“Can I take this off tonight?” She patted the padded chain around her waist. It was anchored to the floor at two different spots by steel eyelets run through with a fabric-wrapped chain that connected to the band that bound her. I’d made sure everything was quiet and soft so it wouldn’t chafe, but I still hated seeing her like that.

“Not tonight, my love, but soon.”

****

Two nights later, the four had become eight. The new members weren’t as elaborately costumed as the first, but they still stood out starkly from the rest of the patrons. I tried to avoid their attention as I passed by, but I could feel their gaze on me nonetheless. I could hear one of them whispering to the others “that’s the guy”.

I had a strong urge to stop and confront them then and there, but to what end? Was it a crime to be slightly rude or to whisper about a passerby? It was better to avoid any confrontation at all, particularly with everything already on my mind. I heard a few more sniggering remarks as I went further toward home, but by the time I saw Jessica, I had already forgotten them.

It was the following Monday when the problems truly began, or at least my understanding that there was a genuine problem. These ne’er-do-wells, their ranks now swollen to eleven, blocked my path home. Asked me to come join them, and when I refused, pretended to take offence. Said I was “stuck-up” and thought I was better than them. Holding on to my self-restraint as tightly as I was able, I was resolved to just push through their blockade until one of them spoke again. She was a young girl, likely no more than twenty, but it was clear she was in charge. She called the others away, and like obedient ducklings, they crowded back behind her. Tipping her small black bowler at me, she raised a thick, filigreed monocle to her eye as she spoke.

“Be seeing you.”

****

They murdered Jessica the following afternoon. I knew what had happened as soon as I awoke in my shadowed chamber, and when I found her, I nearly lost my mind. They had savaged her body and wrapped her chain tightly around her neck. They had bitten, and apparently eaten, chunks of her flesh. I allowed myself only a few moments of blind rage and sorrow, as time was a luxury I did not have. I would have to act quickly if I were to set things right again.