(Disclaimer: I do not own Zootopia, or any of its assets)

Dark Corners Chapter One: The Third Victim

The silhouette of a mammal underneath the overhang in-between the dark and decrepit buildings flicked the soggy stump of a cigarette to the ground; the puddle from the heavy rains extinguishing the slight glow surrounding the pitiful thing. The young mammal crushed it under the sole of his shoe as he slunk out of the alley silently, barely visible in the midnight fog and torrential rain. His face betrayed no emotion until his mouth twisted into an ungodly smirk. He crept up to the young cheetah he had spotted and he said hello.

"Oh, You scared me, I almost-" The young fox shushed her.

"Could I trouble you the time?" He asked, grinning with a smile that gave her chills.

She complied reluctantly.

"Twelve past midnight." The fox looked at the girl with an expression she couldn't place.

"Why would such a sweet thing be out and about at this hour?" The fox pried with a toothy grin stretched across his dirty face.

"Listen buddy. I have a boyfriend, so why don't you just mind your business before I call the cops?" The girl spat, scowling at the pathetic shell of a man before her.

"You listen to me!" The fox's playful attitude had dropped at the blink of an eye. "I'm just trying to make some polite conversation." The girl's eyes scanned the sidewalk, looking for help.

"W-what do you want? Money?" The girl stammered and backed up against the damp, brick wall.

"Oh no…" The fox trailed off. His eye began to twitch and he looked the girl dead in the eyes.

"I want something that no one can take away from us…" The fox began to chuckle and wheeze. The girl had no sooner cried out, than had the kerchief in the fox's pocket pressed to the cheetah's mouth. She only struggled for a moment before she fell to the ground, so close to death that even the coroner wouldn't be able to tell the difference. He began his operation, cackling under his breath, carrying a glint in his eyes.

"Hmm, what to do with this incapacitated young girl?" Asking himself playfully. He thought for a minute. The Fox felt no desire to take advantage of this girl. Instead, he felt a deep, hungry, lust however, to see her entrails spill onto the pavement. He took out his weapon of choice, a knife, with dried blood caked on like the makeup most women wore here in this grand hunting ground. He raised it ceremoniously high above his head, and brought it down with a sickening crunch. The night became a blur of pavement and blood. The growing pool spilled from the cracks of the filthy and desolate sidewalk to the empty road. His chuckle had morphed into an unholy and chilling laugh. He slumped over the shredded body of the girl.

"She's really… opened up to me…" The fox was quiet for a second, before howling into a fit of crazed laughter. He began to take chunks out of the girl, shoving them into his gaping maw. He was choking from the laughter, blood and bits of flesh stuck to his face and clothes. Once he'd picked his favorite parts clean, he stumbled away into the darkness; in the same way he arrived, giddy with the adrenaline that came with the taste and smell of a fresh kill. He slammed into trash cans and knocked over anything he walked past, falling into the crevices of the underbelly of the city. The echoes of his laughter bounced off the walls of the buildings that bore witness to his heartless killing.