The scientists imprisoned the tiger in a room, and they named him Terry.

Terry was content with his situation at first. They cooked him food, allowed him tear up the room, and even smiled when he roared. He was, to an extent, fulfilled.

The room had the cleanest walls with white sponges attached to the surface. And no matter how much he tried to tear it apart, he could not. Being trapped in this space drove him crazy. He had nothing, absolutely nothing to do. While he was half content about his situation, he could not stand the thought of being in the room any longer.

He just couldn’t.

So he picked a fight. And devoured one of the humans when he entered the room.

He didn’t feel the guilt, of course he did not. But at first he did, and he could not stop beating himself up for it. Eventually, he stopped feeling the guilt. He was a tiger after all. He just…temporarily forgot about it.

He used to envision the type of life he would be living when he was trapped in that room of his. The way that he would live happily ever after with the nurse that always wears the cherry earrings because she was the only one that was nice to him, or he would buy himself a gigantic mansion in the North and chew those that disobeyed him, or perhaps, travel the world and switch up his diet a little more than usual, by tasting that brownie he wished to bury his face in. 

“But you are a tiger, Terry!” His inner voice muttered.

“So?” He asked himself, “Does that mean I have no basic human rights?”

“Yes. You are a tiger!”

“You are no fun, stop being such a buzzkill.”

“I’m the buzzkill, Terry? I’m THE buzzkill?”

“Just shut up.”

“Don’t cry when I get to say ‘I told you so’.”

He didn’t listen. Being treated like a human was fun, much more amusing but those who imprisoned him could not hear the words he said, the altercations that he once spoke. He was putting on his best show, his finest display and tried so hard to avoid scaring the others. Yet he still frightened everyone after he ate their small co-workers, starting with his sizable head.