I felt a white-hot pain in my back as I was stabbed.
Once, twice and then three times.
I fell to the ground clutching my new openings, and for a moment I couldn’t grasp what had just happened.
I had walked through an alley as a shortcut back home, and then suddenly someone had grabbed me from behind.
I lay there, feeling the hot blood pouring between my fingers, pulsating with the beat of my twin hearts.
As I lay there, blinking in shock, I could see a freyan, one of the four-armed vagrants that lived in the back alleys of our town.
He crouched down, and emptied my pockets. He took my credits and my pocket communicator, and then he ran.
He left me to die.
I gasped.
I could feel my breaths slowly becoming harder and harder to make, and I heard a whistling sound with each one.
The street!
If I could make it to the street, someone will help me!
I begin to crawl.
It is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I do not relent.
I must survive!
I can’t leave Hayla alone, not so soon after the sickness.
I couldn’t…
I dragged myself, inch by inch.
I felt my claws crack and tear against the pavement, but I didn’t stop.
My legs wouldn’t obey my brain at all.
The pain was unbearable.
Soon I saw the street light. I had made it!
I heard footfalls closing up to me.
I raised my head as high as I could.
“Please… help…”
The footfalls passed me by!
The creature just ignored me!
I didn’t have strength enough to raise my head as the second creature passed me by, or the third.
No one stopped.
No one cared.
I started to cry. I couldn’t help it, and it certainly didn’t make my struggling breathing any easier to do.
I felt the blackness of the void encroach on my vision.
The pain was going away.
I was so cold
I hear footfalls quickly approach me.
I ignore them, as surely as they will ignore me.
Then I feel a hand, a five-fingered hand grab onto me.
“Hey buddy! Shit… Don’t you fucking die on me, you hear?!”
He had stopped?
Someone cared?
I could hear the tearing of cloth, and I felt the creature wrap my wounds tightly before picking me up.
It’s so warm.
I feel its heart beating in the chest that I am so firmly cradled into.
It’s steady, but fast.
A single heart.
My eyes are too blurry to see my savior, but I feel the wind and the sheer speed of our movement.
I hear the hissing of automatic doors opening.
“I need a fucking doctor here! This… creature has been stabbed!”
I fade from consciousness.
As I wake up, I’m in a white room. I see a machine with a line that zigzags all over the place, and beeps in tune with my hearts.
I see a human sitting next to my bed.
His fine clothes, that look to have cost more than my home is worth, are bloody, and the jacket has a strip torn out of it.
The yellow-furred human smiles.
“Thank god, buddy. You gave me a right good scare, you did.”
I could see Hayla, her furred face harrowed by worry and the passed sickness, still seated in the rolling chair next to the human.
Hayla arose from the chair, and stumbled towards me, steadied by the human.
She then threw herself in my arms. My back burns horribly, but the tears falling from my eyes are not due to the pain.
She cries towards my chest.
“I thought I would lose you.”
She said between her sobs.
The human stood there, looking a bit awkward.
I look to him, and smile as best I can. I’m still very weak.
“Thank you. What is your name, savior of mine?”
He smiles a bit.
“Call me David, or Dave if you prefer.
You know, I still don’t understand how people could just walk you by like that.”
To tell the truth, I didn’t understand it either. But then I look at his jacket.
“I don’t know how I could ever repay you…”
He holds up a hand dismissively.
“Don’t worry about it.
I’m just glad to help.”
You see, that is why while others only talk about human cruelty, I can’t ever see them as monsters.
Because they can be more beautiful and kind than any other species I have ever seen.
And I can only dream to become as good a man as a human, the human that saved my life.
The life of a total stranger.