Henry's eyes fluttered open as the sun shone through the window, pulling him out of his rest. He got dressed, in casual clothes this time. The suit was really only for presentation. He despised the fact that he had to dress up in order to buy a Pet - a human.
Once dressed, he began to rummage through the drawers again, trying to find clothes that wouldn't literally fall off her frame. Finally finding some, he walked into her room and paused. The curtains were wildly flapping in the wind as a cool breeze entered the room. Those two simple things caused his mouth to curl down, knowing that even these two simple things she was denied at the Shop.
Rose's back was facing away from the door, huddled in the covers and blankets, almost like a cocoon. Henry's eyes left the window and he walked to the bed. He opened his mouth to speak, but didn't. Truth be told, he had no idea how to wake her without frightening her.
"Time to get up," he said in a gentle voice. It was awkward but that was the only thing he could think of to say.
"Five more minutes, dad," she said in a little bit of an annoyed tone. She snuggled closer to the blankets.
"Um . . . I'm not your dad," Henry said.
Rose sat up quickly, startled. "Master, I-I'm sorry I thought-"
"It's ok. Here, put these on," he said gently. He handed her the smallest pair of sweatpants he could find and a small t-shirt as well. Her shaking hands hesitantly took the clothes. "I'll be downstairs making breakfast. After you get dressed, come on down, ok?" he asked.
She quickly nodded.
Giving her a faint smile, he left the room, shutting the door behind him.
Rose remained on the bed for a few more seconds, not understanding. She hadn't been punished for sleeping in the bed. Instead, he had given her clothes! His clothes! It felt so wrong for a Pet to take something that was their Master's. This was wrong. But, he had told her to change and if she didn't wear his clothes then she would technically be denying an order.
Rose's hesitance only lasted a second before she walked to the bathroom. As she quickly changed, she avoided looking at herself in the mirror. She didn't think she could stomach to see herself. After so many years of being abused and underfed, she imagined her body being nothing but the angles of her bones.
Quickly covering her body, she finally looked up at the mirror and despite her haiste to not keep her Master waiting, she stopped. It had been so long since she had seen her reflection that she had forgotten what she looked like. Her hollow cheeks made her features almost sickly looking. Her dull green eyes seemed glossed over, one of which was surrounded by a faded black eye. Her finger gently traced the top of her nose. It dipped down faintly in the middle, where it had been broken and left to naturally heal one too many times by her Master.
Her Master! He was waiting for her!
Tearing away her eyes from herself, she quickly made her way down to the kitchen.
Rose's pace slowed when an almost intoxicating smell entered her nose. Of course, she knew that she would never be able to eat the food, but the smell was enough. Bowing her head, she walked next to the island and waited for Henry to notice her.
Henry was facing the stove as his finger tapped against the counter, waiting for the food to cook.
"You can sit," Henry said, still facing away from her. Rose began to lower herself. "In a chair," he added.
Rose did as she was told and lowered her head.
After a minute or two, a small plate and bowl was placed in her field of vision. Her eyes glanced up at him and he took the same position he had had the last time they had eaten. Looking back down at her food, she noticed it was the same broth from last night and on the small plate were fluffy yellow things.
"If you can, finish the broth and we'll be doing some walking today so you need to eat a bit of actual food. Only eat what you can."
"Yes, Master."
After taking a few seconds to situate her spoon to how she remembered, she dipped it into the soup and began to sip it. As she did so, she glanced at Henry's plate and saw that he had a significant amount of food, much more than her; and that's how it should be. She should be given less than her Master. Yesterday, when he ate the same thing as her, she thought it was a form of punishment.
The spoon fell into the nearly empty bowl. Rose stared at the fork now. In theory, it should be exactly like the spoon, but the small prongs scared her.
Why are those there? Rose thought.
Henry's eyes looked over at Rose as her thought entered his mind. He hadn't meant to read her thoughts. The past few days he had tried to do the complete opposite, but it was harder to ignore than to listen.
His eyebrows rose as he watched Rose awkwardly try to scoop up the eggs as if it were soup. Reaching over, Rose froze and watched his hand grab hers. Carefully, he readjusted the fork slightly and then gently drove the fork into the eggs. He raised their hands and watched as Rose's eyes widened in disbelief. The corners of his mouth curled up.
Henry's hand departed and he continued to eat his breakfast, which consisted of the broth, eggs, pancakes, and fruit. Placing a grape in his mouth he looked back at Rose, who had only managed to eat a bite or two of her eggs. He wouldn't be surprised if she was already full.
"You were only fed leftovers?" he asked before he could stop himself.
Rose froze and spared a glance at her food and then Henry. "Yes, Master," she whispered.
"How much were the leftovers?" He knew that it wouldn't have been a lot, that was evident due to her skeletal frame. But he couldn't help but ask.
"This is more than I would get, Master."
Henry's hand squeezed his fork in a death grip. He didn't understand how her old Master allowed her to slowly waste away.
"Henry," he said, changing the subject. Looking at her, he saw her staring at his clenched fist, fear and panic gripping her face. He breathed out. "Please" - his voice was softer - "call me Henry."
Rose frantically nodded her head.
"I'll be back," Henry murmured as he walked away.
Rose's gaze dropped and she slid off the stool.
After a second, Henry walked into view, stopping in front of her. Slowly, his free hand reached up to her pale face. Gently, he tilted her face up. His other hand rose to her neck and she felt the familiar fabric of her collar gracing her skin. However, the usual constriction didn't happen, instead, when his hands departed the collar loosely hung off her.
"Sorry, in public you have to wear it." He stepped back.
Rose nodded her head, despite not understanding. Her Master was apologizing to her, and for something that was supposed to happen.
She was so caught in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed that Henry had walked away from her until he outstretched his hand to her. In his palm was a small pill.
"Now that you've eaten you can have this."
Rose outstretched her shaking hand to his and the pill fell into her palm. Her other hand grabbed the glass of water. She proceeded to take the medicine, not understanding what it was for.
Grabbing the leash, Henry slowly began to walk the garage.
***
Henry parked the car and shut off the engine, however, he made no effort to get out.
"I might act a little different in public, but nothing bad, ok?" Henry asked as he glanced down at her.
Rose nodded her head.
They entered the mall, and Rose's eyes grew a little. The mall was the biggest thing she had ever seen. It was also beautiful. The floor was a white tile, and there were diamond patterns in the middle. There were more people than Rose could've imagined being packed into one place. Most of the people had Pets at their sides; some crawled, and others walked. Some were carrying their Master's shopping bags, others were just sitting while their Masters talked. Rose spotted a Master hitting a Pet several times. She quickly averted her eyes as the Pet cried out and pleaded for her Master to stop. However, no one cared.
Henry moved away from the scene as quickly as possible and soon they reached their destination. They walked up to the cashier.
"Is Britney here?" Henry asked.
The cashier looked up from the register.
"Yes, Lord Henry. She is here. I'll buzz her right now," she said with a nervous smile as she talked into the headset.
About ten seconds later, a girl with long, straight blonde hair came running towards them. It shocked Rose that she wasn't tripping in the high wedges she was wearing. Britney was wearing white jeans and a light blue top. She had bracelets on her arms, dangling earrings, and a necklace.
"Henry!" she chirped.
"Britney," he said in the same amount of excitement, she threw her arms around him, and they hugged.
"Oh my gosh. Who is this pretty little thing?" Britney asked as they pulled away from each other.
I'm not a thing, Rose thought. Henry looked down at her, and fear immediately invaded her body. Master, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. I am a thing if you say so! Rose said through her mind, hoping her pleas wouldn't get her beat as well.
"This is Rose," Henry said as though nothing had happened.
She looked at him confused.
"What can I do for you today?" Britney asked as she looked at Henry again.
"My Pet needs some clothes, and I was hoping you could help," Henry said as he glanced down at Rose.
"Will do. I'll just take her around the store and see what looks good on her and then try some stuff on," Britney said excitedly.
He handed Britney the leash, and Rose looked at him worriedly.
It's ok, I promise, Henry said as he held his hands up and slowly brought them down, trying to get her to see she was safe.
"Come on sweetie," Britney said to Rose, she turned around and nervously went with Britney.
Henry sat down in a chair, already exhausted. He looked at the clock on his phone; they had only been there for fifteen minutes. Sighing and groaning, he dragged himself off the chair and walked out of the store, needing to buy some things for Rose's wounds.
In the other part of the store, Rose was busy with Britney. Britney grabbed a hand full of clothes of various colors off the shelves and held a few outfits up to Rose.
"You know, you look good in dark colors," she said enthusiastically as she tossed the other outfits that weren't dark red, black, dark purple, or any shade of blue on the shelf. "Let's go and see what size you are, ok?" Britney asked, Rose only nodded.
They walked into the changing room, Britney sat down. Rose tried on the clothes.
After what seemed like hours had passed and Rose finally finished trying on the last outfit. Her weak body was beginning to shake and protest for her to sit, but she hadn't been given permission.
"Just sit there sweetie, I'll be right back, ok?" Britney asked. Rose thankfully sat down on the ground and nodded her head. "You know that you can talk to me, right?" Rose nodded. Giving Rose an almost sad smile, she walked out of the changing room and to where she knew Henry would be.
A few bags were in his lap as he stared at his phone. When Britney appeared out of the corner of his eye, he shut the phone off and looked at her. His face fell as he looked at hers. The happy, hyper persona that she usually had was gone.
"Is something wrong?" Henry asked as he got down from the stool and began to walk to the changing rooms. Britney placed a hand on his chest, stopping him.
"Do you know how skinny she is?" Britney asked. "I can see every bone. I can count her ribs." She sounded as if she were about to cry.
Henry licked his lips and nodded his head. "Yeah. I got her the other day so I haven't been able to feed her proper food yet."
"Have you seen her bruises?"
"Not all of them."
"Henry . . . they're everywhere."
Henry collapsed into the chair again. "I figured," he murmured. "That's why I got her this." He shook the bags of medicine.
"Ok," Britney said, "I just wanted to make sure you knew the extensiveness of it." Henry grasped her hand in his.
"Thank you," Henry said.
"Of course." She gave his hand a small squeeze. "What kind of friend would I be if I didn't look after your Pet?"
Henry allowed a small, almost sad smile to grace his lips. "I have no idea. But I'm glad that you do."
It was extremely rare for any vampire to look out for the well-being of a human. Both of them knew they were lucky to have someone who shared the same ideologies in the treatment of Pets.
"Come on, I think she's been waiting long enough."
Henry nodded as he stood from the chair and walked back to Rose's room. Peering into the space, he saw Rose sitting on the ground, but when he entered, she stood and bowed her head. He reached out his hand to her shirt and gently pulled the collar of the shirt to the side. Instantly, his eyes landed on a mixture of blue, purple, yellow and black bruises that resided on her collarbone.
"Rose, be honest with me." His fingers pulled away from the shirt. "Where else do you have bruises?" Of course he wasn't going to invade her privacy and check himself, he only hoped she would be honest.
Her hand began to tap against certain areas in her body and Henry watched in almost disbelief when she tapped almost every inch of her. He couldn't imagine the pain she was in; what she had kept hidden from him. How she had decided to suffer in silence.
"Rose, you should've told me you were in pain."
"S-sorry, Master," her voice shook as tears appeared in her eyes.
"Hey, hey, it's ok."
"M-master, p-please don't send me back to the Pet Shop," she said as her lip started to quiver. "I-I'm sorry I did-n't tell you, Master-" she stopped when his hand gently cupped her face and wiped away her tears with his thumb.
"Don't worry. I'm not going to send you back, you live with me now. I promise, you won't ever have to live the way that again," Henry said sympathetically.
Rose looked at him wide-eyed. "T-thank you, Master," she said quietly. She still didn't know if she believed him fully, but if that meant a day of not being hit, then she was willing to accept his proposal; not that she could refuse.
He nodded his head, his hand still cupping her face. A small nudge in his back brought him back and he looked behind him. Other customers had made their way to the room and if Henry was caught showing sympathy to a Pet then they would both be in serious trouble, rather Rose would be. His money would prevent anything serious from happening to him, but he didn't know if it would protect Rose.
Quickly standing up, Henry grabbed the leash and cleared his throat. "Anything that looks good on her, I'll buy it," Henry said. "Also please get other . . . necessities?" He had no idea what the correct word would be.
Britney nodded her head and began to run the clothes to the counter, using her super speed to do so.
Henry and Rose made their way to the counter and waited.
Britney finally walked out of the room with no more clothes. Henry swiped his card when the cashier was done scanning.
Rose was wearing the first outfit that she had tried on. Britney said that she could not have Rose walking out of her store wearing sweatpants that hung off of her and a guy's t-shirt that went down to her thighs. Though neither said it, Rose and Henry were grateful.
Henry picked up the bags and they walked out of the mall. After throwing the bags into the back of the car, Henry helped Rose into her seat before he got into his. The engine roared to life and they began to drive home.
Thank you all for reading it.
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