Part Two
B17 took a deep breath, both out of shock and to try to calm herself enough to think of some way out of this mess. She’d known this was a possibility when she’d tricked B14 into attacking C26, but had expected a little while longer to think of something. B14 was always going to break, always going to snitch, but it had happened far faster than B17 had anticipated.
Well, now she had two options: come up with something on the fly, or spend the remainder of her life regretting ever being born. Unfortunately, fluffies aren’t quick thinkers, don’t handle stress well, and the combination of these factors paralyzed her mind, until she could only think of one thing to say. More unfortunately yet, that one thing was the truth.
“Bee-wun-seben wan Bee-wun-fouw tu huwt See-tuu-sicks su Bee-wun-seben coud sabe See-tuu-sicks an’ See-tuu-sicks woud hewp Bee-wun-seben!” she explained, then froze, realizing what she’d done.
Her eyes flickered between Janice’s and C26’s faces, seeing disgust and hatred on one and a deep distrust on the other, and she knew her plan was done for. Even if Janice didn’t just take her to the basement today, there was no way C26 would even trust her enough to help her now. Well, it’s not like saying more could make things any worse now.
“Bu’ nu teww Bee-wun-four tu gib fowebah-sweepies! Onwy say tu gib huwties!”
“Dammit,” Janice muttered, barely loud enough for B17 to hear. “And I already had a buyer. Fuck.” Louder she continued. “B17, what did you want help with?”
B17 frantically tried to come up with some excuse that wouldn’t be a lie. Somehow, humans could always tell when fluffies lied, and if Janice caught her lying now…well, humans could be incredibly inventive with cruelty, and she could always imagine worse things than B17 had seen in the basement or during the incident. She wavered.
“Well?”
“Bee-wun-seben wan hab babbehs! Wan hab famiwy!” she blurted, resorting in a technical truth.
“Of course you do,” Janice sighed. She tapped her foot a few times, seeming lost in thought, then apparently came to a decision. “Well, B17, I’m not going to lie to you. I can’t just get rid of you right now, but you’re going to need to be punished for what you did. So…” she glanced over at C26. “Since she almost got you killed, you can decide what punishment she gets. Short of killing her or removing any of her limbs, anyway.”
C26 looked both confused and horrified. He muttered a bit, then finally said “Bu’ nu wan gib huwties!”
B17’s relief was palpable. Of course, Janice was still going to punish her, but hopefully this meant that C26 had realized that her plan was to have them both separated from the rest for a while so they could figure out some way to escape. A twinge of doubt said that maybe he just assumed that whatever Janice came up with would be way worse than anything he could imagine, though. He had seen the basement, after all.
“Fine, I’ll come up with something myself, starting tomorrow.” Janice pinched the bridge of her nose. “I have work to do, I’ll deal with you later. Try not to do anything stupid.”
B17’s heart surged in joy. She’d managed to make it out without being killed or worse. True, it was largely due to luck, since Janice apparently needed her alive, but she wasn’t going to die! Unless C26 was just playing dumb so he could exact revenge himself, anyway.
…
C26 was torn between his disgust towards B17 and the knowledge that he needed her help to get out of this horrible place. He’d never trusted her, but now he knew with certainty that she’d betray him the instant she could profit from it. Maybe he was better off trying to escape on his own.
Janice left, and he relaxed a little. He’d been half convinced that B17 would tell Janice that he’d been planning to escape. Knowing what he did of the mare, he was certain she would have if he’d asked Janice to punish her. As much as he wanted to see the treacherous mare suffer, he wasn’t willing to take that risk.
“Nu tawk tu See-tuu-sicks,” he said, turning away from her. “Hatchu.”
“Pwease,” B17 pleaded, in the desperate tone that he was now convinced was fake. “Onwy wan to be awone with See-tuu-sicks! Nee’ tawk tu fink ob way tu weabe! Nu wan huwties! Nu wan die! Bee-wun-seben nyo See-tuu-sicks am huwt, nyo nu twust Bee-wun-seben nu mowe, bu’ nu hab anoda way!”
As much as he hated to admit it, he understood her reasoning. A few seconds of conversation here and there, always looking over their shoulder for A24, wasn’t going to work. That being said, right now he absolutely did not want to hear what she had to say. He couldn’t trust anything she said, now.
“Pwease, Janice say Bee-wun-seben am gon’ be punished nex’ bwight-time! Nee’ pwan nao! Nu hab time to be angwy! Bee-wun-seben am sowwy!”
Begrudgingly, he turned and looked at her. "Wut Bee-wun-seben wan do? he asked sullenly, finally voicing his doubts. “Bewwa am tuu fast, nu can wun. Howe in fence am tuu smaww, nu can get out dat way. See-tuu-sicks nu see hao tu get 'way!”
“Bee-wun-seben nyo hao, bu’ nuu can gu awone. Many bwight-times ago, wots of fwuffies twy to escape, bu’ Aye-tuu-fouw teww Janice, an’-” she choked up. “An’ Janice gib aww fwuffies fowebah-sweepies. Bee-wun-seben onwy wibe 'cuz bwudda nebah teww odda fwuffies Bee-wun-seben nyo pwan. Aww odda fwuffies gu fowebah-sweepies.”
She shuddered, then kept speaking. “Befowe Aye-wun-fouw teww Janice, tuu fwuffies sneak tu fence ebewy bwight-time, dig unda fence, hide howe wif wock. Bee-wun-seben nyo were howe am, bu’ Aya-tuu-fouw am awways watchin’, and Bee-wun-seben nu can fite Aye-tuu-fouw. Nee’ hewp, bu’ aww odda fwuffies tuu scawed, see whut Janice du tu fwuffies who twy tu wun.”
C26 felt a little bit of hope at that. There was a way out? He wouldn’t have to…he shuddered, remembering the basement…he wouldn’t have to go through that? He wanted to believe B17, wanted to take the chance, but he still wasn’t sure. Still, what Janice did to runaways probably wasn’t any worse than what happened in the basement, right?
“Wut Janice du tu fwuffies whu twy to wun?” he asked.
…
B17 had really hoped he wouldn’t ask that. She weighed her options, then finally came to a decision. If hearing the truth made him decide not to help, then she’d accept that. She’d already hurt him too much. She couldn’t use desperation as an excuse forever.
Still, she didn’t want to say what she’d seen, didn’t want to have to remember the incident. Those events had crushed the wills of the others, made them far too afraid to even discuss finding a way out. While hearing about it would probably not have the same impact on C26, remembering it made B17 consider just giving up.
But if he wanted to know, she’d tell him.
…
B4’s teeth chipped and his gums bled as he gnawed on the bars of the cage. It was pointless, of course, just a distraction from the inevitable. They’d been caught, and now Janice was going to make an example of them, like she had to all the other escapees. This time, though, he was certain was going to be far worse. A single fluffy trying to flee was one thing; thirteen was another.
His jaws tightened on the bar, teeth shattering as he imagined it to be A24’s throat. The slimy coward had done this, had doomed over a dozen of his friends, his comrades, for what? To save his own skin, for a softer bed, and for a little extra food.
Well, no use thinking about that now. They’d failed, and now it was over. Too late for any last-minute tricks or wild gambles. B4 knew better than to beg or plead or reason. Janice was going to kill them all, and there was nothing he or any of the others could do about it. Even so, he preferred to seethe and struggle than give up and just accept it like some of the others.
He tried not to speculate on what Janice would do to him or the others. Of course, he knew it’d have to be worse than what she’d do to those who didn’t try to run, and that narrowed it down a lot, but his imagination kept coming up with more and more horrific scenarios as he waited for dawn. The worst thought was that if he could come up with these, what kind of atrocities could Janice dream up?
Finally, he spotted Janice walking towards the barracks. With her usual dramatic shove, she slammed the doors open. B4 shivered, and only slightly because even huddled up as they were, the caged would-be runaways had still barely made it through the night. He silently prayed to whatever might be listening that, whatever happened, Janice wouldn’t decide to extend the punishment to any of those not involved with the escape attempt. He’d failed, but with a little more time, maybe B17 would find a way out.
Janice strode over to the cage, her usual cold and calculating expression replaced with raw fury. “Damn you all,” she seethed. “Do you have any idea how much work you’ve wasted? How much this is going to cost me? Several of you already had buyers!”
B4 spat, the glob of blood and saliva not landing anywhere near Janice, but it had the intended effect. “You,” she said, staring him down. “Did you think you could hide your stupid plan from me? Did you stop to consider the consequences of what you were doing? Whatever happens, remember that this is all your fault.”
“And the rest of you,” she raised her voice, addressing the fluffies lined up behind her. “Clearly the examples I’ve been setting aren’t enough of a warning.” She waited for the terrified murmurs to quiet. “You all stood by and let this happen. Only A24 was loyal.”
There was a noticeable movement in the uncaged fluffies as Janice turned around. “A group, step forward.” There was a reluctant move forward. “B1, step forward.” The named fluffy was half-shoved forward. “A group, as the most senior group you are most responsible for ensuring the rules are upheld. Except for A24, you failed to do so. As a result, you, and B1, as the most senior of group B, will share in the escapees’ punishment.”
Several fluffies collapsed, other moved as if to run before freezing when Bella issued a low, warning growl. Those standing behind sagged a little, partially from relief, mostly from horror. B4 felt bile rise in his throat, his rage at the injustice only slightly tempered by B17’s fortune to have not been chosen to join the punishment.
It was a tiny mercy, but far more than he’d been expecting.
…
B17 had made it about halfway through the description of what had happened to B4 and the other when the trauma overwhelmed her. She retched a puddle onto the floor, the action sending stabbing pain through her injured side. She spat, trying to clear the taste of bile from the mouth. “Bee-wun-seben am sowwy!” she wailed, both to C26 and to the memories that haunted her.
“Nu…nu can say mowe,” she finally said, after staring into the air for a few minutes. “Nu wan 'membah mowe!”
“Am otay, See-tuu-sicks nu nee’ heaw mowe.”
“Am sowwy,” B17 muttered, trying to bring her focus back to the present.
C26 took a deep breath, then seemed to make a decision. “See-tuu-sicks stiww wan weabe. Stiww wan twy.”
B17 smiled as best she could. This time would be different. She would make sure B4’s sacrifice hadn’t been in vain. She would escape, or die trying.
…
C26 tossed and turned, trying to sleep. The story he’d heard haunted him, but that wasn’t the reason he was unable to drift off. He had a far greater concern, something he knew would have to be dealt with. B17 was too much of a liability. He knew a thoroughly broken fluffy when he saw one. If he wanted to get out of here, it would have to be alone.
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