His Favorite Girl (13 page)

Suddenly the entire lobby went silent.  No one moved.  No one made a sound.

Except for Paul, who coughed and wheezed and tried to crawl away.

Sean scooped him up and held him around the chest the same way he had held Vampire Girl.

I went over to Flora and held her.  She buried her face in my chest and cried quietly.

"Who knows this prick?" Sean asked.  His voice rumbled throughout the lobby.

For a moment no one said a word.  I looked around and spotted Paul's friends, all of them staring at their feet now.

Then Damien stepped forward, taking out his notepad, writing as he approached.

He held out the pad to let Sean read it, glancing nervously at Paul.

"What's his name?" Sean asked.

Damien wrote, held it up.

"What's his job?"

Again.

"Data analyst?  Is that all?"  A thunderous laugh echoed over all our heads, followed by a wave of gasps and screams as Sean grabbed Paul by t
he chin and back of the head, effortlessly snapping his neck.  Girls began to sob while the guys stood silent.  Sean let Paul collapse to the floor.

Tears streamed down Damien's cheeks as he composed another note and shakily held it out to Se
an.

"Important data?  In the backpack?" Sean said.  "Take it if you need it."

Damien knelt and began to pull the backpack from Paul's shoulders.

Sean looked out at the
frightened employees.

"Everyone back to work!"

─
The Danger of Being Caught─

FLORA AND I watched movies all evening to distract ourselves from the violent death we'd witnessed--also to distract ourselves from Liu and James, who fucked like rabbits on the couch from the time Liu got off work till curfew, which was extended till ten, it being Friday night.  Around dinnertime, I snuck out for a few minutes to deliver some food to Judy, but again I had to make it quick.  I didn't want to leave Flora alone with those two.

I needed to find an opportunity to spend more time with Judy.  She claimed she was doing fine, but it had to be torturous living in such isolation.  Tonight she even had to suffer the humility of handing over a bag of feces.
  She waited until I had my foot on the bottom step, turning away immediately, completely humiliated.

That's when I noticed
the sides of her shirt and the bottom halves of her pant legs were covered in dust.

I almost didn't say anything because I felt so bad for her, but my concern for her well-being got the better of me.  At any point in time,
Clifton could reemerge.

"I
have to pass the time somehow," she explained.

"Masturbation is a lot safer."

"That's . . . not very often for me."

"Maybe I should start spiking your water with the Libido Drug."

I was joking.  I couldn't tell her what to do.  She was smarter than me.  She knew the risks of going into the air ducts.

"See anything interesting so far?"

She covered her mouth and said, "Speaking of masturbation . . ."

"No way.  Who?"

"Just this guy I work with.  He only had it out through his zipper.  Last Christmas Mr. Shriver gave everyone a calendar with all the Favorite Girls in it.  Except Frog."

"That's fucked up."

"Yeah," she said.  "You'd think with all the money they make we'd get a little something better."

"No, I mean excluding Frog Girl.  That pisses me off.  They make her that way, and then they don't put her in their calendar?"

Judy nodded apologetically.  "Right, that is messed up.  I guess they thought it would disturb some people--women especially.  And it makes the calendar more even that way.  Six girls, two months apiece."

For a moment I suspected she'd been in on the design.  I had to remind myself how smart Judy was, how she could instantly analyze and interpret almost anything.

"So this was a
nude
calendar, I take it."

"Yes."

"Hmm.  Well?"

"Well what?"

"Who was his Favorite Girl?"

"Doll," she said.

"Ugh.  Fucking creep.  Don't even tell me his name."

I
realized I was still holding the bag of shit and made my exit then.  I wanted to voice my objection to her exploring the air ducts, but I couldn't bring myself to give her orders.  At the top of the stairs, I turned, said goodbye, and promised next time I would stay longer.

I told Flora the story Judy had told me and we giggled about it like middle school girls at a sleepover.

"Now I wish I'd spent some time getting to know people so I could speculate," I said.

"We can try to figure it out," Flora suggested.  "Like private detectives."

I laughed at the thought, but truthfully it made me sad.  We didn't have time to play games.  Not in this place.  The prospect of getting to do so ever again felt like a hollow thought.  A castle in the sky.  A game in and of itself, one with no reward.

When James
finally got tired of boning Liu and went back to his room, Liu was so drunk and exhausted she fell asleep instantly.  I turned off the television in the middle of a romantic comedy neither Flora nor I was enjoying and we lay in the dark and cuddled.

I thought with the day's events Flora might not be in the mood to take me
up on my offer from earlier today, but she moved her head from her pillow to mine, our lips so close I could feel her breath on my nose.  Her hand rested on my hip, fingers caressing me slowly.

"Melissa?" she whispered.

"Mmm-hmm."

"We're going to die, aren't we?"

I didn't know what to say to that.  It sent a cold chill through my entire body.

"I hope not, Flora."

"Can you save us?"

"I don't know.  I have to get up to Level E somehow.  Patton thinks we'll find something up there to help us."

"How do you get up there?"

"Without Sean's permission . . . I don't think we can."

She kissed me, drew back.  "Promise me one thing."

"Anything."

"No matter what happens, you'll at least kill Sean."

"Okay."

"Promise."

"I promise.  I'll kill every single one of them if I can."

"Except Patton."

"Right," I said.  "Except Patton."

The only light in the room came from the fluorescent bulb above the kitchen sink.  I could barely make out Flora's face, two tiny glints of blue light in her eyes.  Her breath smelled of the sliced peaches we'd had for dessert mixed with a minty toothpaste.  It was cold in the room, but under the covers her body heat kept me warm.

I pulled the comforter over our heads, touched her face, and kissed her neck, twitching from the tickle of her fingers as they crept like soft spider legs from my hip to my stomach and up to my breasts.  I kissed her jaw line, her chin, and finally her mouth, waiting for the heat to build in our little comforter cocoon, waiting for sweat to break out.

I couldn't bear it anymore, so I grabbed her wrist and pulled first one arm, then the other, up over her head, rolling on top of her.

"Lie still."

She obeyed.

I sat up, tossing the comforter behind me, exposing us both to the cold air.  I pushed her night gown
up over her head, leaning forward to pull it off and kissing her when her face reappeared.  Then I scooted back, a little at a time, traversing her body with my lips, her nipples, her ribcage, her soft, flat stomach, her hip bones and between them, just above the seam of her panties.  I glanced up and observed the landscape of her body, her breasts rising and sinking with her open-mouthed breaths.  She was trembling, both from anticipation and from the cold.  I wanted her to be cold.  I wanted her to be exposed.  Not because it thrilled me to see goose bumps forming on her skin but because I remembered what turned me on when I was eighteen: being eaten out buck naked above the covers in the daylight with the door unlocked and potential witnesses in the next room.  The danger of being caught.

It was nighttime now, and the door was locked, so no one would be barging in on us--Liu aside, but she'd seen us both naked plenty--but this was good enough.

I hooked my index fingers under the side straps of her underwear.

"Melissa."

My heart jumped up in my throat as I looked to my left at the silhouette in the corridor.

It was Judy.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered harshly.

Flora sat up, bare-breasted, and waved at her.

"Stay here," I told Flora.

Jumping down off the bed, I rushed over to Judy and guided her back up the corridor and into the shower room.

She was covered in dust.  She even had it in her hair.

And she looked alarmed.

"I had to come find you," she said.  Her voice quivered, but she wasn't shaking.  Outwardly, she was a rock.  "I saw something a-and I had to come tell you."

"What is it?  And make it fast.  If Liu wakes up and finds you, we're fucked."

"I went down to Level B," she explained, "and I saw Sean smacking Brian around.  He knows Brian sent that guard to my room.  He's pissed.  He told Brian if he ever gives orders to his guards again, he's going to cut
his
dick off.  And Brian said he wants to hire a replacement.  For me.  Sean okayed it.  They're going to do a full search of the building tomorrow--every room--and if they don't find me, they're going to replace me."  Her eyes lit up a little here.

"That's good news, Judy, but it could have waited till tomorrow.  You
can't
come to my room, okay?  It's too dangerous.  How did you find me, anyway?"

"It didn't take long.  All the other rooms on this floor are like mine.  Even Sean's.  It's scary how empty his room is.  I only knew it was his because of the blood stains on the floor. 
So this is the only room of its kind."

"Well when Liu gets her own room, I'll start letting you come here to shower, but until then you have to stay hidden.  You shouldn't have come here."

"There's something else, though," she said.

I stuck my head in the corridor to make sure no one was coming.  Then I turned back to her.  "Make it quick."

She took a deep breath.

"When Sean left, Brian started pacing back and forth, talking to himself.  Addressing Sean or Mr. Shriver--I don't know which.  He said some really strange things.  He said he's fed up and he's going to do what he has to do.  He kept saying, 'To hell with Patton.  It'll work.  He's a chickenshit.'  Things like that.  And then he got on the phone
and called someone and told them, 'Let's do it.'  He's planning something.  He's giving someone a device with the Longevity Drug in exchange for doing something.  I don't know who or what.  But I do know when."

"When?"

"Next Wednesday."

Five
days away.

What on Earth could he be planning?

I had to find out, which would mean going down to Level B.  I would have to get Liu out of the room for a while.  Luckily tomorrow was Saturday and the employees had the entire day to wander around.  A date with James, maybe?  If not, I could send her out with Flora.  If Sean was right and I was such a good negotiator, surely I could think of something.

"Okay, tomorrow I'll go down to Level B and do some investigating."  A real-life scenario of Flora's private detective plan.

"Let me come with you.  I know the floor better than you."

I nodded.  "Wait for me.  I don't know when I'll show up, but wait, okay?"

She agreed.  I followed her to the vent and replaced the cover behind her.

In the room, I expected to find Flora turned away from me, disappointed that we'd been interrupted.  That's what I would have done.

But she wasn't.

She'd taken off her panties and lay naked with her legs spread apart, masturbating slowly.

I ran up to her and jerked her hand away.

"Did you turn it on?"

"No," she moaned, raising her other hand.

In it she held my vial of the Libido Drug.

"Flora, you didn't . . ."

"Fuck me," she said.  "Please.  We don't have much time."  She was crying.  "Fuck me, Melissa.  I feel so . . . sad.  I just want to feel good for once, like I did before. 
Please
."

I crawled into bed, and what happened next is beyond my descriptive capacity.

─Frog─

I AWOKE to the sound of harsh knocking and was so alarmed I nearly answered the door naked.  I still felt funny.  No matter how many times I took the Libido Drug, the effect never lessened in intensity or duration.  I had to run to the closet to get a bathrobe, and by the time I reached the door the knocking had become intense enough to rattle the walls.

I threw the door open, recoiling in anticipation of bad news, and there stood Sean with Frog Girl
peeking around from behind him.  She was dressed in an oversized t-shirt and pair of baggy sweatpants.  Sean's clothes or Mr. Shriver's.

"He said yes," Sean said.  Then he quickly walked away.

Frog Girl was smiling, literally from ear to ear.

"Heddo," she said.  "Tank you.  Tank you toe much."

I stepped out into the hall, put an arm around her, and said, "Come inside."

We weren't three steps in before Liu sat up from the couch and said, "Oh my God, what the hell
is
that thing?"

Working on Level D, one would think Liu was familiar with Frog Girl.  Then again, Patton probably knew better than to let Liu out of his office.  I'd only seen the Flora's in my brief stint as Patton's secretary.

Frog Girl was so entranced by the room she didn't even take offense.  She was probably used to insults, cruelly vocalized first impressions, meanness.  She was just happy to be out of that dank prison cell.  At this point she probably welcomed the callousness of others.  At least it meant she wasn't alone anymore.

I put my hand on Frog Girl's elbow and she jumped a little.  Probably not used to being touched--at least in a safe way.  The fear in her eyes only lasted a few seconds, though.  I think she wanted to trust me, wanted the horror that had been her life to finally end.

I smiled to reassure her, locked my hand around her elbow, and pointed at Liu.

"That's one of my roommates," I told her.  "Her name is Liu.  You wouldn't know it from her personality, but she's actually human."

Frog Girl waved at Liu, her hand flopping wildly.  Liu turned over and buried her face in the pillow, sticking her naked ass in the air.

A delightful image to Frog Girl.  She turned to me with an open-mouthed smile that, to be honest, was the stuff of nightmares.  No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't help but be creeped out by her.  It wasn't her fault, and I tried to fight the inclination, but Brian had truly made Frog Girl terrifying.

"Over here," I told her, guiding her toward the bed, where Flora was miraculously still asleep.

Flora wasn't used to the Libido Drug.  I didn't even know how much she'd given herself.  Last night could have easily been a repetition of the night I put Kate in a coma and Murphy in the incinerator.

I shook Flora by the shoulder, said her name.

"Forda?" Frog Girl said, looking from me to the lump under the blanket and back again.

"Flora," I said louder.  "Wake up."

She still wasn't moving.  I shook her harder.

"It tee okay?"

I climbed onto the bed and put my
cheek to her mouth.  She was breathing.  Leaning close, I shouted in her ear.  When she didn't respond, I burst into tears, reared back, and smacked her as hard as I could.

Her eyes opened instantly and she kicked her way to a sitting position,
her bare back pressed against the headboard.  She cupped her cheek and stared at me with wide eyes, face contorting as she began to cry with me.

I crawled over to her and gave her a hug, whispering apologies.  "I thought you were dead.  You wouldn't wake up.  I'm so sorry."

She recovered from the blow pretty quickly when she saw Frog Girl, scrambling off the bed naked and throwing her arms around the poor creature.

I was still crying, but I got off the bed and
asked if they wanted breakfast, a stupid question since Frog Girl looked like she hadn't eaten in days.  Whatever scraps the decommissioned Favorite Girls were fed had to be few and far between--though despite her obvious malnourishment, Frog Girl still looked like she could snap me in half at will.

I went to call in breakfast and saw Liu racing for the closet.  By the time I got off the phone, she had put on a silk gown and was hovering near me, prodding me with questions.

"What the hell is that thing?  Why is she so ugly?  Why is she here?  Oh my God, is she gonna
live
here now?  Did Patton say anything about me getting my own room?  I am
not
staying here with that
thing
.  It's fucking
creepy
.  What the fuck did you bring her here for?"

I ignored her for as long as I could stand.  Finally I turned to her and said, "Liu, you're going to get the fuck away from me right now, or I'm going to beat you to death this time."

She believed me.  As she backed away, I realized I believed myself.  The truth must have been evident in my facial expression, my posture, maybe my voice.

"You brought that thing here to kill me, didn't you?" she asked.

I laughed.  "That's absurd."

"Then why?  What could you possibly want with it?"

"
It
is a
she
, Liu.  She's a
person
."

A knock at the door.  Breakfast.  James.

Liu ran over to answer and before he could get through the door she hugged him the way a frightened child hugs a parent.

James surveyed the room looking for Flora, eyes bulging when he spotted Frog Girl.

"Holy shit, what the fuck is
that?"

I glanced back to the bed, not so much to see Frog Girl's reaction but to make sure Flora had put some clothes on.  She was still naked but wrapped in a blanket.  She and Frog Girl now sat on the bed.

Turning back to James, I said, "Why don't you guys go have breakfast in the cafeteria?"

"Okay," Liu said.

"Nah, I'm good," said James.

"You already ate?" Liu asked.

"Yeah, sure."

What a prick.  He did just what he had to do to get laid, nothing more.  Liu was a fool to fall for him, to let him use her the way she did.

"Take her to fucking breakfast, you little shit.  Jesus Christ, she lets you stick your dick down her throat.  It's the least you can do."

James scowled at me
and wheeled in the cart.  "I'm not hungry."

"
Get
hungry."

"You've got a smart-ass mouth, you know that?"

I smiled.  "Only when it comes to you, James."

"You hate men, that's what it is."

"Well I wouldn't know, it's been so long since I've seen one."

"You're a dyke," he said.  "You're all a bunch of fucking dykes."

My patience was at an end.  "Well
fuck
, James, it looks like you've had a lasting impact on all of us.  Congratulations and get the fuck out of my room.  Here."  I stormed over to Liu and yanked her to the door, pushing her out into the hall so hard she fell on her ass.  "Have a lovely day, you two."

I stared James down as he approached me by the door.

"Keep on pretending you're the queen of everything," he whispered.  "It'll be that much sweeter when it all comes crashing down."

He left, walking right past Liu, who sat on the floor stewing.

"Better go after him," I said.  "He might have decided he loves you."

I was just being cruel now.  It was becoming more and more natural, almost as if this place were wearing off on me.  Reality can wear on a person that way.  That's why idealism in youth turns to cynicism later in life, even among the most hopeful and optimistic of souls.

I wondered if the same would happen with Flora, the kindest, most beautiful girl I'd ever seen, who at this moment sat holding the hand of a creature so grotesque she could pass for something that dwells in caves.

More cruelty.  I was on a roll this morning.

I started for the table, intent on having some breakfast, when I suddenly realized I'd accomplished my day's goal: getting Liu out of the room.

I broke a biscuit in half and made a sandwich with two pieces of bacon and a spoonful of white gravy.  Eating quickly, I poured myself a glass of orange juice, downed it,
gathered some breakfast for Judy, and headed into the shower room.  I didn't even bother telling Flora where I was going.  She knew the deal, and now she had Frog to keep her company.  Even if Liu came back early and brought James with her, I doubted either of them would give Flora any trouble--not with Frog around.

Judy looked m
iserable when I got to the room.  She hadn't had a shower in days, hair stringy and greasy, face shining.  The room smelled like a port-o-potty.  The boredom, the sleeping on the tile floor--it was all starting to get to her.

"You look tired."

I handed over her breakfast and sat on the bottom step while she ate.

"I'm fine," she said, taking a large bite from a piece of buttered toast.  "I'd kill for a shower, though."

"I'll come get you tonight after everyone's asleep."

"That would be fantastic.  Wake me up if you have to."

"Done anymore spying?" I asked.

She shook her head, swallowed a bite.  "I haven't been up very long.  What about you?  What's going on out there?"

I told her about buying Frog Girl for Flora.  Judy's only comment referred to the math, the extra pressure I'd put on myself.  When I mentioned Sean's remark about wanting to hire me as a business liaison, she said, "Well, kill Mr. Shriver and you're set."

"Not exactly."

Beginning with a disclaimer that I didn't know the details, I explained what Brian and Patton had told me about Mr. Shriver's will, how his death would mean imprisonment for many of us--maybe all of us.  When I really thought about it, Your Favorite Girl, Inc. shouldn't even exist.  It should be
able
to exist.  The fact that it did meant only one thing: Mr. Shriver was not a person to underestimate.

"I'm kinda looking forward to him getting back, though" I said, immediately second guessing myself.

Judy looked offended.  "Why?"

"Sean scares me the most," I said.  "For a while there, Brian was at the top of my list, but that was personal.  Sean's ready to kill anybody.  Everybody.  Killing is all he really cares about.  That probably makes him the simplest out of all the brothers--excluding
Clifton--but it also makes him the most dangerous."

Judy shook her head.  "Don't kid yourself for a second, Melissa. 
Brian
is the most dangerous.  Then Mr. Shriver. 
Then
Sean."

"You haven't seen him kill anyone."

"I've been here longer than you, you know."

This was the first time I'd seen Judy irritable.  Were we really arguing about this?  Something tantamount to debating which boy in class is cuter?  She was under a lot of stress.  On top of that, she probably felt itchy, it had been so long since she'd bathed.

I let her finish her breakfast in peace.

Then we discussed the plan.

"I've been thinking about it all night," Judy said.  "There's really no point in us both crawling through the Level B ducts, since only one person can look out a vent at a time."

Good point.  But I wasn't just going to sit here.

"What do you want to do?" I asked.

"Let me have Level B, and you take Level A."

It made sense.  Judy knew Level B intimately, so she would snake through the walls much quicker than I could.  She would also know where to focus her time and attention.

I didn't know shit about
the utility section of Level A--I'd only seen it once--but I did know the Showcase Hall section.  If Brian's plan involved bringing someone into the building, Bob might be involved.

"I have to set myself a time limit," I said, reminding her about the building-wide search to take place today.  "You can search Level B as long as you want, but I have to get back.  They might notice I'm gone.  We'll talk when I come back tonight."

I opened the trap door under the staircase and went down first to flip on the light switch, then watched as Judy's legs appeared from the hole in the dropped ceiling.  She knelt atop the stairs, waved at me, and climbed into the vent.

When she was gone, I went to the next and final trap door, the one that led to Level A, which I had yet to explore.  I probably stood there for five minutes, terrified that
when I climbed down Clifton would be there, waiting for me in the dark.

Okay, Melissa, just breathe, grow some balls, and do it already.

The last time I saw Clifton was the night Kate and I hid from him in the closet.  That felt like such a long time ago, and the fact that I hadn't seen him since disturbed me.  All those years he'd spend tunneling his way from Level A to Level B, from Level B to Level C to Level D, walling off sections of rooms where no one would notice, building those staircases, erecting the rope ladders.