She shifted uncomfortably, the thin metal bars of the cage digging into her knees. A warning growl from the German Shepherd stilled her further attempts to try and open the cage door, not that she could with the thick leather paws strapped over her hands. She sobbed, drool dripping around the silicone bone strapped in her mouth, and she cowered in the far corner of the cage as the dog watched her intently from its own cage.
It had all happened so quickly. The barking had woken Persephone up in the middle of the night, a low, incessant woof coming from very close. After a few minutes of trying to sleep through it with her pillow pulled over her head, the sleepy 30 year-old had made her way downstairs to her backdoor where the noise sounded closest.
She’d scarcely cracked the door when something heavy slammed bodily against the door.
Persephone shrieked and jumped back. Snarling and barking came from right on the other side.
“Jesus Christ.”
She started for the kitchen window, pausing to lock the door again, just in case. She pulled back the curtain and pressed her head against the glass, looking over at the back stoop.
A massive dog was standing right outside her back door. Just a monster of a creature, easily bigger than her, standing on its hind legs, its front paws pressed up against her door.
“Go away!” she hissed under her breath.
Even though she had been quiet, the beast seemed to hear her and went off on another loud flurry of barking.
Persephone went back upstairs, the incessant barking echoing through her house behind her, and retrieved her phone. A quick search got her the number for Animal Control and she called while peering out her bathroom window overlooking her back door. The dog was still posted up on her back stoop, still barking its big head off.
“Jefferson County Animal Control, this is Cindy,” a woman’s voice came through the speaker.
“Hi, there’s a really big dog right outside my house. I need someone to like, come get it or something.”
“Do you know whose dog it is?”
“What? No, I don’t know whose dog it is. But it’s in MY yard, trying to break through MY back door.”
“Does the animal have a collar?”
“I have no idea. Does it matter? I’m not going to check. This thing is like Cujo.”
“Do you know what breed of dog?”
“Does it matter? Here,” she put her phone on speaker and opened the window, amplifying the barking. “Do you hear that? It’s four in the morning, I have work in the morning, and also I’m afraid that if I open my door it’s going to try and eat me!”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Finally, the operator spoke in an overtly exasperated tone. “Fine, we’ll send somebody out. What’s your address?”
“Thank you,” Persephone said, turned the phone off speaker and putting it back to her ear before giving her address. She was too tired to get into it with the operator for being rude, but if she remembered later, she might leave a bad review. Was Animal Control even a thing you could review, she wondered as she peered out the window, watching the dog. It was just fixated on her door, barking at it every couple seconds. Like it wanted inside.
She looked back at her phone, scrolling through her contacts to see if there was anyone she could bother at this hour go sleep on their couch for a few hours. Periodically she’d peer out and check on the dog, always to find it was still there, almost as if it was guarding it.
Her doorbell rang out over the din of the barking. Persephone headed for the stairs, pausing to consider getting dressed, but the bell rang again.
She wanted to be annoyed at their impatience, but they’d showed up remarkably quick considering how reluctant the operator had seemed to send someone out.
Persephone peeked through the curtains before opening her front door. A tall man in a blue jumpsuit stood on her front porch, his shaggy brown hair poking out beneath a baseball cap, a bag slung over one shoulder. Behind him in the moonlight she could make out a black van parked behind her car in her driveway.
Just as he was reaching for the doorbell again, she unlocked and opened the door.
“You sure got here quick,” she said.
“Oh, yeah, we got other calls before yours.”
“Oh, well thanks for coming. This dog is seriously hounding my back door.”
“He’s around back? Mind if I come in?”
He took a step forward to enter. Persephone closed the door partially to block him. She scanned his uniform again, looking for any kind of logo or name badge. “Actually, I do. You can go around the side of the house.”
“It’ll be easier if I just come in.”
“No...” Her heart was racing. Something wasn’t right, and her mind scrambled for something. “My husband wouldn’t want you coming through the house.”
“You don’t have a husband.” A smile spread across his face and and reached for the door.
Persephone slammed the door, but he was faster and stronger, pushing his way in. She turned and ran, fumbling with the phone still in her hands. He grabbed her arm, the phone went flying, crashing to the floor, far out of reach.
The barking continued in the background, blending in with her screams for help as the man attacked her.
He was bigger than her, stronger than her. He easily pinned her on the ground, oblivious to her punches and scratches. “I’ve seen you out running when I’ve been walking Rocco.”
It dawned on her while he was tearing through her oversized T-shirt she slept in that she recognized her attacker. She’d never gotten close to him as she’d run to the other side of the road when she saw him on her runs; she wasn’t too keen on dogs, but it was definitely him. And that made the dog outside his.
Her panties joined her ruined shirt on the floor, leaving her naked. “I’ve been watching you.” He dropped his bag on the floor and emptied its contents about her struggling form.
“I knew I wanted you,” he told her as he grabbed something off the floor and held it over her. “Rocco liked you too. He wants a friend.”
Her voice was hoarse from screaming for help as he wrapped the dog collar around her neck.
She reached for it, trying to pull it off. He grabbed her hands, forcing them into stiff black leather mittens, trapping her fingers, keeping her from being able to scratch, padding her punches.
“You’re going to be a good dog for me, aren’t you bitch?”
“Get off me! Let me go! Please!”
“Dogs don’t speak.” He jammed a black silicon bone between her teeth and wrenched the straps behind her head.
“Uuuggkk! Hhhhyuurgg!” She shook her head violently as if she could somehow shake it free, spittle flying from her mouth.
“You’ll learn. Just chew on your toy while I finish getting you ready to go.” He strapped her ankles to her thighs with sturdy belts.
Her struggles got more and more ineffectual as he added each dehumanizing layer to her bondage. A headband with floppy dog ears was tightened on her head before he rolled her over and pulled her onto all fours.
She scrambled, trying to bolt, but he caught her by the collar, choking her. “Looks like you’re going to need to be leash trained. Stay.”
Her terror of what he might do to her if she disobeyed wasn’t near as strong as the fear of what he’d do to her regardless. The second he relinquished his grip on the collar he’d put on her, she threw herself forward again, trying to adjust to being stuck on hands and knees. She quickly got the hang of moving like that, picking up speed as she raced for the open door.
It was so close. She didn’t risk looking back for fear of losing her balance. She banged her knee on the base of her door but she didn’t slow, bursting out into the night, into freedom.
And then she froze.
She hadn’t noticed that the barking had stopped at some point while her assailant had been binding her. And now she understood why.
The dog, Rocco presumably, blocked her path. It lowered its snout, sniffing as it advanced on her.
Persephone awkwardly backed away, right into the fake dog catcher.
“Good boy, Rocco,” he said, grabbing Persephone around the waist.
As scared as she was of the man, she couldn’t take her eyes off of Rocco. The big dog leered down at her, viscous strands of salvia hanging from its maw, its breath hot on her face as it panted. She didn’t see what the man had in store for her next, but she felt it as something pressed hard against her asshole. Instinctively she clenched down, but it was too late, and the greased up intruder slid up her back passage, stretching her until it was forced passed its widest point and it settled in place. Taking her eyes off the dog for just a moment, she looked back over her shoulder to see the furry tail protruding from her own ass. Her eyes widened and she struggled, the tail wagging with her movements.
“Come on boy, lets get her in her cage.” The man clipped a leash to her collar and stood up. The dog ran out halfway to the van and stopped, turning back and barking at them. “Let’s go.” The man tugged on her leash. Persephone tried to stand her ground, but the collar threatened to choke her, and she shuffled on all fours after him, still being half dragged to the waiting van.
The dog nimbly leaped up into the back as soon as its owner opened the door for him. “Your turn.” Persephone’s arms and legs flailed wildly in the air as he grabbed her around the waist and easily picked her up off the ground and deposited her in the back of the van.
Two large iron-barred cages waited in the dirty van. The bed of the van bounced as the man jumped in behind her, pushing her forward. The dog went into the left cage, the one that at least had a grungy dog bed lining the bottom.
“He’s my favorite, so he gets first dibs,” the man said, grabbing her collar and dragging her towards the other cage. The terrified girl tried to dig her knees and paw encased hands in, but it was no use. Choking and coughing, she was pushed face first into the cage.
Persephone tried to turn around in the narrow cage, only to feel the wet, slimy tongue of the dog in the cage next to hers through the bars. She screamed around her gag and fell to the other side of the cage.
Looking back over her shoulder, she saw the man close a big rusty padlock on the latch of her cage.
“Y’all play nice,” he said, climbing back out of the van.
The dog barked. Persephone whimpered.
Just before he slammed the back door, she saw headlights illuminating her kidnapper.
The Animal Control people! They’d finally come!
She started screaming at the top of her lungs, drool spilling around the bone strapped in her mouth. “HHHEEPPHHHH! PLLLLMMMMPPHHH!”
The dog started barking again, drowning out her screams. Outside, she could faintly make out voices.
“Sorry you fellas had to come out. My dogs got loose, but I already got them.” There was an accompanying wrap on the side of van.
“No worries. The lady who called alright?”
“HHHHHEPPPHHHHH!!! AAAAIIINNNN HHHEEEGGGHHH!” She screamed, banging her padded fists against the cage.
“Yeah, she went back to bed, seemed pretty annoyed about being woken up, but she’ll be fine. Anyhow, I better get my dogs back home. Y’all have a good rest of your night now.”
“You too. Just try to make sure your dogs don’t get loose again.”
“Don’t you worry. I won’t.”
Persephone heard the sound of the real Animal Control van firing up again, and the last hope of rescue drove away, blissfully unaware that she was now one of the dogs her new owner promised to not let loose. Rocco’s hot breath fell on her bare skin as she collapsed back on the uncomfortable bars of the bottom of her cage, sobbing quietly into her gag.