Chapter 2 of Thirty Dogs and a Deadly Betrayal

2: 2

A few of the dogs weren't in cages. Mabel had tied them to the foot of her bed, and she wrapped her arms around one of them, eyes rimmed red. "These poor babies. They were practically roasting alive out there, and some of them are running fevers."

The dog hadn't been washed in so long that its fur had matted into hard black clumps, and a few fleas crawled across it, giving off a foul reek of sewage and waste.

The others weren't much better. Some had ticks and lice tumbling out of their coats along with the fleas. It was disgusting.

A few of the fleas and lice had already jumped into Mabel's long hair, and she didn't even know it.

Several of the dogs kept drooling, their eyes bloodshot. By the look of them, they had rabies or something close to it.

If I stayed in this room, it would be either my dog-hair allergy or their teeth that finished me.

I pushed down the churn in my stomach and forced a smile. "Mae, you've got such a big heart!"

"But I'm hungry. I need to go out for lunch."

"You haven't eaten yet?"

Mabel froze.

"No, I'm starving."

Seeing me about to head for the door, Ethel Norris got flustered. "Wait, that's not right. Vivi, didn't you just eat a little after eleven? How are you hungry again already? Are you saying you don't want to help these dogs, that you're going out to report Mae?"

Melinda Gray nodded quickly. "Right, I saw Vivi eat a couple of egg tarts and drink a whole cup of soy milk."

At the word report, Mabel went tense.

Right then, in a three-person group chat that Mabel wasn't in, a message came through from Ethel. *Vivi, hurry up and tell Mae to take those dogs away. If you leave, the rest of us are stuck in here with the stink.*

Melinda typed. *I'm scared they'll bite me. Vivi, get your boyfriend to haul them out.*

That's how a girls' dorm works. The four of us probably had two or three group chats running.

The second anything happened, these two always egged me on to be the one who stuck her neck out.

In my last life, my death had something to do with them too.

Back then they'd done the same thing, pushing me in the group chat, over and over, to make Mabel throw the dogs out.

I'd done it, like an idiot, and it set Mabel off enough to tie me to the bed.

After I died, they helped her get away with it, backing up her lies, saying they were always seeing me go out on dates with other men, that my private life was a mess, that I'd caught some vile disease and died of it. The people who came to investigate went home with nothing.

I typed back: *I'm more scared of dogs than either of you. Why don't you two tell Mae to get rid of them?*

Ethel: *Just sweet-talk your boyfriend into it. He wouldn't dare say no to you.*

I rolled my eyes. If Morris ever listened to me, I wouldn't have died in my last life.

Melinda: *Vivi, if you don't figure out a way to get those dogs gone, I'll tell Morris you go out on dates with men all the time!*

They looked demure enough, but they were rotten inside, the type to make up filthy rumors about me.

I let out a cold little laugh and ignored them.

"Mae, what I ate earlier was breakfast. A couple of egg tarts and a cup of soy milk isn't enough to fill anyone up. I'm really hungry now, I need to go eat."

Just as I was almost out the door, Ethel spoke up. "Vivi, you could just order delivery."

"It's not that we don't trust you. It's just, if you walk out that door, there's a risk it all gets out."

Mabel caught on, grabbing my arm to stop me. "You can't leave. Order delivery."

"And to keep anyone from contacting the outside, everyone power off their phones and hand them to me."

"Don't worry, I only want to help these babies! Once I've gotten the dogs out of here, I'll give your phones back."

No leaving, and hand over the phones too?

A chill went through me. "Mae, you two know I don't like delivery food! Or I could just go eat at the dining hall!"

My phone buzzed. Another group message from Ethel. *Vivi, why don't you scream for help, or run into the bathroom, lock the door, and call the police? Then we'd all be safe!*

I laughed to myself. After all this, you still won't let me out, but you want me to call the police right here? Not afraid Mae loses it and sets the dogs on me?

Mabel was a dog-lover gone off the deep end.

She'd brought strays back to the dorm before. One time, over a single remark she didn't like, she'd sicced a dog on Ethel and sent her running out of the room in terror.

"Tell you what, I'll hand my phone over first."

I powered it off and set it in her drawer.