Ivy Gates || PJM || Ivy Book One || ✔

8.

I followed a step behind the General as he walked into the city. There were other men out with their women, and like me, they were all warmly dressed and not cold or very underweight like a lot of the women I had grown up seeing.

All of the men greeted the General as we passed by with polite bows, and I got a few looks of pity from some of the women.

He stopped to talk to a man in an army uniform, and the mans woman; who was on a longer lead than me, stepped to the side and closer to me, so she was standing behind the General.

"May your childbirths be easy," She greeted hurriedly, in a hushed tone.

"May your Masters hand be gentle," I replied politely.

She glanced behind her quickly, before looking at me with worried eyes.

"I want to give you some advice," She said, "Please don't break his rules. Please behave yourself and obey him,"

I frowned and opened my mouth to reply, but she cut me off, "His last woman broke his rules and he executed her himself. Please, keep yourself safe,"

He quickly moved back to stand with her Master, just as the men finished talking, and luckily they didn't realise that we had conversed.

The General continued to walk and you hurried to keep up with him. The womans words were echoing around in my head and I could feel the blood draining from my face as I walked behind him.

"He executed her himself,"

I didn't think that was legal, but who was I to know whether it was, or not? The General was pretty much the ruler of our region, and he was known to be dangerous and short tempered, so I could see him doing it.

My thoughts were pushed out of my mind, however, when we entered a small shop as soon as we reached the city center. It was tiny inside, with only a wide wooden counter reaching from one end all the way to the other, with some small hinges on one part that I assumed allowed the counter to open up and allow whoever was behind it to come out.

The General moved straight to the counter and tapped his hand on a little bell, and a short, rounded man immediately came through a door at the back, a tape measure around his neck.

"Oh, General Park," He said politely, "How may I help?"

The General tugged on the chain lead and I stumbled towards him a little from the force.

"New collar," He said, "I need tags as well,"

The  man glanced at the handle of the chain lead, "You need a Red warning disk, too?"

The General nodded and the man lifted the hinged area of the counter and came out, holding his tape measure.

"Will you allow me to measure her?" He asked the General, and when he nodded, the man swallowed loudly, "She won't hurt me? She's not muzzled,"

I felt myself grow angry. Muzzled?! Like a rabid dog? I was a human being, not an animal, and I was surprised that there were women out there that were actually treated like dogs.

"It's not her teeth you need to worry about," The General said lazily, "It's her fists. And she will behave, won't you, 1216?" He shot a glare at me and I glared right back. I did, however, nod my head and the man came towards me with the tape measure. His hands were obviously trembling as he reached to unbuckle the collar already around my neck.

"She's not going to hurt you, hurry it up," The General snapped, and the man quickly checked the measurements of my throat, before heading back to the other side of the counter.

"Any particular colour?" He asked, and the General shrugged.

"Not red, not black,"

"Number and name?"

"1216 and Bee,"

I looked at the General in shock but he didn't notice, and the man nodded and headed back through the back door he came in through.

However, just as he vanished, the General spun and grabbed me around my throat, slamming me hard into the window behind me. It felt weird having a hand against my naked throat, and the feel of his skin on mine made me panic, as there was no collar in between us to soften his grip.

As I lifted my hand to shove him off of me, he spoke, his voice low and dangerous.

"Speak one word, 1216, and I'll remove your tongue. Touch me, and I will remove your hand, do you understand?"

I struggled to control myself and relax, and nodded, glaring into his eyes in anger.

"I saw how you were looking at him just now, and if you continue to look at me like this, you will not like the consequences," After glaring at him for just one more second, the woman from earlier words echoed through my head again.

"He executed her himself,"

I dropped my gaze to the ground and he pulled back slightly.

"You will be punished, mark my words," He said quietly, "I will not tolerate this defiance,"

Just as he released me, the man came back through the door with a navy blue collar. He came back through the hinged door and wrapped it around my neck, looking at the General for approval.

When he nodded, the man did it up and slid his fingers between the leather and my neck, making sure it wasn't too tight. He then clipped the lock shut with a small padlock, and twisted it around so the buckle was at the back. He then attached two tags to the loop at the front; one with my number and name on one side, with the Generals details on the back. The other was on a small chain and hung slightly lower. 

It was a disc made from some kind of bright red metal; a warning to everyone who approached me that I was not a "normal" woman. I was "Dangerous" or "unhinged". 

Just the thought of it made my blood boil from the injustice. I had spent my entire life being obedient and getting slapped around my my old Master, just to be labelled as such because I refused to let myself be raped against the law.

The General slapped a few tokens of payment on the counter and the man bowed. He then clipped the lead onto the new collar and opened the door, tugging me after him roughly. I resisted the urge to pull back, allowing the words of the womans warning to race around in my mind over and over again as a reminder to behave.

"He executed her himself,"