Page 14 of Birds of a Feather

“Gabby?” She waited for a response, crossing her arms across her bare chest to keep the cold out. Goosebumps—or more accurately hummingbird bumps—erupted across her flesh with the cool air the air conditioner was pumping out. As she took another step, something hard dug into her foot. “Ouch!” She hopped over it. A small black object the size of a rock sat on the floor. She crouched down and picked it up. It was a hard plastic figurine. Of a crow.

Lyla turned around, searching for the tray table that slid across the bed. She figured since the crow had appeared after Gabby’s visit with her family, it must have been a gift from them, and Lyla didn’t want it getting broken. That was when she noticed the glass in the window was gone. The jagged remains of glass jutted out of the pane like the long canine teeth of the hippos in the hallway. Except, unlike the hippos, these glass fangs were pointed at the ends.

Lyla glanced at the floor, expecting to see glass strewn across it. Aside from the mess of the books, bed sheets, and bed, the floor was clean. The cold linoleum bit into Lyla’s soles, sending a shiver up her bare back. She crept closer to the window.

“Gabby?” she tried again, though her voice nearly failed her. It caught in her throat, nearly drying up like her depleted stamina.

A warm breeze greeted her from the broken window. It was oddly pleasant and unexpected in the chaos of the hospital wing. Lyla’s heart hammered rapidly in her chest as if she were still in hummingbird form. “Gabby?” The whisper of air barely crossed her lips.

She looked out the window, hoping to find Gabby in the courtyard. Aside from the missing tray table and picnic tables farther down, the courtyard was empty. It appeared to Lyla that someone had thrown the small table out the window to break the glass. Could it have been Gabby? Did she not trust that her room would be safe from the hippos and tried to get out?

Lyla wanted to hope so, because the alternative was so much worse.

As Lyla’s knees gave out, she was struck with a terrible revelation. Gabby was gone.

9

Gabby’s eyes fluttered open to darkness. A familiar musty smell wafted up her nostrils. This couldn’t be possible. The subterranean lab where she was kept was raided and shut down by FUC and ASS. Or so she thought.

Bright lights came to life above her. They bathed the small room in a white glow, illuminating a hospital bed, small metal table, and toilet and sink in the corner. This was another cell. Fear bubbled up inside of her, threatening to spill the contents of her stomach onto the floor. Anxiety buzzed in her chest, squeezing her heart. Her breaths came in shallow gasps, and she sat up, moving to the edge of the bed to try to wrangle her panic. Focusing on taking deep breaths, Gabby exhaled slowly through her mouth, letting her diaphragm push the air out. Nice and slow. One more breath filled her, slowing her heart back down to a more normal rhythm. She let it out gently, deflating her belly. Her jumbled thoughts untangled themselves, floating by at a more leisurely pace. She wiped her sweaty palms on the hospital gown, taking the time to notice the soft fabric. The panic ebbed to high anxiety, but at least she could function again.

She scratched at the back of her neck, trying to ascertain how this could be possible. Gabby racked her brain for her last memory. It was fuzzy and kept swimming just out of focus. She tried to piece it together. Lyla was in her room, and they’d gone to the nurses’ station together. Lyla was going to help her tell Agent Stone about Dr. Grimm! Then a loud commotion broke out in the hallway, and they’d each run for their rooms. Gabby had made it to hers, but she wasn’t alone. A tiny creature hobbled toward her. It looked like a mole with long whiskers, except its snout was too long. And it didn’t have shovel-like paws on its forelegs for digging. This was no mole.

That was when she noticed its tail, long, thick, and hairless. It immediately reminded her of the worm Lyla had mentioned.Is this what Lyla saw when she went to the library?

Before she could decide how to react to the creature, a giant hippo came into view in the hallway. Gabby had no choice but to shut the door, keeping the tiny rat-like critter in with her. The thing was so small, so what harm could it do?

But then it grew in size. Its grey fur receded as its limbs lengthened. The rat-like tail shrank until it vanished. Tan skin stretched across the frame of a young man. His face wrinkled in concern as if fighting some internal battle.

Gabby took a step back, bumping into her hospital bed. She didn’t know who this stranger was, but she didn’t trust him. Especially if it was the same creature Lyla spotted earlier creeping around the building.

“I’m sorry for this.” The young man inspected her with his green eyes.

“For what?” she asked, but that was when the memory cut out. Something happened between her room and this cell. And that man had something to do with it. She glanced around her new surroundings. She had to figure a way out. But where was she?

“Welcome back! It’s so good to see you again,” a thin, familiar voice spat out from the tiny speaker on the wall. She pictured the too-white teeth in the mouth that broadcast that voice through the intercom system. “Sorry I had to send my shrew after you. He’s a little rough around the edges for my taste, but he’s so good at finding things—and subverting FUCN’A security measures.”

Gabby’s core burned at the amusement she heard in Dr. Grimm’s voice. He spoke as if catching up with an old friend. She wanted to rip the speaker off the wall.

“Why!” Gabby shouted in frustration, not knowing if the speaker was two-way or not.

“You’ll find I perfected our serum,” Dr. Grimm explained.

“What you… talking about?” She let her anger hone her focus, helping her tie into the singing part of her brain. “Let me go!” Her shrill voice hit the walls around her, rattling the small window in the door of her cell. The words came out like a singer belting out a song on Broadway. She couldn’t savor the sentence. Whatever he’d perfected, it was bad news for her. Gabby had to find a way out before he tried his new serum on her.

“Gabrielle, you were always my favorite.”

She hated the sound of the smile on his lips. Hated the way his voice sounded thin, like his vocal cords were stretched too tight, ready to snap. What Gabby hated most of all was the way this prick thought he could do whatever he wanted to her, without her permission.

Not again.

She picked up the small, metal table, throwing it at the door with a scream. She’d played the docile captive last time, and it got her nowhere. She wouldn’t make that mistake twice.

The table hit the concrete floor with a clang. She trudged to the door, picking the table up again. She dragged it across the floor behind her, ready to throw it again.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the disembodied voice of Dr. Grimm cautioned over the speaker.

“Why. The. Fuck. Not.” She didn’t want to give Dr. Grimm the satisfaction of watching her struggle to talk. Gabby swallowed between words and focused with all her might. She used all the tools Lynn had given her over the past year.

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