✅ A Dose of Humiliation

88. The Final Dose

This extra-long bonus chapter is dedicated to Dewayne. I really hope you enjoy it, as we finally reach the climax of this story.

The office had been tidied up a little since I was last there, but was otherwise the same. There was no sign of broken glass, or bloodstains on the desk, nothing to indicate that Elspeth or I had done anything to interfere with Becker's business. But when I looked around the room, I found myself smiling just a little at the memory. Not enough of a smile to fight back my nerves, but it was a reminder that not everything went how Becker expected. And in the emptiness of my mind, I felt guilt for a moment. Mostly for not checking on what had happened to Elspeth over the last few days. I'd pretty much collapsed in on myself after the thing with the blood samples, and hadn't felt up to meeting anybody.

"Now, let's see what we have here," Becker said. It felt like he was gloating; and I was the sweet heroine at the mercy of some supervillain. Like there was some knight in shining armour bearing down on this place to rescue me at any second. But I knew that wouldn't happen, and hopefully I wouldn't need it. I had my own plan here; being able to do the debate was the important thing, and I could only hope that my recent antics hadn't screwed that up. It was a big fear now, maybe more than I could deal with.

I tried to put it out of my thoughts now. This was no time for thinking about what could have been. I just needed to face the situation as it was. I forced myself to watch as Becker opened a drawer and lifted out the automatic injector things. He placed one carefully on the desk; just out of my reach even if I hadn't been wearing the cuffs. And then another. What was that for? Did he need to give me a top-up shot of the Floodgate one to make sure they merged properly?

That theory went out of the window when he lifted out a third. Possibly it was the three doses that he had offered Dad, in case there was some kind of choice. But that wouldn't explain the next one, or the next. Did he keep all the Punishment Pill stuff for different patients in the same drawer, so he could ratchet up the anxiety for me while he found the right one? Because it wasn't actually working; this seemed more funny than scary. Then he closed the drawer, and opened a different one. This time, I recognised the package he took out. A booster shot, in its usual packaging.

"Hey, you already gave my Dad–"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, and then walked over to the office door again, booster still in hand, and opened it for a moment. Just long enough for Todd to come in. I could only guess he had been waiting in the bathroom; because I couldn't imagine he'd come through the front of the shop without Dad making a fuss. As soon as the bully was in the room, his father closed the door again.

"I thought you might like to see this. So you know that there is no forgiveness for anyone who embarrasses me. Now, keep an eye on her. I don't want to see any movement."

Wasn't I already restrained enough? I'd just about managed to force my handcuff's cable ties into the wire stripper part of my multi-tool behind my back, but it would still have taken a lot of wriggling to release myself. But Todd came to stand behind me, and put one meaty hand on each shoulder. I guess Becker was just worried about me throwing myself across the room and knocking his precious syringes on the floor. Like he thought I'd done last time. But I had a recording now, showing clearly that he'd lied to Dad about nobody else being allowed in the room. Having Todd here when Dad would have been perfectly happy to hold onto me made it clear that this was personal vengeance, not just a man doing his job. I just had to stay calm, no matter what else happened today.

"You see, Lorna, I've been thinking," Becker said, and this time he leaned right up to my face. He was close enough that I could see makeup covering the bruises where his nose had recently been broken; and close enough that without Todd's hands on me, I would seriously have been tempted to see if I could whip my forehead forward hard enough to break it again. One of Elspeth's favourite tricks, if somebody really pushed her; I'd wondered a few times what it actually felt like to hurt somebody like that. But that wasn't me. Either the old me or the new me, I was the kind of person to hurt my enemies using my wits, giving them all the rope they needed to hang themselves. I shifted position just enough to feel the weight of my phone in my pocket, and allowed myself a little smile. One way or another, father and son would regret this.