Hours had passed,the collar felt tighter and tighter, and the pricks of the spikes punching into her neck went deeper. Her panther had begun to fight Flora’s persistence for control. Panther Flora believed she would get them out of there; the small problem was that Cassandra and Romeo were prepared for a panther’s fight, a panther’s stealth. What they weren’t ready for was Flora’s. Her newfound training with the Pack wasn’t a lot to fall back on as she couldn’t recall a lot, but her human mind was smarter than before. Flora could hear approaching footsteps.
Ding, ding, ding, round two began.
“I see you’ve already lost your water privileges,” Romeo sighed, stepping into the room. He slid his tired body down the wall directly in front of her. He sat, one leg bent up toward his body and the other lying nearly too close to Flora’s ready claws. He twirled a pen, acting entirely too nonchalantly, she thought. “Cassandra and I…we go back and forth between good cop and bad cop. When it comes to you, my sweet doll, she seems to have a soft spot for you. I sort of do too, to be honest,” he said, rolling his head against the wall.
Flora’s eyes followed Romeo’s every movement. Every blink, every twitch of his fingers didn’t go unnoticed. She needed to know everything she could about the way he moved if she was going to get past him.
“I’ll tell you, the last girl that was here was over 10 years ago. She was a charming one. Charmed the trust right out of us. You know, she got to get her collar taken off. This dresser here,” he said, pointing to the white dresser she’d memorized the tufts and scratches on, “is full of different collars. The one you have on is our beginner-level collar, so that you understand how things are going to be. The spikes remind you who’s in charge. We are. Nothing too crazy. The next one, once you’ve earned it, will allow you to shift. It will also allow me to shock you. A simple press of a button will put you in an immense amount of pain."
“You should know not a whole lot of girls survive a shock like that in their human forms. Especially when I don’t allow them to shift back and heal.” Was that a warning? How long was this going to last? Flora tried to focus on survival, but the terror running laps in her mind was distracting as hell. But all you need to know is that if you mess up again, you’ll have to deal with me and my toys.”
His voice was so casual, so familiar, yet the threat was deafening. She thought that was it, that that would be all, and he would leave. That was until he stood up to the dresser in question. He wore a lazy smirk as he dug through a drawer.
Flora’s panther was clawing at her mind, begging to take control. She knew what was coming and tried to protect Flora, but after 24 years, it was time for Flora to return the favor. She tried to remain confident, telling her panther she could take whatever Romeo was going to do to them. The real show was about to start.
“Only, that’s not everything. I’ll share one secret since you're my second favorite daughter. One that even Cassandra doesn’t know.” He took a moment to run his fingers over his weapon of choice. “Secrets must be kept at any cost. Are you willing to pay the price?” He squatted down in front of her, a black dagger shining between his hands.
“I guess you can’t really answer, can you?” He smiled too big, too cruel to be the Romeo she once knew. The quiet, quirky, deeply-in-love man she thought she knew was a false perception of the monster in front of her. Terror ran up and down her spine as Romeo expertly twirled the dagger in his hands, blood trickling through the small cuts he made in his own hand.
“Most cut their pointer finger and mix their blood as an intense form of secret-keeping but you, little panther, don’t really have fingers.” He moved fast, the dagger piercing her paw. The searing pain shot around the area and deep within her. A growl slipped, but her panther consciousness stayed back. Flora took the brunt of the mental pain. She could cry, and it wasn’t just for the pain Romeo was putting her in by jamming his bloody finger into her paw. Her panther trusted her fully. Her panther was depending on her to keep them protected.
“There, our secret will be kept between us, for as long as you live.” He said, stepping back out of reach to sit on the bed, crossing his ankles and leaning back on his hands. He appeared completely relaxed and gazed at his dresser of weapons.
“There was a time when our baby, Klare, would go play out back in the woods. It started once a week; she’d go and play for a few hours every Wednesday. We asked to play with her sometimes, but she never wanted us to. We thought it was safe for her to play without us — there was no one around for miles," he started, blinking as if in a daydream.
“I should’ve known a vampire could’ve covered that distance in a matter of minutes,” he muttered.
The shock of a vampire in the area chilled Flora.
“She was the same age as Klare. The vampire would meet her in the middle of the woods with a backpack of toys. They’d play every Wednesday for exactly three hours. She’d wait for little Klare to return to our backyard before she’d take off.”
“She could sense me there from the start. One day the vampire waited and once Klare left she looked in my direction. I stepped away from the tree I was hiding behind and introduced myself and thanked her. Klare was shy, didn’t have too many friends.” He laughed as if being caught by a vampire, no matter their age, wasn’t a death sentence.
“She asked if it was okay, playing with Klare. I made the deal that it was okay, as long as I could watch over them. So, it went on for years.”
“The day Klare died, I had met the vampire, Remi, out in the woods and told her in the most humane way that her best friend had died. She cried, I cried. The problem was that I couldn’t let go. I couldn’t let go of Klare’s best friend. I couldn’t ignore the time Klare, Remi, and I spent together. So, I asked her to meet me at our regular time the next week."
"I had a week to prepare the shed and to learn how to trap a vampire. Once the time came, I was ready; I captured her,” he laughed, his eyes staring out the window.
“Well, that’s enough for the day. Behave, little panther.” He took his leave, and Flora was left stewing, chained to the wall.
* * *
Basedon the passing of daylight from the window, one day and night had passed since Flora woke up in the bedroom. After a night of figuring out how to save herself, Flora had come up with nothing. Cassandra and Romeo were too prepared. The only thing holding her captive was the leash and collar bolted to the wall. If she could figure out a way to get out of it without taking her head off, she was sure she could get back home.
“Good morning, darling. How have you been?” Cassandra walked in with another damn kitty bowl, this time full of meat. “You see, there is a system here. You have to earn things. Once you start behaving, you’ll upgrade to cooked meat, from there you can shift, and get the collar off, and so on.” There was no way Flora would force her panther to eat that. She could tell by the smell that it was expired. Her eyes peered up to Cassandra, who smiled down at her. She lightly kicked the bowl towards Flora.
Flora wanted to swipe her paw and throw the shit back at Cassandra, but that would backfire into a terrifying meeting with Romeo.
With a sigh, Cassandra left the room, leaving Flora to stare at the dish. She could go without eating for a while but not for much longer. Flora aimed her claws back at the chain that kept her hostage. She hated waiting for a savior. She knew the Pack was coming for her, but since she wasn't an official Pack member, she couldn’t bet her life thattheywere coming. But Dylan, he was coming for sure. Something in her soul told her to wait it out and that he was coming. She just couldn’t figure out if he’d get there in time. Cassandra was growing tired of her behavior, and Romeo was all too happy to inflict pain on her. Would he do this every day if she stayed? Her paw was still healing from the day before. Since she couldn’t shift back and forth, she healed slower than the normal rate.
She really couldn't catch a break, and the heavy thudding of footfalls near her room told her it was Romeo. Did they really have to take turns coming to see her?
“Hello, darlin’.” Romeo smiled, getting comfortable at the dresser. Digging through whatever weapons he had stockpiled in there, he carried on. “Not hungry? Maybe I’ll have to convince you to eat. Starvation is not allowed here.”
“No, not until tomorrow.” Cassandra’s voice dipped in. “Give her a few days to break. Let’s go, Romeo, not today,” Cassandra said, holding out her hand for Romeo’s.
All Flora could do was stare, even when Cassandra uttered the words she’d been praying for. She’d get a few days. She’d have at least another day to figure out how the hell to get out of there.
