Chapter Ten: Hey there Squishy

My sleep was short-lived, as nightmares of Lee-Ann alone and in pain shook me awake. I couldn’t do this, just sitting here trapped while anything could be happening to her. I screamed and pounded at the walls and began flailing madly, tendrils slamming into every wall. There had to be a way out. And if there wasn’t, then I’d make my own. “You know, you really should watch where you swing those. You might break something.” The familiar voice made me jump, and immediately take my humanoid form. “How in the hell did you get in here?! I thought this place was seamless. What do you want?” He slowly stepped out of the corner he was crouched in, and I saw the madman for the first time. He was sleek and thin but oddly muscular and his hair was as mad as his mind, frizzed and frayed all the way down his back looking like the spines on a porcupine. He moved slowly forward on all fours, moving like a tiger slowly stalking its prey. As he approached, I noticed that the nails that protruded from his bare hands and feet seemed more like claws. He wasn’t just wild in mind; he was a true wild man. An animal with a mad glint in his eyes, and I was stuck in an inescapable room with him. “So many questions, my dear squishy. Enough to make a man mad, no? Though I suppose that’s a bit late for me, eh?”

 He began to slowly circle me as he spoke, like a vulture circling a fresh carcass. I was completely on edge, and he knew it. Six tendrils sprouted from my back, poised to strike, watching him as he circled. “What do you want? Tell me, or leave me alone.” He snickered to himself, as if someone had whispered a joke to him and stopped circling right in front of me. He leaned in close to my mask and smiled like the Cheshire cat, revealing a row of perfectly sharp teeth. “You may want to listen to what I have to say before you kick me out. I’m not here to torment you. Not much anyway. No no, my purpose is something much greater than that. We’ve all got our own agendas. You see, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to set you free!”

I stood speechless for a moment. First this psycho told me I belonged here, now he wants to set me free? There had to be a catch. “Let me out? Why?” He leaped backwards into the center of the room, landing upright effortlessly. His mad eyes sparkled as he smiled at me, and raised his arms into the air. “Because it’s fun! I’m a hunter, and this fish-in-a-barrel stuff just ain’t my style. You are the only survivor of their little immortality experiment. Supposedly, you can’t die. But since you were the only one that even worked, there has to be some flaws right? What a wonderful trophy you’d be.” He lowered his arms, and a forked tongue licked his lips hungrily. “And I, and I alone will be the hunter who killed the unkillable. My code name was Fang, and I was engineered to be the perfect hunter. And you, my dearest pudding head, are the perfect prey.”

I was shocked, he had just laid it all out clear as day as if it was a completely normal thing. He was a hunter and I was his prey, and he just wanted a more exciting hunt. I couldn’t help feel like there was more behind it, but at the same time I had no way to read him. I lowered my tendrils back into my body and walked towards him cautiously. “So you’re saying you want to let me go, just so you can hunt me later? Why would I want that?” In the blink of an eye, he had pounced and knocked me flat, holding me by the holes in my mask. “Because if you don’t, I’ll find out you’re flaws right here and now. But that’s boring. So I do hope you’ll reconsider.” He threw me into a wall, and I hit it with a loud splat. He apparently found that amusing and laughed to himself for a bit while I peeled myself off the wall and back into shape. Once I was upright, he spoke again;

 “And don’t worry, after I release you he’ll send Pain to try to retrieve you anyway. I’ll probably be put in my cage for a little while for bad behavior. What mister puffy-pants doesn’t know, is that I can get out of that cage anytime I want. But I’ll wait it out, give you a head start. Besides, you and Pain probably need alone time to work out your issues. Gyahahaha!” Before I could respond, he pulled out a square device with a single button on it. “Straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon this thing. Big red button, opens the big door. Makes you wonder if those scientists were really all that smart. But then again, they made us, so they must have been stupid, GYAHAHA!!” as he laughed, he pressed the button on the device, and the wall behind him disappeared. Beyond what was once the wall of my cell was a forest I recognized all too well. I stood staring at it as memories of my first time in that forest and of Smith came rushing back. Fang walked over and punched me in the arm, laughing. “Well don’t just stand there and drip on the carpet! They’ll be here any minute now, and then all the fun will be spoiled! RUN SLIME BOY, RUN!! GYAHAHAHAHAHA!!” He didn’t have to tell me twice. Without a second thought, I quickly switched to a crude four legged form and galloped into the forest, with the sound of his mad laughter echoing through the forest.

I bolted through the trees as fast as I could, knowing exactly what turns to take to get me back to the city. I had only one thing on my mind, Lee-Ann. I had to find her, tell her what happened, make things right, keep her safe. The cool breeze brushed past my skin as the crisp dirt taste of the forest floor met my feet. Only a few more miles, and id reach the forests edge. I was so close and I pushed myself to run faster, I couldn’t take it anymore, I had to see her. I was barreling through the forest so fast, I wasn’t able to stop myself from plowing into the gloved fist that slammed straight into my mask. I was knocked flat by my own force, and looked up to see the blazing pink hair that looked down on me. “I knew that flea-bag would let you out. So I waited here for you. You’ve always been so predictable. Get up. I’ve got a bone to pick with you.” With that, he stepped back and threw both of his crisp white gloves straight into the dirt. As I stood, I saw his eyes burning the same neon pink as his hair. He raised his fists like a boxer, and stared straight into my mask. I knew then and there, I wouldn’t see Lee-Ann until I got through him.