"Hey!" Yelled Jedediah as he squirmed and kicked in the man's grasp. "Don't you man handle me! Put me down ya stinkin'-"
"Oh, shut up." Said the man, opening a door and roughly tossing the little cowboy into a small, darkened closet.
Jedediah landed with a small thud against a cardboard box, and landed on his stomach, the wind momentarily knocked out of him. He leapt to his feet angrily, his eyes blazing as he ran at the still open door with a shout of rage. But before he could reach it, it was slammed shut, and he had to throw himself sideways to avoid running into it. He stood again, and ran at the door, slamming against it again and again, yelling at the man who had captured and taken him away from his home.
"You better let me out'a here, ya hear me!?" He shouted, pounding his fists against the door.
"Oh, now why would I do that?" Came the man's voice, calm and slightly brooding as he spoke to the door.
"I ain't gonna take this quietly! Let me out!" Jedediah yelled back.
"No." The voice said simply. "And stop hitting my door."
"Never!"
"Then have it your way." The voice said, sounding malicious.
Though he couldn't see it, Jedediah knew the man was smiling, and jumped away from the door as it shook with the reverberated impact of a foot. He took a few more paces back, panting from his struggle, and when his back touched the box he slid slowly down to the floor, leaning against it as he tried to process everything that had happened. He remembered he'd been in his exhibit, preparing for the night, and he remembered the same man standing above him and grabbing him before he could react….
Just then, the door opened, breaking his thoughts. He looked up to see the man again, and he stared at him with an angry glare, refraining from saying certain things that could get him in more trouble than he already was. The man was looking down at him with a curious, slightly devious smile, his cigar hanging carelessly from the side of his mouth as he studied the little miniature. There was greed in his eyes, and also the curiosity, and Jedediah felt himself slowly inching away from the man, into the shadows of the small closet. But he wasn't quick enough.
The man reached out a hand and grabbed him, his grip unnecessarily tight though he didn't care to lighten it, and turned, shutting the door again with the little fighting cowboy subdues in his clenched fist. The man, with a small chuckles, swiped a mess of papers from his desk, placed the little miniature down upon it, and turned the desk lamp so it shone piercingly on the small figure, lighting him up as well as blinding him at the same time.
"Well now, what are you…" The man said, more to himself than to the cowboy. He roughly picked him up again, looking him over as he kicked and struggled against the man's tight grip. "Come now hold still,"
"No! Lemme go!" Jedediah yelled, still struggling against the man, though it was futile.
Jedediah tried harder to break free, but each attempt failed. He protested fiercely when he was suddenly turned upside down, and let out a sharp cry when the man pulled one of his arms rather roughly, apparently with no disregard about how much it hurt.
"Amazing!" Exclaimed the man, still looking over the little cowboy as the sun rose through the window. "It's like you're actually alive!"
"I am alive ya idiot!" Jedediah snapped, kicking harder to break free. "And yer hurtin' me!"
"But how can you be alive?" The man asked, confusion on his face. "You're just an animatronic."
"Well, yer wrong. I'm a livin' thing, and I can feel pain ya know! So please lessen yer grip!"
"Living, eh?" The man asked, his face contorted in a rather frightening smile that sent a shiver down the little cowboy's spine. "I need to see just how 'living' you are."
Jedediah was about to demand what he meant, when he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder. He screamed, and twisted himself free, landing with a hard bang on the table. He held his shoulder, which had been roughly tugged on, and tried to blink the white flashes from his eyes. The man above him looked thoughtful, and he turned from the table, pacing the room with an excited grin on his face.
"This is great," He said, flinging his arms up in delight. "Boy, if I was getting a tol 'o loot before, I'm getting even more now!"
Jedediah just watched in silence, trying to figure out what was going to happen to him, and what this man meant.
"Oh….if I was getting thousands with an animatronic, I'll get millions with something like you! Haha!"
"M-Me…?" Jedediah questioned, his voice quieter than he had expected.
"Ah yes," The man said, picking up the little cowboy in his hand. "You, are going to make me rich."
"I ain't gonna make you nothin'!" Jedediah shouted. Suddenly, the man yowled in pain, and dropped the miniature onto the table, holding his thumb as it had been bitten by the angry cowboy.
"Why you little…"
Jedediah didn't have a chance to get away as the hand snatched him up, and he was once again flung into the closet, only a lot harder this time around, and slammed into the wall instead of the box. The man closed the door carelessly, and only a small sliver of light remained, coming from under the door.
Jedediah lay there, unmoving as he stared at the small beam of light. He was angry and confused, and a little frightened. Okay, he was very frightened. As far as he knew, he was in the hands of some money obsessed man, who apparently wanted to sell him or something. But he also seemed curious about the fact he was alive. Which could only mean danger ahead, as he knew, from being warned by Larry and constantly reminded by Octavius, that there were many people in the outside world who would love to get their hands on something such as himself. To the people on the outside he was an unknown thing; and like all unknown things that become known, he would be shipped off to somewhere where he would never be heard from again.
He shivered as a cold draft entered the room, but still remained where he lay, thinking miserably about what might happen to him. Though his future was uncertain, he knew one thing for sure; at the hands of these people, he was not going to return to the museum alive.