I remained undecided for a moment, not knowing where to go. I was in a dimly lit, windowless corridor that seemed to finish with an elbow at each end. Other doors appeared at regular intervals. So I decided to look inside first, because like mine, they were all equipped with a small eyelet. The two rooms next to my cell were empty. The one on the right was a sort of storage room and the one on the left was an observation room in which the one-way-mirror was placed, as well as another in the opposite wall. When I saw this, my heart jumped in my chest: maybe there was another person in that cell? Maybe Cassie?

I approached the door at the left end of the corridor with hope as I held my breath. Unfortunately, it was empty. I decided not to let myself be discouraged and went to the last door of the corridor which turned out to be a kind of guard room. A man whose features I couldn't see was lying on a camp bed and seemed to be sleeping, with his gun at hand. I walked away as quietly and quickly as possible so as not to risk waking him up. It must have been nighttime, hence the dimmed lights and my forced nap.

I compelled myself to stop for a few seconds to reflect on what was next. Then I realized that this place was increasingly resembling a research lab, and that meant generally speaking, experiments on animals. So I stopped holding back my senses and let them spread out in search of presences that would certainly show me the direction to follow. I was very quickly assaulted by too many different signatures to be able to isolate them all. Then came very quickly more precise sensations of cold, fear and despair that covered absolutely everything else. Nevertheless, I tried to cope with all these sensations and tried to isolate one in particular to focus on it. I chose the one that appeared clearest and most coherent to my human mind and therefore moved in that direction.

I was careful, but my bare feet were banging softly, amplified by all the white tiles in the hallway. I tried to convince myself that it was my fear that amplified the sounds, that I wasn't that loud, but I couldn't help but be more and more terrified at the thought of finding myself face to face with a guard, especially without clothes and nothing to defend myself. I was too vulnerable. I had to find something to protect myself, a weapon, anything. Most importantly, I had to get out of here now, right away. It was a matter of life and death! I couldn't take it anymore with these bars and this cramped cage, I was dying slowly for too long, I had to get out. An animalistic rage invaded me and a deep rumble tried to come out of my chest.

It was at that moment that I realized that these thoughts and feelings did not belong to me, but were those of an animal. These emotions had just replaced mine so easily that, at first, I didn't realize it. What disturbed me the most was that I didn't notice it immediately. These emotions had merged with mine and almost forced me to do things that were unlike me. Like this compulsion to run away when I had come here for a specific and important purpose. It was that inhuman feeling, that animal growl rolling down my throat when it wasn't intended for that, that allowed me to regain control. I looked a little dazed around me. This unpleasant experience had at least made me realize that I was being silly. I wandered through the corridors at the mercy of the first guard or camera to come. It was already a damn miracle that I hadn't been spotted. My plan wasn't completely wrong, but I needed a quiet place to regain my senses, before I ended up right in the lion's den.

Now in a new corridor, just like the one I had just left, I found myself alone, standing in front of a door with an electronic card lock. Door that obviously opened to the outside, because I could see a fragment of the moon through the glass embedded in the upper part of the door, and a burst of hope flowed through me. At least I found a way out of here. All I had to do was hope that Jude had been able to follow me and that he had brought the cavalry with him.

Jude! Their damn sleeping pills, although not putting me to sleep for more than half an hour, must have at least affected my brain capacity, because I hadn't once thought about him since I had been there. Although I don't know exactly how the bond we had forged was supposed to work, I imagined that a conscious approach on my part could only make things easier. Well, I was hoping so. I was hoping that he was on my trail. Because everything I had experienced and felt in recent hours seemed so foggy that I was no longer sure of anything. I had difficulty getting out of my dazed thoughts to stare again at the lifesaving door and try to analyse my surroundings a little better. A task that was not obvious, however, because my brain seemed to be running in slow motion.

The downside was that the door was topped by a camera, the field of which, fortunately for me, was not large enough to reach my position. Nevertheless, I froze and began to look at what was behind the doors outside its scope. As in the other corridor, four of them were aligned on the right wall, but this time two rooms were also located on the left wall. The first two doors on the right gave access to empty rooms, the first door on the left opened onto a kind of technical room while the second did not have an eyelet allowing me to see inside. So I went into the room whose door was not locked. I hid behind an electrical cabinet and let myself slide to the ground where I landed on something hard that turned out to be a kind of wrench. It was too good to be true, I had a weapon!

I closed my eyes for a few minutes and tried to regain my senses. What was happening to me in the end!? I wasn't in such a bad shape earlier! Probably a combination of the drugs they had injected me with, combined with the efforts to escape and the adrenaline rush induced by stress. Apparently, it wasn't a nice cocktail! Hardly able to formulate two coherent thoughts in a row, I sat heavily on the floor, the room suddenly seemed to swing and wobble around me. I was going to be sick! I forced myself to breathe slowly and deeply. After about ten long breaths, my environment finally seemed to stabilize and I no longer wanted to throw up. A very significant progress, I thought to myself with mocking relief. While I was in relaxation mode, I took the opportunity to carefully lower my mental barriers and open my mind. Except for the dozen animals, mainly small rodents, in distress in the building, I had no signal. No sign of Jude on the horizon.

After a brief break, I decided to open my eyes. Well, no sickness or gagging. So I slowly got up, carefully standing on the electrical closets around me, being careful not to electrocute myself! Once stable, and with my wrench in my hand, I realized that I had no choice but to get out of there. But to go where and to do what? The truth is, I had no idea. In the original plan, I was just to serve as a tracking beacon for the cavalry, who had to come in to save me and the others. But as we had been betrayed, it turned out to be very different in reality. I found myself alone, helpless, unable to rely on anything but the bond, rather uncertain, that I shared with Jude. Because even if backup eventually arrived, it would be much later than expected.

I processed all these revelations and sought what I could do immediately, when I felt like a strong push on my mind, as if someone was trying to get in touch with me. It was the first time I felt this so precisely, so I remained undecided for a few seconds, before slowly and cautiously opening my mind. I was on guard, ready to put my barriers back in place at full speed if it was too much, but I nevertheless recognized almost instantly the mental signature of my "interlocutor": the same animal in distress as before. It was a really confusing feeling, I felt like I was in its head or more precisely in its thoughts. I felt that she was afraid and, yes, that she was a female. I instinctively tried to calm her down with reassuring thoughts.

I knew what it was like to be alone and terrified, and I didn't wish that on anyone, not even an animal. She seemed to calm down a little and her thoughts became even clearer to me. It was difficult to describe, but I could feel images, feelings that sounded almost like words and sentences in my mind. She didn't understand what was going on any more than I did. She just knew she wasn't alone anymore and that was enough for her. It awakened such an echo in me that I didn't have the heart to cut the connection. After all, since I was stuck there without any idea of how to proceed, I might as well use my time more productively and try to save this poor beast. At least I'll do something useful, rather than just sit here and mope.

Once my decision was made, I immediately felt stronger and more aware. I relied on my connection with the animal in distress, which led me to the next door. I opened it with great caution, not knowing what to expect behind it.

The light being almost non-existent in this new room, I had to wait a little while for my eyes to adjust. I was in some kind of storage room. So full of cardboard boxes and various objects that I couldn't estimate its size, and they were blocking part of the light from the nightlights located on the ground. For a moment I was tempted to light the neon lights I saw on the ceiling but held back. Maybe it could trigger an alarm. It was therefore better to remain cautious.

I carefully made my way through the piles of boxes piled up everywhere, trying not to drop anything. I was so focused on not making a sound and trying to detect the presence of guards nearby, that an icy sweat ran down my back. I continued to follow the connection, wondering what I was supposed to find in this capernaum when I reached a door at the back of the room. Without the power guiding me, I would never have found it. I opened it and instantly backed away from the scent of meat and excrement that escaped from it. It was so suffocating that I almost gave back the meagre contents of my stomach and could only barely control myself. A muffled growl suddenly resounded, both from the room in front of me and simultaneously resounding in my mind. This sound was so full of fear, distress and anger that I rushed into the room despite the stench.

What I discovered filled me with sadness, followed almost instantly by anger and dull rage. It was a small room tiled from floor to ceiling, which must have been a bathroom at some point. Now it was nothing more than an antechamber of death, where scientists without any conscience or professional ethics were obviously getting rid of their useless guinea pigs. Cages were piled up, all containing carcasses of dead animals at various stages of decomposition. These bastards had not even had the decency to painlessly euthanize these poor beasts rather than let them die slowly and in excruciating agony. They were sadists without any conscience and this did not bode well for the fate of the missing ones.

I had to find them. I couldn't leave an eight-year-old girl in the hands of these people, I would never forgive myself. I was going to help this poor beast and then use all my resources, however small they may be, to find this little girl and the others if I could. I had to stop feeling sorry for myself. Once I had made up my mind, I gently turned to the large cage to the right of the door from which roars and furious folds, although weak, escaped. I knelt carefully at a reasonable distance from the cage, while trying to soothe her with comforting words. But I felt in my mind that she was panicked and didn't make the connection between me and the presence in her head. At the same time, who could have blamed her?

She was trapped, wounded, and her thoughts no longer really belonged to her. There was enough to be confused. She was afraid and pitiful to see, lurking in a cage far too small for her size. Her ears were flat on her head as she showed her fangs, her two beautiful orange panther eyes pointed at me. Because I found myself in front of a magnificent black panther, who did not seem to have the same capacity for reasoning as a human being. As soon as this thought had crossed my mind, an indignant answer came to me with force.

If there was anyone stupid and intellectually diminished in that room, it certainly wasn't her! It felt like an uppercut to my stomach and I was temporarily stunned and speechless. She had come to her senses and stopped grumbling to look at me with suspicion on the other side of the bars in her cage. She was waiting to see what I was going to do, even though resignation and despair seemed to have replaced the hope she had felt at the beginning of our connection. At least that was what came to my mind. God, that was weird! For the first time since the beginning of this unexpected encounter, I wondered if I was not dealing with a shapeshifter. This would explain better the connection, the clarity and the almost human quality of the thoughts I perceived.

« Pfft, what a disgusting idea! Being a human! No, but how awful. These ugly bipeds are slow, do not know how to use their senses and have no honor at all. I'd rather be a stupid mouse than a human. »

Even if this answer had taken place in my mind, it was as if it had been spoken to me orally and with the same consistency as a human being. At least, that's how my brain transcribed it. She seemed to think like an angry woman, combined with the same sense of caustic humour as Jude. Quite a show!

« Who is this Jude? Besides, I'm much smarter than a stupid human! »

Despite the haughty tone of her "voice", I felt the weariness and pain she was trying to hide from me.

- 'Sh... Do you hear everything I think?'

I quickly put one hand on my mouth when I realized that I had just stupidly spoken out loud and relatively loud. I must say that I was quite shaken, even so much so that I forgot where I was for a while. Receiving no further sarcastic or indignant remarks, I turned my attention to the cage and noticed that she had put her head on her paws and seemed to be struggling with sleep. That was not good, not a behaviour worthy of a predator who was fighting for its survival. I got up and started looking around me for a key or tool to open the lock that kept the cage door closed.

- 'Hang on, I'll get you out of here. I just have to figure out how,' I whispered to her.

A feeling of surprise invaded me, as well as a little hope, coming from my new feline friend. I continued my feverish search without finding anything interesting. I stood there with my arms dangling when my gaze fell on the wrench I had left on the ground near the cage when I knelt. I grabbed it and, as I stood up, my gaze went over the empty bowls next to it. Her gaze followed mine and I felt her hunger and thirst as strong as if it had been mine. I quickly grabbed one of the two containers and went to the dirty and chipped sink, which I had spotted at the back of the room, hoping that there would still be some water. I turned the tap on and sighed with relief when a rust coloured liquid gushed out. I waited until it became clear again and then filled the steel container with it, which I hastily brought back to her.

- 'Here, there's nothing I can do about your hunger right now, but you'll feel better if you rehydrate. Now I have to find a way to break this lock without making too much noise.'

I don't know why I felt the need to speak out loud, because she probably already had "heard" everything in my mind, but I think it was to pretend to have a semblance of normality - and also hearing my voice made me feel better. I found a dirty rag made almost rigid by all the dirt and dried blood that stained it and wrapped it around the padlock to attenuate the sounds as I hit it with all my strength with my improvised weapon. I succeeded at the end of the third shot and hurried to open the cage door and then back away to a reasonable distance. After all, you never knew, wild animals were known to be unpredictable, especially when they were wounded and cornered.

By the time I opened the door, she had drunk all the water I had brought her and was already feeling a little better. She took a careful step towards the exit as if she didn't really believe in her luck, then decided to leave completely. She was limping and didn't seem very steady on her paws.

- 'Will you let me look at it? See if I can do anything about your injuries?' I asked her nicely while showing her my hands so she could see that I had no bad intentions.

She hissed gently, before lying on her flank slowly. She was magnificent, despite the deplorable condition of her coat made dirty and dull by deprivation and abuse. She must be at least four feet six long and weigh about forty kilos; she looked like a very, very big cat, but she was hardly domesticated, because her legs were more like those of a lion, and I wouldn't have liked to find myself on the wrong side of her claws.

« Why did you free me and why are you helping me now? And why do I hear you in my head? »

« I freed you because no one deserves to be held against their will, mistreated and used as a disposable object! » I replied with a painful voice in my mind. « I am helping you because you need it and you are suffering. I can't watch someone's suffering without stepping in. And finally, I have no idea why we can both communicate like that. Apparently I have an innate ability to connect with the animals around me, but this is the first time something like this has happened. »

While communicating with her, I had begun to examine her gently. I wasn't a veterinarian, but apart from malnutrition and a small wound that was starting to get infected on her right rear leg, certainly responsible for her slight limp, she seemed in great shape.

- 'You look fine. Once this wound is disinfected, a good meal and a little rest, you'll be as good as new,' I said gently, caressing her on the back.

She growled softly as she showed me her fangs.

« Careful or you'll be my meal! »

I could have been scared or feel threatened. I should have even, but the little note of amused annoyance I felt in her thoughts reassured me that I would be safe in the immediate future if I did not touch her.

- 'How long have you been here?'

I understood from her lack of a translatable answer that she didn't know how to answer me. She didn't have the same sense of time as we did. For her, it was summed up in numbers of sunrises and sunsets, and here she didn't see the sun. She was trying to read in my mind what I was asking her, but she didn't understand what she saw in it. I reassured her mentally and told her that it was not very important.

- 'We have to leave this room, and then I'll try to get you out of here.'

« Aren't you coming with me? Are you with them? » she roared in my mind, so loudly and with such indignation that I had an instant headache.

« Of course not! Do you think I'd be in my underwear and covered in bruises if I was? I'm a prisoner like you, except in my case it's voluntary. I'm here to find people and save them. I managed to escape from my cell, but now I don't know where to go and I'm afraid of being spotted, » I concluded in a small voice.

« These people you're looking for... Are they weird humans who don't really smell like humans? »

« I'm not really sure, but it would make sense because they are able to transform themselves into animals. Have you seen them? » I asked hopefully.

She showed me the image of a frightened little girl, huddled in the corner of a large cage, her face streaked with tears. My God, it must have been Aria! I had to reach her right away!

- 'Could you tell me where she is?' I asked her, reaching out my hands in front of me in an almost unconscious pleading gesture. 'How long ago did you see her?'

When I asked the question, I regretted it because I didn't want to confuse her.

- 'I'm sorry. It's true that you don't know, it doesn't matter.'

It felt so much like I was talking to another person that I tended to forget that I was talking telepathically with a panther.

« I feel your concern, you want to rescue your little one. There's nothing more important than the little ones. I'll help you and show you where I saw her. »

I didn't correct her on the "my little one" term, she could read it in my mind anyway and I wasn't sure if she understood. An irritated feeling struck me. Of course she understood, but a little one was a little one, it didn't matter that they weren't of the same blood, they had to be protected. She got up and I followed her, my makeshift weapon in hand. It quickly became clear that I had to walk ahead to open the doors and detect cameras and possible traps, because for her all the noisy and bright gadgets of humans were similar. If it had been up to her, they would have no place in this world. We had travelled all the way back and had just crossed the left corner of my cell corridor when the lights came back, trapping us like rabbits caught in the headlights.