Beastars: A Symphony of Life

Chapter 73: A Third Mask Makes An Appearance

"Here's a twenty," the badger said.

"That's too much," the boar refused.

"Well take it. I have much to spare."

The badger walked from the small café in The Drusk. The owner was a snapping turtle. It was the first shop in the new area to start reselling flesh. Namely the meat from the prey caught at the Meteor Festival. As such, it was a hotspot for the Jade Hybrids. Razor hoped to create more businesses like this one, but big things needed a small start.

The silence in the district at night was relaxing for once. Adler had surprisingly been absent for a few days and everyone in the organization was a bit calmer without having to look over their back. He walked through the streets in the chill night air, hands in the pockets of his jacket and he walked with a bit of leisure. He could afford to. He wasn't rushing to get anywhere. Perhaps the silence was too much as he felt like he was being watched. A silly, childish feeling but everything was just too quiet. The feeling grew on him and it got to the point where he glanced behind him, just to prove to himself no one was there.

And he saw someone following him.

Suddenly his brain shifted into fight or flight. It was something in everyone's lizard brain and he couldn't help it. There had been stories of a killer, picking them off one by one. He gave in to his flight response. He quickened his pace and his pursuer turned down a different road. The badger stopped and breathed. He had been wrong. He leaned against a wall and relaxed. He pushed himself off the brick and turned into someone's face. He didn't get a good look as a metal rod was cracked into his skull and he blacked out.

~~~

He woke up again. His head felt like it would explode. He tried to get up but found he was strapped down. He pulled on the straps but they wouldn't break. He looked around, trying to figure out where he was. He looked at his feet and saw a furnace. The kind used in morgues. Everywhere else looked dilapidated and run down. There were seats up and around him, like a medical theater.

"The fuck is this?" he asked himself.

"The end of your run," someone said behind his head. He wasn't alone and he struggled against the straps with more power.

"Get me out of here!" he demanded. "Don't you know who I run with?"

"Of course I do," the other animal said, still out of view. "That's why you're here."

They finally came around them in the dim light. They were dressed in all brown, with a burlap hood over their face. Two eye-holes were cut out from the potato bag, probably bought from a grocery store, so the killer could see. They wore a plastic, disposable raincoat over this and held a hunting knife in their hand. The badger struggled even harder on the metal table.

"Help!" he screamed.

"Scream all you want," they said. "No ones going to come to your aid. You are in The Drusk after all."

"Help!" the badger just screamed as loud as he could. The killer joined him.

"Feels good," he snapped back before getting directly in the badger's face and screaming in it. "HEEEEELP!!!"

The badger froze in fear and the blood curdling scream that seemed genuine.

"Just like them," they said, grabbing the badger's head. "No one will come to your screams for aid."

The animal was actually weeping under the mask. The fabric was getting wet. They broke off, letting go and wandering to a far side wall and taking a breather. The badger was too afraid to move.