“


    “


    “…”


    allowedAllowed? allowed?


    “


    He didn’t even care if Vorm punished him for being rude to it anymore. He looked at the humans still talking and eating, sometimes laughing. He could feel the disgusting happiness from the girl, and her twisted care for him. Then all his hot rage disappeared, turned into an ice cold calm fury. He started to eat. He will kill them all. He will play along now, then kill them all. Take revenge…


    “Vorm yawned.


    Ray froze for a second, then continued to eat menacingly while Vorm kept chuckling.


    Why the hell did I follow…?


    Say… Vorm… is this one of their games, like with the food?


    “Why should I spoil it for you? Just keep sitting here, and you’ll see,”


    Vorm, what is that?


    “A collar, will look good on you.”


    What does it do?


    “Wait and see, I doubt it’s just a plain collar. I bet it’s something to mess with you.”


    Ray complained indignantly, but Vorm just chuckled to himself.


    The collar was finally put on, but Ray felt nothing. Then the girl patted his head, and left. At first, Ray felt nothing, but as the distance grew, he started feeling nauseous and dizzy. He lay down and asked Vorm.


    “


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    When Ray woke up early morning, the girl was still sleeping and hugging him. He really hated being this close, and having his nose stuffed with her smell, but he didn’t move. He wanted to think in peace for a while, and he was afraid he’d wake her if he tried to move away.


    Yesterday… he was humiliated over and over. He thought it was going to be easy pretending to be obedient, and then, when he was strong enough, and they least expected it, he would just kill them all. But within a day, they exhausted him to the point that before he fell asleep, he barely cared anymore. Ray realized the greatest danger wasn’t that he might do something, and the humans would realize he wasn’t their slave, but that he would get worn down by them. Worn down to the point that he stopped caring, and soullessly followed along, like all the other hollow wolves. He shuddered.


    The more he thought about it, the uneasier Ray felt.


    “


    “


    Vorm seemed so capable before, but Ray felt he was tricked into believing that.


    “Vorm said mockingly.


    Ray stopped talking to it, and seriously considered escaping. Maybe it was better to die than to stay here. Even if that meant he couldn’t take revenge. Was it worth it? Being slowly whittled down to the point he wouldn’t even recognize himself, for revenge? Because Ray way increasingly sure that no matter how he resisted in his heart, how he kept saying to himself he was just pretending, if this kept going on, it would change him. But the only alternative was to die. While he didn’t believe he’d die in a day like Vorm said, he didn’t have the confidence to stay alive on his own until he grew up.


    He was scared of how staying with the humans might really change him, but for now, he was even more scared of death. He decided to stay.


    “You know, they say, if you place a frog in boiling water, it jumps out. But if you put it in cold water, and slowly heat it up, the frog cooks to death.”


    Ray didn’t understand what Vorm was going on about. What does that even mean? What frog?


    “Don’t worry, you will understand it later. It’s not even true anyway, the frog will jump out either way.”


    Asked Ray, annoyed. He felt Vorm was tying his thoughts in knots on purpose. The more he listened to it, the more confused and annoyed he became.


    Vorm just chuckled, and said mockingly, but it stayed silent after that.


    Ray let out a weary sigh. He couldn’t even decide whether the humans or Vorm was more exhausting to deal with. He stopped thinking and just kept lying there until the girl woke up.