The Cat's Toy

Report Tape 4: Anonymous

Reporter: "Walk us through how you survive a Guardian Beast."
Anonymous: "You don't survive a Guardian Beast, you evade them. These Beings live for the hunt, they would follow you to the end of the world if they had to."
Reporter: "So you just have to outrun them?"
Anonymous: "Imagine you are a toy mouse, being flung around a room as a cat chases you. You fly up into the air, the cat is right behind you. You start weaving through obstacles, the cat flies through them. If you let you guard down for even a second, you're in the cat's mouth."

Anonymous stands up and walks to the door.

"You don't want to be the cat's food."

Report Tape 4: End

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*CRASH*

Mark stood still, frozen in time as he watched his view of the Guardian Beast shatter into dozens of pieces of broken glass and disappear in the darkness. Everything in front of him had just been a vision created for him. He blinked and the woods reappeared in front of him. He glanced down at his foot to see that the flame had dispersed, but he could still feel it's presence burning deep within his chest.

Not a moment later, he started running. The trees he passed turned into more trees and the scenery wasn't changing. He was glancing down, trying his best not to trip, but his body was still recovering from his earlier fall, so losing his balance was almost unavoidable. 

Running and running, his body pushed forward, refusing to stop for anything. His body was burning from the inside, believing that if there was an end, he was going to find it. As he was running, he felt something burn through his chest. A blue flame appeared from beneath his shirt with another warning.

"STOP"

Mark didn't react in surprise this time, choosing instead to drill his feet down into the dirt below to halt all of his forward momentum. He was breathing profusely, trying to regain any energy his body could manage.

A new message appeared in front of him.

"IT CAN HEAR YOU BREATH"

Mark couldn't contain his surprise this time. 

"How can it hear me, is that even possible?" He thought to himself, but his thoughts were quickly interrupted.

*Crack* 

Two seconds passed.

*Boom*

It was very faded, but the sound of trees falling could be heard to his distant right. 

Mark started taking slow, deep breaths to pace his breathing. But as unathletic as he is, he still sounded like he had just completed a triathlon. 

*Crack*

*Boom*

The sound of falling trees was getting rapidly closer. Mark was frantically trying to quiet his breathing, but that only made his breaths more tense.

*CRACK*

*BOOM*

The volume of the trees slamming into the ground was almost on top of him, but still out of view due to the fog. Mark gave up trying to cool his breathing and instead covered his mouth. He held his breath for twenty seconds, but the sound of falling trees stopped.

It was as if something was waiting, listening to every sound in the forest. Except there were no sounds in the forest. No animals lived here, there wasn't even wind to blow the trees. 

Mark waited for what felt like an eternity, twenty seconds, turned into forty. Those forty seconds, turned into a minute of stillness.

Mark started to get lightheaded, his lungs were desperately crying for air, but it was as if no air existed in this place, for a single breath would be met with immediate death. 

He felt his legs give out and his body start to fall, but saw a new message appear before his eyes went dark.

"IT'S GONE, YOU'RE SAFE FOR NOW."

With that, he took in the best breath of his life. He managed one last smile on his lips, before he slammed straight into the ground.

***********************************************************************

"You're so damn heavy!"

Mark finally regained consciousness and reopened his eyes to see the sky moving above. The trees around him were gone, so he could finally see the scenery around him again. He could also see Lea in front of him, pulling him by his legs.

"Am I in heaven yet?" Mark asked aloud.

Lea looked back at him and furrowed her eyebrows.

"If you're good enough to daydream, you're good enough to walk!" Lea picked up Mark by his legs and threw him in front of her.

Mark flew a good 5 feet, slammed into the ground, and rolled another 15 feet until all of his momentum was gone. He stopped rolling face down onto dirt, then he lifted his head and turned to look at Lea.

"It's good to see you too, Lea. Did you miss me?"

Lea tilted her head, thinking whether or not she actually missed him.

"Glad to see you care so much about my safety," Mark conceded, turning his head back into the dirt.
"You're quite annoying, you know that right?" Lea asks, summoning her shadow arm again and lifting Mark up by his collar. 

Mark showed no effort of positioning himself upwards, instead letting his body be pulled downwards by the gravity.

"What do you have to say to me in appreciation for me saving you?" Lea snarked.
"Thanks for the help," Mark sighed.
"Don't sound so unappreciative!"

Lea dropped Mark from her hand in annoyance, but this time Mark's reflexes kicked in and he hit the ground on his arm instead of his face. Mark groaned a little bit, but he picked himself up and caught up to Lea.

 They were traveling down a dirt road. Mark looked back and could see the barrier, but it was soon out of view.

"What the hell happened back there anyways?" Mark asked.
"You tell me! I went through the barrier and then you were gone! When I got close to the end of the maze, I found you lying unconscious on the ground! How did that even happen? Did you faceplant into a tree like an idiot?"
"I was running from the Guardian Beast and then fainted because I held my breath so it wouldn't hear me."

Lea stopped suddenly, so Mark stopped too. Lea quickly flew in front of him then gave him a bewildered look. The bright lights of Serenity shown on her back, so it was hard to see her face, but he could imagine meeting the Guardian Beast, and surviving, would've been a shock to anyone.

She looked him dead in the eyes, blinked five times, then spoke again.

"YOU WHAT!"

A valid response.

"HOW DID YOU SURVIVE THAT?"
"Run when it knows where you are, stop moving when it doesn't. It's honestly pretty simple. Fainting was just the bonus, it wasn't required."

Lea stood still, mouth agape, attempting to process such a simple explanation for such a grand escape. 

"She knows about the gift, but I don't think I should mention the cryptic messages it gave me," Mark thought in his head.

Lea still hadn't moved, so he reached out, turned her body in the other direction, stepped around her, and continued walking forwards. He took about ten steps before turning around to see that she still hadn't moved.

"I'll tell you more about what happened if you keep moving," he proposed.

That seemed to light a fire under her, causing her to recover from her temporary shock, and shoot forward to catch up with him.

He left the blue flame out of his story entirely.

***********************************************************************

They arrived outside the gates of Serenity. The city was full of bright lights that could be seen from afar, but outside they were masked by the stone walls that surrounded the city.

"I thought this place had minimal security?" Mark thought to himself, but his opinion would soon change.

There was a single window that laid on the right side of the gate. Undead creatures were lining up in front of it, so it had to have been where admission was. 

"Lets go line up!" Lea said, excitedly. Though Mark was not exited, why would he get excited about waiting in line? 

"Some things never change," he muttered to himself.

After approximately twenty minutes in line, they finally arrived at the window. There was someone standing behind it, but the room was dark and all he could make out were the glowing green eyes that shone through the darkness.

"Entry for two please," Lea spoke.

The Being stood there are stared at them. Making eye contact with both of them, it was like they were looking into their souls.

"You're cleared, use the door in the middle of the gate."
"Great, thanks," Mark stated, walking towards the gate before doing a double take back at the window. He still couldn't see them, but they were still watching him intensely.

"Did they just say there's a door in the gate?"

There was, in fact, a door in front of the gate. Mark glanced at Lea to see if she was thinking it was as weird as he thought it was, but she didn't seem bothered at all. Mark turned back to the door, shrugged his shoulders, and they both passed through it.

The door itself was a barrier, and they both phased through it seamlessly --without slamming into the floor this time. 

But Mark did feel something burn inside his chest for a moment.

He glanced back towards the forest they had both escaped from, but all he could see were trees blowing in the wind. 

He couldn't see it, but he could feel it.

There was a presence emitting from the forest that felt eerily similar.