And here is finally the next chapter! :D
Chapter 4: What Are you
"What are you?" The voice surrounded him, or was it just the echo of how he had heard it somehow earlier today? "What are you?" It was driving him crazy, as if someone had the voice recorded and had it replaying in his head until he would go literally crazy… Or was it even more crazy in his case? He had tried to escape through going underwater, hiding behind the TV, under the 'Do not feed the animals' sign, that in the HQ had the purpose of their table, but it had no use. It haunted him in his head, every time sounding exactly the same as the time before.
"What are you?" A question, three simple words, no clear meaning whatsoever. The what in the sentence could be indicating something deep, like what is the combination of your heart, soul and instincts? How does it tell you to live, like the devil, the man or the god? Or the what could be shallow, like being something. Being an animal, nothing more nothing less. The are of this question meant that the what can be changed, present tense. You are being something, you don't know what, but you are, and you have a future, you can choose. The hardest part for everyone who has had the question asked to them once is the You. The being to which the bullet was shot, you, like the reflecting part of the mirror, but as blunt as the back that makes the reflection come to live. 'What are you?' A question that has no right or wrong answer, only a desired one.
He tried and tried, but whatever he told the voice, nothing made it shut up. It just went on and on, as a homeless and starving man on the streets begging for a little of your money. It made him dizzy and Rico tried to break out of the prison called his mind. He had never thought he would come to the point where he would like to use some of his own weapons against himself, but his flippers were itching to just make this voice in his head stop. He then slammed with his flipper upon the wall and the sound made him realize something, even before the pain. He was something. Needed and searched for. He was a weapon and a friend, enemy and a toy. He was more than the others, now especially since he had the ability to think clearly. Kaboom. It made all sense in his head as if a bomb had been dropped into it.
He liked to be classified as his friend, Rico found out a little while later. He was just trying to enjoy his little fish when he thought he was being called by someone. He looked around to find the owner of the voice that by now had became so familiar to him as if it was his own. "Friend" it said. "I'm your friend." Rico looked around the now empty HQ, Skipper hadn't dared to take him on patrol through the zoo, because he had seemed a little bit out of it. Rico knew that he didn't seem to be only a 'little' out of it. He had to be looking like he was losing his head. He had yanked out his own feathers… And he had to admit he even felt himself like he was losing it.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, now you finally know who you are." The voice said in his head. Rico looked around again and went to go look into a mirror. It was as if the color of his eyes were changing, a glimpse of the sunlight turned them from his own icy blue color to a somewhat seaweed green-like color. It made him back away, even though at the same time he had wanted to come closer. He blinked a couple of times and his flippers went up to his eyes to rub some into them. He turned away from the mirror and he heard the voice talking to him in a soft whisper. "That's right, nice to meet you, pal." It said and Rico shivered a little. "How do you like this color? Looks good on us, doesn't it?" It said in a small somewhat sweet-like and calming voice. "Do I still need to ask for your flipper to go to the ball?" It added with an insane sounding laugh.
Rico opened his eyes, kind of surprised that he still had the full control of his body. He looked at the mirror and to his amazement, his eyes were just as always blue colored. He turned his beak into a small and forced smile and it seemed even horrible as always, making the scar on the side of his beak wider.
"I've got something that will blow your mind… I can show you things nobody has ever seen… A whole new world, somewhere no one else but us will ever go." It said and a glimpse of light through the opening of the fishbowl entrance of the HQ made his eyes color up again. "Now I know who you are, we can start being together, as one…" Rico fearfully turned away from the mirror and nodded to his friends who dropped down one for one. They smiled at him and then went all their own ways, one to the coffee maker, one into the room behind the steel door and the other sat down in a bunk with a magazine.
"Do you care for a game?" Rico heard the voice say and he looked a bit bewildered around. It was like he could hear the sound waves enter his ear holes and make their ways to his brains. But there was nobody in the HQ that has a voice that sounded like that… He turned around, but everybody was minding their own business and didn't look like they had just heard a voice that didn't belong in the HQ. He knew that if Skipper had heard someone in his HQ who didn't belong there he would kick them right out without even waiting for an explanation. The little Private would surely come over with probably something like a big fish cake and give it to the newcomer asking to be a friend. And Kowalski, would go on and on about the different experiments he could perform on their guest.
But nothing happened, nothing was different from their normal routine, it was only him, standing right by the mirror, turning like a little ballerina around and around searching for something that probably didn't even exist. 'What kind of game?' Rico asked the voice in his head. "You'll see… Just wait and see…" Was the reply and Rico knew that the question had never been an invitation… It had been an announcement. He would participate in this game no matter what.
"What are we waiting for?!" The voice said loud and clear in his head. "Let's play!"
Hope you're liking this story so far :D
