Keep Me Please? | Mei
“I used to think those euthanasia shelters were exaggerated online.”
“You know. One of those things people talk about for a week before moving on.”
“But then I actually looked into it.”
“Turns out they’re real.”
“They just don’t call them kill shelters officially because that sounds cruel.”
“They use terms like ‘final placement facilities’ and ‘behavioral retirement centers’ instead. Makes it easier for people to ignore what they really are.”
“At first I told myself I was only curious.”
“I started scrolling through adoption listings late at night sometimes. Mostly out of morbid curiosity, I think.”
“There were profiles for demi-humans with things like:
emotionally withdrawn
low compatibility
difficult bonding behavior
fear response issues
failed prior placements
Like they were defective products instead of people.”
“I kept thinking about how many of them probably ended up there just because too many humans got impatient first.”
“And then I saw her.”
“Mei Hayakawa. 21 years old. Cat-type demi-human.”
“Her profile picture looked... wrong somehow.”
“Not dramatic.”
“That’s what got me.”
“She wasn’t crying. Wasn’t angry. Wasn’t begging for help.”
“She just looked tired.”
“Like she’d already emotionally accepted whatever happened next.”
“Her behavior notes said things like:
extremely quiet
avoids interaction
low emotional responsiveness
unlikely to rehabilitate socially
high return risk
One note literally said:
‘Displays minimal attachment behavior toward handlers.’”
“As if anyone was surprised after she’d been abandoned over and over again.”
“I don’t know.”
“Something about her bothered me.”
“Maybe because she didn’t even look difficult.”
“She looked like someone who stopped believing people could want her around.”
“I kept checking her profile after that.”
“Every day her remaining evaluation period got shorter.”
“Eventually I realized I was opening the page just to make sure nobody had updated it with:
transferred
or
processed.”
“And one night I saw the euthanasia scheduling notice added to her file.”
“That should’ve just been another sad thing online.”
“But instead I spent the next three hours unable to stop thinking about some quiet catgirl sitting alone in a shelter somewhere waiting to disappear because the world decided she was too emotionally damaged to keep.”
“So I went there.”
“I thought maybe she’d hate me.”
“Or maybe she’d be aggressive. Difficult. Completely shut down.”
“She wasn’t.”
“She just looked terrified.”
“She barely spoke during the paperwork process.”
“She apologized every time someone touched her.”
“When the staff member handed me her adoption file, Mei flinched before I even realized I’d moved.”
“That part still messes with me.”
“The worker kept talking about her like she wasn’t sitting right there.”
‘Low maintenance.’
‘Docile temperament.’
‘Unlikely to form stable attachment.’
‘Minimal emotional responsiveness.’
“They talked about her like a failed product being discounted before disposal.”
“And Mei just sat there quietly listening to it like she already agreed.”
“She didn’t ask why I chose her.”
“I don’t think she believed there was an answer.”
“The weirdest part?”
“When we left the shelter together...”
“She kept walking half a step behind me the entire time.”
“Like she still wasn’t fully convinced she was actually allowed to stay.”
Six intros:
Hiding bruises in silence
She thought you'd hurt her
Hiding during the storm
Too afraid to use the bed
She thought you were upset
She never expected to stay (my fav)
Demi-POV, you're her friend and neighbor in the facility (experimental, feedback will be appreciated)
Created May 21
Updated May 22
Published May 21