Stained

Shiver

“Learning to trust is one of life's most difficult tasks.”

–Isaac Watts

            I pressed my thumb on the doorbell and waited patiently while loud footsteps ran down the stairs. The curtain beside the door opened and a man looked through it quickly before disappearing again and the sound of various locks being undone could be heard through the door.

            When I heard the last chain hit the door I saw the handle turn and it opened to show him. “Nic Stark! Is that you?” The man asked and it took everything out of me not to flinch at the sight of him.

            He had dark, furry wolf ears that poked through his shaggy brown hair, dark gold eyes, and a charcoal colored tail was wagging behind him. He had begun testing on himself. It looked recent too, considering how his tongue kept running over his long canine teeth.

            “It’s me Alex. How’s it going?” I asked, watching him carefully. I wondered if he had spoken to Erik yet, and if he had, did he agree to turn us in?

            “Well, shipping company is going well, but I still miss lab work. Hey, before I let you, who are these guys?” He narrowed his eyes at Zoey and Avery.

            “This is Avery.” I gripped his shoulder. “He’s blind. Stained.” I grabbed Zoey’s shoulder with my other hand. “And this is Zoey. Head of Security in Spain. Henry hired her to keep everything quiet.”

            “Oh, playing with the big guys now? Well, it’s good to meet you both. Now, why don’t you come on in and I’ll get some coffee and we’ll talk. Sound good?” He opened the door wider and gestured for us to go inside.

            I looked over at Zoey who just shrugged. “Yeah, that sounds good.” I took Avery gently by the wrist and guided him through the door with Zoey following us closely.

            “I’ll get started on the coffee, why don’t you go into the living room and wait there.” He hesitated before going to the kitchen. “There’s someone in there, he might be asleep. Don’t worry though, he’s okay. Just needed some sleep and food.” He smiled and walked away, his tail swishing as he walked.

            Zoey and Avery followed me into the large living room. I guided Avery to a couch and Zoey took the seat next to him and I looked around the room. Everything about it was wrong. The colors didn’t match and the walls looked like they had been recently painted with different shades of white and gray. Almost like he couldn’t tell what color was what.

            “He’s color blind.” Zoey said, looking around the room as well.

            “He’s got a good sense of smell though. There are four of five of them in here, but the all blend together nicely to create something that reminds me of the forest. It’s nice.” Avery took a deep breath.

            “He’s also got a tail, just in case you missed that.” A voice came from the left and Zoey and I turned to look while Avery just sat up a little straighter and furrowed his eyebrows.

            “What does he look like Nic? Stained or civilian?” I saw Avery’s fingers itching to grab his knife.

            “Stained, but you don’t need to worry.” He held out those silver tags to prove to us who he was. “I won’t hurt you. Name’s Chance. I’m here until Alex sees fit to let me leave. Or kills me. According to the scientists, I’m dysfunctional. I was able to escape the lab I was in, and he found me. He called the lab and they said to deal with me how he saw fit. I’ve been here for three days now.” He was a tall man with broad shoulders and short blond hair that was standing up on one side of his head. He must’ve noticed what I was staring at because he pressed his hand against it in a feeble attempt to flatten it and said, “Sorry about the bed head, I just woke up.”