In Search of Home

Chapter 26

The cast on his arm was uncomfortably tight against his skin. 

His arm throbbed angrily whenever he even looked at it. He had no idea how bad the break on his arm truly was, but it still hurt like a bitch whenever he moved it. Even when he was stationary, huddled under a table with no company except his thoughts, the arm pulsed in time with his heartbeat. He picked at the black cast with his other hand idly, trying to distract himself from the ache. 

The bruises he had suffered from his fall from the tree only hurt when he prodded them, thankfully. Along with a broken bone, it would have been unbearable to even move. The pill Vok'Rul had given him this morning had completely worn off. 

"'Least I'm not hypothermic," he muttered to himself bitterly, eyes flicking over to the doorway and the bodyguard stationed beside it. Freezing his ass off on an alien planet wouldn't have been the worst way to go, but it still would've sucked. 

The remark made him think about last night. Vok'Rul had seemed so worried about his well-being. He had obviously pulled strings to get the vet into the office to treat Viktor. The human let out a long sigh, watching carefully as the bodyguard shuffled on his feet at the noise. 

Viktor just didn't understand it. Had Vok'Rul meant to hit him, earlier? It didn't seem like something the alien would do. But it would just be Viktor's luck to escape the arena and its abuse to find himself somewhere else exactly like it. His heart twisted the longer he thought about it. At least in the arena, he'd known what to expect. Don't fight fast, make it entertaining, and try to follow orders. 

He knew how to be a fighter. But being some alien's pet? He didn't have a clue how to do that. 

His stomach growled. He stared at the treats that had scattered on the floor in his haste to get away from Vok'Rul. He certainly wasn't hungry enough to eat them off the floor. Viktor pillowed his head on his arm, sighing once more. 

It wasn't as though he were some filthy animal. Viktor understood wanting to keep animals away from your food, but he was a human, not some dog. All he had wanted was to try some of the food on the platter. It wasn't like he would've taken it all. 

"Ugh," he groaned into his arm. It wasn't fair. 

His sulking was interrupted by the alarm he had heard earlier. Buzzing faintly on the edges of his hearing, Viktor lifted his head to look at the door. As expected, the sounds of stomping and loud chattering filled the hallways as the school broke for class. They all seemed to be going in one direction. The sound swelled outside the closed door for a long time before it petered out. 

Wanting anything to distract him from his thoughts right now, Viktor sullenly inched out from under the table. The bodyguard stared at him, looking a bit uncomfortable by his presence. Maybe he wasn't a human kind of guy, like how some people were more dog people than cat people? Viktor snorted to himself over the ridiculousness of that thought. 

Viktor straightened up as soon as he got out from under the table, looking at the bodyguard shrewdly. The bodyguard awkwardly spoke up, saying words Viktor couldn't follow. The bodyguard made the gesture to come here, and Viktor couldn't help rolling his eyes. This guy was an idiot. 

The bodyguard said his name, gesturing again. Viktor crossed his arms as well as he could with the cast on. The bodyguard let out a frustrated noise, opening the door and stepping outside it. He looked back in, gesturing again impatiently. 

"You're insistent," Viktor grumbled, feeling his stomach flip with nerves. Most likely, the alien was trying to get him to follow him back to Vok'Rul. Did he really want to see the alien again, though? Did he even have a choice?