My Pet Human {UNDER SERIOUS EDITING}

Obedience

'You don't know what happened while you were gone...'

****

~Colton~

I sit alone in the far corner of the tank, the shiny metal touching my skin and sending shivers up my spine. I'm the only one here. The only sane one, scratch the mentally disturbed humans opposite me. I'm alone to face them. And I'm afraid.

"Listen to me, Colton." Axel snapped. "Fear isn't real. Fear is a choice. We don't have to be scared of them. It's all in your head, and once you understand that, nothing can stop you. Nothing, Colt." I felt his warm hands on both my trembling shoulders. I swallowed hard, my body still shuddering from the cattle prod.

"I-I-It h-h-hurts-s-s..." I yelped, the electricity coursing through me zapping every single cell in my battered body. Axel rubbed my shoulders gently, never taking his eyes off mine. They were a cold, stone hard grey. Just by looking into them, I could see he'd been through hell and back. I wondered what my eyes looked like.

"Colton. It's all up there." He prodded my forehead with a finger, causing me to shiver. "If you can get rid of the fear, then the pain will follow." He pulled me into a warm hug and rested his head on my shoulder. "You can do it, Colt. Just focus. Focus on the happiest moment of your life and let your mind do the rest."

I nodded slowly as he pulled out of the hug and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath and felt every ounce of pain inside me. I didn't have many happy moments in this life, but there was one. The day I realised that I wasn't alone. The day I met Waverly and Axel. So I held onto that feeling I had inside of me.

Hope.

And suddenly, the pain and fear was gone. When I opened my eyes and faced Axel, he was smiling.

"Think of your happy moment, Colton." I whisper under my breath. I close my eyes, trying to ignore the fear settling in the pit of my stomach. I picture myself waking up from the cattle prod shot, my body pain streaked and disoriented. Then standing up on shaky legs, realising that I was in the S.C.U and truly feeling my fear. But then Axel's face behind me. His kind but stern face, with his huge toothy grin.

"It's us against the world, Colton. We're like the WCA; Waverly Colton Axel!" He'd told me. But the fear doesn't evaporate like it always does. Because the memory isn't even true anymore. Axel and Waverly left me alone in here to fight off the giants myself. They're both gone. Graduated. And here I am, sitting with my legs pulled tightly to my chest, pushing against the wall as if it could suck me in and let me free.

My happy moment doesn't exist anymore. And neither does WCA. Head in my hands, I begin to sob, tears leaking from my eyes. For the first time in my two years of staying in the S.C.U, I feel completely alone.

****

"So," Blaine asks casually, sitting beside River on the top bunk of the metal framed bed. "How long were you guys in the Institute?" The four of us are cooped up inside one of the smaller rooms in the Human Haven, this one containing a simple set of bunk beds on one side, and another set symmetrical to the first.