Welcome to E. Mayberry

“Hey,” I said again. “Look at me.”

He did.

“I choose you,” I promised him.

“You may not have a choice,” he said. “This game has a loser too.”

In the middle of processing his last words, metal cuffs suddenly shot up out of my chair and wrapped around my wrists and ankles, locking them in place.

“What the fuck?” I said.

Some of the other pets made similar comments. One girl started yelling. A guy was freaking out. Fear hit me and I didn’t know why. Nobody had done anything to me other than lock me into my chair. It could be another sexual game. Yes, I was sure that was all. Someone was going to walk up to me in a minute and slap me in the face with his cock. I’d have to give him a blowjob with no hands. That’s all.

“You may not have a choice,” I heard Bastian’s words in my head. “This game has a loser too.”

When I looked back at him I saw the look of fear on his face. He wore almost no expression at all and it was the first time I’d seen him like that.

“Bastian,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“Is everyone in place?” Kendall asked. “Good. Let’s begin.”

“Let me out of here!” a man yelled. “I’m claustrophobic. I can’t be tied down like this. I need to get out of this chair. Let me out of here!”

His cries were so real. He was so afraid that it started to freak me out. I couldn’t handle it either. I wanted out of the chair. My ankles began to ache. My restraints felt too tight. My calves and thighs begged to be stretched out. My mind raced.

“Let me out of this fucking chair!” I yelled.

“Sunshine,” Kendall said. “No need for all the profanity. You’ll be out of that chair in a second. Calm down.”

Her voice was so relaxed that it made me feel a little more comfortable. She wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. More than that, Bastian wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.

“Before anyone hurts themselves,” Kendall said. “Let me get this over with quickly. Ever since my great great grandfather started this community with a group of his friends, appeasing the gods is something that has been of paramount importance. It’s what keeps us moving and growing in our daily lives, it’s what keeps stress from our front door and enemies away from our back door. For anyone who doubts the power of the gods, I need you to think about it for a moment. How else could we go on living and laughing and loving without being interrupted by the corrupt government and greedy politicians and phony forced and fabricated lifestyles outside our gates? By now, we would have been shut down if not for the agreeable gods we’ve appeased year after year.

The owners in the circle around us muttered words of agreement.

“Our gods require one sacrifice each year,” Kendall went on. “Only one. The blood of one of our pets in exchange for a full year of good health, wealth, and freedom.”

Wait. A sacrifice? Like a real sacrifice?

“No,” I said. “Let me out of this chair.”

“But our gods are also rewarding gods so in exchange for the fear that comes with being one of the lambs offered up for sacrifice, one will also be chosen for our greatest honor, the opportunity to leave this annual fear and worry behind and become a full-fledged owner of a home in Erotic Mayberry with only one stipulation, that he or she must find a pet of his or her own within six months from now or they will revert back to pet status immediately.”

Surprisingly, the people I knew had been pets longer than a year cheered Kendall on, all excited about the chance to become an owner themselves. Most didn’t seem worried at all about the sacrifice. Only the pets I knew were new like me seemed

frightened. I couldn’t see Pasha’s face from where I sat but I knew he must be afraid. Bree I wondered about. She seemed to have bought into the lifestyle so strongly that I doubted she was opposed to their morbid annual ritual.

“With that said,” Kendall said, “Let’s begin the drawing. Each of our pets has chosen a chair, each marked with a number, and each of those numbers is here in this barrel.”

Vivi slid a tall table out to Kendall’s side and on it sat a wooden barrel no taller than two feet.

“First, I will draw the winner so we can all be excited about our new owner and then I will draw our loser,” Kendall said. “No, I shouldn’t say it like that. There are no losers in this. To be sacrificed is also an honor, so please think of it as such.”

My heart threatened to shoot through my chest. I couldn’t sit still. Every inch of my body hurt. I ached from my toes to my head and I couldn’t stop the trembling in my hands. How had I come to this? If I hadn’t tried to kill myself I wouldn’t have ended up in that hospital where I met Bastian who brought me here. But then I wouldn’t have experienced all the great things I’d experienced since moving to Erotic Mayberry.

My mind was all over the place. Did I hate this place or love it? Knowing what I knew now I knew that if I won, I could never choose Bastian because that would mean that I’d be a pet again next year and would have to go through this all over again. I’d always looked down on Suzanne for what she’d done, hurting a good man like Bastian, but now I understood fully and even understood why they chose to be together sometimes. They’d been forced apart by this fucked up system.

They’d been forced apart. That meant I was his consolation prize. His backup girlfriend. I meant nothing to him. He knew when he invited me into the neighborhood that I’d end up sitting here fearing for my life. That was the choice he made for me. Even when he took me home and allowed me to think about leaving, this was never brought up. I may have changed my mind if I knew my life was in jeopardy.