wild

Jinhyuk isn’t sure how he ended up on the ground in an alleyway. Sometimes, he just set himself up for failure. Animal shelters were dangerous places for him; they were too often filled with hopeful vibes, hopeful but with an overwhelming sadness. 

But he often forgot, heading in that direction unconsciously, drawn to the voices. He recoiled the moment he walked by the storefront, as the long-time residents of the shelter recognized him and their voices drowned out his other senses. 

It’s Jinhyuk!

Jinhyuk! Did you bring a friend?

Come in and say hi!!

Maybe if I look really happy, someone will come for me today.

Where’s Gina? She’s came in to see me just last week...

Hungry.

Please take me home.

Jinhyuk!

Please.

It was a myriad of excitement and hope and desperation, and Jinhyuk couldn’t take all of the commotion inside his head. He tried to block out the voices, but they kept clambering over one another, pushing against his head until it felt as though his brain was about to explode. 

He stumbled along, eyes not focusing on anything, and somehow made it far enough into a side street to collapse onto all fours. His arms were wobbly where they held him up and he tasted bile in the back of his throat. 

@odsoren​

Food. 

The thought bounced around inside his skull before Jinhyuk turned his head to see a white pomeranian sit up from it’s spot tied to a bike post, her tail starting to pick up speed as she zeroed in on the smell eminating from his backpack. As he walked closer, the pomeranian jumped up onto her hind legs, tugging at the rope. 

The thought had evolved into a loud chorus in his head echoing until Jinhyuk blinked a few times, hard enough to send colour popping behind his eyelids. 

HEY ENOUGH. 

The loudness abated, but the voice persists, albeit much less demanding and a little more whiny. He kept walking, tapping the pad of his right thumb to his pointer finger repeatedly in his pocket. Mary’s literally inside there, buying you jerky. Calm down.

Before he can hear the canine’s response, he switches to tapping against his fourth finger, tuning into the much calmer mind of a white rat napping in his left coat pocket. It was humming a weird tune, but it was better than the yipping of the pomeranian. 

He had ventured out of his apartment with a bag of assorted candies and a large ziplocked bag of raw meat. Perhaps he would use two ziplock bags next time to further mask the smell, although he doubted that it would make much of a difference. 

The whole journey took him just over an hour, him having to stop along the way to feed a few mountain lions, a vulture, and a few leopard cats. He also managed to lob two larger steaks up into the cave where he knew an asiatic black bear lived. Jinhyuk had affectionately called the bear Rufus, but wasn’t quite comfortable enough yet to chance hand-feeding. 

By the time he had made his way over to the dark abandoned mansion, he had ammassed quite a few creature, ranging in size from the rat still curled up in his coat, to a lynx and a tibetian wolf padding along just behind him. He didn’t mind a larger crowd with wilder animals; they didn’t tend to babble as much as domestic animals, and were generally less curious beings. 

Approaching the large building, Jinhyuk let himself in with a light push on the old oak door, grimacing as the hinge creaked in protest. One of these days, that hinge would just give up and there would be no more door. There was a buzz in his head, a slight edge that he could sense off of the wolf who nudged at the back of his thigh before trotting off into another room. He called her Brin, off of her brindle coat, and her senses were arguably sharpest out of all of the animals who had decidedly to join him. She wasn’t too concerned though, having smelled that particular odd scent a few times now. From her thoughts alone, Jinhyuk could almost taste the metallic scent on his tongue.