Phin and I release tears of joy as his tentacles caress the hatchlings within my belly. He lowers my thighs with infinite care and caresses myfeet on the metal stirrups. I can’t believe we lived. I open my mouth to spill loving nonsense to Phin when Leopold appears behind him with a long syringe. The needle pierces Phin beneath the ear as my screams fill the room. He falls to the floor with a chorus of thuds. Leopold’s looming figure over me is the last thing I remember before a prick at my neck makes everything go black.
Chapter 7
My head pounds. I keep my eyes closed to gather sensory information and to shut out the blooming migraine. What’s that taste in my mouth? It’s like I’ve eaten a bucket of sand. Memories flood back of Phin, his eggs, hormonal goop, and Leopold—becoming one of diabolical Leopold’s experiments. Why does it stink in here? The chemicals burn my nose and intensify the burn in my throat.
“I know you’re awake, so you can stop playing possum, Harriett.”
Would it have been asking too much to wake to Phin’s voice and not Leopold’s? I’d rather be thrown in a pit with Phineas than in the lap of luxury next to Leopold. Light singes my brain when I open my eyes. He’s got a million oil lanterns in this tinyspace, all pointed at me! I groan in annoyance and throw my arms over my face.
“What stinks?”
“Carbolic acid spray,” Leopold murmurs as he pulls a long thread from within my vagina. Is he sewing? “Lister, an innovative man, says that spraying the birthing area, instruments, and patients with this stuff lessens occurrences of sepsis. We can’t risk losing you, right?”
I roll my eyes. If he didn’t kill every egg he tried to incubate without a mother, he’d be performing my autopsy.Good, that’s good.Focusing on what I learned while cleaning his lab will help me plot my escape. I’d give anything to know where he hid Phin, but if I ask Leopold, it may detonate his temper. However, he can’t hurt me without risking the eggs.
No matter how much we disagree, neither of us wants to risk the hatchlings’ wellbeing.
“I’ve unbuckled your arms so your shoulders don’t lock. But I won’t hesitate to restrain you again if you struggle,” Leopold says from between my knees. “Of course, you probably don’t want to bump me while I’m stitching the tears inside you. He did a number on your cervix. We can’t have you dropping those eggs, can we? Unless you care to fry them for me.”
His chuckle grates on my nerves. My ankles are still tied, or I’d kick him in his smug face…stitches or nostitches.
“Oh, lighten up, Harriett,” he says, returning to his work inside me. “I remember our friends saying you were the fun one.”
I don’t answer him. Instead, I return to collecting data like he would if our roles were switched. Every twitch of my waist reminds me of the double-bent spoon Leopold holds inside my stretched-open birth canal. Someone, hopefully Phin and not Mr. Breyers, bathed me. Leopold wouldn’t lift a finger to clean his other pets, so I doubt I would be treated differently. He did draw guidelines and measurement markings all over my body with charcoal. If the eggs grow or shift, he’ll want to know. It’s sad that if I manage to escape, he will miss the scientific opportunity more than me.
“He roughed you up,” Leopold says after the silence makes the air between us too thick to breathe. “But, my observations, you’ll heal in no time.”
“I’m proud to wear his marks,” I mumble as I trace the sucker prints on my upper arm. My thighs have red polka dots and pink slashes from Phin’s amorous tentacles. Two large handprints bruise my hips from Phin lifting me against the straps. The abrasions around my wrists are probably nothing compared to what lies beneath my ankle restraints. “It’s as if he wrote his name on my skinto claim me as his own.”
“Phineas doesn’t have the brain capacity for such foolishness—”
“Oh, he does, I can assure you. He thinks with his heart, which has more capacity for love than a man, so if you doubt his brain power, don’t underestimate his heart,” I say wistfully. I cross my arms over my breasts to hug myself.Please let Phin be okay…
“We can’t be talking about the same Phineas. I’ve tested his IQ over the years. He’s dumber than a box of rocks, but then again, so are you. Why am I surprised you found one another?”
“You didn’t always find me stupid, you chose to marry me—”
“As a favor to your father,” he sneers as he cuts his sewing line with massive scissors. He drops the instruments on the metal table he’s wheeled to my bedside…err…table side. “You should look upset if you’re pretending you didn’t know, or at least suspect, that we had a deal.”
“Why? I’m stupid, remember? Just like your other wives,” I huff. I play at jealousy to get him to spill Phin’s backstory. Phin calls him Papa, but is he really Phin’s father or just the scientist who created him? His life had to come from some womb, one large enough to incubate a human…or was he an egg? I run my hand over my lumpy belly. It’s warm to the touch despite the chill in the room.
“Maybe I underestimated you,” Leopold’s gasp of surprise gives me more satisfaction than it should. “You are my fourth wife and, by far, the ugliest of the bunch. Ever wonder how I could live without marital relations?”
“I thought it was a case of impotence, like limp dick or something.”
“Such a vulgar mouth to match your hideous features,” he says between tsks. He wipes his hands on a bloodstained towel. Ha! Who will wash that while I’m strapped to the table? “Have you seen yourself lately?”
He retrieves a blood-splattered mirror from the table on wheels. He flashes me in the eyes before correcting the angle so I can see myself. My left eye is red around my brown iris, where I popped a blood vessel seeking orgasms. My lips are bruised with chapped edges, the corners cracked. I knew I was dehydrated. The pointy features staring back at me are the same I see every day. I stick out my tongue and smile at the indentations left by Phin’s suckers.
“Beastly woman,” he mutters as he takes the mirror back.
“Made for a beastly male.” I purposely say male instead of man to punctuate my preference for Phin over Leopold. Human or not.
“Phin’s mother, Maria, was a beauty who never failedto stir my passions. She birthed all sorts of magnificent specimens. How many have you fucked, dear? Don’t blush when you spoke plainly first.”
“Specimens?” I squeak with horror.
“Phin’s brothers and sisters fill the swamp. Didn’t you know? You decided to skinny dip with your stepchildren. Did they pleasure you as well as Phin?”
