#the whole thing with being immobilized by scruffing is actual cat biology btw

[pan-fried-autism]

The North Experiment Part 4: Like Prey in a Trap

Characters: Swap!Grem, Swap!Jack, Swap!M0u5e, Swap!Nikolai (@bowlerhatwearer)

Summary: It seems like Grem and Jack's game of tag has come to an end.

TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: Stalking, like a boatload of horrible obsessive behaviour, attempted kidnapping, and murder + death. You have been warned.

Grementine was frozen in place. The cold gales of wind blowing from the doorway were practically heavenly compared to the current situation.

How did he find her here? She hadn't made any actual indication she was leaving. Hadn't mentioned it to him last week when he come over with that stupid pearl bracelet. Hadn't even posted about it, since she kept having to block Jack's sockpuppet accounts. The only people she had told were her coworkers.

Jack kept staring down at her, smirk still on his face, waiting for a response.

Ok, ok, what should she do? There wasn't really any way to get help. M0u5e. M0u5e, yeah, she should get him somewhere safe first.

Grem turned to the robot, who still watching the movie.

"M0u5e, go to the bedroom now." she said to him, quickly and urgently.

The tone of her voice brought M0u5e out of her trance.

"What--"

"M0u5e."

M0u5e was about to say something else, but its eyes flicked over to their visitor. Within a second, it was pausing the movie and awkwardly scurrying off to the bedroom, shutting the door behind it.

Grem breathed a sigh of relief, though it was immediately nulled once she faced Jack again.

"H... How did you find me here?" she asked him, voice shaking.

"Eh, wasn't too hard." Jack replied, looking off to the side. "All I knew was that a friend of mine wasn't able to go to the local pub tonight, seeing as she had to cover a coworkers' shift."

He turned to face Grem again, smirk deepening into a menacing smile. "Kaia thinks you're strange, you know that?"

Wha-

Oh.

... That connects some dots.

Jack shook his head a bit, and closed the door behind him. "Whatever. The important thing is, you don't have to run anymore."

The cats eyes widened, and her eyes flattened down. She started to slowly take a few steps back. Jack matched her movements, walking closer to her each time.

Shit, she thought, this is bad, REALLY bad. What do I even do???

Jack was still talking, his facade of cold indifference already slipping a bit.

"It's been a real pain dealing with ya, kitten. Always on the lookout for something I need that just keeps slipping out of my grasp! Even changing your name to something dumb. You've always tried to make it hard for me."

Fuck you, the name change was unrelated, Grem spat at him within her thoughts. She was still backing away from him, Jack still approaching.

Finally, Grem felt herself bump against the counter, a sensation that skyrocketed her heart rate. DAMN IT! She was cornered! She could see Jack's face twisting a little into something between a grimace and a wide grin.

Strings of curses and profanities whipped through her mind as she desperately thought of possible ways to escape. Her hands fumbled around the counter and brushed against the handle of one of the drawers.

An idea sprang forth-- a knife! She could stab him somehow!

Grem started speaking gibberish a little loudly, like "Ah, uh, Jack-- you-- uh..." and fumbled with the handle behind her, trying to open the drawer and search for a knife, or really anything sharp.

Unfortunately, Jack had came prepared.

Seeing the cats hands at the drawer, he quickly moved his arm and hand around Grem to the base of her neck, and in one swift motion, Grem was off the ground, held by her scruff.

Now was when she was really, truly trapped.

Panic filled Grems mind and spread throughout her being. She felt her limbs go numb, being limp and unmoving no matter how hard she tried. She begged at least an arm to move, to slash Jack's face, to do something.

Jack watched the fear and panic in Grem's face grow and grow, and chuckled with a horrible delight, muttering "silly kitty" to himself.

The hare walked away from the counter (still holding Grem), and stood in the living room, near a wall. He said nothing for a few seconds, before looking back at Grem and raising his eyebrow callously.

"You know..." he started,

"I don't know why you won't give me another chance. I always try and check up on you. And I bring you nice gifts I think you'll like. Hell, I even left you alone for a while when you 'needed it.'"

He looked away from Grem again, eyebrows now furrowing.

"... and yet, you don't appreciate or care about one god damn second of it." he hissed in her face, malice coating every word.

Grem said nothing, too scared to make a sound.

Jack continued.

"You can't bring yourself to care when someone else does. Not in high school, not five years ago, not even now when I come for a visit. You've KNOWN this is all I ever wanted, especially with YOU, and you don't give a shit. I mean, I guess I can give you a pass, considering... y'know.

"But now I got you where I want you. And I'm not letting you go this time."

His deep, angry frown was curling up into a wide, toothy grin, his eyes widening and staring deeper into Grem, whose eyes were spilling tears.

Quickly his expression changed to a more neutral one, though you could see the hidden rage if you looked at him for more than a second. He took a deep breath before speaking yet again.

"Now, Claire-bear, here's what we're going to do.

"I'm going to put you down on the couch, and I'm going to pack up your belongings. We're going to walk back to the parking lot, we're getting into my car, and I'm driving us back to the house.

"And finally--" he looked off past Grem, a wistful expression forming-- "FINALLY, we'll be able to spend our lives together.

"Got that, kitten?"

Grem said nothing, trying to form words through the cloud of tears and hatred, and the lump in her throat, though both eventually went away.

"Jack," she snapped at him, " I'm not going anywhere with y--"

Jack quickly lunged forward and slammed Grem against the wall, which caused her to yowl.

"Got that, kitten?" he repeated fiercely, not even bothering to hide the 10 years of pent up fury within in being.

Combined with the fear and newfound pain in her back and head, a new feeling came over Grem-- despair. She really couldn't get out of this, could she? No internet, no phone in the cabin, miles away from everyone else, and the only other person anywhere here was waiting for her to come over TO him. What could she do?

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she finally whispered, "... Yeah."

Jack's expression changed to neutral once again, and he smirked, pleased with the outcome. "That's what I thought." he quipped.

Jack removed her from the wall and carefully placed her on the couch, bending down to meet her eyes.

“Stay here, and don’t move. I’ll know if you do.” He stated.

He quickly got back up straight and walked to the bedroom door, opening it and going in.

Grem sat down on the couch for a while. Maybe 15 minutes or so.

She sat down and felt the feeling return to her limbs, and she heard Jack opening and closing things, occasionally saying something unintelligible to himself. She heard M0u5e, he was evidently talking to Jacks, saying things like “What are you doing in here?” and “Why are you taking that, Jack?”

She never heard any response.

Jack also went through the kitchen and combed through the cupboards, taking anything he thought was Grems or just thought was needed. So enraptured in the task at hand that he barely noticed anything going on inside or outside the house.

Grem sat for 15 long, long minutes, and felt the life she had built for herself crumple away.

Eventually, Jack had two suitcases and a bag of odds and ends packed. He put one down before grabbing onto Grem’s hand and yanking her onto her feet. The cat stumbled a little before Jack gave her one of the suitcases.

Jack was smiling. Was one of those smiles that never quite reached your eyes. A smile so sweet, it seemed rotten.

“Excellent. This is going good so far,” he remarked to the both of them. He cleared his throat, and spoke again.

“Now, Claire-bear, I'd say it's about time we get ready and get our coats on and stuff. That way we can safely get down the mountain and the snow. You ready to go, wifey?"

She couldn't respond. There were way too many things, awful things running through her mind. One in particular stood out, however.

"... What about M0u5e?" she murmured.

The hare's expression changed to one of confusion. "Uh.. what about it?"

"What are we doing about M0u5e?" Grem implored, anxiety creeping into her tone.

Jacks brow furrowed a little, not in anger but in thought. Seems like he didn't factor the little robot into his plan. After about a minute of thinking, he simply shrugged and responded, "Tell it we'll be back in a bit. I'll be waiting here."

Oh. So we abandon her. That's fantastic. Grem brooded in her thoughts.

Defeated, she turned to go to the bedroom, but something happened that caused both her and Jack to freeze.

There was a knock at the door.

Jack eyed the door. There was no window or even a peephole to see out of. Who in Gods name was that?

Looking back at Grem with distrust in his eyes, he slowly made his way over to the kitchen counter. A drawer was opened, and Grem could hear his hands rummaging through its contents, bumping against woods and metals.

Eventually, Jack closed the door and let out a frustrated grunt, and opened the next one.

Another knock at the door.

She could see his shoulders tense for a moment, then relaxing as he went back to rummaging through the drawer a bit faster than the first. It didn't take long before he pulled out his prize--

A knife. A Chef's knife, specifically. It looked a little old, but it didn't look blunt.

Shit.

A look of triumph on his face, Jack headed back over to the front door. He turned to Grem and held a finger up to his mouth, making a shooshing noise. Hiding the knife behind his back, he opened the front door...

A figure was standing there, in ratty old winter wear.

He was recognizable to only one person in that cabin.

Jack was going to greet him, but his words stopped in their tracks as he took in the sight of... whoever this is.

"... Who the he--"

A dry, bony hand was clasped around his throat, and faster than he could percieve, he was about 15 feet in front of the house. The shock of the cold hit him before the shock of the situation.

The hand around his throat brought him down to face level with whoever (or whatever) had attacked him. The hood on his head covered most of his face, but what he could see was a pale, flaking chin and an angry frown, plus a faint blue glow from under the hood.

From that frown came the coldest voice Jack had ever heard.

"It seems you have overestimated the value of your life, Harris."

After that, all Jack could feel was an absolute, piercing freezing sensation. Until he felt nothing at all.

.......

Nikolai watched the flash frozen body of the hare plummet to the ground, fluffing up the fresh snow around it.

Good. That's one thing off his bucket list.

It only took a second or two for him to turn his attention to the cat in the cabin, though, and he quickly went over to the front entrance, getting as close as he could without being affected by the warmth within (though considering the amount of cold air blowing inside, he could get pretty close).

"Dr. Mewton, are you okay? Did he hurt you?? What on earth happened?!" he spluttered to her, worry creasing his face beneath the hood of the coat.

In the doorway standing there, a frazzled Grementine found herself unable to respond.

She stood taking deep breaths with every second, shivering but not just from the cold.

Neither said anything for a while.