Everyone's Favorite Girl

by Steph Sweeney

  “You two can go. You’re no longer needed.”

  The smile persisted. “You don’t mind if we have breakfast first.”

  Mr. Grey would not fall from grace. Neither would his quiet friend. We seemed to have a lot of their type in this company. Just another James. Just another wannabe Sean.

  “This is a staff meeting, so no, you can’t have breakfast. Don’t make me repeat myself.”

  “I’ll be telling James about this,” Grey said.

  “Do that,” I said. “Right now, actually, and when you’re done send him down here. But you two stay gone. You don’t work down here anymore.”

  With that, they left.

  The lab techs just stood there, waiting for me to tell them what to do. I was beginning to wonder if I even needed to drug them.

  “Good morning everyone. I think I’ve met you all before, but in case not my name is Melissa and I’m going to be running things down here from now on. First order of business, let’s eat some freakin’ food.”

  I’d set up the disposable plates, silverware, and napkins at the end of the table near the door. I stood at the other end, where I’d lined up 2-liters of soda, half-gallons of milk, and a few different blends of juices.

  Damien was first in line. When he approached me with a plate domed over with pancakes, he held up his notebook to show me the note he’d scribbled earlier:

  When you shut down

  you lose a full batch.

  That made me a little nervous. I began to wonder how much money that cost the company, what Mr. Shriver would do if he found out. Ridiculous, when you consider I was about to do something much, much worse.

  “It’s okay,” I reassured him. “This has all been approved.”

  I poured him a glass of orange juice and he walked over to a table, sat, and began dousing his pancakes with syrup.

  The two girls were next. They each had a single biscuit, a single strip of bacon, and a small handful of strawberries and blueberries. When I handed them their orange juice, they smiled and ducked their heads and thanked me.

  The remaining three young men were all quiet, antisocial types. No eye-contact, no emotional expression. I couldn’t tell if they were nervous, pissed off, or high as a kite.

  When it came to the last one, he declined his orange juice.

  “No thanks,” he said. “Citrus upsets my stomach. I’ll just have milk.”

  “The milk is for the girls,” I said. “You guys get orange juice.”

  “Water then.”

  “There’s no water either.”

  He pointed. “There’s a sink right over there.”

  “You’re really going to drink tap water?”

  “Yes,” he said, “if you’ll let me by.”

  “You don’t need water,” I said. “Just take the damn orange juice and stop being a baby.”

  Several people laughed. I hadn’t noticed they were all staring at me with wide eyes and open-mouthed smiles. They’d all had their medicine.

  The lab tech with stomach issues turned back and saw them, and when his eyes met again with mine I could tell he knew what I’d done.

  And that he was next.

  I tossed the drink in his face and he doubled over, crying about his eyes.

  But only for a moment. He quickly stood and, with the same silly smile, began to marvel over me.

  Now that I had everyone’s attention, I made my announcement:

  “Ladies and gentlemen, we will not be producing and shipping out barrels of the Libido Drug. Instead, we will ship out barrels full of water.”

  This is normally the part when some brave and wise soul—Damien, perhaps, with his scribbling—steps up to inform me that I’m going to get us all killed, but that didn’t happen.

  They all just nodded.

  “If anyone comes snooping around down here, though, we tell them we’re shipping Libido. Got it?”

  “Got it,” they all chimed.

  “And not a word of it to the girls,” I added. “I’m gonna go wake them.”

  Along the way, I thought about how to tell Judy she had six more people to keep drugged every day.

  By three o’clock, the girls and I had a semi-trailer stacked to the ceiling with barrels of water on pallets. I told them it was time to call it a day, and I began taking them in groups up to Level D, as many as I could fit in the elevator at a time.

  The older Glow Girls piled in first, pushing their way to the front of the line, wary of getting stuck in the elevator with a bunch of Frog Girls. I preferred to surprise Patton with an assortment of them, but that was due to my prejudice, not his. Patton loved these girls equally, no matter their behavior and personality. After all, they were made to be that way.

  When we reached Level D, I took the Glow Girls to the cafeteria. After a hard day’s work even the Glow Girls, who ate like birds, were hungry.

  On the third trip, a mix of Frogs, Giggles, and a few Floras, I ran into Ms. Lane at the cafeteria entrance. She had tears streaming down her wrinkly cheeks.

  “Is this permanent?” she asked.

  “They still have to work in the warehouse every day,” I told her, “but now they get to come back up here when they’re done.”

  She gave me a tender, bony hug and started to walk away.

  “Where’s Patton?” I asked.

  “In his apartment. When the school day ends, he locks himself in there and doesn’t come out till morning.”

  Disturbing, but at least it meant I could sneak all the Favorite Girls back up here and surprise him with the whole gang all at once.

  The last batch was mostly preteen and early teenage Vampires and Floras, with a single ten-year-old Diamond Girl. We barely fit, and after half a dozen trips I was quite annoyed when the elevator stopped on Level C.

  As the door opened, I said, with an obvious twinge of impatience, “There’s no room, you’ll have to wait.”

  I had to wedge myself between two Vampires to see who it was.

  Kate, looking haggard—maybe even drunk?

  The doors tried to close but she put her hand out.

  “There’s no room, Kate. You’ll have to wait.”

  “I need on now,” she said. “Someone can get off and wait here.”

  “Take your hand off the door.”

  “No.”

  Power doesn’t come with a title or a keycard. It’s something you have to develop. It didn’t matter that I’d been personally sanctioned by Mr. Shriver himself. Kate would destroy herself if it meant hurting me.

  Pushing my way to the doors, I lunged at Kate and threw her back so hard she landed on her ass. I grabbed her by the hair and dragged her across the lobby kicking and screaming.

  “Take the elevator to Level D and go to the cafeteria!” I called out to the girls.

  I continued to yank at Kate’s hair, sometimes dragging her and sometimes just spinning her around in a circle, until the elevator closed.

  “Bitch!” Kate was crying. “Let me go!”

  I let go and she crawled away, leaving a clump of hair in my hand.

  That was when I noticed I had an audience. Lab techs, a janitor, two of the cafeteria ladies, and Sean, who stood at the back hallway entrance, hands in his pockets.

  I approached him, happy to remove myself from the blubbering, screeching mess on the floor.

  “What did you do to piss your brother off?” I asked him, wadding Kate’s hair into a ball.

  “Nothing.”

  “It wasn’t the fact that you were selling Favorite Girls for employees’ paychecks?”

  He shrugged.

  “What’s he got you
doing now?” I asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “So I guess you’ve got some free time, then. Want to do me a favor?” I held out the wad of hair. Sean glanced at it and looked away. “I want you to lock Kate up.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t care.”

  “The only cells we have are on Level E. I no longer have access.”

  It was the prostitution that landed Sean in the shithouse, I was sure of it. That and James’s drug-induced charm.

  “The Showcase Hall then,” I said.

  Sean cracked a smile. “You’re a sadistic cunt, you know that?”

  “Tell her I’ll be down to see her in a little bit.”

  “Is that an order?”

  This time I smiled. “I suppose it is.”

  I started to walk away, but the change in Sean’s tone inspired an immediate fear of having my back to him.

  “You know this thing with James won’t last long,” he said. “Mr. Shriver misses having a son. That’s all it is. It won’t take long for him to get tired of having a nose up his ass. Tread carefully, you fucking twat.”

  He stormed past me, but for a split second I thought he was attacking. He scooped Kate off the ground with no effort and slung her over his shoulder. Kate cried out in pain but she didn’t resist him. She’d probably grown accustomed to the consequences of doing so.

  I waited until the elevator returned from Level B.

  Then I rode it upstairs and went to Patton’s apartment.

  I told him everything, starting with cutting the device from Flora’s arm. It took ten minutes to get past this part. Patton drilled me with questions as to Flora’s state of health. Finally I resolved to bring her to him tonight for an examination.

  He had a difficult time believing we were keeping James drugged—an even harder time believing I’d just done the same to half a dozen lab techs, then instructed them to ship out barrels of water in place of the Libido Drug.

  “You’re crazy, Melissa. Fucking crazy. I give it three days at best before this shit comes back on you.”

  “I don’t need three days.”

  “What do you mean? What are you going to do?”

  I sighed and stood from the couch. “I’m going to end this. Even if it means bringing us all down with it. Enough is enough, Patton. Judy says she’s close to something that can save us. If she doesn’t pull through for us, the next time I see Mr. Shriver, I’m going to drug him, take him upstairs, and kill him. Who cares if we all go to prison? Prison will be better than this place.”

  Patton looked too tired to argue. He looked like he’d spent all day weeping for Flora—the one I’d killed right in front of him.

  “It comes down to this,” he said after a moment. “Just killing him. Something I could have done a long time ago. Only I was too selfish. I felt like I didn’t deserve to die or go to prison, so I just let this…evil…continue.”

  “Well,” I said, with a long, awkward pause empty of consolation. “At least it’s almost over.”

  Judy insisted that James come along with us to Level B. She seemed eager, like a proud child coming home with all As on her report card. I hoped that meant good news and not a repeat of when she intervened in Brian’s conspiracy. Sometimes the most dangerous people start out with good intentions.

  We didn’t talk until we reached Level B. All the lights were off, as per usual, but I still spoke in a whisper, knowing James, my loyal servant, would do the same. Judy always spoke softly, so if anyone was around, they’d have a hard time hearing us.

  I made my confession about the lab techs, ready to face Judy’s rebuke. I expect her to inform me that she was incapable of keeping seven people drugged at all times, that my presumptuous blunder would cost us all our lives when we were so close to escape.

  Instead, she just shrugged and said, “Good move. I’ll take care of it.”

  “How often do you have to drug James?”

  She smiled. “Three times daily.”

  A lump formed in my throat. I hadn’t realized the lab techs would require that much maintenance. When I got the idea, I figured all she’d have to do was call a mandatory employee meeting every morning and serve up the day’s dosage in a cup of coffee or a donut.

  “Are you sure you can handle all that?” I asked.

  “I won’t need to for much longer.”

  We came into the lobby and I broke from them long enough to step over to the pit. Sure enough, the bartender was still there. Since Sean no longer had access to the cells on Level E, and since I hadn’t instructed James to deal with him, this appeared to be the poor bastard’s permanent home.

  “I’m thirsty,” he said, startling me a little. With his slumped posture, I thought he was unconscious.

  I walked away, expecting him to beg. He didn’t.

  “When we’re done, I need you to do me a favor,” I said to James, catching up to them at a door in the back left corner of the room.

  “Okay.”

  Judy opened the door and James went inside. It didn’t even occur to him to ask what the favor would be.

  What girl wouldn’t stockpile vials of Love Drug in her purse?

  Judy was holding the door for me. I couldn’t tell if she was being polite or stalling. This was Brian’s bedroom.

  Bracing myself to discover something horrific—walls decorated with creepy taxidermy, big glass tubes with failed experiments floating inside, human skulls mounted on the bedposts—I stepped through the door.

  When I reached the next intersection, I had to guess which way to go: left or right? Luckily I made the correct choice, then again at the next intersection. Up ahead I could hear the fan blowing.

  And something else.

  A breathy voice, directly to my left.

  Without thinking, I shined my flashlight at the vent cover and my heart started pounding as I realized what I’d done. I turned the light off and stiffened up, afraid to move, waiting to hear the voice again, certain I’d given myself away.

  “Yeah. Suck it baby.”

  Brian’s voice.

  He wasn’t alone.

  “Fuck yeah, that’s it.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. He was preoccupied. He hadn’t seen the light.

  “Slower … slower you dumb bitch. That’s it. There you go.”

  In spite of my anxiety, I couldn’t help but allow my hatred of him to resurface. Some poor girl—some poor employee—giving him head in the dark, and he didn’t have the decency to be nice to her.

  I would love to see this piece of shit out in the world, at a bar, maybe, trying to pick up women. I’d bet all of Ted’s money the only girl Brian could land was one who had no other option.

  “Come on, get your mouth around it,” he said. “It’s not like it’s that big.”

  I covered my mouth to stifle a laugh. At least he was honest.

  His breathing intensified.

  “You know what to do, right? Don’t fucking nod!”

  I was going to lose it. I started to crawl away, but what he said next made me stop dead in my tracks.

  “Tomorrow’s a big day. Mr. Shriver will be gone. Slower. Slow down, Judy, damn it! Just because I don’t say if for a while doesn’t mean you should speed up. You’re going to learn to do it the way I want, understand?” A pause. “See? You didn’t nod. You’re learning.”

  My heart was trying to beat its way out of my chest. I’d held my breath for so long my lungs were hurting. I blew the air out slowly, then inhaled open-mouthed so I wouldn’t make any noise.

  “Good girl. Good girl.”

  I imagined him stroking her hair as he said that and it made me nauseous. I was powerless to stop him. I couldn’t even tel
l Patton without explaining how I knew, and that meant giving up Clifton’s labyrinth.

  I couldn’t do it. It was too big a risk. I needed to explore the rest of the ducts, find out if they might possibly lead to escape. Some small part of me still held back one-hundred percent trust in Patton. I couldn’t hand myself over to him completely. Not in this place—at least not yet.

  I would have to take care of this problem myself. No longer would I ask to see Judy in the morning. I would demand it. And Brian was going to oblige, whether he knew it or not.

  “Anyway, like I was saying,” he continued in the darkness. “Mr. Shriver will be gone, along will Sean’s guards. After they take him to the airport, they’ve got a big job to do. All the men from the party I told you about, remember? It’s time to dispose of some of them. Sean’s guards have to deliver each of them home one by one and stage a natural death. It’s brilliantly intricate. If evil. Wow, baby. Look how good you’re doing. I might actually come tonight after all.”

  He stopped for a moment, I assumed to enjoy his blowjob.

  “And I imagine Sean will be preoccupied tomorrow as well.” The sinister laugh that followed almost made me gasp. It didn’t even sound like him. I could feel goose bumps forming all over my body. “So starting tomorrow, you’ll get a break from the beatings, since Mr. Stump Dick will be out of town. And you will go to Melissa and tell her what’s been happening to you. You’ll cry. You’ll let her embrace you. And, if we’re lucky, she’ll do something very, very stupid. Now speed it up and finish me off. I can feel it. I can feel it.”

  Silence ensued, and out of it rose the sound of him breathing through his teeth, faster and faster, until finally he grunted and exhaled.

  “Did you swallow it?”

  “Yes,” Judy said, her voice as cold as I’d ever heard.

  “Go over there and turn on the light.”

  That memory flashed through my mind as I entered the room. When Brian told Judy to turn on the light, I’d crawled away from the vent cover, fearing then what I feared now.

  If I weren’t so bad about giving people too much credit, I probably never would have married Ted, never would have found the YFG business card in his pants, and never would have known this place even existed.