Missing Persons
"MISSING
Name: Quentin Cerzwel
Age: 19
Species: Dragon
Education: New Haven High School
Missing Since: 02/03/09
Last seen going to fetch groceries from a supermarket.
Green scales, spiral tattoo on left arm.
Please contact us if you have seen him or know of his whereabouts. We miss our son!"
Von locked eyes with the picture of the smiling dragon. The wolf stood there for what felt like hours, the possibilities running through his mind. He grasped the paper in his hand and crumpled it in anger, ripping it from the telephone pole it was stapled upon, and shoved into the paper bag in his left hand.
He couldn't believe it. Of all things, he was certain that this wouldn't happened. He thought he'd made sure of it. Now hundreds, maybe thousands of people would see this stupid piece of paper and maybe recognize the dragon out and about.
Unacceptable, he thought. He was not about to be undermined by the very one who committed his life to the wolf. Something would have to be done.
Von walked through the front door of his home and nearly threw the groceries onto the counter. Samuel, his slave that he called Sam for short, was standing at the sink and washing dishes with a dumbfounded expression.
"Master?" He asked. "Is something wrong?"
The wolf walked past him to sit at the dining table. "Of course something is wrong, slave. You should have expected something to be wrong. You should have told me something was going to be wrong."
Sam went and sat at the table after drying the dish in his hands. "Master, what is it?"
Von sighed, placing his hand on his forehead and sifting the fur between his fingers. "Tell me again who you were before I found you."
The dragon looked upward in thought, biting his lip. "Well, it's a little hard to summarize, but I grew up in an orphanage until I was 13, and then I transferred to a homeless youth shelter while I went through high school. I've never found my birth parents or anyone else related to me."
The wolf nodded. "And where did you get that tattoo?" He said, gesturing to the spiral on the dragon's left arm.
"Oh this? You told me to get it after we first met as a reminder of my servitude."
"You've had that tattoo for longer than that."
"I have?"
"You should have been more careful, Quentin." Von said abruptly. "You should have given your family a better excuse, or even a bad one. You shouldn't have invented such an unbelievable history in your head. You should have told me the truth."
The dragon sat in his chair, surprised, one hand reaching up and fingering the collar around his neck. The collar with Von's name as Master. The collar with Sam's name as slave. Not his name.
"Goddammit. I can't even begin to fathom how I didn't see through your lies, Sam." Von sighed. "You were supposed to be a little boon, a benefit to coming here, but now you're a burden. You were too eager for me to put you under, I should have seen it."
"Master-"
"Don't! Not anymore! You broke the rules!" The wolf stood up, rage surging through his body. Before he could stop himself, he grabbed the chair by the backrest and threw it aside. It skidded on its back, friction fracturing and crippling one of the legs, which broke and spun in place for a moment before turning its ragged splintered edge back on Von.
The wolf stared at the crippled furniture while Quentin sat frigid and frozen in place.
"Pack up your things. You're leaving tonight. Let me know when you're done." And Von left the kitchen, retreating to his bed and closing the door.
Everything and nothing went through his mind. Useless thoughts danced about. Inconsequential things just kept flying by. The weather of the day he met Sam was brisk and cool. The dragon was what anyone like him could have dreamed of.
"Actually, I don't have much of a place to call home. I live at the shelter. It's been tough finding a job in this economy."
Did he ever have a job? The kid was probably some kind of athlete. A dragon that tall? That ripped? It only made sense now. Why was he such a fool to think otherwise?
"I know about hypnosis, yeah. They say it's really good for relaxing yourself, right?"
That must have been a lie. He knew far more than he said he did. It wasn't a passing curiosity. The dragon went under faster than an overexcited football player drops his trousers for a cheerleader.
And that was probably why, too. Sam really seemed to be happiest when he was bottoming for the wolf, squealing and moaning without any request or command from Von. Not particularly common for a dragon that "used to be" straight.
Von heard something break. The sound of a glass or fragile thing far away shattering piercing his ears for half a second before his mind pulled him back to his pain. It could have been something his mind invented for all he knew.
The wolf wanted to hurt Quentin. Punch, kick, throw, whatever it took to make him feel the pain. He was so close! He was almost sure, and now he'd have to pack up and flee and start all over. But there was nothing else he could do. No, leaving the dragon bruised and broken would only make things worse from this point.
A rap at the door. "Come in," Von heard his voice say, not sure if he really spoke them. He kept his eyes on the ground, seeing Quentin's feet enter the room.
"I...dropped a wine glass."
"Did you clean it up?" Asked the same voice. Von felt his mouth move that time.
"Yes." No sir, no Master.
"Good."
"I'm all packed."
"That's good too."
"...Make me forget." The dragon whispered.
The wolf looked up to see Quentin holding his collar in his hand, brow furrowed in an apologetic wince. The perfect embodiment of shame.
"Please...Make me forget." Quentin repeated.
Von stared into the dragon's eyes. "What about Sam?" He asked.
"Sam's...not real."
"No, Sam is in there. Sam is there to make somebody happy, maybe you, maybe the next lucky person of the same inclination you happen to meet."
"But..." Quentin frowned, "Sam isn't who I am. He doesn't exist. He was a lie."
Feeling a strange smirk wash over his face, Von replied, "Which is exactly what someone out there wants. As for me, that couldn't be further from my desires."
The wolf looked down at the collar in Quentin's hand, the brass-plated tag printed with Sam's name glimmering in the fluorescent light of the room. Dangling there in the dragon's grasp. His grip was tight on the collar, yet the name on the tag was as far away as the dragon could hold it.
"I won't make you forget. Forgetting won't help you." The wolf said.
"But-"
"No, it won't. Right now, there are more people concerned about Quentin's well-being, but there's still someone that cares about Sam. Making him disappear from inside you won't solve the problem. If I did, you'd make the same mistake again, with someone much less lenient than me. Trust me, you need to remember this."
Quentin merely nodded, the grip on the collar loosening.
"Do you trust me?" Von asked.
"Yes."
"Not as Master, not as 'sir'."
"...Yes."
Von stood up and took the collar from the dragon. "Please lay face up on the bed." He said in a somber tone.
Quentin did as requested and positioned himself on his back, keeping his wings flat against his body so he would be as comfortable as possible.
"Before we start," the wolf said, "I will miss you. Do know that."
"Yes Master," Sam said.
"Now, close your eyes. As I count down from ten I want you to relax as much as you can. Feel yourself drifting away now. When I reach zero, you will be in a relaxed, obedient trance.
"Nine. Deeper and deeper. All your cares and worries floating away, dissolving as they disappear from your mind."
The dragon could was falling down into that state of trance quickly, enjoying what could be his last chance at feeling this way.
"Eight. Feel your stress and worry shrink down into tiny tiny pieces and pop out of existence.
"Seven. Feel the desire to stay like this take over. Abandon everything that keeps you worried or scared."
Von watched as he spoke the words that had created the living lie before him, letting them undo what he had done before.
"Six. The urge to obey is rising within you. Feel it all start to become easier to listen to my words as you sink down.
"Five. Deeper and deeper, your cares falling and your obedience rising."
The dragon almost smiled as the now-familiar words continued, every syllable ringing true in his mind.
"Four. Getting so close to that wonderful state. You want to keep going.
"Three. You need to keep going. You need to feel obedient. As long as it feels this good."
Von sighed as he grew closer to the final number, he really would miss Sam.
"Two. Obedient and relaxed. Every word I say will become true. True because it's easy. Easy because you're obedient. Obedient because you're relaxed.
"One. Feel every last worry and thought escape you now.
"Zero. Calm. Obedient. Happy. How do you feel?"
The dragon smiled. "Good...Calm..."
"What is your name?" asked Von.
"Quentin."
"Quentin, what will you do with the words I say?"
"I will know that they're true."
"Good. Quentin, you will keep this collar." Von took the neckwear and placed it in Quentin's hand. "And you will know what it represents. Who it represents. The desires you feel. You will remember how happy this makes you feel, and you will one day seek it out again. But you know that you must be in a place where the consequences of your actions will only be minimal. You must not have a family that will panic, nor any kind of academic responsibilities, understand?"
"Yes...Keep this. Know what it means. Seek it out again. Minimal consequences."
"Excellent, Quentin. You will return to your family and to your friends at home and school. You will tell them that you ran away on a whim, feeling trapped in your current life, that you met a kind wolf who never told you his name and stayed with him while you attempted to find a job on your own. After a few weeks, you felt a strong urge to come home, to the familiarity of your friends and family. Understand?"
"Yes."
Von repeated the ideas to him again, confirming that the commands were well-cemented in his mind.
"Good. I'm going to bring you out now."
"Yes..."
"As I count to five, you will become more and more aware. One...Thoughts returning to your mind...Two...Feel yourself awakening...Three...Your body becoming more responsive...Four...Your responsibilities lining themselves up once again...Five."
The dragon opened his eyes and turned toward the wolf. "Thank you."
"It was necessary.
Von smiled. "Now, come on. Let's pack up the car."
The wolf had pulled up a few houses away from Quentin's, and was watching him walk toward it. There was an undeniable sense of longing in his posture, but Von knew that it was fading as he grew closer to his old life.
He saw Quentin knock on the door, saw the door open, and saw a thin green-scaled female dragon embrace him. That was good enough for the wolf.
Von pulled a small briefcase from under the passenger seat of the sedan and opened it. Inside were pictures of green-scaled dragons from all over the city area. He pulled a pen from one of the pockets, dug for a list of names on plain printed white paper, and flipped through the pages. First, finding "Samuel (last name unknown)" and crossing it out, then doing the same for "Quentin Cerzwel."
He flipped it back to the cover page and then pulled a small wallet-sized photo from another of the pockets. A tall, proud green dragon, flexing for the camera and smiling playfully. Von could almost see it come to life in front of his eyes. The dragon laughed after faking the pose and invited the photographer to come closer. A wolf appeared from the side of the frame and embraced him, only his arm around the dragon truly visible. A tear escaped Von's eye as he put the photo away.
"I will find him for you. I swear I will."
Please leave a comment with your thoughts, I'd really love to hear what people think of this one.