“True…” I bite my tongue when we reach the dark alleyway where there’s a large dumpster and a small window. Gabby climbs up, cringing when her foot kicks the lid, setting off a clang echoing off the buildings. When nobody investigates, she sighs in relief and cautiously stands. Her chin is the height of the bottom of the window, so she has to stand on tiptoes to peer in. I jump from her shoulder onto the brick sill, feeling rather exposed. We’re right next to a door and across from a parking lot. I keep expecting a helicopter spotlight to shine on us.
“Can you see anything?” Gabby whispers.
I press my nose against the window—into an empty office. “Nope.”
“Well, Grandpa wouldn’t have sent us here if he didn’t suspect something. You’ll have to sneak in.”
“How will I get out?” The window is open just enough for me to slip through and drop to the floor, but it’s way too high for me to climb out of.
Gabby pauses. “Don’t know. We’ll improvise. We always do!”
“That’s not very reassuring.”
“Ella, this is important! I’ll wait out here for you. If you’re not back in half an hour, I’ll call Grandpa. He’ll know what to do.”
“Again, not very reassuring.” I throw one leg through the window so that I’m straddling the sill. “Wish me luck. Be careful out here.”
“Ditto,” Gabby says as I throw the other leg over.
Bracing myself, I shuffle my bottom closer to the edge. Three… two… two… two…
“Just jump!” Gabby demands.
“All right, all right!”
Three, two, one, jump!
I pitch myself from the window and within one abrupt second, I hit the floor. I immediately bolt for cover behind the cabinets and scope the area. I was right about how bright it is in here. The walls are freshly painted white and the floors are some kind of white linen. I’ve never been good at guessing materials.
Voices mumble and laugh not far from the office, so I run from table leg to table leg, until I’m left vulnerable in the corridor. To my left is the front reception and to my right are holding cells. This would be so much easier if I knew exactly what I was looking for.
“Ooh, you’re so… Listen, if it’s more mullah you’re after—”
My ears prick. A glance back to the reception reveals that woman from the diner. Liza? No. Lisa.
“I’ve chosen my allegiances. This is a great future. No criminals,” rumbles one of the cops. “Sorry, kid. Get back on a plane and go home. It’s over.”
“If there are no criminals, there will be no cops. You’ll be out of a job, Dean. You need the bad to have the good.” Lisa chortles. “Okay, now you’ve got to pick my side. See how deep I’m being?”
“Forget it. You want to go up against them, be it on your own head. You’re already breaching your contract talking to me. Now get out of here before I arrest you.”
There’s a twinge of hurt in Lisa’s eyes, quickly masked by fury. She throws her hoodie over her head and exits the station without another word, leaving the cop to snicker to himself.
I wonder what it is. Can’t be anything too serious. She seems like a run of the mill hooligan trying to set up like a mini drug trade empire. Or something. I’ve watched enough Breaking Bad to get the gist of how that world works.
“Eenie, meenie,” I mutter. I choose the holding cells, figuring if they’re converting criminals to dolls, then I better go straight to the source.
The cells aren’t as bright as the rest of the station. They don’t offer a ton of privacy either—the wall is made of glass, which can’t be a lot of fun for say, that criminal sitting on the bed. The one with a bushy beard, bloodshot eyes, and a perpetual snarl.
The cell looks decades old and features various swear words scratched into the walls. In color. I’d swear that’s dried blood, but it looks a little too brown. Eww.
I take cover behind a plastic plant when two officers—one thin, one fat—holding a black bag each, march up and open the cell. It’s now or never. I bolt for the door and dive underneath the bed, exactly where I can appreciate the pokey springs and the mattress looking more yellow than white.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the master of disguise, Eddie Brand,” the officer’s tone is patronizing.
Eddie claps sarcastically. “Congratulations, coppers. You got me.”
“Impersonating a police officer and a zookeeper was damned admirable, but breaking and entering? Eddie, you’re smarter than that.”
“I was running out of ideas, boys. Figured I might as well go old-school and commit something more blue-collar.”
“Awful considerate of you. We just don’t get enough blue-collar lunatics,” the thin officer says, raising an eyebrow.
“So what are you going to do with me?” Eddie asks. “I can’t get bail.”
“Yeah, because your frigging support network’s in the slammer. Wasting resources. Taking up space. Good-for-nothing oxygen thieves.”
“Then kill me!” Eddie says defiantly. “Go on! Police brutality at its finest! Kill me!”
“We can’t kill you, man.”
“Yeah, that would be inhumane.”
A sly grin forms on the fat officer’s lips. “We’ve got a much better idea.”
The officers are quick; much quicker than I’d ever imagine. They lunge at Eddie, who squirms and wrestles them on the bed. The mattress squeaks and bounces, the springs only centimeters away from stabbing me in the eye.
“GET OFF ME!” Eddie yells, but the officers only snort, no better than bullies on the playground.
“Sedate him! You got the injection?”
“Yep! You got the doll?”
“In my back pocket.”
“I’ve got him pinned. Go for it.”
“GET OFF!”
“Got him. Grab the wires.”
The thin officer leaps from the bed and towards the black bag by the door. He whips out a bunch of cords and bounds over to Eddie.
I can only see their high-sheen boots. How can something so… everyday look so totally menacing? At least, the bed stops squeaking. In unison, the men climb off, and I can hear them high-fiving.
“Great job!”
“Man, this is brilliant. How did we ever get by without one of these things? Chris is a genius.”
“Let’s see ‘im,” one says.
The other grunts—and promptly drops something. It’s a doll, with a beard and bright blue eyes. It looks friendly, unlike Eddie, and adorably debonair in a sharp black tuxedo and white gloves.
“No way am I giving this scum to my kid.”
“My rascal can use him. He likes blowing up his dolls and burying them, so it’ll be worth a laugh,” the thin officer says. With it still on the spit-stained concrete, he jerks up the doll’s shirt and flicks open a… a… it’s like a plastic hatch in his back. I feel for one in my back, but there’s nothing. The cop presses something inside the hatch, closes it, and steps away.
It takes several moments for the doll to come to life. His eyes blink, and he moves each finger, one by one. He runs his hands down his suit, coming to terms with his existence, then makes eye contact with me, his head tilting to the side.
“Hey, Eddie,” the fat officer greets.
Eddie doll jumps in shock and places a hand to his chest. He glances up. “My, aren’t you big! It’s lovely to meet you, sirs. This is awkward, but I was hoping you could please explain, um, who… who I am exactly?”
“Our new toy,” the thin officer cackles. He kicks Eddie who flies across the room into the wall. Rattled, he stands and nurses his head. His tormentor scoops him up. “Best invention ever. Eddie, you’re coming home with me. You’re gonna love my son.”
“You have a son?” Eddie beams and claps his hands. “I can’t wait to meet him! He… he won’t kick me too, will he?”
The fat officer unlocks the cell door without so much as giving Eddie a dignity of a response. “Ray will take this piece of meat to the war
ehouse.” He casually kicks at the bed. “He might take up space, but at least, he won’t be stealing our all our food and water… or time.”
On their way out, Eddie doll pipes up. “There’s another thing that looks like me. She’s under the bed. Looks kind of like a ninja. Can she come with us?”
Oh, son of a nutter. I back away, as close to the wall as possible.
“What?” the thin officer snaps. “We didn’t authorize another transformation. We haven’t even had a woman prisoner for weeks!”
“Please have a look. I’m sure I saw something.”
Oh, fiddlesticks!
The thin officer groans as he drops to all fours, Eddie doll still in hand. Eddie spots me and waves elatedly. “There she is! Aren’t her eyes pretty?”
“What the hell?” the thin officer stands. “Justin, help me move the bed.”
CRAP. I have nowhere to hide!
The bed scrapes against the cement as the officers drag it into the center of the room, leaving me exposed. Nervously, I twiddle my thumbs and instinctively smile as politely as I can, even though they can’t see my face. “Hello.”
The fat cop pulls his gun from his holster and aims it at me. I yelp and raise my hands in the air.
“Who are you?!”
“Gabriella! But they call me Ella! Please don’t shoot!”
“Don’t shoot her!” Eddie pleads. “She’s too pretty! I mean, I can only see her eyes, but they look pretty!”
“Gabriella?” the thin officer scratches his nose. “I have no recollection of anyone passing through here with that name.”
“Maybe she got her name wrong? None of these dolls remember their past lives. Someone might’ve told her it was Gabriella and she just went with it.”
“I’ll ask around. Leave her in here and we’ll interrogate her later.”
“Interrogate?” I repeat. “With like, the big lights?”
The thin officer snorts. “Yeah. With like, the big lights.”
Oh, funky town! I need to be able to think of worse swear words because I’m never getting home!
I nurse my head in my hands when the room swirls. The officers are now horizontal and blurred. The floor is like water, constantly moving and unsteady.
“What’s happening…?” I slur, my feet falling out from underneath me. I hit the concrete and everything goes black.
“Ah, perfect! It worked!”
I’m having trouble opening my eyes. Then, I make out three figures staring at me in awe.
“How on earth did you do that?” It’s a younger voice.
“Science, my dear! If we didn’t have her body, though, the point would have been moot.”
My eyes shoot open when I finally recognize the professor’s voice. He looms over me with a huge grin on his face. Gabby is next to him with her arms folded, and Sianne is blowing bubble gum.
“Wh-what happened?” I ask. “We’re in the lab? I thought I was in the police station.”
“Yeah, I know. You took forever,” Gabby grouses. “There was no way I could get you out of there!”
“So she called me, and I figured now was the best time to test this out,” the professor says.
“Test what out?” I seriously do not like the sound of that.
“We transferred your consciousness into another doll!” the professor boasts. “It’s remarkable. Don’t worry, you still look like Ella. We found one who looks like you, but Sianne and I added upgrades.” He reaches for a hand mirror and tilts it upwards so I can see myself. He’s right—I’m still me, but… also different. My hair is blond, long, and thick, and I’m wearing jeans and a purple tee. And there are hundreds of tiny holes in my arms and legs—they’re like bullet wounds or something.
“Eww! Why do I have these holes? Eww, eww, eww! EWWW! I have trypophobia, you know!”
“They’re not holes, Ella.” The professor pats my hand. “Concentrate really hard for me, okay? On the count of three, you’re going to push really hard.”
“Push what?”
“Just push your insides. Three, two, one, GO!”
What am I, birthing out a mini-me? I so didn’t sign up for that. Still, I tense and push my innards, screaming when hundreds of spikes pop from the holes. “AHH! I’m a porcupine!”
Gabby and the professor laugh, but they don’t tickle me like they usually do when I’m anxious.
“You’re now your own best weapon,” the professor says. “These are very, very, very sharp spikes. Whenever someone dangerous picks you up, you simply push, and they should drop you.”
Gabby smirks. “Like a hot potato.”
I grimace at my reflection. I can barely see my face through the spikes. “Great. Please tell me I won’t be stuck like a sharp tumbleweed. How do I suck them back in?”
“Instead of pushing, pull. They should slowly slip back in.”
Tentatively, I try my best to rein the spikes in and am pleasantly surprised when they retract with minimum fuss. “Wow.” I inhale, running my fingers over the holes. “This could come in handy.”
“Only use it when you need to,” the professor warns. “There are additional upgrades. If you take off your left foot, for instance, you’ll find a switch. Press that, and you’ll be deactivated. Be extremely careful with this, and only use it in an emergency. You won’t be able to return to your doll form once you hit it.”
Whoa. That’s… that’s news. So I can easily change everything and show Gabby I’m not selfish? Just with a press of a button… I can be human again. I’m tempted to press it now, but I don’t. I have work to do.
“Hey, Earth to Ella!” The professor lightly flicks my nose. Plastic against plastic. It’s kind of sweetly creepy. “Couple more things to remember,” he says. “You can take your right arm off and use it as a gun, but it’s not all that powerful. Won’t level walls if that’s what you’re thinking. We’ve also been experimenting with fire. Now, don’t get alarmed, but we’ve filled your stomach with methylated spirits and inserted a switch inside your belly button. If it works, you should safely be able to shoot flames from your mouth.”
I laugh hysterically and rub my hands together in a vain attempt to get warm. “Yep, that’s me. I’m a superhero!”
“Or a supervillain.” Gabby rolls her eyes.
“Hey, the spirits that are in my belly…?”
“Don’t worry, they’re not actual spirits. It’s a liquid; not a ghost.”
“No, not that. Remember how I used to cry real tears? I mean, I don’t, but Gabby said the system was overloaded with dolls once so I could feel pain. She said real tears used to come from my eyes. Is that because you put water in my belly?”
“Yes, Ella,” the professor says. “I’ve explained this to you before, but understandably, you’ve forgotten. As a side experiment, I wanted to see if you could invoke emotion through your doll form. That won’t happen again.”
“Oh my God!” Gabby throws up her hands. “Could everybody stop obsessing over the past? Grandpa, is all of this fire stuff really necessary?”
“Absolutely, it is. They’re not going to stop coming after you. It’s imperative that you know how to protect yourselves. More importantly, Ella,” the professor lowers his voice. “What did you see at the station?”
“It’s odd, professor. They’re already turning criminals, transferring consciousness with wires and a switch on the doll,” I report, feeling like a superspy. James Bond, you’d better believe you have new competition coming! “They said they’d take the body to a warehouse where they wouldn’t have to feed it much. They think minimum feeding will save the world’s resources.”
The professor taps his fingers on the desk. “That’s all?” And on my nod, “Just as I feared. The technology has advanced faster than anticipated. It doesn’t take much at all to sedate the victim. They’re going power-mad…”
“Should I be worried that my old doll form is at the station? Can’t they study it or trace it back?”
“There’s not much we
can do about that now, Ella. If we didn’t transfer your consciousness, we might not have seen you again.”
He does have a point. It whooshes past me as I stare at a tube, where a chubby, older woman lies dormant in a murky, green goo. “That’s… that’s my body, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” the professor replies calmly, but Gabby fidgets. “Are you okay?”
“I think so.” It’s strange to see your body when you’re not in it. I feel connected to it, but also sadly detached. This was the body I selfishly gave up—at least, according to Gabby. It’s weirdly familiar, based on my dreams. I’m not young or stunning, but that’s not what defines beauty.
Besides, my body isn’t that bad. I mean, not really. I don’t look broken at all. I look pretty loved. So why do I hate myself so much when I’m in it? Could it be that nobody truly hates me more than I do?
“We could alter your state using your body. What do you think when you see it?”
“I think I like my body…” I try this on for size, taste the words. “I could hate it, but it’s never said a bad word about me, has it? That’s my body… and I love it.”
Gabby and the professor arch their eyebrows in unison.
“But anyway,” I continue, “we have more important things to focus on! Where were we?”
The professor clears his throat. “Right, yes. Now we know for sure the police are in on it and what technology they have, so when… if I can escape, I’ll have to get to the bodies. I’m sure I can think of something. The only impossibility in this life is impossibility.”
“We’ll get you out of the company, Grandpa.”
“No! Don’t you dare come anywhere near me. They’ll kill you. I can promise you that. I have to do this on my own. I must protect my family. Don’t trust anybody. Ella, was there anything else at the station?”
I shrug. “Just that Liza girl talking to an officer. She offered to pay him or something. I didn’t really pay attention.”
The professor’s eyes widen. “Do you mean Lisa?”
I snap my fingers. “That’s the one! Lisa.”
“Stay away from her! She used to work for those b… ah, the company. Yes.” The professor reaches for his head and stumbles over his feet. He leans on the table and groans.
Shattered Girls (Broken Dolls Book 2) Page 8
