Slightly Dark IF [133 - Episode 2] - A Red Collar for You (2)
After fastening a bright-red dog collar around her mother’s neck, Titania felt a sinister desire repeatedly surge up from within her chest. Her mother, kneeling on the floor and gazing up at her as though begging for mercy, was incredibly alluring.
Titania curled up the corners of her lips in admiration, marveling that she had never imagined even something like this would suit her so well. Her mother wore a hollow expression, as though she could not believe the dog collar around her neck.
She stared blankly down at the bright-red dog collar around her neck, and perhaps looking at it alone was not enough to make it feel real, because she even reached out and traced it with her fingertips.
“T-Titania... I was wrong... This, this isn’t right... Is it? Is it?”
Then, realizing the reality of the situation, she began to cry once more. Perhaps the strength had gone out of her legs, because the sight of her mother crawling toward her on her knees while wearing the dog collar gave Titania an indescribable stimulation.
“I won’t leave this place again... I’ll wait for you here... Please, this isn’t right... No matter what, I’m still your mother... Why on earth are you doing this...”
Titania slowly raised one eyebrow and looked down at Vivian, who was sobbing and letting out small moans. As she quietly watched her mother cling to the hem of her skirt and plead, a sinister desire surged up inside her.
“Mother.”
Titania let out a dry sigh to cool the desire boiling within her. She removed the chain that had been attached to the shackles and fastened it to the metal ring on the dog collar around her mother’s neck.
Looking down at her mother, who had slumped onto the floor while clutching the chain connected to the dog collar, Titania swallowed unconsciously. She adjusted her grip on the leash, lowered her head, and looked at her mother.
“I clearly gave you one last chance. I told you not to run away and asked you to give me time to think. You’re the one who tried to run away without waiting for that time, Mother.”
Titania gently caressed her mother’s cheek and smiled in satisfaction. Would it make her insane to think that her mother’s face, crying while wearing a dog collar, was truly beautiful?
*
A day had passed since the dog collar was fastened around Vivian’s neck.
The foreign sensation rubbing against her neck seemed to have faded somewhat. The only uncomfortable thing was that the chain hung down in front and kept striking her skin, causing pain. Other than that, it was no different from the shackles.
Of course, the knife she had used to cut the shackles had also been confiscated. From then on, she was no longer given a knife with her meals, only a spoon and chopsticks. Feeling as though she had been brought to a prison, Vivian could only keep letting out hollow laughs.
Vivian rose from her seat and blankly looked around the room. Wasn’t the one small blessing in this situation the fact that there was no mirror in the room? At least she did not have to see herself wearing the dog collar.
She thought she had cried until no more tears could come out, but they continued to flow. The corners of her eyes began to sting from constantly wiping them away. How long was she supposed to remain like this?
Vivian stroked the dog collar around her neck, shedding tears along with a soft, bitter laugh. Where had everything gone wrong? No matter what, she had never expected Titania to go this far.
Was a daughter who put a dog collar around her mother’s neck normal? Was a daughter who confessed that she loved her mother—that she loved her as a woman—normal? In that moment, an intensely bitter emotion that seemed to boil over enveloped Vivian.
She hated her.
She hated Titania.
She hated her so much that she could not even stand the sight of her. She hated Titania for turning her into this. She hated Titania for abducting her, imprisoning her, shackling her, and now even putting a dog collar around her neck.
Moreover, Titania was not the only one she hated.
The door flew open with a bang, and a maid wearing an irritated expression strode into the room. What kind of grudge could this maid possibly hold against her to look at her like that?
Instead of setting down the meal she had brought on the desk as usual, the maid placed it directly on the floor. She looked at Vivian as though she were feeding a pet, then gave her a bright smile.
“Eat up, won’t you?”
Was she telling Vivian to sit on the floor and eat like a dog?
The maid no longer seemed to have any intention of hiding the fact that she treated Vivian like a pet. She snickered as she looked at the dog collar around Vivian’s neck, then left the room.
The moment the maid stepped outside—
Vivian clearly heard the maid mutter.
“I wonder how long Her Majesty intends to keep a pet like that. I wish she would think about the person who has to take care of it in her place.”
Vivian gave a hollow laugh as she stared at the bowl of soup on the floor. It was a laugh born from amazement at the maid’s behavior, at how she was no longer even given a spoon. So this was it. They truly no longer treated her like a human being.
She wanted to lash out at the maid and fight with her right then and there, but Vivian could not do so. Titania had told her to wait, after all. Until Titania had finished thinking, she had no choice but to wait quietly.
Vivian picked up the bowl of food from the floor, brought her lips to its edge, and gulped down the soup. The humiliation of being treated like a dog seemed to slide down her throat together with the soup.
It was disgusting.
The maid who tormented her so childishly was disgusting, and Titania, who stood by and watched this situation unfold, was disgusting as well. Considering the maid’s attitude, Vivian did not know what might have been put into the soup, so even its taste was disgusting. Everything was disgusting.
Gulp, gulp, gulp.
After swallowing all the soup in the bowl, Vivian sighed and hurled the empty bowl onto the floor. As she watched it shatter into pieces with a crash, Vivian let out a little giggle.
“...I wish you would all die.”
The maid, Titania, and herself.
The urge to see them all dead seethed inside her like a raging wildfire.
*
Four days later.
Titania came to check on Vivian’s condition. At the sight of her mother sitting on the floor like a ruined woman and looking up at her with murderous eyes, Titania slowly approached Vivian.
“Mother.”
“...Why did you come only now?”
A suppressed sob escaped from the throat of her mother, who sat on the floor.
“...I’m sorry. I was busy with work—”
“Why did you come only now?!”
A scream almost like a wail burst from Vivian’s mouth. She glared at Titania with a face stained by rage, biting down hard on her lower lip with her upper teeth. Beads of blood began to form on her dry lips.
At the sight of Titania, a vicious wave of emotion rose from the deepest part of her heart. Her feelings surged so violently that they might as well have become a tsunami. Overcome by them, tears began to pool once again in her bloodshot eyes.
“Why, why did you come only now?! You said you’d be here soon! You said you’d come soon!!”
“.....”
“Y-You told me to wait until you finished thinking!! When will you be finished?! Do you have any idea how I’ve been feeling while waiting for you?!”
Swallowing the suppressed sounds forcing their way up her throat, Vivian somehow continued speaking. She could not breathe properly, and her vision turned white. She could barely see because she could not catch her breath.
“Do you really intend to raise me? Do you intend to raise me like a dog?! Me, the mother who raised you?! Are you planning to lock me up here and keep me like a pet?!”
Vivian screamed like a madwoman, tugging at the dog collar around her neck as though she meant to tear it apart. When Titania merely narrowed her eyes and watched without any reaction, Vivian’s voice grew desperate.
“If that’s not what you intend, then take it off right now. I’ll promise you, if you do it now. I’ll promise I won’t run away from here! So take off this damned dog collar right now!”
She strained with all her might to remove the dog collar around her neck, but the thick collar remained firmly fastened. Watching her, Titania let out a quiet laugh.
At the sound of Titania’s laughter, Vivian opened her eyes wide in disbelief and stared at her. Titania wore a derisive smile, utterly unconcerned even when Vivian glared at her as though she wanted to kill her.
“You can laugh at a time like this...?”
“But... you were the one who tried to run away first, Mother.”
“......”
“So why won’t you listen to me? Why do you keep trying to run away from my side? Do you understand now? Those shallow wor—”
In the middle of speaking, Titania covered her lips as though she had chosen the wrong words. Then she tilted her head and looked at Vivian. Still wearing her smile, she continued.
“...I don’t think the time is right yet.”
“What...?”
Titania said only that one thing before turning around and heading toward the door. Vivian, growing anxious, jumped to her feet and hurried after Titania to stop her, but—
Clang!
“Ghk!”
With only one step left before reaching the doorway, the chain running from the wall to the dog collar drew taut and tightened around Vivian’s neck. A strangled sound escaped her involuntarily, and she had no choice but to watch Titania walk away.
“D-Don’t go...!”
At Vivian’s plea for her not to leave, Titania stopped and looked back at her. Vivian knelt right there on the spot and begged once more. Please, please don’t go. Please don’t leave.
“I-I’m sorry I shouted. I-I was wrong, so don’t go... Titania... Please...”
“...Mother.”
“Please... Titania... Please...”
Titania grasped the doorknob and slowly began to close the door. Through the gradually narrowing gap, Titania smiled brightly and answered Vivian.
“I’ll come visit you sooner next time.”
“...Ah.”
She had heard those words before.
Vivian still did not fully understand why Titania said such things to her, but she knew the meaning contained in those words. Titania’s promise that Vivian should wait and that she would come visit soon—
“Ha... ha, ha...”
Was a terrible lie.