Page 17 of Security and Submission
He listened again. Nothing. Not a single sound.
Double shit.
Had something happened to Hope?
Maybe leaving her alone hadn’t been the best idea. She could have gotten into something. Or she could have just collapsed. Maybe she hadn’t been able to relax here after he’d left either.
But she’d seemed fine, lying on the couch, waiting for Sarah. And if something happened that hadn’t been caused by all the pacing and unrest, something that would have happened regardless, maybe it was better that it had happened away from Tiger. Clenching his jaw, Zeus steeled himself for the possible worst as he moved through the house systematically, still calling for Hope.
There was no sound of a dog. No rustling or any other indicators that Hope was alive and well.
Fuck.
He did not want Sarah to have gone to the hospital only to come home and find that Hope… hadn’t made it.
“Come on, Hope,” he muttered, though he was quickly losing the emotion she was named for.
She wasn’t in the den. She wasn’t in the entertainment room. Zeus sighed and made his way up to the second floor. He was losing hope in finding Hope alright.
Five minutes later, he was more confused than anything else. Because she also wasn’t in either bathroom or bedroom. Zeus felt very weird about going through Sarah’s things, including checking the floor of her closet, but he thought that was better than her coming home eventually and finding Hope’s body.
The body wasn’t there.
Which left him with the baffling question of where the fuck she was.
Maybe the problem was him?
Maybe he only thought he’d left Hope here? Maybe he somehow didn’t remember that he’d left Hope at home with Tiger rather than bringing her back here. Maybe he’d only thought about leaving her here?
Maybe I’m fucking losing it.
Going down the stairs, Zeus couldn’t stop himself from frowning.
There was no other explanation. Hope must be at his house, even though he remembered leaving her here. Maybe he needed to get his head checked. Not a comforting thought.
A kind of heavy dread was starting to take root in his chest as he went through the possibilities and couldn’t come up with anything good. His jaw was starting to ache from clenching it as he made his way back to his house.
Zeus opened his front door, fully expecting to find two dogs on the other side of it waiting to greet him—because what other possibility was there?—but there was only Tiger. Who was very excited to see him. He knelt down to keep the energetic dog from jumping up.
“Hey, buddy. Hey, good boy.” Zeus rubbed his hands all over the wriggling dog’s body as Tiger enthusiastically aimed his tongue at Zeus’ face. He tilted his head back, so Tiger mostly got chin. “Where’s Hope, buddy?”
Of course, Tiger couldn’t answer. Once Zeus got the dog calmed down somewhat—which took a few minutes—he started looking around his own house for Hope.
And ended that search more confused than ever.
Standing in the middle of his living room, his hands on his hips, he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Tiger planted his butt right in front of Zeus, whippy tail going a mile a minute across the carpet, panting happily as he stared up at Zeus. He was probably wondering what the hell was going on since Zeus usually came home and sat down on the couch to watch television or read or something like that.
He didn’t go walking through the entire house.
Tiger had enjoyed the search, even if he hadn’t known what they were looking for, but Zeus was willing to wager the dog was ready to cuddle up on the couch now, as they normally did. Unfortunately, he didn’t feel like sitting. He was starting to question his entire reality.
He knew—he knew—he’d left Hope next door. Sure, he’d started to rethink that when he hadn’t been able to find her, but there must be some explanation. Maybe she’d gone into hiding somewhere there. He should recheck Sarah’s house. Look under the beds. Maybe open a few closet doors—he’d only looked in Sarah’s closet because the door had been open. He hadn’t opened any doors that were closed.
Maybe, somehow, Hope had gone into a closet and managed to close it behind her or something.
The goddamn dog had to be somewhere.
He looked down at Tiger. The dog tilted his head, tongue lolling, tail whipping, waiting to see what Zeus was going to do. Zeus sighed. There was no way he would be able to rest until he figured out what the hell had happened to Hope.
