed people. There were several humans chained in the same way as him. Although those humans, like him, also had animal traits.
Rabbits… Cats… Dogs… Birds…
[Lior: W-Wh… at… is… this…?]
Seeing in the darkness with his new eyes, the humans with animal traits, wearing worn rags as clothing, were in horrific states. Some lay on the ground, others cried, others harmed their own bodies, others protected one another, others isolated themselves, others slept, others were dying of thirst, others were dying of hunger. The sticky floor gleamed with something he did not want to look at closely. Most of the demi-humans had both deep and superficial wounds. Fear was the predominant sensation in the room.
The smell was bitter and damp, the sound of sobbing and chains echoed in his ears. His entire body tensed. Every fiber of his being screamed to escape, to return to what he knew… but there was no return.
[Lior: Mom… Dad…]
"Help me," he wanted help. He begged for help with small tears that welled up from his eyes. Fear, terror, and desperation had eaten away at him. Soon, he curled up in his small space, clutching his legs in that position because of the overwhelming fear he felt. He began to sob, many tears spilling from his eyes.
[Lior: Someone… help me…]
He began to cry with fear in his voice—a voice that was not his. Who were they? Why were they like this? Who was he? Why was he like this? What was this body? Why was he imprisoned? What wrong had he done? Why did he have wounds? Why did they hurt so much? It made no sense to be imprisoned—there was no justification—it was a mistake. Was he innocent? Had he done something bad? Was this normal? Was he a cat? What was he? Was he human? Did he deserve to live? Was it worth living? Why was he hungry? Why did it smell so bad? Who was he? Who was he? Who brought him here? Who was he? Who was that?
[Lior: I'm… scared…]
He was scared.
[Lior: I'm… very… scared…]
He was very scared.
[Lior: Help]
Help him.
[Lior: Help…]
He wanted help.
[Lior: P-please…]
Someone help him.
[Lior: I… didn't… do… anything]
He had done nothing to deserve that treatment.
[Lior: Why?]
Why?
[Lior: Why?]
Why?
[Lior: Why?]
Why?
[Lior: Why?]
Why?
[Lior: Why?]
Why?
"WHY?!"
He clung tightly to his legs, squeezing them hard in desperation. His mind had been devoured by emotions. The only thing he wanted was to escape. To escape from that place, from his mind, from his feelings.
But…
"#### ## ## #### #### ###"
"..."
"#### ## ## #### #### ###"
"Eh?"
"###### ### ### #######"
"What… is… that—"
"—#### ### ## #### #####"
[Lior: W–wagh??]
[???: ##### ##### ### ########## ### ### ## ### ###]
[Lior: Is… that… a… voice?]
He was hearing a sound coming from the other side of the iron door. It was the voice of someone who was outside the prison.
All the humans with animal traits turned to look toward the door, and Lior did the same. It was pure instinct to look toward the place where the sound was coming from. Behind a metal door of considerable thickness, sounds could be heard—sounds that gave everyone hope.
Well… not everyone.
Some "humans" quickly moved away from the door and began to hide among other "humans." An aura of desperation from some of them began to spread throughout the room, but there were people so expectant that they did not take that emotion into account and remained staring fixedly at the door from which human voices emanated. Lior did not take his eyes off the door for even a second.
[???: #### ### ## ## #####]
[???: #### ###]
[???: #### ### ### ## ##]
The sound grew louder, and another tone—another person's voice—joined in. Were they saved? Were they going to be taken out of this horrible place? All the "humans"—or rather, those called "semi-humans"—including Lior, were expectant of the voices coming from outside, voices that were growing stronger and stronger. They felt curiosity and hope that a miracle might occur so they could escape captivity. That feeling remained in those who still held onto that sad hope.
They stayed like that for several minutes, expectant of what would happen. Until—
CRANK!
A loud sound echoed throughout the room. It came from the door—more specifically, from the lock. Some semi-humans approached to look more closely. Lior stayed away in a corner, as he was wary because of the reactions of the other semi-humans who did not hold even a trace of hope.
Little by little, the large door of the dungeon began to open. It was a gigantic door, one that Lior, in his current state, could never have opened.
The door opened slowly, as it was clear that it required a certain amount of strength to move it. A stronger light than the one inside the dungeon emanated from outside. He did not understand how there was light inside the confinement, since there was no visible light source nearby to illuminate it—but he could see. Perhaps it was his eyes, able to perceive a bit in the darkness.
Through the opening created as the massive door was opened, a silhouette appeared. A silhouette stood there imposingly. It was the silhouette of a human who slowly began to move closer and closer into the captivity after fully pushing the door open.
A man appeared, wearing worn clothing: light brown pants, a cream-colored shirt beneath a dark blue suit fitted to his large body, brown boots, black hair, and light brown eyes. He himself looked quite worn and tired as well. He carried a torch in his left hand, as it seemed he had opened the door with his right.
All the semi-humans, including Lior, stared fixedly at the man advancing toward the center of the place, their ears lowered.
It seemed there was someone else outside the area, as a shadow could be seen peeking from the spot where the door had previously been closed.
[???: ¿##### #### ## ######?]
[???: ### ### ## ## ####### ###]
[???: ## #### #### #### ###]
The man outside the dungeon spoke to the man who was inside the same dungeon. He asked him something that Lior did not understand, since he could not comprehend the language. The man inside the dungeon responded in some way with a gesture of correction, shaking his head from side to side in a clear no. The other man outside spoke in a surprised tone. Both men could be seen talking calmly in the place.
It was then, in the middle of the conversation between the men, that a skinny, weak semi-human slowly approached the man standing at the center of the room. Little by little. Crawling across the floor. Little by little. Dragging himself forward with the weak strength he had left in his arms. Apparently, the poor beastman had not eaten for a very long time. He had no strength and looked truly frail.
The semi-human with canine traits approached the man in the middle of the dungeon, and in the blink of an eye—
PLASH!
A kick was delivered directly to the face of the semi-human who had been sadly crawling on the floor.
[???: ¡#######!]
Almost at the same time as he delivered the brutal kick, the man let out a loud shout directed at the semi-human who now lay writhing in pain on the ground.
Clutching his face with his hands—blood pouring from both his nose and his mouth, his teeth shattered—the semi-human retreated as fast as he could away from the man standing before him. With tears in his eyes, he pressed himself tightly and desperately against the wall, begging for the overwhelming pain in his face to stop once and for all.
Lior, along with all the semi-humans in the room, watched what had happened with immense horror and terror. All the semi-humans fell completely silent and motionless, terrified that the man at the center of the room might set his eyes on any one of them. An aura of extreme fear and terror spread throughout the entire hall. No one wanted to be the next to receive a deadly blow—and if they were struck with that level of force in the horrible state they were in, they surely would not survive.
The man glared at the semi-human with an extremely furious expression.
[???: ahgg- shu]
He spat on him.
The semi-human had only approached him out of desperation, driven by the horrible condition he was in, seeking salvation through the desperate hope that the man had offered moments earlier to all those people trembling in fear and terror.
Once again, everyone remained expectant—and very quiet—so that their presence would not be noticed. The scene had been far too shocking and horrific. Little by little, the agitated semi-humans, as the aggressive man glanced over them quickly, calmed down against their will.
It was then that…
[???: ¿####### ### ##?]
[???: ### ### #########]
Pointing with a finger at one of the semi-humans present, he asked something to the man who was outside the cell. The man outside the cell made a positive gesture with his hands while responding verbally.
Quickly, the man approached the poor semi-human woman who was sitting against the wall, trembling in fear. He grabbed her by one arm, yanking her toward him to force her to stand and come closer. Then, with that same arm with which he had grabbed the cat-woman, he restrained her by pressing against her trachea, using leverage. The man carried out all these movements perfectly, careful not to drop his torch, which he held in his left hand. It was a movement so fast, yet so effective. The man clearly had experience in this field.
The semi-human woman shuddered. She was completely desperate and wanted to escape from the man's arms. She was terrified—she did not want to go with him. What was going to happen to her?
Why were they taking her? What wrong had she done?
Those were the desperate thoughts that ran through her mind. She felt fear, terror, anguish, desperation, and rage at being unable to do anything. She was being taken against her will and without any apparent reason.
She tried to scratch him with her claws, but she simply couldn't. The pain in her trachea forced her to focus on trying to push the man's arm away from that spot, since it was unbearable pain and it would not let her breathe.
All the semi-humans in the place slowly moved away so as not to be seen. They moved carefully, slowly, so they would not be noticed and taken to who knows where.
The man slowly headed toward the exit, dragging the semi-human chosen by the man outside the cell. The woman struggled as much as she could, but her efforts were useless. Little by little, she moved farther away—and at the same time closer to the exit door. With the poor feline-featured woman being suffocated, he exited the place slowly. Little by little. Little by little.
He finally reached the exit, where the massive iron door stood. Then he crossed through the doorway slowly, his arm still locked around the woman's neck. At that point, the woman's eyes had gone dull—suffocated, she no longer had the strength to struggle. In that very moment, she completely lost consciousness.
The man, having fully exited the dungeon, hurried to close the massive iron door. He closed it slowly. Slowly, because of its considerable weight. Slowly, until finally—
Chink!
The door closed completely.
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A sudden silence followed.