Unwound (17 page)

that didn’t want to hear me crying out in pain every time she

twisted the handle and sliced more of my insides?

“Caelum!”

I looked up to my right and saw Winter’s light blue hair

emanating against a large mirror in the barely lit room. I looked

down at the handle again and then back at her to let her know I

was helpless.

“Mother, let him go!” she pleaded from where she stood.

London looked sharply at Winter and twisted the rotary cutter

again causing me to scream out louder than before. Winter

became frantic from where she stood but she made no move to

approach me. She made no move to save me which made me

wonder if she ever cared about me at all.

“I told you not to come back! I told you,” she said to me from

where she stood.

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London crouched on her chair finally releasing the handle and

looked at Winter, “Be quite little girl, or I’ll gut your voice out permanently.”

“Get down from there,” a familiar voice said chidingly to

London.

I closed my eyes tightly. It couldn’t be. I refused to believe it.

I thought I would never see him again and now here he is

speaking to London like one would speak to a child, in a loving,

but stern voice.

My dream now seemed like a prophecy instead. It had been

true what I had seen and I could feel my will to fight slipping

away.

London looked toward the window and did as she was told

getting down and sitting cross legged in the chair. She didn’t look at me or put her hand back on the handle. She had her eyes

trained on the figure that had entered the room through the

window and seemed almost normal. There was no look of manic

delirium in her eyes and the look of evil had vanished from her

face. For that one moment, London looked like a normal, human

girl.

I felt a strong pair of hands lift me from where I knelt on the

floor and I felt the strong arms that cradled me like a newborn. A 174

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few seconds later I felt the cold of the large metal work table that London used to construct us as I was laid onto it. I heard the

tearing of the fabric as my shirt was being torn off of me. I turned my face away from him because I didn’t want to believe it and

saw a pair of hands gripping the side of the worktable. I saw two

beautiful creations that looked exactly alike with the exception

that one’s hair was orange and the other’s was peach. They had

small metal hoops in their lips and big beautiful golden eyes.

“I need help,” he said to them sternly.

The two looked at each other and stood. I gasped in horror;

they had been fused together. One body two girls standing

proudly looking down at me and then up at the voice that had

commanded them. How could London have done something so

cruel? I watched them as they looked at each other then began to

seemingly pull themselves apart. It was almost beautiful. They

each turned their heads toward the opposite walls and almost as if a dance, began to twist apart from each other. I heard their flesh tear and I heard the grunts of effort. I watched entranced as they danced apart from each other until they both stood there each with her own body.

“Ember, please hold his ankles. Roan, please hold his

shoulders down,” the voice said to them.

Each girl nodded and I realized that Ember was the girl with

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the orange hair and Roan was the girl with the peach hair. As they each held me down I realized they had full human bodies, so why

did they choose to stay fused together?

“Would you like to know how they got their names?” he

asked me softly as he ran his hands over my hair.

I refused to look at him, he was a traitor.

“Ember was the name of a girl that mistreated my sister when

they were young. She would tease her and sometimes hit her for

thinking a little differently than most. It’s not her fault that she’s a genius. She can’t help it you know? Anyway Ember was also the

one that gave me the idea of making these puppets because she

had a group of friends with her that would torture my sister and it made me realize that they never thought on their own,” I glanced

at him out of the corner of my eye. Now I understand why Winter

had become so frantic when she had heard his voice in the cabin.

He was looking lovingly at Ember, “I preserved her body. She

died young and I knew that it would be good for London to be

able to take out some of her frustrations on Ember’s body. So the

Ember you see here is actually the Ember that bullied my poor

little sister as a child.”

My mind was beginning to spin. Now I knew why he wasn’t

afraid of her. Now I knew why he had tested my strength and my

wits. So she would know how to best fight me off. He had been

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watching me like an experiment.

“Roan’s story is much simpler,” he said glancing at her.

“Roan was the name of a boy that I loved. He told me he loved

me back but it was a cruel joke really. All his friends had dared

him to play along with my affection for him. One night they had

told him to invite me out and we went to a cliff overlooking the

town. I leaned over and kissed him, which he returned before the

door opened and I was pulled out. His friends beat me viciously

that night and left me broken on that mountain top. I decided as I lay there broken that I would never love again. No boy or girl

would ever feel my affection again. So because Ember and Roan

were two of the most evil humans I had ever met, that is how

these two got their names. Ember kept her name I guess you

could say,” he said with a chuckle as he put a hand carefully

against the entry wound on my torso.

“There were many girls that tried to win my affections and

many that I wanted to love. Females seem gentler than males in

the world of love and I wanted to experience something

meaningful, but I promised myself never again, you know?” He

said as he placed a worn leather strap in my mouth. “Bite down,

Caelum. I’ll try to be as quick as I can.”

I did as I was told and stared straight at the ceiling. I knew

the pain that would come next; I could only hope I was still

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somewhat immune to it.

“Anyway, I clearly broke that promise to myself when I first

laid eyes on you. I couldn’t help it. What I didn’t know though

until you told me was that London had made you. I knew I

shouldn’t have left her alone, but after she burned out mother’s

factory down gathering tools to make you, I knew she would need

to figure things out for herself.”

It all made sense to me then. Morrison was the mother of

London and Edison. I should have known when he told me it

helped to be the son of a seamstress but I wasn't thinking clearly then. I should have also known of Edison's treachery when Winter

was scared of the voice in the cabin and insisted that we leave.

Was Morrison hiding in this place of hell as well? Why had

Edison been so keen on helping me destroy London if he had

every intention of caring for her?

"Now, I know I said that Ember was the first one I made," he continued as he finally removed the weapon from my torso and

began to stitch me up, "but honestly, it was little London who was the first. See, she wound up killing herself because of all the

teasing and I felt like my world had been taken from me."

I felt something wet land on my chest and realized that he had

tears falling as he spoke of London's death.

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"There, all better," he said as he placed the final stitch in place.

"You can release him now," he commanded Ember and Roan.

They let go of my legs and arms and Edison continued his story.

"Our mother was distraught over her death, but not as badly as I was. For years London had been my sole companion and I

refused to lose her. I had always been a technical genius and I

knew certain things about the human anatomy, so I experimented

with Ember before I finally figured out how to bring London back

to life. So in all honesty, when London screamed that she's "one", she was telling you here number. She was the first one created.

Then Ember even though her number isn't two. It's eight one two,

the night that London died."

"Please let him go!" Winter shrieked from where she stood.

I turned slightly to be able to see her still standing in front of the mirror paralyzed. I wondered why she hadn't moved to help

me when I saw the reason.

The eyes in the mirror blinking and the smile starting to

manifest. I should have known from the first time I met her since

I didn't have much of a reason to trust her. It was Jett. She was the mirror holding Winter hostage where she stood as the scene

before us unfolded.

"What's up, Junk Heap?" she asked casually as she stepped 179

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out of the mirror still holding on to Winter. "You really fell for that 'we can all change line' didn't you?"

"Silence Jett, there's no reason to taunt him. He's already in a compromising enough situation," Edison said to her.

Jett immediately sulked and looked away as she tightened her

grip on Winter.

"Get to your feet Caelum," Edison commanded as he put one of my arms around his shoulder and helped me up.

As I got to my feet I looked into his eyes and he turned away.

He must have been able to see the hurt in my face from his

betrayal. I looked over at London who was still perched in her

chair watching us with manic eyes.

Killing London wouldn't change anything. I'd have to kill Jett,

Ember, Roan, and Edison first.

"Please understand," Edison began, "I never meant for any of this to happen I just wanted my sister back. I made Ember and

Roan after London, but I never expected her to make you or the

others. I just wanted to hurt the ones who hurt me and bring my

sister back to life."

"Where's the white haired girl?" I asked staring directly at London.

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She began to giggle and rock back and forth so I knew that the

Xandy girl had to be close but I couldn't see her.

"I'm laying in the ashes as always," came a voice. I turned and looked at the fireplace in time to see a pair of eyes open then

close again.

"Xandy doesn't talk much," Edison said thoughtfully.

"I wasn't speaking to you," I said to him harshly.

"Jett speaks for me," the voice came again as I watched

Xandy rise from the ashes yet manage to still look completely

immaculate as if she hadn't been laying in soot and the parts of

others. She walked over to Winter and with clawlike hands she

ran a finger down the side of her face. Winter squirmed as Jett

held her tightly and Xandy dug a little deeper tearing the flesh

from the side of Winter's face.

"Leave her alone!" I shouted making my way to them just as Roan and Ember stood in front of me.

Xandy turned and looked at me with large, doe like eyes and

blank stare. Then she looked past me for a moment to Edison. I

turned to face him as well and saw that he had his arms around

London sitting on the chair arm and nodded.

For the first time Xandy smiled as she turned her attention

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back to Winter and dug her claws into her body and lifted her

from Jett's grasp. Winter screamed out in pain as Xandy lifted her higher and higher.

"Caelum," she whispered as she took her last breath.

I hadn't been able to help her because as Xandy took her from

Jett, she, Ember, and Roan had converged upon me like a group

of vultures holding me in place while Winter died in front of me.

I fell to my knees feeling helpless and felt the tears flowing

from Jared's eye. One of my very best friends was torn to pieces

in front of me and I couldn't save her. How then would I be able

to avenge her?

In a moment of sheer rage I was able to get back to my feet

and get the three of them off of me. Roan was the first to die. I

grabbed her head and ripped it clean off of her body and as Ember

watched in fear I punched a hole through her chest and ripped out

her heart and threw it viciously in Jett's face to distract her. It worked, as she squirmed and swatted the heart away from her, I

grabbed her by her arms and rammed her repeatedly into the wall

until the fragile parts of her shattered into a million small pieces.

"Three down," I said looking Xandy in the eyes.

She didn't look worried or concerned instead she held my

gaze for a moment then turned her attention back to Edison.

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"No. Don't touch him," he said sternly.

"Spare me the pity," I seethed at him. "Everything you've said to me or felt for me was a lie. It was all a ploy to make sure I

wasn't strong enough to kill London, what you didn't count on

was me being able to dispose of your toys so quickly. I swear to

you, for Winter and Jared, everyone in this room will die tonight."

"I don't think so Caelum," he said moving away from London.

"I loved you and I still do. That wasn't a lie and it hurts me that you think that. However, I never feared London because I know

how harmless he really is. Yes, you killing those three so quickly was a surprise and it shows me how far you have progressed, but