He shoved the meat in his mouth with single-minded gusto. A few minutes later he was hunched over the platter, his long tapered tongue dragging desperately over it, licking up any leftover blood.
His body looked fuller now. His bones less prominent as his normal leanly muscled state restored in a matter of minutes. His arms were filled out again too, the hard biceps and defined forearms back.
“Fuck,” Caspian murmured. Brandon whimpered slightly as he tried and failed to get more juices from the cleaned plate.
“What’s going on?” I asked, turning to Caspian.
“He’s just… hungry,” Caspian said as if that explained it all. Brandon slowly dragged himself back towards my cage, accepting there was nothing left. I moved to the far corner as he approached. Brandon leaned against the bars of my cage and began messing with the skull mask. He gripped the jutting antlers and tugged on them until he was growling with the effort. Finally, he gave up again, curling against my bars.
“It won’t come off,” he said, deflated. I moved towards him despite Caspian’s verbal protests and Pollux’s animated head shaking. I grabbed Brandon’s hand and squeezed, leaning my head right next to his. He squeezed my hand back and we sat a minute before he took a deep breath.
“I’ll get you out of here” he promised, squeezing my hand. I understood he needed this—someone to comfort, care for, and protect.
“Okay,” I said.
We heard a soft knock on the door. A moment later it opened, revealing Ben with a big grin on his face standing next to a short, slightly balding man wearing a lab coat.
“Do you mind if we come in? This is Dr. Nicholas, he is now in charge of… “ Ben waved his hand around like searching for the word. “Otherly relations. Which is another way of saying that he is in charge of you.” They both pushed into the room, swiftly closing the door behind them.
“He reports directly to me and is here to keep us all safe and happy. That’s a good thing,” Ben said with a smile and nod as if that would convince us that being in cages was okay now. Ben strode in further and plopped down into one of the seats in a corner. Dr. Nicholas marched in behind him while glancing at a clipboard and eyeing Brandon nervously.
Brandon let go of my hand and shifted around on his hands and knees while on the floor. He looked like he was trying to figure out who to attack first.
“Please don’t get any bright ideas, Brandon,” Ben said with a quick bite. “You’re now our most prized pet. Those cages everyone else is in are both a precaution and a safeguard. If you hurt anyone then we will have no choice but to hurt your friends. I’m sorry for the confusion of last night. The ceremony didn’t go exactly as planned, but it was a first for all of us.” He huffed out a chuckle and twisted the edge of his mustache a little. His pale eyes scanned Brandon up and down.
“It’ll take time to rebuild the trust and so the cages will stay for now. In time, with good behavior, will come privileges and eventually freedom. Please remember that everything we do, we are doing for you,” Ben said, opening his hands out towards us.
“What did you do to Brandon?” I asked. Ben’s eyes slid to me.
“I made him into more,” Ben said with a swell of pride. “And once we know everything about him, I plan to repeat the ritual on myself—join the ranks of the creatures around you.” He waited for some reaction that never came. His smile turned into a look of annoyance.
“Right. Brandon, let the doctor takes some measurements—”
“Like hell,” Brandon snarled. Ben’s jaw ticked.
“Let the doctor take some measurements and you will get more meat. How does twenty pounds of beef sound?” Brandon stilled, breathing heavily. We all turned to look at him in confusion.
“Measurements?” He finally ground out. Ben smiled.
“Weight, height, and things like that,” Ben said but Brandon was already nodding, his tongue coming out to lick at the sides of his skull mask. “Great,” Ben said and the doctor very tentatively stepped forward and started wrapping a tape measure around Brandon’s arms then legs. When he got to his waist he hesitated, looking up at the skull face that peered down at him. Brandon was watching him while licking the teeth of the mask and breathing heavily.
“Be good,” Ben said, observing from his chair.
“I am,” Brandon snapped. The doctor continued on. At some point, Caspian began hurling threats that Ben ignored. His eyes were all for Brandon now. The doctor and Ben occasionally winced and I figured Pollux was talking to them and it was doing them little harm. Finally, they finished with Brandon and began to shuffle from the room.
“The food,” Brandon snapped out, taking a step towards them. The doctor made a noise of distress and rushed from the room when Brandon came closer.
“Let me close the door. I’ll send it through the slot,” Ben said slowly, leaving the room and doing just that. When the bags of meat were shoved through the bottom slot of the door Brandon became ravenous, tearing into the plastic instead of opening it.
We sat in our cages and watched him silently.
“We need to get the fuck out of here,” Caspian said over the sounds of Brandon’s messy eating.
To be continued….
