Patient Twelve

Chapter Fifteen

A girl ran across the dining room as we entered. Ben slipped his arm off from around my shoulders. She threw her arms around his neck before taking a step back. She tucked her red curls behind her ears. She looked to only be a few years older than me. Her skin was tanned, but I could see the thick patch of freckles across her cheeks. The same cluster of freckles was spread out across her chest and arms. This was all made more visible by her white sundress. I glanced down and tried not to gasp when I saw her feet. They looked like the feet of a monkey. Her toes stretched out like fingers and a thumb.

"Diana, this is Jane," Ben said.

He nudged me with his elbow, and a pang of guilt hit me for staring. This feeling didn't last long because Jane's jaw dropped when we made eye contact.

"Wow, that's so cool," she said. "I overheard that you were coming early, but I wasn't sure if it was true."

"Greg wanted to meet Diana earlier," Ben said.

Jane's lips somehow spread into a wider smile.

"Is he going to buy her?" she asked before pulling me into a tight hug. The smell of coconut radiated off of her. She let out a squeal that I thought only existed in novels. "I'd love to have another girl here. I mean I have Candace, but she gets under my skin at times."

"She's still alive?" Ben asked.

"Unfortunately," Jane whispered. "The longer she lives, the cockier she gets."

The door on the far side of the room slid open, and two blurry figures entered. Their arms were full of metal containers. They sat them down on a table covered in a white cloth. They removed the lids, and a rich smell filled my nose. My stomach grumbled, and I realized that I have not eaten yet today. The two servants hurried out of the room.

Jane grabbed a plate off of the table. Her back was to me, and it let me take another look at her feet.

"I can't believe the dinner is already coming up," she said as she poured some of the food onto her plate. "It seems to come quicker every year."

"How long has she been here?" I whispered to Ben.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know," he said. "She's been here since I got here."

I followed Ben as he walked to the table. He passed me a plate. He scooped food onto his plate, but instead of handing me the spoon, he filled my plate with food. He grabbed my hand before I could say anything and pulled me over to a table. Jane was already at the large circular table eating. I sat beside her, and Ben next to me. We all ate in quiet until a door opened again.

"Hey, Ben is here," a man said.

I looked up to see two men coming up to the table. They pulled out a table and sat across from us. At a quick glance, they seemed normal.

One man appeared to be Ben's age. His hair was cut short, and his skin was tanned. The corner of his lip twitched into a smirk. His dark eyes seemed to borrow into mine. I held eye contact with him and shoved another forkful of food into my mouth. His smirk grew causing a dimple to form in his cheek.

"I see you brought a friend," he said. His voice was thick with an accent that I could not trace. It sounded like he came from somewhere in Europe.

"This is Diana," Ben said. "She's Sweeney's."

Those words caused my skin to crawl. I had to bite down on my lip to stop myself from physically shuddering.

"Dr. Alexander may buy her," Jane said.