Pepelito scraped himself slowly to his feet, and cautiously began exploring his surroundings. Under the thick bandages, the pain in his back was less overwhelming. This place was like a small barn except the floor was tiled and hard to walk on. Parts were covered with rolls of plastic. Where was the grass? Thinking about each step, he wandered over to one of the buckets of water Rita had placed at the side of the living room for him, and started drinking greedily.
Once he'd finished, he moved onto a small bale of straw her and Alfonso had hurriedly bought with cash last night, from an agricultural wholesalers. It was too dry, but he could eat it. He was getting back his appetite. They'd put something in his food in that place that made him sick and tasted horrible. And then they'd stopped feeding him at all.
As he swished his tail he knocked a photo of Rita's parents from the table. He walked out of the door and wandered towards the bathroom with its narrow doorway. To enter, he had to make the painful effort to move his head to the side.
Unable to see a way out of the flat, he wanted to leave, but then remembered what was outside.
Rita had filled the bath with water for him. He took a few gulps, brushing the grey and white bathroom counter with his horns and knocking some lipstick and a toilet roll to the floor. A foundation bottle now stood precariously on the edge of the bathroom counter above the toilet.
This place was better than there.
But it was weird.
He walked into another room with a large double bed in it, a dressing table and two large, freestanding wooden cupboards. He climbed onto the bed and walked around. It was too soft and felt very unsteady. As he walked, some of the wooden slats snapped. He lay down for a bit on the dark grey duvet. It was more comfortable than standing up. His neck was starting to hurt again. He rubbed it on the duvet. The painkiller Alfonso had poured onto his neck and back, a bright blue liquid called Finedyne, came off all over the covers.
After a few minutes, he pulled himself to his feet, trying not to move his head so as not to aggravate the cuts. He had drunk so much water. He'd needed to. After doing what he needed to do he jumped off. Now, in the unlikely event anyone else came here, they'd know it was his territory.
Next to the bedroom was another, smaller room. It was shut and he tried to press down on the handle with his horn to open it. Someone had showed him that trick once on the farm. Nobody was there to hit him here. But touching anything with the tips of his horns was painful. He'd got clumsier; he couldn't use them to feel his way round or judge where he was. It took him several slow, careful attempts before the door opened.
This room was quite small and dark and Pepelito suddenly felt anxious. He backed away and mooed loudly, scratched the hard ground. Not that that was going to do any good, as he'd discovered. As he reversed, his hoof stepped on a light switch attached to a floor lamp. He felt slightly better about going in.
The room had a desk and computer at one end, and a filing cabinet. A wall on one side had a notice board covered with pictures. Each one of the pictures had a number and most of them were grouped. Some of them were of houses, some of them of woodlands, or fields.
But mostly, they were of dead humans.
Pepelito backed away, feeling a sudden inexplicable fear. His leg kicked a brown metal filing cabinet, which toppled and crashed to the ground. Papers and documents spilled onto the floor. He walked backwards out of the study, and backed away towards the living room, narrowly avoiding tipping over a bucket of water. The painkillers had worn off. He edged himself behind the sofa and lay down, panting but trying to keep quiet.
A key turned in the lock. Rita walked in. She was shouting at someone. She sounded upset. Pepelito felt suddenly terrified. He kept still, fearing she would hurt him, and pressed his nose to the ground.
'Absolutely not. You don't speak to me since you married him. Now you call, and your husband's 'career', if you can call it that, is what you talk about!' She slammed the door.
'Oh. Really? Let me tell you something, Maria, I deal with death every day. I investigate murders. That's my job, and now you want me to help your husband find animals to kill!'
Pepelito's body tensed as she flung open the door to the living room. 'Think of our parents? Ha! Good one sis, why didn't you think of Dad when you married a man he hates as much as I do!' She threw the phone onto the sofa, it bounced onto the tarpaulin.
'I'm sorry, toro. Buenas tardes. Did I scare you? You must have been thirsty, you've drunk all your water.' She walked towards him cautiously, not looking him in the eye. He stood up clumsily, his hind legs backed into the corner, unsteady on his feet and weak from loss of blood.
'What’s the world coming to, toro? Teenagers killing a guy in broad daylight in the middle of a park?’ She sighed, her eyes turning to a large bottle of Finedyne standing by the door.
'Oh! You need your medication. Alfonso said 18:00, it should have been 2 and a half hours ago - but work... I'm so sorry, pobrecito. I'll call him now.' Rita gulped. She snatched up the phone, got up and walked out of the door. Pepelito heard her walking to the bedroom. Moments later, she screamed. His whole body tensed in fear of what would happen next.
'Hello? Yeah fine. I don't know, he's obviously wandered about during the day. He's caused quite a lot of damage - he's peed on my bed! But now he's standing in the corner, I think something's scared him. Maybe he hurt himself, I don't know. OK. See you then.'
Rita came back, sighed and sat down on her plastic-covered sofa. She turned on the TV. No, she wasn't about to hurt him. 'And now, we bring you the latest on today's tragic and shocking murder...'
'Malditos,' she said, turning it off quickly, her voice thick with emotion. Pepelito came out of the gap between the sofa and the wall and slowly approached her.
'Pobrecito,' she said, putting her hand out slowly. 'It's OK.'
There was a knock at the door. Rita got up. Pepelito retreated behind the sofa. He felt safer there.
'Hey. Sorry. I only just got in. I'm a cop, and today was such a difficult day at work.' She showed Alfonso inside, picking up the Finedyne bottle.
'Well, you're trying your best.’ Alfonso carried a bag containing bandages and medicines.
'His name's Pepelito apparently, it was on the news. Isn't that sweet?' Rita said.
'Nice name. Hola, Pepelito. Aw, you've been a bit destructive, haven't you? But I'm glad you had a little walk. It'll help you get better.' Alfonso's voice was kind and friendly.
Rita pushed her recliner close to where Pepelito was standing, blocking his exit. It squeaked across the floor. Suddenly, he remembered being trapped somewhere else.
He had been there for hours. It was so hot and there was no water. It was pitch dark. His horns hurt. Were they bleeding? He pushed at the door but it was locked. His friend Ladron was bellowing. Screaming. He could smell blood. The crowd cheered. Horrible things were happening. Someone was laughing. He was so thirsty and hungry. He just wanted water. Excited shouts and applause ripped through his ears. Then there was a thud -
Pepelito pushed past Rita's recliner, mooing furiously as she dived out of the way. He trod on one of her feet and she gasped, although it was covered by a steel capped boot. He had to get out of here. Everything hurt and they were trying to hurt him more.
'Hey, hey, it's OK.' Rita looked at Alfonso helplessly. She lowered her voice. 'Have you seen all the scars on his body?'
'Yeah. He's scared and he's in pain and he doesn't want to let us near him, he's never known humans to be kind,' Alfonso said. Pepelito walked into the bathroom where the bath was still almost completely full. He gulped down the water in the bath, his neck still hurting when he held his head at that angle.
'You left the water in the bath all day?' He heard Alfonso laughing.
'I ran the bath...in case el toro ran out of water and got thirsty while I was at work.' There was a pause. Pepelito started drinking again. The water tasted weird, not like the water on the farm. It tasted soapy.
'What's funny?' Rita sounded annoyed.
'I think it's lovely. Some people have no compassion to animals at all, and you run a bath in case he got thirsty,' Alfonso laughed.
'Look, um. Why don't we both get some tea and try to tidy up some of this damage? Then we can see if he comes to us. He's frightened, and us being stressed is stressing him even more.' They both walked towards the kitchen. Pepelito did not understand the words but as he lapped up the water he felt his anxiety starting to recede. These humans were unpredictable. But they weren't like the ones he'd escaped.
'Before we got that - that call, everyone was talking about it at work. You know who rang the police switchboard today, twenty times? Blocking the line for real crimes, while we were dealing with a murder? My - my sister's husband.' Rita spat the last two words out.
'I had to go to a sanctuary to look at a sick goat. They were all talking about it as well. I asked what they'd do, hypothetically of course, if someone brought him in. They said they'd take him no questions asked.'
'Ha, well, I'm tempted, especially if he pees in my bed again.'
'I get that, it's not like looking after a dog is it?' As Pepelito drank, the stabbing sensation in his back intensified. He turned away and laid down on the tiles by the bath, his head between his hooves. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine eating fresh grass again, drinking water from a stream.
*
'Hey, you don't have to be scared,' Alfonso said, sitting beside him and stroking his side. He took out several medications and a padded bandage to replace the one from last night. The disinfectant spray Alfonso gave him stung in Pepelito’s wounds but he did not move this time.
‘Hello?’ Rita’s voice came from further down the hallway. 'Is there a suspect in the vicinity? OK. Of course. I'll be there as soon as I can.'
'They shaved the ends of your horns too. What a coward. Couldn't take on a bull that hadn't been tortured beforehand, could he,' Alfonso said quietly as he applied painkillers to the appendages. He patted him gently but the anger in his voice was palpable. Then he pressed the bandage down onto his back. The pain subsided slightly. Pepelito shifted towards him, beginning to relax. Maybe he could trust these two.
'Sorry. Could you let yourself out when you're done with him? I have to go back to work.' Rita said briskly.
'Sure, I think we're almost done. Are you OK?'
'Yeah. Someone's just found a body.'