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“No... the others weren’t moving or breathing,” she said.
Lito sighed and nodded. Those two were the lucky ones. One was dark brown, with a large white spot around his snout, and the other was brindle. They were quite ugly, in his opinion. They were probably a mix of pitbull and something else, a large breed. Eden put them down next to their mom, and they began suckling right away. The mom was lying on her flank, without much strength left. Eden sighed and patted her head gently.
“Alright... Let’s go back inside now.”
“You go back,” she said. “I’ll stay until they are done eating.”
“What for?” he asked, annoyed.
“I can’t leave them alone.”
“Eden, you–”
“Fucking stop telling me what to do, Lito. Isn’t that why you stopped talking to me in the first place? If you don’t like what I’m doing, you leave me alone. Don’t patronize me or tell me what to do.”
“I didn’t... Eden, this is a different matter. You’re going to get sick out here!”
As an answer, Eden glared back at him.
“...Do you want me to zap him, Kitty?” chuckled a voice in her ear.
Eden ignored Loir and kept caressing the dogs. Behind her, Lito sighed, putting his hands on his hips, at a loss at what to do.
“Fine, I did say I don’t like you working there, okay? I still don’t! It’s not a good place! You’re selling your body, Eden!”
“So what?” she retorted, annoyed. “Are you going to pay my bills, perhaps? My mother’s? We don’t all have the luck you have, Lito. Yes, I work as a hostess, I’m a Part, and everything else. It’s true, and I didn’t want to lie to you about it. If you don’t like it, I don’t care. Now go back inside. I don’t want to ruin a future doctor’s lungs.”
“Eden, I just...”
His words got stuck in his throat. It was useless, anyway. What could he have said that she would have actually listened to? Lito sighed and walked back inside, leaving her outside with the dogs and the bodies. Eden heard him leave, but she didn’t look at him. She kept petting the dog until it really didn’t move anymore. Then she grabbed the puppies as it looked like they were done eating and walked back inside.
As she returned to the basement, Loir was waiting for her, and his eyes lit up.
“Puppies!” he exclaimed.
However, Eden fell back on her rear, her head spinning a bit. It had been a little while since she had been out for so long without a mask. She put the puppies down on her legs and began coughing.
“You overdid it, Kitty...”
Eden glared at him, but she was too busy coughing to respond with something. Suddenly, Loir extended her a large mask. She recognized it. It wasn’t just a mask; it was one of those very expensive oxygen converters. She glanced at him, surprised. This thing costs millions!
He smiled.
“Are you going to take it or not?” he asked.
Eden grabbed it, put it on her face, and began inhaling deeply. Having pure, fresh oxygen fill her lungs was an incredible feeling. Eden inhaled for a long time as Loir watched with a smile stuck on his face. The puppies were staring at her too, curious about what was going on. This was amazing, almost to the point she felt her throat clearing up. Once she had enough, she reluctantly handed the mask back to Loir and took another deep breath in the sanitized, filtered air of the basement.
“Feeling better?” he asked.
“Thanks...” she sighed, looking down at the pups.
“...You’re welcome. I mean, if you can pay back the favor.”
Eden frowned and raised her head, glaring at him.
“What?”
“I never said I’d lend it to you for free,” he replied, tilting his head.
