Unfamiliar Territory [Book One]

Chapter Eleven | Rude Awakening

The very next sensation was pain--followed by the smell of a wet forest. I woke up in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room, with an all too familiar face smiling down at me.

"You're awake!" he exclaimed.

I grabbed the nearest thing--a pillow--and hit Mutt with all the force I could manage. It hurt like crap to do it, but it was satisfying to see him fall back on the floor. He looked up at me and--dammit, I almost felt sorry for him with the way his eyes almost seemed to water up.

"Why'd you do that, Foxy?" he asked. He seemed to be on the brink of tears.

"Because you almost killed me!" I shouted, gripping the pillow harder. "Not only that, but you even dragged me to you're..."

We were in a small room. The very first thing that caught my eye were the posters. Sports posters, art posters, music posters--posters of different sizes and more colors than I could count. I could see no sign of a wall--the posters took up everything. Compared to them, the plain wooden desk and the mattress on the floor were pretty dull. Was this really his room?

"So, you're still scared of me then, huh?"

My focus shot back to the scraggly teenager with the floppy hat. He was smiling again, and looked more like the boy I first shook hands with all those months ago. But the ache in my muscles reminded me of his other side. Of the monster that tried to kill me.

I stood up, but the light headed feeling returned. I stumbled. Mutt reached out and grabbed my arm in a flash. I felt my hairs all raise at once before I tore my arm free from his grip, falling back a few steps. I braced my hand against the wall, knocking loose a few of the posters. I watched them fall slowly to the floor and saw I was wearing a pair of my own pajamas.

"Who changed me?" I asked.

"Stallion and Mr. Mallard," Mutt answered, managing a smile despite the miserable look in his eyes. "They'll be happy to see you're awake."

Happy that I'm alive, maybe.

"I want to leave," I said.

"Do you wanna go outside?" Mutt asked me, his smiles gone.

"I want to talk to Mr. Mallard."

The light feeling in my head wasn't going away. What really happened before I passed out? How much of it was real? I had to know.

Also, it was time to tell him I was done with his club, once and for all.

"We should go outside, then," Mutt said.

I followed Mutt outside of his room, and was immediately stopped short. We were standing in a large hallway, its walls cracked and gray. There was little light as most of the overhead lights were busted and the few windows I could spot were small, near the ceiling, and coated in years of grime and dirt.

It didn't look like any house or apartment complex. Down the hallway were long abandoned wheelchairs and gurneys, each one rusted and dusty. I stood there staring at them for so long that when I looked to Mutt he was already halfway down the hall.

"Where are we, an abandoned hospital?" I asked him as I hurried to catch up. "Why did you take me here?

"Cause we live here," Mutt answered without turning around or stopping. I forgot what I had planned to say next.

He led me to a set of old stone stairs. He started to descend without explaining further. I reached out to stop him, but my hand wouldn't touch him.