Changing Channels

Chapter 2

Her first emotion as she blinked her eyes open was terror. It was still dark. That meant monsters were still about, and any one of them might snatch her up in an instant. She started shaking again and was about to back up against the wall when her collar flashed.

She sighed, relieved. That was right, the collar had protected her during the night! She smiled down at it, her affection for it growing by the second.

"Thank you for not letting me get gobbled up," she told it. "You're a real great monster-keeper-away."
Beep. Beep.

"You know what you deserve?" she asked.

Silence.

"A name!!" she announced, throwing both her front paws up in celebration.

Beep. Beep.

"How do you feel about Monsty? Or Keepy? Or Away-y?"

More silence.

"Flashy? Beepy?"
Beep. Beep.
"Beepy it is!!" she giggled. The darkness all around her had been forgotten and all her fear had been replaced with excitement. All that mattered right now was that she had made the best friend she could ever ask for.

The lights turned on suddenly, and she turned her head around in shock. A woman had opened the door and was standing with one foot in the room, looking completely and utterly terrified. She seemed frozen, stuck in place staring at the creature all the way inside.

She tilted her head, confused for a moment before she realized what was going on.

The monsters must have almost gotten her last night. She didn't have a Beepy to protect her like I do.

She tried to smile, to let the woman know the night was over and everything was alright, but that seemed to just make the woman's fear worse. She shakily put a bowl down on the floor, then got out a long stick and began to push it to her.

She watched the bowl every step of the journey. Something inside it smelled good, and she wagged her tail faster the closer it got. Finally it was in front of her, and the woman dropped the stick and ran.

Guess she didn't want any, she shrugged. It was a shame, really. She'd have loved to share the meat in the bowl with the woman. But hey, more for her, right?

She breathed in the sweet scent of the scorched chicken inside the bowl. She didn't hesitate another moment. She grabbed a piece of it with her bare paws and shoved it in her mouth, grinding it up with her teeth in a rather primitive manner.

Wait! She realized after a few seconds Ugh, I'm not being nice at all, am I?

She grabbed another piece of the chicken and shoved it into Beepy. But something was wrong, it didn't seem to be eating it. She raised an eyebrow, confused, and tried to shove it in, but still it wouldn't take it. The chicken slowly fell off, and she stared at it, then back at Beepy. She grabbed it as sneakily as she could before shoving it into her own mouth.

"Sorry," she tried to apologize with her mouth full.

Beep. Beep. Beepy said. She took this to mean it forgave her.

She stuffed her face until the bowl was empty, licked it clean, then sighed, satisfied. The chicken had been good, and she was full now. She glanced down at Beepy and began to close her eyes. Sure, she hadn't woken up that long ago, but she was already ready to sleep again. She had just snuggled up for a nap when the door burst open. Two people, the man from yesterday and a woman she didn't recognize walked in, arguing.

"I'm telling you, she doesn't look right! I really don't think this is going to work!" the man yelled. In his left hand he carried a large box made of plastic and metal, in his right a muzzle.

"Look, Benny, I'm the one who had to catch the damn thing! And let me tell you, it was no walk in the park. She's going to work! End of story!"
"You know, sometimes you can be a real-"
"I SAID END OF STORY!! NOW COME HELP ME, YOU'RE WASTING TIME"

The woman took a step closer firmly, shooting Benny a look as she did. Benny narrowed his eyes at her, then finally sighed and angrily set the box down, beginning his trip across the room and mumbling something under his breath as he walked. She tilted her head to the side in confusion, not quite sure what had just occurred in front of her. She was happy to have a new friend to play with, sure, but neither old nor new friend seemed very glad to see her, in fact all she could sense from them was anger. She opened her mouth to ask them what was wrong but was cut off instinctively as she met Benny's eyes. They were cold and troubled, and she shrank down beneath them, shutting her mouth immediately.
Benny bent down and glared right at her, yet it seemed he wasn't really looking at her, as if he saw nothing and no one where she sat. "I know we failed. She knows we failed. You couldn't kill a Kinian if you tried." He whispered angrily.
That left nothing but more questions. What was a Kinian? What did they fail at?
"What-"she began, but before she could finish, Benny snapped the muzzle around her snout forcefully. A wave of shock ran through her as the cold metal brushed her fur and with horror she realized she couldn't open her mouth at all with it on.

Help me, Beepy! She tried to communicate telepathically. Beepy simply flashed again, not really helping to get the muzzle off at all.

"You got the remote?" the man asked. The woman nodded and held out a metal box. Different from the one the man had had the day before, but still very similar.

Remote? She thought. What does that mean?

The man dug around in his pocket until he found a small, oddly shaped piece of metal. "Alright, here goes nothing," he whispered.

He inserted the piece of metal into a hole in Beepy and her friend broke in half and fell to the floor, lifeless. She widened her eyes, beginning to panic. Who's gonna keep the monsters away now??

"Alright, she's all ready," said the man. The womangot out the metal box again and began to fiddle with the little levers. All ofa sudden, she tensed, then began to move. She looked down at her legs inhorror. Up, down, up, down...she was trying to stand still, so why wasn't ithappening? She tried to yell out, but the muzzle clasped down hard on her.Tears began to spring out of her static-filled eyes, droplets dripping down herhead and beginning to make her face feel wet.
"Stop moving! Stop moving!" she desperately tried to command her legs, but thescreams never left her mouth. She turned her head to try and look back at herfriends, hoping her expression alone would give them some sort of alarm signal,but the moment her head swiveled even the tiniest bit, she found herselfforcing it back into place against her will.
More and more tears buzzed out of her eyes as her robotic walk carried her onand on, towards the cage. She hadn't realized how big the room was until now.Paws came up, just to come down, just to repeat the cycle all over again. Shelooked back at Beepy, lying lifeless on the floor, never to protect her again.She wanted to wail out, to mourn her lost friend, to let out a cry for help, tosay anything, but every time she tried to make even a single noise, the muzzleclamped round her snout made sure nobody would ever hear anything she tried tosay ever again.
The invisible force pushed her forward, all the way across the room and intothe cage before she finally felt her muscles begin to relax again. She tried topant, but once again, found the muzzle in her way. Her eyes welled up once moreand she began to bawl her feelings out, closing her eyes to try and makeeverything else go away.
Everything is fine, she toldherself. everything is fine and that will never happen ever again, and I'msure my friends will take this thing off my snout soon!!
She repeated this to herself over and over again, trying to make the tearscease. As she tried to focus on calming down, she heard a smug voice in thebackground.
"Told ya it would work."