Page 44 of Fallen Petal

Chapter 22

J

I fear for my Petal.

And I will do everything in my power to protect her.

She fidgets when I lead her toward the door, her eyes wide and her posture tense. She’s hugging herself, nervously aware of her own nakedness. I haven’t seen her like this in a while, as she’s grown used to being naked in front of me, but it appears that her confidence is limited on this room.

“Are we... is there someone else out there?” she wants to know, looking up at me through wide and frightened eyes.

Her expression changes, but not for the better, when I shake my head.

“No one else is here.”

“Where is she?” Petal wants to know. “The girl. I haven’t seen in her in a while. Where did she go?”

I press my lips together, evading her gaze as I reach for the door handle. “She’s gone.”

“Gone?” she probes. “What do you m—”

“No more questions for now,” I stop her, my hand resting on the handle as I cast a dark look at her over my shoulder. “Do you want to get out of this room or not?”

She hesitates, pressing her lips together while a deep crease appears between her eyebrows.

“Do you?”

Finally, she nods, the expression on her face not changing. “Yes.”

“Good. Be grateful then—and quiet.”

I tighten my grip around the leash in my hand. She won’t try to run away, I’m sure of that. The leash is not meant to stop her from escaping, it’s simply a tool for my own enjoyment. And hers.

She never fought me on the collar. Her eyes were wide with wonder when I closed it around her neck, and she never asked me to take it off, never complained about it, never responded to it in the negative in any way.

Because she likes wearing it. I knew she would.

She sucks in a sharp breath of air when I open the door, and takes a step back, retreating instead of following my lead.

A light yank at the leash reverses her behavior. I keep her close, quite literally on a short leash as I open the door, walking out with her close behind me.

We step out in the hallway, the heavy door to her room closing with a loud noise that makes her flinch. She’s still hugging herself, an anxious look adorning her pretty face as her eyes scurry from left to right, seemingly checking the hall for another person, before her gaze is glued to something else.

The windows right in front of us.

It’s the middle of the day, and the sun is hiding behind a slack array of clouds, giving way to her beams here and there but not at the moment. This hall is facing to the back of the house, revealing a deserted street, lined with large trees that are colored in the bright dye of fall. She has never been in this particular spot, so I doubt that this hallway and the view from this window will trigger anything inside her, a fragment, a memory, anything that could make her tremble with realization.

And it doesn’t. She just stands there, staring out on the street while keeping her arms wrapped around herself. The expression on her face is inexpressive, observing without understanding.

“Come.”

I add a subtle pull on the leash to my instruction, turning left as I beckon her to follow me.

She’s hesitant, moving slowly and reluctant to leave the windows behind.

“You’ll have a better view downstairs, Petal,” I tell her, yanking at the leash again. “Don’t get hung up on this one.”

She sighs. “It’s just... Outside. The sun. And...”

---