Fed to the Dogs

I woke up on the cold, filthy floor of an abandoned kennel, my head throbbing. Harsh lights revealed dozens of Shiba Inus with sickly green eyes behind fences. Victoria stood a few yards away, her gaze icy. Beside her, Felix filmed me with a smirk.

Since you love dogs so much, Victoria said flatly, "stay with them. They havent eaten in a week."

Felix chimed in with fake pity. "A saint like you wouldnt fight back, even as they chew you to the bone."

Bitterness filled my mouth. My wife was trying to have me killed to avenge Felixher secretary whose career Id ruined days ago. Id caught him torturing a stray, stepped in, and the video went viral. He was fired, and I was called a hero.

Victoria hadnt argued. Shed even agreed that keeping someone so cruel was a liability. Believing shed finally seen the truth, I relaxed. Over a celebratory dinner, she handed me wine. One sip, and everything went blacklanding me here.

Victoria scoffed, looking down at me like I was a bad joke. "Are you threatening me, Arthur? Don't forget you brought this entirely on yourself."

She crossed her arms, her designer heels clicking on the metal grating of the catwalk above me. "You just had to play the hero, didn't you? Felix was just blowing off some steam, messing around with a mutt. You blew it way out of proportion. Because of you, he got cyberbullied, lost his career, and can't even walk down the street without getting harassed. And you? You didn't feel an ounce of guilt. You just sat there soaking up the praise. You're a snake, Arthur. And tonight, you're going to learn your lesson."

She gestured to the cages. "You love animals so much? Look at them. Theyve been starved for seven days. Let's see if you can keep up that saintly persona when they're tearing chunks out of your legs."

I glanced at the massive monitor set up behind them, showing my own disheveled reflection on the live feed. A bitter laugh escaped my throat. Felix was a two-faced sociopath. I saw him with my own eyes, pressing a lit cigarette into that stray dog's open wound just to get a sick kick out of it.

I stopped him because it was the right thing to do. I didn't ask anyone to film it, nor did I ask for it to go viral. But I didn't regret a single second of it. Trash like him deserved to be dragged out into the light. I just never expected my own wife to be so utterly blind, throwing away her morals just to coddle him.

Seeing me stay silent, Felix leaned over the railing, his face practically glowing with malice. "Did the big tough guy get scared speechless?"

He turned to Victoria, putting on his best puppy-dog eyes. "Boss, do you think he'll hold a grudge if we do this? Maybe we should just let it go. If he just gets on his knees, begs for my forgiveness on the live stream, and admits he framed me, we can let him walk."

Victoria looked at me with pure disgust. "You see that, Arthur? You're not even half the man Felix is. Look how forgiving he is. He's still thinking about your wellbeing."

She pointed a manicured finger at me. "Kneel. Apologize to the camera. Tell the world you orchestrated the whole thing. Tell them you faked the abuse to weaponize the internet against him. Do that, and I'll open the door."

On the big screen, the viewer count was skyrocketing. The chat box was moving at lightspeed, filled with comments reacting to Victoria's narrative.

"Wait, so Arthur set the whole thing up because he was jealous? That's sick."

"I can vouch for Felix! We went to college together. He wouldn't hurt a bug. It had to be a deepfake or heavily edited!"

"I work with Felix too! Arthur always used his status as the CEO's husband to bully him and steal his accounts. Arthur is the real psycho!"

I didn't even need to guess. Felix had clearly bought a massive bot farm and paid off trolls to steer the narrative. Led by the fake accounts, the real viewers were starting to turn on me.

"Cancel this guy immediately."

"Stop wasting time and release the hounds! Teach this manipulative loser a lesson. He's an embarrassment to men everywhere."

My jaw clenched. I looked dead into Victoria's eyes, my voice dripping with absolute defiance. "I will never apologize to a piece of trash."

Felix's lips twitched upward, exactly as he had planned.

Victoria's face hardened, shocked that I would actually refuse her in front of thousands. She raised her right hand. "Then I'll let the dogs keep you company."

The heavy metal latches clacked open.

The feral Shibas poured out of the cages. These weren't the cute internet meme dogs. These were starving, desperate animals. Their ribs poked through their coats, saliva dripping from their bared teeth as their glowing eyes locked onto me.

I backed up, my heart hammering against my ribs. Up on the catwalk, Felix was laughing so hard he had to hold his stomach, while Victoria watched with terrifying indifference, as if my life meant absolutely nothing to her.

In a split second of distraction, the lead dog lunged. I threw my arm up on pure instinct. Jaws clamped down hard. I violently shoved the dog away, but a sickening rip echoed through the room as a chunk of my flesh went with it.

"Ah!" I yelled, stumbling back as warm blood instantly soaked my sleeve.

Cold sweat beaded on my forehead. The pain was blinding, but the adrenaline cut through it. If I didn't fight back right now, this pack was going to strip me to the bone.

Spotting a rusted iron pipe near a support pillar, I sprinted for it. Another dog leaped at my throat. I swung the pipe like a baseball bat. The heavy metal connected with a brutal crunch. The dog hit the floor, yelping and thrashing before it finally stopped moving, a pool of dark blood pooling beneath its head.

The rest of the pack flinched, barking frantically as they saw one of their own go down. They didn't retreat, but they stopped charging, circling me slowly, waiting for my legs to give out.

My palms were incredibly slick with sweat and blood, but I gripped the pipe tighter. I had to stay sharp. Buy time.

On the screen above, the chat was absolutely losing its mind.

"We finally see his true colors! If he really loved animals, he'd let them bite him. He just beat a dog to death!"

"Dogs have rights too! They're just hungry! How could he kill it just to save his own skin?"

"His nice-guy act is completely shattered. What a monster."

The sheer stupidity of the internet was almost laughable. If I didn't swing that pipe, I would be dead. I wasn't some kind of martyr, and I didn't plan on dying for a PR stunt. I just wanted to survive. Was that a crime now?

Victoria's voice boomed through the speakers again. "Kneel, Arthur! Apologize right now and I'll pull them back!"

I glared up at her, my eyes bloodshot. "In your dreams."

"You!" Victoria's chest heaved with rage, her tone turning nasty. "You love playing the animal rights activist! Are you really going to slaughter these innocent dogs just to save yourself? You killed one. Are you going to kill a second? A third? Is this your so-called compassion?"

I couldn't believe the absolute mental gymnastics she was doing. She set this death trap up, yet she was lecturing me about morals?

I let out a harsh laugh. "Tell me, Victoria! What exactly did I do to make you want me dead?"

For a fraction of a second, she froze, unable to answer. But before she could find her words, a vicious glint flashed in Felix's eyes.

With a fake gasp, Felix tossed a handful of dried beef strips directly over the railing. They landed right at my boots.

The scent of the meat hit the starving pack. Any hesitation they had vanished. They went completely rabid and swarmed.

I swung the pipe with everything I had, but there were simply too many of them. They came in waves, driven mad by the hunger.

A set of teeth sank into my calf. Another clamped onto my waist. I staggered, losing my footing, and a heavy weight slammed into my back, jaws locking onto my shoulder blade.

I was going down. The sea of fur and teeth was swallowing me whole. I gritted my teeth and let out a raw, guttural roar.

"Ahhhh!"

I thrashed violently, spinning and cracking the iron pipe blindly. I managed to shake off the dogs, but the cost was horrific. Flesh tore away with their teeth. I stumbled backward, my shredded shirt completely soaked in crimson.

Sensing I was running on fumes, the Shibas scraped their claws against the concrete, preparing for the final leap.

Up on the platform, Victoria finally realized this wasn't a game. She gasped, her eyes going wide with panic. She grabbed the collar of her security chief. "You told me these dogs were well-fed and trained! You said they wouldn't actually hurt him!"

"I just wanted to scare him!" Her voice cracked. "Why are they attacking for real? Look at how much he's bleeding! Arthur can't handle pain like this. Make them stop! Tell them to stop right now!"

The bodyguards exchanged nervous glances.

Felix's expression darkened for a second before he smoothly wrapped his arms around Victoria's waist, burying his face in her neck. "He's still your husband, huh? You still feel sorry for him? But he hasn't even apologized to me yet."

He gently touched his bandaged forearm. "The trainers said the dogs just nip. It looks worse than it is, it's just surface scratches. Does it really not matter what Arthur did to me? Because I'm just a nobody, I deserve to be ruined, right?"

He forced a tear to roll down his cheek. "Even if the internet drove me to the brink of suicide, you still side with him."

Victoria melted instantly. She cupped his face, wiping the tear away. "No, baby, no. You're the most important thing to me."

"Then let him fight them off for just a little longer," Felix whispered softly. "Just until you're not angry anymore. Please?"

A sickeningly satisfied smile crept onto his face.

The microphone picked up every word. I heard it all. The absolute betrayal carved a hole in my chest deeper than the bite marks. My wife knew I was in mortal danger, yet one fake tear from this parasite was all it took for her to let me bleed out.

Victoria caught me looking at her and looked away guiltily. "You brought this on yourself, Arthur! It's just a few scratches anyway. Compared to the mental torture Felix went through, this is nothing!"

The chat was eating it up.

"Oh, so it's just a prank to scare him! Victoria is too nice. RIP to the dog that got killed though."

"Not gonna lie, Arthur's acting is Oscar-worthy. I actually thought he was dying."

"Sit back and enjoy the show, guys. Let's see what else this manipulative crybaby tries to pull."

My cuts were deep enough to see bone. I was painted in my own blood. Anyone with eyes could see these dogs were trying to rip my throat out. But Victoria was so brainwashed she genuinely believed I was just dealing with a few scrapes.

Fine. If that's how it was going to be, I had nothing left to hold back.

I checked the shattered face of my watch. It was time. I made my choice.

Dropping my defensive stance, I let out a battle cry and charged headfirst directly into the thickest part of the pack.

To the viewers, it looked like suicide. They thought I had lost my mind.

Victoria slammed her hands on the railing, absolute terror washing over her. "Arthur, what are you doing?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

"They won't kill you, but you're making them crazy! Stop it! You're insane!"

I gave her one last, cold smirk before the wave of dogs overtook me.

The camera could only capture a frantic blur of snarling muzzles, tearing fabric, and my muffled shouts.

Victoria completely lost it. She screamed at her men, "Get down there! Cage them! He's actually going to die!"

The mood in the live chat suddenly shifted as reality set in.

"Hold up... those don't look like trained guard dogs. Trained dogs bite and hold. These things are shredding him."

"Look at the blood on the floor! That's not a scratch, he just lost a chunk of his shoulder!"

"Wait a minute... is this stream hijacked? The people defending Felix sound like literal bots. Who paid for this?"

Victoria saw the comments turning. She glared at Felix, but there was no time to argue. She shoved her bodyguards toward the stairs.

But the security chief was pale, his hands shaking. He wouldn't move.

"What is going on?!" Victoria shrieked. "Why are they so aggressive? Talk, or I'll throw you in there myself!"

The guard swallowed hard. "Ma'am... they're not trained. They're feral. They haven't been fed in a week. Anyone who goes down there is going to get eaten alive."

Victoria stumbled back, her heels catching on the grating. "What are you talking about?"

The guard looked nervously at Felix. The pieces finally clicked in Victoria's head.

Felix immediately turned on the waterworks, his eyes wide and innocent. "I just wanted to teach him a lesson! I told the kennel to skip their meals, but I didn't know they would get this violent! Boss, I swear I didn't mean to actually kill him!"

Seeing his panicked, tear-stained face, Victoria's anger evaporated. "I'm not blaming you... I just..."

"Forget it," she sighed, rubbing her temples. "You were just hurt. It's not your fault."

Laying on the concrete, feeling teeth rake across my ribs, I heard every single word of her forgiveness. I didn't even feel angry anymore. Just a cold, heavy numbness.

My body was riddled with punctures. My fingers lost their grip, and the iron pipe clattered loudly against the floor.

Just as my vision started to fade to black, the blaring wail of police sirens pierced the air outside the warehouse. The dogs pinned me down, snapping at my face, but I managed a bloody, savage smile.

My ride was finally here.