Unwound (8 page)

around frantically to make sure no one had seen me. It seemed

like beside the one man I had run into I was alone in the street.

Letting out a sigh, I placed the door next to the cube and pulled

out a paper. October 2nd it said.

Closing my eyes, I recited the months to myself trying to

remember the month I had left London in. April. It was April. So

then how long had I been asleep?

April, May, June, July, August, September, October.

There was no way.

I couldn’t have slept for six months.

That left me with less time than I had imagined.

Why hadn’t Morrison thought to wake me up? I couldn’t have

alienated her in the span of a couple of nights, could I?

I felt a surge of what I assumed to be anger. I would never

have left her vulnerable and sleeping for as long as she left me,

alienated or not. In that moment I decided that I could no longer

trust her.

Placing the newspaper back in its little box, I started to walk

toward the center of town. I had no desire to go back to the

factory tonight and I had never been to the center of town.

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It didn’t take me long to reach my destination though I had no

idea what my intentions were of being there. The deeper into the

heart of the town that I walked, the more I noticed droves of

people huddled outside of doors, talking loudly amongst each

other or smoking by themselves.

I was continuing on my way when I noticed one of the

females staring intently at me in the middle of her group of

friends. She had long light pink hair, reminiscent of cotton candy.

Her bangs were cut right above her steel blue-gray eyes and her

oval face held the innocence of a newborn angel. Little golden

key earrings, swayed gently beneath her hair as she swiveled her

head to get a better look at me.

I stopped for just a moment to take her in. She looked almost

radiant in her white dress with a pink floral design generously

smattered about. Her legs seemed to be impossibly long for

someone as small as she was. I noticed her trick when I looked

down at her feet and saw that she was wearing some type of shoes

with a large, curved heel on them.

I had never seen her before but she obviously seemed to have

a very stark interest in me. If she knew what I was I was almost

certain she and her friends would go back inside of their music

and drink filled building and continue their night.

Out of curiosity I decided to head into the building she stood

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in front of staring at me so intently to see if maybe I could find out what she wanted from me.

As I disappeared into the dimly lit building, I was

overwhelmed by all the sensations that came over me. The music

was so loud that it seemed to shake me from the inside out. There

were lights that flashed colors that I didn’t know where possible.

It smelled of sweat and passion as couples danced together; their

bodies pressed tightly against one another. I pushed my way past

them as I tried to make it to the long table that seemed to wrap

around part of the room with small stools in front of it. I noticed that here it smelled of sweat and desolation. Some people were

sitting together in small groups laughing and talking, while others were sitting alone, hunched over their small glasses of dark

liquids.

This was too much for me to take in all at once.

I made my way back out into the night air and past the cluster

of people that seemed to be making their way in.

She was still there, small and devious as ever.

She kept her hands in her pockets and her face was as hard as

stone as we locked eyes. Nodding at her, I made my way past her

and her group of friends, feeling her eyes boring holes through

me the entire time.

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The more I thought of it as I walked the more my instinct was

to get as far away from her as possible and I had every intention

of doing so. As I turned the next corner I heard footsteps behind

me. One hindrance of having being made and not born, was that

at times like this I wasn’t able to distinguish if the footsteps were closer or further than I thought.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw a flash of pink duck into

an alley.

Not as fast as you’d like to be, are you? I thought to myself

with a grim smile.

Angel Face was following me and I wasn’t sure why.

A plan suddenly formed in my head. I knew where I would

draw her to and it would be somewhere she wouldn’t have a place

to hide. I looked both ways at the crossroads and walked quickly

to the other side. My memory was all I could rely on now to get

me back to where I needed to get her.

Her footsteps behind me quickened as I picked up speed. I

was going to make sure she was exhausted before I got her there

that way she wouldn’t pose as big as a danger to me as she might

like to.

I never glanced behind me again because I knew she would

always be there, instead after each turn onto a new block, I would 79

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quicken my pace even more. A grin formed on my face as after a

few more moments I saw the park where I had met Finnegan in

front of me. Maybe she would be there tonight and we could

interrogate Angel Face together; I wasn’t sure but I knew I could

do it alone if I had too.

I lowered my head as I walked even faster into the darkness of

the empty park and made my way to the swing set, disappointed

in the fact that she wasn’t there that night. Behind me I heard the muffled jogging of my pursuer as she followed me directly into

my new comfort zone.

I stopped walking and turned to face her.

It was so unexpected that she almost ran into me. I looked

down at her. She came up to my chest but for some reason I just

knew she was dangerous by the way she stared up at me. Backing

up a bit she put her hands back into her pockets and looked at me

vacantly, almost as if she were suddenly in a trance.

“What’s your name?” I asked her coldly.

“Cassara.”

Her voice sounded like wind chimes as a soft breeze passes by.

“Why are you following me Cassara?” I inquired.

She didn’t answer me; instead she backed away just a little

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further, keeping her eyes locked on mine. Tilting her head slightly she smiled, revealing a row of perfect and impossibly white teeth.

“I’ve been trying to find you,” she said softly.

A look of confusion crossed my face as she took her hands

out of her pockets and balled them into fists at her side.

“What?”

She put one of her hands over her mouth as she giggled.

Something was definitely wrong with Cassara and I was starting

to feel that familiar twinge of fear.

When she was done laughing at my confusion she put a single

finger to her lips as if to tell me to be silent. Her eyes seemed to grow a little larger as she stared at me.

The only sounds I heard were the sounds of the trees rustling,

the wind blowing, the cars driving by on the street, and the

occasional animal scurrying by.

“Come closer,” she said suddenly.

I gave a slight shake of my head. In the blink of an eye she

was suddenly in front of me holding my arms to my side. She

leaned up and put her lips to my ear and that’s when I heard it.

The familiar sound that lulled me to rest every night and the

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familiar sound that I heard if I was in a quiet enough place; the

sound of small wheels and cogs working away.

“Mother sent me,” she whispered into my ear.

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Seven

I wasn’t sure how I got away from her.

She had run her tongue over my ear which began a vicious

struggle and somehow I had finally managed to pull my arms free.

Cassara took a piece of me with her after I managed to get out of

her grip. I hadn’t realized that she had razor sharp fingernails

which she scraped down my arms as I was using all my strength

to push her away from me.

I looked down as I ran; she had taken my number from me. I

had a gaping hole in my arm where London had branded me and I

wondered if that would be her proof to her that she had found me.

Would London reward her?

I doubted it.

If she had set one of her creations out to find me it was

obviously to either bring me back to her dead or alive. Another

reason I doubted London’s approval for what Cassara would

bring her is because she wouldn’t be going back as whole as she

left. I clutched her right ear tightly in my hand as I ran.

Cassara had taken a prize and I had done the same.

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This would be my private warning to London that if I could

take a piece of one of her creations, that she herself would be easy enough to break.

It served an additional warning to not send anymore of her

little pets after me. I wanted London herself to come for me if she wanted me that badly but I knew this was the genius in her

working. She would send them out to see how strong I was and

what my weaknesses were.

Grimacing at the pain I felt from my newly torn flesh, I

wondered where I could go now that Cassara had found me. How

long had she been tracking me? I wasn’t sure if she knew about

the factory but I couldn’t risk going back there, could I?

I had too.

It was the only place I knew slightly well enough to be able to

recover and had it also had small, unexplored pockets of space to

hide in. I ran faster than I ever had before; faster even than when I had escaped London. I had to get to the factory before sunrise

because I didn’t know what the sunlight would do to my wound

and exposed inner workings.

I darted around cars in the crossroads not caring that the

drivers who were surprised by me suddenly running in their paths

would honk their horns and yell obscenities at me. I had heard far 84

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worse from London on her nights where things weren’t working

the way she wanted them too. I felt myself becoming exhausted

and I wasn’t sure why. With as long as my body had rested I

shouldn’t have felt exhaustion for at least another half year.

Shake it off and keep going, I told myself.

I could see the factory looming in the distance and for some

reason, tonight it looked particularly ominous and for a brief

moment I felt afraid. I stood in front of the building when I

reached it cradling my wounded arm, my breath coming in

heaving gasps.

Be brave, I commanded myself silently.

I approached the boards and kicked one in. I wasn’t exactly

caring if anyone would notice that a trespasser was inside.

Tonight I was in an unforgiving mood and anyone that dared to

enter would deal whatever had taken over me that caused me to

tear Cassara’s ear from her head.

I pounded my way up to the third floor. As soon as I entered I

made my way to the window and placed her ear on the

windowsill. It was chilly in the room but I wanted to make sure

that my prize would be preserved because I had every intention

now of going back to London and I would make sure she knew it

was I that took one of her precious creations and rendered it

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incomplete as she had done to me.

As I lay my head down on the beaten old pillow that was left

on the cot I used for my bed, I wondered if that was her intention all along. If sending one of her recently made creations after me

would lure me back to her, what did she have in store for me?

Would she kill me right away or would she slowly take me apart

piece by piece?

I closed my eyes and even with as exhausted as I was, my

body refused to recharge itself. How could I have been so foolish

leaving without the book? I’m sure in it was some sort of care

instructions and here I was planning revenge on my maker while

slowly withering away. Grunting I rolled on my side. I could feel

myself becoming bitter and that would serve me no purpose. I

was losing myself in the thoughts that were now consuming me.

How could a rotting timepiece destroy something so solid and

real?

I jumped when I heard something small land on the floor. My

arm twitched slightly and continuously. I raised it so that I could see why it had taken on a sudden mind of its own. In the darkness, I peered at it but couldn’t figure out what the problem was until I pulled myself up to a seated position and angled it under the

moonlight. That’s when I saw it; one of the pieces that was used

to keep my motor skills in tact lying on the floor next to the cot. I 86

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reached down to retrieve it and walked over to the window.

Examining the wound in my arm, I saw where it had come loose

from and tried to slide it back in, but without the proper tools, it kept sliding out. Now I would have to learn how to control my

arm or I would lose my life quickly against London.

I tossed the cog next to Cassara’s ear. Neither thing was of

use to me until I went back. Unless… I grabbed the ear and made

my way down to the first floor with a horrifying plot in mind.