The Pet

He looked over at his new pet with curiosity mixed with disgust, locked up in its cage. Its eyes were closed and it seemed to be asleep. It was such a weird creature. With pale, lifeless skin and bulging eyes, it was a horrendously ugly being. He walked over to his parents.

"Dad, where did you get this from?" the boy said to his father.

His father turned to look at his son. "Well, you know how I went to the planet MW-003?" The boy nodded. "From that planet, I got this creature. It was the most intelligent species of its planet, and I thought it wold be a nice gift for you."

The boy nodded with a forced smile. He didn't like his new pet at all, but he didn't want his father to feel bad. He turned his little head back to his pet; it was so small, it could fit in the palm of his hand.

The boy shook the cage in hopes of waking the creature up. It woke up in a daze, spinning its oddly shaped head around, and then it laid its eyes on the child.

An ear-piercing shriek erupted from the mouth of the animal and the boy covered his ears to protect himself from the irritating noise. The creature stared at the boy as he left to get some prrovisions for it, and to escape its insufferable wails.

A while later, the boy returned with some meat with him. He opened the cage and the thing retreated to a corner. The boy, after placing the food in the cage, reached out his hand to pet the creatures pale skin. It rolled up into a ball. The boy stroked it a little, in hopes of comforting the terrified creature, but the creature only shivered at his touch. Letting out a heavy breath, the boy recoiled his hand and shut the door.

The creature looked up, with wet eyes. It looked at the boy fearfully for a while, before emitting a string of sounds foreign to the boy. The child looked at the creature with curious eyes. Slowly, the animal stood up on its limbs and moved, in a peculiar fashion, toward the food the boy had placed for him. Its movement resembled someone dancing terribly. He stood at the foot of his food and glanced at the boy with a look in its eyes that could only signify disgust, and with tears running down its face.

It let out a short but loud breath that was all too much like a sniffle. This beast behaved much like a person. Had it really learnt about people so much that it began to imitate them? It truly was intelligent.

The beast collapsed to its knees, eying the meat. It touched the meat before jerking its arm away from the meat.

The boy looked at it with the enthusiasm that children usually have when they get a new pet. After a while, it weaned off, though, and the child left it to its own activities. The beast just stared miserably at the hunk of meat. It had been in space for many months and had lost all hope of ever returning to its home, and in its mind, it tried to devise a plan to escape its imprisonment, but it knew not how. It put its hand onto the piece of flesh and dug its head into the food it found repulsive, but it had to eat. And it had to get revenge.

The father was about to leave for work at the space agency, when he entered the room the beast was placed in. It had eaten little since last night. The father realized that the beast had no water, so he fetched him a small tray of water, and placed it in the beast's cage. It woke up from its slumber and let out a roar, moving back.

The father had become much too used to the antics of this scum on the ship and was not surprised. He closed the cage door and left for work.

The creature looked at the tray, and walked toward it. It took a sip of the liquid in it. It had gotten used to the disgusting taste; it was all it had to drink on the ship.

Many days passed by, and the kid cared less and less for its pet. His parents took upon the task of feeding it, although they didn't have to do much,  since it rarely ate.

The creature grew skinnier day by day, losing its health, and any hope of ever escaping.

The family called a scientist that had been studying these creatures to see what was wrong. He said they needed to inject it with medicine or it would die. The creature squirmed at the sight of the needle, and squirmed in the hands of the father as the scientist injected it with a small amount of a grey fluid.

By the next day, the animal had actually gotten stronger since when they found it but it remained miserable and afraid.

The boy, one day, brought his friends over to his place. He proudly showed off his pet to them and they stared in wonder and amazement at this new lifeform which was unknown to them.

"Get it out," one boy said.

Eager to impress his friend further, the boy reached for the cage door with one hand and opened it while the beast cowered in a corner. When he reached for the animal, it seemed like it would attack.

“Please, don’t hurt me! I have a wife, kids! Please!” Tears welled up in Simon’s eyes as he feared what was to become of him. He hadn't pleaded since the first days in this hellhole, as he had lost hope. In fact, he hadn't even spoken since the time they injected him with steroids or something, so his own voice was foreign to him.

The boy swiftly grabbed Simon and began to pull him out of the cage. Out of fear, Simon bit down on the boy. The boy winced in pain as Simon’s teeth chomped on his fingers.

In pain, the boy squeezed his hand, crushing Simon's frail body between his fingers. The boy looked down at his hand. His pet was dead.