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After Mariann had been on the phone to them, everything began happening too fast. Clearly Arwen and Si were desperate to be rid of them, Pet thought, as Arwen fussed over them, brushing dust off their fur. She quizzed Mariann on the phone while Pet curled at her feet and Pet tuned it out.
Not long later, Arwen hung up the phone and they were ushered downstairs. Si hovered by the kitchen and awkwardly offered to get them some water before they went. Knowing that they were leaving soon gave Pet the bravery to stare coldly at Si and turn their head away. Si had been doing the most logical thing to help the shelter… but it’d still hurt.
Arwen subtly waved Si away and gently offered Pet a chance to say goodbye to any of the other shelter creatures. They refused. As time had gone on in the shelter, Pet had stopped even trying to smile at all the new creatures that arrived. The news ones were rarely at the shelter long and it only hurt Pet’s heart when they were left behind over and over.
Mariann drove up in front of the shelter not long after. She was dressed smartly in black business wear, like Master Parry used to, and Pet felt incredibly scruffy and ugly in comparison. Mariann heaved herself out of the car with a groan and a hand on her pregnant stomach while Arwen gently encouraged Pet out the shelter door.
The sounds of cars rushing by and the rough concrete pavement under their paws immediately made them feel sick. The night with Harrison- dragged on a leash- their broken tail. They could feel the tightness around their neck all over again, and the awful, bad-wrong throbbing of their tail. Their throat closing up and stomach rolling, they tried to bolt back for the shelter’s open door, only for Arwen to shift to stand in their way.
Pet recoiled sharply backwards, staring up at her in alarm as they panicked. She looked concerned but she wasn’t letting them back in. She was forcing them out, sending them away because they were unwanted unwanted unwanted and useless-
“Hey, hey, hey.” Mariann approached them slowly but Pet didn’t want her either. She was the one who was going to take them to a new master, a man Pet had never met and didn’t want to. “I know it’s frightening-”
You have no idea! Pet wanted to yell at her, but it still felt like someone had pulled a zip tie tight around their throat and they folded over, curling their hands over their ears to block out the sound of traffic as their breaths came in gasps.
Mariann and Arwen spent a long time trying to coax them out. Mariann tried once to touch them, only for Pet to flinch away, followed by a rare growl. She didn’t try again.
They didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to go in the car, which nothing good came of. And they couldn’t return to the shelter, where Pet had long outstayed their welcome. So they stayed right there on the pavement, screwing themself up in a ball with their tail tucked in, so the humans walking past wouldn’t have the chance to stamp on it.
Arwen and Mariann were talking over them, sounding agitated. Pet’s breathing had slowed but they still felt hazy and their fur was standing up even though the outside air wasn’t especially cold.
Pet felt the change. The shelter door opened wider and Pet glanced up, going tense all over when Si stepped out. His expression was grim as he talked to Arwen, sending two frowning glances down at Pet.
Panic made them act and, with no warning, they scrabbled to their feet and bolted, acting exactly like the bad creature Master Parry had sworn them to be.
Their unsteady, short, weak legs didn’t them far and their claws didn’t grip the concrete well. Si’s large hands closed firmly around their sides before they’d made it 20 yards, and then they were hauled into the air.
After that they went limp, letting Si carefully shift them in his arms and carry them to Mariann’s car. They vaguely heard Mariann arguing for them to be put on the backseat, but Arwen quietly said that they didn’t trust Pet not to try to interfere with Mariann’s driving. Mariann fell silent, so Pet understood that she didn’t trust them either. They were put in the boot instead, a blanket placed over them failing to soften the blow. Pet was bad, they knew that, but they never would’ve risked Mariann getting harmed by trying to mess with her driving. Never. But why would the humans trust them? Pet had done nothing to earn it.
Being in the boot was different this time. It was still daylight and Mariann had put the boot cover back, so it wasn’t dark at all. The blanket kept the car’s movement from being too jarring and Pet could tell that Mariann was driving carefully, whether for their sake or out of habit, they didn’t know. Staying lying down, Pet numbly watched the trees and buildings pass by, flashes of grey and brick-orange to break up the cloudy-white sky.
The daylight faded fast as Mariann drove, though it wasn’t a long trip and Pet didn’t have time to fall into an exhausted doze. Though they could feel themself trembling, the panic had faded into fearful resignation by the time the car pulled to a stop.
The boot clicked open and was let up slowly, revealing Mariann’s worried face. She was clearly tense and Pet belatedly realised she was concerned they were going to run. They kept still and quiet, curled up under the blanket in the same position they’d been put down in. They weren’t going to run now. They knew they were chipped, there was no real point; it’d only been instinctive fear that’d made them flee before.
“Will you come with me, sweetie?” she asked softly. “I can’t run like I am, so please don’t race off again.”
Ashamed, Pet shook their head.
Mariann smiled. “Thank you. Can you hop out? Is the drop too far?”
Pet forced themself up and pulled the blanket off where it clung to their fur, crackling with static. Mariann’s car wasn’t very big and Pet didn’t have any trouble climbing down, landing neatly on their paws. Having concrete under their paws again made nausea roll through them, but they swallowed it down. Mariann was only trying to help, naïve as she might be, and Pet didn’t want to cause her any more trouble. And also maybe, selfishly, they hoped she wouldn’t tell Pet’s new owner that they were a flight risk and a nuisance. Though they already had low expectations for their new Master, getting off to a bad start like that would make it even worse.
Pet expected Mariann to knock on the dark blue door, but she fetched a key out of her handbag instead. Pet wasn’t sure whether this was common for humans, but they’d never seen Master Parry’s guests let themself into Master’s house with their keys. It couldn’t be Mariann’s house, because she’d already said Pet couldn’t live with her.
While she fiddled with the keys, Pet tilted their head back and savoured the early evening air, still weighed down by the warm afternoon. The orange streetlight glowed and Pet stared up at it until their neck grew stiff. This might be their only chance for a long time to be outdoors and they wanted to savour it. To take in the sight of the quiet row of houses, the streetlights and the few stars growing in strength, before Pet was trapped on the other side of a pane of glass.
“Come on, sweetie,” Mariann prompted gently, tilting her head at them. Her hair was pinned up at the sides, keeping it out of her eyes, though it slid sideways into her face when she turned to look back at them.
Pet forced their stiff limbs into motion and followed her up a single step and then, holding their breath, into their new home. Or prison. It seemed empty for now, and Mariann made herself at home as she eased herself into a kitchen chair with a sigh. Then they waited, for Pet’s new Master to arrive, and for Mariann to abandon them, just as everyone else had.