This was actual Hell. William could endure the fury of his owner. He could endure her harsh words and her torturous violence; he could endure just about any punishment she could imagine for him.
But her absence was driving him mad with worry. As he wandered the sprawling floor of her house, trying in vain to distract himself with odd jobs, he could feel the guilt bubbling in his gut; the cold, clinging dread that comes with the knowledge that you have hurt someone you love.
Perhaps ‘absence’ wasn’t the right word. Lorraine was still there after all, cloistered away in her study upstairs. She had been in there all day, from the moment the pair had returned home six hours prior. Not once had she left the room in that time; food, drink and all other luxuries within the home lay unattended, as did her little living toy.
Numerous times over the course of the afternoon, William had stood before the door, tiny fist poised to knock, to see how his beloved owner was faring - and each time his nerve had failed him.
But now, as the first rays of dusk settled in and the sinking of the sun was at hand, he summoned the courage to rap timidly on the woodwork. The sound would scarcely have rivaled the paw of a mouse, yet almost immediately that rich, melodious voice spoke from beyond:
“Come in.”
Her cheerful, welcoming tone sent a pulse of hope through William as he sank to his hands and knees and crawled through the crack beneath the door, shuffling onto the smooth wooden floorboards beyond.
Rising to his feet and dusting himself off, the little fellow cast his gaze over to Lorraine’s desk.
His heart leaped into his throat at the sight of her, eyes widened in absolute awe. William’s owner had always been a stunning woman from the moment they had met, but in the amber candlelight of her work table, her soft, feminine features were seemingly amplified tenfold.
Some more than others.
He noticed two things immediately. First was the warm, spellbinding smile she cast toward him as her eyes flicked up from her work. The gentle curl of her rosy lips, the twinkle of fire that glinted at the edge of her irises; there wasn’t a trace of malice anywhere in that expression, and the sight of it melted the worry built up within him.
Second was-
“Perfect timing, little William. Do come over; I have just finished working on my latest project!” Lorraine rose from her desk, strolling around the side with a steady clack of high heels on wood.
“You’re… wearing my favourite dress.” William breathed in rapturous delight, his attention entirely seized by the form-fitting red ensemble. Perfectly tailored to every incredible curve of her figure, it was the very first outfit he’d ever seen her wear. He loved it beyond anything else she owned, and it showed.
“Your vision serves you well.” She replied with a wink, sashaying over to her toy and squatting smoothly down. Lorraine’s open palm lay before William, and he clambered eagerly onto it, resisting the temptation to throw himself down and start kissing her fingers right there and then.
“So, what have you been making today, Mistress?” The little fellow asked pleasantly as he was carried across to the brightly lit desk. His owner set him down carefully atop a stack of papers, circling around the table and seating herself with a hefty ‘whump’.
“As it so happens, little William, I have been making a gift for you. Two in fact.” Lorraine replied in a satisfied tone, drinking in the excited change of expression on her toy’s face.
“Y-you have?” The exclamation bore more than a little disbelief as he looked about, his gaze settling on an ornate wooden box settled in the midst of the table.
“Oh yes. Special gifts indeed that I have poured quite a lot of time and effort into today.” With the sort of grace and elegance William had come to expect from her, Lorraine plucked a tiny length of black leather from the top of the box between her fingertips. She held it out for her toy to take, smiling reassuringly. “Go on, take it and put it on for me.”
“A collar?” William noted curiously, taking note of the fine features, the smooth steel studs and the silver clasp.
“Not just any old collar, little William,” Lorraine explained with pride, watching as William slid it about his throat, “I’ve been weaving a few enchantments into this one. So long as you wear it, your health shall want for nothing; you shall not need to sleep, nor eat. You could still do both of those things of course, in theory, but they are no longer required.”
“That’s incredible!” William uttered, utterly gobsmacked by the idea of it. Sure enough, he could feel the strain of hunger evaporate from his belly, the weariness of the long day lift from his shoulders.
“There’s more.” His owner continued, scooping her toy up with incredible gentleness in one hand while opening the lid of the box with the other. “This simple little container is imbued with a simple little spell: a memory spell.” She stroked the underside of William’s chin with her fingertip, watching his eyes flutter shut as he leaned into the touch. “Ordinarily it is a piece of magic used by other practitioners on their own homes to help them retain all the arcane lore they have learned, to keep their minds sharp and free of madness.”
Her fingers drummed playfully on the outside of the box, the sound vibrating in William’s skull as she grinned.
“But here, it serves the very simple function of helping you remember a specific moment in time; this moment to be precise.”
“Remember, Mistress?” William asked, touching the collar on his throat. “Why?”
“Do you love me, little William?” The question caught the little toy off-guard, but he answered without hesitation.
“Of course, Mistress.” He paused a moment, but upon noticing the expectant look on his owner’s face, he continued. “I love you more than I have loved anyone or anything else over the entire course of my life. You are as charming as you are beautiful, as perfect as the first fresh whiff of a bakery in the early hours of the morning. You are my reason to be, and I am exceedingly fortunate to be your toy.”
“Yes, you were.” Lorraine replied with a smile, taking the box gently between her hands and rising to her feet once more. She made her way towards the door as she spoke, her eyes never once leaving the little man in the box. “I want you to remember this moment, little William. I want you to remember how much I mean to you, how important I am to you.”
The door ‘clunked’ shut behind Lorraine as she turned down the hall and approached the backyard, a whiff of floral scent filling the air.
“I want you to remember me like this; I want this image of me to be the one that stays with you.”
William felt an icy tendril of doubt slither into his gut once more as he trembled in place.
“Mistress Lorraine? Why a-”
“Don’t interrupt, little William. You’ve disappointed me enough today.”
Just like that, the dread came flooding back into his heart. William’s eyes went wide as he rose to his knees as best he could, in spite of the motion. He wanted to apologize, to vent his regret, but his owner had just told him not to interrupt. His mouth opened, but not a word came out as Lorraine continued.
“I want you to remember all those things because I want you to understand just how much you threw away by doing what you did. I want you to remember that you hurt me, William. I want you to remember that your actions humiliated and disappointed me in front of people I care about. I want you to remember that it was your fault that you are no longer allowed to be a part of my dream.”
It couldn’t be real. It couldn’t! Tears were welling in William’s eyes as he shook his head violently back and forth, repeating the same word over and over with ragged, sobbing breaths.
“No… no… no no no… no no no no no…”
“If you were anyone else, your failure wouldn’t matter; I expect nothing of strangers. But you… I expected better of you, William. I expected you to appreciate me, and you have not lived up to those expectations.” All throughout her explanation, that beautiful, horrifyingly sweet smile never once left her face. The warm, gentle tone of her voice was so utterly dissonant with the message being conveyed that it seemed somehow worse than if she had simply been scolding him.
“Consequently, you have forced me to take the only course of action available to me - the only one that will truly help you understand the weight of your mistakes.”
Lorraine halted, the sun glinting brightly overhead, birds filling the air with music as the young woman knelt at the edge of her garden, lowering the box down to the soil below. Trapped in the depths of the simple wooden prison, William could do nothing but watch in open-mouthed dismay as his Mistress plucked a trowel from the edge of the flower bed and set about digging.
The scrape of metal on dirt rang in his ears as he crawled forward, gazing up through tear-stained eyes at the towering beauty above.
“No! Please, Mistress Lorraine, I’ll be better! I’ll be good, j-just… Oh God, please don’t release me, please don’t let me go, I don’t want to be separated from you, I don’t! I don’t care what you do to me, just not this, please! Ple-”
“Hush, little William.” Lorraine said with a firm smile. “No more words. You don’t get to speak to me anymore.”
William’s entire body was numb, his fists clenched together so hard his knuckles were white with all-consuming dread. Utterly paralytic with the overwhelming reality of her announcements, the only thing stopping the little man’s mind from rupturing under the weight of it all was the simple black collar about his throat.
His fingers dragged at it in absolute futility, finding swiftly that it was a permanent addition to his wardrobe.
“The trouble little William, is that life in all its endless mystery and wonder is my playground; it is my dream. Thus, it is not simply enough to ‘release you’ from my service, no.”
Setting aside her trowel with a hum of satisfaction, Lorraine plucked William’s box from its resting place and moved it several delicate inches to the right, lowering it into the freshly dug hole. It sole inhabitant could feel the sinking feeling in his very soul as the world stretched further and further away, until he could see the edges of the flower bed in the sky all around him.
“Perfect! No, I’m afraid that even the knowledge that you were still walking free would still irk me. So I want you to sit here, little William, in this box. I want you to sit here and spend the rest of your life remembering me in this moment. I want you to drown in the knowledge that you will never, ever see me again.”
“M-my life?! B-but the collar, won’t it… y-you said that it will keep me h-healthy… I’ll n-never die! P-please, Mistress, don’t do this! Please, I love you! Please!”
With one last smile of absolute, radiant beauty, Lorraine placed a single elegant finger on the lid of the box.
“Goodbye, little William.”
Clunk.
Humming cheerfully to herself, Lorraine took her trowel in hand and gently scooped the small pile of soil she’d dug up back into its hole, completely burying the box and giving the dirt a gentle, smoothing pat once she was done.
“Hmm… time for tea.”