Page 2 of Bender

I’ve been wrapped around Blu since the gunshots started. Not that being wrapped around her isn’t pretty much the status quo when we’re in the kennel. The space isn’t designed to hold two grown adults, which is as horrifying a thought as it sounds. Neither Blu nor I are the size of a full-grown person, not because we aren’t adults age-wise, but because neither of us is allowed to eat much.

Mr. Huber, or master as he expected us to call him when we were allowed to speak, keeps us as frail and weak as he can. Blu thinks it’s because he likes it that we’re too little to fight him off when he does the things he does to us. I think she’s right.

Master has kept me as a pet since I was just a boy, but Blu’s a new addition. She’s only been a pet for a year or so, though we never talk about what she was before master bought her. The night he brought her home is probably the best-worst night of my life.

At first, I was terrified her being here meant he was tired of me. He’s always threatened that if I ever annoyed him enough, he’d put me down like the dog he says I am. I know I’m not really an animal, but after being treated like one for so many years, and seeing what master does to people he doesn’t like, I bark whenever he tells me to.

I do everything he tells me to do. Even when I don’t want to. Even when I hate it. Even when it hurts so bad I think I might die from it. Blu is the reason I know how he treats us isn’t right.

Sometimes, when we’re curled up here in our kennel and I’m wrapped tight around her, she whispers that master is a villain. Blu says, where there are mega villains, there are superheroes who come to rescue the damsels in distress. That, one day, our hero will come to save us.

I’m not a damsel, and Blu knows it. Master says pets aren’t allowed to wear clothes, so Blu knows damn well our parts don’t match. If a hero ever comes to save the damsel in distress, I just hope they rescue me out of the kindness in their heart. Even if all the hero does is break me out of this kennel and undo these chains, I tell myself it will be enough. I’ve been a pet for too long to be a damsel in distress. There’s no saving me.

“The door, dammit. How do I open it?” The man sounds exasperated, but the edge of violence when he started barking orders a few minutes ago is gone.

“We don’t know, sir. We can’t open it from in here. Duh,” Blu sasses. It’s her coping mechanism, even though her sass mouth gets her smacked around even rougher than usual when she uses it on master. I try to shush her, but the chains I’m wearing restrict my movement a lot more than hers do.

“Then how did that fuck Huber open it from out there? You must have seen what he does when he puts you in there.” Frustration is a dark glimmer punctuating his sentences. Worry that this man, whoever he is, could be meaner than master makes goosebumps poke up all over my skin.

“How should we know, mister? It’s not like kidnappers give classes on how to stuff their pets into closets, you know? We’re never awake when he puts us in here. We can’t exactly ‘member how he does it,” Blu snaps at him.

“Stop being a sass mouth, Blu! What if he’s your superhero, and he gets sick of you sassing him, and he leaves us here with master! He could save you, but he won’t if you’re being a brat,” I reason with her.

Even if all this guy does is rescue Blu, I’ll be thankful. She deserves to get out of here. I love Blu. If things were different, if I weren’t a pet, I’d probably even ask her to be my girlfriend.

I’m unsure where that thought comes from. It’s so impossible I might as well be wishing the moon were made of ice cream and fit into my hand. I wouldn’t even know how to have a girlfriend. I only know what they are because Blu once talked about a TV show she saw where the boy and girl were boyfriend and girlfriend and they held hands and kissed.

Blu and I hold hands. We don’t kiss, though. Not except for when master tells us to and watches like we’re a TV show. Blu says those aren’t real kisses because they’re not for us. Still, I like the times when master wants to watch us rather than the times he makes us watch. The things he makes me watch him do to Blu are worse than the things he makes her watch him do to me. Or maybe, that’s because I don’t like to see her getting hurt.

I really hope her superhero is nicer than master. And that he won’t get as mad when she sass mouths at him.

“Fuck, that’s… Fucking prick… Shoulda gotten to kill the motherfucker myself. Half hour earlier and I coulda…” The bits and pieces of the man’s mumblings get louder, and suddenly, bright light slices through the darkness of our kennel.

My eyes blink and blink and blink as I stare out the cubbyhole-sized door. After a few seconds, nearly all the light is blocked out again as the superhero steps in front of the doorway to look inside at us.

I curl tighter around Blu, my nakedness shielding hers. I want to believe our superhero is a good man. But if wanting something made it real, we’d have been long gone years ago.

Chapter

Three

BLU

“Fucking shit.” The man who’s been talking to us through the wall doesn’t look like I expected him to. For one thing, he isn’t dressed anything like a superhero. For another, he’s got a filthy mouth.

“Cursing isn’t allowed, mister.” I know he said master is dead, but I don’t think breaking rules is a good idea until I know for sure he’s gone. Sometimes, master would punish me and Grey just for hearing cuss words. Even if they were swears that we heard master say.

I’m not saying it makes sense because nothing about my life does. I live in a dog kennel behind a wall in a terrible man’s house. Rules are the only reliable thing in my life, aside from Grey. As much as I hate that he’s a pet, too, I’m so glad I’m not alone here. The place where I was before I was here had lots and lots of girls and boys, but they all came and went too fast to be friends.

Not that this is how to make a friend, what with being prisoners and all. But Grey and I make do. Sometimes, we get days and days when master is too busy for us, and those are the best days. Those days, we aren’t even in the night kennel. We get to spend them in the basement room. It’s bigger, and there’s always fresh water and bread in there. Gets cold, though.

Why am I thinking all these things when my superhero is right here, waiting for me to say thank you for saving us? I mean, he doesn’t look like a superhero. And he doesn’t sound like one. But why else would he be here?

“Fuck what’s allowed, girlie. The only ones still breathing in this whole place are you, me, and the boy. No one’s left to give two shits about rules. Now, let’s get you outta there.” He reaches into the kennel, and I can’t help my reaction.

My leg kicks out at his hand, a reflex I didn’t even know I had. He reacts lightning fast, his fingers wrapping around my ankle and holding me still. The hold is tight, but not enough to cause pain. Believe me, I know the difference.

“Whoa there, girlie. You gotta want to get outta that tiny ass box, yeah? You need my help. Don’t fight me.”

---