Lina grabbed the end of the leash to pick it up off the ground. "Heh, I could drag you all the way home like some pet," she joked. She looked at where the leash connected to Amy's collar, seeing it was permanently sewn on. "We'll need some scissors to get this off."
"Yeah, let's go back to your house," Amy suggested. Lina held onto the leash as they walked side by side, carrying it so that it wouldn't drag on the ground and trip Amy up, and standing right next to her so nobody would notice the leash. They were almost back at her house before Amy said "Hey, could you stop tugging? You're almost choking me."
"Oh, sorry, Amy, I didn't even know I was pulling it that tight." Lina raised the leash up to her chest. To make it even looser she took it out of her grasp and simply hung the loop on her wrist.
"It still feels tight," Amy said. She grasped the collar and realized she couldn't get her fingertips between it and her skin. "What?"
They were walking up Lina's front porch by now, and Lina was unlocking the door, oblivious to Amy's problem. She walked inside, expecting Amy to be right behind her, but passing through the doorway her wrist was jerked back by the taut leash. She heard Amy cough and turned around.
"I thought you were right behind me. What's wrong?" she asked when she saw Amy pulling on the collar.
"It was loose on me before...but now it's too tight. What's going on?"
"I don't know," Lina said as Amy walked inside. She closed the door and then turned to examine Amy's collar. It was definitely a tighter fit than before. She decided to slip off the leash before dealing with this problem, but when she tried to pull it off her arm, it wouldn't budge. "What the--?" The leather strap had formed a tight seal around her wrist. She couldn't even pry underneath it with her fingernails. "I don't believe this. It's stuck!"
She moved quickly toward the kitchen, where she would find a pair of scissors. Again, her left wrist was jerked back as Amy almost fell over. "Sorry!" Lina cried. "Are you okay?" Amy rubbed her throat.
"I'm fine," she said hoarsely. "Just please let me know when you're going to move so I can follow." They both walked into the kitchen and Lina tried her best to cut the leash. The leather strap proved impossibly tough, and her scissors didn't even make a scratch.
"This is nuts!" Lina screamed, throwing the scissors across the room, where they landed in the sink. "What kind of freaky store WAS that?" She turned back to Amy as if she had the answer. Then she noticed something odd.