Rex recoiled in horror at the voice in his head.
“Wex no gib foweba sweepies, nu evan tu bad fwuffy.”
Why not? You’re stronger than he is, smarter, better, why shouldn’t you prove it.
“Cause Wex nu wan be bad fwuffy.”
But Rex, I’m your conscience, if I tell you it’s ok, then you should know it’s ok.
The look of confusion on Rex’s face almost broke Josef down into fits of laughter, it might be a challenge to fully break Rex but he was up for the task.
Rex looked down at Edgar who still hadn’t noticed him, or at least hadn’t made the effort to acknowledge him. Truth was he was sick, having his torso sliced open and then sewn back in the dingy basement of a Nazi wannabe had done a number on his immune system, he was going to die no matter what Rex did but Josef didn’t want to tell Rex that, he wanted a weak first kill and build him up from there.
“Wha bad Edga do?” Rex hesitantly asked, still unsure on how to proceed.
He broke daddy Josef’s rules, he went into the basement without permission. Daddy has punished Edgar himself but it wasn’t enough, Edgar is too much of a bad Fluffy and must die before he can hurt anyone else.
Rex still looked ambivalent about the whole situation, the thought of killing another Fluffy, even a bad one, didn’t sit right with him. Josef was getting antsy about how long it was taking to break through to Rex until he had an idea, play to the Fluffy’s inner coding.
If you kill him, daddy will reward you with skettis.
“Skettis?” The leap of joy in Rex’s voice was impossible to ignore.
That’s right, you’ll be a good Fluffy for following daddy’s orders, and you’ll be rewarded like a good Fluffy should be. All you have to do is take care of Edgar.
Rex hesitantly walked up to Edgar’s box, still unsure of whether or not to kill him, but the promise of skettis was too enticing to ignore. In the end, it was Rex’s inability to go against his master’s wishes that won out, he raised his front hoofs over Edgar’s head and shed a tear.
“Wex sowwy fow huwties Edga.”
“Wha?”
Edgar barely had time to react before Rex dropped his hoofs onto Edgar’s head, there was a sickening crunch as part of his skull was caved in, not enough to kill him, but enough to derp him quite significantly.
“Da… da… dadda?” Edgar’s broken mind could only remember fragments of a childhood, his mouth drooled slightly, his right eye had popped a blood vessel from the impact.
Rex cried and stomped down again, breaking Edgar’s neck and part of his jaw, still not dead but now completely paralysed. Edgar didn’t even cry out in pain, for him death was the only relased he had left from Josef’s experiments.
Rex stomped again, and again, and again, until finally he broke Edgar’s skull, crushed his brains and killed him, finally Edgar was dead. Rex looked at the broken body in front of him and of the blood on his hoofs, and just broke down into inconsolable tears. Josef decided it was then he’d make his appearance, taking the long way round to the other door so as not to around suspicion.
Josef put on his best worried face and slowly opened the door, pretending that this was the first time he’d seen Rex and Edgar’s corpse.
“Rex? Oh my, Rex you poor thing are you ok?”
“Huu, Wex gib Edga foweba sweepies, Hu hu, now Wex feww wike bad fwuffy.”
Josef gently picked Rex up and cradled him, he had to show Rex that ‘Daddeh Josep’ loved him no matter what, it made it easier to manipulate him down the line.
“There there, it’s ok. Edgar was a bad Fluffy, a meanie smarty who hurt babbehs, Rex did the right thing killing him.”
“We… Weally?”
“That’s right, in fact for being such a good Fluffy, daddy’s gonna cook you some skettis tonight, does that sound good?”
“Dat gud.” The emotional toll was hitting Rex harder than he expected and was getting tired again. Josef let him sleep and carried him through to his cage.
He still had a few days until the next part of his plan, plenty of time to trick Rex into thinking he cared.
Over the next few days Josef kept his doting routine up with Rex, showing him affection and relaying that he wasn’t a monster, all the while using the earpiece as Rex’s conscience to make him believe that killing bad Fluffies was the right thing to do.
Rex was happy that his ‘daddeh’ still loved him but he was scared for his family, he hadn’t seen them since waking up in the arena, when asked Josef would tell him that Alison and the foals found out that he killed Edgar and were scared of him, not understanding why, but he was working on trying to convince them Rex did the right thing.
Of course Josef wasn’t doing that but the isolation from his family meant Rex latched onto Josef’s care that much more.
When the next element of his experiment arrived, Josef worked quickly to get things moving, he was eager to start hurting again. Once everything was ready he took Rex through to a room filled with televisions, Josef used this room mainly for watching security footage but he had refashioned it for the purposes of today’s torture.
“Now Rex, daddy needs to run some errands but since you’ve been such a good Fluffy, he’s going to let you watch TV, so long as you promise not to leave this room.”
“Wex pwomise daddeh, nu wan bweak daddeh’s wules.”
“There’s a good boy.”
Josef placed Rex on the table in front of the screens, switch them onto Fluff TV with the remote, then left the room, hiding in a secret cubbyhole where he could get a better look at what happened next.
Rex was initially overwhelmed by the cacophony of sounds coming from all the screens but soon found himself at ease when the familiar singing of The Mummah Song soothed him. But not for long, as suddenly every screen turned to static only to came back in with filmed footage of Alison’s pen.
The camera was facing her back, her face unseen by the camera, but even through the off-coloured screen, Rex immediately recognised his mate.
“Speciaw fwiend! Speciaw fwiend Allason, Wex hewe, beehine yu. Why Allason nu heaw Wex. NU! Why speciaw fwiend hab nu weggies, mummah need weggies to gib babbehs huggies an wuv.”
Rex looked on hopelessly at his pillowed mate on the screen, trying to think of some way to save her, that is until he saw another body enter the frame.
Since being pillowed Alison had fallen depressed and distraught, Josef fed her and occasionally washed her, and had even given her a frame to sit in so her stomach didn’t get sore, but he’d shown her no love or attention, and only barely letting her see her babies, all of whom were struggling without her, especially now since Zappa, Wallace and Clementine had lost limbs.
Just then she felt something, a presence behind her, not Josef, this was different, there was a smell in the air, the smell of… another Fluffy. She turned her eyes as far as she could until she caught a glimpse of him, a bright blue stallion with a yellow mane had walked up to her and investigating this strange no leg creature in front of him.
“Hewwo, who yu?” Alison asked, partly hopeful he was here to save her, partly scared of this new stranger.
“Am Cuck, am towd tu come hewe fow enfie-mare.”
“Wha? NU, nu wan, am nu enfie-mare, am mummah, hab speciaw fwiend aweady.”
Rex looked on in horror as this blue stallion sniffed Alison’s special place. “Nu, weave speciaw fwiend awone, nu gib bad-huggies.”
But there was nothing either of them could do to stop him, and Cuck mounted Alison without a care in the world. Josef had to giggle at the sight of Rex running around frantically at the sight of his mate getting raped, he’d ordered Cuck on a special order and was happy to see that his patience paid off, the utter lack of care in the stallions actions made seeing the pain in the Fluffies faces that much sweeter.
The one regret Josef had was having no sound on the footage, the rhythmic ‘enf, enf, enf’ would’ve been a great nail in the coffin for Rex’s sanity, but it was necessary for the next part. Josef picked up his microphone and spoke to Rex again.
That little bitch has found a new mate.
“Wha, Allason nu wan bad-huggies fwom meanie stawwion.”
Really? Cause it looks to me like she’s taking it pretty well.
Rex reluctantly looked again, seeing Cuck hammer into Alison, without her legs shaking in fear and without seeing her face it was hard to tell what was going on.
“Wex nu know.”
Do you really think she’d let that bastard anywhere near her without a fight, unless she wanted him. She’s making a fool out of you Rex, look at her.
Rex looked again, he was starting to see it, of course she was enjoying it, her whole body was shaking to match the stallion’s thrusts. She was moving on from him without even the courtesy of a goodbye.
That fucking bitch.
“Wex hate speciaw fwiend, Allason big dummah mawe, think Wex is dummah, Wex see hew with udda stawwion, nu wuv hew anymow.”
Rex saw the stallion tense up as the inevitable ‘Gud fewws’ shot through his body and into Alison’s special place. Rex was fuming when he saw Cuck go up and give Alison a lick on the face – as he was instructed to by Josef – and left her alone.
“Wex gib stawwion foweba sweepies when Wex fin him.”
Suddenly the screen changed, Josef had switched the footage before Rex could see Alison crying. He’d recorded this earlier but to Rex it was still the same recording. On the screens he saw his children playing in a cage, the five of them still together and seemingly happy.
And all of them still had their limbs.
Rex’s anger faded. “Babbehs, babbehs am happy, Wex hab biggesh heawt happies fow see dem.”
Josef smirked, knowing what was coming, because seconds later Cuck walked in, looking over the children curiously.
Rex’s blood froze in his veins. “NU, WEAVE BABBEHS AWONE, BABBEHS ONWY FOW HUGGIES AN…”
His voice trailed off as he watched Cuck stomp onto Wallace, killing him instantly, then Zappa, then Janis. He picked Clementine off the floor and ripped her wings off with his teeth before throwing her against the wall, smashing her head open on impact, before then turning to Junior and biting him in half, chewing his back half while leaving his front half to crawl away in agony.
In seconds, Rex had just watch all five of his children be killed off. In his head his conscience piped up again.
They’ve killed your babies to make their own family, they don’t want to be burdened by you anymore.
Josef decided now would be the time to return, the foals weren’t dead, he’d simply edited some footage of Cuck playing with fruit earlier that day, to a human it would look unconvincing but to a traumatised Fluffy it would look like the real thing.
Josef had other plans for the foals but that could wait, right now his focus was on Rex and the growing fury trapped inside him. It was good, but not enough Josef wanted him angrier, more bloodthirsty, more alone.
He needed Rex to become a killer.