“No I didn’t!” Shane objected.

“No? You’re not in some juvie infirmary now. Shane, you’re in a hospital! Where they might actually GIVE a flying fuck about what’s going on in here, instead of just drugging her senseless!”

Harky always spoke about their body in the third person. It was a part of the distancing process. It had a sort of internal logic to it, since they couldn’t feel the body’s sensations or emotions, and there were no independent thoughts to listen to. It was like putting a car in park and letting the engine idle.

Shane shook her head in denial.

“Yes, Shane, yes! What are you going to do when you go back and they start asking questions? What are you going to tell them?”

“Nothing,” Shane muttered, “I won’t tell them anything. Maybe I won’t even go back. It’s peaceful here…at least it would be if you’d shut the fuck up.”

“And the drugs are free,” piped up a younger voice. Devon. A boy self, born at the age of 11 years, thanks to a vicious john who decided a blow job wasn’t all he wanted. Shane had gone to The Safe Place to escape, taking that part of herself with her. That’s how they were all created, all her other selves. Her Littles.

“Yeah,” Harky sniped, “but what good does that do us? We can’t feel them anyway.”

“Well,” Devon sulked, “it was an idea anyway.”

“A good idea, Devon,” Shane smiled and tried to soothe his hurt feelings.

Harky started to pace. “Shane, you may not want to deal with us. I’ve kept us all safe. For years. All you had to do was not put us in danger.”

Shane could feel Harky’s agitation. The only emotions she could experience were those of all the internal selves she’d put here for safekeeping. “Harky, listen! You’re NOT in danger. I wouldn’t do that, man.”

Shane felt a tugging on her pants leg. “Shane,” whispered a lisping voice, “are we in trouble?”

Shane leaned down and picked up Evangeline. She was the youngest. Not the first born but the youngest to survive. She came here courtesy of “Uncle Jonathan” who used to babysit when her second set of foster parents went out. He liked to put his fingers in her while he rubbed himself. But first he always had to find her.