Jimin's Pet | Park Jimin (a hybrid story)

~~Thirty-six^.^

Poppy~
It was a struggle to open my eyes as I started to come around. My back ached terribly, as did my left cheek. I felt a chill through my camisole making me uncomfortable. I shifted slightly and realized, with some concern that I was laying on a hard, cold surface.

As I tried to wrap my arms around myself, it became evident that I only had the use of one arm. The other would only move a few inches.

"Psssst," I heard someone close-by whisper. "Wake up. Are you okay? You've been out for hours."

I finally cracked my eye opened, grimacing at the pain in my head. The terrible lighting overhead buzzed and flickered, even though the sun shone weakly through the brown paper over the windows. As soon as my vision cleared, I frowned at what I saw, not understanding the situation I was in.

I carefully sat up and looked around the room at cages full of dirty, emaciated hybrids. Their large empty eyes stared at me blankly as I tried to put together what had happened.

The last thing I remembered was boarding the subway train after a late dance practice. I didn't even remember finding a seat; everything after stepping through the sliding doors was gone from my memories.

Now I was on the floor of only God knows where, chained by one wrist to the wall. I reached over and frantically pulled at the complicated restraint that held me firmly in place. 

"Don't let them catch you doing that," another whisper reached through the fog in my brain and I looked for the benevolent individual that tried to help me.

Three feet away, in one of the cages to my right, crouched an older female hybrid. She was a fox and I couldn't help but notice several burns marking different areas over her naked skin. She looked at me and held her finger up to her lips. "Don't look at them. Be submissive, and for God's sake, don't talk back to them."

"Them? Who is them?" I whispered back.

Looking around the room, still not comprehending where I was at, I observed many different kinds of hybrids, male and female, all unclothed. Almost as one, they pointed toward the door at the back of the room.

I paid closer attention and heard the murmur of quiet voices coming from the back room. I looked questioningly at the fox, the only one willing to risk talking. 

"It's almost auction time. They're on the phone making appointments for possible buyers to come examine the merchandise before the big day," she answered me, in a matter of fact tone of voice.

"Auction time?" I asked stupidly. Glancing around, I looked for the products they were auctioning off, but there was nothing in this room, except for the cages lining the walls and a sturdy wooden post in the center of the room with a couple of industrial hooks hammered into it—an odd place for a coat rack, to be sure.

"Sweetheart, we're the merchandise," the fox said scornfully. "Once a month, they sell off the ones they feel will bring in the most revenue, depending on what the buyers are looking for."

My heart was thumping in my chest and my breathing went shallow from fear. This didn't seem like the sort of place nice people would come to adopt a pet.

"What the buyers are looking for? Why wouldn't they just go to the hybrid facilities to find what they wanted?"

I'd never been the recipient of more sympathetic looks as I had in the last five minutes. This was definitely one of those moments that I had that dumb bunny feeling again.

The fox's smile was timid, but still motherly as she quickly explained, "These buyers don't want pets, love. Some here will be bought to do manual labor, but most will go into the sex trade, either as sex pets or in the porn industry. And those are the lucky ones; there's occasionally the rare buyer that just wants something to torture, and it's a lesser offence to harm or kill a hybrid if they're caught."

She quickly moved to the other side of her cage, not even looking at me, as we heard quick footsteps heading our way from beyond the door in the back. I fixed my eyes on the floor, hoping not to be noticed. The kind of people who would do this were not the kind of people you wanted to notice you, ever. My eyes slid over to the fox, the burns and scars etched into her skin validating my fears.

"You filthy hybrids better not be talking amongst yourselves," a woman's voice said, coming closer with every footstep that clacked against the floor. "You know what will happen if I catch you breaking the rules."

My breath caught in my throat as I realized I knew that voice—I had heard that voice many times before.

My fear disappeared, only to be replaced with raging hostility. I raised my eyes level with hers as she came through the door; even if it cost me everything, I would never cower in front of this bitch.

~~~

Hoseok~
The ringing of the phone woke me, and I squinted in the direction of my alarm clock.

It was only seven in the morning, and I had been out late last night. After I'd dropped off Valeria, Hae had invited me to her place for coffee and I only got back home a few hours ago.

I grinned thinking about what a good night it had been. Deciding to ignore the phone, I pulled the pillow over my head and tried to go back to sleep, but whomever was calling was persistent. The phone continued to ring, one call right after another.

I reached over toward my nightstand and answered it gruffly without thinking, "Do you even know what time it is?"

"Hobi?"

"Jiwoo? What's wrong?" I asked, sitting up quickly, wishing I hadn't sounded so harsh. The tone of her voice warned me that something was amiss.

"Is everything okay?"

"I don't know what to do," she said, on the verge of tears, "I can't find Poppy. I don't think she came back last night. Her bed hasn't been slept in and her dance bag isn't where it usually is."

I rubbed my eyes and dragged my fingers through my hair, trying to process what my sister was telling me.

"Maybe she woke up early and went to pick up coffee? Or she's just out for a walk? Have you tried calling her phone?"

So many different scenarios went through my head that could explain Poppy's absence. We didn't keep her prisoner in the apartment; she could roam the neighborhood as she wanted.

"She's not answering and I've called so many times. There's something else; I probably should have mentioned it yesterday, but I didn't think there was anything to it then," Jiwoo said, her voice cracking. "Poppy's been paranoid about some man that's been hanging around. We've seen him at the coffee shop, the subway, outside of our apartment—every time we turn around he seems to be there."

I felt the hairs prickling the length of my arm. "Poppy's been worried about him?" I pressed, knowing that Poppy's instincts were reliable.

"To the point of standing in the front window, constantly watching for him," she admitted. "I should have listened to her, instead of brushing off her concerns. What do I do, Hobi?"

"I'll be there as quickly as I can."

Jumping out of bed, I grabbed whatever clothing was closest and pulled it on as I ran into the hallway, shouting, "JIMIN! We have a problem!"