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Jesse and Yumyulack walk down their usual route home. Nothing new, they bickered with eachother as always.
“I think it’s stupid to rank cartoons on a 1-10 basis.”
“Then you won’t mind me ranking Family guy a 2/10”
“How dare you!!! Family guy is peak comedy!!”
Jesse rolled her eyes at her brother's outburst. “Whatever” she groaned. Quickly her face lit up once she spotted a middle aged woman and a small poodle. She gasped, “yumyulack look!”, and without much thought she grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the lady and poodle.
“It’s a poodle! I thought only rich people had those!”
The poodle lady smiled and gestured to her dog. “Do you two want to pet her?”
Jesse happily accepted the offer and started to pet the dog behind its ears. It yipped happily and came up on its two hind legs and started to lick her face. Jesse giggled at the sensation, petting it behind its curly brown fur.
Yumyulack looked down at both of them. Any normal person would perhaps join them at the petting or at least think the sight itself was cute. But all Yumyulack could feel was…dread. His heart began to beat hard against his chest and his breath quickened. The poodle was a small brown toy poodle who could be easily picked up by the scruff of its neck. Why was he scared of such a small thing ?
No.
No he’s not scared.
Maybe he just took too much cocaine at lunch again.
Yeah, yeah that’s it.
Jesse looked up at the bounty hunter. “Cmon, I think he likes you!” She gestures for him to get on his knees with her.
He should’ve said no. He should’ve just said the lady's dog was ugly and walked away. But saying no would have indicated that he was afraid. That he was weak.
So he crouched down to the mutts level. It happily pranced over to him and looked up at the boy expectantly. Its big round eyes stared at him with intensity.
“Let him sniff you. He loves meeting new people.” The lady stated.
Reluctantly, Yumyulack reached out a shaky hand towards the tiny dog. He flinched slightly when the poodle pressed its nose against his hand to sniff him. His cheeks glowed blue from embarrassment. This thing didn’t seem aggressive. Maybe it was okay.
A part of Yum relaxed and he hesitatingly moved his hand to scratch on top of the dog's head.
The poodle, however, had other ideas as it was too happy and excited to stay still.
It went up onto its hind legs once more and went straight for his face.
Sharp teeth. Huge sharp teeth. Going straight for his head.
There’s blood pouring from his head.
It hurts.
It hurts so bad.
It’s going to kill him.
Rip his brains out and maul him.
Get It off.
Get it off him
He’s going to die.
He can’t breathe.
Blue stained teeth are going to rip his head open.
Get it off of him.
Get it off of him.
Make it stop.
Stop.
Stop.
STOP.
STOP.
Yumyulacks hands raised up and shoved the thing hard against the ground. He fell backwards and immediately shielded his face. He couldn’t tell if he let out a scream out of the deafening sound of ringing in his ears.
He could barely make out the horrified gasp that came from the older lady.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!?”
He looked over to see the small poodle whimpering and shaking a bit on the ground. Yumyulack hurt the damn thing. He didn’t shove off a huge aggressive German shepered, he shoved a poor little poodle.
“I am so sorry! I don’t know why he did that.” Jesse tried to apologize for her brother but the lady only picked up her small dog and stared daggers at her. “I swear you fucking aliens get worse everyday.” She huffed and stormed off cradling the poor dog in her arms.
Jesse, exasperated, whipped around to face her brother, prepared to give him an earful. Her anger was short-lived, however, as she saw her brother's shriveled state. He was still on the ground, shaking and guarding his face. Tears prickled his eyes and his chest rose up and down quickly as he tried to gain back his fleeting breath.
“Yumyulack?…” Jesse cautiously stepped forward, trying to make sure she didn’t startle the boy any further. Unfortunately, as soon as her hand connected with the boys shoulder he harshly shoved her away and stood up.
“Don’t touch me!!” He screamed, his voice cracked embarrassingly but he could care less right now. “…I-I need to go home…”
He elected to ignore his sister's hurt expression and swiftly turn around to start marching away from her. He refused to cry in front of her, in front of anyone actually.
The tears didn’t come until he was out of sight. Suddenly, it was all he could do. They felt like they burned against his skin and dripped down like acid.
All he could do was hastily rub his arm against his eyes and keep moving.
Keep moving forward.
Just like what the academy said.
Keep moving forward.
Protect your team and march on.
For those who have fear are weak.