I slowly sat up, staring at the panda. He was laying on his side a little with his front paws resting in front of him. His knees were bent. It looked like a normal human would sleep like that. Suddenly a phone rang. It was a different ringtone from my cellphone, so I assumed it was his. I jumped out of bed a little and searched for his bag. I found it and pulled out the phone. There was Chinese on the screen but I answered it anyway.

“H-hello?” I cleared my throat a little.

“Jill?” Kris’s voice responded.

I sighed a little, trying to calm down. “Y-yeah.”

“Is Tao with you?”

“Yeah.” I glanced at my bed.

“Is he sleeping?”

“Yeah. Um…how am I gonna get him back to the panda zoo?”

“Give me your address and I’ll come pick you two up.”

I agreed and told him my address. While we were talking, Tao slowly shifted and moaned a little.

“He’s waking up now.” I glanced at him.

“Good. Did you two have a good night? He was polite to you, right?”

My mind flashed back to last night. I started remembering things more clearly and started blushing madly. “Y-yeah…he was a fine guest. We had a lot of fun.”

“Good. I’ll be at your house in about fifteen minutes. Stay put, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks.”

“Yep.” We hung up and I put Tao’s cellphone down. A soft moan came from my bed and I turned to look at him. He was staring at me sleepily with his arms and legs stretched out across my bed. I had to move him around a little to sit down.

“Morning.” I chuckled lightly.

He responded by moving his head onto my lap and sighing deeply.

I his furry head for several seconds. Then my stomach growled and a wave of pain attacked my stomach. I looked down at Tao wide-eyed. “Oh my god…we never ate dinner last night! You must be hungry!”

Tao glanced up at me and shrugged one shoulder.

“Don’t lie.” I sighed and stood up, gently pushing his head off of my lap. “I’ll be right back. I’ll get some breakfast.”

I took a bite out of an apple slice and handed another one to Tao. He opened his mouth, letting me put it in.

“I hope this doesn’t offend you.” I said quietly.

He chewed happily and rested his head on his paws.

“Kris said he’d be here soon.” I took another bite and sighed a little. Was this what I had to do every time he slept over at my house? No…I vowed to find a way to break his curse so days like these won’t exist anymore.

Suddenly my doorbell rang loudly.

“He’s here already?” I stood up and walked over to my window.

A group of men wearing suits and dark sunglasses were standing at my doorstep. Another small team of men wearing army suits and holding tranquillizer guns stood behind the men in suits with their guns at ease. I forgot how to breathe and just stared at them wide-eyed. One of the suited men knocked on my door.

“This is the government. We know you’re in there. Please answer us or we’ll be forced to break in and find you.”

I stumbled back in completely fear. “T-Tao, you have to get out of here!” I hissed quietly. Tao immediately sat up and climbed off my bed.

“We just want the panda.”

Not on my dead life! I pulled Tao a little and leaned my head toward my open window. “J-just a minute please!”

“Now.” The stern voice responded.

“I’m not fully clothed!” I lied with gritted teeth.

There was no answer.

I took the opportunity to open my door and continue to pull Tao with me. “Can’t you move any faster!?” I hissed again.

He moaned a little and quickened his pace.

“You’ve got thirty seconds.” The man behind my door called.

I ran to the back door across from my room and opened it. “Go!” I motioned to Tao to walk through it.

He waddled quickly through the door and looked back at me. I quickly closed the door and ran to the front door of my house and opened it, not even bothering to fix my hair.

“Can I help you?” I asked, trying to make my voice as normal sounding as possible.

“Where’s the panda?” The main man in shades asked in a low voice.

“Excuse me?”

“Where is the panda?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Are you aware that lying to the government will earn you a very nasty punishment?”

“But I’m not lying! I don’t own a panda!”

“We’ve seen your little viral video. If we weren’t as friendly, we’d take you along for more questioning as to why you would make such contact with an extraterrestrial being. But we’ll give you one last chance. Show us to the panda and we will leave you out of this.”

I paused for a moment. “…I would never let you take him away. You don’t know his story!”

“He is an extraterrestrial being with an unnatural superpower. We simply cannot have him running around freely on this planet.” The man nodded behind him and the small team of men in army suits rushed past him and pulled me out of the way so they could move into my house.

“Hey! You can’t do this!” I struggled against the solider holding my arms.

“We are only doing what’s best for the planet.” The man motioned to the solider holding me to follow him.

I was dragged along forcefully away from my house.

I slowly lowered my head. At least he left…

Suddenly a pained cry struck my hearing and my arms were released. I stumbled forward a little and turned around. Tao’s teeth were attached to the soldier’s thigh.

“Get back out here! It’s attacking a soldier!” The soldiers who entered my house came running out as fast as a bolt of lightning. The soldier pushed and wacked Tao’s face with his fists, but Tao would not let go. I tried to run over to him but was stopped and held still by another soldier. I watched helplessly as all of the soldiers worked together to pull Tao off of the bleeding soldier. Then Tao moaned painfully and his head lowered slightly. A small dart had penetrated his side.

“No!!” I thrashed and squirmed. “Don’t do this! He’s not dangerous!! You’re all monst—“

A sudden stab of pain exploded from the back of my head and my entire world turned black.