Jacob was in his spacious bathroom shedding his towel, folding his clothes neatly into a pile and donning his turkish robe hanging by the side of the bathtub. Since there were no seconds to track, Jacob counted by heartbeats. Everything seemed to go very slowly. He rationalized that the heat of the bathwater shot to his head.

But when he opened the door, even imagination could not create a young boy whose slight body weight on his knees made a slighter impression in the center of the soft bed. The strands of black onyx hair almost hide his golden eyes like a beaded curtain. Jacob knew they were gold because he has never seen a color like that on any other human eyes. His silk pajamas were gossamer and delicate. And he was hiding something beneath his folded hands in his lap.

"Kirin?" asked Jacob, unable to say anything else but able to remember his name.

"Yes, master," responded Kirin in a soft, solemn voice. It was the first time anyone has ever called him that. Kirin took his hands out of his lap and put them by his sides. Jacob gulped. Jacob almost choked.

Hidden in the center of Kirin's lap was a lock constraining everything below his navel and above his Kirin's thighs. It wrapped all the way around like a scanty steel diaper outside of his silk pants, colored just as crimson as the outside door. It locked him up effectively.

"I guess you're my assistant," said Jacob almost stumbling on his words. "What should we do first?" Jacob asked as he stared at the lock in Kirin's lap.

"Master can do anything he likes. Anything at all."

Jacob pulled out the key from his pocket of his wide robe. "I guess I suppose you need this," he said as he held out the crimson key to Kirin. Kirin did not take it from Jacob's hand; his hands stayed at his sides. But Kirin moved his hips forward to meet the key, barely touching the grooves.

"Do I have you unlock you?"

Kirin shook his head. "Master does not have to unlock me." Jacob took a deep relieved breath and puts the key back in his pocket.

"What happens if I don't unlock it? Will you be okay like that?"

"Do not be worried about me. Master is here for his own needs."

"No, I mean, will you still be able to go to the bathroom and all that?"

Kirin rubbed the lock between his legs, feeling the cold hardness there before he spoke. "If left unlocked, I will simply urinate on myself." Jacob felt the key go heavy in his pocket. Kirin stared unblinkingly at him while Jacob wanted to turn his head away, but could not. "Some people like that."

"Mm," Jacob uttered as he touched the outside of the pocket where the key bulged obtusely.

"Does master like that?"

"No," said Jacob giving a quick and clear answer.

Kirin spread his legs more prominently to display the lock dangling between his thighs. "Only if master wishes to unlock me," he said with a serious voice and eyes. Jacob took the key out of the bulge of his pocket so that Kirin could clearly see it. He poised the key at the lock and pushed it in but it met with resistance. Jacob looked at the lock carefully before he tried again. In Jacob’s second attempt, the tumbles of the lock gave only part way. He pushed and he pulled to open him. Kirin’s body felt everything. Kirin surrendered to the jarring movements instigated by Jacob's hand. After much turning, twisting, prodding, persistence, patience, only the softest pressure into the lock opened it and the crimson lock fell by the wayside. Jacob sighed in relief while Kirin was breathing hard. When Kirin calmed down, Jacob’s hands deftly removed the restraint from Kirin's waist. Before he put the restraint away, Jacob impulsively looked at it closely. Someone decorated the restraint by carving flower petals into the steel; probably the same creator who molded the cherubim into the porcelain throne. He puts the restraint gently aside somewhere on the bed out of Kirin’s reach.

"Um…whatshouldwedo?Imean,there'ssomanythings,Ihavenoideawheretostart…"

"Whatever master likes," said Kirin, bowing his head. His legs were still displayed for Jacob.

"Well," said Jacob thinking aloud, "I can’t be cooped up here all day. Why don't we go outside? I only got to look around for a little bit in this place."

"Master can do that," said Kirin. "Just a moment." Kirin excused himself, grabbed the lock and restraint and sets them neatly inside the topmost drawer of the gold dresser. Then he pulled something long and noisy from the drawer and he quickly closes it. He walked up to Jacob and gently gestured him to open his hand. Jacob looked down at his closed fist and felt the cold heaviness of the long thing that falls partway out of his fingers.

"What's this?" Jacob asked. At the end, a little metal latch hung like a pendulum, swung and gyrated at the bottom of the length and made soft noises like wind chimes.

"It is a guide so that I may never wander far from master," said Kirin, stroking the chain in his hand. "It attaches here," he said as he pointed to a spot where the throat should be. Then Jacob noticed that Kirin was wearing a collar around his neck. On a young boy, it looked brutally ponderous. Jacob swallowed as if the collar was on his own neck and he briefly touched his own neck to reassure himself that there wasn't one.

"Why do you have to wear something like that?" asked Jacob.

"So I may never wander far from master," Kirin repeated.

"Can’t you just stand close to me?"

"I am weak of will," Kirin said humiliatingly of himself. "I… cannot be… trusted to do so." Jacob felt like a skeleton with square bones was pulled out of Kirin’s mouth when he said those words. Kirin shook his head and regained himself when he looked at the chain.

"This will be placed on me first so master can see how it is done," said Kirin and without taking his eyes off of Jacob, he willingly placed the long chain on his own neck. The heavy chain laid down on the silk hanging off of Kirin's body, making flows and hangs into flats and creases. He presented the handle to Jacob, who at first did not know what to do with it. Jacob fingered the handle before he grabbed the chain. He looked over at Kirin who kept his head bowed. Jacob was at the other end of the chain, not moving, not leading Kirin anywhere at the moment.

"Does master wish to go anywhere now?"

"Uh, yes. Just outside."

Jacob stood up from the bed and walked over to the door with Kirin tagging behind the chain. He touched his neck unconsciously one more time and walked out.