[ WP ] You were adopted some years back and have begun to slowly realize that you 're a dog .

There was a gritty taste to the air like I was breathing into sand. I shifted, metallic snakes following me. I shifted my spine against the wood and chicken wire. I was skinny, something I used to long for with a single hungry purpose. 
 
 It had been my beautiful hell. 
 
 My chin rested on the floor, cheek rolling against the metal bowls. It had been days since the smell of meat had evaporated, longer since I had more than ghosts in my mouth. 
 
 Across from me, the other girl was lying there, her bloated eyes watching me. She had been beautiful when she came in, brown and golden. She lost her words three days ago when she came back from the ring painted like a brave. I could still smell the copper. 
 
 Her tongue moved against her lips. She turned away, curled into herself. She did n't move again. 
 
 They were coming for me. I knew I was the next one. I had a different sort of hunger now. My all-focus had been on being beautiful, being different. Now I was just another bitch. One of the girls. 
 
 I heard his boots before I felt his hand. He reached into my small narrow world and shook me. `` Get up! Girl.'' 
 
 He sounded almost fond. 
 
 He opened the cage door, his hands around the leather collar. He pushed me into the harsh light and laughed. `` Still meek, eh? Eh?'' 
 
 He did n't need to tell me what this meant. You had two types of people in this world: Those with teeth and those without. 
 
 I would either survive the night or die. 
 
 I was hungry for the freedom. 
 
 I had died before. This would n't be any different. 
 
 As I was pulled, paws digging into the cement, I wondered about the family I left behind. The human idiots who I remembered with a desperate fondness. My sister, my father -- did they know I came back to find them, to help them? 
 
 And the new people, who found me on the side of the road and loved me? 
 
 I had been taken from them. I had been taken from my new life, my happy life. 
 
 To die like a dog. 
 
 
 

