Pet

Mara tried not to smile as she walked down the street. The clicking of each heel marked her passage in a slow, echoing staccato that turned heads. Most of the men who looked up as she passed blinked and stared. Most of the women snarled and smacked their men.

When she had lost the bet with Tom, she had assumed she would be paying in bed. the idea that he would have sent her to run his errands while dressed to impress had never crossed her mind.

The bank was another block down. She should have been there in no time. Today though, was a day full of surprises.

The hands that dragged her into the old dress shop were gloved. The lights were off and windows curtained.

“Pretty, pretty, pretty,” the old man’s voice rasped as he said it. “So very pretty.”

Mara opened her mouth to scream and a fist was jammed between her teeth before a sound had come out. Her jaws were forced wide by that hand, and she gagged on the taste.

“Quiet pretty.”

She was on the floor, pinned under the weight of a much larger body, with the back of her head stinging from its impact with the old, polished wood. The second hand moved over her, but didn’t stop her from opening her purse.

A soft hiss, like air leaking out of a hole in a tire, came from the bag. It was followed by the sound of bubbles in a sink and then by the smell of rotting flowers.

The man didn’t make a noise when he was ripped off of the top of her. She assumed it was due to the tentacle that was jammed into his mouth.

After dusting herself off, Mara rummaged in her bag for a minute before she found the tiny wooden box. She sat it on the floor, open, and turned to leave. It was hard to walk away. Her pet shouldn’t have been left unsupervised, but she couldn’t stomach the sight of it feeding so soon after her own lunch. “I’ll be back when I finish at the bank,” she said over her shoulder. “If you are a good boy and clean up after yourself, I’ll get you ice cream before we go home.”

Mara stepped back into the street, and this time she did smile at the sound of her heels on the sidewalk.

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