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.