And yet, neither was dead. Phoebe had worried about its whereabouts but couldn’t bring herself to get answers from Julia or Bluebell or Cat. In the end she really didn’t want to know if it was still stalking around somewhere, or if it had been turned to mush. If there had been a mess to clean up.

The answer was clear now. It was as plain as the silver fur before her.

Its skeletal visage was blank and smeared with her blood. No longer confined to her body, the monster swished a barbed tail as it bathed in the sunlight of freedom. It stood, fur bristled, and surveyed the world before it. Then it looked at her.

It cocked its head when it saw her. Staring straight at her with gaping eye sockets, it almost looked confused. Its aspect was like a big cat- Or a bear, or something. Phoebe wasn’t sure. Her face froze in horror as it began to draw closer. She tried to crawl more, but the monster fell onto all fours and overtook her with ease. It leaned down over her. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced for another brutal maiming. Instead it pressed one of its claws against the soft fur of her cervine aspect and dragged, causing the smallest beads of blood to form on her face. She felt hot hair exhale from its nasal cavity as it sniffed her. Her body shook as it enveloped her face in its claws, then pushed her head down into the soft earth.

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10.14.20
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This has been a busy week for me (and somewhat rough, due to car troubles disrupting my schedule). I seriously considered pushing the next update back to the 21st, but I'm going to try and work hard to post it on Saturday like usual.

To the people who have sent me kind words about Katabasis here on Neocities, Twtitter, Discord, email, etc., it really means a lot to me. Thank you.