Madagascar And OC!

Drifting Apart

When animals sleep, they look deceptively harmless. But everything seemed different when you wake up in darkness. An empty void of nothingness. To be in it is extremely frightening.

Ayana was too tired to get scared. The first time she woke up, she blinked it off and went back to sleep.

The second time, the leopard felt a patch of anxiety throbbing in her chest. So she started moving around in an attempt to kill it.

Ayana struggled, kicking her legs-but her movements were restricted. What was once was her comfy meadow grass, is now a resembled stiff, wooden floor. With dull horror, Ayana realized that something was wrong.

The scents were foreign to her. There's no memory of her enclosure sounding anything like that.

...Or

This is a very bad dream and she'll wake up soon.

Yes, that's it. Ayana'll be back in her habitat. Where all she needs is some brush, thick vegetation, her tree for hiding and sleeping. Where she rested in the heat of the day in the bushes and caves, or even up in her trees. Ayana would always have her long tail to help her to balance on narrow tree branches.

But she was already awake.

All because she and Marty decided to leave the zoo. And for what? Some dream to be in the wild?

The leopard had that dream a long time ago when she first arrived at the zoo. But she has new friends and a new life now, how could she just leave them?!

This was all her fault. Ayana curled in on herself, grasping her biceps tightly in a self embrace.

Then a soft voice spoke up.

"Ugh...Oh, my head." The voice whispered. It was close and familiar, so familiar Ayana almost snapped out of her grogginess. She began to embrace herself again, she felt something bump into her. It didn't bother her, that is until she found out where it bumped her. Right in the wooden plank.

Ayana became vaguely curious about what lay beneath her. Whatever it was, their groans of pain echoed faintly.

"What the...?" The voice spoke again. "Wait. Where...? What...?" Ayana heard more bumps, the vibrations less tough but present. "I'm in a box!" The voice cried out. "I'm in a box! Oh, no. No, no! Not the box."

Poor guy, Ayana thought without dozing off. It was a long time ago when she too was put in a box, but that was a story for another time. Alex knew how it felt like. Being trapped and you weren't able to do a thing. It would be scary if he was in a box too.

"Oh, no, they can't transfer me. Not me!" The voice became sharp like a feeble kitten. Now, after some deciphering, Ayana knew that the voice was, in fact, male. "Oh, I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Darkness creeping in."

Ayana pricked her ears up, now fully awake and alert. The adrenaline rush giving her enough to lift her head in the dimness of the box.

That patch of anxiety reviving itself again.

"I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Walls closing in around me. So alone. So alone."

"Alex?" Ayana spoke softly, surprising herself of just how hoarse her voice was.

"Ayana?" He said quietly.

"Yeah, it's me."

"Ayana! Oh no! I- you- we're..." Alex trailed off into a hush. The fear in his voice was obvious. And she couldn't gather the strength to break free from the box and comfort him.