“What Phin and I have is special—”
“After how many days? My poor Harriett! The poor, ugly wife, so desperate for a man’s attention that she projected her feelings onto a monster. Look where that got you. Legs held open for anyone who may enter the room, but don’t shiver, dearest, no man will touch a slut full of eggs.”
“Don’t make what we have into something as foul and corrupt as you,” I say in a shaky voice. “You pinned me down. You won’t let me retire to my chambers. You are the monster who tortures these poor creatures in the name of science! Do you want to know what I think?”
“Not really, but I can’t stop you from telling me without strangling you…” He wheels his table of instruments to the sink by the door with clangs and tinkles. The water blasts at full strength, drowning out any words I’d say.
“I think you use science as a cover for your realperversions—”
“I am a brilliant scientist! Take that back!” He shuts off the water and turns to shake his fist at me.
Finally, I’ve burrowed under his thick skin. Rational talking isn’t revealing where he’s stashed Phin, so maybe knocking him off balance will trick him. “You’re a pervert and a deviant. Nothing more!”
“I’m the most brilliant mind of our time! I’ve created life! Life! Life the world has never seen before!”
“Then you’re a woman,” I say with a hysterical laugh. “Women bring lives into the world every day. We have since the first creatures inhaled the first breath of life. How do you think we got here?”
“I don’t duplicate creatures like a vapid woman. I create new! I am a god!”
“A god still isn’t a scientist,” I say in a frosty voice. “You’ve forgotten what good, ethical science is. Isolated out here, there’s no one to question the limits of your depravity. You are in your natural state…like Satan himself.”
He picks up the tray of instruments from the table on wheels. Is he about to chuck it at me? A crash at the sink makes me jump as he slams the tray down. The instruments clatter at the bottom of the sink as they settle.
“No control,” I murmur with no inflection. “No ethics. No checks and balances. That’s not science. What you say is law only because nobody’s in your lab with you.”
“Control? Control? How can you prattle on about control when you’re tied to a table with your legs in the air? You gave away agency to your body because you were delirious with lust. Your hunger for cock clouded your judgment, or did it uncover who you are inside?”
The wisps of hair he has left stand on end like stalks of wheat in a barren field. His red-ringed eyes carry black bags of exhaustion. While I slept, he didn’t. He’s used to marathon sessions in his lab, but probably not the physical exertion of stalking us in the swamp, returning to the lab, the perversion of watching us breed, the cleanup, and whatever transpired to remove Phin from this room. His weariness is his weakness.
He must sleep sometime.
“I’d say you’re in a better position to see what I’ve got inside than me. This is the most interest you’ve shown in my cunt in our marriage. Is it because you want what Phin had? Is it because you secretly wish you carried eggs? If you aren’t curious about how I stack up compared to Maria, then why are my legs still splayed apart for you?” I goad him in the hopes he slackens some more straps. My toes wiggle, shooting electric pain down my legs as the blood resumes circulation.
“You don’t hold a candle to Maria,” he mutters.His wild visage scares me to my core. He stalks to my side and rips the leather from the buckles on my ankles. With a fiendish grin, he drops my foot so it swings to the floor instead of resting on the stirrup.
The pain fills my head with stars. A coyote howl echoes in the small room. It must be mine. Tears flood my ears and neck as he frees the opposite ankle with the same violence. I sob openly at the agony. I’ve never wanted my heart to stop pumping so badly. Each drop of blood brings a thousand needles to my poor, abused feet. I curl my legs to my chest to ease the onslaught. My body trembles as Leopold approaches the side of the table.
He kisses my tear-soaked cheek as he releases the middle strap under the table.
I’m disgusted but free.
Without a second look, he returns to the sink to clean his instruments. Pity if they rusted. The care he administers to each piece of metal renews the tears falling down my cheeks. What if he could value those around him as much as those tools?
Showing little care—even his animals wouldn’t be so spiteful. I’m forgotten, like his other caged hybrids…and the ones in the swamp. How many other sentient creatures live on the grounds? Are they happy? Resentful? How do they eat, survive the Kentucky winters, or evade discovery by our recluse neighbor, Lovecraft? Surely he’s seen creatures prowling on his property… It’s not like there’s a wall.
“What happened to Maria?” I ask once I find my bearings. Might as well go for broke, seeing as I’m a heartbeat from him beating me.
“Died delivering eggs,” he says sadly. Compassion bubbles into my bosom. “She never delivered more than one or two at a time, but I got greedy and wanted three. Even after multiple litters, her body couldn’t handle three. How many did you beg Phin to give you yesterday?”
“Six,” I mumble with a gulp of fear.
“Ah well, let’s hope you know your body best.”
He rinses the straps and lays them to dry with his instruments. The mundane chores at a leisurely pace do more to unnerve me than his warning. Someone kept this room neat as a pin while I struggled to maintain order in his other messy lab. How can he torture multiple people without his rotten conscience eating his insides? He’s reduced me to an incubator without an ounce of remorse…like his previous wife, who he seemed to like more than me. Is this the man I must rely on to keep me alive as I deliver these eggs?
“Will I have a midwife—to help at the delivery?”
He shoots me a frown that says it all.
