dot.

29: Like A Pet

  "What?"

  Felix was the first to speak after the boss left, staring at Tiro in confusion. "Why are you still here?"

  "I..." Tiro looked from the man, to the door, and back again. "I don't know. Maybe he... forgot?"

  Dot was glaring at him, still cowering behind Felix's legs. He grabbed a neon card and typed something into it, which Felix proceeded to read out once he was finished.

  "Not mistake, he said I not only one doing trials." Felix peered out at Tiro from behind the card. "You don't think that..."

  "No. That can't be right."

  "Surely."

  "Yeah."

  "Yup."

  T  hey stared at each other, Dot snatching back the card as their anxiety grew. Digorn couldn't do this, right? Even though part of Tiro was snake and Felix would be similar to him soon, they weren't true hybrids: only shabby, pale excuses for the real thing.

  Dot passed the card back to Felix, who took hold of it with a shaking hand and read it out. "Erm... you hurt too now. Sorry. Dot, you can't be serious. No offence, but we're human, and you're... not."

  The hybrid huffed and took the card back again, typing as fast as he could in frustration as Tiro grew steadily paler. This wasn't real. It couldn't be. Although Digorn was the boss, Nimue must still have enough authority to stop this from happening.

  But, A small, shaking voice inside him decided to make its opinion known, Nimue isn't here, is she?

  Felix continued debating with Dot, his terror becoming more and more apparent until he gave a whimper and stopped talking. Tiro was much the same as him: shocked speechless. The straw haired man had it worse, though- he knew exactly how bad these experiments could get.

  He took a deep breath and walked back over to the door, knocking on it frantically in an attempt to get Digorn to come back and take him away, all the while admitting to what must be just a horrible mistake.

  There was success to be found in one of his endeavours- the man returned with his wrinkle-free shirt and slicked back hair, opening the door with the same soft click he used to close it.

  "You want me?"

  "Yes, sir. You've made a mistake-"

  "I assure you I have not. But come here, I was going to collect you anyway."

  "What? Uh, okay."

  Felix and Dot watched him as he was whisked away by the man, Felix's a look a confusion and Dot's a look of pity.

  Digorn lead him into a small room and pushed him down onto a sturdy grey chair with restraints on the armrests, forcefully taking off his shirt and casting it aside before grabbing his wrists and tying the restraints around them.

  " Now, I expect you to behave."

  "What? Sir, I don't understand-"

  Digorn sighed and smoothed down a few rebelling strands of his hair before replying. "In my eyes," he tapped Tiro's snakeskin, "You are no less animal than Dot, and will be treated as such. Now," he took hold of the man's hair and pulled his face upwards, staring coldly into his fear-filled eyes, "If you talk during this session, or give any indication that you are more than a dumb, humanoid creature; I am going to cut out your tongue. Do you understand?"

  Tiro nodded shakily, eyes wide as he felt the blood drain from his face. What was going to happen here? Would it hurt?

  He didn't want to be treated like Dot. He really, really didn't want to.

  "Remember, you do not have any human intelligence." Digorn smirked and opened the door to let in a small group of students, led by a tall, rather lanky black-haired woman that sat down next to the boss.

  Some of the students stared around the space, more still stared at the boss and the tall woman: but the majority now stared at Tiro, exposed and restrained as he was.

  The tall woman began to explain how combining human and animal was possible: gesturing to Tiro as she did so. It was humiliating, being unable to move or talk while the crowed stared at him as if he were some kind of pet.

  It was only when the woman started talking about potential reproduction and the possibilities he held that Tiro finally tried to stop it. He opened his mouth to speak, reeling at how some of the students gasped or pointed at him in shock, whispering into the ear of a friend about how 'it' was moving.

  Digorn glared at him before a single word could crawl from his throat, killing his will to resist with a reminder of what the punishment would be.

  "Can we touch it?" A short, scrawny young girl with rather frizzy hair and shining green eyes piped up with a question, looking towards the tall woman and Digorn for an answer.

  Touch it? Touch me? What?

  Tiro still couldn't quite believe what was happening, even when the tall woman denied her request on the grounds that 'he might be violent', reality wasn't sinking in.

  After a few more minutes of lies and sickening discussions about him ensued, it was taking all of his willpower not to yell out that he was a person too. He drew his tongue over his lips, a physical reminder of what he stood to lose if he disobeyed the boss.

  The session finally finished with the tall woman leading the students out of the room in an identical fashion to how they were brought in, erasing every physical trace of what had just happened- the only reminder being Tiro's repulsion.

  "Good boy." Digorn undid the restraints with a patronising grin as the tall woman reentered the room.

  "Crita, can you take him back to the others? Don't bother giving him a shirt. And check on Two's finger while you're at it."

  "Yes, sir." Crita replied, and dragged a horrified Tiro from the chair.