I thought it'd be fun to show my plan at the outset of the novel and my notes at the end of it:
Beginning notes: (written mainly at 4/5 in the morning)
#--------------------------------------------------#
----#-AS THE OCEANS BITE AT OUR RUSTED SHORE-#----
#--------------------------------------------------#
...A man searches for his daughter in the crumbling dreamscapes of a senile inventor...
A mans daughter (they live alone together) is stolen through a portal. She had been complaining about people peeking in at her through imaginary windows for months but he didnt believe her. One night he is in there conforting his daughter and a portal rips open and a massive man leaps in and grabs her.
He follows. Emerges out the side of a hill covered in blackened machinery, is immediately restrained by two hulking butch-types. He sees his daughter restrained ahead of him and he tries to go after her but fails. The group assembled decide to bring russell as well as the daughter. They take them up a winding hill to a pinnacle which looks like a radio tower. Along the way one man is asked questions about the location, while he replies why it is so 'perfect' - for what, we dont know. He says that it has perfect transmission, that EMP wires grow there and that it is the highest point on the island. russell is terribly confused. the ground is bronze, it looks welded together with pebbles strewn across it and dents from lots of foot-stomps. it may be hollow inside. at the top russell sees his daughter strapped to a machine that looks very hastily assembled. she is strapped in and bound, wires are plucked from nearby and strapped to her head. The machine is turned on ('theres an on switch growing on this side!') and lightning explodes from the machine into the sky. However, there is a clap of lightning and the straps fall flat, because the daughter isnt there any more. The assembled people make it clear that there has been a major mistake. However, there is soon another clap across the island.
Russell is dropped immediately - he runs to the machine and screams for his daughter. There is clearly something very wrong. Lester tries to explain that there was a mistake. Russell goes for Lester and manages to punch him straight in the jaw but he is restrained again. Just then a nearby tree crackles into life and a microphone slides down the bronzed trunk. Someone is on the other end of the line and theyve seen the lightning. Lester explains to them that it was a result of his experiment, and it was vital that the child is recovered quickly. The other team sound shocked that Lester used a child like that but agree to collect the girl. Russell shouts that he wants to go and find her NOW, and though at first Lester is unenthusiastic he eventually relents. Lester is portrayed as a villain character throughout and Russell HATES him for stealing his daughter.
Later on, when they are walking, Russell overhears people talking about him and snaps at them. He describes the rusted countryside, and the clockwork sun hanging overhead. Amelie tries to comfort him, but he shrugs her away and she retreats. A microphone tree crackles into life again and Lester answers it. The other team has recovered the daughter, but she is afflicted with something and cannot breathe properly. Russell is at first outraged, but he learns that it is a routine childhood disease in this world. Lester knows of a place not far which contains herbs which can help heal her. [they go to SOME LOCATION, but a monster guards the herbs. lester dies trying to get the herbs, and russell saves sebastians life. before this lester has to be shown as the most powerful, who knows all the answers, who can save the rest of them, to leave them with a sense of dread upon his death, not only because he knew the island better tha anyone but because only he knew why russells daughter was to be used like that. before he dies they need to go to the beach and see it rust. maybe their path is blocked and they have no alternative? lester leads them through the intensely dangerous beaches to prove his character.]
[they have to get lost without lester!]
[as the oceans burn up the shores ocean-dementia-memoryhole-wraiths steal his daughter and he has to follow her into the heart of the old mans fear]
[another team pick up the girl - they find out via audio lines running through the island, like microphone/ speaker trees. however she is ill, cant breathe properly. they all go to collect her and on the way the scientist has an idea on whats happened to the daughter, by recieving updates on her condition via audio. they go on a detour to collect an artefact that can help. however, the scientist dies trying to get said artefact.]
[it would have just been teleportation but as she was flung through the air she went through a flock of electro-magnetic birds, which rarely nest on the island because they fuck with the island and cause it to spark up, fuck around and go mental. however the girls mobile phone gets mixed with the electrobirds and after that the birds follow the phone and fuck up everywhere they, and by extention the girl and the phone, go]
THINGS WHICH CAN HAPPEN
Invisible monsters! Magnetic energy? Electrical energy?
When the group get seperated one of the characters should meet Russell's daughter but not realise.
The thing they were trying to prevent because of the mishap at the beginning happens - they can't stop it, so the inhabitants of the steampunk world escape before it collapses and become refugees in Russell's world.
A MURDER
A facility which grows babies. Maybe a foetus tree? Hell, why not.
The sea laps the rusted beaches.
He dreams that he sees his daughter trapped in a glass bottle in the ocean.
A section in a furnace
In the ocean is a graveyard of derelict ships
A town near the ocean has been plated in teflon/ stainless steel so it doesnt rust and it destroys itself and remoulds itself into a boat. They steal the boat.
Climactic battle in LIGHTNING STORM, like on a lightning conductor in a storm? IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN. deserted oil rig?
An injury which needs an amputation which isn't the daughter (that needs a weird artefact to heal)
The disease the daughter gets infects the whole village she is being kept in. Quarantined and going paranoschizophrenia mad.
All the characters take some kind of drug to calm their nerves?
Russell has a crush on the female lead which he feels very guilty about, as its indecent to his wife. She likes him and sees him as the sole hope for their universe as all the men are sterile.
EVERYONE IS STERILE = they need a kid but there are none on the island. the sterilisation event blanketed the island and killed all the guys sperm.
The universe is the dream of an insane inventor. The world is dying because he is slipping into a coma. The world is intrinsically metallic, and cold, like his inventions. The grass is patchwork and tinged with bronze, and the sun is clockwork on a timer. The older life processes are clockwork or steam powered, but more recent things are electric and diesel powered. Like the sun, the seasons, the tectonic plates, are all clockwork and steam-powered. As the man has been moved to a hospital, there are horrific nurse creatures and syringes/ surgical tools which roam the land. The scientist needs the child because he wants to plug the childs supposedly dreamlike imagination into the world, stopping the creeping rust. However, the machine appears to malfunction, and it sends the child across the country. However, it appears that it worked perfectly but the childs imagination wasnt as pure as imagined... The procedure would have been instantaneous, like a reverse lightning bolt into the sky.
THe coma guy is an inventor - the world is metallic, electric, razor-sharp and dirty.
The guy is in hospital and is alone and scared - there are mutant nurses roaming the world, and anthropomorphic syringes and surgical equipment. The syringes are hunted and their blood is drunk.
The guy is deathly afraid of water - water is rising in the world, rusting everything and dredging up horrors from the deep
They know where they inhabit because there is a library somewhere on the island detailing his work - the scientist has read all the library and can understand the insland better than anyone.
They need to go to the library and get attacked in there, by book monsters?
It burns down for sure
---MAIN CHARACTERS---
Russell - father to an only child. his wife either died or left him, leaving him alone to raise a child. the experience left him very introverted.
Lester - a wires explorer leathered with scars. He knows lots about the island and hence picked the best place to transmit the daughters thoughts. He dies early on.
Sebastian - a seventeen year old whose dad died early on in his life. he had to fend for himself, but came to see Lester as a sort of father figure.
Amelie - a thirty year old explorer, witty and talented. Uncannily like Russells ex-wife.
Andre - a thief who takes maybe the
Dresden - large, slow-witted. Dies with Lester.
Dr Cinnibar - the leader of the research team on the other end of the island. Dies of mystery-disease.
Andre - A bandit who steals the artefact that they worked so hard to get.
And now the notes I had at the end:
Seb and melanie meet up and team up – they decide that melanie needs to die, though seb wants to kill russell as well
russ and belle fuck – drunkenness? Or is russell trying to get over juliet again? DOES SHE TELL HIM??
the sky falls down (the sun...) - causes MASSIVE FUCKING FISSURE
Melanie goes off again, and russell tells them about the exploding-melanie? [as if they didn't already know >_>]
RUSSELL NEEDS TO SEE THE PENDANT
[rain, sun falls down (earthquake maybe?]
[more intrigue: belle and russell fuck again, and sebastien and lester team up to kill melanie. He tells sebastien that sebastien killed his parents to make him believe that lester is really inside melanie. They agree to try to kill the evil spirit inside melanie but they think russell loves his kid so they cant tell him about it.]
[at the end the island takes the form of the baby head to speak to everyone.]
[Lester argues with the island at the end, and the island makes him realise that we dont have free will and he couldnt have done things any other way because of his curiosity and determination, when he asks if he was responsible for all that happened, the island assures him 'I relieve you of it'. And lester dies. FINALLY.
Then it turns to Russell and he asks about his responsibilities and the island tells him that he failed in his responsibilities, but he has another chance. ' you can save melanie a life of living with an uncaring father. You can do the right thing. You can let her die.' All he has to do is walk away, through the door. This is where belle has her big reveal and tries to come with him. He shuns her and walks away.]
[have another sex scene between belle and russell?]
[the island wants to take them to the tower so it can magnify its power and kill itself in one]
[theyre outside the door and reveal their plan to kill russell and melanie. 'lester' tells russell that they cant know that hes alive in the body of melanie. He says that they would think that he'd been possessed and russell bows to his greater wisdom. Turns out it was the island (he had been possessed) saying that.
[Sebastien sees the destruction Melanie has wrought and decides to pretend to be his friend instead of just killing him. Belle tries to double-cross Seb and take Russell]
[They try to save the island? End up going out to sea somehow xxx
[Belle tries to go with Russell and bring her unborn child but he LEAVES HER at the end of the novel and becomes a bachelor =p]
[melanie is holding the spirit of lester and also the island and the island is trying to kill itself you find out at the end]
[MELANIE is the villain. Fucking turnaround!]
[and LESTER killed russells wife, and he was too guilty about it not to help her!]
Remember, Remember, Revise in December; then add witticisms, good writing, and plot. Put your inner editor to rest with Shovel of Death, and next month, revise... a LOT.
JULIETS DAD STARTED EVERYTHING. HE LIVED IN THIS WORLD.
HE SET OFF THE BOMB WITH LESTER.
HE WAS CRIPPLED.
Lester thought that something Juliet had touched, or had an emotional connection to would be enough to set everything right, but it wasn't, and he couldn't get her because she was dead, so he had to take her daughter.
Monday, 30 November 2009
Chapter 24: Untitled [finale]
The tower behind Russell turned on and his face burned. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as electricity pounded up the broken structure. Lester screamed out loud, raw-throated, and went into seizure, electricity burrowing up inside him and arcing over his fingers and toes. Russell could feel the surge of power behind him and lowered his head. There was nothing he could do. If this worked, and even if it didn't he had to take Melanie home, back to the hovel they lived in, where every table, ornament, door, floor, bloodstain, reminded him of his wife. He would live on the sofa forever. He would binge on saturday night television and diet on friends. He could see his old life behind him, and saw it cloned for his future. His stomach lurched. He felt nothing.
Lester slumped in the harness, his arms stretched out and legs flopping together. He had crucified himself for his island. Then his face twitched. Then he screeched, a high cold cry that rattled the foundations of the tower. Despite himself, Russell turned and he saw a demented face, Melanie snapping at him and at the harnesses that bound her. The metal surrounding her cuffs began to melt away.
Far below, Sebastien narrowed his eyes and gasped when he saw. “Its happened! Lester has switched again!”
“What?!” Belle cried out.
“Lester warned me this would happen.” Sebastien muttered, his face set. “Theres only one thing I can do.” His hand reached for the switch.
She saw what he was going to do and whispered “No! You can't kill him!”
Sebastien snapped back “He said himself that there was no choice. He went up there to die. I just don't think he expected it so soon..” Sebastien closed his eyes tight and flicked the switch. There was an immediate pitch increase above them. The humming of the tower became much louder, rattling the water around them into little waves and Melanies screams reached an ear-splitting pitch. The tower rattled and shook and sparked at its tip and foam spluttered from Melanies mouth as she roared incoherantly. She shook and began to burn, her face visibly reddening and crisping and her clothes burst into flames around her. The tower became a massive funeral pyre and Russell could see his daughter clinging to life in the middle of it, screaming and crying.
Then, from behind the both of them, something crawled out of the water. Wires slapped wetly onto the top of the hill and began climbing the tower. They crawled up the girders, snapping onto the soaking rusted monstrosity. Slowly, magnificently slowly, a head rose out of the water. It glittered a dirty silver and it was wreathed with thousands of thick wires. It looked magnificent as it reached out of the boiling sea beneath. The metal babies head shuddered and its eyes flashed crimson beneath the reams of water dripping from every orifice. With one sudden thrash, it threw out a thick wire and it snapped the top of the tower off, so the platform was the highest point on the island. The winds and rain put Melanies fire out and she turned, naked, shaking, to the head floating before her.
“Wh-what are you?” Lester moaned out at it.
The baby said nothing for a long time. Eventually, dreadfully slowly, it crunched through broken lips: “I am the island.”
Everyone gaped at it.
“The island?” Lester repeated, amazed.
The head said nothing.
Then, it spoke.
“Why won't you let me die?”
It spoke again. Every sentence was entirely discrete. “Why won't you let me die?”
“I did everything I could.”
“I stopped more children being born to sterilise myself.”
“I raised the tides to drown myself.”
“I inhabited a corpse and lied to shame myself.”
“I killed hundreds and decimated myself.”
“I ripped holes in myself.”
“In the end I mutilated myself.”
“Why do you still continue?”
“Why won't you let me die?”
After a moment Lester shouted over the winds, “You're trying to commit suicide?”
“It is my time,” replied the island eventually.
“But what about my family? The tides drowned them! And all those people – in Steamham, in Oceanside – you drowned them, and killed them!”
“It was their time as well.”
Lester dropped to his knees in front of the gargantuan. “Was it always going to be this way?”
“Yes.” replied the island. “It could have gone no other way.”
“Couldn't I have done anything any different?” he asked it, sadly, quietly. It heard him and responded: “You did the best you could to save your friends. I saw you, from beneath, and smiled on you.”
Lester beat his fist to the ground. “But I spent 20 years trying to save this island! You can't come and tell me that its all for nothing! You can't!”
“It is.”
Lester sobbed in a heap on the ground, lying prostrate before the island, who he had devoted his life to. Russell felt a bang below them. Belle and Sebastien had leapt on the tower, as they couldn't tread water any longer. They were kicking the water as it rose, scrambling up the tower.
Lester raised his tear-stained face, and asked the island: “So does this mean that I'm not responsible for killing the island?”
The island thought for a long moment, and water leaked from the baby and dropped into the water.
“You are.”
“Though, you couldn't have done things any differently if you tried.”
“Your curiosity, your personality, and your situation determined your actions. That you are still responsible for them is a necessary, if sad, consequence.”
Lester looked up, confused. “So am I responsible, or not?”
The island thought, for the longest time yet.
“I relieve you of it.” it said simply. When Lester lowered his head this time, he smiled. He didn't beat his fists, or fight it. He just died, justly, satisfied. Finally.
Russells eyes flickered right, and he saw Lesters – Melanies – corpse.
“And what about me?” He asked it.
“You have a simple choice.”
“Though we both know already which one you will pick.”
“If you want, you can leave here without your daughter.”
At mention of the thought which Russell had refused to entertain since his wife had died, perhaps even before, perhaps even at the hospital she had been born in, a great weight was lifted from his back. From his throat. From his stomach. From his lungs. From his muscles. For the first time in five or six years, he managed a deep breath.
“You failed in your responsibilities.”
“Your daughter doesn't deserve a father like you.”
“Everything you do, you do out of guilt and not love.”
“Nobody deserves a father like that.”
“If you aren't mature enough to father a child, then you shouldn't.”
Russell breathed deeply again. He could feel the winds of change, and they were warmer than anything he had felt before, warmer than the hell he found himself in.
“You can save her a life of neglect right now.”
“You can save her soul for someone more caring.”
“All you have to do, Russell...”
Russell held his breath.
“Is walk away.”
He smiled, and looked down at Sebastien and Belle, spluttering near him.
“Sebastien! Belle!” and he looked back at the corpse of his daughter.
“Lester!”
He grinned.
“Its been fun, it really has. I've enjoyed hanging out with you guys. But I don't want to overstay my welcome.” He looked down at the water, and felt it lapping at his feet.
“The hour is late, and I have things to do!” He looked into the horizon, and saw no sun or moon in the sky, just a jutting, broken hinge. “So many things.”
“And I'm getting nothing useful done here!”
They looked at each other in confusion.
He readied himself to jump into the freezing water, but as he made ready to leap, he heard something behind him which made his blood freeze.
“Daddy?”
He stopped. His heart stopped. His veins tried in vain to push icicles round his antarctic aorta.
“Mel!” he turned slowly, and saw his daughter, sitting up, rubbing her eyes, and staring around her in wonder.
“Mel...” he licked his lips, readied himself and made his decision.
“Mel, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.”
And then he dived into the water. And then blood. A scream started up behind him as Belle twisted round and leapt into the water after him. Sebastien gasped as she tore past him.
Russell dived one metre, two metre, and saw the world underwater. His breath held. He looked to the right as he kicked down and saw a junkheap underwater, towering girders, wires floating, propellers still resolutely twisting in the currents. There was a light emenating from under the water, as the moon glowed under mounds of rubble and illuminated his path. Behind him, lazy wires reached for and grabbed Belle, and pulled her back up above the water. His breath held. He thought of Juliet, and Melanie, and all the good times, and for a moment he was tempted to go back and hold Melanie forever and treasure the few good moments they had had together, but realised that it was better to find new moments than to treasure old ones. His breath held. The vortex opened in front of him, and sucked water in. He winced gratifyingly and looked back at the wire forest and thought a quick 'thankyou' for the vortex. He held onto the roof of it and looked one more time at the wonderland behind him. He would be glad to be rid of the place. He kicked his feet, and dived into the portal.
THE.
END.
TGIO.
Lester slumped in the harness, his arms stretched out and legs flopping together. He had crucified himself for his island. Then his face twitched. Then he screeched, a high cold cry that rattled the foundations of the tower. Despite himself, Russell turned and he saw a demented face, Melanie snapping at him and at the harnesses that bound her. The metal surrounding her cuffs began to melt away.
Far below, Sebastien narrowed his eyes and gasped when he saw. “Its happened! Lester has switched again!”
“What?!” Belle cried out.
“Lester warned me this would happen.” Sebastien muttered, his face set. “Theres only one thing I can do.” His hand reached for the switch.
She saw what he was going to do and whispered “No! You can't kill him!”
Sebastien snapped back “He said himself that there was no choice. He went up there to die. I just don't think he expected it so soon..” Sebastien closed his eyes tight and flicked the switch. There was an immediate pitch increase above them. The humming of the tower became much louder, rattling the water around them into little waves and Melanies screams reached an ear-splitting pitch. The tower rattled and shook and sparked at its tip and foam spluttered from Melanies mouth as she roared incoherantly. She shook and began to burn, her face visibly reddening and crisping and her clothes burst into flames around her. The tower became a massive funeral pyre and Russell could see his daughter clinging to life in the middle of it, screaming and crying.
Then, from behind the both of them, something crawled out of the water. Wires slapped wetly onto the top of the hill and began climbing the tower. They crawled up the girders, snapping onto the soaking rusted monstrosity. Slowly, magnificently slowly, a head rose out of the water. It glittered a dirty silver and it was wreathed with thousands of thick wires. It looked magnificent as it reached out of the boiling sea beneath. The metal babies head shuddered and its eyes flashed crimson beneath the reams of water dripping from every orifice. With one sudden thrash, it threw out a thick wire and it snapped the top of the tower off, so the platform was the highest point on the island. The winds and rain put Melanies fire out and she turned, naked, shaking, to the head floating before her.
“Wh-what are you?” Lester moaned out at it.
The baby said nothing for a long time. Eventually, dreadfully slowly, it crunched through broken lips: “I am the island.”
Everyone gaped at it.
“The island?” Lester repeated, amazed.
The head said nothing.
Then, it spoke.
“Why won't you let me die?”
It spoke again. Every sentence was entirely discrete. “Why won't you let me die?”
“I did everything I could.”
“I stopped more children being born to sterilise myself.”
“I raised the tides to drown myself.”
“I inhabited a corpse and lied to shame myself.”
“I killed hundreds and decimated myself.”
“I ripped holes in myself.”
“In the end I mutilated myself.”
“Why do you still continue?”
“Why won't you let me die?”
After a moment Lester shouted over the winds, “You're trying to commit suicide?”
“It is my time,” replied the island eventually.
“But what about my family? The tides drowned them! And all those people – in Steamham, in Oceanside – you drowned them, and killed them!”
“It was their time as well.”
Lester dropped to his knees in front of the gargantuan. “Was it always going to be this way?”
“Yes.” replied the island. “It could have gone no other way.”
“Couldn't I have done anything any different?” he asked it, sadly, quietly. It heard him and responded: “You did the best you could to save your friends. I saw you, from beneath, and smiled on you.”
Lester beat his fist to the ground. “But I spent 20 years trying to save this island! You can't come and tell me that its all for nothing! You can't!”
“It is.”
Lester sobbed in a heap on the ground, lying prostrate before the island, who he had devoted his life to. Russell felt a bang below them. Belle and Sebastien had leapt on the tower, as they couldn't tread water any longer. They were kicking the water as it rose, scrambling up the tower.
Lester raised his tear-stained face, and asked the island: “So does this mean that I'm not responsible for killing the island?”
The island thought for a long moment, and water leaked from the baby and dropped into the water.
“You are.”
“Though, you couldn't have done things any differently if you tried.”
“Your curiosity, your personality, and your situation determined your actions. That you are still responsible for them is a necessary, if sad, consequence.”
Lester looked up, confused. “So am I responsible, or not?”
The island thought, for the longest time yet.
“I relieve you of it.” it said simply. When Lester lowered his head this time, he smiled. He didn't beat his fists, or fight it. He just died, justly, satisfied. Finally.
Russells eyes flickered right, and he saw Lesters – Melanies – corpse.
“And what about me?” He asked it.
“You have a simple choice.”
“Though we both know already which one you will pick.”
“If you want, you can leave here without your daughter.”
At mention of the thought which Russell had refused to entertain since his wife had died, perhaps even before, perhaps even at the hospital she had been born in, a great weight was lifted from his back. From his throat. From his stomach. From his lungs. From his muscles. For the first time in five or six years, he managed a deep breath.
“You failed in your responsibilities.”
“Your daughter doesn't deserve a father like you.”
“Everything you do, you do out of guilt and not love.”
“Nobody deserves a father like that.”
“If you aren't mature enough to father a child, then you shouldn't.”
Russell breathed deeply again. He could feel the winds of change, and they were warmer than anything he had felt before, warmer than the hell he found himself in.
“You can save her a life of neglect right now.”
“You can save her soul for someone more caring.”
“All you have to do, Russell...”
Russell held his breath.
“Is walk away.”
He smiled, and looked down at Sebastien and Belle, spluttering near him.
“Sebastien! Belle!” and he looked back at the corpse of his daughter.
“Lester!”
He grinned.
“Its been fun, it really has. I've enjoyed hanging out with you guys. But I don't want to overstay my welcome.” He looked down at the water, and felt it lapping at his feet.
“The hour is late, and I have things to do!” He looked into the horizon, and saw no sun or moon in the sky, just a jutting, broken hinge. “So many things.”
“And I'm getting nothing useful done here!”
They looked at each other in confusion.
He readied himself to jump into the freezing water, but as he made ready to leap, he heard something behind him which made his blood freeze.
“Daddy?”
He stopped. His heart stopped. His veins tried in vain to push icicles round his antarctic aorta.
“Mel!” he turned slowly, and saw his daughter, sitting up, rubbing her eyes, and staring around her in wonder.
“Mel...” he licked his lips, readied himself and made his decision.
“Mel, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.”
And then he dived into the water. And then blood. A scream started up behind him as Belle twisted round and leapt into the water after him. Sebastien gasped as she tore past him.
Russell dived one metre, two metre, and saw the world underwater. His breath held. He looked to the right as he kicked down and saw a junkheap underwater, towering girders, wires floating, propellers still resolutely twisting in the currents. There was a light emenating from under the water, as the moon glowed under mounds of rubble and illuminated his path. Behind him, lazy wires reached for and grabbed Belle, and pulled her back up above the water. His breath held. He thought of Juliet, and Melanie, and all the good times, and for a moment he was tempted to go back and hold Melanie forever and treasure the few good moments they had had together, but realised that it was better to find new moments than to treasure old ones. His breath held. The vortex opened in front of him, and sucked water in. He winced gratifyingly and looked back at the wire forest and thought a quick 'thankyou' for the vortex. He held onto the roof of it and looked one more time at the wonderland behind him. He would be glad to be rid of the place. He kicked his feet, and dived into the portal.
THE.
END.
TGIO.
Chapter 23: Lovers Understand
The trudge up that last hill made Russell feel unnervingly similar to the last time he had climbed it. He felt just as bound as last time, though Dresdens hands weren't at his shoulder, his wifes were. She walked with him, hopping puddles and laughing at the splashes of the rain. She pointed out interesting things to him in the distance, grabbing his arm and point up at the imposing tower in the distance, at the cracks from where water seeped, out to sea where an island used to be. She cooed in Melanies ear even though Melanie wasn't there anymore and the family stopped a moment and watched the tide come in for the last time. The island had drowned. It had snapped in half like titanic. Russell scanned the skyline. There was no boat coming to save them. There were no lifeboats. Women and children are the first to go.
“Russell, come on!” Sebastien yelled from higher above. Russell continued, dragging his feet, trance-like. Melanie was like a dead weight on him. She weighed of everything that was terrible about his life. Without her he could start again. He looked up, and continued on, his feet relentlessly scraping the floor, dragging. When you're dreading whats coming the clocks speed up, and in no time Russell was walking across the plain, the metal lashes with rainwater, and tidewater, for the seas licked at his heels as he walked up. As he neared the top, Melanie stirred. He was used to this – she had been stirring in and out of consciousness since she had been picked up, but this time she spoke. “Are we nearly there?” The form on his shoulder leapt. “Good lord, is that the sea?!” Russell put Melanie on the ground and she stumbled a moment, then stood firm. She ran down to the water and stared at it in horror, about 20 feet behind Russell. He turned and looked at her. “C'mon, Mel. Time to get this over with, so we can... go home.”
Melanie turned around, distractedly. “Its still Lester, for the moment, Russell,” but she ran up past Russell and joined Sebastien and Belle on the hilltop.
“All set?” she asked brightly.
“All set.” Sebastien answered. He grinned down at the little girl.
“You ready for what you have to do?”
“I think so.” He replied.
Belle looked oddly at him. “What do you have to 'do'? Isn't it just flipping a switch?”
She lowered her voice and hissed at him “And since when are you on chatting terms with the enemy?”
Sebastien ignored her.
Melanie looked up at them both, a little sadly. “Good luck afterwards, Sebastien. I'm sure something good will come your way. Everything will be alright, ok?” Then she motioned that Belle come down to her level.
“Belle, listen. I always wanted to fuck you, but I don't think I'll get a good chance looking like this, so I'm gonna have to love you and leave you with words alone. Good luck with your kid – from my experiences, you'll need it.”
Sebastien smiled. “I was never an easy kid to raise.”
Belle looked horrified from Sebastien to Melanie.
“Lester?!” she mouthed, her eyes wide.
“The one and only, baby.” She winked at Belle then stood back. “I'll always remember you both, whatever happens.
Sebastien saluted her.
Belle stared, open-mouthed, then regained her composure and joined Sebastien.
Melanie nodded, then turned and began to climb the tower.
Behind her, Russell shouted out “Lester!”
Melanie looked down, and saw Russell. “Russell!”
Russell raised the pendant. “Sebastien tells me this used to belong to you. Where did you get it?”
Melanies eyes widened. She spluttered “Can't we do this another time, Russell? Theres no time to tell you now!”
The tide spat up behind Russell and he roared and suddenly he was on the tower. Blood roared up inside of him. Significant actions leapt out at him but everything else around him was a blur. He felt his hands grip the slippery, rusted tower and sting the palms of his hand. He heard shouts below. He saw Melanie above him reach the platform tower. He felt nothing, and reached the top. Rust shifted beneath his feet and the tower creaked dangerously.
“Theres always time.” he said.
Melanie backed away, her hands raised. “Russell, you have to understand-”
“Yes?”
“There was nothing...” she spluttered “Nothing I could do... unavoidable” she looked back down at the rising tide below.
“Listen-” she began.
“Stop fucking around, Lester! Tell me!”
Melanie was frantic. “You have to understand that we didn't want to take Melanie originally! All we thought we needed was her DNA! We thought... I thought that taking the pendant would be enough!”
The wind died down, for the first time, and all Russell could hear was his own deadened heartbeat.
“You... you took-”
“But it didn't work! We hooked it up here and tried goddamn-near everything on it, but it wouldn't work! The waters kept on rising! We had no choice but to take Melanie next – she was the closest living relative to Philip after-”
“You took the pendant?!” Russell croaked. His life fell around him. The world dulled to black and white.
“We had no choice, Russell! I had to save the island-”
“You killed Juliet?”
Melanie sobbed, and fell to her knees. “Yes! It was an accident, damn it, but she wouldn't let go! The pendant was critical to operations!” She banged her tiny fist on the ground and Russell lifted her up so he could stare into her watering eyes.
“Do you have any idea how selfish you are? Everything you do you do to try and get rid of your own guilt, and all you end up doing is hurting people. You feel guilty? It isn't as guilty as you should feel. Look!” And he lifted Melanies fists, scuffed against the ground. “You don't respect anything except yourself.” And with that he threw Melanie on the ground.
Lester bowed his head on the floor, kissing the floor with his forehead. Russells words vibrated through him like an explosion through silk. “Selfish...” he muttered to himself. His fists curled and uncurled and he felt very aware of himself. Then he realised that here, he and he alone had the power to change history. He could feel time puckering up around him and he said quietly “No. I can do this.” He raised his head and saw all that was left of his homeland was this hill, with land dropping away at every point. Nothing else was left of the island. It had rusted and sunk into the sea. He breathed deep and stood. “Russell. I still think that we can save this island. If you have any respect for me-” Russell didn't even turn around. “Break a leg, Lester. No, kill yourself.” He was watching the tide rise.
Lester sighed, and began strapped himself into the tower. “If you won't help then you had better get out of the way.” He suggested. Russell shook his head. “I want to turn around and watch your face when nothing gets fixed, and I want to be the last to see your face as it drowns, knowing you've never done anything good for anyone else.”
Lesters steel hardened. “This is the face of your daughter!”
“Don't remind me anymore that you're inside her corpse. She's dead, and thats your fault as well. And now you've desecrated her corpse with what you've done. You're gonna let her body float and bloat like all those other putrid corpses on the lake.” Lester narrowed his eyes and shouted down to Sebastien, who was looking worried from below as his trousers started getting damp, “Start it up!”
“Russell, come on!” Sebastien yelled from higher above. Russell continued, dragging his feet, trance-like. Melanie was like a dead weight on him. She weighed of everything that was terrible about his life. Without her he could start again. He looked up, and continued on, his feet relentlessly scraping the floor, dragging. When you're dreading whats coming the clocks speed up, and in no time Russell was walking across the plain, the metal lashes with rainwater, and tidewater, for the seas licked at his heels as he walked up. As he neared the top, Melanie stirred. He was used to this – she had been stirring in and out of consciousness since she had been picked up, but this time she spoke. “Are we nearly there?” The form on his shoulder leapt. “Good lord, is that the sea?!” Russell put Melanie on the ground and she stumbled a moment, then stood firm. She ran down to the water and stared at it in horror, about 20 feet behind Russell. He turned and looked at her. “C'mon, Mel. Time to get this over with, so we can... go home.”
Melanie turned around, distractedly. “Its still Lester, for the moment, Russell,” but she ran up past Russell and joined Sebastien and Belle on the hilltop.
“All set?” she asked brightly.
“All set.” Sebastien answered. He grinned down at the little girl.
“You ready for what you have to do?”
“I think so.” He replied.
Belle looked oddly at him. “What do you have to 'do'? Isn't it just flipping a switch?”
She lowered her voice and hissed at him “And since when are you on chatting terms with the enemy?”
Sebastien ignored her.
Melanie looked up at them both, a little sadly. “Good luck afterwards, Sebastien. I'm sure something good will come your way. Everything will be alright, ok?” Then she motioned that Belle come down to her level.
“Belle, listen. I always wanted to fuck you, but I don't think I'll get a good chance looking like this, so I'm gonna have to love you and leave you with words alone. Good luck with your kid – from my experiences, you'll need it.”
Sebastien smiled. “I was never an easy kid to raise.”
Belle looked horrified from Sebastien to Melanie.
“Lester?!” she mouthed, her eyes wide.
“The one and only, baby.” She winked at Belle then stood back. “I'll always remember you both, whatever happens.
Sebastien saluted her.
Belle stared, open-mouthed, then regained her composure and joined Sebastien.
Melanie nodded, then turned and began to climb the tower.
Behind her, Russell shouted out “Lester!”
Melanie looked down, and saw Russell. “Russell!”
Russell raised the pendant. “Sebastien tells me this used to belong to you. Where did you get it?”
Melanies eyes widened. She spluttered “Can't we do this another time, Russell? Theres no time to tell you now!”
The tide spat up behind Russell and he roared and suddenly he was on the tower. Blood roared up inside of him. Significant actions leapt out at him but everything else around him was a blur. He felt his hands grip the slippery, rusted tower and sting the palms of his hand. He heard shouts below. He saw Melanie above him reach the platform tower. He felt nothing, and reached the top. Rust shifted beneath his feet and the tower creaked dangerously.
“Theres always time.” he said.
Melanie backed away, her hands raised. “Russell, you have to understand-”
“Yes?”
“There was nothing...” she spluttered “Nothing I could do... unavoidable” she looked back down at the rising tide below.
“Listen-” she began.
“Stop fucking around, Lester! Tell me!”
Melanie was frantic. “You have to understand that we didn't want to take Melanie originally! All we thought we needed was her DNA! We thought... I thought that taking the pendant would be enough!”
The wind died down, for the first time, and all Russell could hear was his own deadened heartbeat.
“You... you took-”
“But it didn't work! We hooked it up here and tried goddamn-near everything on it, but it wouldn't work! The waters kept on rising! We had no choice but to take Melanie next – she was the closest living relative to Philip after-”
“You took the pendant?!” Russell croaked. His life fell around him. The world dulled to black and white.
“We had no choice, Russell! I had to save the island-”
“You killed Juliet?”
Melanie sobbed, and fell to her knees. “Yes! It was an accident, damn it, but she wouldn't let go! The pendant was critical to operations!” She banged her tiny fist on the ground and Russell lifted her up so he could stare into her watering eyes.
“Do you have any idea how selfish you are? Everything you do you do to try and get rid of your own guilt, and all you end up doing is hurting people. You feel guilty? It isn't as guilty as you should feel. Look!” And he lifted Melanies fists, scuffed against the ground. “You don't respect anything except yourself.” And with that he threw Melanie on the ground.
Lester bowed his head on the floor, kissing the floor with his forehead. Russells words vibrated through him like an explosion through silk. “Selfish...” he muttered to himself. His fists curled and uncurled and he felt very aware of himself. Then he realised that here, he and he alone had the power to change history. He could feel time puckering up around him and he said quietly “No. I can do this.” He raised his head and saw all that was left of his homeland was this hill, with land dropping away at every point. Nothing else was left of the island. It had rusted and sunk into the sea. He breathed deep and stood. “Russell. I still think that we can save this island. If you have any respect for me-” Russell didn't even turn around. “Break a leg, Lester. No, kill yourself.” He was watching the tide rise.
Lester sighed, and began strapped himself into the tower. “If you won't help then you had better get out of the way.” He suggested. Russell shook his head. “I want to turn around and watch your face when nothing gets fixed, and I want to be the last to see your face as it drowns, knowing you've never done anything good for anyone else.”
Lesters steel hardened. “This is the face of your daughter!”
“Don't remind me anymore that you're inside her corpse. She's dead, and thats your fault as well. And now you've desecrated her corpse with what you've done. You're gonna let her body float and bloat like all those other putrid corpses on the lake.” Lester narrowed his eyes and shouted down to Sebastien, who was looking worried from below as his trousers started getting damp, “Start it up!”
Chapter 22: Tears Into Rain
“No!” Sebastien yelled and Belle and Russell gasped. Sebastien looked at Belle, went to say something but found his mouth was empty of words. Instead, he just swallowed and dived into the tide. Belle looked at Russell, and said “well?”
“Well what?”
“Its your daughter!”
All of a sudden Russell realised.
“Oh, right!” he took a deep intake of breath, swallowed and dived after Sebastien. He was wet already anyway. The water boiled up to meet him, hot and dark and viscous. He landed and it was like a slap in the face. He sliced into the surf with his dice and under the water. Underneath, it was impossible to see anything – the only source of light was the moon, bubbling about a mile away and illuminating a small patch of dark water. Realising it was useless to search underwater Russell surfaced and the air felt cold against his face like a slap. The tide rumbled above his lips and he burbled a second, treading water, then kicked off and began a kick stroke towards where he had seen Melanie fall. Sebastien was a short way ahead of him, kicking powerfully through the sludgy water. More foamed over makeshift barricades of metal piping but the sludge underneath the island from years of burning fuel tainted any water which was touched. It was like the island was being overrun by soot.
Russell felt the island creak around him. To get to Melanie they would have to pass under the island – the two halves hadn't entirely seperated, and they had to go under a thin land bridge to get to her. Russell saw Sebastien approach the bridge, and saw the hissing steam at the top which signified a broken pipe. More split and the bridge collapsed, sending chunks careening down to him. “Look out, Seb!” Russell cried, and Sebastien looked up just in time to see a spinning pipe bounce off a girder right above his head. If the girder hadn't been there, he would have been split in two. By the time Russell got to the bridge it had entirely collapsed, broken wires spilling down the hill in between the two men.
“Russell, I can see her! Climb up! We need to get to the tower now, we don't have much time!”
“Alright!” Russell replied, and began clambering up the broken rigging. At the top he saw Belle. He reached out a hand for her to help him up, but she shook her head.
“C'mon!” he cried, waving his fist at her.
“I didn't tell you what my offer was!” she replied.
“I don't care! Just help me up!”
“Russell!” she hollered at him, as the tide leapt up and drenched Russell, gambolling even at Belles feet. “I want you to take me with you. I'll work the door for you if you take me with you!”
Russell stared up at her. He had been afraid of something like this.
“Is this really the time?” he cried.
“Answer me!”
“Now really isn't the time!”
“Answer me! Will you take me with you?”
Russell grimaced.
“Alright! Alright, fine! You can come with!”
She grinned and finally offered her hand.
Sebastien spluttered through the deep just in time to see Melanie bob under the surface of the water. “No!” he cried out, and dived, wading blindly through the muck till he could feel the girls hand. He grasped her wrist tightly in his hand and pulled, tugging her out of the muck of the water.
“C'mon, sir! C'mon, Lester!” he shouted, the muck burbling into his mouth. He spat, and dragged Melanie to the edge of the water. They lay together there for a moment, Sebastien panting madly.
Slowly, he said “part one... of the plan... complete!” Melanie coughed weakly, brown water spurting out of her mouth.
When Russell saw Melanie he picked up speed, running towards her. Sebastien was on the ground next to her, pumping at her chest.
“One! Two! Three!” he pumped, pushing salt water through her gagging throat. He lifted her mouth, and gave her CPR – filling her mouth and lungs with air. She spluttered, rivulets of black water splattering on his face.
“Melanie!” Russell cried.
He looked joyfully at Sebastien and saw the pendant hanging on his neck.
His smile dropped.
“What... whats that?” He asked Sebastien, pointing at the metal, golden, pendant, hanging out over Melanie as Sebastien leaned forward. Sebastien looked down confusedly. “Oh, this?” he replied, picking the thing gingerly up in his hands. “Lester gave it to me.”
Russells eyes narrowed.
“Would you mind if I had a quick look?”
Sebastien agreed, and humped his shoulders so he could take the necklace up over his shoulders. He dropped it into Russells hand, the little golden chain unravelling into a little pile on top of it. He hung it in midair in front of him and gazed at it, admiring the way the florescence below him illuminated the pendant above. He saw the golden trim, faded a little with age, and the glass diamond nestled in the centre, like a baby in a metal womb. He turned it around in his hand, smiling a little sadly. Pecks of rain dripped onto it. This pendant looked exactly like...
On the back, an inscription in a hammed-up font read:
'Juliet,
With all my heart,
With every beat,
With every artery,
and every vein,
With all my soul,
With everything I have,
Or ever shall have,
I will always love you,
Forever yours,
Russell.
The rain hammered down around them. The skies boiled black and the seas foamed. The metal underneath Russell throbbed and cracked. His hand curled into a vicious fist with the pendant curled within it and he launched himself at Sebastien, punching him square in the mouth.
Russell would have preferred it if it had rained, if it had poured down out of the open wound of cloud hovering above the church-ground, so he could feel some sense of irony at the massive loss he had sustained. He wished that pathetic fallacy worked in real life like it did in films. The earth would have ruptured beneath him, and split in half. Out of his widowed face he saw gravestones reflected in every eye of the mourners. He wondered if there would be this many onlookers at his funeral and as he looked around he only saw people who wouldn't come to see him off. They all came for Juliet, all his friends were Juliets friends. Nobody took him for coffee alone. He picked up Melanie, who was wearing a black dress, the same as everyone else. He was surrounded by darkness-
Black sky above and black churning water below, the ground was all that sustained him and it ripped beneath him as he charged. The punch knocked Sebastien down, taking him by surprise. He fell and landed hard on the metal floor, rivets digging into his back and Russell leapt on him, straddling his chest, and punched him again, hard, so the side of his face smacked against the floor. Sebastien looked up with blood staining his beautiful face and Russell punched it again. He lifted Sebastien off the floor by his shirt, then knocked him down. Lightning arced overhead – whether from the sky or the sparking electrical equipment on the ground nobody cared.
In the crematorium Russell didn't cry. His grandmother in law was weeping besides him. He felt like he had more in common with the guy next to her, her husband the stroke victim. Or something. She said before that nobody ever worked out exactly what was wrong with him. He wasn't crying either. He didn't look like he knew what was going on. He wasn't an old man, he was just broken. All around him were weeping, red-faced, tear-stained friends-of-friends and he had never felt more alone. It wasn't even that his wife had died, it was more like someone had ripped off half of his arm. It was just like people said, ''she's a part of me''. All he could feel of her was her absence, he could only feel nobody sitting next to him, nobody sleeping next to him, nobody eating with him, talking with him, laughing occasionally with him. It was like you'd spent all your life looking into a mirror and then someone smashed it, so you could see snatches of the outside world all distorted, stretched, cracked and broken across the edges of the mirror. His fist clenched as he felt anger rise and pulse inside of him. What the hell were they thinking? Why did they think that they had a right to invade his final moments with his wife? Those final frantic moments where he had clasped her fingers and felt life fall out them, finger and wrinkle at a time weren't enough. Those moonlight-drenched, tear-soaked seconds in the broken living room between them, as he kissed her and wept, his fingers clutching at her as she drifted away from him and left him entirely alone. They weren't enough.
He needed more time!
Russell reared up to punch Sebastien again and Belle caught his fist as he raised it and held it back. Russell strained to punch Sebastien again and screamed, yanking his fist out of Belles clasping hands and Sebastien got knocked into the floor again. Belle barrelled into him from the side, which he wasn't expecting, and it caught him by surprise. He fell to the floor and Sebastien reached over and tried to grab the pendant.
“You stay away!” He shouted, spitting at Sebastien and rolling over so he could stand up. Rain sleeted between the two, huffing, puffing, covered in punks blood.
Scarlet pulsed behind Russells eyes and his fist caressed the pendant like it was a little heart. If he let it go it might kill him.
“Where did you get this?” He howled out over the weather.
“I told you already,” Sebastien replied, and he spat at the ground. Blood retched out of his mouth and splattered against the ground. “Lester gave it to me.”
“I don't believe you.” Russells eyes bulged. “This belonged to my wife! This pendant-” and he showed them the blood-covered trinket - “I bought this for her, as a wedding gift!”
He closed his eyes and all his rage left him as he remembered what came next. All his health and exuberance left him and dripped down to the trinket. “The man who killed her took this.”
Tears dripped down his long nose and joined the rain on the ground.
Nobody spoke for a long time. Russell stood there, head bowed, rain dripping down his neck, black and white between the sheets, a blur in the heavy storm.
“I just want to go home.” he murmured.
Russell sat by the phone for hours at a time, waiting, begging for a call. The phone hung resolutely, refusing to ring. He checked the dial-tone – it was still there. He waited a bit more, then checked again, then he checked the modem cord, then he picked the phone up and put it down again just to be sure. Hours passed. He threw the phone on the ground, stamped it, hurled abuse at it, then sat it down and waited by the phone. His wife would be home soon. And in the meantime he couldn't go in the bedroom.
Don't confuse love for neediness, he had always told himself. But between you and me, I think rules don't apply.
He didn't want to go home. He wanted to go back and tell himself to be more careful, to make better choices, to not get passionate and ruin his life. He wanted to go back to before he was born and throttle himself, punch his mother in the womb, firebomb his own house, run himself over. He didn't want to do anything. Whenever he moved more people got hurt.
Behind him Melanie coughed salt-water down her top.
“Listen!” Sebastien interrupted Russells reverie. “We don't have time for this! Have you seen the island?” Russell didn't move.
“We need to take Melanie, and plug her into the island!”
“Theres no point, it won't work.” Russell said numbly.
“Its the only chance we have! Russell, c'mon, we have to try, else whats the point in anything?”
Russell shrugged.
“Russell, if you don't help us, then Melanie will die!” Sebastien called urgently. He slung the partially-conscious girl over his shoulder, and patted Russell on his. “C'mon. Not long now!”
Guilt surged through Russell. He rose, and took Melanie from Sebastiens surprised hands. Guilt oiled his joints and powered his brain and cooled his heart. “Lets go.” he said coldly.
He was left alone with the corpse which used to be his wifes.
“I...” Russell began, then stopped. What did he say. What could he say?
“I'm sorry, Ju. I...” his words got trapped between his teeth as he clenched, ground his teeth, then exploded. “I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have-” he let his breath out in gasping, wheezing, tear-filled torrents. What could he say?
“I should have tried harder.” he gasped through his tears. “I should have made you live. You...” he stared at the accidental bullet hole in the grave. “You're the most beautiful...”
“Cleverest...”
“Most passionate...”
He dropped to his knees and wept in the crematorium, a curled-up ball on the floor.
“Well what?”
“Its your daughter!”
All of a sudden Russell realised.
“Oh, right!” he took a deep intake of breath, swallowed and dived after Sebastien. He was wet already anyway. The water boiled up to meet him, hot and dark and viscous. He landed and it was like a slap in the face. He sliced into the surf with his dice and under the water. Underneath, it was impossible to see anything – the only source of light was the moon, bubbling about a mile away and illuminating a small patch of dark water. Realising it was useless to search underwater Russell surfaced and the air felt cold against his face like a slap. The tide rumbled above his lips and he burbled a second, treading water, then kicked off and began a kick stroke towards where he had seen Melanie fall. Sebastien was a short way ahead of him, kicking powerfully through the sludgy water. More foamed over makeshift barricades of metal piping but the sludge underneath the island from years of burning fuel tainted any water which was touched. It was like the island was being overrun by soot.
Russell felt the island creak around him. To get to Melanie they would have to pass under the island – the two halves hadn't entirely seperated, and they had to go under a thin land bridge to get to her. Russell saw Sebastien approach the bridge, and saw the hissing steam at the top which signified a broken pipe. More split and the bridge collapsed, sending chunks careening down to him. “Look out, Seb!” Russell cried, and Sebastien looked up just in time to see a spinning pipe bounce off a girder right above his head. If the girder hadn't been there, he would have been split in two. By the time Russell got to the bridge it had entirely collapsed, broken wires spilling down the hill in between the two men.
“Russell, I can see her! Climb up! We need to get to the tower now, we don't have much time!”
“Alright!” Russell replied, and began clambering up the broken rigging. At the top he saw Belle. He reached out a hand for her to help him up, but she shook her head.
“C'mon!” he cried, waving his fist at her.
“I didn't tell you what my offer was!” she replied.
“I don't care! Just help me up!”
“Russell!” she hollered at him, as the tide leapt up and drenched Russell, gambolling even at Belles feet. “I want you to take me with you. I'll work the door for you if you take me with you!”
Russell stared up at her. He had been afraid of something like this.
“Is this really the time?” he cried.
“Answer me!”
“Now really isn't the time!”
“Answer me! Will you take me with you?”
Russell grimaced.
“Alright! Alright, fine! You can come with!”
She grinned and finally offered her hand.
Sebastien spluttered through the deep just in time to see Melanie bob under the surface of the water. “No!” he cried out, and dived, wading blindly through the muck till he could feel the girls hand. He grasped her wrist tightly in his hand and pulled, tugging her out of the muck of the water.
“C'mon, sir! C'mon, Lester!” he shouted, the muck burbling into his mouth. He spat, and dragged Melanie to the edge of the water. They lay together there for a moment, Sebastien panting madly.
Slowly, he said “part one... of the plan... complete!” Melanie coughed weakly, brown water spurting out of her mouth.
When Russell saw Melanie he picked up speed, running towards her. Sebastien was on the ground next to her, pumping at her chest.
“One! Two! Three!” he pumped, pushing salt water through her gagging throat. He lifted her mouth, and gave her CPR – filling her mouth and lungs with air. She spluttered, rivulets of black water splattering on his face.
“Melanie!” Russell cried.
He looked joyfully at Sebastien and saw the pendant hanging on his neck.
His smile dropped.
“What... whats that?” He asked Sebastien, pointing at the metal, golden, pendant, hanging out over Melanie as Sebastien leaned forward. Sebastien looked down confusedly. “Oh, this?” he replied, picking the thing gingerly up in his hands. “Lester gave it to me.”
Russells eyes narrowed.
“Would you mind if I had a quick look?”
Sebastien agreed, and humped his shoulders so he could take the necklace up over his shoulders. He dropped it into Russells hand, the little golden chain unravelling into a little pile on top of it. He hung it in midair in front of him and gazed at it, admiring the way the florescence below him illuminated the pendant above. He saw the golden trim, faded a little with age, and the glass diamond nestled in the centre, like a baby in a metal womb. He turned it around in his hand, smiling a little sadly. Pecks of rain dripped onto it. This pendant looked exactly like...
On the back, an inscription in a hammed-up font read:
'Juliet,
With all my heart,
With every beat,
With every artery,
and every vein,
With all my soul,
With everything I have,
Or ever shall have,
I will always love you,
Forever yours,
Russell.
The rain hammered down around them. The skies boiled black and the seas foamed. The metal underneath Russell throbbed and cracked. His hand curled into a vicious fist with the pendant curled within it and he launched himself at Sebastien, punching him square in the mouth.
Russell would have preferred it if it had rained, if it had poured down out of the open wound of cloud hovering above the church-ground, so he could feel some sense of irony at the massive loss he had sustained. He wished that pathetic fallacy worked in real life like it did in films. The earth would have ruptured beneath him, and split in half. Out of his widowed face he saw gravestones reflected in every eye of the mourners. He wondered if there would be this many onlookers at his funeral and as he looked around he only saw people who wouldn't come to see him off. They all came for Juliet, all his friends were Juliets friends. Nobody took him for coffee alone. He picked up Melanie, who was wearing a black dress, the same as everyone else. He was surrounded by darkness-
Black sky above and black churning water below, the ground was all that sustained him and it ripped beneath him as he charged. The punch knocked Sebastien down, taking him by surprise. He fell and landed hard on the metal floor, rivets digging into his back and Russell leapt on him, straddling his chest, and punched him again, hard, so the side of his face smacked against the floor. Sebastien looked up with blood staining his beautiful face and Russell punched it again. He lifted Sebastien off the floor by his shirt, then knocked him down. Lightning arced overhead – whether from the sky or the sparking electrical equipment on the ground nobody cared.
In the crematorium Russell didn't cry. His grandmother in law was weeping besides him. He felt like he had more in common with the guy next to her, her husband the stroke victim. Or something. She said before that nobody ever worked out exactly what was wrong with him. He wasn't crying either. He didn't look like he knew what was going on. He wasn't an old man, he was just broken. All around him were weeping, red-faced, tear-stained friends-of-friends and he had never felt more alone. It wasn't even that his wife had died, it was more like someone had ripped off half of his arm. It was just like people said, ''she's a part of me''. All he could feel of her was her absence, he could only feel nobody sitting next to him, nobody sleeping next to him, nobody eating with him, talking with him, laughing occasionally with him. It was like you'd spent all your life looking into a mirror and then someone smashed it, so you could see snatches of the outside world all distorted, stretched, cracked and broken across the edges of the mirror. His fist clenched as he felt anger rise and pulse inside of him. What the hell were they thinking? Why did they think that they had a right to invade his final moments with his wife? Those final frantic moments where he had clasped her fingers and felt life fall out them, finger and wrinkle at a time weren't enough. Those moonlight-drenched, tear-soaked seconds in the broken living room between them, as he kissed her and wept, his fingers clutching at her as she drifted away from him and left him entirely alone. They weren't enough.
He needed more time!
Russell reared up to punch Sebastien again and Belle caught his fist as he raised it and held it back. Russell strained to punch Sebastien again and screamed, yanking his fist out of Belles clasping hands and Sebastien got knocked into the floor again. Belle barrelled into him from the side, which he wasn't expecting, and it caught him by surprise. He fell to the floor and Sebastien reached over and tried to grab the pendant.
“You stay away!” He shouted, spitting at Sebastien and rolling over so he could stand up. Rain sleeted between the two, huffing, puffing, covered in punks blood.
Scarlet pulsed behind Russells eyes and his fist caressed the pendant like it was a little heart. If he let it go it might kill him.
“Where did you get this?” He howled out over the weather.
“I told you already,” Sebastien replied, and he spat at the ground. Blood retched out of his mouth and splattered against the ground. “Lester gave it to me.”
“I don't believe you.” Russells eyes bulged. “This belonged to my wife! This pendant-” and he showed them the blood-covered trinket - “I bought this for her, as a wedding gift!”
He closed his eyes and all his rage left him as he remembered what came next. All his health and exuberance left him and dripped down to the trinket. “The man who killed her took this.”
Tears dripped down his long nose and joined the rain on the ground.
Nobody spoke for a long time. Russell stood there, head bowed, rain dripping down his neck, black and white between the sheets, a blur in the heavy storm.
“I just want to go home.” he murmured.
Russell sat by the phone for hours at a time, waiting, begging for a call. The phone hung resolutely, refusing to ring. He checked the dial-tone – it was still there. He waited a bit more, then checked again, then he checked the modem cord, then he picked the phone up and put it down again just to be sure. Hours passed. He threw the phone on the ground, stamped it, hurled abuse at it, then sat it down and waited by the phone. His wife would be home soon. And in the meantime he couldn't go in the bedroom.
Don't confuse love for neediness, he had always told himself. But between you and me, I think rules don't apply.
He didn't want to go home. He wanted to go back and tell himself to be more careful, to make better choices, to not get passionate and ruin his life. He wanted to go back to before he was born and throttle himself, punch his mother in the womb, firebomb his own house, run himself over. He didn't want to do anything. Whenever he moved more people got hurt.
Behind him Melanie coughed salt-water down her top.
“Listen!” Sebastien interrupted Russells reverie. “We don't have time for this! Have you seen the island?” Russell didn't move.
“We need to take Melanie, and plug her into the island!”
“Theres no point, it won't work.” Russell said numbly.
“Its the only chance we have! Russell, c'mon, we have to try, else whats the point in anything?”
Russell shrugged.
“Russell, if you don't help us, then Melanie will die!” Sebastien called urgently. He slung the partially-conscious girl over his shoulder, and patted Russell on his. “C'mon. Not long now!”
Guilt surged through Russell. He rose, and took Melanie from Sebastiens surprised hands. Guilt oiled his joints and powered his brain and cooled his heart. “Lets go.” he said coldly.
He was left alone with the corpse which used to be his wifes.
“I...” Russell began, then stopped. What did he say. What could he say?
“I'm sorry, Ju. I...” his words got trapped between his teeth as he clenched, ground his teeth, then exploded. “I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have-” he let his breath out in gasping, wheezing, tear-filled torrents. What could he say?
“I should have tried harder.” he gasped through his tears. “I should have made you live. You...” he stared at the accidental bullet hole in the grave. “You're the most beautiful...”
“Cleverest...”
“Most passionate...”
He dropped to his knees and wept in the crematorium, a curled-up ball on the floor.
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Chapter 21: Such Great Heights
His grip tightening around her throat, Russell leaned in to Belles frightened face. “I know what you're trying to do.” She looked up at him and whimpered-
“I don't know know what youre-” her sentence was cut off like her windpipe.
“Don't fuck me around, you liar! You and Sebastien!” Russell spat into her face.
Her face relaxed slightly. “Haha! Russell! Theres nothing going on between me and Seb, if thats what you mean! I'm a single lady!” Her grin was fake – you could see too many teeth.
“Thats not what I meant and you know it.” he answered, pressing himself up against her. The rain pounded the back of his neck and he had to raise his voice to be heard in the rising gale.
“You and Sebastien mean to kill me! Why?”
Her eyes filled with surprise and fear – her eyes were all that Russell were paying attention to. He didn't care about the rest of her, her skin a sack of receptors that did things when he touched it, her legs bone and sinew and carved muscle pounding blood. Her heart was cold.
“Why?! C'mon, answer me!” He pushed into her. “C'mon!” he screamed into the gale, spittle flying from his mouth.
She shrank before him.
“Its Sebastien, Russell!” she cried. Real, actual tears, fell to the floor. Russell thought irritably that she'd probably not cried for real in years.
“Its Sebastien. He's gone nuts – he thinks you killed his dad – well, Lester. He was as good as a father to Sebastien, and you let him die, you let him fall into that pit!” She looked up at him, eyes swimming. “The water was black, Russell, from soot, from what this island did to it. You dropped him into that sludge. You killed him!” She scrunched her eyes tight and pounded his chest. “Why, Russell?! Why did you do it? Why didn't you save him? Why didn't you save Lester?” Her fists beat ineffectually against Russells chest, but he let her. He figured she needed the release. Tears streamed and flicked into the wind as she tore at him, bawling “And Dresden! And all those people outside the sphere! And Steamham! Everything was good before you showed up, Russell, why the hell did you do it?!” And with that she fell backwards, sniffling, as the rain whipped up around her.
“I didn't kill Lester! I-”... Russell was somewhat lost for words. He didn't have a choice! If Dresden hadn't taken Melanie.. if Sebastien hadn't been at the portal on his roof... if Lester had chosen a different child, even! He had no choice but to go after her! He wanted Melanie! He needed her, then. Everything that had happened here was Lesters fault – he was the one who brought him here, after all.
“Thats bullshit.” Russell barked at her. The rain licked up his legs. Nevertheless, he loosened his grip on her throat and she fell to the floor, legs askew beneath her, sobbing quietly into her arm. Russells fists clenched and he stared at the tower in the distance. It was wreathed in water, like a drowning arm in a well, like the last spluttering cries of a storm victim.
Sebastien squinted at Melanie. With the hallway fluorescents behind her he could barely see more than an outline in the door. He knew it was her though. She was the only child in the universe right now, and she was a murderer. She walked forwards and he leant backwards as she clambered onto his bed and sat in front of him, arms in her lap, staring at her hands, wringing them.
“I don't quite know how to begin...” she started. “I don't know all of whats happened.” She stopped, and looked up at him. “I suppose... it begins when I died.”
Sebastien stared. He brought his quilt up around him a little tighter as a chill wind creaked through the holes in the window. “When... when you died?” he stammered.
“Yes.” She looked him straight in the eye. “Don't you recognise my voice yet, Seb?”
“Your voice?” She turned to him more fully. “My voice. Listen to it. Listen to me. Look at me!” her voice pitched higher as the sentence wore on.
“I... I don't-”
“Goddamnit, don't you recognise me? After all these years?”
“All- All these..?”
“Its Lester!” Melanie threw her hands up in the air. “I'm Lester!”
Sebastien said nothing.
His voice lowered and his eyes narrowed. “Thats a dirty trick, Melanie. Or whatever you are.” He threw his quilt off himself and leaned in close to Melanie, so their noses almost touched. “I dont know what you are, but I'm going to get you, you hear me? You've caused enough trouble.”
“Seb, listen to me!” Melanie implored.
“No. Get out of here.” Sebastien turned away from the girl.
“Seb-”
“GET OUT!” Sebastien roared, slapping the girl in the face and sending her flying backwards off the bed. She landed rough on the metal floor, elbows knocking against the hard ground. She bit her lip and winced at the blood, trickling down her arm.
“Seb, what if I told you I knew a secret-”
“I DON'T CARE!” Sebastien spat, into the small girl standing before him.
Melanie narrowed her little eyes.
“Your full name is Sebastien Heinz. You named yourself after seeing a tin on the ground and liking the pattern at age seven. I was there. You take your drink in half-measures, and Dresden called you a pussy for a couple of years before you took him on drinking. You've saved my life more times than I'd care to mention, and me you. You helped Dresden steal me... Melanie from Russells house at the start of this. I found you wandering the Kennedy Moors fifteen years ago, when you were five. I thought you'd been abandoned, but you told me just before I died that you had let your parents burn to death in a house fire. And I gave you that pendant you have round your neck.”
Sebastiens hands reached instinctively for the pendant. He pulled it out from under his top and fingered it on his chest. Lester had given it to him six months ago after an expedition somewhere. He was trying to use it to save the island, but it didn't work... He stared at the child for the longest moment, then after a long hesitation, murmured “Lester..? Its really you?”
Melanie nodded. “Its really me. And I have a favour to ask of you.”
Sebastiens ears pricked. “Oh? Another mission?”
Melanie nodded. “Theres a bigger issue here than revenge, in case you hadn't noticed.”
Sebastiens eyes widened. “You knew about-”
“Of course we knew!” Melanie snapped. “It was an ill-concieved plot from the start, frankly. We heard from the top floor of the house in Steamham.”
Sebastien looked down, biting his lip. “I'm sorry, Lester.”
“Melanie waved it off. “No time for apologies now, you can kiss my ass later.”
They both looked at Melanies ass a moment, Melanie leaning round over her shoulder so she could see herself.
“Or not.” Sebastien said.
“Maybe you're right.” Melanie agreed.
She started pacing the bedroom in the exact same way Lester used to. “Theres a much bigger issue.”
He looked up at Sebastien. “I haven't been sleeping.”
Sebastien snorted. “Thats not a massive problem, Lester.”
“Oh but it is!” Melanie interrupted. “Didn't you see Steamham? I don't know how it happens, but when I sleep, whatever was inside Melanie before takes over and goes mental!”
“Steamham...” Sebastien muttered.
“Russell thinks I went to bed hours ago, but I've been lying up there doing shit all, just punching myself in the side of the head so I don't fall asleep. I'm terrified of what might happen!” She looked up at him, and her eyes were wide and sad. “I don't want to be responsible for more deaths, even if its not my fault...”
She turned away from him.
“I'm going to go to sleep, Sebastien, and I want you to restrain me.”
He stared at her.
“Restrain?”
“Thats right.” She answered without looking. “I want you to hold me back, make sure I don't kill anyone. When we go to the tower I don't want to be susceptible to being used by whatevers inside me. I need to be in peak physical condition and for that, I need to sleep.”
He twisted around.
“And for that, I need your help.”
Sebastien gaped. After a moment he closed his mouth but his brain kept on ticking over. “I mean... I'll be happy to do it, Lester, I'm just glad to see you again, I'd do anything!” he said enthusiastically. “Its just... why didn't you just ask Russell?”
Melanie smiled dangerously. “Russell can't do the second part of the mission.”
Sebastien looked confused.
“After we use the tower, I'll be incredibly weak. Its entirely possible things will spiral out of control. Thats why I needed to ask you instead of Russell. Because...” Melanie closed her eyes and breathed deeply. “Because after I get down, I want you to kill me.”
There was silence for a long time in the small room.
After a measureable period, Melanie coughed and said brusquely “Well. To part one of the plan!” She smiled at Sebastien. “I'm ready when you are!” Sebastien winced. “Don't smile like that, it freaks me out knowing that a fourty year old man is behind that innocent smile. I know what sort of stuff you've done.” She grinned impishly at him. “Who, little old me?”
“Stop that!” wailed Sebastien, grinning as well. The rain rapped against the window-
And bounced off the ground outside. Soft thunks reverberated through the ground. Russell stood, soaked to the bone, hair ragged, clothes hanging off him, watching Belle wrack in a puddle on the ground. “Well?” she asked suddenly, raising her head, her eyes bloodshot. “Are you going to do it or what?”
“Do what?” asked Russell, feeling the bottom of his stomach drop out a little as he saw her tears. He had pressed a slut up against the wall, not a human being.
“Kill me!” she sobbed, her arms drenched with tears and howling rain.
He breathed in sharply. “I was never going to kill you. I couldn't kill a person. What I want from you...” he paused. “Is information!”
Belles tears halted falteringly. “I-information?” she asked quietly.
“Information.”
“What I want to know from you- what I need to know from you- is how to operate that portal.”
She looked up at him.
“The door at the tower?”
He nodded.
“I want to know so I can get back to where I came from. I want to go home!”
He thought about this for a second. Did he really? He stared at the woman in front of him. She looked like she'd been beaten, all wet and broken in the rain, like old furniture thrown out on the street, with wood sticking out the breaks in the fabric. He stared at the floor and saw little bullet holes and beaten rust cracking under the weight of the population. Its not that he wanted to go back, its that he really didn't have a choice. He had to go back, or else he would collapse with the rest of this rust-fest.
“I-I want to go home.” he said again, firmer this time.
She got up, slowly. The rain cascaded down her, turning her hair into sheets and making her look like the ocean, her dark clothes crevasses in the deep. Russell imagined this island at the bottom of the ocean. It was only a matter of time till all the pipes, girders, coils, microphones, wires, flesh was buried deep beneath the waves. He needed to get out.
“Alright. I'll help you.” She was staring at her feet. Water dripped down her.
“I'll help you if you do something for me.”
Unfortunately, Russell didn't find out just what the favour was. At that moment, the sky burned boiling red a moment behind the house then the roof was white-hot and it melted away. Rising out of the building, gliding serenely upwards, was Melanie. Her eyes were white as chalk and she opened her mouth wide and howled into the moon overhead. Russell followed her as she drew herself upwards to the giant pillar in the sky. They heard a banging clatter as the door broke open and Sebastien shouted into the storm “Russell! Belle! Get your godddamned clothes on, this is an emergency!”
He looked to the right, saw them and hurried over. “C'mon, we need to follow her and make sure that nobody is hurt!” he cried, pulling Russell forwards. He looked back at Belle, muttered “later.” and followed Sebastien, who had taken off at a sprint towards Melanie, drifting overhead.
Russell saw her glide down the pole, the vast, wide rusted arm of the island and wring her hands above her head. Around her, the rain stopped falling. It hung in midair, collecting more and more until Melanie was surrounded by water. She hung in the pool of liquid, growing ever larger next to the moons arm.
“Melanie!” shouted Russell, running forwards.
“Lester-!” Sebastien croaked. He had been unable to hold him down, stop him escaping. He had failed part one of the mission – now he just needed to try and control the collateral damage. They stopped at the tip of a hill, and saw the water envelop the foot of the arm. The arm was creaking dangerously with rust as it was, from years of humidity, and the downpour of booted rain didn't help, stamping against the tower. The water wrapped round the base of the tower and squeezed. Squeezed.
Squeezed.
And then there was a massive creaking noise, like a wounded animal with a mouth full of static and gravel. There was hundreds of thick wires snapping, rusting, dropping, corroding, spitting electricity. Cogs rusted away and fell down to earth, in-bedding themselves in the ground so they looked like little bushes. Part of the tower broke away at the back and curled over backwards. And Russell, Belle and Sebastien saw the moon fall to the ground. The tower snapped like it was made of matchwood, and now the moon was falling. It gained speed as the tower acted as a lever, then with a tremendous, magnificent, terrible force, it landed. Glass cracked all over the island, the glass fields in the west splintering like the sheet on top of a winter lake. The roots of the tower looked like the roots of a tree – massive pillars, girders, pipes, steam flashing and burning where the tower had been ripped from the ground. Where the hole was a fissure grew and with a moaning the island ripped itself in two. Metal sheets tore at the seams all across the hole, which looked like a pair of dry lips sucking a glass as water cascaded out of it. As the water ran to engulf the western half of the island, Melanie above dropped into the churning water.
“I don't know know what youre-” her sentence was cut off like her windpipe.
“Don't fuck me around, you liar! You and Sebastien!” Russell spat into her face.
Her face relaxed slightly. “Haha! Russell! Theres nothing going on between me and Seb, if thats what you mean! I'm a single lady!” Her grin was fake – you could see too many teeth.
“Thats not what I meant and you know it.” he answered, pressing himself up against her. The rain pounded the back of his neck and he had to raise his voice to be heard in the rising gale.
“You and Sebastien mean to kill me! Why?”
Her eyes filled with surprise and fear – her eyes were all that Russell were paying attention to. He didn't care about the rest of her, her skin a sack of receptors that did things when he touched it, her legs bone and sinew and carved muscle pounding blood. Her heart was cold.
“Why?! C'mon, answer me!” He pushed into her. “C'mon!” he screamed into the gale, spittle flying from his mouth.
She shrank before him.
“Its Sebastien, Russell!” she cried. Real, actual tears, fell to the floor. Russell thought irritably that she'd probably not cried for real in years.
“Its Sebastien. He's gone nuts – he thinks you killed his dad – well, Lester. He was as good as a father to Sebastien, and you let him die, you let him fall into that pit!” She looked up at him, eyes swimming. “The water was black, Russell, from soot, from what this island did to it. You dropped him into that sludge. You killed him!” She scrunched her eyes tight and pounded his chest. “Why, Russell?! Why did you do it? Why didn't you save him? Why didn't you save Lester?” Her fists beat ineffectually against Russells chest, but he let her. He figured she needed the release. Tears streamed and flicked into the wind as she tore at him, bawling “And Dresden! And all those people outside the sphere! And Steamham! Everything was good before you showed up, Russell, why the hell did you do it?!” And with that she fell backwards, sniffling, as the rain whipped up around her.
“I didn't kill Lester! I-”... Russell was somewhat lost for words. He didn't have a choice! If Dresden hadn't taken Melanie.. if Sebastien hadn't been at the portal on his roof... if Lester had chosen a different child, even! He had no choice but to go after her! He wanted Melanie! He needed her, then. Everything that had happened here was Lesters fault – he was the one who brought him here, after all.
“Thats bullshit.” Russell barked at her. The rain licked up his legs. Nevertheless, he loosened his grip on her throat and she fell to the floor, legs askew beneath her, sobbing quietly into her arm. Russells fists clenched and he stared at the tower in the distance. It was wreathed in water, like a drowning arm in a well, like the last spluttering cries of a storm victim.
Sebastien squinted at Melanie. With the hallway fluorescents behind her he could barely see more than an outline in the door. He knew it was her though. She was the only child in the universe right now, and she was a murderer. She walked forwards and he leant backwards as she clambered onto his bed and sat in front of him, arms in her lap, staring at her hands, wringing them.
“I don't quite know how to begin...” she started. “I don't know all of whats happened.” She stopped, and looked up at him. “I suppose... it begins when I died.”
Sebastien stared. He brought his quilt up around him a little tighter as a chill wind creaked through the holes in the window. “When... when you died?” he stammered.
“Yes.” She looked him straight in the eye. “Don't you recognise my voice yet, Seb?”
“Your voice?” She turned to him more fully. “My voice. Listen to it. Listen to me. Look at me!” her voice pitched higher as the sentence wore on.
“I... I don't-”
“Goddamnit, don't you recognise me? After all these years?”
“All- All these..?”
“Its Lester!” Melanie threw her hands up in the air. “I'm Lester!”
Sebastien said nothing.
His voice lowered and his eyes narrowed. “Thats a dirty trick, Melanie. Or whatever you are.” He threw his quilt off himself and leaned in close to Melanie, so their noses almost touched. “I dont know what you are, but I'm going to get you, you hear me? You've caused enough trouble.”
“Seb, listen to me!” Melanie implored.
“No. Get out of here.” Sebastien turned away from the girl.
“Seb-”
“GET OUT!” Sebastien roared, slapping the girl in the face and sending her flying backwards off the bed. She landed rough on the metal floor, elbows knocking against the hard ground. She bit her lip and winced at the blood, trickling down her arm.
“Seb, what if I told you I knew a secret-”
“I DON'T CARE!” Sebastien spat, into the small girl standing before him.
Melanie narrowed her little eyes.
“Your full name is Sebastien Heinz. You named yourself after seeing a tin on the ground and liking the pattern at age seven. I was there. You take your drink in half-measures, and Dresden called you a pussy for a couple of years before you took him on drinking. You've saved my life more times than I'd care to mention, and me you. You helped Dresden steal me... Melanie from Russells house at the start of this. I found you wandering the Kennedy Moors fifteen years ago, when you were five. I thought you'd been abandoned, but you told me just before I died that you had let your parents burn to death in a house fire. And I gave you that pendant you have round your neck.”
Sebastiens hands reached instinctively for the pendant. He pulled it out from under his top and fingered it on his chest. Lester had given it to him six months ago after an expedition somewhere. He was trying to use it to save the island, but it didn't work... He stared at the child for the longest moment, then after a long hesitation, murmured “Lester..? Its really you?”
Melanie nodded. “Its really me. And I have a favour to ask of you.”
Sebastiens ears pricked. “Oh? Another mission?”
Melanie nodded. “Theres a bigger issue here than revenge, in case you hadn't noticed.”
Sebastiens eyes widened. “You knew about-”
“Of course we knew!” Melanie snapped. “It was an ill-concieved plot from the start, frankly. We heard from the top floor of the house in Steamham.”
Sebastien looked down, biting his lip. “I'm sorry, Lester.”
“Melanie waved it off. “No time for apologies now, you can kiss my ass later.”
They both looked at Melanies ass a moment, Melanie leaning round over her shoulder so she could see herself.
“Or not.” Sebastien said.
“Maybe you're right.” Melanie agreed.
She started pacing the bedroom in the exact same way Lester used to. “Theres a much bigger issue.”
He looked up at Sebastien. “I haven't been sleeping.”
Sebastien snorted. “Thats not a massive problem, Lester.”
“Oh but it is!” Melanie interrupted. “Didn't you see Steamham? I don't know how it happens, but when I sleep, whatever was inside Melanie before takes over and goes mental!”
“Steamham...” Sebastien muttered.
“Russell thinks I went to bed hours ago, but I've been lying up there doing shit all, just punching myself in the side of the head so I don't fall asleep. I'm terrified of what might happen!” She looked up at him, and her eyes were wide and sad. “I don't want to be responsible for more deaths, even if its not my fault...”
She turned away from him.
“I'm going to go to sleep, Sebastien, and I want you to restrain me.”
He stared at her.
“Restrain?”
“Thats right.” She answered without looking. “I want you to hold me back, make sure I don't kill anyone. When we go to the tower I don't want to be susceptible to being used by whatevers inside me. I need to be in peak physical condition and for that, I need to sleep.”
He twisted around.
“And for that, I need your help.”
Sebastien gaped. After a moment he closed his mouth but his brain kept on ticking over. “I mean... I'll be happy to do it, Lester, I'm just glad to see you again, I'd do anything!” he said enthusiastically. “Its just... why didn't you just ask Russell?”
Melanie smiled dangerously. “Russell can't do the second part of the mission.”
Sebastien looked confused.
“After we use the tower, I'll be incredibly weak. Its entirely possible things will spiral out of control. Thats why I needed to ask you instead of Russell. Because...” Melanie closed her eyes and breathed deeply. “Because after I get down, I want you to kill me.”
There was silence for a long time in the small room.
After a measureable period, Melanie coughed and said brusquely “Well. To part one of the plan!” She smiled at Sebastien. “I'm ready when you are!” Sebastien winced. “Don't smile like that, it freaks me out knowing that a fourty year old man is behind that innocent smile. I know what sort of stuff you've done.” She grinned impishly at him. “Who, little old me?”
“Stop that!” wailed Sebastien, grinning as well. The rain rapped against the window-
And bounced off the ground outside. Soft thunks reverberated through the ground. Russell stood, soaked to the bone, hair ragged, clothes hanging off him, watching Belle wrack in a puddle on the ground. “Well?” she asked suddenly, raising her head, her eyes bloodshot. “Are you going to do it or what?”
“Do what?” asked Russell, feeling the bottom of his stomach drop out a little as he saw her tears. He had pressed a slut up against the wall, not a human being.
“Kill me!” she sobbed, her arms drenched with tears and howling rain.
He breathed in sharply. “I was never going to kill you. I couldn't kill a person. What I want from you...” he paused. “Is information!”
Belles tears halted falteringly. “I-information?” she asked quietly.
“Information.”
“What I want to know from you- what I need to know from you- is how to operate that portal.”
She looked up at him.
“The door at the tower?”
He nodded.
“I want to know so I can get back to where I came from. I want to go home!”
He thought about this for a second. Did he really? He stared at the woman in front of him. She looked like she'd been beaten, all wet and broken in the rain, like old furniture thrown out on the street, with wood sticking out the breaks in the fabric. He stared at the floor and saw little bullet holes and beaten rust cracking under the weight of the population. Its not that he wanted to go back, its that he really didn't have a choice. He had to go back, or else he would collapse with the rest of this rust-fest.
“I-I want to go home.” he said again, firmer this time.
She got up, slowly. The rain cascaded down her, turning her hair into sheets and making her look like the ocean, her dark clothes crevasses in the deep. Russell imagined this island at the bottom of the ocean. It was only a matter of time till all the pipes, girders, coils, microphones, wires, flesh was buried deep beneath the waves. He needed to get out.
“Alright. I'll help you.” She was staring at her feet. Water dripped down her.
“I'll help you if you do something for me.”
Unfortunately, Russell didn't find out just what the favour was. At that moment, the sky burned boiling red a moment behind the house then the roof was white-hot and it melted away. Rising out of the building, gliding serenely upwards, was Melanie. Her eyes were white as chalk and she opened her mouth wide and howled into the moon overhead. Russell followed her as she drew herself upwards to the giant pillar in the sky. They heard a banging clatter as the door broke open and Sebastien shouted into the storm “Russell! Belle! Get your godddamned clothes on, this is an emergency!”
He looked to the right, saw them and hurried over. “C'mon, we need to follow her and make sure that nobody is hurt!” he cried, pulling Russell forwards. He looked back at Belle, muttered “later.” and followed Sebastien, who had taken off at a sprint towards Melanie, drifting overhead.
Russell saw her glide down the pole, the vast, wide rusted arm of the island and wring her hands above her head. Around her, the rain stopped falling. It hung in midair, collecting more and more until Melanie was surrounded by water. She hung in the pool of liquid, growing ever larger next to the moons arm.
“Melanie!” shouted Russell, running forwards.
“Lester-!” Sebastien croaked. He had been unable to hold him down, stop him escaping. He had failed part one of the mission – now he just needed to try and control the collateral damage. They stopped at the tip of a hill, and saw the water envelop the foot of the arm. The arm was creaking dangerously with rust as it was, from years of humidity, and the downpour of booted rain didn't help, stamping against the tower. The water wrapped round the base of the tower and squeezed. Squeezed.
Squeezed.
And then there was a massive creaking noise, like a wounded animal with a mouth full of static and gravel. There was hundreds of thick wires snapping, rusting, dropping, corroding, spitting electricity. Cogs rusted away and fell down to earth, in-bedding themselves in the ground so they looked like little bushes. Part of the tower broke away at the back and curled over backwards. And Russell, Belle and Sebastien saw the moon fall to the ground. The tower snapped like it was made of matchwood, and now the moon was falling. It gained speed as the tower acted as a lever, then with a tremendous, magnificent, terrible force, it landed. Glass cracked all over the island, the glass fields in the west splintering like the sheet on top of a winter lake. The roots of the tower looked like the roots of a tree – massive pillars, girders, pipes, steam flashing and burning where the tower had been ripped from the ground. Where the hole was a fissure grew and with a moaning the island ripped itself in two. Metal sheets tore at the seams all across the hole, which looked like a pair of dry lips sucking a glass as water cascaded out of it. As the water ran to engulf the western half of the island, Melanie above dropped into the churning water.
Saturday, 28 November 2009
Chapter 20: Disease
For the first time ever, it was raining. Russell, Melanie, Sebastien and Belle had stopped off for the night on Ironwalk, because, as Russell said, “It'll be impossible to see in this rain, let alone arrange all those wires.”
Russell stared glumly out the window at the rain, pounding deep into the ground, laying bullet holes across the floor. Though the tower was less than a mile away, up on the hill, where it should be directly viewable, he couldn't see it. The rain was a curtain which he couldn't see though. He couldn't see what he was doing, or what he wanted to do. He licked his lips and turned back to see Sebastien and Belle talking quietly, heads inclined towards each other. He didn't know what they were talking about but from the look Sebastien had just given him, he thought he had an idea. He smiled back at the pair and they forced grins across their faces briefly, so shining tooth grinned at shining tooth across the squalid bar.
The bar, Belle had assured him as they entered, had never been this busy. Men and women were packed into the tiny bar and the guy serving drinks looked ecstatic – like he'd never seen this much business before. The people couldn't be any different. Bedraggled, wet from the rain, hair long and matted – they looked like all the people Russell had seen on the island, only far damper than usual. They crowded at the windows and peered owlishly into the fog of rain, muttering terrible things about the future of the island. They had all seen the rivers, they had all seen the downpour – they knew that the end was near and the first thing that they could think to do was drink themselves to death first. These people were the choked-up spittle of the island, dribbling from bar to bar, constantly on a look-out for their next drink. All they could do when they saw Melanie was shake their heads and wish for a better tomorrow for the kid which would never come.
“Why do we always go to bars, anyway?” Sebastien grumbled. “It never leads to anything good, does it?”
“Well, we needed a place to stay.” Belle offered consolingly. “And besides, whats the harm, right?”
“Well, you would say that.” He answered harshly, swigging his vodka critter and wincing every time the drink pressed through his throat.
“So do you have any more ideas about how to knock him off?” He asked Belle after a moment, lowering his voice even lower.
She looked at him conspiratorially for a moment, then whispered “We can't do anything yet. We don't know how that girl explodes, we could... set it off, you know?”
Sebastien nodded. “We definitely need to find out how it works.”
Belle looked shocked. “It? It? Sebastien!” She hissed. “Thats still a little girl you're talking about, no matter what she does, or whats happened to her!”
“I'm not so sure.” Sebastien creaked, his voice barely audible. “She's more of a monster than a human.”
Belle shoved him.
“You're talking shit. Theres something wrong with her, sure, but nothing... well...” she was lost for words. “I don't know, Seb. I just can barely believe she can hurt anyone!”
“Believe it.” He replied darkly.
Upstairs, asleep, Lester dreamed of electric sheep and scorpion tails. Then all of a sudden he was back. The old nightmare. Him and his crew. There was he – young, with far more hair than he could even remember having, long and brown and matted from years of exploration through the dense bristly undergrowth of the island. There was Dietrich, Dresdens hulking father, who rippled with dense, tense, dangerous muscle and who was clothed in clinking armour collected from the various animals he killed and gutted for their iron skin. He was always a wild one, Dietrich. Fairly sober till they got back to the bar, but then... Lester remembered one time when he had ran into the bar red with rust and blood, topless, mud stretched across his bare chest, bits of iron wool clinging to the hair on his chest, and proceeded to smash three or four wriggling vodka-bugs together over his head and lick up the falling alcohol. He was drenched in booze and glass for the rest of the night because nobody would get him a towel, or even a bucket of cold water – he had to trudge out to sea by himself to clean his wounds and Lester could still remember him screaming as salt water seeped into the wounds the glass had made.
After that... who had it been. Christ, it had been a long time. There was June, that hawk-eyed bitch with the glasses bigger than her face for analysing the alphabets scribbled across the pipes in the rust deserts. Who else... Lead, of course, that wiry kid he had picked up picking his pocket – or trying to anyway. He had ended up being pushed into all sorts of weird places. Lester smiled at the of the shit they'd gotten out of because Lead had managed to crawl someplace and flick a switch for them, like that time he had let them out of that abandoned prison somewhere in the mines of cogs under the island. In fact, it was him who'd first got them access to the key. It was in the most desolate place on the island, more than the rust deserts, where nomads sometimes wandered, more even than the tesla fields, where electricity leapt between every blade of grass.
It wasn't grand or anything. He remembered being distinctly unimpressed by the whole place, but there weren't many places on the island they hadn't explored and this place looked, frankly, as good as any for collecting a few mouldy artefacts lying in the dust. Dietrich had thrown a bunch of the rubble aside, to allow them through, and he had seen something heaped under the rubbish. It was a door. A metal door, brushed silver to differentiate it against the hard bronze of its surroundings. Whilst the ground around it flashed as vents opened and closed and steam hissed out, the door appeared to be completely sealed... It had been Philip who had finally worked out how to open it. Lester shuddered in his sleep. He would prefer to forget about Philip.
Russell was still staring out into the rain. His tankard was untouched by his side. He looked at it and smiled. He thought it was kind of odd how these people were all so averse to getting swallowed by the tide, when they drowned themselves in alcohol every night whether they were in danger of dying or not. The night was late, and the conversation poor. He fielded the occasional question from interested passers-by who asked him about Melanie, and he told them that he had found her in a field. They chuckled, passed on, and he was left with his untouched drink, staring out the window, late into the night, watching as drops clung to the window, screaming and squeaking down, trying not to reach the sill-
Behind him Sebastien yawned. Russell turned and saw him hug Belle tightly - slightly too long for them to be just friends – wave awkwardly at Russell and head upstairs. Belle rolled her eyes and sauntered over to Russell. She wreathed a hand across his shoulder. “Aren't you glad he's gone, right?” Russell looked at her, and smiled, and saw a skeleton where a person should be.
“You're supposed to be his friend, you can't really say that, can you?” He replied.
Belle looked behind her.
Philip didn't always come with them. Half the time he was back with his family. He had a five year old kid now, and he was very happy with her, and he spent more and more time with her and his wife instead of exploring the island with them. It was sad, in a sense. Lester just wished he quit one mission sooner. He opened the door in the ground, the hatch, and saw a little metal box inside it. The box was about the size of a fist, and was decorated ornately. It was red and gold trim laced around the edge of it. He picked it up gingerly and showed it to the others. The idiots crowded round, staring at the box. It exuded innocence, like nothing was going to happen when you opened it, and Lester didn't trust it. He stepped back just in time. Philip turned the key and the box fell apart in his hands, the walls flaying away into the decaying sunlight like dust motes through a light beam. Inside it was nothing. They leaned in for a closer look. Then, something happened, almost inperceptably. The world got a little dimmer, a little more sepia. A chill wind passed through them. Then nothing. The wind picked up a little.
Then came the explosion.
“I can say whatever I want now he's not here, can't I?” She grinned impishly at him.
Russell looked at her. He looked her up and down, saw the way she simpered over him just enough to make it sickening, saw her laugh a little too loudly at his jokes, saw her eyes stray slightly too long over him and knew he could do what he wanted with her. He turned so he was facing her fully, and stood so he was a whole head taller than her. He said nothing for a long moment, then picked up her chin so she looked directly up at him. “Russell...” she began, but he put his finger to her lips. “Not here...” he murmured, and ran his hand down her arm and took her hand and pressed his other hand into her hips, drawing her close to him. Their curves ran against each other and he whispered in her ear “We have unfinished business.”
Then he took her outside.
Then he pushed her against the wall of the bar outside, and held her tight against it. He kissed her, roughing his lips against hers and fumbling his hands up and down her shaking torso. The rain spat out of the blackened, cracked sky and shocked the ground around them. It tumbled and span through the wind and puddles leapt and spasmed in the harsh moonlight around them. She moaned loudly and pushed his head into her porcelain neck and he licked up it to her ear and bit her and his hands ran through her and down her like the rain soaking them both. He tore at her shirt, ripped her open, fucked her against the wall, her nails clawing at his back and-
He was the only one left alive. Relatively unharmed, his death choked by Dietrich, who lay on top of him, a bloated corpse. He threw his dead team-mate off him and gazed in horror at his ribboned face and cavity-chest. Lester was covered in blood. It dribbled across his chest. Then out of the box roared something new, something he had never seen before – Lester was scared. He had been having this nightmare the exact same way for 20 years now, what had changed?! The apparition spat into the sky like a geyser, and splattered itself across the island. It was black and red and inside it was nothing but bad memories-
They hung against each other after they had finished, each leaning on the other for support, filthy sweat soaking in between them. Her forehead lay on his open chest and his hands ran up and down her thigh idly. Then, without warning, he slammed her against the wall again. His hand flicked up from her hips to her throat. His hand dribbled rainwater as she choked against the hard metal.
“You can give up the act now.” he growled at her.
Her eyes searched him, wide and afraid.
Sebastiens door cocked ajar. A slit in the darkened room opened up across Sebastiens face and a shadow poured in. He awoke blearily, his eyes blurred and confused. “What..?” he mumbled distractedly, before noticing who his visitor was.
“M-Melanie!” he stuttered, drawing his bedsheets tighter around her. He had seen what she had done. Around her he saw the aura of a thousand corpses.
“Sebastien.” Melanie answered. She walked forwards slowly, and hopped up onto the bed besides Sebastien. He looked mortified to see her, which made her smile. “Sebastien.” She sighed, melodramatically. “This might be quite difficult to explain.”
Russell stared glumly out the window at the rain, pounding deep into the ground, laying bullet holes across the floor. Though the tower was less than a mile away, up on the hill, where it should be directly viewable, he couldn't see it. The rain was a curtain which he couldn't see though. He couldn't see what he was doing, or what he wanted to do. He licked his lips and turned back to see Sebastien and Belle talking quietly, heads inclined towards each other. He didn't know what they were talking about but from the look Sebastien had just given him, he thought he had an idea. He smiled back at the pair and they forced grins across their faces briefly, so shining tooth grinned at shining tooth across the squalid bar.
The bar, Belle had assured him as they entered, had never been this busy. Men and women were packed into the tiny bar and the guy serving drinks looked ecstatic – like he'd never seen this much business before. The people couldn't be any different. Bedraggled, wet from the rain, hair long and matted – they looked like all the people Russell had seen on the island, only far damper than usual. They crowded at the windows and peered owlishly into the fog of rain, muttering terrible things about the future of the island. They had all seen the rivers, they had all seen the downpour – they knew that the end was near and the first thing that they could think to do was drink themselves to death first. These people were the choked-up spittle of the island, dribbling from bar to bar, constantly on a look-out for their next drink. All they could do when they saw Melanie was shake their heads and wish for a better tomorrow for the kid which would never come.
“Why do we always go to bars, anyway?” Sebastien grumbled. “It never leads to anything good, does it?”
“Well, we needed a place to stay.” Belle offered consolingly. “And besides, whats the harm, right?”
“Well, you would say that.” He answered harshly, swigging his vodka critter and wincing every time the drink pressed through his throat.
“So do you have any more ideas about how to knock him off?” He asked Belle after a moment, lowering his voice even lower.
She looked at him conspiratorially for a moment, then whispered “We can't do anything yet. We don't know how that girl explodes, we could... set it off, you know?”
Sebastien nodded. “We definitely need to find out how it works.”
Belle looked shocked. “It? It? Sebastien!” She hissed. “Thats still a little girl you're talking about, no matter what she does, or whats happened to her!”
“I'm not so sure.” Sebastien creaked, his voice barely audible. “She's more of a monster than a human.”
Belle shoved him.
“You're talking shit. Theres something wrong with her, sure, but nothing... well...” she was lost for words. “I don't know, Seb. I just can barely believe she can hurt anyone!”
“Believe it.” He replied darkly.
Upstairs, asleep, Lester dreamed of electric sheep and scorpion tails. Then all of a sudden he was back. The old nightmare. Him and his crew. There was he – young, with far more hair than he could even remember having, long and brown and matted from years of exploration through the dense bristly undergrowth of the island. There was Dietrich, Dresdens hulking father, who rippled with dense, tense, dangerous muscle and who was clothed in clinking armour collected from the various animals he killed and gutted for their iron skin. He was always a wild one, Dietrich. Fairly sober till they got back to the bar, but then... Lester remembered one time when he had ran into the bar red with rust and blood, topless, mud stretched across his bare chest, bits of iron wool clinging to the hair on his chest, and proceeded to smash three or four wriggling vodka-bugs together over his head and lick up the falling alcohol. He was drenched in booze and glass for the rest of the night because nobody would get him a towel, or even a bucket of cold water – he had to trudge out to sea by himself to clean his wounds and Lester could still remember him screaming as salt water seeped into the wounds the glass had made.
After that... who had it been. Christ, it had been a long time. There was June, that hawk-eyed bitch with the glasses bigger than her face for analysing the alphabets scribbled across the pipes in the rust deserts. Who else... Lead, of course, that wiry kid he had picked up picking his pocket – or trying to anyway. He had ended up being pushed into all sorts of weird places. Lester smiled at the of the shit they'd gotten out of because Lead had managed to crawl someplace and flick a switch for them, like that time he had let them out of that abandoned prison somewhere in the mines of cogs under the island. In fact, it was him who'd first got them access to the key. It was in the most desolate place on the island, more than the rust deserts, where nomads sometimes wandered, more even than the tesla fields, where electricity leapt between every blade of grass.
It wasn't grand or anything. He remembered being distinctly unimpressed by the whole place, but there weren't many places on the island they hadn't explored and this place looked, frankly, as good as any for collecting a few mouldy artefacts lying in the dust. Dietrich had thrown a bunch of the rubble aside, to allow them through, and he had seen something heaped under the rubbish. It was a door. A metal door, brushed silver to differentiate it against the hard bronze of its surroundings. Whilst the ground around it flashed as vents opened and closed and steam hissed out, the door appeared to be completely sealed... It had been Philip who had finally worked out how to open it. Lester shuddered in his sleep. He would prefer to forget about Philip.
Russell was still staring out into the rain. His tankard was untouched by his side. He looked at it and smiled. He thought it was kind of odd how these people were all so averse to getting swallowed by the tide, when they drowned themselves in alcohol every night whether they were in danger of dying or not. The night was late, and the conversation poor. He fielded the occasional question from interested passers-by who asked him about Melanie, and he told them that he had found her in a field. They chuckled, passed on, and he was left with his untouched drink, staring out the window, late into the night, watching as drops clung to the window, screaming and squeaking down, trying not to reach the sill-
Behind him Sebastien yawned. Russell turned and saw him hug Belle tightly - slightly too long for them to be just friends – wave awkwardly at Russell and head upstairs. Belle rolled her eyes and sauntered over to Russell. She wreathed a hand across his shoulder. “Aren't you glad he's gone, right?” Russell looked at her, and smiled, and saw a skeleton where a person should be.
“You're supposed to be his friend, you can't really say that, can you?” He replied.
Belle looked behind her.
Philip didn't always come with them. Half the time he was back with his family. He had a five year old kid now, and he was very happy with her, and he spent more and more time with her and his wife instead of exploring the island with them. It was sad, in a sense. Lester just wished he quit one mission sooner. He opened the door in the ground, the hatch, and saw a little metal box inside it. The box was about the size of a fist, and was decorated ornately. It was red and gold trim laced around the edge of it. He picked it up gingerly and showed it to the others. The idiots crowded round, staring at the box. It exuded innocence, like nothing was going to happen when you opened it, and Lester didn't trust it. He stepped back just in time. Philip turned the key and the box fell apart in his hands, the walls flaying away into the decaying sunlight like dust motes through a light beam. Inside it was nothing. They leaned in for a closer look. Then, something happened, almost inperceptably. The world got a little dimmer, a little more sepia. A chill wind passed through them. Then nothing. The wind picked up a little.
Then came the explosion.
“I can say whatever I want now he's not here, can't I?” She grinned impishly at him.
Russell looked at her. He looked her up and down, saw the way she simpered over him just enough to make it sickening, saw her laugh a little too loudly at his jokes, saw her eyes stray slightly too long over him and knew he could do what he wanted with her. He turned so he was facing her fully, and stood so he was a whole head taller than her. He said nothing for a long moment, then picked up her chin so she looked directly up at him. “Russell...” she began, but he put his finger to her lips. “Not here...” he murmured, and ran his hand down her arm and took her hand and pressed his other hand into her hips, drawing her close to him. Their curves ran against each other and he whispered in her ear “We have unfinished business.”
Then he took her outside.
Then he pushed her against the wall of the bar outside, and held her tight against it. He kissed her, roughing his lips against hers and fumbling his hands up and down her shaking torso. The rain spat out of the blackened, cracked sky and shocked the ground around them. It tumbled and span through the wind and puddles leapt and spasmed in the harsh moonlight around them. She moaned loudly and pushed his head into her porcelain neck and he licked up it to her ear and bit her and his hands ran through her and down her like the rain soaking them both. He tore at her shirt, ripped her open, fucked her against the wall, her nails clawing at his back and-
He was the only one left alive. Relatively unharmed, his death choked by Dietrich, who lay on top of him, a bloated corpse. He threw his dead team-mate off him and gazed in horror at his ribboned face and cavity-chest. Lester was covered in blood. It dribbled across his chest. Then out of the box roared something new, something he had never seen before – Lester was scared. He had been having this nightmare the exact same way for 20 years now, what had changed?! The apparition spat into the sky like a geyser, and splattered itself across the island. It was black and red and inside it was nothing but bad memories-
They hung against each other after they had finished, each leaning on the other for support, filthy sweat soaking in between them. Her forehead lay on his open chest and his hands ran up and down her thigh idly. Then, without warning, he slammed her against the wall again. His hand flicked up from her hips to her throat. His hand dribbled rainwater as she choked against the hard metal.
“You can give up the act now.” he growled at her.
Her eyes searched him, wide and afraid.
Sebastiens door cocked ajar. A slit in the darkened room opened up across Sebastiens face and a shadow poured in. He awoke blearily, his eyes blurred and confused. “What..?” he mumbled distractedly, before noticing who his visitor was.
“M-Melanie!” he stuttered, drawing his bedsheets tighter around her. He had seen what she had done. Around her he saw the aura of a thousand corpses.
“Sebastien.” Melanie answered. She walked forwards slowly, and hopped up onto the bed besides Sebastien. He looked mortified to see her, which made her smile. “Sebastien.” She sighed, melodramatically. “This might be quite difficult to explain.”
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Chapter 19: User-Friendly
“Sebastien!” Russell cried, and he ran down the stairs, leaping two at a time and hugged the man. Sebastien gripped him tightly and the two embraced.
“I've been looking for you everywhere!” Russell said, holding Sebastien at arms length and smiling at him.
Sebastien thought he saw his smile twitch.
“Tell me about it.” Sebastien agreed. “Where on earth did you get to?” Russell led Sebastien to a collection of rust-worn barrels in the corner of the room. They overlooked the crater. The tide splashed against the side of the house, climbing up the pillars supporting the steel floor. Russell could see cogs twisting and splashing water about them in the heart of the new lake. There were pinnacles erupted out of the water, like hedgehog spikes, little platforms which had escaped the torment. Small scrabbles of civilisation littered these pinnacles. Russell saw wires spurting electricity at the edge of the crater, and more substantial machinery beneath the surface of the water. They were blotched and splotchy and worn. A propeller juttered through the water at the opposite edge of the crater, and Russell could see the sea out beyond that, cascading into the crater through a hole in the wall. He swallowed.
He turned back to Sebastien, all smiles. “I honestly couldn't tell you. I remember leaving the sphere, but after that...” Russell remembered Hurricane Melanie well, but he refrained from mentioning it. He remembered the corpses, the ironbeaks tearing at flesh, Lester falling, clawing desperately, into the hole, and then... “And then,” he continued, “I woke up with Melanie! Quite a way from the Sphere, I think, I looked up on a hill and couldn't see it anywhere.”
“The sphere is gone.” Sebastien supplied. Thats probably why you couldn't see it. The ironbeaks tore it to pieces.” He scanned Russell. If it came to it, he could probably take Russell now. Russell was close to the edge, he could barrel into him and knock him flying into the water. The electricity coursing through it would fry him before he could cry out. But what then? What about Melanie? She was the dangerous one. Only Russell knew how she worked, how she ticked, how she destroyed like that, and he couldn't risk letting her off again, especially when he and Belle were so close. Sebastien didn't do anything.
Russell swallowed again, and looked at the floor. “Is that so?”
Sebastien leaned forwards.
“So what happened to Steamham?” he asked, his eyes searching the broken, fatal skyline.
“Don't know. It was like that when we got here.” Russell replied. He wondered if Sebastien was trying to coax a confession out of him.
Sebastien was startled. “Really? You mean, you didn't-”
Russell leaned forwards. “Didn't what?” He caught Sebastiens eye, but Sebastien looked away.
“Didn't what, Sebastien?”
“Russell!” Belle butted in, elbowing her way past Sebastien to wrap her arms around Russell. “Dont think you can forget about me!” she laughed, and let an arm languish on his shoulder as she leaned on him. “How is Melanie?”
Russell thought long and hard about this. How was Melanie? He wasn't sure if he had seen her at all. He had seen her body. But residing in that corpse was... well, Lester, for one thing. Lester had escaped the clutches of death to right his wrong, or so he said. But he was sure that there was something else in there. Something dirty, something wrong, something which shouldn't have been there. Had Melanie died when she had landed in that field of blue light? Had something crawled inside her all the way back then? It would make sense, and it would be a fitting end to his life that he had spent all this time chasing a corpse. He thought upstairs, where Melanie, or Lester, sat in wait. The less they saw of her the less he would have to pretend, the less chance they were found out.
Russell decided that Belle didn't need to know any of this. “Fine.” he gruffed. “She's upstairs, sleeping off the walk.”
She held him tight, and squeezed out of her throat, “Oh, Russell! I always knew you had it in you to be a good father, to be a wonderful father! Wasn't that right, Seb? Wasn't I saying just as we were walking around that crater, that Russell obviously loved his kid, didn't I, Seb?” Sebastien nodded solemnly, licked his lips, bowed his head and said “She's right, Russell. You're a...” he struggled for words. Finally, he thrust out his hand, and, eyes blazing, said in hard tones “You're a good father, Russell. I'd be proud to have you as a father.”
you genocidal freak, he thought.
Russell smiled coldly. “Well I'm glad you think so, Seb!” He clapped Sebastien hard on the arm, and laughed inwardly at how Belle was making Sebastien act. Belle grinned and caressed Russell and rested her head on his shoulder like a lover who had been parted. She was far more open and aggressively friendly than she had ever been before in Russells memory. Sebastien glowered as she ran a soft finger up Russells other arm.
Then Russell stood. He had to think of something to keep them occupied, something to keep them busy until he could catch them unawares... Lesters ludicrous plan came to mind. Though he scoffed at the idea of saving the island, as the tide made itself comfortable in the rusting, busted valleys of the island, travelling to the tower was a good idea, because it gave them something to do so they weren't here, where they could reveal accidental secrets. If needs be, Russell thought, the tower was also at the height of a precipice. If he needed to, the tower could make a good murder location and getaway in one.
“I was thinking.” he said. “I was thinking that we need to do something.” Sebastien and Belle both looked at him curiously. “About what?” Sebastien asked. Russell looked towards the distance. “I was thinking... I was thinking we were brought here, I was brought here, we were all brought here, for a reason!” He slammed his fist against the wall. “I kind of... I almost feel responsible, for whats happened, because it was my fault the tower malfunctioned in the first place. I couldn't do it by myself...” he stopped short, and took a deep intake of breath. “But with you here, Sebastien, then we could actually do it!”
Belle looked from Sebastien to Russell confusedly. “Do what?” she asked.
“We can save the island” Russells eyes were ablaze as he twisted round and the sun hit behind him, silhouetting him against the lake. Sunlight hit the water and blazed up around him. “We can strap Melanie into the tower, and hit whatever switch Lester wanted, and we can undo everything! We can make everything alright again!” He turned and grinned at the both of them. “Well? What do you think?”
Sebastiens face slowly split into a wide grin. “I see what you're trying to do, Russell.”
Belle froze.
“I think its a fantastic idea,” he continued, and she relaxed a little. “I mean, its the apocalypse, right? What else can we do but try?”
“Do, or do not. There is no try!” Russell recited, smiling to himself.
“What?” Belle asked him.
For a second, Russell didn't know what to say. Then he remembered that there was no such thing as Star Wars here. “I forget sometimes that there's no such thing as Star Wars here,” he told them.
By the evening they had started walking. It wasn't far to the tower, a days walk at most. Russell didn't have long to come up with a plan. They had been walking together, chatting as they walked up a chain-wreathed hill. When they reached the top Sebastien looked out across the landscape. Rivers criss-crossed the peaks and troughs of the steel, heaving island. He flashed a look at Belle. “Its beautiful,, in a way, don't you think?” he asked. Russell saw that they were busy up on the top and called up to them, “Hey, guys! Melanie needs the toilet, we'll be right back!” Sebastien waved them away down the hill, calling back “Sure, sure, like there's not enough rust!”
“No I don't-” Melanie began, but Russell shut her up. He shoved her to the side, so they couldn't be seen by the two, and squatted down in front of her. “Right. We're going to the tower.”
Melanie smiled. “We are? Oh, brilliant! So we can actually-”
Russell interrupted him. “Yeah, you can take care of the island, you can fix it, thats right.” Melanie grinned. “Thats fantastic!” Russell nodded. “But listen,” he continued, “Thats not important right now. How do we get rid of...” Russell jerked his head out of the grove. “Those two.”
Melanie frowned. “Frankly, Russell, I'm having difficulty remembering why we need to hide everything from them in the first place!” Russell sighed exasperatedly and shoved him. “You gave me good enough reason yourself! If they already want to kill us, everything we say will be counted against us!” He sighed. “I mean, they brought us to this, but they will have convinced themselves that we're liars.”
“And we are!” Melanie hissed.
“Yes, and whose fault was that?” Russell snapped back. “Listen, we just need to catch them off-guard so we can get away from them.” He looked out at where they stood. “I don't want to kill them, even if they want to kill us.”
He looked back at Melanie. “So go on. You got us into this. How do we get rid of them?”
Melanies head was in her hands. “I don't like this, Russell. Sebastiens like my kid, and Belle ain't far off. I can't believe we're in this deep against them.”
Russell smiled. “Wait, though, Lester, its not you, its Melanie, right?”
Melanie slapped his thigh. “Shut up. You know what I mean.”
Russell stood. He looked down at his diminutive daughter, who wasn't any more. He wasn't sure why he was being so cruel to her. Him. Whatever. Lester had spent so long being so much... so much better than him. It seemed fitting that he'd been brought this low, spending his last days like this. And Melanie... well, Melanie. He turned away from his daughter. “C'mon. They'll think we're up to something.”
Belle looked sideways at Sebastien. “You're right, I guess.” They stared out at the valleys without speaking. Sebastien saw the sun tick closer and closer towards the slit in the earth it disappeared into every night. The sun and the moon, each a lamp about the size of a house, span on an axis every day and night. The oldest parts of the island were the clockworks. There was the sun, the moon, and the stars. Many years before, a balloonist had climbed a couple of thousand feet using helium collected from gas mines on the other side of the island. He had flown past the sun, nearly blinded by its brilliance. He had seen the intricate cogs, the spinning wheels, the clinking chains as it rose and sank daily, had seen its brilliance wax and wane. But he climbed higher still, to the stars themselves. They hung in the sky like chandeliers, each star about the size of a man and suspended by chains to a massive spinner. Next time he tried to go higher and drowned in the carbon monoxide choking the winds. Before he died the crackle in the speakers told them that the seas carried on as far he could see, before the crackle in his throat killed him.
“I mean, all the rivers... if they weren't going to kill us,” Sebastien continued, “They'd be kind of beautiful.”
“A bit like Russell, really, and Melanie.” Belle supplied. Sebastien narrowed his eyes at Belle. “How do you mean?”
“Well, they make a good pair, father and daughter, I mean, don't you think?” she asked. She turned to see the two of them trudging back up the hill. “I think they look very cute together. I guess it means that you were wrong about him being a terrible father.”
“I guess it does.” Sebastien replied solemnly. “But theres more important things afoot now than that outburst. Most threateningly – they want to kill us and you're admiring them!” He shoved her. “What gives?”
Belle sighed antsily. “I don't even know!” She watched as Russell picked Melanie up and swung her over his shoulders so she was sitting on his back. They meandered slowly up the hill, Russell leaping over streams pooling in the foot-pounded bronze. “Maybe its just...” she fingered her own belly, running her hand across it.
Sebastien watched her idly a moment, then double-took. “What do you mean, 'maybe its just' like that? Rubbing your belly like that? Are you saying-”
“That I'm pregnant?” She asked him. The wind ripped between them. “I think so.”
Sebastien said nothing. His mind was running like a wild man but his mouth refused to speak. He hung open, looking her up and down. “Are you serious?”
She grinned happily. “Thats right! I'm pretty sure! Theres been morning sickness, and no period to speak of. Its fairly certain!” Sebastien said nothing. “What, aren't you happy for me?”
“Happy?” he shouted, then grabbed her lapel and pulled her in so they touches noses. “Why the hell would I be happy?” he hissed at her, his eyes slits and his nostrils flared. “You're carrying his child?” Belle was surprised, and pushed him away. “Yes! Damnit, I thought you'd be pleased! I'm carrying the future of the island in my womb!”
Sebastien wrapped his forehead in his hands. “What you're carrying is demon spawn! Haven't you seen what his last daughters done? What if your spawn turns out just the same, huh? What if you make another monster!” He kicked the ground. “I don't know how you could have been so stupid!”
“Stupid?! I'll give you-”
“Whats going on?” Russell asked, curiously. He saw Sebastien and Belle lying on the floor, Belle straddling Sebastien with her fist raised, about to throw a punch. Both of them froze as he arrived and made himself known.
“I just heard your wonderful news.” Sebastien grunted, and he pushed Belle off him. He stood, shook Russells confused hand briefly, and muttured “Congratulations on your new baby.” He stalked off across the hill. Belle looked up sheepishly at Russell from the floor, and tried to smile. It didn't work.
“I've been looking for you everywhere!” Russell said, holding Sebastien at arms length and smiling at him.
Sebastien thought he saw his smile twitch.
“Tell me about it.” Sebastien agreed. “Where on earth did you get to?” Russell led Sebastien to a collection of rust-worn barrels in the corner of the room. They overlooked the crater. The tide splashed against the side of the house, climbing up the pillars supporting the steel floor. Russell could see cogs twisting and splashing water about them in the heart of the new lake. There were pinnacles erupted out of the water, like hedgehog spikes, little platforms which had escaped the torment. Small scrabbles of civilisation littered these pinnacles. Russell saw wires spurting electricity at the edge of the crater, and more substantial machinery beneath the surface of the water. They were blotched and splotchy and worn. A propeller juttered through the water at the opposite edge of the crater, and Russell could see the sea out beyond that, cascading into the crater through a hole in the wall. He swallowed.
He turned back to Sebastien, all smiles. “I honestly couldn't tell you. I remember leaving the sphere, but after that...” Russell remembered Hurricane Melanie well, but he refrained from mentioning it. He remembered the corpses, the ironbeaks tearing at flesh, Lester falling, clawing desperately, into the hole, and then... “And then,” he continued, “I woke up with Melanie! Quite a way from the Sphere, I think, I looked up on a hill and couldn't see it anywhere.”
“The sphere is gone.” Sebastien supplied. Thats probably why you couldn't see it. The ironbeaks tore it to pieces.” He scanned Russell. If it came to it, he could probably take Russell now. Russell was close to the edge, he could barrel into him and knock him flying into the water. The electricity coursing through it would fry him before he could cry out. But what then? What about Melanie? She was the dangerous one. Only Russell knew how she worked, how she ticked, how she destroyed like that, and he couldn't risk letting her off again, especially when he and Belle were so close. Sebastien didn't do anything.
Russell swallowed again, and looked at the floor. “Is that so?”
Sebastien leaned forwards.
“So what happened to Steamham?” he asked, his eyes searching the broken, fatal skyline.
“Don't know. It was like that when we got here.” Russell replied. He wondered if Sebastien was trying to coax a confession out of him.
Sebastien was startled. “Really? You mean, you didn't-”
Russell leaned forwards. “Didn't what?” He caught Sebastiens eye, but Sebastien looked away.
“Didn't what, Sebastien?”
“Russell!” Belle butted in, elbowing her way past Sebastien to wrap her arms around Russell. “Dont think you can forget about me!” she laughed, and let an arm languish on his shoulder as she leaned on him. “How is Melanie?”
Russell thought long and hard about this. How was Melanie? He wasn't sure if he had seen her at all. He had seen her body. But residing in that corpse was... well, Lester, for one thing. Lester had escaped the clutches of death to right his wrong, or so he said. But he was sure that there was something else in there. Something dirty, something wrong, something which shouldn't have been there. Had Melanie died when she had landed in that field of blue light? Had something crawled inside her all the way back then? It would make sense, and it would be a fitting end to his life that he had spent all this time chasing a corpse. He thought upstairs, where Melanie, or Lester, sat in wait. The less they saw of her the less he would have to pretend, the less chance they were found out.
Russell decided that Belle didn't need to know any of this. “Fine.” he gruffed. “She's upstairs, sleeping off the walk.”
She held him tight, and squeezed out of her throat, “Oh, Russell! I always knew you had it in you to be a good father, to be a wonderful father! Wasn't that right, Seb? Wasn't I saying just as we were walking around that crater, that Russell obviously loved his kid, didn't I, Seb?” Sebastien nodded solemnly, licked his lips, bowed his head and said “She's right, Russell. You're a...” he struggled for words. Finally, he thrust out his hand, and, eyes blazing, said in hard tones “You're a good father, Russell. I'd be proud to have you as a father.”
you genocidal freak, he thought.
Russell smiled coldly. “Well I'm glad you think so, Seb!” He clapped Sebastien hard on the arm, and laughed inwardly at how Belle was making Sebastien act. Belle grinned and caressed Russell and rested her head on his shoulder like a lover who had been parted. She was far more open and aggressively friendly than she had ever been before in Russells memory. Sebastien glowered as she ran a soft finger up Russells other arm.
Then Russell stood. He had to think of something to keep them occupied, something to keep them busy until he could catch them unawares... Lesters ludicrous plan came to mind. Though he scoffed at the idea of saving the island, as the tide made itself comfortable in the rusting, busted valleys of the island, travelling to the tower was a good idea, because it gave them something to do so they weren't here, where they could reveal accidental secrets. If needs be, Russell thought, the tower was also at the height of a precipice. If he needed to, the tower could make a good murder location and getaway in one.
“I was thinking.” he said. “I was thinking that we need to do something.” Sebastien and Belle both looked at him curiously. “About what?” Sebastien asked. Russell looked towards the distance. “I was thinking... I was thinking we were brought here, I was brought here, we were all brought here, for a reason!” He slammed his fist against the wall. “I kind of... I almost feel responsible, for whats happened, because it was my fault the tower malfunctioned in the first place. I couldn't do it by myself...” he stopped short, and took a deep intake of breath. “But with you here, Sebastien, then we could actually do it!”
Belle looked from Sebastien to Russell confusedly. “Do what?” she asked.
“We can save the island” Russells eyes were ablaze as he twisted round and the sun hit behind him, silhouetting him against the lake. Sunlight hit the water and blazed up around him. “We can strap Melanie into the tower, and hit whatever switch Lester wanted, and we can undo everything! We can make everything alright again!” He turned and grinned at the both of them. “Well? What do you think?”
Sebastiens face slowly split into a wide grin. “I see what you're trying to do, Russell.”
Belle froze.
“I think its a fantastic idea,” he continued, and she relaxed a little. “I mean, its the apocalypse, right? What else can we do but try?”
“Do, or do not. There is no try!” Russell recited, smiling to himself.
“What?” Belle asked him.
For a second, Russell didn't know what to say. Then he remembered that there was no such thing as Star Wars here. “I forget sometimes that there's no such thing as Star Wars here,” he told them.
By the evening they had started walking. It wasn't far to the tower, a days walk at most. Russell didn't have long to come up with a plan. They had been walking together, chatting as they walked up a chain-wreathed hill. When they reached the top Sebastien looked out across the landscape. Rivers criss-crossed the peaks and troughs of the steel, heaving island. He flashed a look at Belle. “Its beautiful,, in a way, don't you think?” he asked. Russell saw that they were busy up on the top and called up to them, “Hey, guys! Melanie needs the toilet, we'll be right back!” Sebastien waved them away down the hill, calling back “Sure, sure, like there's not enough rust!”
“No I don't-” Melanie began, but Russell shut her up. He shoved her to the side, so they couldn't be seen by the two, and squatted down in front of her. “Right. We're going to the tower.”
Melanie smiled. “We are? Oh, brilliant! So we can actually-”
Russell interrupted him. “Yeah, you can take care of the island, you can fix it, thats right.” Melanie grinned. “Thats fantastic!” Russell nodded. “But listen,” he continued, “Thats not important right now. How do we get rid of...” Russell jerked his head out of the grove. “Those two.”
Melanie frowned. “Frankly, Russell, I'm having difficulty remembering why we need to hide everything from them in the first place!” Russell sighed exasperatedly and shoved him. “You gave me good enough reason yourself! If they already want to kill us, everything we say will be counted against us!” He sighed. “I mean, they brought us to this, but they will have convinced themselves that we're liars.”
“And we are!” Melanie hissed.
“Yes, and whose fault was that?” Russell snapped back. “Listen, we just need to catch them off-guard so we can get away from them.” He looked out at where they stood. “I don't want to kill them, even if they want to kill us.”
He looked back at Melanie. “So go on. You got us into this. How do we get rid of them?”
Melanies head was in her hands. “I don't like this, Russell. Sebastiens like my kid, and Belle ain't far off. I can't believe we're in this deep against them.”
Russell smiled. “Wait, though, Lester, its not you, its Melanie, right?”
Melanie slapped his thigh. “Shut up. You know what I mean.”
Russell stood. He looked down at his diminutive daughter, who wasn't any more. He wasn't sure why he was being so cruel to her. Him. Whatever. Lester had spent so long being so much... so much better than him. It seemed fitting that he'd been brought this low, spending his last days like this. And Melanie... well, Melanie. He turned away from his daughter. “C'mon. They'll think we're up to something.”
Belle looked sideways at Sebastien. “You're right, I guess.” They stared out at the valleys without speaking. Sebastien saw the sun tick closer and closer towards the slit in the earth it disappeared into every night. The sun and the moon, each a lamp about the size of a house, span on an axis every day and night. The oldest parts of the island were the clockworks. There was the sun, the moon, and the stars. Many years before, a balloonist had climbed a couple of thousand feet using helium collected from gas mines on the other side of the island. He had flown past the sun, nearly blinded by its brilliance. He had seen the intricate cogs, the spinning wheels, the clinking chains as it rose and sank daily, had seen its brilliance wax and wane. But he climbed higher still, to the stars themselves. They hung in the sky like chandeliers, each star about the size of a man and suspended by chains to a massive spinner. Next time he tried to go higher and drowned in the carbon monoxide choking the winds. Before he died the crackle in the speakers told them that the seas carried on as far he could see, before the crackle in his throat killed him.
“I mean, all the rivers... if they weren't going to kill us,” Sebastien continued, “They'd be kind of beautiful.”
“A bit like Russell, really, and Melanie.” Belle supplied. Sebastien narrowed his eyes at Belle. “How do you mean?”
“Well, they make a good pair, father and daughter, I mean, don't you think?” she asked. She turned to see the two of them trudging back up the hill. “I think they look very cute together. I guess it means that you were wrong about him being a terrible father.”
“I guess it does.” Sebastien replied solemnly. “But theres more important things afoot now than that outburst. Most threateningly – they want to kill us and you're admiring them!” He shoved her. “What gives?”
Belle sighed antsily. “I don't even know!” She watched as Russell picked Melanie up and swung her over his shoulders so she was sitting on his back. They meandered slowly up the hill, Russell leaping over streams pooling in the foot-pounded bronze. “Maybe its just...” she fingered her own belly, running her hand across it.
Sebastien watched her idly a moment, then double-took. “What do you mean, 'maybe its just' like that? Rubbing your belly like that? Are you saying-”
“That I'm pregnant?” She asked him. The wind ripped between them. “I think so.”
Sebastien said nothing. His mind was running like a wild man but his mouth refused to speak. He hung open, looking her up and down. “Are you serious?”
She grinned happily. “Thats right! I'm pretty sure! Theres been morning sickness, and no period to speak of. Its fairly certain!” Sebastien said nothing. “What, aren't you happy for me?”
“Happy?” he shouted, then grabbed her lapel and pulled her in so they touches noses. “Why the hell would I be happy?” he hissed at her, his eyes slits and his nostrils flared. “You're carrying his child?” Belle was surprised, and pushed him away. “Yes! Damnit, I thought you'd be pleased! I'm carrying the future of the island in my womb!”
Sebastien wrapped his forehead in his hands. “What you're carrying is demon spawn! Haven't you seen what his last daughters done? What if your spawn turns out just the same, huh? What if you make another monster!” He kicked the ground. “I don't know how you could have been so stupid!”
“Stupid?! I'll give you-”
“Whats going on?” Russell asked, curiously. He saw Sebastien and Belle lying on the floor, Belle straddling Sebastien with her fist raised, about to throw a punch. Both of them froze as he arrived and made himself known.
“I just heard your wonderful news.” Sebastien grunted, and he pushed Belle off him. He stood, shook Russells confused hand briefly, and muttured “Congratulations on your new baby.” He stalked off across the hill. Belle looked up sheepishly at Russell from the floor, and tried to smile. It didn't work.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Chapter 18: Angel With An Attitude
It was night. Russell and Melanie had taken advantage of the kindness of a solitary old man who had taken them in for the night. His kindly face, battered by wrinkles and the ravages of age, smiled widely as he peered through skin folds at them as they got ready for bed. “Is there anything else you need?” he creaked. Russell smiled warmly at the man. “No, thats all, thankyou!”
The old man eyed Melanie appraisingly. “I still can't believe it!” he muttered. “An actual child! Human! Flesh! Living!” he leant in closer to Melanie, and smiled still wider. “So pure! So unpolluted!” he looked at Russell. “You take care of her, sir. I'll do my best but this child...” he beamed at her. “This child could be the hope of this island!” And with that, the old man bowed deeply at them, wrapped his dressing gown around himself and shuffled off into darkness. Russell was left with his daughter, who yawned and burped loudly.
“Mel-!” he began but she looked sharply at him and he stopped himself, remembering who he was talking to. She arched her eyebrows at him and then when Russell looked downhearted she smiled and walked up to him.
“I know it must be hard, Russell.” she said, placing a comforting hand on his which felt entirely wrong. “I know you were looking for your daughter, and you almost got her. Almost!” She turned away.
“I'm sorry, I really am, but its only temporary, I swear. Soon your daughter will have her body back and everything will be well.” She grinned at him over her shoulder. “You'll be able to go home!” Russell smiled weakly, trying not to imagine returning to his swamp of a house, with its decay and terrible memories. He went to his sleeping bag and tried to curl up in the ragged cloth. It was cold, and he shivered. He could hear the wind whistling through the piping of the house and he felt it in his bones. Soon enough, however, he had dropped off to sleep. After all, the most comfortable bed was the one which took you by surprise – the ones which were so uncomfortable that you thought that you'd never sleep, so when you did it was always without trying and it lasted a long time. He curled foetally and dreamed of the bullet which ran through his wifes guts and imagined how her guts spilled out over him, so he drowned, intestines pressing against his mouth till he could hold his breath no more and they fell into him, gall bladders, pancreas, small intestine, choking.
He awoke to burning stinging his nostrils. He wrinkled his nose, and wondered what was going on. He twisted over, and tried to get back to sleep, but the musk of melt permeated his nostrils and forced his eyes open. They stung with smoke. He twisted over and Melanie was gone. He looked to the left and so was most of the wall. Piping had burst open and the wall was a gaping maw into the village. He stumbled forwards, his eyes burning, tears dribbling down his face, and saw Melanie, smoke curled around her like a snake. It pulsed and pounded around her like a drumbeat made manifest, and it pounced like a panther. The primal smoke ripped into the floor like a giant spike, tearing out massive chunks of flooring and building. The village they had landed in was called Steamham and it lived up to its name, as plumes of steam burned hot out of the ground to join the smoke. Melanie cackled a high, cold cry and threw a hand to a wall of speakers which made up a cliff on the left, and they crackled into life and started chugging rockabilly. Melanie danced and pranced, skanked and shot and the village burned into nothing around her. The music reached a peak and she leapt into a pose in the sky as the ground collapsed at her feet. She landed lightly on the ground next to Russell, who gaped at her. She looked at him sweetly. Her eyes had no pupils.
Then she collapsed.
Russell stared out at what she had done. The water leapt out of the hole in the middle of the village like a geyser, spraying on everything and staining the ground with liquid death. He saw houses collapse and fall into the widening chasm. Melanie slept on.
Sebastien didn't sleep. Him and Belle had found footprints in the rust, occasional misplaced things on the ground, footprints, which led to Steamham. They had him. They knew he was there, somewhere in the distance. Sebastien reached out a hand and crushed the air in front of him. “He's there...” he looked back at Belle, who looked at him quizzically. “He's in Steamham. We can get him before he causes any more harm.” She nodded glumly.
“Whats up with you?” he asked, squatting down next to the sitting Belle. He brought her chin up so he was looking at her properly. “You alright?”
She tugged her face away from him. “Fine.” she muttered.
He kept at it. “C'mon, whats up, are you ok? D'you need anything?”
“I'm fine! Jesus!” she snapped, and stalked away to gloom at a different corner of the valley. She watched a pipe spit steam into the sky and waved her hands through it so it fell apart in the air. When more steam kept on coming out of the pipe she kicked it.
Sebastien looked away, and then back at her. “Shall we? Carry on, I mean?”
She stared through him, and then through the ground to the cogs and gears crunching beneath her feet. “You go ahead, Seb. I'll just be a minute.”
Sebastien looked concernedly at his friend, but thought better of trying to provoke her and went ahead.
Belle looked back the way she had come. She was feeling awful. Morning sickness did that to a person. Her hands ran over her stomach. It had worked – she should be happy, by any measure. She had managed what no woman on the island had managed for over 20 years, and she had propagated the species. Humans would continue on this island... she looked over what she could see of the island. She saw the metal floors rusted, the cliffs split, rivets busted, water dribbling out of the seams. The island was like a too-full water balloon and it was finally choking. This was what she was going to bring her child into. This broken island. This rotting corpse of a hometown was all that was left of where she was brought up. Her hands tightened into fists on her tummy. “No...” she murmured. She couldn't let it happen. She couldn't let her child, her future, die in this wasteland. There was only one solution, and it was a desperate one. It could be seen as, she thought, despicable in some peoples eyes. But her child... her mind and thoughts returned to the embryo squirming into life inside her. She had to do it for her kid, so it could carry on. This was a sinking ship, after all, and women and children had first boarding rights to life-rafts. “Sebastien!” she cried as she stood, her mind made up. “Wait for me, Seb! I'm coming!”
When Melanie awoke, she rubbed her eyes to get the eye bogeys out of the cracks in her eyes. She stretched her arms wide and yawned loudly. She noticed that she was wearing a new dress. She wasn't in her normal bed. She looked out left and saw a couple of rusty (she'd never seen a rusty sleeping bag before) sleeping bags, a brown door hanging off its hinges and a glass, cracked floor. She looked right and saw a landscape of twisted metal and soot-black skies, of chains, pipes, engines, cogs, gears, grinding, churning, clunking, broken, spanners in the works. Rivers wove through the hills of rusting girders and steel floors and... It looked like a robots imagination, she concluded. As she looked harder, she concluded, 'a broken robots imagination.' She heard a scuffle behind her, and turned to see her father – the only thing she recognised in this place. “Daddy!” she beamed and toddled towards him, dress stirring gently in the wind running through the house.
Russell stumbled backwards from where he had lain in stupefied semi-sleep, too terrified to drift off properly and too scared of whatever was in his daughters body to wake her in the night.
“S-stay away from me!” he cried, scuffing his feet on the glass floor as he tried to get away from it. His back hit the wall and he could go no further, so he dragged himself to his feet and put his hands in front of his face, shielding his eyes from whatever was about to happen.
“Daddy?” Melanie queried him. “Daddy, whats wrong?”
“Y-you- what did you do, Mel?” Using the name of his daughter calmed him down a bit. His daughter, that little five year old in front of him, couldn't possibly have... he looked out over the village and shuddered. Never... he looked back at his daughter, bit his lip with worry but decided to go for it anyway. He breathed in deeply, and ran over to give his daughter a hug. He lifted her up and he could feel her little heart pumping through her breast and he closed himself in around her and they were alright again. He couldn't feel the electric twist and snap of her anymore. It was almost like she was back to normal. His eyes closed and he leant close to her, and kissed her on the cheek. “I love you, Melanie,” he whispered soothingly, and ran his hands through her hair. “I won't let anything happen to you.” His voice was slow and melodic and sing-song and Melanie said “Russell, I don't want to spoil the moment...”
Russell snapped back into consciousness.
“But this isn't Melanie.”
Melanie, or, apparently, Lester, was dropped unceremoniously onto the floor.
“Agh!” Russell cried, and scraped his hands across his jeans, like he'd accidentally picked up something slimy. “When did you come back?”
Melanie giggled, and replied “Right about when you told me how 'you won't let anything happen to me',”. Russell felt his cheeks flush scarlet, and Melanie continued sneeringly, “it was very sweet, Russell.”
Russell turned away so Lester couldn't see tears forming at the edges of his vision. “It happened again last night.”
“What happened?” Lester asked quickly. “What?”
“Look outside.”
Lester dropped everything, and stared out the window. “Oh my god!” He ran his hands beseechingly through Melanies hair. “This is-”
“-Horrible!” Sebastien cried. He stood on the edge of the crater, peering in at the massive destruction. He saw corpses, floating putrid in the sooty water, and rust sunk to the bottom. He saw that that was all there was to this place, eventually. He saw blood, running thick, and scarlet pounded at the side of his vision. “They did this! They're going to destroy everything we... everything we hold dear!” he turned to Belle, who looked mortified as bodies skimmed the surface near her feet. The ground melted away beneath her soles and she stumbled back, so as to avoid the same fate. “You're right..” she murmured. “You're right, Seb! They're horrendous!” Her eyes sparkled as she leapt to his side. “If they can do this...”
Sebastien looked troubled. “You're right. If they can do this, I don't think theres a limit to what they can't do.” He licked his lips, slowly, as though savouring the problem before him. “There has to be a way we can get close to them...”
Belle smiled. “They don't know we want to kill them.”
Sebastien stared at her. “Are you suggesting-”
“That we lie?” She asked. Her eyes were dangerous.
Sebastien looked out over the black water, to a precipice of a house on the edge of the destruction. “I suppose...” he said, slowly, “I suppose its justified, isn't it? Its for the greater good, after all.”
“Thats right, Seb, I suppose you are right.” She looked out at the house. “The greater good...”
“We're running low on supplies,” he said. “Shall we check out that house for what we can use?” She smiled at him. “Sebastien, you've changed! Just a couple of days ago you wouldn't have dreamed of robbing!”
His smile disappeared and was replaced with a stony scowl. “Well. Needs must, I suppose, Belle. Times change.”
“Exactly. Now you're thinking a bit more. Shall we?” she asked. He nodded, and so they set off towards the house on the plinth.
“And you're sure of what you saw?” he asked Russell again, pacing back and forth on the glass floor.
“I told you already, of course I'm sure!” Russell snapped back at him. “You were there, in the middle of the village. You were levitating. You were curling the smoke around you. You destroyed the village. Can't you remember?” He rubbed his forehead furiously. “Of course I don't!” They fumed together in silence a moment, wondering what was going on. “Maybe-” Melanie began, but stopped herself. “No, that wouldn't work. Don't worry.” Nothing happened. The wind rattled the pipes beneath them. Russell was drained of thoughts. He had been absolutely exhausted by what had happened so far. He had seen more in the past couple of days than he'd seen in the rest of his life. So much death. So much destruction. This island was dying in every sense of the word, one kilometre at a time. He stared a moment at Melanie. They were helping, in a sense. He needed to work out what to do, what he and Melanie were going to do.
“Lester.” Melanie turned her head, sharply. “What?” she barked. “What are we going to do? You never told me.” Melanie laughed. “Well, isn't it obvious, Russell?”
Russell shook his head. “Maybe I'm just tired,” he said, “but I'm completely lost.”
Melanie grinned. “We're going to do what we brought your daughter here for in the first place.”
Russells mouth dropped a little. “Are you serious?”
“Thats right, Russell.” Melanie leaned forwards. “We're going back to the tower, to do this properly. Theres still a way to save this island.”
Russell laughed, for the first time, he felt, in years. “You still want to save the island?” Melanie was shocked. “Well, of course! You didn't think I'd come this far to-”
“Lester, look outside!” Russell said coldly. “Look at whats left of this place!” By the time we get to the tower, there might be no island left!”
“Don't you dare!” Melanie shouted, advancing on Russell. “Don't you dare tell me what I can and can't do!” She stomped her foot in front of him and the wind roared behind her. “I haven't come this far...” she raised her shoulders higher. “I haven't killed myself...” the wind shrieked around the house, shaking it to its foundations like it was responding to her rage. “To lose to this island! I will beat it! I will win!”
Russell stared, dumbfounded, at his daughter, at Lester. He couldn't think of anything to say. The man's determination was astounding.
He was about to reply – how, he had no idea – when he stopped himself. There were voices below, on the ground floor. Were there survivors of that localised ground torture? He threw up his hand to stop Melanie replying and pointed with his other hand downstairs. “Listen!” he mouthed.
“So we pretend to be friends?” said a voice, reverberating up through the house.
“Thats right!” said another, a female.
“And then what.. so we pretend that we don't mind that they killed Dresden and Lester, and caused that crater, and the flood, and the ironbeaks, and that genocide outside the sphere? We pretend we're cool with all of that?”
“Thats right, Sebastien!”
Russell froze. They couldn't possibly think...
“Belle, I'm not sure I'll be able to do that.”
“You don't have a choice!”
“Of course I do-”
“Listen!” she hissed, “Do you want to kill them or not?”
The silence in the little room at the top of the house was deafening in its intensity.
“Of course!” Sebastien replied angrily, pounding the wall. “Of course I do, its the only thing I can think to do in this apocalypse! I have to appease Lester, and appease myself!”
“Then keep your goddamned head and make-believe like we're all good buddies still, got that?”
“Alright.” Sebastien answered dejectedly after a moment. “Alright.” He paused, then continued. “I still don't like this. I would prefer to kill them outright.”
“No, you idiot!” she answered sharply. “You've seen the power they have! We need to take them by surprise just to have a chance to win!”
“Yeah, you're right.”
Russell stared at Lester. After a moments stunned silence he said quietly, “They want to kill us?”
Melanie seemed to recover quickly. “Of course they do. After what we've done, why wouldn't they? Even if they knew that Lesters still alive, we're still responsible for the ironbeaks, the sphere, the crater outside, and Dresdens death.”
“Thats bad grammer, Lester, you shouldn't refer to yourself in the third person.”
Melanie froze.
“I suppose you're right though. They can blame us for a lot,” Russell continued. “What should we do? How can we make it all right?”
Melanie said nothing for a moment. She seemed to be thinking, hard. Finally, she concluded “We play them at their own game.”
“What?!” Russell cried, startled at his directness.
“We need to get rid of them before they get rid of us. You can't let them know that... that I'm still alive.” She advanced on him. “They'd think you were lying, trying to assuage responsibility for your murder.”
“I didn't-” Russell began hotly.
“Well, you and I know that, but they don't need to! We can't alter their viewpoints too much or else they'll know we know!”
Melanie began pacing. “I'll have to pretend to be Melanie, I think I could do it, none of them have spoken to her before, they don't know how she sounds.” He was about to say something else when he was interrupted by talking outside the door.
“I'll just check for a moment, but you're right, I shouldn't think there was anything her-” Belle opened the door, looking away down the stairs but turned, saw Russell, saw Melanie next to him, and screamed.
The old man eyed Melanie appraisingly. “I still can't believe it!” he muttered. “An actual child! Human! Flesh! Living!” he leant in closer to Melanie, and smiled still wider. “So pure! So unpolluted!” he looked at Russell. “You take care of her, sir. I'll do my best but this child...” he beamed at her. “This child could be the hope of this island!” And with that, the old man bowed deeply at them, wrapped his dressing gown around himself and shuffled off into darkness. Russell was left with his daughter, who yawned and burped loudly.
“Mel-!” he began but she looked sharply at him and he stopped himself, remembering who he was talking to. She arched her eyebrows at him and then when Russell looked downhearted she smiled and walked up to him.
“I know it must be hard, Russell.” she said, placing a comforting hand on his which felt entirely wrong. “I know you were looking for your daughter, and you almost got her. Almost!” She turned away.
“I'm sorry, I really am, but its only temporary, I swear. Soon your daughter will have her body back and everything will be well.” She grinned at him over her shoulder. “You'll be able to go home!” Russell smiled weakly, trying not to imagine returning to his swamp of a house, with its decay and terrible memories. He went to his sleeping bag and tried to curl up in the ragged cloth. It was cold, and he shivered. He could hear the wind whistling through the piping of the house and he felt it in his bones. Soon enough, however, he had dropped off to sleep. After all, the most comfortable bed was the one which took you by surprise – the ones which were so uncomfortable that you thought that you'd never sleep, so when you did it was always without trying and it lasted a long time. He curled foetally and dreamed of the bullet which ran through his wifes guts and imagined how her guts spilled out over him, so he drowned, intestines pressing against his mouth till he could hold his breath no more and they fell into him, gall bladders, pancreas, small intestine, choking.
He awoke to burning stinging his nostrils. He wrinkled his nose, and wondered what was going on. He twisted over, and tried to get back to sleep, but the musk of melt permeated his nostrils and forced his eyes open. They stung with smoke. He twisted over and Melanie was gone. He looked to the left and so was most of the wall. Piping had burst open and the wall was a gaping maw into the village. He stumbled forwards, his eyes burning, tears dribbling down his face, and saw Melanie, smoke curled around her like a snake. It pulsed and pounded around her like a drumbeat made manifest, and it pounced like a panther. The primal smoke ripped into the floor like a giant spike, tearing out massive chunks of flooring and building. The village they had landed in was called Steamham and it lived up to its name, as plumes of steam burned hot out of the ground to join the smoke. Melanie cackled a high, cold cry and threw a hand to a wall of speakers which made up a cliff on the left, and they crackled into life and started chugging rockabilly. Melanie danced and pranced, skanked and shot and the village burned into nothing around her. The music reached a peak and she leapt into a pose in the sky as the ground collapsed at her feet. She landed lightly on the ground next to Russell, who gaped at her. She looked at him sweetly. Her eyes had no pupils.
Then she collapsed.
Russell stared out at what she had done. The water leapt out of the hole in the middle of the village like a geyser, spraying on everything and staining the ground with liquid death. He saw houses collapse and fall into the widening chasm. Melanie slept on.
Sebastien didn't sleep. Him and Belle had found footprints in the rust, occasional misplaced things on the ground, footprints, which led to Steamham. They had him. They knew he was there, somewhere in the distance. Sebastien reached out a hand and crushed the air in front of him. “He's there...” he looked back at Belle, who looked at him quizzically. “He's in Steamham. We can get him before he causes any more harm.” She nodded glumly.
“Whats up with you?” he asked, squatting down next to the sitting Belle. He brought her chin up so he was looking at her properly. “You alright?”
She tugged her face away from him. “Fine.” she muttered.
He kept at it. “C'mon, whats up, are you ok? D'you need anything?”
“I'm fine! Jesus!” she snapped, and stalked away to gloom at a different corner of the valley. She watched a pipe spit steam into the sky and waved her hands through it so it fell apart in the air. When more steam kept on coming out of the pipe she kicked it.
Sebastien looked away, and then back at her. “Shall we? Carry on, I mean?”
She stared through him, and then through the ground to the cogs and gears crunching beneath her feet. “You go ahead, Seb. I'll just be a minute.”
Sebastien looked concernedly at his friend, but thought better of trying to provoke her and went ahead.
Belle looked back the way she had come. She was feeling awful. Morning sickness did that to a person. Her hands ran over her stomach. It had worked – she should be happy, by any measure. She had managed what no woman on the island had managed for over 20 years, and she had propagated the species. Humans would continue on this island... she looked over what she could see of the island. She saw the metal floors rusted, the cliffs split, rivets busted, water dribbling out of the seams. The island was like a too-full water balloon and it was finally choking. This was what she was going to bring her child into. This broken island. This rotting corpse of a hometown was all that was left of where she was brought up. Her hands tightened into fists on her tummy. “No...” she murmured. She couldn't let it happen. She couldn't let her child, her future, die in this wasteland. There was only one solution, and it was a desperate one. It could be seen as, she thought, despicable in some peoples eyes. But her child... her mind and thoughts returned to the embryo squirming into life inside her. She had to do it for her kid, so it could carry on. This was a sinking ship, after all, and women and children had first boarding rights to life-rafts. “Sebastien!” she cried as she stood, her mind made up. “Wait for me, Seb! I'm coming!”
When Melanie awoke, she rubbed her eyes to get the eye bogeys out of the cracks in her eyes. She stretched her arms wide and yawned loudly. She noticed that she was wearing a new dress. She wasn't in her normal bed. She looked out left and saw a couple of rusty (she'd never seen a rusty sleeping bag before) sleeping bags, a brown door hanging off its hinges and a glass, cracked floor. She looked right and saw a landscape of twisted metal and soot-black skies, of chains, pipes, engines, cogs, gears, grinding, churning, clunking, broken, spanners in the works. Rivers wove through the hills of rusting girders and steel floors and... It looked like a robots imagination, she concluded. As she looked harder, she concluded, 'a broken robots imagination.' She heard a scuffle behind her, and turned to see her father – the only thing she recognised in this place. “Daddy!” she beamed and toddled towards him, dress stirring gently in the wind running through the house.
Russell stumbled backwards from where he had lain in stupefied semi-sleep, too terrified to drift off properly and too scared of whatever was in his daughters body to wake her in the night.
“S-stay away from me!” he cried, scuffing his feet on the glass floor as he tried to get away from it. His back hit the wall and he could go no further, so he dragged himself to his feet and put his hands in front of his face, shielding his eyes from whatever was about to happen.
“Daddy?” Melanie queried him. “Daddy, whats wrong?”
“Y-you- what did you do, Mel?” Using the name of his daughter calmed him down a bit. His daughter, that little five year old in front of him, couldn't possibly have... he looked out over the village and shuddered. Never... he looked back at his daughter, bit his lip with worry but decided to go for it anyway. He breathed in deeply, and ran over to give his daughter a hug. He lifted her up and he could feel her little heart pumping through her breast and he closed himself in around her and they were alright again. He couldn't feel the electric twist and snap of her anymore. It was almost like she was back to normal. His eyes closed and he leant close to her, and kissed her on the cheek. “I love you, Melanie,” he whispered soothingly, and ran his hands through her hair. “I won't let anything happen to you.” His voice was slow and melodic and sing-song and Melanie said “Russell, I don't want to spoil the moment...”
Russell snapped back into consciousness.
“But this isn't Melanie.”
Melanie, or, apparently, Lester, was dropped unceremoniously onto the floor.
“Agh!” Russell cried, and scraped his hands across his jeans, like he'd accidentally picked up something slimy. “When did you come back?”
Melanie giggled, and replied “Right about when you told me how 'you won't let anything happen to me',”. Russell felt his cheeks flush scarlet, and Melanie continued sneeringly, “it was very sweet, Russell.”
Russell turned away so Lester couldn't see tears forming at the edges of his vision. “It happened again last night.”
“What happened?” Lester asked quickly. “What?”
“Look outside.”
Lester dropped everything, and stared out the window. “Oh my god!” He ran his hands beseechingly through Melanies hair. “This is-”
“-Horrible!” Sebastien cried. He stood on the edge of the crater, peering in at the massive destruction. He saw corpses, floating putrid in the sooty water, and rust sunk to the bottom. He saw that that was all there was to this place, eventually. He saw blood, running thick, and scarlet pounded at the side of his vision. “They did this! They're going to destroy everything we... everything we hold dear!” he turned to Belle, who looked mortified as bodies skimmed the surface near her feet. The ground melted away beneath her soles and she stumbled back, so as to avoid the same fate. “You're right..” she murmured. “You're right, Seb! They're horrendous!” Her eyes sparkled as she leapt to his side. “If they can do this...”
Sebastien looked troubled. “You're right. If they can do this, I don't think theres a limit to what they can't do.” He licked his lips, slowly, as though savouring the problem before him. “There has to be a way we can get close to them...”
Belle smiled. “They don't know we want to kill them.”
Sebastien stared at her. “Are you suggesting-”
“That we lie?” She asked. Her eyes were dangerous.
Sebastien looked out over the black water, to a precipice of a house on the edge of the destruction. “I suppose...” he said, slowly, “I suppose its justified, isn't it? Its for the greater good, after all.”
“Thats right, Seb, I suppose you are right.” She looked out at the house. “The greater good...”
“We're running low on supplies,” he said. “Shall we check out that house for what we can use?” She smiled at him. “Sebastien, you've changed! Just a couple of days ago you wouldn't have dreamed of robbing!”
His smile disappeared and was replaced with a stony scowl. “Well. Needs must, I suppose, Belle. Times change.”
“Exactly. Now you're thinking a bit more. Shall we?” she asked. He nodded, and so they set off towards the house on the plinth.
“And you're sure of what you saw?” he asked Russell again, pacing back and forth on the glass floor.
“I told you already, of course I'm sure!” Russell snapped back at him. “You were there, in the middle of the village. You were levitating. You were curling the smoke around you. You destroyed the village. Can't you remember?” He rubbed his forehead furiously. “Of course I don't!” They fumed together in silence a moment, wondering what was going on. “Maybe-” Melanie began, but stopped herself. “No, that wouldn't work. Don't worry.” Nothing happened. The wind rattled the pipes beneath them. Russell was drained of thoughts. He had been absolutely exhausted by what had happened so far. He had seen more in the past couple of days than he'd seen in the rest of his life. So much death. So much destruction. This island was dying in every sense of the word, one kilometre at a time. He stared a moment at Melanie. They were helping, in a sense. He needed to work out what to do, what he and Melanie were going to do.
“Lester.” Melanie turned her head, sharply. “What?” she barked. “What are we going to do? You never told me.” Melanie laughed. “Well, isn't it obvious, Russell?”
Russell shook his head. “Maybe I'm just tired,” he said, “but I'm completely lost.”
Melanie grinned. “We're going to do what we brought your daughter here for in the first place.”
Russells mouth dropped a little. “Are you serious?”
“Thats right, Russell.” Melanie leaned forwards. “We're going back to the tower, to do this properly. Theres still a way to save this island.”
Russell laughed, for the first time, he felt, in years. “You still want to save the island?” Melanie was shocked. “Well, of course! You didn't think I'd come this far to-”
“Lester, look outside!” Russell said coldly. “Look at whats left of this place!” By the time we get to the tower, there might be no island left!”
“Don't you dare!” Melanie shouted, advancing on Russell. “Don't you dare tell me what I can and can't do!” She stomped her foot in front of him and the wind roared behind her. “I haven't come this far...” she raised her shoulders higher. “I haven't killed myself...” the wind shrieked around the house, shaking it to its foundations like it was responding to her rage. “To lose to this island! I will beat it! I will win!”
Russell stared, dumbfounded, at his daughter, at Lester. He couldn't think of anything to say. The man's determination was astounding.
He was about to reply – how, he had no idea – when he stopped himself. There were voices below, on the ground floor. Were there survivors of that localised ground torture? He threw up his hand to stop Melanie replying and pointed with his other hand downstairs. “Listen!” he mouthed.
“So we pretend to be friends?” said a voice, reverberating up through the house.
“Thats right!” said another, a female.
“And then what.. so we pretend that we don't mind that they killed Dresden and Lester, and caused that crater, and the flood, and the ironbeaks, and that genocide outside the sphere? We pretend we're cool with all of that?”
“Thats right, Sebastien!”
Russell froze. They couldn't possibly think...
“Belle, I'm not sure I'll be able to do that.”
“You don't have a choice!”
“Of course I do-”
“Listen!” she hissed, “Do you want to kill them or not?”
The silence in the little room at the top of the house was deafening in its intensity.
“Of course!” Sebastien replied angrily, pounding the wall. “Of course I do, its the only thing I can think to do in this apocalypse! I have to appease Lester, and appease myself!”
“Then keep your goddamned head and make-believe like we're all good buddies still, got that?”
“Alright.” Sebastien answered dejectedly after a moment. “Alright.” He paused, then continued. “I still don't like this. I would prefer to kill them outright.”
“No, you idiot!” she answered sharply. “You've seen the power they have! We need to take them by surprise just to have a chance to win!”
“Yeah, you're right.”
Russell stared at Lester. After a moments stunned silence he said quietly, “They want to kill us?”
Melanie seemed to recover quickly. “Of course they do. After what we've done, why wouldn't they? Even if they knew that Lesters still alive, we're still responsible for the ironbeaks, the sphere, the crater outside, and Dresdens death.”
“Thats bad grammer, Lester, you shouldn't refer to yourself in the third person.”
Melanie froze.
“I suppose you're right though. They can blame us for a lot,” Russell continued. “What should we do? How can we make it all right?”
Melanie said nothing for a moment. She seemed to be thinking, hard. Finally, she concluded “We play them at their own game.”
“What?!” Russell cried, startled at his directness.
“We need to get rid of them before they get rid of us. You can't let them know that... that I'm still alive.” She advanced on him. “They'd think you were lying, trying to assuage responsibility for your murder.”
“I didn't-” Russell began hotly.
“Well, you and I know that, but they don't need to! We can't alter their viewpoints too much or else they'll know we know!”
Melanie began pacing. “I'll have to pretend to be Melanie, I think I could do it, none of them have spoken to her before, they don't know how she sounds.” He was about to say something else when he was interrupted by talking outside the door.
“I'll just check for a moment, but you're right, I shouldn't think there was anything her-” Belle opened the door, looking away down the stairs but turned, saw Russell, saw Melanie next to him, and screamed.
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