Dominus

chapter 1

"That's why I came to you." He wrung his fingers together and bit his lip.

She was all too eager to fix his hair and pick out his shoes. She reprimanded him when he slipped them on without socks but he decided he liked them that way.

"Moonpie." His grandmama walked in from the kitchen in her navy nightgown and fuzzy slippers that matched a pair Louis had stashed in his closet.

"Morning, grandmama." He smiles and hugs her the same way he did when he was ten and younger, arms crossed over her shoulders and breathing in her sweet lavender scent.

The door rattled at five to twelve and Louis' heart lurched in his throat, nerves firing up and anxiety flaring.

"Calm down, sweetheart." She kissed his forehead. "You're still coming home to us tonight."

The tradition entitled Louis to one last night with his parents tonight, before he must leave with the Dominus that arrives for him in the earliest hour of tomorrow. He nodded and waited for her to open the door, chewing his lip as his anxiety made the air thick in his lungs.

In walked his headmistress with a foul glare and strict demeanour. Madam was always strict and uptight but she treated her students fairly, all except for him. When Louis presented as part of the improperly termed 'weaker' gender she set her sights on making him miserable.

She gazed at Louis' attire now, huffed and dragged him out the door without a word of greeting.

"Do you know how this works, young man?" She got Louis into the car and he fought to not stare anywhere but at her.

He shook his head. He wasn't entirely sure of anything when she was there with him.

"You sit with the rest of the students in a house out of this town. In the woods." She cleared her throat. "You have an offering?"

Again, he shook his head. An offering was not compulsory, and Louis thought giving this man his heart would suffice.

"You were always the laziest." She scorned, making his tiny ego deflate. "Just stay still until your name's called. If it gets called, that is."

He wanted to cry because how can she say that to him? He's already worked up on pent up agitation about his nightmare and not being loved for the rest of his life. The insecurity that arose from the slight possibility that he doesn't get a partner today stayed warm and harsh in his veins, scathing to the papery walls.

Taking a deep breath, Louis curls his dainty fingers around his sweater and folds in on himself. They watch civilisation roll by and the woods appear to overtake them.

"Out." She opens his door and he tumbles out, landing in dirt. "Tidy yourself and go wait inside."

He nods and turns away without a scowl or glare in her direction.

"What do you say?" She roars, using the infamous thin cane to whack his lower back.

It stung and tears sprung to his eyes instantly, knowing that the skin must have been cut by such cruelty.

"Y-Yes, headmistress." He choked on the rising sob and inhaled deeply.

The house was wooden and three floors high. Snow stuck to the ground in a thick white blanket, coating the sharp pine needles with light dustings. Trees were tall and blocking out the dull sunlight from behind the clouds, seeming to peer down at him like he is the tiniest creature to walk among them.

Louis gingerly hopped up the front steps and entered the front living room without a care for the sand on his knees and blood on the back of his sweater.