FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

In the city that never sleeps all was well. Furs, birds, and reptiles of all shapes and sizes navigated through the crowds and traffic to complete their nightly agendas or to just go home after a long day at work. Sadly, humans are nowhere in the crowds because in this world they never existed. Well... humans never existed until a strange dark purple portal suddenly opened up in the middle of Times Square, spitting out a human girl tripping over herself while stepping out of said portal.

Usually when strange supernatural portals opened up in New York City there was typically panic and mass hysteria followed by the military locking the area down and a breaking news bulletin on the world news describing the phenomenon. But none of that happened; No one even batted an eyelash at it. The fact that no normal fur could see it or the girl dressed in a stereotypical death's cloak that hid her face and all her identifiable features...except her gender. Even as she fell was probably why none of what was mentioned earlier ever took place.

Anyway, after the girl stepped through the portal it disappeared without leaving a trace of its existence leaving only the strange mysterious girl who was now getting up with a mumbled 'Oww'. Dusting herself off and adjusting her cloak, she reached into a hidden pocket inside her cloak and took out a piece of paper that had her assignment on it. A simple job; Retrieve a soul to bring on to the afterlife for judgment...after a few seconds of reading the parchment she mumbled "Appears to be an easy enough assignment" then after she was finished she put the piece of paper back into her pocket and got ready to sprint.

But the mysterious girl stopped herself mid-step as she just now took the time to take in her surroundings...only to trip and fall on her face again. "I really need to stop tripping!" She mumbled once again as she got herself up off of the ground. "But its been awhile since I've been on a retrieval mission." She said before looking around. "Shame it isn't here though... Why did they spit me out here? Don't tell me I have to hitch a ride?" She complained.

The strange girl then walked up to the closest fur (Who was a bear gentleman that appeared to be in his 30's wearing a classic business suit and was talking very animatedly to the person on the other line of a cell-phone) and petted the bears arm from behind (Or tried to, her hand just went through him) curious at the fuzziness. The bear shivered as if a cold gust of wind blew by and quickly turned around from the contact but did not see the strange girl even though she is standing right in front of him. The girl rushed behind the bear as he pulled back into his conversation again and continued walking, passing through the girl like she was a hologram and once more shivered from the contact but kept on walking and was absorbed inside the crowd once again.

Her curiosity satisfied, the girl sprinted off (Without tripping this time) in a seemingly random direction and stopped only to jump, as if weightless on top of a good sized building yelling at the top of her lungs. "Wheee I love my job!" She exclaimed in utter joy as she ran and jumped from building to building like a ninja.

~~

I was walking out of my house with a shadowy figure. We were both talking and laughing while heading over to a small swing I had tied on a tree since I was a pup. The shadowy figure was neither male nor female...more of an 'it' than anything and it would shift and change shape constantly, making it impossible to make out the outline, but the feeling that hit me every time I looked at it told me I was in love so I didn't question it. When we made it to the swing the figure told me that it wanted me to push it on the swing and I did while we continued our earlier conversation, laughing every so often.

After a few minutes of this, the figure jumped off and turned to face me, staring at me in a way that something with no face only could but somehow I knew what it wanted so I puckered up my lips and leaned in for the kiss, knowing it would do so as well. About halfway I heard a voice say 'Ben' and it sounded familiar but I couldn't care less at the moment so I ignored it until the voice spoke again.

"Ben!" The shadow vanished and my whole world started to crumble. "Ben it's time to get up you lazy bum! We're home...Ben wake up!"

I jolted awake from my sleep, nearly dropping my PSP with the my favorite game (NBA 2K11) inside still playing and my mp3 player that was blasting Sleeping with Sirens "Fire" inside of one of my eardrums in a volume that some would say was near deafening but to me it was just right. I looked to my left into the direction of the person who shook me awake and saw a panther with jet-black fur while having a very slim build. He wasn't very tall, maybe 5'9 or so but I knew that panther well..He was named Dillon or 'Dil' for short but by only me and his family. If anyone else ever called him by that they might as well have called him every insult in the book and would have a very pissed kitty since he only lets people he liked call him Dil.

Dil was gay but he wasn't one of those 'fairies' you see on TV...if you pushed him just enough then you would be in for a world of pain cause this kitty had claws and he certainly knew how to use them. I had known him since we were in kindergarten and what started off as a light conversation about Transformers and me saving him from bullies grew into an unbreakable friendship.

Why anyone would want to bully him was beyond me since he is so overly cheerful and ditsy that people almost immediately liked him. Not to mention he was also very smart (though he tries to hide it and would deny it when you ask) and had straight A's on his report cards ever since I've known him.

Well...except for maybe gym (he's so clumsy it borderlines on hysterical) he was also very funny and a bit dorky on occasion, but you could never really tell just by looking at him because he was so fit and he has such an ass that most girls would kill for. Okay I'll admit it; I have a SLIGHT crush on the guy but before I get more into that, let me tell you a little about me.

My name is Benedict Zideke (Zed-eke is how you pronounce it) by the way...but please call me Ben unless you want your heart ripped out like some kind of finisher in Mortal Kombat. I'm a brown-furred wolf around maybe 6'7 feet tall and I have a slightly above average build since I played basketball for my schools team, which would kinda make me a jock but due to my cynical and pessimistic view on life, it never really earned me that many friends in the 'popular' crowd. I never really cared for fashion either and everyone had on their uniforms mostly but my casual look consisted of blue jeans that were with black, white, or sometimes red (bright red not crimson red) shirts and the occasional sports jersey with a bright red bandanna and my grandfathers dog tags (Both were gifts from my granddad. The dog tags were from when he served in the military and I never took them off while the bandana was my grandmothers before she passed away a few years back...he had moved in with us after she died...)

All of this kinda made me sound a bit like some freakish Goth/prep hybrid even though I'm not but the bored expression that I wear as my neutral expression didn't help that image. I'm not the most social wolf around and I never seemed to ever fit in any cliques. I was too dorky to hang out with the jocks, too athletic to be hanging with the nerds, too depressing to be a prep and too preppy (Since I hang out with Dil who was the preppiest panther ever... ) to be Goth.

So naturally, that made Dil my only real friend...so you can kinda see why I could NEVER lose him over something as silly as getting in a relationship with him and breaking up. Oh, and another thing...I'm still undecided when it comes to my sexuality. See why I'm still single yet? How can I get into a relationship when I don't know what I like?

Anyway, Dil and I eventually managed to get off the bus after we gathered our luggage and carried it to my doorstep (With me trying so hard not to stare at Dil's ass... he REALLY had a nice ass...) Why were we carrying luggage you ask? We attend a boarding school in New York City called 'Fairbanks Academy; The best school to send your child to learn. (Yeah right! It was for parents who didn't want to do the parenting...kinda like my parents...) We both actually lived in a small town in the northern part of the state which was a long ways away from the big city...hence why we had to take a bus because it was also the reason why we only come home every other weekend.

This visit however, was not one for pleasure...you see it's more of an emergency visit. My grandpa was basically dying of old age and has taken a turn for the worse while my parents (Being the social nutcases that they are) decided to go on a vacation with friends to Hawaii and they couldn't cancel because one of their said friends was the boss of the company they both work for. Thus, I was dragged home on a weekday and (Thanks to some bitching and compromising) I was able to convince my parents to allow Dil to stay also. I understand that they didn't want to get fired but it didn't make me hate them any less. Don't get me wrong, I do love them to death but to leave grandpa while he is in this state he's in was just unforgivable so they lost my love for a while.

"What's wrong Benedict? You've been lost in thought and even more cranky than usual ever since we left the academy" Dil said with a huff and mock grin.

'Oh gee Dillon I don't know, I guess I'm still tired from a long bus ride to come back home to do something my inconsiderate parents should be doing!' I thought to say but didn't thankfully and noticed Dil's bags looked pretty heavy and full...maybe I'll help him take a load off?

"Whoops" I said while I bumped into him just enough for him to trip over his own feet (Which doesn't take much especially when he is carrying something), causing several suitcases to fall out of his hands and explode onto the sidewalk which in turn caused him to panic and try to gather everything up so he could get them reorganized (Did I mention Dil is a complete neat freak? And would be on the sidewalk for 10 minutes reorganizing every article of clothing instead of shoving it all in like a normal person would? Good thing we were really close to my house because it was getting kinda late).

"Sorry Dil I tripped over a shoelace" I said in an amused voice. Dil just glared at me, slightly knowing I was bullshitting him considering I was wearing Velcro straps so tripping on a shoe-string would be impossible. At first Dil looked like he was going to explode until suddenly, he became dangerously calm and even had a slight smirk on his face. 'Uh oh this isn't good!' I thought to myself...I never liked it when he got that look on his face.

"It's okay Benedict. I guess I'll refold all of these and sing the SSStar Ssspangled Banner to pass the time!" Oh fuck...Dil knows I hate it when he elongates his S's like a snake, especially when it comes to something as serious as the Star Spangled banner. My granddad worked in the military for Christ sake! If he heard the panther deliberately messing up the national anthem Dil would possibly die from a shotgun blast to the face! Yes my grandpa was that passionate about his country. I dropped my bags and started picking up and folding his clothes and putting them back neatly in the suitcase at warp speed but it was already too late when Dil already started singing and folding his clothes SLOWLY.

"Oh sssay can you ssse by the dawnsss early light..." (This continues for a verse and a half so I'll spare you the torture).

"Finally...done." I wheezed. He just grinned coolly and it made me even more nervous.

"Nuh-uh you still have your bags." Dil replied then burst into laughter when he caught my open-mouth expression when I saw that he was right.

"Well letsss get ssstarted then..." He started to inhale and after yelping, I quickly dashed to my bags with Dil now laughing so hard he had to hold his gut from the pain.

A few minutes later I laid on the ground gasping for breath."I...hate you...so much...I should kill...you for this!" I said in between pants with a glare at the panther who still laughed with mirth.

"Aww I love you to Ben..." He stated sarcastically. I blushed at that comment and was thankful that he had turned away and faced toward my house. "We really should go inside, your granddad is waiting"

We somehow managed to get the door open while juggling our luggage and when we did I dropped my luggage in the living room. "Unpack later" I told Dil when he looked at me funny. We walked toward granddad's room so we could check up on him. Dil went to knock but I stopped him and got in front as my paw rested on the doorknob with curiosity stirring within. "What is he doing that requires priv-oh God!!" I exclaimed after I opened the door and covered my eyes. Dil winced at my swear, somewhat not happy at my word choice. (His father drilled it into his head to never use the lord's name loosely...he was the minister to the town's biggest church so...) So with him being the curious cat he was, Dil peaked over my shoulder which was blocking his view from what I was seeing.

"Oh God it burns!!" He yelled, deciding this was one of those times that the saying was deemed appropriate because sitting on the bed was my 70-ish grandfather. Naked as the day he was born, vigorously jerking off to a straight porno that was on TV. Funny thing is he didn't even bother stopping at our entrance...in fact he seemed amused at our faces.

"What's wrong boys? Never seen a man jerk off before?" My grandad said in between pants.

"MY EYES, MY EYES! KILL WITH FIRE! EYES UNCLEAN, EYES UNCLEAN!" We yelled in unison as we dashed toward the bathroom to clean the last image away with soap and water. My granddad came from behind us after another minute. Probably to torment us more...I swear he didn't seem like he was on deaths door!

"I guess this is a bad time to ask for a sponge bath?" This was the last straw. We stopped our self-inflicted torture to gag and vomit in the toilet with my granddad laughing his head off as he walked back into his room presumably to finish.

We eventually crawled back to my room, shut the door, and assumed the fetal position "I believe I'm scarred for life" Dil finally said with a whimper.

"Who knew the burning sensation on eyes from soap and water could feel so good" I replied after another minute pause.

"Tell me about it... hey! Want to order pizza and play violent video games to block out the negative image with positive ones?" Dil suggested while sitting up.

"You read my mind buddy!" I responded while also sitting up and then stopped, noticing something wet that was dripping off of Dils' nose. "Dude you have a nose bleed..." He blushed slightly under his dark fur and quickly went to wipe the blood of his face.

After several hours later of eating pizza, hours of playing violent video games with only the occasional interruption to do things for my granddad and bathroom breaks, we successfully burned out an image that we have long forgotten about and passed out asleep at 1:00 in the morning.

The next day I woke up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes with a yawn before I suddenly heard "Good morning Mr. Benjamin Zideke. I hope you have a pleasant afterlife" An odd yet feminine voice said with a really preppy high pitched tone.

I could only see what looked like a strange...thing standing in front of me, holding something that looked somewhat of a staff. I was confused at what was going on but decided to be polite. "Good morning but my name is Benedict, Benjamin is my...wait what?" I fully opened my eyes just in time to watch the staff hit me in the face before I blacked out.

~~~

"Sorry about that, it takes a little force to knock a soul into the afterlife..." said the mysterious figure in a Reaper's cloak, standing over one now at the moment a half naked and very dead Benedict Zideke.

"Funny, he doesn't look like 75 year old wolf on death's door...wait didn't he say his name was Benedict before I knocked him out?" The mysterious figure gulped a bit before she started searching for Ben's pants and found them lying on the floor. After fishing inside his pockets, eventually she found his wallet and checked his ID for a quick comparison to the name and picture of her target. "Fuck! Not again! I got the wrong guy...boss isn't going to be happy" The figure said with a sigh and takes out what appeared to be a normal cell phone and dialed a number and put it up to her ear. When someone eventually picked up there was yelling on the other end so loud the figure held it away from her ear.

"HOPE WE HAVE A GUY HERE THAT IS NOT ON THE LIST! IS THIS YOUR DOING?"

"Yes sir... but in my defense, my target and the person there were living in the same house and have very similar nam-"

"I DON'T CARE HOW IT HAPPENED! WE CAN'T KEEP FIXING YOUR SCREW-UPS EVERY TIME YOU FAIL YOUR ASSIGNMENTS!" The girl frowned a bit as if hurt by the comment. She didn't mess up on purpose after all.

"B-But t-that was only one time and I was just a beginner..."

"Yes I know, which was why we gave you a slap on the wrist the last time...BUT IT SEEMS YOU DIDN'T LEARN FROM THAT LAST TIME...and now I gotta go fix your screw-up...we will send the boy back to you while I think of your punishment!"

"Umm thanks boss I-" She started but was cut off by a click on the other end.

"Well that's just great now I'm in trouble" said the girl who was named Hope. A couple minutes later an alarm went off, catching her off-guard and a cute black furred panther got up. He was still clad in his boxers when he went to shut the alarm off. He stretched and yawned before he started scratching his crotch while he sat back down on the mattress, grossing out the poor reaper girl. "EWW!" Hope muttered.

"You're lucky you can't see me or hear me or I would be very mad and give you a lecture on the way to act while you're in the presence of a lady!" This caused the panthers ears to swivel and he quickly turned towards the now dead boy.

"Did we leave a window open? Why did I hear whisper of wind and why is there fog in here?" The panther said but frowned when he didn't get an answer.

"Did you hear me?" Hope said, looking at the boy with wonder but he just ignored her, walked up to the boy and wound up walking right through Hope who just gave a muffled 'hey!' in response. He then proceeded to attempt to shake him awake but with no success.

"Huh that's weird he's usually is a light sleep-" He stops suddenly with eyes widening and tearing up as he checks the window, only to see it wasn't open. Panic is now visible on his face and he looks at the fog then back at Ben with shaky hands.

The boy quickly checked Ben's pulse only to find none. "No don't take him!" Then he goes to where Hope was and begins to jump up and down while waving his arms like he was trying to clear it up or shoo it away then dashes out of the room crying.

"Well... that was weird...must be a very good friend or maybe has a huge crush on the boy" Hope says before he came back yelling in a panicked voice while he was on the phone with the hospital.

"Yeah he doesn't have a pulse and he is not breath-" There was a sudden sharp inhale coming from Ben's body. The Boss must have restarted his heart Hope figured...the boys soul would be back in a few minutes she guessed and she doubted he would be very happy. The panther ran over confusingly towards Ben and checked his vitals while trying to shake him awake. Still with a confused/worried but slightly happier face, he began talking again. "He has a pulse and he's breathing again but he won't wake up...I think he's in a coma...alright I'll keep watch over him until the ambulance gets here" He hanged up the phone and turned towards the unconscious wolf. "Damnit Ben... what the hell man? Are you trying to give me a heart atta-"

Suddenly the shadows in the room seem to intensify and gather into 4 points. When they began to take shape, deformed outlines of vicious and bloodthirsty looking feral panthers and wolves with black and grey fur and white eyes popped up. Two of each. The panther and Hope began talking at the same time.

"I don't like the feel of this room right now...C'mon Ben lets go the living room and wait for help" He says while quickly dragging Ben out of the room while the shadows were still forming.

"Shadows really? Can my day get any worse?!" Hope exclaimed with annoyance while assuming a defensive posture with her staff, blocking the door to the outside. She would not mess this up...she could handle a few lowly shadows.