The Corset [COMPLETE]

18 Punishment

Then took a deep breath and ventured out.

My mind felt hazy. The muscle relaxant was still in effect. My eyes had echoes of things I was seeing, and my limbs were jello.

I had to dust the library today. I began to wonder if he would even notice if I cleaned anything. Did he even check my work anymore?

Those dangerous thoughts sparked another idea - I would clean less and less or maybe take longer breaks.

I dusted some shelves but I was paying more attention to the spines of books. Particularly their titles.

Then I spotted one that didn't have one. I furrowed my eyebrows and my curiosity got the best of me. I pulled the book out. It didn't have a title on the front either. To my surprise, it was a journal.

I started flipping through the pages.

"Dear diary,

Today I wore corset number 38. It is much tighter than the other ones. Theodore also told me that it had a name: Alice.

I'm starting to doubt my feeling for him. He isn't as he was. He treats me differently. And I had a suspicion that something is wrong with the man - I just can't quite catch on."

I read more and more of these pages, which made my heart beat faster and faster.

What freaked me out wasn't the information: it was the dates.

September 18th 1906

September 20th 1906

This had to be a joke right? And if that woman was talking about Theodore, it can't be my Theodore, can it? And corset number 38? That has to be some poem title or something right? It can't be-

"Lily-Ann, I thought I told you how to clean - not read books." Theodore's voice boomed through the doors.

I dropped the journal.

"Your job is to clean, not snoop around." He said sternly.

"Sorry - this book was just out of place, and I was-"

"Lily-Ann." He closed his eyes.

I thought my heart would break out of my chest.

He came over to me, taking my face in his cold hands.

"If there's one thing you need to remember, is that I can always tell when you're lying." He told me and then he sighed, "I thought I taught you better than that."

A tear ran down my face. "I'm sorry Theodore," I whispered. "I'm so so sorry-"

"That's enough of that. You will have to be punished to learn your lesson, my dear,"

"Punished?" I panicked. I had never been 'punished' before what does he mean??

He grabbed my wrist and started pulling me out of the room.

"Theodore, please! Please I'm sorry please don't punish me!" I begged.

"Please Theodore I said I was sorry, please! I won't lie again I swear!" I cried, I tried stopping my feet to stop him.

"Keep moving." He commanded, his voice eerily calm. Yet firm.

"No Theodore please!" I sobbed as he kept pulling me, forcing me to walk.

"Behave yourself!" He yanked my wrist and my cries stiffened immediately. My corset, stabbed me in my ribs, punishing me for disobeying its master.

My feet echoed on the floor 73 times before we arrived at a room I had never been in before. There was a desk in the center of the room, and a dusty couch, with a hanger in the corner. He let go of my wrist and took something out of one of the drawers of a desk.