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muzzlemouths · 14 days ago

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Down the Rabbit Hole

Slasher!Sun x Slasher-in-training!Y/N CW: Blood, gore, injury, death, implied kidnapping and hostage situation, general serial killer antics, stockholm syndrome*

Disclaimer: This story is not considered canon to the DFtR au and in fact only bears resemblance in a couple of places, but you're still free to consider this an au of the au.

“Lower, still.”

His shadow stretches over your back, one hand placed between your shoulder-blades, the other laid over your hand, plated fingers leaning into your skin.

“The lateral quadrants of the abdomen are where you want to start. Too high and things get messy, what with all the vital organs that are hoarded up there,” Sun instructs. “The liver, spleen, and kidneys will put him down quick, but if you want to have a little fun, first…”

He patiently directs your aim where he wants it, positioning the knife in your grip to sit atop the skin that guards the victim’s intestines, just below the bellybutton. Cold metal against warm flesh.

“Ovaries and the like can complicate things, but that shouldn’t be an issue with our dear fellow. I picked him out special just for you!”

Your eyes remain locked on the man under your blade. His body slumped forward, deadweight against the ropes binding him to a steel chair. He reeks of sweat and hard won copper, shirt collar sticking against his skin the way crimson clots around his nose and temple, long since having dried. Old blood flaking like dandruff.

If you didn’t know any better, you might have assumed that Sun had brought you a poor sap with one foot already in the grave. It had felt demeaning. All these months spent training for the perfect kill and he brings you a body that’s practically on death’s door like you’re a kitten that can’t yet feed itself. But he had promised you a hunt, and a hunt you will get. The slurred mumbles of the hostage as he— it comes to are certain assurance of that.

“Well, it’s about time,” Sun hums beside your ear. “Might have been a bit too rough with him on the way over here, human skulls can be so brittle these days, but at least it gave you ample time to prepare yourself.” His head swivels on its axis to face you, smile faltering instantaneously. “Are you scared?”

You follow his gaze with slow recognition, watching dumbly as your hand trembles around the knife, its handle made sticky with the sweat coating your clammy palm.

“It’s excitement,” you assure him, desperate to subvert the subtle glimpse of disappointment in his gaze.

“It’s okay to be scared.” He sees right through you regardless. The dissatisfaction in his voice empties into an amused snicker, and his smile returns tenfold, teeth glistening in the moonlight that streams through old factory windows. Broken glass clinks underfoot as he turns you to face him, hands bracing on either side of your shoulders so he can take in the sight of you, hopeful pride in every inch of his grin. “You’re going to do wonderfully, bunny.”

Sun fondly adjusts the lop-ears attached to your cap. A rabbit beanie made of stolen yarn that he’d drawn up a pattern for the day you first fell under his wing. He had presented it to you just outside the entrance to this long abandoned building, all wrapped up in ribbons and bows. A reward for making it this far.

You can’t afford to fail him now.

A final steeling breath pours from your lungs. “I’m ready,” you tell him.

Sun nods towards his— your victim’s rousing shifts as the sorry bastard finally works up the strength to heft his chin from his chest. He is allowed little more time than this to gather his bearings before Sun takes center stage, not oblivious to, but willfully ignorant of the man’s inevitable panic.

“Goooood morning, friend!” He sings. “I’m sorry to have interrupted your schedule so early in the day, goodness knows wall street keeps you busy, busy, busy! It’s just, well, my dearest rabbit here, it’s their very first time doing this sort of thing on their own, see, and I needed someone who would put up just the right amount of fight. We don’t want to make things too easy for them. Where’s the fun in that? And– now, now, struggling isn’t part of the rules, silly! Where was I…oh, yes, on to the matter at hand.”

He comes around to the man’s back, deftly ignoring their attempts at reasoning with him – cries of desperation muffled behind duct tape – and undoes the ropes keeping him there with an easy swipe of hidden claws.

His sigh is nothing if not exasperated as the two of you watch the man test out his newfound freedom by immediately colliding with the floor.

“Predictable as always,” Sun tuts. He crouches at the man’s side, arms resting casually on his knees, and shares his disappointment with a shake of his head and a quiet click, click, click of his tongue. “They never expect to also be tied at the ankles.”

He captures a fistful of the man’s hair and idly rams his cheek against the concrete, halting all further attempts at escape then and there. “How positively dull. None of these maggots have a lick of intelligence between their eyes, they’re all boneless writhing and empty promises. Pitiful.” His eyes blink your way. “Not like you, bunny. No, not like you at all.”

Your grip vices around the knife as if it’ll protect you from the questions burning on your tongue.

“Is that why—”

“No.” He silences the notion before it even has room to breathe. “You are where you stand today, alive, for a great many reasons. The fact that you managed to impress me with clever ruses has little to do with it. That said, if you continue to question my motives I will see to it that I find someone quieter to play with. Or have you already forgotten that you aren’t the only soft-furred creature in the burrow?”

His answer arrives as a swift shake of the head, crocheted ears flopping side to side with bitter irony. “I haven’t forgotten,” you promise him. “Is — is that why you’re teaching me to hunt for myself. That’s what I’d intended to say.”

“Oh.” His shoulders fall, joints easing up all at once like a dog relaxing its haunches. He licks his teeth and sheathes his claws for another day. “Yes, bunny, that is why I’ve brought you out here. It’s high time we see the fruits of your labour, hm?”

It is rare that you lie to him, and rarer, still, that he believes you. As such, your answer is a swift nod and a flash of the puppy-dog eyes that got you into this mess to begin with. You aren’t going to push your luck on this one — not when he’s finally starting to trust you.

“Marvelous,” hums Sun. His nails scrape ruthlessly against the scalp as he winds the victim’s head back to see his face, grin widening. “What do you think, bunny — five seconds head start?”

“Make it ten.”

He catches your eye. This — like everything else — is a test, and the flicker of static in his voicebox implies a level of surprise. His gaze rakes over you with the emotionless cadence of someone already expecting to be disappointed.

“Feeling confident, bunny?”

You need to prove your worth to him. Prove that his investment in your sustained life isn’t a gamble he will live to regret.

“I won’t disappoint you,” is what you end up saying. It’s the answer he wants to hear, regardless.

The ropes at your victim’s ankles are sliced through cleanly and without another word, though it’s obvious by the way he lingers that Sun considers marring the skin with his claws before letting you at him. It’s like an appetizer, he once told you. The game grows boring once they’re dead, and they die too fast if you aren’t careful. You must learn to pace yourself.

But this isn’t your average game. This is a test. This is a hunt.

You won’t leave this building until the knife is drenched in red.

“Oh!” Sun twitches with surprise as the man scrambles to his feet, up and out of Sun’s grip, and takes off around the corner. “Careful, bunny, he’s a slippery one.” He taps the space beside his eye, winking. “Don’t worry, I’ve already started your time. Ready?”

You swallow the remains of your doubt and bolster your grip with phoney pride. “Ready.”

Wordlessly his palm raises, five fingers brandished. Then four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Your shoes snap against concrete. Into a run, then a walk, then an amble. Six months of instruction swells your head, Sun’s voice in your ear: if you’re too hasty, you’ll give yourself away. Slow down. Breathe. The warehouse is only so big, and all exits, save for the one Sun guards, have been preemptively blocked off. You have all the time in the world to get the job done.

A hiss. Just ahead and to the right, muffled abruptly. Behind the pillar. Your neck whirs in its direction, and you tut.

Amateur.

The thing about duct tape is that, try as you might, it is impossible to peel away without a sound.

You press on, happy as a clam with this turn of events. Your anxiety may have been kinder had you known that your first victim was going to hand himself over to you on a silver platter.

The dim atmosphere of the abandoned warehouse aids your every step. Sunlight pierces through the darkness in streams of hazy gold through old, broken windows risen towards the sky. Too high to offer hope of escaping through them, too small to provide anything more than the sparse break in looming shadow.

His silhouette ducks behind a pile of debris and comes around to the other side, hastened footsteps, his gait clumsy and uncertain. Your prey is terrified.

He should be.

You raise onto your toes to muffle the path forward, back hunching close to the ground in a way that bares eerie resemblance to the second and more withdrawn of your two teachers. It’s a short matter of soundless breaths later that you find yourself tucking into the shadow between a pillar and broken furniture, a firm plan already in mind and ready to be acted out by the time you find a suitable piece of debris.

The shard of glass bites at your fingers. You’re careful with it, delicately turning the item in your palm until you’re sure of its weight, then you let it fly. It lands to the right of his silhouette with a hushed ting as though you had kicked it with the toe of your boot and, predictably, the man decides to scurry left.

It’s almost laughable; the way he runs himself into your awaiting knife.

The sound that spills from his throat is gutteral and moist, each pitiful attempt at words hindered by the blood that coats his throat as he coughs into your shoulder. Were this a mercy kill he would already be on the ground, but as it stands, you have some things to prove.

Your knife splits flesh as its sharply withdrawn from his gut in one smooth motion, and he howls, spitting vitriol between blood stained teeth. He stumbles a few paces away and into a delirious, uneven run — though it’s more of an hobble.

It makes no difference to you. Sun’s gaze hovers, expectant, from a few yards away. That’s all it takes to propel you forward.

You’re clumsy, coming up on him too fast, too reckless, and it gives the man room to dodge your first swing. But not your second. This one drives into his shoulder, clawing at muscle and nerves alike. The limb is made useless in an instant.

Blood pours from the wound like wet confetti, signalling the damage to a vascular vein. That gives you two minutes, if you’re lucky, to finish him off yourself before he’s bled dry.

Red paints your forearm as your knife makes contact for a third time, and his stomach unwraps against the mouth of your dagger like a present. Your wrist trembles with the force applied behind each upward thrust of the blade until your victim falls, and you fall with him, collapsing into a straddle over his already-still chest as you tear your weapon from the body and incessantly plunge it somewhere new. Intestine. Pancreas. Liver. Flesh. Body. Prey.

“Bunny.”

Sun’s voice is a warm ray of light in an otherwise stormy sky.

His hand lands gently on your shoulder. The other, wound around your wrist where it hangs in the air, halted mid-strike, is almost painfully firm. Decisive. His fingers squeeze until you’re forced to give up the knife.

You watch it fall to the ground with a clatter, followed by silence.

You look up.

His faceplate tilts with an audible shrill, rusty metal whispering together. “Well?” He mutters, expectant. “How was it?”

Stars dance in your vision, cheering with little voices of praise and pride. “It was…” Your lips part in quick succession, gaping, gulping, gasping around all the words that crowd your mouth yet none of them fall. “It…it was…”

Terrifying? Your could have died yourself had things gone south.

Horrifying? There is still blood on your hands from a fresh kill.

Disturbing? Addicting? The thrill of the haunt plays on a loop between your ears. You lost yourself somewhere between the chase and the floor. Sticky scarlet coats the underside of your fingernails and soaks into your sleeves. Your hair stands on end and your breath runs ragged, muscles twitching with excitement, not fear.

“Exhilarating,” Sun answers for you. His face splits into a too-wide grin.

You’ve passed the test.

He releases your wrist and comes around to your front, rolling the body of your success out of his way with a shameless nudge of his shoe. Once stood before you he offers his hand, palm up and spotless in comparison to yours, and fits you with an encouraging nod. “You did well, bunny, but this is only a taste,” he promises. “Are you ready to have some real fun?”

Sun allows no room for hesitation. He follows your hand — tiny where it settles against his own — with a fiery gaze that bores into you like that of his namesake. And you shake on it.

“Lead the way,” says the rabbit, in too deep to back out now.

“Good choice,” answers the wolf.

He knows the decision was already made for you from the start.

#**I know stockholm syndrom isn't ''Real'' but I wasn't sure what else to call the behavior exhibited here #drabbles #DCA fandom #cw blood #cw gore #cw violence #cw kidnapping #cw hostage #cw injury #uhh lmk if I missed anything major

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