Inside the Fire

Chapter 1: Awakening

    Song to listen to: Ninth Wave

    Strong white fluorescent lights stream in rainbow like beams from long bulbs set in a grid like pattern in the ceiling, there is undergrowth in my enclosure and I can smell that the plastic plants giving off a smell from the constant light constant light, what used to be a hint from when I was smaller, is now another presence in the room. A human taps the glass window, thick and with small scratches from when I was younger and more violent. I sigh and arch my neck backward to look at them, they lift an unappealing looking piece of bloody meat.
The meat would've looked tasty, if I were still an inch or two smaller then I am. For whatever reason, the dead meat no longer made my mouth water. It's been so long since I've eaten, I flex my neck back into the position it was in before the human had attempted to temp me with the food.
"It doesn't make sense." They say to their... colleague, "It was eating fine just last month, what changed?"
    A tablet is sifted through, notes on my every breath and behavior, the unending lights make it easier for them to study me at every angle, and the humans switch off in shifts to watch me.
Before I was capable of thought, this had once bothered me, but I'm mostly able to ignore them now.
    "Maybe it's stumach works more like an alligator's? It could be that zed no longer needs to eat weekly, like when it stopped eating daily, and hourly before that?" Hair shifting over what I assume is white fabric,
    "But Zed looks hungry, it's eyes still have that look." Nails on a scalp, scraping through hair. "Keep working on it." A hand subtly smacks to the owner's hip, feet shift as they continue to stare.
    I stretch out my arms and stare at my claws, I consider chewing on them to shorten them, then considered chewing on the humans instead. I'm taken by surprise when my stomach twists hungrily. I lurch up to lean on one of my arms, and eye the humans.
    I see it, the blood in their throats, in their hands, the fresh nutrients pumping into their muscles, their cells. They must smell so good.
    Without conscious thought, I had stood on all fours and have taken a few steps towards them. The black haired one looks at his colleague nervously with wide brown eyes. He's a little larger than the aged brown haired female beside him, her hair dyed a bright blonde, the chemical treated hair was a little bit of a dietary turn off. The male looked all natural, if not a little plain, or so his female colleagues had thought.
    "I don't like the way zed's looking at me, it's almost like, it wants to eat me..?"
    The female jots down the note, 'Possible food source for subject: humans' and pushes on of the buttons on the thin counter on her side of the window. I'm mesmerized on the muscles and tendons as they pull and contact over his skeleton, my stomach squishes painfully with hunger. Sweat beads on his temple.
    I let myself stare a second longer and turn away. There's no point in fantasizing, I know I can't break through the glass.
    I lay down facing away from the window and chew on on the claws of my right hand, beating down the hollow hunger pains pulsating in my stomach. The male human sighs softly and tries to read the words written on his tablet. His thoughts uncomfortable and trying to think of ways to excuse himself. He knows as much as me, that only one of us is disposable. The female is one of the few constants that study me, he was already nervous to be working with her, people get relocated if they don't perform well with her.
    Only one has been terminated, that I've 'heard' of, the clumsy female dropped a vial of my blood just after retrieving it. It was a shame, she was the first human that had been in charge of feeding me, I think I'd grown attached, but I don't miss her, like how the older female behind the glass misses another cup of coffee.
    Another, shorter man enters the room,
    "You paged?" He asks in a weak tone, I can see his face in her thoughts, bags sag under his eyes, his skin looks worn and pale.
    "Another day and no interest in eating this kind of meat." She points at the bloody morsel on the counter, "But, Zed looked interested in something else." 

    Her eyes flicker to the younger male co-worker, he pretends not to notice, fixating on his tablet, typing gibberish in, erasing it, then rewriting more, but the blood drains from his face. The older male isn't as sly as the female, and openly stares at the younger male considering then slowly nods.