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Another childish one.

-JustAnotherTem

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The day I died began as an ordinary day. Well, not exactly so ordinary. In fact, today was the day I started working at the new zoo as one of their zoologists. So, I opened the metal side gate for employees and rushed down a narrow concrete pathway that led to a rustic brick building with a dark green, wavy steel roof. The inside of the building was well lit because of the many windows, and the reflective white walls almost blinded me. I looked onto the table and saw notebooks, some opened with notes and pictures or detailed pencil drawings of animals while others were closed with a person's name sprawled across them in messy handwriting.

I had my own notebook. It was a cheap brown one with "BRIAR" drawn in my fancy handwriting on it. Inside were notes of different animals and cute little drawings of them, or just random doodles I did when I was bored. I had worked with animals like wolves, dingoes, possums, owls and wallabies before, and I really loved it because they were all sweet animals, even the wolves.

I ruffled my auburn hair. I didn't like having it neat, and it wasn't like it was going to be kept neat throughout the day. It was so humid even with the brown shorts and collared shirt that was making it hard to breathe. My honey-coloured skin was covered in a shiny layer of sweat, and I attempted at fanning myself but then stopped when I became tired. Then Gene walked into the room. He saw my tired "I-just-rolled-out-of-bed" state and quietly snickered to himself, so I must have looked like a proper idiot.

Gene didn't look too alive himself, to be fair, and I pointed it out teasingly. His dark eyes became cold, and he turned away. He looked scary, with black hair, dark rings under his eyes and complementary pale skin. Even though I was one year older than him, he was still incredibly tall (though I guess everyone's incredibly tall compared to me). He was twig-like though, he had no muscle or fat on him.

When I saw him though, a bad feeling started in my gut. I couldn't explain it, but my instincts somehow made me feel unsafe. My brows knitted, but I tried to shake it off. I had a job to do, and today I was going to study a new animal!

I raced to the little cork bulletin board with a grin on my face. My exhaustion had somehow dissipated and I was just grinning from ear-to-ear at the thought of meeting a new friend. I found my name and dragged my finger to the animal. My smile dropped so fast that my face tingled.

I was going to study a hippo. Not that I had anything against hippos. Okay, yeah, I did. Did you know that hippos kill around 500 people per year? Because that seemed to play on repeat in my head as I walked, quivering, to my seat. I had made it clear to everyone I didn't like to be around an animal that was considered one of the deadliest animals known to mankind.

But when other people went to see what they were going to study and saw what I had been paired up with, they only gave me a little smirk. No one told me it was going to be okay, that the hippos were nicer, and tamer, compared to the ones in the wild. They just smirked and sneered at me. I felt a little betrayed, but I knew if I broke my character they would walk all over me.

I got up with newfound morale. I grabbed my notebook and walked to the hippo exhibit, however with every step closer I could feel my chest tighten and I had to force myself to enter. People were slowly starting to flow in to look at the animals, they were in clusters, all observing. The parents had tired looks on their faces while the kids ran around in front of them, screaming with delight. I made sure to close the door behind me slowly to block off any curious children, and also to stall.

I walked onto the little wooden bridge which was like one of those decks fishers sit on. There were two hippos in this huge enclosure. I had to say, they were living luxuriously. The enclosure included a murky lake with a muddy bank surrounding it. The hippos were fed regularly, and today I was going to do that. I plopped down two buckets of fruit and waited for the hippos to lazily swim over.

The bad feeling in my gut seemed to get even worse. Before it was just gently nagging, but now it was screaming. I looked around, but nothing seemed to be out-of-the-ordinary. I sighed and looked at the hippos who were looking at me with happy black eyes. I had to admit, they were cute. Like, they looked like they were smiling, and it calmed down my nerves. Zawadi, the smallest one nudged my hand as I put my bucket down. She wanted more, but I smiled and shook my head. She seemed to understand and swam away lazily.

Subira, the older and bigger one chomped on her food and stayed near me as I wrote down Zawadi's behaviour. I don't know why but to me Subira seemed worried. Even when I urged her to go with her sister she just went to the bank closest to the deck. I went to go over to her, but suddenly I tripped in.

I splashed into the water and I heard Subira roar after me. I struggled to see through the water, the weight of my clothes dragged me down and I began to panic. I started screaming, but the water cancelled out any noise. I moved my arms, kicked harder and harder, became more and more desperate as my lungs screamed for air. My throat formed a lump in it which made it worse. I closed my eyes as a small rock swished by. I kept on kicking but there was no use. The water was dragging me down.

Through the water, I saw a familiar lanky shadow move in the corner of my eyes. As my vision faded, I heard gentle, quiet laughter and steps running away. Gene. I could recognise his lanky figure and almost silent laughter. I became more and more fatigued, but I fought as much as I could. Suddenly, something frantically lifted me up to the surface, but I couldn't remember anything after that.