Nightmare

Another man in a black suit tugged me into another 'pet shop' for what was probably the fifth time. It was still pretty new to me but I'd settled into a routine. Get to a new shop, access the owner, give him a taste of our life.

I'd become the monster that I was assumed to be and I just watched it happen. Some small part of me even embraced that monster.

There are monsters worse than me, the vendors. Some of them aren't bad enough I don't think they can't change but some are. Some have done some things I can't risk happening again.

But I'd decided that they had it coming to them and made sure everyone knew it. Some people had even given me a nickname 'Karma' and I was happy to let them call me that, it was better than 'bitch' after all. Hell, I'd told them it was my name since I didn't want my real one on file.

"You sure you want this one, she's got a screw loose, calls herself Karma and kills her vendors," the man in the black suit asked another vendor I'd probably spend no more than three days with.

"Oh, I'm sure, I've got big plans for this one." Some greasy guy behind the counter answered with a wicked grin.

"Your funeral, man."

The man in the black suit handed my leash to the vendor and then my file and left without another word. The vendor threw my file carelessly onto his desk and tugged me into a room filled with cages and pets.

All of the usual smells assaulted my senses, blood, urine, sweat but there was one that shocked me. Burnt flesh.

Every cage had a button on the side and the cages were obviously hooked up to electricity. I growled loudly.

"Oh shut up bitch. There ain't shit you can do about it." That did not make my growling better.

He shoved me into an empty cage and I snarled at him.

Volts jerked through my body and the bottoms of my feet exploded in pain spreading to every cell. He held the button smiling at me for the longest five seconds of my life.

When it stopped I grabbed the door of the cage and squeezed it until it bent. I heard him gulp and smiled at him all fangs. I would not let him do this to the girls in here, no one deserved to be treated like this. Well except him.

He left the room and I slowly calmed down after breaking my collar. Once I stopped growling I noticed the girl next to me looked like she wanted to say something.

She was pretty, blond curly hair, green eyes, and a bright smile. She was also a werewolf judging from the red anklet she wore, but she was also wearing a yellow anklet, deemed a decent pet.

"Hi, I'm Rosie! What's your name?" I'd heard about some pets still being cheery but it was a shock to see her seem so alive considering this might be the worst shop I've ever seen.

"I'm Fall." I smiled at her.

"Are you a hybrid, I've never met a hybrid before!" She looked excited and wrapped her fingers around the bars between us.

"I am." We chatted for a while before the vendor came back. Rosie fell silent and her smile disappeared. She hid in the corner of her cage far, far away from the vendor.

"Which one of you lovelies wants to keep me company tonight?" My eyes widened a bit at his words, that had never happened at my other shops. Especially if the girl had done nothing wrong.

"How about you, I don't think I've touched you yet." He walked up to Rosie's cage and started opening it.

"Don't touch her!" A loud growl echoed in my chest.

"Oh, and how are you going to stop me? She looks like she's got some nice things under that dress of hers."

He reached into her cage and pulled her out even though she was shaking.

"Would you like to watch?" He smiled and ran his hand from her boob to under her dress. She started crying and I lost it. I hit the cage so hard the lock broke and he dropped her moving away from her and me.

I stalked up to him and he started muttering things like 'I would never do that' 'I can change' 'please don't kill me' and I just let him shake in fear as I drew out my walk to him as long as possible.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to do something much worse." I smiled at him threateningly.

I grabbed his hand and squeezed it as hard as possible. Cracking bones, his screams, and his growls were the only sound in the whole store.

I ripped a single bar off of a nearby cage and smiled showing him the jagged edge. I ran it across his thighs, his chest, and gave him a quick well deserved vasectomy.

Then I dragged him over to my empty cage since he was almost passed out from the pain. I put his hand on the bars and pressed the button making sure to not shock myself.

"Do you want it to be over?" I asked his sobbing, bleeding form. He gave a shaky nod. "Then I'll show you the mercy these poor girls you've tortured will get one day. After all it's the best ending for us whether we want it or not."

I shoved the small bar into his neck and watched the man choke on his blood. By the time he was done dying Rosie was long gone and I wished her well.

I hoped that she became a true pet, she deserved so much better than what the world gave her.

I unlocked all the cages and walked back to the man's body. I need the world to know that he deserved this that he did this to himself. Taking the blood running from his thighs I dripped it over his hands.

His blood was on his hands not mine.

Well, it was, but metaphorically.

I laid on the floor waiting for someone to come find me. Pets trickled out of their cages, some waited with me, some left. But no one had to worry about getting blamed for the vendor's death since I was covered in blood.

The next day a customer alerted the men in the black suits of the situation. The remaining pets were loaded into another truck and it went around dropping some pets off at one shop and some at another until there were three left.

A man in a black suit that I didn't even bother to remember the features of led the three of us out of the van. He walked into a shop and I was utterly shocked at what I saw.

Nothing.

There were clear glass holding spaces instead of cages, actual food, water bottles instead of bowls. I smelled the air and it was clean; the whole shop smelled like soap, no blood, no urine, and not even sweat. The shop owner didn't look greasy or even mean, he had kind brown eyes and bright blond hair.

He smiled at us but it wasn't unpleasant, he didn't smile at us like it was forced or like he was going to hurt us.

"Hello, welcome. I'll take care of the pets and their files, you can leave them with me and I'll get everything settled." I doubted that everything here could actually be happening, it was too good to be true. But the man seemed so genuine.

"Are you sure, this one has a lot on her record." He pointed at me but I was too amazed by the shop to even growl.

"I've got everything under control, have a lovely day." He took our files and leashes and gave a wave.

"Alright, let's get you settled." We didn't all get our own holding space but honestly, I kind of liked sharing. Though I'm sure my cell mates didn't feel the same way considering I'm a known killer.

They kept looking at my anklet and stayed as far away from me as possible.

Immediately deciding I loved the place I kept my collar on and sat quietly.

*I'll let this one live, without beating him up like the other two that might change.*

A few customers filtered in and out of the shop and most of them had the same kind look on their face as the vendor.

Once the day was over the vendor filled all our plates with what looked like meatloaf and filled our water bottles. I happily indulged myself in both and purred loudly getting strange looks from some.

He took us in small groups to what looked like a locker room. We all got to use the bathroom and take an actual shower. We even got clean clothes afterwards!

I'm not sure why this place is so different, maybe it's because he heard about me, maybe some shoppers hate pets with scars and PTSD, maybe some shoppers like having happy pets so they can tear them down.

But it doesn't matter, some of these girls were born and raised to be pets and if they can have a day of happiness that's all that matters.

I fell asleep with a surprisingly soft blanket and the light breathing of the other girls. There was no crying or screaming or whimpering for the most part. It was probably the best night I'd had since my father had died months ago.

When we woke up we got five minutes in the locker room to use the bathroom and wash our hands. Then we all got a bowl of cheap off-brand cereal and our water bottles were refilled. The vendor opened the shop again and all I could think was that this is how it should be in all pet shops.

"What's wrong with this one?" A man with hard eyes asked pointing at my anklet.

"She doesn't take well to people abusing her. She hasn't acted out here yet but she fights back when people try to punish her." I could see in the vendor's eyes that he did not want to sell me to this man.

The man ruffled his brown hair and his eyes slowly light up with the evil smile on his face. My face fell and I sighed seeing that he was going to buy me.

"That's just how I like 'em!" The vendor didn't argue with him but you could see the unhappiness on his face.

He led the man up to the front counter and left him there signing paper work. He came back to me with a sad expression.

"I'm sorry." His apology meant something to me, what he did meant something to me.

"Keep doing what you're doing, it means the world to us girls to get to see something like this for a day." I walked up front with him and gave him a small smile when I left with the man.

We got into the back of a car and it started driving away sealing my fate.

"Here are the rules, you'll go along with whatever I want or you'll pay for it. Get used to figuring out what I want if you want to live." A small growl picked up in my throat not liking his threats.

Without warning he grabbed my arm and bit deep into it. A small scream came out of my mouth and I growled louder. I never knew what being fed from was like, despite all odds I'd never been fed from.

It only hurt for a second but even after the pain was gone there was still panic. Panic that they wouldn't stop, panic that it would make you weak, panic they'd bite deeper just to make it hurt more.

Eventually my growls quieted into almost non-existence and he let go. Then he licked the blood that came out of my arm until it stopped bleeding and I tried not to visibly cringe.

"Hmm... they're right. Hybrid blood is better, I wonder what else is better about them." He said that sentence in a way that terrified me. We pulled up to a large mansion and he tugged on my leash so hard I almost fell.

When we walked into the mansion I heard heartbeats speed up. Almost all the staff limped or showed discomfort and his eyes searched around predatorily. The whole place smelled like blood.

We walked down a staircase and he shoved me into a room with about twelve other girls. They all had bite marks, bruises, and at least one injury. They looked so miserable it pissed me off.

Growling loudly I looked for him but he'd already gone. There was a small shower and toilet in the corner of the room and thin blankets scattered everywhere.

Girls eyed me fearfully probably assuming I was another vampire here to hurt them. Sitting down I tried to calm down. The bite mark on my arm looked nasty even with how fast I healed.

Breaking my collar I set it down next to me. I always kept my anklets on to let the vendor remember who I was and I decided to treat my owner no different.

*How should I get out of here?* The girls around me were all clearly too weak to run away so I decided I'd have to stay and try to occupy him for a few days so they could heal a bit.

*God, I hate to imagine what being here for days is going to be like.

For two hours or so nothing happened. But then the door opened and I was already growling. My hair was immediately pulled and growling started.

I was slammed into a wall and kicked out behind me, I got spun around and a very angry vampire snarled in my face. I spit at him and I felt my collar bone snap.

Pissed off and in pain I hit his elbow with my arm furthest away from him and heard his shoulder pop out of place.

I was yanked out of the room and tied to a pole in a room with knives, whips, and other torture tools I was sure I would be very familiar with soon. A whip snapped and I felt more desperate than I had in a while.

Frantically pulling on the handcuffs I watched both them and the pole bend but neither would give way soon enough.

Crack!

Tears stung in my eyes but not nearly as bad as my back stung. I heard him laugh and it happened again and again. Soon my whole back was teetering somewhere between numb and excruciating pain.

Blood had long since dripped onto my feet completely covering the whole back side of my body.

I'd been whimpering, screaming, and crying for a long time but that didn't stop my owner from whipping me, apparently he just goes until he's tired of whipping you instead of to a certain number of lashes or until the person looks like they learned their lesson.

I couldn't help the other girls heal if I was out of commission myself. I couldn't kill him in this shape either and I'm not sure I want to. All I want to do for a long time is cry and feel sorry for myself.

Just when I thought it was over hot water poured down my back seeping into every crack of my injury and the few parts of my back that didn't hurt lit up.

I screamed louder than I'd ever heard anyone scream outside of a movie and it was surprising I could still hear afterword.

I was so tired, so tired and in so much pain. My eyes shut and I couldn't open them again.

When I woke up I felt worse. Impossible as it sounds my back felt worse. I couldn't find a comfortable position to sit in and my eyes watered because it hurt that bad. Sweet smells filled the room I was in, my fangs ached and the best sound in the world played in my ears.

I wanted it so bad I wanted the smell and the taste and the sound. *I need it.*

My body moved without me and suddenly I had it. The best thing in the world. It lit every cell in my body alive and sent my heart soaring.

The pain in my back lessened and I just enjoyed listening to the sound of whatever I had. I couldn't focus on anything but it. But then the sound slowed down in the source nearest to me and I stopped in confusion.

I looked down at the sound and realized what was happening. The sound was one of the girls I wanted to help and instead I was draining her.

Gently letting go I stared down at her guilty because as much as I wanted to help her, I also wanted to drain her and that sickened me.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," I muttered and hugged her. "God, I'm so sorry."

I backed away from her and looked at the rest of the girls. Most of them were in worse shape than they were before I got whipped and they were all terrified.

Steeling myself I got up and walked to the door. I kicked the door open and walked up the stairs growling. I was going to find him. Following the most recent scent of his I followed it up the stairs and opened a large wooden door.

He stared at me in shock before correcting his expression into a smile. I walked towards him slowly and listened to his heartbeat speed up. That's when I realized I didn't have to make them all feel our pain.

The ones that didn't survive didn't need to since they wouldn't change. Hell, maybe the other ones didn't either. I wanted him to stop doing this to people and I'd damn well make sure that he stopped.

Without saying a word I grabbed him from over the desk and dragged him towards me. I drank from him to make sure my back healed all the way and once it did I let go and snapped his neck.

Using my fangs to make large cuts on his hands and spread the blood around. Maybe he didn't need to feel our pain but I still wanted everyone to know why he died.

I wanted to make a statement because eventually someone would put all the pieces together and everyone would know why I killed all those people.

And as normal I just waited for someone to come find out what happened and bring me back to another pet shop. Maybe eventually I could make every pet shop like the last one I saw.

Peaceful, safe, that's what I wanted for them. That's what they deserved.