Laysan: Rules pt. 1

Thread 1, Part 13:
Laysan

Rules pt. 1

(here) - recently

A week and a half later, I was sitting in the utility room leading to the garage waiting for Paty to finish running around the mansion preparing for our long weekend in the mountains. The past few days had been nice with my re-found freedoms. I wasted the time in the most wonderful ways. For example, I'd had several long baths. One day I lazed around on the couch eating popcorn until I became ill. I cranked the stereo and pranced around the halls naked singing at the top of my lungs. I even spent a messy afternoon trying to cook my favorite Asian dish with decidedly mixed results.

Each morning, I woke up later and later. Since I am no longer in need of handlers, Petrel installed a new app on my tablet computer that allows me to lower my cage from above the lights on my own as long as I am in a prescribed time window. Whenever I raise or lower my cage, a message is sent out to a number of people.

Each day, it seems, I found myself lounging around in my cage longer and longer before climbing out. I even started to climb in a raise myself back up before Paty came home in the evening to read and rest. It just felt more comfortable, I guess. Safe.

Thread 1: In Paradise and Chains, part 2

Thread 1, Part 10
Laysan

In Paradise and Chains, part 2

(here) - recently

Sometimes my handler would take me outside to walk over the hills and forest of Paty's large property. One day towards the end of my month of silence, Corwin took me outside on a chilly, breezy fall day. Despite the cooler temperatures, the sun felt wonderful against my naked flesh. I found a soft spot in a cool patch of clover on the side of a grassy hill where I was protected from the breeze but fully exposed to the sun. I lazily stared into the deep dark blue of the cloudless sky.

Corwin appeared before me with her jacket zipped up tight and her hood drawn down over her face. She grabbed my leash and pulled me urgently to my feet.

"Sorry, Laysan," she said quietly, "we need to get inside. I have to go."

Novel: In Paradise and Chains

Thread 1: Part 9
Laysan

In Paradise and Chains

(here) - recently

I was awoken every morning at the same time. I was bathed, shaved, and shampooed the same way every morning. I was fed my five liquid meals at the same time every day. I even started to pee and poop at the same times. That made it easier for my handlers to deal with me.

The Sentenced, Chapter 1

Thread 3, Part 2:
Laurel

The Sentenced

(there) - thousands of years ago


The morning sun was shining on Laurel when she opened her eyes. She pulled her face from the ground and spit chunks of earth from her mouth. The muscles of her shoulders were burning. She attempted to reach with her hand to wipe the dirt and small pebbles from her forehead, but her wrist quickly met with resistance and her arms remained as they were, behind her back. When she pushed her wrists down, she felt a relentless pull at her neck, a squeezing at her throat, which ignited a series of dry coughs causing her to bend forward until her head pressed into the ground. Her elbows were forced to bend a bit and she felt a line of hard, smooth weights press painfully into her back.

She let out a cry and struggled up onto her bare feet. Her leather boots had been taken. There was a cold rattling sound, heavy links of chain snaked through the dirt behind her, which after ten meters or less disappeared into a boulder half again taller than she and twice as wide.