“My name is Bryce Wexler. Please, Mia, I haven’t eaten or drank anything in days.” Bryce pleaded.
“Wexie, Wexie, Wexie. I understand that and I’m trying to help you. As your guardian I want you to succeed. It would look quite bad on me if you didn’t make it. Buuuut, the box wasn’t marked live freight. How was I to know?” Mia said with concern that would have fooled Bryce had he not seen her act in high school several times over the years.
“Mister Wexler? Is that what you want me to say? I just want some water. Please!” Bryce said as he fell to his knees. If his body could spare it he was sure he would have been crying at this point. As she asked him several more times.
“Wexie, Wexie, Wexie. I can see your frustration. I want to help you. Let me help you. But only you can give me your name. I’ve done almost all the work here. I got the water, I brought it in here. I’m holding the bottle. All you need to do is just answer the simplest of questions. Just tell me what your name is, Wexie.” Mia said as she looked down at her former teacher and shook the water bottle.
“My name is-” Bryce started to say when Mia cut in.
“Don’t mess this up, Wexie.” Mia said sweetly. As she called him Wexie this time it dawned on him. One of the first things she said to him was “You don’t mind if I call you Wexie, do you?”
“My name is Wexie.” Bryce said confidently.
“Oh, so close. I really thought you had it this time. Let me give you a hint. If you belong to me and I named you Wexie. Your full name would be what? And, let’s not fuck this up Wexie. This is entry-level stuff here.” Mia said.
“My name is Wexie…Lawson.” Bryce said with a bit of disdain. The name had a sickening ring to it. As Bryce uttered the name he wanted nothing more than to be back at the facility. He wanted his long boring days back. He wanted Heather to stop by three times a day to drop off food. He had his time when he could gather and chat with others and they were all at least the same size.
Now as he looked up at his former student who stood before him now. He couldn’t help but think how looked more like a statue or some kind of art. However, the bounce and wobble of her ponytail as she spoke. The curve of smile that was forming on either end of her mouth that she was clearly trying to hide. All told him that she was just as real as he was. That this wasn’t some horribly vivid nightmare. That he wasn’t seeing delusions which he had heard some people saw.
No, as Mia crouched down and the air became engulfed with her perfume. As her breath washed over him he could smell the fruity gum she was still chewing. The smacking of her lips as she spoke that always had sort of annoyed him all became part of an inescapable reality that encapsulated his life.
As Bryce spoke the name she had given him he felt as if he had spoken it into reality. He wondered if she could be this cold and calculated. If she could have planned this all out. If she left him on her bed knowing he wouldn’t be able to get down. If she wanted him to continue to thirst and starve while salvation was seemingly all around him. Just so she could have this moment with him at his weakest and vulnerable to her demands. As of right now what wouldn’t he give up? What demand could she make that he would turn down in exchange for a drink of water or a morsel of food?
He couldn’t think of anything he wouldn’t sell or trade. In that moment he remembered an old Simpsons episode where Bart traded his soul and he grew to regret it. Bryce wondered if he would have a similar fate and grow to regret trading his name for whatever sustenance Mia deemed him worthy of.
“So how does it feel Mr. Wexler? What’s it like to look up at me when one of the last things ever spoke were that I would never amount to anything and yet here I am doing great. Pledged to a sorority, got into college, having the time of my life. While you are now begging for a half drank bottle of water that was just in my purse. Pleading for scraps of food I absentmindedly picked up on my way up. How does it feel Mr. Wexler to be owned by someone who isn’t going to amount to anything? As you could be right. You’ve seen a lot more of this world than me. You have the advantage of experience. However, no matter how crappy my life could end up being. I will still own you. Where every day for the rest of your life you have to wake up as Wexie Lawson because I said so.” Mia said as she reached down grabbing Bryce with an ease he found sickening.
Bryce was lifted higher and higher. As he pushed against her hand all his force and strength registered as nothing to Mia as she walked over to the cage she carried up. She lifted up the door atop the cage that swung up revealing two metal dishes. One side is filled with homemade trail mix while the other side is filled with cheerios.
“Ugh” Bryce groaned as he rolled down Mia’s hand landing on the top wooden plane and stopping near his food dish. He looked up as she pushed the wooden lid closed locking him behind the metal bars of the cage. Bryce was helpless as she twisted off the lid of her water bottle and dumped the half drank water into the kind of water bottle you would see in a hamster or gerbil cage. Mia hung the bottle on the side of the cage and smirked.
“Enjoy my backwash. Take a good long drink as you get introduced to this new normal for you.” Mia said as she stood up and stretched before leaving the room closing the door behind her.
Bryce rushed to the bottle of water and started drinking his fill of water before looking over at the food she had left hungrily.
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