Eyes off my mouse

"When I was in the confinement cell, there was a nail lying on the ground which I didn’t know of," no one could know with the full darkness one was surrounded by and left to spend time in. "I stepped on the nail."

"Must have hurt really bad," his words suddenly turned gentle, but Sherry wasn’t sure if she heard it right. Dallion ran his thumb much more gently from one side to the other, making her heart leap and her body jerk. His grip remained firm around her ankle.

Sherry could feel his hand touching her skin, the warmth of it making her fret.

"Dallion?" she spoke softly, for him to respond with a hum.

"What is it?" What was what? He was holding her ankle without letting go.

"Could you please let go of my leg?" She kept her speech docile, with a certain passive aggressiveness in it, wanting him to drop her leg. But instead of listening to her request, Dallion only ran his finger over her feet.

"Why, little mouse? Let me demonstrate something for you, so that you can keep it in your mind. Alright?"

At first, she didn’t understand what this demonstration was about until he ran his fingernail sharply against the back of her foot, making her cry out in pain as it pierced her skin.

"Please, Dallion." She could feel the burn on her feet which started to hurt. Dallion’s eyes fell on the girl in front of him, her face contorting in pain as he had scraped her skin, leaving a small streak of blood in the same place where she had previously been hurt, without letting it heal properly.

Instead of letting go, he then took the same kerchief he had offered her before and tied it back around her foot. Sherry didn’t understand why he had hurt her just now. This man’s head was messed up for hurting her for no reason, until she heard him speak.

"Keep this in mind before you do anything where we’re going. One toe out of line, and the punishment will be far worse than what you’ve experienced right now."

"I didn’t do anything," she said, pulling her foot away to drop it down when his grip loosened.

"But you will. Having studied you, there’s a possibility you might do something I won’t be happy about." She didn’t understand what he meant by it. She had been careful with her words too, after getting drenched in the rain like a wet dog, yet she had been punished. Sherry was sure that Dallion needed his head checked.

When the car finally pulled over, Sherry was the first to step out, her footsteps uneven due to the kerchief wrapped around her left foot. A massive mansion stood mighty in front of them, its black walls making it feel eerie and causing her to feel suddenly cautious. Dark grey clouds hovered all around in the sky, growling threateningly.

She wanted to ask where they were, but Dallion didn’t wait for her and instead started to walk towards the entrance. Two guards stood on either side of the open double doors. Following his footsteps, Sherry stepped inside. For a moment, she was sure he was going to make her remove his coat, like he had made her help him wear it. But he didn’t.

He continued walking, eventually meeting a group of three people—a man and two women. One of the women sat on a plush couch, with the man a seat away from her. A boy sat at her feet, massaging her legs. He looked to be around sixteen, with freckles on his face.

Another woman stood nearby, holding a whip and staring down at a girl who knelt on the ground.

"Dallion, how good to see you. We thought you wouldn’t come," the man—undoubtedly another member of the Cross empire—greeted Dallion.

"I wouldn’t miss such an occasion. You did say it was two million dollars that would be met. How could I miss it?" Dallion answered, a lopsided smile on his lips.

"Whom have you brought?" the woman on the couch, questioned as her eyes fell on Sherry standing behind Dallion.

"So, the rumor is true," the man said, looking at Sherry, who kept her head up, watching the people.

"What rumor?" asked the woman, still seated on the couch.

"The rumor about Dallion buying a captive for himself," the man gauged Sherry up and down, a smirk crossing his lips, his eyes filled with ill intention. It made her uncomfortable, but the way the women in the room gawked at her only made her want to return to the room where Dallion had locked her before.

The man laughed. "I was curious what made you spend five hundred thousand dollars on a lone slave." Sherry, lacking the experience of being a blue Beard captive, abashedly stared back at the man before averting her gaze. His neatly combed brown hair and open shirt buttons made him look like he didn’t belong to a good group, and everything in the room screamed danger.

"Eyes off my little mouse, Rivers ," Dallion warned the man with a bright smile etched on his lips.

Rivers raised his hands in mock surrender. "I wasn’t doing anything."

"Of course you weren’t. You wouldn’t want to lose your eyes, would you?" Dallion laughed, leaving the room in eerie silence.