Human Pets

Chapter Thirteen

The crowd has long been gone, dissipating into their new assigned rooms and sleeping in their simply frame beds. I slouch in the intricately designed chair beside the wall of books staring down at the mess of books I created on the ground. I sigh and shift my gaze back to the entrance, waiting for someone to come in and show me that they are okay.  

Pheno, sitting across from me, sits up out of his chair slowly giving me a look of concern. I give him my attention and just look up at him blankly. All he does is give me a half smile, murmur some words of reassurance as he places a hand on my shoulder and walks off to his room. It must be pretty late now. The morning has come and gone after our mission so that must mean I have been sitting here all day.  

I look at the entrance once more and sigh sadly at the unchanged scenery. One day passed and they haven't returned, I thought, something must have gone wrong if they haven't returned... I groan loudly as I force myself out of the chair to stand up right. My eye lids feel heavy and I need some sleep, staring at this door isn't doing me any good.  

I debate putting away the books on the ground before heading off to my room but I decide against it, I am too sleepy to clean up my mess right now. I pad over to my old wooden door and grasp the doorknob lazily. I slowly turn it opening up the door and exposing the brightly lit room.  

My eyebrows knot together as I scrutinize the room. I could have sworn I never turned on the lamp in here but I guess you forget things when watching an entrance for a whole day waiting for someone close to you to return. I feel sleep flood over my body and trudge over to my comfortable beckoning bed. I fall onto the fluffy soft blankets and crawl up to sink my head into the soft pillow.  

I look around as my eye lids get heavy and realize the light is still on. I reach my hand towards it but my arm drops, too short to even try. I grunt, giving up and close my eyes slowly.  

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I jolt up in my bed and look around the room hastily. The room is pure black and my heavy, fast breaths fill the silence. I hear my door creak and I quickly shift my eyes to soon meet with yellow pupils just floating in the dark slit behind the door. I feel my eyes get wide in horror and I freeze in place. I begin shifting slowly away from the direction of the door on my bed.  

The eyes keep still as I shift uncomfortably then begin to move closer. Every inch the eyes draw closer the faster my heart beats. The room is so quiet I am sure anyone in a few foot radius of me would be able to hear my heart beats. The eyes do not falter and as they approach my bed a grin slowly grows below them, exposing gleaming white teeth.  

A gasp gets caught in my throat as the eyes halt right before mine. I could see the outline of the eye's owner. A huge ragged mane, long whiskers protruding from a blood stain snout. Gregor has come to get me. I am grabbed by the throat and the gasp escapes signally my last breath I am allowed to take.  

Gregor keeps the grin plastered on his face and leans in a little closer. I cringe as his breath hits my cheek. I look away and around hoping to find something to help me escape his grasp before I run out of air. I find nothing in reach to use and groan and gasp as I lose air slowly. I glance back at Gregor and he slowly parts his lips and I hear Dereck's voice.  

"We could rule over together, Elsie."  

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I jolt awake and breath heavily looking around frantically. I groggily scan the brightly lit room and everything is in place. I will have to admit that is one crazy dream... I glance at the door that is tightly shut and sigh in recollection of those bright eyes. I rub my eyes slowly before sliding out of the bed trailing the blankets to the floor.  

I drag my feet along the floor slowly over to the bathroom, sliding open the shower door to expose the millions of tiles covering the wall and floor and ceiling. I do have to say, though I appreciate the historical look of my room, I would not be able to handle a historic old bathroom. I press the start button and use the touch screen on the neighboring wall to change the temperature of the water that flows from the ceiling like a waterfall.  

I quickly undress dropping my dirty clothes to the floor and step into the shower sighing with relaxation from the wonderful feeling of the water cascading down my back. I definitely cherish this shower after sitting in a chair for a whole day staring at an entrance. I soak my hair in the water and just stand in the flow of water for a good few solid minutes.  

After standing in the shower for a few good minutes I press the button on the green cylinder protruding from the shower's wall causing green goop to flow out the bottom into my palm. I slowly lather it over my entire body and rinse it off feeling cleaner already. I continue to the next cylinder that is a navy blue color and press the button cupping the goop in my palm as I bring it to my hair to lather in and rinse.  

The bathroom has steam drifting throughout the room fogging the little mirror on the wall and dampening everything in sight. I grab a towel from the rack beside the shower and wrap it tight around me before exiting the bathroom and falling face first into my cushiony bed. I sigh into the thick covers before rolling over onto my back.  

As I roll over my heart skips a beat when I notice my door is open. I gasp loudly and quickly get to my feet and pad over to the door, shutting it immediately. Good thing I didn't start getting dressed before I realized the door was open. I lean against the door and scan the room slowly to see if there was an intruder. I find no one and nothing out of place.

Once fully clothed I wander out of my room and venture to the second floor, all the way down the hall to the kitchen/cafe. Everyone is awake now and bustling with happiness. I think the bulk of the people are the rescued captives. They all look vibrant and ecstatic now. They must feel safe down here away from Gregor. Everyone is filling their faces with pastries and various foods while sitting around at the round tables scattered through the wide room.  

I decide not to mingle and just grab some food to eat back in my room or in the chair beside the bookcases. No one seems to want to mingle with me anyways. Dominic and the others are still gone so I have no one important to talk to anyways. I gather some fruit and a bagel lathered with cream cheese before escaping back out into the hallway with my bounty.  

The hall is dead silent compared to the kitchen and I would find it calming if my nightmare didn't decide to come back and remind me of the horror it gave me. I bite my lip and speed walk down the hall with my food ready to scale down the spiral stairs quickly and bolt into my room. I am cut off though by a surprise in the main living area. I drop my fruit as my eyes get wide and my mouth gapes open.  

I stand frozen as the fruit tumbles down the stairs and the bagel managed to fall to the ground cream cheese first, sticking to the floor effortlessly. I feel my body waver in the stiff stance it froze into and I force it to move, willing me down the stairs to the entrance into the living area to greet my friends and comrades. They finally made it, my relief intoxicates me and I feel reassured of the mission we decided to forgo. Everyone looks badly injured but as I scan the group, everyone seems to have made it.