| Chapter 14 -- Jailor |
Roya moaned before reluctantly opening his eyes. Groggily he removed his bedsheets and stretched his body. He glanced at the alarm clock, displaying "10:48" in blue numbers. Immediately a wave of anxiety rushed over the fox.
"argh, I'm way late for class.." he whispered to himself, quickly followed by a second wave of anxiety. The fox clinched his bed and looked around confusedly. He now realized he wasn't in his own bedroom. Instead, he appeared to be in some medium comfort jail cell. The walls were a bleak gray without any decoration, but the room itself was decorated up to a certain level. He had his bed, the alarm clock and a closet. The rest was mostly empty aside from a few barred windows. Roya slowly got up and moved through the cell, covering his crotch with his left paw. The first thing he noticed was an iron door at the opposite side of his bed, next to the closet. He moved towards the door and banged on it a couple of times.
"Hello? Anyone there?" the fox asked, before knocking again. No response.
Roya turned around and faced his bed again. This is when he noticed that there was a camera hanging on the ceiling, facing towards the door. Another camera was placed in front of the closet, facing his bed. The fox raised his right arm towards the camera facing him, as if to gesture 'what the fuck?', still covering his crotch with his left arm. Quickly, a rusty voice came out of the walls.
"Don't bother covering, it's not like I haven't seen it all yet." The voice said, seemingly from an intercom similar to that from his school.
The fox recognized the voice immediately, despite not having consciously heard it before. The first thought that came to his mind was 'master', but he quickly shrugged it off.
"Where am I?" Roya said to the camera. This time the wall stayed silent.
The fox sighed and sat back down on his bed. Feeling slightly vulnerable with the camera pointed at his member, he grabbed the bedsheets and folded them around his waist. With his new oversized dress, the fox shuffled back to the closet and opened it. The first divider held a couple of white towels. Below the first divider were a couple of old books. Finally, a third divider held a metronome. Cold shivers went down Roya's spine as he pulled the thing out of the closet. The metronome was set to roughly 30bpm, just like the metronome back in his own campus room.
Roya stared at the object in his hands and muffled the urge to throw it against the wall. Something in his heart told him not to destroy the -- probably antique -- thing. He exchanged the bedsheets for a towel and walked back to his bed where he proceeded to place the metronome next to his alarm clock. Not having anything to do, the fox laid back down on his bed and gave the metronome a slight punch, making it start its droning ticks. Merely seconds after laying down the fox could already feel his body warm up and relax as he concentrated on the ticking. Every tick he felt his body relax more and more, until a rogue thought made him jolt back up. Memories of the night before suddenly shot through his mind as he slowly recalled parts of what had happened in the theater.
The fox angrily stood back up and paced to the door. With the towel still loosely wrapped around his waist, he banged against the metal door again. This time, the door got opened from the other side catching Roya off guard. The fox lost his balance and stumbled out of the room, making the towel fall off his waist. He stood back up and embarrassedly looked at the figure who'd opened the door. It was the caracal from the theater.
"Follow me, please." She said in a calm voice. Roya bowed down to pick up the towel again, but got interrupted by her. "Don't bother bringing the towel."
Reluctantly, the fox looked over his shoulder at the towel, but decided to listen and just followed the caracal down the hallway. As the fox walked through the halls, he suddenly recognized where he was: He was in the same building as where he'd found Roc in his underwear, mesmerized by the old clock.
"Where's Roc?" Roya asked the caracal, not really expecting an answer. The woman just looked at him for a second.
"Make an educated guess." She replied.
Roya rolled his eyes and silently followed the caracal. Eventually they reached a big wooden door at the end of the hallway. The caracal knocked twice before opening the door. After waiting a short second, she pushed the doors open and gestured me inside. The room was decorated like a warm ski lodge, with the fire and red ccarpet and all. Classical music was echoing through the room, coming from a wolf sitting behind a grand piano. The wolf kept playing as I slowly walked up to him. Eventually, he finished the piece; shut the fall covering the keys; got up and turned around. Excitedly the wolf clapped in his hands at the sight of the naked fox.
"Ah, Roya. You've woken up. Welcome! Let me properly introduce myself"
| Chapter 15 -- The Grand Scheme |
The fox tensed up at the sight of Damian. He still didn't completely remember everything from the day before, but his mind was sending mixed signals. On one hand, the fox felt completely safe with the wolf and wanted to comply to everything. On the other hand, alarm bells were going off through his entire body.
"So, do you remember anything from last night? Or from earlier in the day? Surely you remember bits and pieces, right?" the wolf asked, slowly walking towards the fox.
Now that they were standing at even height the fox noticed how much bigger the wolf was than him. The fox stared at Damian without replying. His thoughts were racing through his mind, but he couldn't really think of anything to say. The wolf noticed the lack of reply and smirked. He formed his hand ready to snap his fingers.
