My Pet Human {UNDER SERIOUS EDITING}

Humanized

'For when I am weak, then I am strong.' ~Corinthians 12:10

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~Colton~

I wish falling into open air to my possible death didn't happen in slow motion. It'd be a much quicker ending, and really- that'd be a nice break. I've almost been killed hundreds of times back in the Institute, by faulty cattle prods and a few whips to the chest that would both wind and knock me out at the same time. This is different though. It's slow, almost as if I'm floating off my owner's shoulder. I even get a front row view of his agonised grunts in pain as his body shrinks. Raindrops fizzle off his skin like soda. It's a miracle that none hit me, as I plummet to the earth. Those are just as slow as my descent.

I see River and Blaine falling, too. River looks dazed and oblivious as ever, lost in his parallel universe of schizophrenia. Blaine's looking at me in the midst of his terror. I'm not much help, though. I'm not even afraid of dying. The Institute took normality away piece by piece. I have to wonder- even with my shredded mind back in place, rather than the drone of 238821- whether there's anything truly human left. There must be, because I manage to yelp as a visibly shrinking hand whips out, trying to grab at me.

"COLTON!" Ben yells, his voice racked with pain. His fingers catch the hem of my blue shirt and there's a sharp tear as it rips apart. My eyes widen as I slip back into open air, my scarred, bony chest now exposed and gruesome as ever. Vain as I am, I try to cover it up with my arms as I fall.

It's then that I realise that I'm not falling at all.

I never was.

I'm hovering. Hovering. 50 feet off the ground, where my owner's head used to come up to. Now I look down in panic as he shrinks further, almost reaching human height. My torn shirt grows in his hand. He's looking up at me. Confused, I look down, eyes widening as I see Blaine and River still falling as I should be doing right now. I snap my arm out, willing myself to make them float, too. A part of me knows this is what I should be doing.

That part of me is a genius, because it works. An eerie surge of power travels down my arm and for a moment I feel every particle of energy around me, buzzing like bees in a hive. My skin tingles, the hairs on my arms and neck rising. The particles condense around River and Blaine, who are now a Laquanian metre from the ground. I grit my teeth, forcing the energy fizzling down my clawed fingers to envelop them. They stop, mid-air.

How am I doing this?

"C-C-Colton?" A noticeably higher voice calls up to me, and my stomach lurches at the reality of what has happened while I was busy saving Blaine and River. The shed has shrunk down to human size... and so have Ben and Malroy. Ben peers up at me, shock and awe written all over his face. He's amazed at what I'm doing. That makes two of us, buddy.

 

Frazzled, I will the power I've gathered to float both myself and the two other humans to the ground. As my toes touch the crunchy forest floor, I breath out a shaky sigh of relief and hug my arms to my chest, shuddering. Blaine gasps from beside me, backing away. He's looking right at my face, eyes wide in... fear?