Unwound (11 page)

into my system.

Before I lost consciousness I heard him whisper to me,

“Everything will be okay now. I promise I’ll never let her hurt

you again.”

When I awoke a few hours later, I felt different. No matter

what I always heard ticking as my body started to bring itself

back to full use, and this time I didn’t, all I heard was a soft,

steady whirring.

“Finally awake, sleepyhead?”

My body gave a start. I had forgotten that Edison was here

with me and to be honest, I had half expected him to be gone

when I woke up. Just like Morrison had left me and just like I had left London.

Wait a minute.

“Edison? When I was … shutting down, I heard you say ‘I’ll

never let her hurt you again’. Who were you referring to?” I asked slowly turning to face him. It seemed that he had never left the

spot on the floor next to my bed.

“You must’ve dreamed that,” he said with a shrug.

“I don’t dream,” I replied bluntly.

108

Unwound

“Then I’m not sure what to tell you Caelum. I know I didn’t

say anything of the such,” he answered looking somewhat

thoughtful.

I glanced away for a moment. I couldn’t help but wonder why

he would lie about that. Then again, I also wondered if my mind

had played a trick on me and I was back to hearing borrowed

thoughts again. Either way I decided to dismiss it for now. One

thing I was not going to dismiss however was the sting that I had

felt and the rush that passed throughout me soon after.

“Turn out your pockets,” I said looking back at him.

“Excuse me?” he asked adjusting his spectacles.

“What are those for?” I inquired momentarily changing the

subject. I had seen them in movies and I had seen some of the

humans wearing them but I never did know what they were truly

used for.

“My glasses? These are for vision correction,” he replied.

“Does it hurt?”

“No,” he said with a kind smile, “It helps me see things

better.”

I stared at his face for a moment. He looked so wise with

those glasses as he called them. Like an infant child discovering

109

Unwound

something new, I reached over and removed the glasses from his

face. I was curious as to how he looked without them. I felt a

smile playing on my lips. He looked as beautiful as ever and those eyes would always be the most magnificent shade of gray I would

ever see. I forced myself to stop looking at him so that I could put his glasses on and see the world as he saw it. I hadn’t had them on for a second or two before I immediately pulled them back off

and stared at him. How could he see the world as blurred as this?

“Everyone’s sight is different,” he said with a knowing smile.

“You probably can’t see through those because your eyes are

better than mine, I can see through them just fine though. Nothing is blurred to me when I have them on.”

“Oh.”

I handed them back to him and watched them slip them back

onto his face.

“Edison, turn out your pockets,” I demanded again.

“I’d ask you to turn out yours as well, but your pockets

happen to be over by the window,” he said with a good natured

laugh as he stood up and did as I asked of him. There was nothing

in either pocket. No trace of what he had used against my skin

before I slept. I was becoming quickly confused with what

happened before I slept. But then it dawned on me what he had

110

Unwound

just said.

“What?”

He leaned his body toward the window and retrieved my

undergarment, my pants, and my shirt and neatly placed them in a

pile next to my cot as he sat back down.

“I hope you don’t mind. I thought you would sleep more

comfortably naked, so as you slept, I undressed you.”

I suddenly became very aware of the cool blanket against my

skin. I closed my eyes and wondered what he thought of my scar

ridden body. How could he still sit here with me and keep watch

now knowing what a monster looks like? I felt his fingers brush

my hair out of my face again and I opened my eyes. He still wore

that friendly smile on his face and I secretly wondered what he

was hiding behind those mesmerizing eyes.

“Thank you,” was all I could say.

111

Unwound

Nine

The next couple of months went by quickly. Every waking

moment I spent was with Edison. He had become a constant,

positive companion which was a something I never had before. I'd

also come to trust him very quickly and let him take the

measurements he had asked of me previously. There were days

when Edison would do nothing but work on the sketch I had

made of myself, still keeping to himself whatever he was doing

with it. I didn't ask why. I just knew that everything would come

in due time.

One thing he had shared with me so far was what the sting

was the night I slept while he kept a watchful eye over me. He

told me that he had injected me with a solvent that would keep

my insides, if I indeed was what I said I was, working constantly

and at a proper pace. The liquid was an amber color and always

felt so cool as it ran freely through my body. To be honest, I

noticed from the first secret injection he had given me, that the

ticking inside had me had become much more subtle and the

glitch in my arm from the battle with Cassara had stopped. I also

noticed that my skin was no longer withering and that I was

beginning to become the pale color London had used for my base.

From that moment on, I freely accepted the injections every night.

112

Unwound

Edison had moved me away from the factory into a log cabin

he owned. He told me we would return to the factory when the

time was right, but for now he wanted me to be away from there

and be able to live as a human for a few months and then we

would "get to work". I wasn't sure what he meant by that, but I had gladly accepted his offer.

I was glad to be in a modest home. London's estate was as

maniacal as she was leaving me to wonder who would build such

a place, but here in Edison's cabin, the constant smell of fresh

pine and the chill of the coming winter months made feel truly

alive. He stayed there with me of course making sure that I would

get my nightly treatments as he called them. He would build fires

in the small fireplace and we would sit across from each other in

spacious, leather chairs and tell each other stories. The night I told him off all of the horrors I had suffered at London's hands since

my "birth", he had tears in his eyes. From the first time I acknowledged life to the last brutal and savage act she had made

me endure. As I finished, I got up from the chair and told him it

was time for me to rest, feeling terrible that I had made him cry.

He followed me to the room he had given to me as my very own

and pulled the covers over my chest, kissing me on the forehead. I heard him sniffle as he to go to his own room and I touched the

spot he had kissed. I rested soundly that night.

The next morning, Edison's entire demeanor had changed.

113

Unwound

I walked down the short hallway into the area where he made

food for himself to eat and saw him leaning against the cedar

table, looking out the window. He had a cup of something that

was letting out steam. I stood there for a moment without him

noticing. I watched as he blew out the steam every now and then,

taking a sip of what he was holding.

Finally he acknowledged me.

"Have you ever seen snow Caelum?" he asked his eyes still trained on the outside world.

"In a movie once."

Setting down his cup, he gestured for me to follow him. We

walked to the front door which he opened for me and stepped

aside so that I could step out into the brisk morning air.

I gasped.

The world seemed to be covered in a beautiful white blanket.

The evergreen trees still had shown some green as the snow had

covered most of their needles which made the rest of the world

look so majestic. I stepped off of the front porch into the snow

and looked down. It felt cool against my feet and I squatted down

to be able to scoop up a handful. I held it close to my nose and

inhaled. The snow didn't smell any different than the air but it

really was the most beautiful thing I had seen in such a long time.

114

Unwound

"Do you like it?" Edison asked.

Lost in my euphoria I had forgotten that I wasn't alone and

turned to see him leaned over the side of the porch with his hands folded in front of him smiling at me. I nodded and let the snow

drop back to the ground.

"Good, because we will be working outside a lot now that

nature has given us this additional obstacle. I plan on making you strong. Stronger than you've probably ever thought possible. We'll get that last gleam of fear out of your eyes and get rid of that

slight hunch before I'm done with you," he said coming off the porch. "Follow me, this morning we're going to start."

He lead the way to the back of the cabin where there was a

stump of a tree with something lodged in its center.

"This is an ax," he said as I looked at it curiously. "I want you to pull this from this stump and chop down that tree," he said pointing to one of the smaller evergreens.

I laughed. I had too. How could he expect me to do such a

thing?

Edison gave me a sharp look for the first time since I had met

him which caused me to immediately cease. He pulled the ax

from its home and threw it at the tree with such a ferocity that it went through it. I heard the cracking of the tree as the damage he 115

Unwound

had just done to it started to slowly split it in half. The tree fell apart with one half of it landing between Edison and I. He

retrieved the ax and with one strong movement, hammered it back

in its place.

"Your turn," he said crossing his arms over his chest and looking at me.

I looked down at the ax. I was flooded with the memory of

ripping the door off the closet in London's home. I remembered

ripping the boards off the factory entrance, and I remembered

kicking a hole in them. I remembered pulling the small plastic

door off of the box that held the newspaper.

I looked up at the tree. It was much bigger and thicker than

either thing I had previously destroyed without meaning too, but I knew they were made of the same thing with the exception of the

plastic box. I stood there in a pair of black, flannel sleep pants that he had lent me for when my body rested at night, nothing on

my feet, and no shirt to cover my scar-ridden torso. With as

plainly as I looked, I knew I was so much more. I knew I was

stronger than I looked and I knew that I could do this if I set my mind to it.

My body tensed as I approached the tree. The ripples on my

stomach tightened as I stood in front of the tree. With everything I could possibly muster from deep inside of me I made a fist.

116

Unwound

"Caelum, you can't possibly --"

I never heard the rest of what Edison was saying to me over

the sound of the tree splitting as I hit it with all the force I had inside of me.

I was feeling completely proud of myself for what I had just

done and I glanced at Edison. He was shaking his head and

looking at me in disapproval.

"That was unbelievably careless. Look at your hand now," he said reproachfully.

I looked down instantly becoming horrified. The skin on my

hands looked like it had been torn to shreds and parts of the bone and mechanical things inside of me were showing through. I

didn't know what to do. By demonstrating that I didn't need the

help of an ax to bring the tree down, I wound up causing myself

injury.

"Let's go inside," Edison suggested seeing the pained look on my face. My hand was starting to burn a bit. "I can fix that but I'll need to go out and hunt for a bit."

I felt his hand on my back as he steered back into the cabin.

How could he fix what I had just done to myself? Why would he

need to go hunting to do so? As I let him lead me into the sitting room, he told me to take special care to stay away from the heat

117

Unwound

of the fireplace and to stay by the window he had just opened.

"That skin is rotten now. If you go near the heat it will make you smell and cause the rest of the skin on your arm to rot. Then

I'll be working forever to fix you," he said with a smile.

He disappeared into his room and I heard him rustling about

in there. I looked down at my hand again and contemplated

pulling out everything in me that wasn't human now that I could

see it. I hated being able to see these things from time to time and I still see them sometimes when I glance quickly at myself in the

mirror on the rare occasions that I can bring myself to do so.

"Give me your arm, Caelum."

I jumped in startled surprise. I was so deep in thought I hadn't

seen Edison reappear. He was now wearing a large coat made of

dark greens and some black with pants to match. He wore a wool

cap pulled down over his head and dark gloves as well. In his

hand he held a syringe in which I could see the serum he would