Subject 23:59

4. A new colour

The turtle sighed, looking at Sqkii's fireball show without much interest. The mouse put on his usual tricks, one being a small fire ball rolling beneath his paws and making it burst in the air into millions of little orange sparks. Many would have been amazed and thoroughly entertained by that little show he had performed but the young test subject was getting bored of the the repetitive tricks his friend did. His mind began to linger, bored of the display of his unique talent. The mouse no longer seemed to interest him like it once did.

The turtle's eyes began to wonder across the silent and momentarily peaceful room. It was night time and some of the room's inhabitants were already resting, the usual noisy chatter had long softened to a few quiet whispers. His eyes soon came upon an empty enclosure which usually housed a mysterious and charming green reptile, her scales as bright as the view of the green leaves through the window and twice as interesting. He scanned the small metal habitat. With only less than a square metre of space, it was weird that the snake was no where to be seen.

The turtle blinked and smiled a little, remembering the reptile's special ability. Hmmm... I wonder if... The turtle slammed his shell against the glass separating their two cages. Suddenly, a green hissing reptile appeared, holding a defensive stance in the once empty space in the cage.

The snake glowered at the turtle for a second, baring its fangs instinctively, her eyes flashing red as a warning before fading back to the usual mysterious black and soulful eyes. The turtle's heart skipped a beat as he retreated an inch into his shell in a reflex action.

"Ha! That'll teach you not to spy on us!" Sqkii exclaimed, pointing a taunting paw at the snake.

The turtle just kept silent. Something in the snake's hypnotising eyes stopped him from agreeing with Sqkii.

Just then, the door to the room was opened by a scientist that had become a familiar face, Bill. Just like he did three days ago, he opened the turtle's cage, placed a bowl of food in it, before closing the cage and leaving the room once more.

A cry of jealousy came from Sqkii's cage. The turtle turned around to see the small mouse looking longingly at his food. His eyes sparkled with nostalgia, a sight too pitiful to bear. However, that unbearable expression was thankfully short-lived as the mouse's face lit up in a new found excitement.

"Do you think the mysterious Franky left you a note?" the mouse squealed excitedly.

"What Franky?" the snake slithered closer towards the mouse and turtle duo, its dark eyes paling.

"You don't have to know," the mouse dismissed irritably, treating the question as if it was a fly bothering him. Emerald's eyes flickered wildly for a second, before silently slithering into the shadows of her enclosure.

"That snake has such a temper!" Sqkii grinned wildly, shaking his head as he stared thoughtfully after the snake.

"Why does Emerald's eyes change colours?" the turtle enquired, curiosity egging him.

"Oh, Em's eye colour changes due to her emotions, it kinda gets inconvenient sometimes, I guess, since you can't hide your emotions," the mouse shrugged nonchalantly, "For example, her usual eye colour is black but as you can see, red represents anger and blue for sadness, yellow is when she's happy and so on. There are more but some are just kinda unknown, you know?"

The turtle paused, lost in thought about the snake's curious eyes.

"Now, is there a note in your food or not?" the mouse continued impatiently, snapping the turtle out of its thoughts.

The turtle rummaged in his food bowl but found nothing, leaving a pile of unfeasible-looking mush beside his food bowl. He shook his head slightly, bits of food still dripping from his snout, which he had used to burrow through his food.