The Breeders Series: The Complete Box Set

by Katie French

  I swallow hard and feel myself nodding. “Sir, none of the treatments have taken. I’ve followed every order, taken the hormones—”

  He cuts me off with a wave of his hand. The doctor behind him clears his throat like what I’m saying is making him uncomfortable. Sabrina shoots me a terrified glance.

  “And you’re…how old?” He lifts one of the papers on his chart. “Sixteen?”

  I nod. Swallow. Feel like I’m going to die.

  “Almost seventeen,” the doctor behind him says, pointing to the clipboard.

  “I have two months,” I blurt out.

  Nanny Bell appears in the doorway. Her face is just as afraid as Sabrina’s.

  Dr. Bashees looks at the chart and then at me. “Two months, six months, ten months. Really, what’s the sense in prolonging the inevitable? It’ll be harder for everyone if we draw this out.”

  My legs turn to jelly and I dip down, gripping the bed to keep from falling to the floor. There’s a pounding in my ears, making the rest of what Dr. Bashees says just a muffled thudding.

  Today’s the day, I think. The day I die.

  Sabrina stands up. “Please, sir. She has one more treatment. It might take.” She tugs on Dr. Bashees’ sleeve. He looks at her hand, and she pulls it back. He nods to the doctors beside him. They stride forward.

  “Come with us,” the one on the left says, reaching for my arms.

  This time when my legs give out, I tumble to the floor. My bottom hits the tile and my head bangs against my bed frame. The world is spinning.

  The doctors grab my arms and pull upward.

  Nanny Bell is at my side. “Dr. Bashees, this girl has served the hospital for years. She is our best courier. She’s trusted with an all-access pass.” Bell’s eyes flick from Dr. Bashees to me and back.

  Dr. Bashees frowns and strokes his trim beard. “That’s all well and good, Bell, but we can get a boy from the town to run packages for a fish sandwich.”

  Nanny Bell blocks the door, stopping the doctors from dragging me out. “Isn’t it bad for morale to go against procedure? Won’t it frighten the other girls if you start releasing them willy-nilly? You want everyone here scared as piss you’re going to sell them when the budget gets tight?” She gestures to the girls who have gathered around my door.

  Dr. Bashees strides to Bell, leans toward her. His eyes blaze in a way I’ve never seen. “I don’t need to explain my decisions to a nanny. She’s going!”

  He strides past Bell, past the girls that part before him. The doctors tug on my arms and I half-walk, half-stumble down the hall where they lead me. Sabrina starts to cry as I’m shuffled along.

  This can’t be happening. This cannot be happening.

  They pull me to the elevator. I look over my shoulder. Bell stands in the middle of the hallway, silently crying. She signs stay strong with quick fingers on her chest. With my arms pinioned, I can’t answer. I’m tugged into the elevator.

  When the doors shut, a panic hits me so hard I start choking. Dr. Bashees examines me and shakes his head. “She’s faking.”

  They say nothing as I gasp for air. Each breath is a tortured struggle. Maybe I’ll die right here.

  I never got to give Sabrina her ribbon. It’s still in my pocket. I need to give her the ribbon.

  The elevator dings at the first floor. They drag me out into the black-and-white checkered hallway. I think about last night. About Dr. Houghtson’s offer. It’s too late now. I think about Robbie. Is he here? Will he hear my asthmatic breathing and come out of a storage closet? But he doesn’t appear as they usher me down the hall, through a door, and down some steps. The air cools. A humming vibrates my body.

  None of this feels real.

  Dr. Bashees opens another door and they drag me through. We step out into the garage. The humming sound is a battered truck, pieced together with spare parts. A man stands beside it, an outsider. He turns around as he hears us.

  It’s Rukus. I’d know him in an instant with his wild lion-mane hair and pointed teeth. He smiles wickedly.

  “No,” I whisper through trembling lips. “No, please!”

  Yanking my arms back, I struggle and kick. They grip me hard and drag me forward.

  Dr. Bashees strides next to us. “Get ahold of yourself. This is embarrassing!”

  I don’t look at him. I look at Rukus. His teeth are points. His fingers are dirty. In one hand, he holds a leather collar and leash.

  “Please!” I scream, yanking back and forth against the doctors that drag me onward. “I have two months!”

  Rukus smiles.

  “Where’s Dr. Houghtson? I want to talk to Dr. Houghtson!” I scream, locking a foot around a metal pole to stop them from dragging me further.

  “I’m here. Stop!”

  We all look toward the open doorway. At the top of the stairs, Dr. Houghtson stands. In his arms, he carries a lifeless girl with black hair and long, thin arms. Her head flops to the side as he struggles her down the stairs. Is she unconscious or dead?

  “This is a much more suitable girl for your needs,” he says, straining to carry her limp body down the stairs. He smiles weakly and then pauses to whisper to Dr. Bashees. It’s quiet, but I strain to hear. “The girls are in a frenzy. They’re upset you breeched protocol and released this one early.” He nods to me. Then he looks down at the girl in his arms. “This girl has been on sedation for the last month. No one will miss her.”

  My skin prickles. No one will miss her? Dear God, how awful. I recognize her. It’s Alma, a girl I barely knew. She disappeared a month ago. And he’s right, as awful as it is. I didn’t miss her.

  “Is she even breathing?” the wild man asks, looking suspicious. His tongue probes a fanged tooth.

  “Oh yes,” Dr. Houghtson says, carrying Alma toward the man. “You can look her over, but you’ll see she’s very healthy. More than suitable for your…purposes.”

  My stomach churns. I want to die. I want to go out like a candle. Melt onto the concrete.

  Dr. Houghtson lays the girl inside the wild man’s truck bed, and the man begins inspecting her. Dr. Houghtson walks over to Dr. Bashees. “Well?”

  Dr. Bashees stares at him, and then at the wild man. “You really think this will settle the girls down? Even if she’s sold in two months?”

  Dr. Houghtson nods. “The girls love order. They need it. If we show them they can trust us, they’ll do whatever we say.”

  His words hit me like a ton of bricks. He’s not just talking about the girls upstairs. He’s talking about me. With this act, he seals my fate. He owns me.

  Dr. Bashees sighs and heads back up the stairs. The other doctors release me, but a hand replaces their grasp. Dr. Houghtson holds my arm. He smiles and whispers close to my ear. “This way, darling.”

  Chapter 5

  Janine

  Sabrina throws herself at me as I stride in the door. I stumble back, crushed under her weight.

  “Oh, God, Jan, I thought you were gone. I ran down the hallway, banging on the elevator doors, but an orderly dragged me back. I almost got sedated.” Her chest heaves with sobs, and she strokes my head over and over.

  Slowly, I pry myself from her grasp and stumble to the bed. Everything feels like a dream. My life is different now. An image of Dr. Houghtson stroking my hair floats forward in my mind.

  “What happened?” Sabrina says, flopping on my bed. “How’d you talk them out of selling you?”

  “I didn’t,” I whisper. My hand reaches into my pocket. I pull the ribbon out and drop it in Sabrina’s lap. “Here. Before they take me again.”

  Sabrina picks up the red ribbon and starts sobbing. Her arms fling around me. “Oh Jan,” she says, “I’m so glad you’re back.”

  “Enough of that caterwauling,” a voice says from the door.

  Bell stands in our doorway. Any sign that she’s been crying has been wiped from her face. She frowns at Sabrina. “Give the girl some breathing room. She’s just had a scare.”

 
; Sabrina backs away, but her hand is still clamped around mine.

  I look up at Bell. “They let me stay,” I whisper. “He gave them Alma instead.”

  “Alma?” Sabrina asks. “Alma with the black hair?”

  I nod.

  “I thought she was moved to another floor.” Sabrina’s face has gone white.

  I shake my head. “Dr. Houghtson said she was sedated.”

  “Dr. Houghtson was there?” Bell asks, her eyes narrowing.

  I nod sluggishly and drop my head in my hands. “It was that awful man. The one who was here earlier. She belongs to him, and I’m allowed to go back to my life.” Tears puddle in my palms. I smear them onto my cheeks.

  Bell strides across the room, presses her lips to my ear, and whispers. “It’s not your fault. It’s Dr. Bashees and his dwindling bank account. There’s trouble in town. Riots. Looting. Their supply runs have been hijacked. They’re looking for other sources of income.” She stands up, smoothing a hand down her coveralls.

  That’s why they came early. Because I’m worth something. I fall back on the bed, my body constricting. I’ll become so small no one can see me. Slipping through the cracks, I’ll live in the walls and drink the tears of the girls being sold.

  Bell grabs my wrist and tugs me upright so fast my head snaps back. “Stop it,” she whispers harshly. “Stop giving in to this. You are alive. I won’t let you wallow in self-pity like a baby.”

  My hurt turns to anger. I glare at her. “What do you know? You don’t have to worry. You can live your life, eat dinner with your friends, and go up and rock your babies. You won’t ever be sold or bought as someone’s wife!” I realize I’m screaming. Pressing my hands to my face, I shake my head. I shouldn’t have yelled. I shouldn’t have raised my voice to Nanny.

  When she draws my hands away, Bell is kneeling before me. “What do you mean—bought as someone’s wife?”

  I lick my lips and whisper. “Dr. Houghtson says he’s going to buy me. I’m going to be his wife. I have no choice now.”

  Bell leans back on her heels as the words settle in. Sabrina turns to me with big eyes. “That’s why he never lets any other doctor see you.”

  Bell grips my arm. “You only see Houghtson?”

  I look between two faces. “Isn’t that how it is for everyone?”

  Sabrina shakes her head. “I see all the doctors. Whoever’s on duty. All the girls are like that. Except you. I thought you needed some treatment only he was trained in. But…”

  Waves and waves of chills rack my body. Dr. Houghtson has been my doctor for four years. I think of his hands on me. How he washes and washes after he’s touched me.

  I look up at Bell, the woman who raised me, who taught me everything I know about the world. “What do I do?” I whisper.

  Her face hardens into a look of determination I’ve only seen a few other times. “Leave it to me.” She’s gone before I can say another word.

  Sabrina and I stare at the empty doorway. She lets go of my hand and holds the ribbon up to the light. Its satin finish shines. “Where’d you get it?” she asks, tying it around her head.

  I help her straighten the ends and fluff the bow. “Robbie. He already had it for me. Didn’t even have to ask.”

  “That’s who you should marry,” she says softly, getting up to look at herself in the window’s reflection.

  “Who? Robbie?” I walk over beside her and see what a mess my hair has become. I take out my braid and untangle the knots.

  “He’s sweet on you,” she says, watching me. “Always bringing you things.” She helps me smooth a lump of hair at the top of my head and watches me braid. “You know, for a long time, I was jealous of you. You’re so beautiful with your dark hair and oh-so-perfect lips.” She turns and looks at her face in the window’s reflection. “But maybe it’s better to be ugly.”

  I snort as I secure the end of my braid with a rubber band. “You’re not ugly.”

  When she turns to face me, she’s pulled her nose up like a pig and oinks.

  “It’ll stay that way,” I say, mimicking Nanny Hannah.

  She drops the pig face and makes another by pulling her eyes to tiny slits and sticking out her buck teeth. “That’s what I’m saying. Ugly is better.”

  Trying to play along, I stick my fingers in the corners of my mouth and loll out my tongue. It’s a forced happiness, but it makes Sabrina smile.

  “There, see. Dr. Houghtson won’t want you now.” She tugs my arm. “Come on. The moo cows will eat all the breakfast.”

  I dread the cafeteria, but I let her tug me there anyway. We push through the doors into a bustling room, lined with tables crammed shoulder to shoulder with girls. I peek at the trays as we make our way up the aisles to the serving line. Baked white fish, soupy carrots, and bread. Boring is better than experimental. Like the time they got a shipment of canned beans and one of the nannies tried out an ancient chili recipe. Forty girls got food poisoning and the bathrooms were wrecked for a week.

  We grab plastic trays and slide them down the line. They plop down carrots in a sauce that looks like snot, but at least I’m here instead of being violated in the back of Rukus’ truck. I weave prayers for Alma in my mind, but in my heart, I know they’ll do no good. She’ll wake up chained and stay that way until she dies. And it’s my fault.

  “Move along,” one of the nannies croaks.

  Sabrina leans in to inspect my face. “Ground control to Jan. You’re drifting out to space.”

  “You’ve been watching too much Buck Rogers,” I say, handing my tray over to the last hair-netted nanny. She plunks the bread onto the tray.

  Sabrina follows close behind. “I know you were run through the ringer this morning, but you gotta let it go or they’ll sedate you. You don’t want to end up like Lulu.” Our eyes flick to the back table where Lulu sits alone, her head dipping into her carrots, her long, matted hair over her eyes. Her fingernails have been gnawed clean off and her shirt is on backward. Lulu was once a very angry girl. Now she’s addicted to pills.

  Sabrina sighs. “The poor babies that pop out of that belly.”

  We find a quiet table near the back. The rest of the D Hall girls are clustered a few tables up, but Sabrina and I don’t eat with them. They’re pretty bitter.

  I pick at my food, thinking of Alma and Dr. Houghtson. Sabrina stabs carrots and tries to angle them into my mouth like I’m a baby, but I shove her fork away.

  Sabrina grabs my bread and is about to airplane it in my mouth when we see them approaching, Breanne and Micha. I don’t see Charlene, but she can’t be far behind. My body stiffens. Sabrina goes rigid beside me.

  “Heard you almost got put out,” Breanne says, sliding her pregnant body into the bench across from us. Micha does the same, easing her giant belly down and puffing out an exhausted breath. When you’re that pregnant, even sitting down is tiring. It’s amazing that I want something like that, but I do.

  Breanne leans forward. “I said, I heard you almost got put out.” She grabs the bread off Sabrina’s tray and starts chewing. “Why are you still here?”

  I stare at her face, splattered in orange freckles like her orange hair, the color I imagine Opie’s is from the Andy Griffith Show. When I don’t speak, she slams a palm down on the table. “Are you traumatized? Can’t speak anymore?”

  “Leave her alone,” Sabrina says, gripping her fork. “Let her eat.”

  Breanne laughs with a mouthful of bread. Micha leans forward. “You taking her food, turtle? That why you’re so fat?”

  Sabrina raises the fork in her fist, but I push it down. “You can have our bread,” I say, flicking mine off the tray toward Micha. “Just leave us alone.”

  “How generous,” Micha says, taking the slice and tucking it into a pocket. “Is that how you convinced them to let you stay? By doing something generous?”

  My skin prickles as they laugh. I know what they’re implying, and it hits too close to home. I lower my eyes.

  �
�You fat heifers,” Sabrina says, placing both palms on the table. “Micha, I hear the only generous one around here is Dr. Merriweather. He gave you that, didn’t he?” Sabrina nods toward Micha’s swollen belly.

  I look up, stunned. Dr. Merriweather was fooling around with Micha, too? The bloom on Micha’s cheeks tells the truth. Her face morphs from shock to anger to ferocity. Sabrina shouldn’t—

  Micha grabs a cup of steaming hot coffee and slings it at Sabrina’s face. Sabrina howls, pushing back, her hands tugging at her hot, wet clothing. Black droplets drip from the red bow on her head. Her trembling hands touch the solitary pink rose on her chest, now stained.

  “You bitch!” she screams as she lunges across the table at Micha.

  Arms and legs and shouts and curses. I reach for Sabrina, but can’t get a grip on her. She grabs Micha by the collar and pulls her across the tabletop. Micha is clawing, hands out, mouth open. Breanne steps back and gestures for the orderlies who are running toward us. A Taser comes out of an orderly’s pocket.

  “Sabrina, stop!” I yank back her arm. Her face is twisted with rage. She slams Micha’s head down onto the tabletop with an awful thunk. “She’s nine months pregnant!” I yell. “Please, Sabrina!”

  Someone pulls me back. I stumble a few steps before getting my footing. The orderly who pulled me away grabs Sabrina’s arm and drags her off Micha. She falls over the bench seat, and lands bottom first on the tile. A yelp barks out of her mouth. The orderly jabs his arm forward. Is he going to punch her?

  A zap crackles through the air. Sabrina’s body stiffens, convulses. Her jaws snap with awful clacking sounds. Her muscles tighten and retract. She jerks like a fish on a line. Her eyes roll up behind her fluttering eyelids.

  He’s shocked her. It’s too awful to watch.

  And then it’s over. The orderly stands up, panting. He looks at Sabrina, prone on the floor. Then he looks at me.

  “Are we done here?” he asks me as if I’m in charge.

  I nod. “Yes.” Sabrina moans from the floor. “Can I take my friend back to our room?”

  He glances between Sabrina and Micha, blood trickling down her forehead. It’s just a scratch, but he furrows his eyebrows. “No. She’ll have to go up for review.”