The ride was mostly silent. Kyro didn't speak, and his passenger remained quiet for most of the time, too. They exchanged words a few times about some Jimmy, but Iris couldn't be bothered to pay attention to it, and the conversation died down right away, in any case.
In what felt like forever and just a moment, the car stopped. Iris felt how her carrier was lifted up, but she purposefully didn't raise her head. Even when Kyro called her, she didn't open her eyes. No point in wasting her energy on a person that gave her hope but then couldn't be bothered to stick with her to the end.
The smell of nature invaded her senses. A thick scent of blooming flowers attacked her nose, and she twitched it in annoyance. Flowers were a sign of happiness, and she was feeling anything but that.
From a distance away, her ears caught the voices of children. They were arguing about something, but soon they broke out into peals of laughter. A girl screeched, and then shouted something. Moments after water splashed, and the children laughed again.
'Good for them,' Iris grumbled, wondering if one of them would become her new owner. Instantly, the image of the first kid she'd met in this form rose in her head, and she shuddered. Her new owner, they wouldn't be like that, would they?
She wasn't left in the unknown for long. An ear-piercing screech shattered her eardrums, and her carrier was lifted into the air. When she opened her eyes, she met face to face with some forty-year-old woman that was a bit on the overweight side. Her face was powdered to the point that Iris couldn't tell what color it was.
The next instant, the carrier was opened and the woman dragged Iris out. Kyro tried to stop it, but the stranger was already holding onto Iris, pulling her over like a sack of potatoes. Well, a very small sack.
Iris wanted to cry out at the manhandling, but then remembered her earlier resolution. If Kyro wanted to get rid of her, she was going to leave with her head held high. She wouldn't give him the joy of knowing that she didn't want to go.
And so, she lay limp in the woman's hand. When the stranger brought her up close, the heavy powder made her sneeze. This didn't amuse the woman, but she didn't do anything, just pressed Iris into her also powdered cleavage which stank like someone had died there.
Her perfume had a very thick, heavy scent, and she had probably used half a bottle of it on this occasion. Iris found it hard to even breathe, and her eyes watered. In the back of her mind, a small voice asked if she could really survive this, but she shut it up the moment it spoke up.
With trouble, she focused on the conversation happening around her. She hadn't caught what Kyro had said, but the woman was already getting annoyed. Her hands over Iris tightened up, and she laughed maliciously at everyone present.
"Who do you think you're questioning. Of course I know its name. Candi, Candi!"
A shudder ran down Iris' body. Why was this woman making it so hard for her? She wanted to cry. It took all of her willpower to tolerate the whole powder shop planted on her body along with a whole bottle of heavy perfume, yet she had to also speak in a voice of a drama queen who thought herself superior to everyone else. If that wasn't enough, she also gave Iris the name of a stripper.
Could it get any worse? 'Wait, I didn't want to think th—'
But the thought had already formed in her mind, and so the universe listened. Some fourteen-year-old girl stepped out from behind the woman and came over to pull at Iris' ears. "This puppy is so weird," she said with a laugh.
It was the last straw. Kids were dangerous in general, but those who pulled at ears were even worse. Iris didn't want to imagine her life with these people. Even as Kyro said something, she decided on her own plan. If this was the future they wanted to give her, then she was going to create a different one for herself.
One without them.