Escape Game, part 4

The inside one

 

So much noise. It smells fear. It smells like the rabbit I hunted before. Little human seems not to be happy. I can hear it breathing loudly. I can hear .. Mom said that sometimes, I could hear humans. Some dogs of our family can. It comes from our ancestors, the wolves. She used to call it old instinct. It never happened to me so far. I'm still a puppy. 

Still a puppy, yes, but it's not the first time that I could see little humans in this car. The smell is everywhere. I'm so small, hidden under a seat, they never saw me the way I can see them. Tall man is bad, he hit me when I tried to be nice to the first one I saw. He scares me. I don't know the other one. She completely ignored me. I am nothing. 

I am hungry. I am cold. Night is coming, I can feel it, even in the darkness of the car. It's even colder where we are going, in this place where there is nothing but sand and rocks. Nights are so cold, I need tall man for the warming fire, and for the food he gives me sometimes, or I could die. Mom told me to stay with him, to do whatever he asks me to do, if I want to stay alive.

So I stayed. So many times I heard little humans screaming and crying, while I was hidden under the car. The smell of their fear, of their tears, of their blood, almost drove me crazy. When the sun rises, tall man takes them away, somewhere, carrying them on his shoulders. They seem so tiny, so fragile, compared to him. He comes back alone. No friend for the puppy. 

 Crédit image La Vallée de l'ombre de la mort, Roger Fenton

I followed tall man, once. I'm so small, he didn't see me. I followed his smell, and the smell of little human. I saw him digging and putting little human in a big hole. He put rocks on it. I could see many amounts of rocks around us. So many I couldn't count them. I'm just a puppy.

This little human is strange. I don't hear the voice outside, I hear it in my head. Help, it says. I can see images of other humans, big ones and little ones. Little human talks to me, but doesn't look at me. Look at me, little human. Look at me. I'm not that small. Mom told me, when you hear a human, you're a grown up. You are connected with this human, and it's the only one you have to listen to. And it will listen to you too. 

I'm listening. Help, little human said. I must help. But I can't speak. Tall man could hear. Please, little human, hear me. I will help, I promise. You won't join the others in the sand and the rocks. 

Hear me, little human. I am no puppy anymore. 

Sasha