Colin waddled around the house in his crab form, waiting patiently for both Jenny and Mommy to come home. He felt an unbridled sense of joy at getting to talk to Kristy today. Sure, when she left there were still pulses of fear coming from her, but it was progress. Kristy talked to him and even asked him to stay, so even if she was a little afraid, that meant she still wanted him around. Why else would she ask him to stay otherwise?

  The more Colin thought about their encounter, the more he worried less about Kristy hating him and worried more about that destructive, invasive pulse that had come from inside her. He had managed to destroy all of it, but he was worried it might come back. The stuff felt awful. It felt similar to himself in some ways, but with a sinister edge. Where Colin consumed in order to become an even greater version of himself, the invader inside of Kristy’s body had pulsed with an intent to consume in order to cause pain.

  It had been easy enough to destroy the invader. Colin wasn’t sure how he had done it, but the pulse of that invader had been almost obedient to him. He wasn’t sure if that was exactly right, but he wasn’t smart enough to understand it any better. Especially now that the thing was dead.

  When Colin had used his own pulse to make the invader stop hurting Kristy, it obediently detached itself from her and destroyed itself bit by bit. It was almost like it wanted to die, but didn’t know how until Colin told it to do so.

  All he knew is that if there were more of those invaders and they came back to hurt Kristy again, then Colin would make sure they died.

  “No Pain,” Colin nodded to himself with absolute resolve. As a successful predator, he would hunt down anything that tried to hurt Kristy and Jenny.

  Suddenly, Colin felt the pulse of the predator woman come into range. It was the same human that had shot him and chased him out of the house before. The woman had a killing intent mixed with curiosity in her life pulse as she and the male approached the door. The male didn’t have a killing intent in his pulse, but he had a desire to subdue whatever was in the house.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Were they here to hurt Kristy? Colin’s eyes went wide at the realization. That was unacceptable.

  He transformed into a dragonfly and flew up into the corner of the room by the front door so he could ambush them. Nothing was allowed to hurt Kristy and Jenny.

  Their pulse was just outside the front door. Colin watched with anticipation as the door knob turned and in walked the predator woman and the man helping her.

  “Are you sure the tranquilizer is enough?” The man said.

  “No, but I want to capture it for study if we can manage,” The woman said, “Don’t worry, I’m ready to kill it if the tranq doesn’t work.”

  That confirmed it. They wanted to capture or kill Kristy. Colin saw red as his blood boiled with anger.

  “No Pain!” Colin shouted a war cry while launching himself at the predator woman and transforming mid-air into a crab mixed with a chicken, claws and beak pointed out for the kill. He’d tried to turn into an alligator, but the alligator pulse inside of him was still dull and unresponsive, so he settled for the most armored things available.

  The woman turned and swatted Colin from the air with a backhand.

  “What the hell?” The man shouted at the same time as the woman.

  Colin hit the ground hard and was momentarily stunned from the impact. Before he could get back up, a dart hit him in the side and pierced right through his body. Pain flared up and he whimpered.

  He turned into a dragonfly to fly away, but that was a bad idea. The dart was still inside of his body and kept him pinned. The dart leaked a liquid from the tip that now stuck out of the other side of his body. Some of that liquid had gotten absorbed into Colin and he was feeling it’s impact hard. Sluggishly, he turned into a mix of a crab, and a fish to hopefully pull the dart free with the crab claws and make it slip out easier with the fish body, but after successfully transforming, he felt even more sluggish and found it hard to lift his claws.

  “No pain,” Colin whimpered as much for himself as for Kristy. He looked up at his assailants one last time, before succumbing to a forceful sleep.