“I've been waiting for this so long, Jenny,” said Sully. He was right beside her. She tried to turn her head to look at him but stared at the cross on the ceiling instead. Sully reached out and smoothed her hair back. “You must think me awful, to play you like that. But I assure you, it was all business. Well, most of it was business. Some of it was just for fun.” There was a sound like clinking silverware and she felt the straps being loosened, clinking as the buckles hit the floor. A whoosh of air accompanied by a grunt as Sully sat on what Jenny assumed was a padded chair.
“Don't be afraid,” he said in a tone that reminded her of the doctors her mother had taken her to as a child. “This may be unpleasant for you at first, but I think you'll grow to find as much enjoyment in it as I do.” Jenny heard a soft clink and Sully stood up and walked around to the other side of her. “I'm going to want a look inside you eventually,” he said, “but let's take advantage of this time we have alone together, shall we?” There was a ripping sound and Jenny felt her clothes being cut away.
“Let's start slow,” said Sully. “No need to rush it. He lifted her hand slowly, lovingly. She wanted to rip it away from him, to scream as she cracked his head against the wall. But all she could do was lie there. She felt Sully's oily lips on her hand. “This is going to hurt,” he said. “I wasn't sure at first, so it's a good thing I practiced first. My little experiment failed, but I still learned quite a lot. He wasn't nearly as strong as you are. I'm not going to blame myself for losing him before I could turn him into you. Your pain receptors will be comparable to your brother's, though. Such a funny thing. Your organs don't work, but your nerves are still fully-functional. Don't you think that's funny?” There was cold metal on Jenny's arm and then her insides lurched as Sully's blade cut into her nerves, excruciating pain shooting up her arm. In her head, Jenny screamed. She felt the tears running down into her hair.
“There now,” said Sully. “That was the first one. What should we do next?”
It seemed weeks before Sully finally left her, but Jenny knew it had probably only been an hour or two. He'd left the candles burning and she stared at the cross above her. She tried to contemplate what was going on here, why the Righteous were involved with Sully, but after a short while she gave up and just focused on the fifteen or so throbbing wounds on her body. A moan escaped her lips, the sound surprising her. Slowly, she blinked.
Focusing all her energy, she forced her eyes to move. At first, nothing happened. Then, slowly, painfully she moved her eyes to the right. She was in a dirty little room. Tables had been set up against the walls, where a few grubby-looking candles guttered. The floor was packed dirt and the walls looked like cinder blocks covered in green, mold or moss or vegetation. She moved her eyes further, straining to see. A crate had been upended to use as a small table, on top of which, meticulously laid out, sparkling and clean, were medical tools. Scalpels and saws and other tools all laid out perfectly in line.
The door opened and she shot her eyes back to the ceiling. She tried to move a finger, a toe, anything to move. She had to do something. She couldn't stay here, not for another second. Footsteps came toward her and a man's face came into view. He was kindly-looking, with pink cheeks over a gray beard. He had a syringe in his hand, which he held in front of him. He frowned at her, taking in the carnage Sully had done to her body.
Jenny forced air into her lungs. “Help me,” she said in a croaky whisper. She sounded like the rotter who had bitten her back on that horrible train. He had said the same thing to her. “Please,” she said, her throat burning. “It hurts.”
The man looked at her for a long time, his brow furrowed. Then, seeming to come to a decision, he grabbed her arm roughly, pulling her onto her side. As she felt the needle sink into the back of her neck, she finally moved her fingers, grabbing onto the man's hand that grasped her arm. He jumped, pulling the empty syringe out and dropping it on the floor. He stayed frozen for a moment, Jenny on her side, having no choice but to stare at his stomach as her body froze up again. After a moment, the man gently laid her on her back again, the cross coming into view once again. He didn't move for a long time. Finally Jenny heard the scuff of his shoes on the dirt floor.
“I'm sorry,” he whispered, almost too soft to hear. “God forgive me.” His footsteps receded and then the door clanged shut.
And then Jenny realized she wasn't going anywhere.
FORTY-ONE
The candles burned out before the door opened again. Another man came in and, without even pausing, pushed her over roughly and shoved the needle into her neck. This follower had a faint smell of rosemary. He let go, gravity dropping Jenny onto her back hard. The door slammed behind him. Jenny wished he lit a candle before he left.
She couldn't measure the time that was passing. It all seemed like one long moment from the time they took her to the present. Everything blended together, yet time seemed to be slowing down. Being alone stretched time even further. She had nothing to focus on but the cross on the ceiling. She tried to take in her surroundings, to try to figure out where she was and why, but she could hear very little. The injections seemed to dull her ability to sense the living, so she had to rely on the muted footsteps that passed her door. They seemed to be regular, and she guessed there was some kind of guard to make sure no one came in. Or to make sure she didn't go out.
After what seemed a very long time, the door opened again.
“Good morning, Jenny,” Sully said cheerfully. “I trust you slept well.” He chuckled. “My apologies. You don't sleep, do you? Your brother told me that.” He went about the room, lighting candles, then came and leaned over her. “I've got a surprise for you today. A treat. A girl is going to come in and wash you – you really do look a mess – and then we'll get a little sustenance in you. You have to keep up your strength, cupcake.” His face disappeared and Jenny heard him mutter something. He appeared in her line of sight once again. “This really is incredible, Jenny. We have so much to learn from you. Every cut healed overnight. Nothing more than small scars, which I assume will be gone by tomorrow. Astonishing.” Jenny felt his rough fingers trace over the place where he had sliced on her collarbone. “Astonishing,” he said again. “At any rate,” he said taking his hand off her, “you are probably looking forward to a bath. But to be on the safe side, I'm going to need to give you another injection.”
After the shot, Sully brought in a woman who sloshed as she walked, as though carrying a bucket of water.
“Thank you, Brenda,” Sully said. “Be gentle with her, will you? She looks like a devil, but I assure you, she does have some angelic qualities.”
Brenda grunted. “I'm not doing this for you, Heathen. I'm doing it for Daniel.”
“Whatever gets the job done,” said Sully. Jenny heard the door slam as Sully went out.
Brenda didn't speak a single word as she washed Jenny's naked body with an ice-cold rag, which she dipped in the bucket in between cruelly scrubbing her skin raw. She went out when she was finished and Jenny was alone again.
She thought of Declan.
When Sully came back, he wasn't alone. A man with a deep, booming voice was arguing with him. Jenny thought there might be a third person, but she was still foggy and couldn't be sure..
“I want to put her up,” the loud man was saying. “I don't care who you say she is, she's no different than the rest. We need to make an example. And I want to do it again. The last time was...well, in a word, it was exhilarating.” He laughed. “I don't think I've ever felt so alive. We are doing God's work here, Sully. There is no room for nepotism.”
“It's not nepotism,” said Sully, his voice tight. “We need to figure out the logistics. If we can find out how it works, the possibilities are endless. And you shouldn't have done that last one. She was alive. We said no living.”
“She was a sinner,” said the man. “God spoke to me through her. She asked for repentance and that is what she got. Her sins were cleansed on the cross. And what do you m
ean by possibilities?”
“We could live forever, Daniel,” Sully said breathlessly.
Daniel laughed. “That's not in God's plan,” he said.
“How do you know?” said Sully.
“Because we are mortal,” said Daniel. “We are put on the earth to prove ourselves worthy for Heaven. And then we ascend to paradise. Science is a tool of the devil, my friend. You'd best remember that.” There was an awkward silence and then Daniel spoke again, his voice less harsh. “I'll give you some time. I know how you like to punish them for their sins. I'll allow that. But in the end, she goes up just like the rest.”
The door slammed as Daniel left and Jenny could hear Sully breathing heavily. “Fuck!” he said and glass shattered against a far wall. Jenny guessed that he threw one of the candles. Sully's breathing steadied, and after a while, in a newly-composed voice he spoke again. “Have a seat, will you?” A second person walked across the room and sat in the chair.
“Is this going to hurt?” said a high male voice. A boy, very young from the sound of him.
“A little,” said Sully. “But it's for a good cause. This is Jenny here. Do you see her?”
“I- I'm not supposed to look,” said the boy.
“Why?” said Sully. “Because she's not wearing clothes?”
“Yes,” said the boy, sounding embarrassed.
“That will change,” said Sully. “Give me your arm.”
“I don't want to.”
“Do it anyway,” said Sully, an edge to his voice. A skinny arm came into Jenny's view, a larger hand holding the arm by its wrist. There was a flash of silver and then the boy was crying and something hot was dripping onto Jenny's lips. A hand wrenched her jaw, opening her mouth and she tasted the blood. A heat spread through her body, and for a moment, the fog in her head lifted. She felt Sully's strong pulse and the boy's faster, panicked one. She smelled the fear. Sully took the arm away and the fog returned.
“That's enough,” said Sully. There was a sound like tape. “There now, stop crying. It's not even bleeding anymore.”
“Can I go?” said the boy.
“Please do,” said Sully. The door opened and closed again and Sully walked back over to her. His face appeared in her line of sight again. “That was for you, Jenny. My gift to you. So you don't get hungry.”
He cut her again, over and over. He didn't talk this time, just sliced into her skin all over her body. It went on much longer than it had the previous day, but Jenny felt better able to handle it. She didn't cry, she didn't try to scream. After the first dozen cuts, she could feel a little clarity coming back to her. As Sully made his last cuts, she was able to move her eyes down to watch him, moving them back to the ceiling before he saw. When he was finished, he leaned over her. “Tomorrow is going to be different,” he said. “We're going to take a look inside. Do you understand?” He walked away and she followed him with her eyes. She moved a finger tentatively. Her muscles were slow to respond, but they were responding.
“Your brother didn't handle it very well, but I have loftier hopes for you,” Sully was saying. “After all, it's already inside of you, we just want to take a peek at it.” Jenny flexed her fingers, making a loose fist, opening and closing her hand experimentally. She had no strength, but there was movement. She froze as Sully turned, coming back to her with a syringe. Her eyes went back to the ceiling.
“I'll bet you're wondering about a few things,” said Sully, standing beside her. “I'm not proud of some of them. I couldn't have Munro hanging around all the time. He was too strong, too unpredictable. Willing to kill anyone who got near you. I had to drive you apart, Jenny. You are too special for him. Lucy was all too eager to work with me. I didn't even have to convince her. She talked you into going into the subway alone, where I had Joshua ready to turn you. I knew the old rotters in that car couldn't kill you. They would just infect you. That's how it works. You have to be infected to make it work. In return for Joshua's help, I supplied him with enough food to feed his people for a month.
He leaned over and studied her eyes.
“I still wasn't sure that would be enough, though. Munro kept saying you weren't dead, that he was going to find you. So I tried a different tack. I tried to make you think that he killed all those thumpers in the subway. I just wanted to create enough doubt that you wouldn't trust him. I didn't kill them, mind you. I didn't have to. Daniel took them out before I could do anything, but Munro had already been there. Joshua was dead. Daniel's people took care of the rest, and I wrote your name on the walls so you would think Munro did it.” He sat, the chair creaking under his weight.
“When that didn't work, I asked my dear old friend Lucy to distract him. And believe me, she tried. She tried over and over. But that son of a bitch just would not let you go. It was maddening. And then I thought to myself, who am I to break up a love this strong? To intervene in something so strong that it survives death. You can't fight science, Jenny. And I am nothing if not the epitome of scientific discovery. I know this isn't the path you chose. But sometimes we have to take the path that is given to us, not the one we want. It's unfortunate. But you have to trust me, cupcake. It'll all be worth it in the end.”
Seeming to be satisfied with what he considered his own personal explanation, he stood up and pulled her arm gently to roll her on her side. Jenny moved her arm toward him. She had no power, but she had to try anyway. She grabbed Sully's wrist that held the syringe. He jumped, startled, his eyes opening wide. He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out.
“I'm going to rip you apart,” Jenny said, her voice a hoarse growl.
Sully finally collected himself enough to wrench his wrist away, quickly jabbing the needle into the back of her neck before she could force her muscles to respond again. She went slack and Sully let her drop back onto her back again. She heard him shuffling away, his breath coming in wheezes. And when the door slammed behind him, she could feel his heart beating fast on the other side of the metal door.
Thumpthumpthumpthump.
If she could have smiled, she would have.
FORTY-TWO
For making Sully nervous, Jenny got three shots that night instead of two. The injections seemed to wear off more quickly, and they didn't obliterate her senses as much. But she wasn't certain that she would survive the next day. Sully said he wanted to take a look inside. Jenny thought of Casey, lying on the slab with wires and metal sticking out of his back. Would she end up the same way? It was alarmingly familiar. She remembered lying face-down on a slab herself ten years earlier, being opened up by her grandfather. Was that what made her different from the others? Why her blood was red and she healed more quickly?
Sully came in, he had two people with him. Jenny could hear Daniel's voice from outside the door. She felt three heartbeats.
“...so the boy finally had a change of heart,” Daniel was saying as they entered. “Realizing he could be doing something real with his life. Something pure.”
“Well, you have to start somewhere,” said Sully. “Here she is. What do you think, Ezekiel?”
A set of footsteps came toward Jenny and stopped. “Why is she naked?” said a familiar voice. Zeke.
“Well, she's not a person, son,” Daniel laughed. “It's not as if she knows she's not wearing clothes. She's evil incarnate, just as the others are.”
“And the scars?” said Zeke.
“Sully likes to satiate his curiosity, and I must say, I find his work to be very interesting.”
“I'm sure you do,” said Zeke. “Why can't she move?”
“A clever concoction. Also from Sully,” said Daniel. “He is quite innovative. She gets a shot every few hours, I believe...?”
“Every six hours,” said Sully. “Though she has started acclimating to the dosage, so we've been injecting her every four hours.”
“Can I do the next one?” said Zeke.
There was a heavy silence, then Daniel laughed loudly. “See there, Sully? Father and son b
onding, is what that is. God is good today.”
“He certainly is,” said Zeke.
“Come back in four hours,” said Sully. “She's just been injected, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to let you do the next one.”
“What do you think of her, son?” said Daniel.
“I think she's an abomination,” said Zeke. This got a chuckle from Daniel before Zeke spoke again. “I have an errand to run. I hope you don't mind if I run out for a while.”
“An errand?” said Daniel.
“I promised to meet a guy about a gun,” said Zeke. “But I'll be back in four hours.”
“A gun?” said Daniel. “Well! When it rains it pours, doesn't it? You just decide you're on board and you throw yourself into it, Ezekiel. Well done, boy. I was worried about you for a time, but things are looking up.”
“I'll say they are,” said Zeke. Jenny heard the sound of a muffled embrace and the door opening and closing again.
“Do you think it's wise to bring him here, Daniel?” said Sully.
“Don't question me,” said Daniel. “That's my son.”
“Stepson,” Sully said.
“This is your last day,” Daniel said, lowering his voice. “Get your jollies off all you want by the end of tonight, because tomorrow that evil bitch is going up on a pole.” The door clanged shut again.
Sully was silent for a long while before he walked over to her. His face came into view. “You're not going up on that pole, cupcake. Don't you worry. I'll figure something out.” He stroked her cheek, sending a wave of revulsion through Jenny's body. “You are perfect, Jenny. Do you know that? I can cut you over and over, I can slice you to ribbons, and you just keep coming back to me, just as perfect and pristine as before. You are a marvel.” He sighed. “You know, before I met Daniel, I only experimented on rotters. It was a scientific endeavor, to see how long they can live without food or sustenance. It turns out to be about a week! Can you believe that? Everyone's so afraid of them, and yet, they're so very fragile.”
Jenny Undead (The Thirteen: Book One) Page 25
