Death is something that you used to be very afraid of.
As a teenager you would regularly have anxiety attacks about the thought of death coming for you while you were asleep. For a period of time you would put up a fight when it came to getting sleep, and when you did sleep you were plagued with nightmares.
Thankfully you eventually got medicated, and started seeing a therapist for the mental health issues you had struggled with for quite some time.
Death is now something you aren’t phased by at all. You even started to do more research into death, and what exactly happens to the human body afterwards.
Death is something you’ve actually managed to focus a dedicated business around, and you’re actually making a decent living compared to what you used to make when you were stuck working fast-food.
“How’d this one die…?” the sound of Adam’s voice kinda snaps you out of the mess of thoughts you had been having.
You and Adam have been working full-time with each other for over a year now. With the kind of job you two do. It can be hard to make friends outside of work who wouldn’t be kinda grossed out by it. Adam’s just about as strange as you are though, so at least there’s that.
He’s a pale dude with very dark brown eyes. Pretty heavily tattooed though and he’s 32 years old. Chooses to shave his head bald. He’s told you that he shaved it as a joke, and then kinda liked how it looked. So now he chooses to stay bald. He’s got like a full brown beard and mustache combo though. Keeps it very well groomed, and you’ve caught him putting some kind of product in it a few times.
The dude is huge though, like at least 6” feet. It’s not like you’ve measured him or really asked. He’s like almost too big to be comfortable in the driver’s seat of the work van. Where he’s sat, buckled in and with both hands at the wheel. He’s dressed in a gray t-shirt and he’s got on black work pants and some black steel-toed boots. An easy outfit to get a protective suit over.
You sit in the passenger seat. Because even with therapy and medication you haven’t managed to get over that very strong fear of being behind the wheel of a vehicle.
“The family didn’t want to tell me the cause of death. Which is kinda dumb because they’re paying us to clean up the mess. So I had to actually call the medical examiner for once in like forever. But this lady apparently killed herself, she used a legally owned handgun…and shot right into her open mouth.” You answer the question while quickly flipping through the clipboard full of notes that you had written down while on the phone with the medical examiner. The family of the lady are apparently very devout religious people, and were very ashamed at the thought of a loved one committing suicide.
“Damn. So how long has the house been empty for since they took the body out…like a few days…?” Adam is full of questions today, which you don’t usually mind but you’d rather have this conversation when he’s not driving down a really busy mainstreet. You double check to make sure the seat belt you have on is fastened properly and readjust it for what has to be the 100th time.
“No. It’s been empty for almost two weeks and-“
“Two weeks!?! Damn. These people better be paying us real fucking good because this house is gonna reek of dead lady.” Adam cuts you off with a very heated reply and you rather playfully whack him with the clipboard so you can finish what you were saying.
“-And the family has also cut the utilities off at this house, so this place has been baking in the summer heat as well. Which is just absolutely disgusting.” You say as Adam finally turns the van into the driveway for the address you were given. Of course some asshole has the audacity to honk at you, because no one in the city has the patience for other vehicles that take too long to turn.
Adam parks the van quickly, and you both just sit in silence for a few moments taking in the image of a very pristine two story house. It’s painted a very light blue color, and has a black front door with no window to the inside of the house. Nothing about it looks out of place, and if you hadn’t been paid to come here you would have never known that someone had taken their life just inside those walls.
You turn to be faced with Adam who has already started to get out of the van, so you quickly scramble to unbuckle and get out as well.
“Ugh. This is gonna suck isn’t it…?” Adam asks once the both of you have gotten out of the van and are looking back at the house again. You turn so he can see you clearly, then give a very casual shrug in response.
“I just hope it’s easy to clean up.” You say once you’ve met up with Adam at the back of the van, where he’s in the process of opening the doors to access everything you’ll need.
The both of you spend a good 10 minutes getting everything out of the van, and getting dressed in all the company provided protective gear. You both go the extra step and wear a mask. This will help you both get through whatever smell will be lurking inside this house.
“Alright, what’s the game plan…?” Adam asks as the two of you start walking towards the porch, which you soon find out is almost completely occupied with dead potted plants. It seems to be a garden of sorts. Then both of you notice something else that isn’t right.
The front door has been busted open. It looks like some kind of heavy animal slammed into it a bunch of times until they managed to get the locked door unlocked. There’s a small amount of blood smudged on the door, and something else that’s dark and…brown. Yuck. It’s definitely shit.
“Gross…but I actually recognize that kind of poop. It’s definitely fluffy poop. One big fluffy from the looks of it.” Adam has brought out one of the huge and bright flashlights. You pull out the one you had brought along as well and turn it on, then you step forward to listen for a moment as the two of you stand quietly.
There’s a noise coming from inside the house for sure, but you definitely can’t make out what it is at first. Then you start processing what you hear. Thumping…? There was definitely a thumping but there was another sound too. Some kind of gross…grunting. Grunting…Oh. Ew.
Adam and you make eye contact.
You aren’t very familiar with fluffies. Where you’re from the fluffy population is regulated with seasonal hunting. That or they get killed off by local predators in the wildlife. You’ve only ever seen a fluffy’s dead body.
“Are fluffies common around here…?” You ask quietly, standing still and waiting for an equally quiet response.
“I mean. Owning one was recently legalized in this county. So they’ve become a very new…trend. Don’t quite understand why though. They’re pretty gross.” Adam whispers while also shaking his head in disbelief.
You aren’t exactly too sure about what should be done.
“People have a bad habit of abandoning fluffies already too.” Adam adds on, and then you both hear the grunting again, and you shiver.
You look away from Adam, and start searching the porch for the equipment bags the two of you had brought along. Adam had dropped the bag that you needed at the start of the stairs.
Very quickly and quietly you rush over to the bag. It only takes you a few seconds of rummaging around in it before you find what you were searching for.
The stun gun. The one specifically branded for using against dogs. Some people use them to get rid of any kind of wildlife, or maybe use it against some kind of attacker. You’ve never had to actually use it before. Adam told you he’s only ever had to use it once, and that all he technically got to do was show the thing to some drunk college students. Says he didn’t even have to turn the safety off.
With a few steps you’re standing next to Adam again, and he’s obviously noticed that you’ve grabbed the stun gun.
“You gonna zap this fluffy for getting it’s rocks off…?” Adam asks, probably trying to understand exactly what kind of plan you may be coming up with. But you just shrug at him, because you don’t have a very good answer.
“Just follow me.” You say as you head further into the house, armed with a flashlight in one hand and a stun gun in the other. With Adam following a safe distance behind you.
You enter a room that must have once been the living room. The only furniture remaining is a very tacky couch, which seems to have been recently turned into an impromptu fluffy bed. Because something heavy has been sleeping on it enough to leave a permanent impression in the cushions.
There’s not much else to look at, unless you wanted to inspect the piles of shit in the corners of the room. But you and Adam were gonna have to deal with all the biohazard related stuff after you got the fluffies out of the house.
Quickly you lead Adam down a narrow hallway.
You check all the doors as you go, each one locked just like the family said they would be. But once you get closer to the very last one, you’re interrupted before you can even reach for the doorknob.
“ENF. ENF. ENF.”
The sound of a fluffy’s voice isn’t exactly something you’re accustomed to. You’ve only ever heard them speak in the commercials or advertisements.
You don’t bother with the doorknob, and just lean into the door so you can finally see what’s going on and if you’re really getting paid enough for this bullshit.
The room appears to be some kind of playroom, a pretty expensive one by the looks of it. Which is kind of strange because the family hadn’t mentioned anything about this lady having a fluffy.
That’s when you notice it.
A very overweight, and bright red presumably male fluffy just going to town on something that you can’t see too well.
It’s not something you thought you’d be seeing today.
