⟡ ∿ 𝒪𝓃𝓎𝓍.ᐟ ∿ ⟡

as one does. of course

All the stories start to shift how he views the world. Figuring out like, how sad kids feel when their pet gold fish dies (how sad humans feel when their kid gets eaten). Or how growling isn’t very nice. What it means to be a person instead of a beast.

And Tommy, he yearns for the under-the-bed world, where you can mess up all the time and don’t have to do detentions or homework, and none of the other kids mutter about you in the halls. And you’re safe because you’re the biggest baddie around and you can just eat anyone you don’t like.

It gets hard to do even manage that the longer since he’s eaten.

For Tommy, well, it’s gotten a lot easier to bear now he’s got Techno to come back to. And he won’t ruin that for the world, and in the mind of a kid nothing is more powerful than an abuser. He’s so scared that Techno will get taken from him too, tossed out with all his other belongings. And he knows better to dig in the dumpster anymore after Dad caught him that one time— then he got locked in the pit of the garbage for hours. He can’t let his friend get tossed out too like his stuffed animals and photos and the small pocket knife he’d stolen for safety.

But no matter how hard Tommy tries to be good, it just doesn’t come naturally to creatures like him, like Techno. He messes up. He always will. And this time he goes running to hide under-the-bed because it’s the only safety he’s ever known. Besides, that’s where the monsters are meant to be. Alongside the loathsome beasts and the mongrels is where he belongs, or so Dad tells him.

Techno curls around the boy, the scent of his fear curling through his nostrils. He shudders at the terrible hunger in him, salivating at the prey burying itself in his clutches. And when the door slams open, the pure fear bleeds into the air, into the monster, who swells with ravenous power.

A large hand plunges under-the-bed, clawing into hair and yanking.

Techno stands over the corpse of the abuser, and in a frenzy feeds for the first time in weeks. The wrenching of bones from sockets and the crack of eviscerating teeth fills the room. And as the blood frenzy fades, the sound of crying. 

The fear is undeniable for a feeding monster. Techno lunges for the next prey, and the next, desperate after starving for so long. For the first time, Tommy’s scared of Techno. Of the thing that’s devoured the looming titan of his life. That sort of terror is a death knell, with a monster under-the-bed. Techno snarls in delight, making sure to scrape his claws along the floorboards as he approaches, relishing the fear. Tommy’s sob chokes as he slinks under-the-bed, the expectation of his death ensuring it.

Techno slowly, carefully, breaths in the scent of his terror. And then proceeds to devour every last drop of fear. A tricky thing when everything in him craves blood. But with great pains and precision, he eats only the fear and not the boy.

Tommy curls into him as his terror dies in chunks, leaving him with a strange null. He doesn’t know how to feel at all. Safe? Is this safety? Is this beast curled around him what safety feels like? Is the blood in its fur?