Janine

Watching her mother make preparations to get ready to go, Janine waited until the older woman descended downstairs before she hustled down to Lina’s room, blonde hair bound back and bouncing. Testing the knob with her right hand to see if the door was still unlocked, she smiled as the handle turned and the door opened. Sneaking inside, she closed the door behind her, figuring she probably had about a half hour of safe search time before her mother might return. She chuckled, a half hour was pretty safe unless her mother was on pace to establish a new women’s world record. She chided herself about her earlier suspicions, thinking her mother was fiddling around with Tom. Absurd, she was almost forty. Getting down low on her hands and knees, she pulled out her phone and brought up the flashlight app, shining the LCD light under the bed and dressers hoping to catch a glimpse of movement or some sound that might give his hiding place away. She growled in frustration. Where was he? She sat back on her haunches, shaking her head in frustration. “Tom if you can hear me right now, I swear to god I am going to bury you in my ass, completely, and you will just wait there while I stimulate myself,” she warned in a menacing tone. When she got her hands on him, she would punish his little body. Every passing moment only served to fuel her anger at being deprived of her toy and she was definitely going to remove the kid gloves and abuse him when she had him back in her clutches. She missed the sensation of his little body struggling and thrashing within her to sate her urges and feed her hunger, the supreme aphrodisiac of the complete and utter control she wielded over him. The thought made her smile evilly.

Getting to her feet, next she systematically pulled open all the drawers and moved the contents around, checking dressers, both end tables, and even the little trays and pull outs in her mother’s lavish hand crafted jewelry box. Nothing, there was not even a trace of a possible little habitat where he might have taken refuge. Leaning against the dresser, she looked over at the large walk in closet. Walking over to the darkened room she clicked on the overhead light and began sifting through the wealth of shoes stored there, but still her efforts yielded nothing. Exiting the closet, she flicked off the light and muttered under her breath, eyes still sweeping the room, hoping for a glimpse, anything.

Crossing the carpeted floor, she stepped into the bathroom and turned on the light switch to the right just inside the door. Again dropping low to the tiled surface, though he was pretty crafty, she presumed his access to resources was pretty limited and his ability to get somewhere high unlikely. She searched methodically all around the large tub, moving aside jars of bath beads, salts, and hair products. Next, she looked around the base of the gleaming white toilet, moving the plastic containers holding the scrub brush and the plunger, to peer in the space behind enameled bowl. She pulled open the doors on the stand up cabinet where the assorted linens were stored, pulling out large fluffy towels and checking them before refolding and replacing them. Crawling over to the counter, she opened the doors and explored under the sink. Moving extra toilet paper aside, the cans of cleaning products, still no sign of tiny Tom. Curling her hand into a fist, she pounded the floor and fumed, her face a thundercloud. She didn’t understand it. Where could he possibly be? She thought for sure he had come down the hall in the direction of the master bedroom, but there was absolutely no evidence of such, zero. Her mind drifted back to the possibility Marta may have stumbled upon him. Her mind started putting bits and pieces of information together. Was that why Sam and Tess had come? Had Marta found Tom and called for Tess to come and pick him up? Of course it was Marta who greeted the girls at the door wasn’t it? Was there an exchange made? Did Tess already have Tom when they came up to see her in her room? She shook her head, almost violently, starting to get very angry at the thought that he might be out of her grasp. Reaching up, she used the edge of the counter to pull herself to standing. On her feet, she paused, eyes looking down at the counter top populated by a number of her mother’s favorite products. There, pushed back amidst containers of her mother’s make up, almost innocuous, was the tiny little golden collar she had commissioned specifically for Tom. It was opened. She looked down at it and frowned. There was no way Tom could have removed the collar himself, he wasn’t strong enough to disengage the lock. On top of that, there was also no evidence of how he could possibly have gotten onto the bathroom counter in her mother’s bedroom. No dental floss lasso, no electrical cord hanging down.

Strumming her fingers across the countertop, she nodded slowly, there was only one possible answer as a slow smile parted her lips. There was no longer any doubt whatsoever, she knew her mother had her little Tom. Smiling to herself, she took the little golden adornment and quit her mother’s room, returning to her own and flopping onto her back atop the bed. The strategy now was how to get Lina to leave Tom exposed and she had just the idea for making it happen. One phone call. Call complete, she reached down and tapped her fingers across her taught stomach, it was now only be a matter of time before Tommy would be hers again. She grinned deviously to herself.