The Boy With the Raven Hair

He wasn't always a dog/humanoid crossbred. at one time, he was almost...normal.

"Are you sure the boy is worth it?"

"Yes, Absolutely. His blood type and age are the only one's we have yet to test." The man spoke this with ease, as though it wasn't a life he were talking about. He cast a passive glance at the room, as though he'd rather be anywhere but there if only from boredom, which as true.

"But sir-"

"No. You are instructed to offer this to his mother. His father has already made the deal, so it should make her see our way." He glared at the man before him, adding a silent message onto the man.

The man who was interrupted took the money, encased in a shiny silver suitcase, bowed, and left the room.

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"No. Not my baby."

"Yes, how do you expect to be able to take care of him, let alone yourself with no funds?"

"I have funds!"

He ignored her, and opened the suitcase. The boy in the other room was peeking, okay, eavesdropping on this strange man. Their backs were turned to him, but he imagined if it wee a cartoon, the money would be shinning on their faces like a halo. However, it wasn't a cartoon, and the money was completely dull.

"I don't want your dirty money!"

This boy in the other room was five, and had already gone through many hardships. Most of which at the hands of his mother. But, boy, it was times like this he really loved his mother.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" His mother had a stern face and wore her mouth in a thin line. She had raven black hair, much like his own but fair less messy and hers was much more thin. it had always reminded the boy of ink dripping down to mid-back. Her large black eyes bulged from her head slightly.

"Fine. I didn't want to have to do this."

He stood and snapped his fingers. The front door of the apartment burst open and a large number of official army looking types with large muscles barged in and filled the living room. The raven haired boy closed his door against the sudden scream. The knocking, no, banging, on his door was amplified by the echo in his room.

"OPEN UP!"

"NO!" he shrieked, but was no match for the burly men. they barged down the door and strode in.  One man, the largest, picked him up and slung the boy over his shoulder.

"Maman!" he shouted.

"Be a good boy, now. These men are here to help us.... Your father talked it over... you'll be alright...." 

His mother spoke as though in a trance. Like someone had just handed her a script and clouded her eyes. Wait - his father? He never knew his real father, his real father died when he was one year old at the oldest. His mother and highly abusive step - father recently divorced, so... That's when he noticed it. A needle sticking out from his mother's arm.

"MOMMAAAAA!!!!!" he cried, over and over. It wasn't what they wanted. he felt sleepy, so very sleepy, he didn't want to sleep, but thought better than to fight it. His mind drifted off, and then, there was black. 

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He awoke in a room, a too white room that hurt his eyes too look at, and didn't help his growing headache. He tried to rub at the crud practically gluing his eyes together, but found he couldn't move his arms. He struggled against the bonds tying him down, but couldn't break free. 

"It's no use. Those straps are the best  we have." A pale man, with thin silver hair (in a comb-over, bleh, the boy thought with disgust.) wearing a lab coat stepped forward, and wrote something on a clip-board. "hmmm" he hummed as if in delighted. 

"We are ready to start treatment."

The boy struggled to scream, but realized he had been gagged as well.

The doctor strode across the room and pulled out vicious looking equipment from a lone filing cabinet.

The boy with the raven hair was able to move his head enough to look around the room. It wasn't much to behold, honestly. The chair he was strapped in (like a reclining electric chair with padding) sat in the middle of the room. A counter was to his right, a silver dentists' tray and a cabinet was to his left, a two way mirror was in front of him, but the doctor was blocking the boy's reflection. A security camera was placed in the top left corner and swept the room. There wasn't even a door. how did the doctor get in? He couldn't look up, but even if he could, all the boy would see are florescent lights that would serve for nothing except to blind him.

His thoughts were interrupted by a searing pain in his left arm. steadily growing to cover his whole body. He felt like he was on fire.

"This will only hurt for a few minutes..."

But he was too worried about the pain cursing through his arm to pay much attention. He tried to move his head, but he found it felt like lead and he couldn't move it anymore. The sight of his own scared face frightened him even more than his head, or even the pain did.

Make it stop! Please!

He still could not speak

It would not stop. When, after what felt like forever but was probably only five minutes, the pain was enough to pass out. The doctor said something that sounded strangely like a word his mother forbade him to say, and scurried to a corner of the room. he heard the word another time, right before he passed out, yet again in only so many hours.

That's how it went for weeks. The same old routine. Wake, eat, treatment, wake, restroom, treatment, wake, eat....He could no longer tell what month it was, what day, hour or even minute it was. Winter was Summer, Summer was Winter, night and day blurred together punctuated by short expanses of pained sleep. It had been two long years since the boy, who was now seven, had seen a window, even in a picture.

"Tonight will be your last treatment."

The boy, who looked and acted much older than he actually was, said nothing, but nodded. He found they treated you better if you didn't speak. This was ironic, because the gag had been removed after a month or two, when he had gotten more "used to" his treatments. But something about the way the doctor said last seemed to denote the possibility of death. The way things were now, however, the boy didn't mind the thought any longer.

So, for more times than the boy even knew how to count, the boy found himself in the same chair as when he had started treatments two years ago, and the same chair he spent his life in. 

He waited for the pain to curse through his veins, light him with a fire he could never burn out, one that he was almost used too by now, but it didn't come. Instead he felt...nothing. No happy, no sad, no pain, not even indifference. just, nothing. He couldn't even fell the needle in his arm. He was num.

"People experience this differently, so you might feel odd, and experience a few...side effects" You could almost hear the unspoken words being added: 'Like death'

 He felt a new nothingness, not like before where he felt nothing, but now he saw nothing, heard nothing, smelled...nothing. It was a blank white space all around him.

Is this the inside of my head? 

All of sudden....Something. 

He smelled...Trees. Yes, trees. And flowers. And grass. A light breeze brought the scents and ruffled his bushy hair. It was warm, he shut his eyes too it. 

When he had his eyes closed, he began to hear. A far off creek, a bird. Tree leaves bristled and the scents became stronger.

He opened his eyes slowly, afraid that it wasn't true. Or maybe afraid that it was true. It was. Sunlight streamed through the trees, and brushed the floor were it could sneak through the thick canopy. it looked as if painted with perfect, delicate brush strokes on a canvas. he hears a yip, and peers down.  It's a dog. It's bright white, with big blue eyes. It teeters around, as though it is blind.

The boy, still in his 'hospital' clothes, black baggy long-sleeve shirt, long pants that were equally baggy, but they still made it hard to bend down. His knees ache to bend them to such a degree, but he does so anyway, and pets the dog. It's collar reads 'Helix'

The fur is soft, and warm. Oh so very warm. The dog whines, and a second dog appears. This one has shiny black fur, two brown patches on the top of it's skull between it's ears and large brown eyes. It nudges Helix, and he moves. The boy joins them. More dogs show up. He is running now with a pack, his family, hunting.

The scene changes

He is running, it's a battle field now. Red. That's all that's left.Red sky, Black silhouettes. His brethren, his enemies too. They all fall around him. Brethren? Yes, he is a dog. He is fighting a rival pack. Go!Go!Go! he can't lose! He is biting and growling at the enemy that he can't see.  An image comes clear. The black dog, the helper, falling beside him.

The boy wakes up, more pain. This is to be expected but this pain is unlike anything he has ever felt. Ever. This pain is over stimulation. Too many sounds, too much sights, so many smells. He can't believe it's possible to feel this much. It's all too much for him to handle at one time and he collapses on the floor of the lab.

Tied....why isn't he tied? The doctor always ties him for treatments. He grabs his gut, feeling nauseous and excited all at the same time, doubles over upon himself, and screams loudly, his face pressing into the freezing tile. Cracking? What's cracking?

He is. His bones are literally breaking, changing morphing into something else entirely. Tooth ache on top of everything else. He slowly raises a shaky hand to his tooth, and feels it. 

They are spiky, like a dog's teeth. They prick his fingers, he watches the blood trickle down them with silence, it took too much energy to scream, and it hurt to scream after the first initial out burst. He sucks on them to try and slow it down. It doesn't, but he lets the coppery taste fill his mouth. 

Everything hurts. The blood helps, somehow makes it better, but he rolls onto his side, to tired to try to hold anything back any more. he screams. and shouts, and cries into his arm, and hears the loud drops hit the floor. The lab is still far to bright, and still hurts. Hurt, all he knows is hurt. He hears a sickening popping sound, like when an arm is ripped clean off a body. The pain intensifies further, he didn't know it was possible, but it was, and he sees blood pooling round him. the sight makes him sick, and he vomits and convulses on the floor, his eyes roll to the back of his skull and the last thing he sees before he passes out...is a pool of red.

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He awakes in a cage. The entire room itself is the size of a large auditorium, and the cage takes up 4/5 of it. The walls are lined in wire, ans so it the ceiling. it's an actual cage. There is straw on the floor he is laying on. A girl lay asleep on the opposite side. She had bunny ears, and fluffy tail. Her back was turned to him, and The boy had rolled over to see her (with great effort) so he couldn't tell if she was breathing.

His own ears twitched. What? Ears? He felt his head. Yes, perked, triangle dog ears. The touch made him cry out in pain. he felt for his old, human, ears. The skin where they once were was completely smooth. no scar, no seam. It was as if they were never there in the first place.  And he had a tail.

"What is this...?" He whispered into the darkness on the outside of the cage, having rolled back over to feel at his tail. 

"This? This....is you."

A man the same man, stepped forward, and held a mirror. Sure enough, dog ears were atop his head and a tail has lain over his side.  

"You are first to survive." The doctor gestured to the cage. so that's why it was so big. they had expected more people. It was empty, now. The boy was about to mention the 'sleeping' girl, but she was no longer there. 

"We've infused your DNA. You are now part dog. You will remain at this facility. You will be monitored, and closely guarded to show any signs of change, and the treatments will continue in order for you to be more used to the change....."

The boy tuned him out.

Five days. Now was his big chance. Normally, he would have been collected, and gone down to a large cafeteria like room, and eat then go back to the cage. But today, just as the boy stood up, a second doctor rushed in and whispered frantically into the boy's doctor's ear. The doctor whispered back, and rushed away with her. In his haste, he forgot to lock the cage. 

Biggest mistake of your life, doofus.

So he did what any other normal dog boy would do. He snuck out.

Careful not to add any suspicion, which was pretty hard to do as official looking people and doctors rushed around him, He found the nearest elevator. he remembered how people would somehow randomly appear and disappear in the elevator, while it was in motion like they were teleporting. So he had watched. there were secret passages all over the place. 

He used his heightened senses to sneak his way through the building, somehow managing to avoid all persons and escape the confinements. outside was too big, too bright. he hated it, and loved it at the same time. 

The siren blared. Too little, too late. He was gone. Red lights flashed. the whole building inside was in a frenzy, he could tell. They had probably found his cage. He knew one doctor who would be getting sacked. He ran further. as fast as he could. they couldn't catch him if they wanted too. 

Eventually, he found himself in a crowded city. People starred at him, and his ears. The saw he was different. they resented him, for it. Hated him, for it was clear in everybody's eyes. The smog burned his throat. He wanted out, he wanted safe. This world was dirty, it was mean and downright scary. At the facility, at least he had routine. It was clean there too, and he had food, which his grumbling stomach reminded him he needed. He felt like everybody knew.  They all could see right through him, they'll turn him in, but no one turned. No one shouted.

This was a gray city. The sky was gray, the buildings were gray and morphed into sky, the people were all gray, walking down the street, not caring about anyone but themselves. The streets were slick, had it rained? probably. He doesn't remember rain. it scares him. He hides in an alley. 

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He had been on the streets for a  while, now. He kicked cans, Ate the garbage he could find. That's one thing his new system was good for. a great immune system, high metabolism, and even better digestion meant he could eat pretty much every and anything. He was still very scrawny. Even by street-boy standards.

He had picked up the art of pick pocketing. It wasn't all that hard too take a wallet. loose change and cameras too. anything he could pawn or sell. It worked well. An elderly man walked past the alley the boy had called home that night. Big mistake. The boy snuck up behind him,  stuck his hand in the elder's pocket, and-

"Hello."

Crap. 

"Erm...hi..." The boy grumbled, trying for a no-I-was-not-just-about-to-steal-your-wallet kind of voice, but doubted it worked. He had been caught red-handed after all. 

"You look hungry. Here." The man tossed him a granola breakfast bar. The boy's reflexes allowed him to catch it. He was about to say something, but remembered his situation and that this was all he'd get for a quite while. So excuse him, but, he ate it. Loudly.

"What's your name, boy?"

"Theo. Theo Thatch." 

he hated being called boy. It's what his step-father used to call him. He didn't think too far on it though, wanting him out of his head. The elderly man, Hijime, had a dog with him. It was white with blue eyes and soft fur. Theo read the tag. It read: Helix.

Author's Note

Theo's background story in more details!! I should probably add one for him being taught what he knows now, but I didn't want to cram too much into one long story, maybe I'll do it later, if I don't, it will be in the actual book Theo is from, "The Elements".

This took up 7 front and back pages in my (small) notebook, by the way. I added paragraphs and edited stuff in here, too.

Reviews

[Stormy Weather]

Wow, very imaginative!! Great story.

[Silent Knight]

I love it. Unique, fun, and a very great read. I really like the story and I can't wait to read "The Elements". When will you publish it?

[.:Lu:.]

I still love it. Look to your left.