Chapter Text
Petey knocked on the door. "Dogman, are you gonna open the door?"
Silence.
"Hello?" Another knock.
Silence.
"Hellooo?" Another knock.
Silence.
---
It had been three years since the explosion. Three years since Petey died. And yet, Dogman still saw him—still heard him. He was always there, watching, waiting. Petey had been such a darling to Dogman, helping him through all the things he had been through.
Nobody else could see Petey.
Dogman was in college now, living off-campus in a dingy apartment. No friends. No connections. Nobody dared to mess with him. His presence alone sent people walking the other way. He was a terrible influence, a ghost himself in the eyes of others. But in his room? He wasn’t alone.
In his room, Petey was there.
---
2:45 PM. The bell rang. Dogman sighed.
“Finally.”
He slung his backpack over his shoulder, walking past students who wouldn’t even dare make eye contact with him. Dogman didn’t speak. He didn’t interact. He avoided people like the plague. He didn’t need them.
Not when he had Petey.
When Dogman wasn’t... Dogman, he was Greg.
An abused, broken, beaten Greg.
Everyone thought highly of Knight, his owner. A respected figure. A war hero. A strong man with a firm hand. But no one knew what happened behind closed doors. No one knew the things Greg endured. The leash too tight. The beatings too cruel. The words too venomous.
Knight was arrested once—one damn time. Possession of heroin. Selling illegally. He served a year. And when he got out, he was worse.
“The system is a joke,” Knight had said. “They didn’t teach me a damn thing.”
Dogman never forgot that.