Zene Oneshots

Where Are My Masters?

It was quiet.

Too quiet.

Zane lifted his head off the couch, yawning tiredly. He rolled onto his stomach, looking down the hall at his masters' bedroom. The door was creaked open, but not fully. The doors to his other masters' bedrooms were open in a similar way, an eeriness radiating from the corridor.

He blinked tiredly, getting up from the couch and heading to the kitchen. His masters most likely were not awake yet, so he would make the older ones their coffee, and the younger ones their waffles.

He walked into the kitchen, shivering as his bare feet touched the cold floor. The kitchen was always colder than the rest of the rooms, except the living room, really. The bedrooms all had soft carpet, and the kitchen and living room had solid, shiny wood planks. His gaze landed on the clock that was built into the stove, and he nearly tripped on his own tail.

It was eight in the morning.

His masters would have definitely been up by now.

Turning on his heel and breaking into a run, he first headed for the older masters' bedroom. He pushed the rest of the door open, freezing as he saw his two older masters.

They were lying in their king sized bed, looking like they were sleeping. He went up to the side he knew what the girl, and shook her shoulder gently. No response. He tried again, a little more desperately. Still nothing, not even a sound. He noticed a stain in the blanket over them, it was a dark red against their clean white blanket. Had they spilled some red juice?

He backed away from the bed and left the room, going into one of the younger ones' rooms. He checked all the room that belonged to his masters.

Jeez, did they all spill red juice? They were letting themselves go.

Zane went back into the kitchen, opening the fridge with a huff. He had to stand on his toes to see everything, and settled for some strawberries for breakfast. He held the box close to him as he closed the fridge, going to sit down on his bed in the living room.

He sat his favorite toy rabbit up against the armchair, popping the box open. He loved strawberries, but his masters never let him have any. In fact, they only gave him food strictly for dogs. Sometimes the younger masters would be kinder and give him scraps of their dinner, but they always got in trouble for it.

He had just chomped down on one when he heard the floor creak. He tensed up, fearing it was one of his masters. If it was one of his masters, he would be put back in the cage. He didn't like the cage for various, obvious, reasons. For one, it was too small. And it was hard. Two, he couldn't reach his food or water.

"Hey there, little guy.."

Zane looked up, to see someone who was definitely not his master.

This stranger had much tanner skin, with darker hair, black hair. His eyes were a deep, intense teal blue. They were concerned and curious, inspecting him with a type of intensity. He smelled... unfamiliar, almost unclean. He didn't smell like the trash or anything that Zane scattered about whenever he was bored, but he didn't smell normal. Where had he smelled this scent before? It was especially strong in that glass pink pig one of his masters had.... oh, right! Pennies, he thought. Pennies had a very strong coppery smell. Why did this stranger smell like pennies?

"Oh, you spilled red juice on you too?" Zane asked, noticing the multiple red stains on the stranger's clothes. "That's... a lot of red juice.."

The man looked at himself, then back at Zane. "How.. how old are you?"

"I'm only eight, sir." Zane answered, grabbing his rabbit.

"Oh, you don't need to call me that." The man laughed a bit, seeming a bit shocked. "I'm only twelve."

"Where are your masters?" He asked, tilting his head. "Or do you call them parents?"

"I don't have any masters... or parents..." He sighed, looking sorrowful.

"Oh... I'm sorry..." He whimpered, his puppy tail still.

"Tell you what, your masters are still asleep, right?" He began, but continued before Zane could answer. "You wanna help me get the mail for them?"

"Yeah!" He said, perking up. "I wanna go outside!!"

"Then come on." He said, getting up and opening the front door.

Zane rushed outside, still only in his pajamas. He waited on the porch, not used to being in the lead. Even on his morning and afternoon walks, one of his masters was always in the lead.

Before he could look back, everything went black.

~~~~

Gene caught the now unconscious body in his arms.

He wasn't dead. No, Gene would never harm him. Sure, he had killed his masters, but they deserved to die. All rich people did, in his opinion.

This puppy was only, what, eight? That was so young... he didn't even know what blood looked like.

So he carried the unconscious puppy to his car, where his two friends and boss were waiting. When they saw the puppy, Sasha nearly fainted.

"We get to keep their puppy!?" She gasped, bouncing in her seat. "He's so cute!"

"He has a collar..." Zenix noted, looking at his neck.

Gene placed Zane in the car, taking off the light blue collar with a tag. He read it as he got into the passengers seat, and his boss started to drive away.

Zane.

"His name is Zane." Gene told them, looking back at Sasha and Zenix. "It's cute."

"Yeah, I guess." Zenix shrugged, looking out the window.

"I don't want him to be a killer dog." Sasha pouted, crossing her arms.

"Trust me, I don't either." Gene said to her, reaching over and patting Zane's head.