'On the Other Side of the Mask' Snippet

I was having a hard time deciding what to post for Saturday's #RainbowSnippets. Plus, I feel sorry for this poor little blog, which is still being blocked by Facebook for being abusive. It wants to come out and play, too, so it's also going to share a snippet as well, although not as part of #RainbowSnippets.

This is from my July Camp NaNoWriMo Project; 'On the Other Side of the Mask'. I worked on a shorter version of this for @Lethe Press's 'Gents' anthology. The first version was rejected, although the anthologist had mixed feelings about it. Encouraged, I tried submitting a second version, which I have yet to hear back about. I talked to him about working on an extended version of the story, submitting it to Lethe Press's General Submissions, which he encouraged me to do. Here is a little part of that extended version.

Their new cage was beautiful. Shelley had to admit that. Never had he seen so much color before, outside the pages of a book. 

Flowers of every hue grew from beds of lush greenery in Father’s garden. The air was cool and moist. Within his estate were treasures. Statues of nude youths and maidens, which the church wardens would have frowned on, as being sinful. Furniture made of different colored varieties of wood. Chairs, which had, of all the decadent luxuries, cushioned seats!

It should have been Paradise within Paradise, but what creature ruled their environs of this sanctuary? What did he want with Byron and Shelley? He’d released their hands, but they were in his lair. 

Shelley longed to reach out for Byron, once more, but Byron was more distant and remote than the statue he fixed his dark eyes upon.