Shadow CatNSFW

"Wow..." Nicole breathed, stepping further into the foyer of the massive cat adoption center. "It's so beautiful..."

Her voice echoed off the empty halls. For all the signposts of cats, displays of cats, glass-walled cat climbing play areas... there was a shocking lack of cats here. She wandered deeper in, peering around. There were monsters roaming outside, but this place seemed empty enough. Maybe there would even be people here. It seemed like it had been created by people... though the hallways led in circles, with doors into rooms that were equally empty.

It was giving her an uneasy feeling. She found a set of stairs, hoping at least that would lead her out of the dark, but...

Another maze of hallways. Was this some kind of... twisted haunted house? She was sure she heard footsteps other than her own... and laughter, too, but...

She opened another door. "Oh! Reya? You got thrown in here too? I don't remember anything, just someone grabbing me and then a dark mouth, a tight throat, and then... I woke up here..."

The dark-haired catgirl lifted her head, turning to face Nicole. Her eyes were an eerie golden color, and she exuded a dark aura. When she spoke, her voice was blended with an unusually deep mirror, a combination of sounds that grated on her ear painfully-pleasantly. "Well, well, well. Finally showed up, Andersson?"

"Reya? What's, um, what's going on with you?" Nicole asked, stepping into the room carefully and closing the door before approaching Reya again. "Are you feeling okay? It's dangerous... I think I hear monsters coming. We should probably get out of here and hide."

"Oh, does the big celebrity finally have time for her friend?" Reya asked mockingly, tilting her head toward Nicole slowly but making no moves to approach her. "What's the matter? Is your chat not going to get you out of this one? Gonna have to fall back on Reya and her weird friends, huh?"

Nicole's heart hammered abruptly when Reya suddenly started moving toward her. She tried to calm herself, reminding herself that her friend was probably just as scared as she was. It's fine. It's Reya. Something's wrong with her, but it's going to be okay. I have to figure out what happened to her.

"Uh- I'm really... not that big of a deal," Nicole mumbled, taking a few steps back. "Reya, you seem upset."

Reya laughed a slow and insidious laugh, building with every step she took. "Upset? Why would I be upset? I finally see the solution."

"Sol- solution?" Nicole groped for the door - but it had just disappeared, replaced with more cat playgrounds. She searched the room - were there really no ways out?! "Um, Reya, you're being super weird right now... Gh-"

Reya's sharp fingernails dug into Nicole's neck as the catgirl grabbed Nicole's throat. "No, Andersson. I'm finally being normal. Doing what I should have done a long time ago."

"S-stop," Nicole squeaked, scrabbling at Reya's hand on her throat. "You- You're not Reya, a-are you?"

The doppelganger of Reya grimaced, her fangs thoroughly visible, and she loosened her grip on Nicole's throat just enough to let her speak. "What did you just say?"

"You're not Reya!" Nicole cried out with her full voice.

"You idiot," Reya's doppelganger purred, before snapping her jaws shut in front of Nicole's face. Fury filled her entire body as she began to transform. "You don't know a fucking thing about me! You're supposed to be mine, do you understand me? Mine, Andersson! I chose you! I made you! And how did you repay me? By running off and abandoning me in my hour of need, mocking me behind my back! Now you fucking crawl back here and act like nothing's happened..."

The cat-dragon's sharp jaws hovered before Nicole's eyes, their razor-sharp edges threatening to slice her in half just for looking. "O... Oh..." You're a monster, too... I should have known, I guess...

"SO IT'S TIME TO PAY THE PRICE!" the cat-dragon roared. As Nicole fainted, her fading vision took in the enslaved humans in the monster's hoard, desperately begging to get out from underneath her and be free.

....

...

..

.

"Shit, we're too late!" Anju yelled, rushing up the stairs. "Hurry up!"

The draconic master of the palace roared her fury, growling.

"That's a huge monster making that sound!" the real Reya called back, hastening after her. "I don't know if you know this, but a baseball bat isn't going to do anything good against a giant monster!"

Anju set her jaw as she took in the enormous dragon - and the familiar jacket, covered in acid, caught between its jaws. "Damn it... I'm not going to let her be eaten without retaliating!"

Something was bubbling up in her. Something deep, something she'd never faced before...

I am thee...

Thou art I...

"Anj? You're just staring at it," Reya pointed out.

Thou who art willing to gorge yourself when all others would step away from the table...

Thou who hunger for what rightly belongs to you, and will fight to take it back...

"Anju?! It's coming this way!" Reya yelled. "Like, if you're going to do something, maybe do it now?! Just a thought!"

I have heeded thy craving.

YOU CHALLENGE ME, LITTLE DRAGONET? the cat-dragon snarled down at Anju. I WILL CRUSH YOU INTO PASTE!

Let your hunger rampage! And free your beloved!

Anju pounded her chest, her head tipping back with the rising force. "PeuuurrRRRRRPHsona!"

"Whoah, what the FUCK?!" Reya screamed as a massive beam of light shot out of Anju's chest with the belch, forming into a humanoid dragon with multiple heads. It circled around her, stopping by her side as she stared the enormous dragon down.

"Sárkány! Let's show this overgrown pretender what being a dragon is really about!" Anju called, pointing the baseball bat at the dragon's face.

"Hmm, I see," Anju said, nodding. "So you had this nightmare-"

"Which sounds awesome, by the way, my Shadow is definitely a massive dragon with cat ears," Reya cut in.

Anju laughed, rolling her eyes. "Right. You had this nightmare and you felt bad, so you wanted to hang out with Reya today?"

"Yeah, I've been, uh, kind of busy lately with getting the stream started and stuff," Nicole admitted, rubbing her arm. "Maybe it's just my subconscious telling me that."

"Yeah, maybe, but it's fine. I have the stream, I have the group chat, I keep up with you. I know you're not going anywhere. Oh, wait, hear me out, maybe it's telling you to get eaten by me," Reya piped up, moving to walk in front of the other two and patting her gut. "Just a thought."

Anju snorted, pulling Nicole in closer protectively. "You wouldn't even live long enough to remember what she tasted like."

"Big words, little dragon. I seem to remember Nicole describing my dragon as much bigger than yours..."

"You're still plenty smaller than me."