As before, all praise/blame goes to Marco de la Cruz
<marco@chinook.physics.utoronto.ca>
Don't worry, X-Change Students is alive and well.
HTG
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
The girl slowly rose from the corpse under her, and stepped
back, wiping the gore off her face with her sleeve. Suddenly
two arms surrounded her from behind.
"Nee-san!! Is Nee-san O.K.!? Shumira was *so* scared!"
She turned around and returned sweet little Shumira's hug.
"I'm okay, Shumira," she responded, breaking the embrace
and holding her friend's hands, "just a bit shaken, that's
all."
"But Nee-san, you're hurt!!" Shumira's eyes opened wide, a
look of despair on her face.
The little girl looked down at her body. Her coat and shirt
had been thoroughly shredded by the chains, but the body
underneath had only suffered scratches and some dents. The
bullets, however, had struck her on the side, one at the base
of her neck, the other on the back, and were still incrusted
into her metallic skin. She grabbed one of them with the tip
of her fingers and pulled it out. Fortunately, the S&W had
been a relatively small calibre weapon. She pulled out the
second bullet and casually threw it away.
"Don't worry, Shumira, I'm O.K.," she told the girl,
smiling.
She looked around, at the carnage which surrounded them. Only
the man whose arm she had torn off was still moving, feebly
squirming on the ground, too debilitated to do anything but
weakly moan.
The little girl turned towards her friend, who was looking at
her with admiration and relief.
"Listen to me, Shumira," she said, "all this violence, all
this pain and sorrow... you don't deserve this. There must be
a way... a way for you to live with dignity... to be happy..."
"But Shumira is happy now that Nee-san is with her!"
"I know, I know, but this place, this horrible, monstrous
city... is no place for you. Or me."
Shumira gave her a quizzical look.
"Maybe... maybe the Outlands," the girl looked over
Shumira's shoulder, into the distance, dreamily, "yes, far
away..."
"The ocean!" Shumira exclaimed, exultantly.
"The ocean?"
"You know! Beaches and loooots and looooooots of water,"
she said, extending her arms, "Shumira has seen it in
pictures. It's pretty!"
"And where is this 'ocean'?"
"All around us, Nee-san! We just walk and walk and we find
ocean!"
The girl thought for a moment, looking into the distance, and
then at Shumira.
"Shumira, would you like to go to and see the ocean
with me?"
"Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes!" the girl responded exuberantly.
"Let's get your stuff, then, we leave in the morning!" she
said, giving her a wink.
Shumira clapped her hands and gave her friend a hug. They
picked up the food that had fallen on the ground, and
continued their journey. As they headed towards Shumira's
place the white-haired girl happily hummed along, and the
little girl smiled when she recognized the song.
"You and me we're going nowhere slowly
and we gotta get away from the past
There's nothin' wrong with goin' nowhere baby
but we should be goin' nowhere fast..."
-----
After arriving to the maintenance tunnel where Shumira lived,
both girls began to go through the stuff strewn all over the
small cave. Although they had found a large nylon bag in a
corner, there was actually precious little which had any value
for them to take. The food, of course, some clothes, Shumira's
sewing kit, bits and pieces of junk, and a couple of small
toys. Only two things seemed to actually matter to Shumira,
her brother's picture and the musical box she had given her,
both of which she carefully placed in her pockets.
When they finished rummaging through the rubbish they sat in
the middle of the cave, the semi-empty bag between them.
"This *so* exciting, Nee-san!" Shumira marveled.
The little girl gave her a sad smile. All that Shumira valued
couldn't fill a bag, and even then, most of it was worthless
by any other standard but her own. She looked at herself, torn
clothes falling apart, smudged with blood and dirt, unable to
clean herself up. Shumira wasn't much better off, smelling
like sweat, the filth on her body turning her once shiny white
hair into a dull grey.
Shumira, she knew, would not survive in this place. This was
their only hope.
"Shumira never go on trip before! When do we leave?"
"As soon as we wake up, I guess," answered the girl,
shrugging.
"Sugoi!" replied Shumira, letting out a big yawn.
Using the bag as a pillow both girls laid on the floor,
covering themselves with the best they could with what pieces
of cloth and blanket they didn't pack.
Both fell quickly asleep. Shumira finally managed to have a
quiet rest, as the nightmares that usually terrorized her did
come to haunt her that night. Instead, she dreamt herself
building a sand castle on a beach, next to a wide, intensely
blue ocean. She smiled in her sleep.
The little girl's slumber was, as always, dreamless.
-----
"Infrared indicates one person inside."
"That must be the whore. It's unlikely we'll be able to
get a reading on the girl, but she's in there all right. I can
feel it."
"How shall we proceed? Raid the cave?"
"No, that hole is a deathtrap. We get them out first."
"We still have the two canisters we bought for Wagner's."
"Surround the perimeter. Fire on my order, but don't kill
them. If the girl attacks you aim to incapacitate."
"What about 'her'?"
"Backups"
-----
The cave was silent save for the light snoring on the two
girls. Neither of them had heard the car approaching, or the
quiet footsteps which drew nearer to the entrance of the cave.
"PSHHHFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!"
The little girl immediately woke up, even before the can
bounced against the wall inside the hole. The dark green smoke
immediately began to fill the narrow tunnel, but by then she
had already stopped breathing. The gas stung her eyes, but she
could still see. Shumira, on the other hand, did not possess
such resilience, and began to desperately scream and cry in
terror. The girl's arm shot out and wrapped around Shumira's
waist, easily lifting her off her feet as she jumped out the
cave.
The little girl quickly laid Shumira on the ground, and
immediately stood up, facing her opponents. Almost
instinctively, she instantly analyzed the situation. Six
figures stood forming a semicircle around them. Four of them
where clearly robots or cyborgs, two on each side, red eyes
fixed on her. The other two stood directly in front of her,
although further back. A man and a woman, or at least
disguised as such.
"Neeeee-san! Shumira blind!" cried the small girl at her
side, desperately rubbing her teary eyes.
"Don't worry Shumira," she whispered to her in a calm
voice, never taking her eyes off the figures around her,
"everything will be all right. I promise."
"You better come quietly if you want to keep that
promise," the man said, "or we'll have to resort to something
more drastic than tear gas."
He was at least fifteen metres away. Nobody could have heard
her whispers from that distance.
No human, that is.
"I don't know who you are, or what you want from us,
mister," she shouted, with barely controlled rage, "but you
hurt my friend, and I swear, if you don't leave now, I'll bury
you and your goons right here!"
"My, aren't you an insolent little girl" he calmly
replied, lips forming a twisted smile. "I don't give a damn
about the tart, but if you care at all for her you'd better
shut your mouth and do as I tell you."
"I'm warning you, I..."
"You're warning *me*?!?" He furiously yelled back,
suddenly loosing his temper, "I only need what's in your head,
girl, the rest of you, including your friend, is disposable,
do you understand?"
The girl responded by slightly lowering her gaze, glaring back
Largo. She could actually feel the articulations in her body
tensing, slightly flexing the small metal plates which formed
her exoskeleton, actuators ready to spring into action, the
energy furiously generating within her about to explode. Her
opponents were as yet unaware of this, however, as she stood
facing them with apparent calm save for her hostile stare.
They all remained silent. Everything was quiet save for
Shumira's gentle sobbing. The girl's cold honey eyes seemed
almost as lifeless as the red ones observing her. Each boomer
was almost twice her stature, and weighed at least three times
as much as she did. Protected by a 1.5 centimetre thick
duralumin/supertitanium armour and armed with a 3MW pulse
laser they were once part of an elite attack force created by
Genom. Largo had simply modified their AI somewhat, further
improving the original combat programming and boosting their
performance by another 20%. As Largo's personal guard they
formed a small unit, but one of unprecedented, deadly
efficiency.
She was not going to budge. This standoff couldn't last much
longer.
Largo clinched his right fist.
One of the boomers' mouth began to glow. An instant later, a
bright blue energy bubble formed, discharging a powerful laser
blast against the girl's body.
It was an instant too late.
She spun in the air, heading directly towards the boomer
*besides* the one which had fired. A split second later her
legs locked around its neck in a scissors hold. She twisted
backwards, using the mecha's body as a shield. Its neck ripped
wide open, a powerful gush of hydraulic liquid sprouting from
the severed joint.
As the robot staggered forwards, she threw the mecha's head at
the boomer who had fired, and used the decapitated boomer's
back as a springboard, violently pushing it against the other
two mecha. She hurled herself against the boomer who had first
attacked, which had stupidly smashed away the incoming
projectile with a swing of its arm, leaving its guard wide
open. Suddenly, a brutal barrage of Chi-enhanced blows send it
reeling backwards. The little girl's arms became a blur as
they violently smashed against its body, machine-gunning her
fists onto the metallic skin which began to dent and crack
under the savage, unrelenting assault. The boomer tried to
fight back, but the girl easily diverted or evaded its blows,
retaliating with an overwhelming flurry of punches and
kicks. The mecha soon discovered that its primitive combat
tactics were of little value against someone who could counter
its simple fighting style.
The girl suddenly noticed a blue glow reflecting off the
boomer's body.
She jumped up and backwards as the two laser beams blasted
through the dazed mecha. The two boomers behind her had ripped
apart their headless teammate in order to clear their line of
fire, shooting while she had her back to them.
She spun in the air, increasing her velocity of rotation by
tightly holding her arms together. It had taken her almost
five seconds to destroy the first two boomers.
She had to hurry.
She landed between the robots, momentarily disconcerting them
both. With her remaining angular momentum she swiftly twisted
around, her arm exploding in flames as it made contact with
the boomer on her right. The plasma jet instantly cut through
its armour, almost splitting its body in two at the waist. Her
hand then shot upwards towards the other boomer's face. The
heel of her palm instantly smashed the laser in its mouth,
sending the small steel-reinforced beryllium tube into its
skull, her index and middle fingers clawing its red eyes out
of their sockets. Firmly clinching the mecha's face, she
pulled herself up and gave the other boomer a powerful kick in
the head, its body splitting in two. She fiercely clung to the
mecha's skull as it tried to entrap her in a bear hug. Before
it could wrap its powerful arms around her delicate frame,
however, she placed her feet against its wrists, preventing it
from closing the embrace. Using her whole body as a pivot, she
pulled backwards.
The manoeuvre broke both the boomer's arms, ripped off its
face, and violently send it hurling forwards, spinning in the
air. Its body smashed against the black limousine behind them,
wrecking the armoured vehicle. A moment later the girl
suddenly opened her eyes wide when she realized her
mistake. The robot's exposed cables had made contact with the
chassis, the spark instantly travelling through the frame and
into the fuel tank. The powerful explosion shook the ground, a
brilliant ball of fire which illuminated the night skies.
The shock wave immediately hit her with full force, sending
her staggering backwards, blinded by the intense flame and
heat. Still dazed by the blast, she sensed someone closing up
from behind. She spun around, trying to regain her balance. A
figure stood in front of her. A female figure.
"Shumira?"
The brutal blow caught her directly on the temple, shattering
her skull. The metallic cavity which formed the orbit of her
left eye collapsed, squashing the eyeball, which bursted under
the intense pressure.
The girl was, for an instant, literally blinded with pain,
until a fraction of a second later the cyberneural interface
blocked all stimuli transmission above a certain threshold.
A kick to her side almost smashed her ribcage inwards, but the
girl's body had already gone limp, so that it rolled with the
blow, sending her flying through the air. She fell heavily to
the ground, vomiting a gush of a dark brown, slightly oily
substance.
Her attacker was relentless, as she quickly approached her,
readying a potent kick to the little girl's body. This time,
however, the girl was prepared, and grabbed her opponent's
foot before it managed to make contact. Using the woman's
momentum she thrusted her leg upwards, sending her spinning
backwards. She performed a somersault and fell upright, but
not before the girl stood up and regained her footing.
The woman swiftly advanced again, her gaze a blank stare which
made her look all the more menacing. The girl immediately
counterattacked, her fist lashing out against her face. With
inhuman reflexes the woman evaded the punch, getting down on
all fours. Her leg suddenly whipped towards the little girl's
face, but she managed to divert the kick with a quick blow to
the shin. The girl jumped as the woman then tried to buckle
her knees with a sweep of her other leg. She landed and gave
her a kick on the neck with more than enough force to
decapitate any normal human being.
The woman rolled on the ground, holding her head with both her
hands. To the little girl's amazement, she quickly got up
again. A thin slab of bloodied flesh hung loosely from the
side of her neck. Underneath, the unmistakable glitter of
metal could be seen.
The m-66 once again advanced towards her, determined to finish
off its enemy. The girl prepared her defense.
The fight suddenly became a furious exchange of lightning-fast
blows and kicks, attacks and counter-attacks. The girl's
technique was obviously superior, landing most of her punches
while avoiding the mecha's vicious onslaught. The m-66 was by
now covered with blood and torn flesh. In spite of this, the
girl found herself retreating from the mecha's assault, pushed
back by her enemy's apparent immunity to even her most
powerful battering. A short jab to the girl's blind side
caught her by surprise, smashing four of her teeth.
The girl growled in fury.
Enough.
She caught the m-66's ankle in mid-air as it attempted a
roundhouse kick to her side, her hand a small star enveloped
in a white-hot cloud of superheated plasma, instantly severing
the foot. The m-66 suddenly found itself unable to maintain
its balance.
She commenced her brutal, systematic attack, repeatedly
pounding her fists against the robot's body, melting the
armour with the intense heat emanating from her right hand,
destroying the weakened armour with her left, she hit it
again.
And again.
And again.
The m-66 staggered backwards, out of control, small chunks of
flesh and twisted pieces of torn, half-melted metal flying
through the air.
Suddenly, their eyes met, and the girl stopped.
A bloody tear slowly fell down one of the woman's torn and
broken cheeks.
For a fleeting instant, she saw the fear and pain behind those
eyes, she saw the tremendous sadness and desperation, the
desolation and heartache of a life destroyed.
She saw herself.
The girl swiftly smashed the heel of her hand against the
woman's forehead, sending a powerful shockwave through her
skull, completely destroying the last remnants of her
fractured mind.
-----
"I must say, I'm impressed."
The girl slowly turned around.
A few metres away stood Largo, looking intently at the girl,
ready to act at the slightest provocation. Between his arms
Shumira's small body squirmed under the pressure of the
powerful grip with which he held her by the arm and
throat. She painfully sobbed and choked as he tightened his
hold.
"I will not waste any more time with these games. You are
one deadly little viper, aren't you?" he gave the girl a
twisted smile, although it quickly faded as he flinched in
pain, the pressure inside his head increasing under the
stress.
"Well, it really doesn't matter," he continued, trying to
ignore the intense neuralgia. "That little explosion of yours
is bound to attract unwanted company, sooner or later, so I'll
make this quick. You and your friend here are coming with
me. You give me any problems and she dies, understood?"
The girl's gaze slowly shifted towards Shumira. She looked
back at her, an expression of terror carved on her face. The
girl gave her a small, reassuring smile.
Her features hardened as she faced Largo and silently nodded.
"How touching. I'm afraid, however, that for some reason I
just don't believe you. I think that you'll take the first
opportunity you get to ram that nasty blowtorch you have there
down my throat. So, do me and your friend a little favour."
"Break your right arm."
The girl glared back at him, her mutilated stare piercing
through his eyes. Shumira began to sob uncontrollably.
"Nooooo!!! Nee-saaaaan!!! Pleeeeease nooooo!!!"
She squealed in pain as Largo began to twist her delicate arm,
his fingers digging deep into her flesh.
"Your arm or hers. Your choice."
Slowly the girl placed her right arm behind her back, tightly
holding the wrist with her left hand. With one powerful jerk
both her elbow and shoulder cracked, the exquisite
articulations twisting and yielding under the strain.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Shumira screamed, a long, painful howl of utter despair which
startled Largo, who, for an instant, look took his eyes off
the little girl.
In one blinding move her left hand grabbed the knife behind
her, still hidden under her right sleeve, and hurled it
towards Largo's forehead.
Before he could react the blade struck.
And missed.
The knife embedded itself deep into his shoulder, mere
centimetres from Shumira's head. The white-haired girl,
however, didn't notice, as she furiously struggled to break
free. A gush of black, oily fluid erupted from the wound, and
Largo could feel the hydraulic pressure quickly dropping in
the arm surrounding the girl's neck.
The slippery liquid sprayed both Shumira and Largo, and with
one last powerful tug the girl was finally able to release
herself from his grip. She staggered, reeling away from her
captor, free at last. Suddenly, the back of her foot hit a
rock, and she tripped backwards, directly on top of the
twisted remains of one of the boomers.
As she fell her head struck a deformed, chisel-like piece of
metal which protruded from the torn carcass. A dull, sickening
crack shot through the air as the back of her head smashed
against the jagged edge.
Shumira died instantly.
Everything became silent. The girl's gaze remained fixed on
Shumira's inert body. Largo too remained immobile, his stare
intent on the girl. He could hear the faint noise of a
faraway helicopter approaching, either the ADP, or, worse,
Genom. His mind was racing. For an instant he thought he might
yet be able to defeat the girl. The injury to his arm was
minor, his offensive systems remained intact.
He prepared to advance. The girl stood still. He
froze. Something in the back of his mind had made him stop. He
looked at the mechanical corpses around him. It was a
trap. This monstrous thing was waiting for him, sensing his
intentions, ready to kill him at the slightest provocation.
He slowly began to back up. She had sustained very heavy
damage, perhaps irreparable. Her condition would only
worsen. He could still return to his hideout and prepare a new
hunt. If Genom found her, however...
Suddenly he felt himself falter as the numbing pain which
continuously assaulted his mind unexpectedly exploded within
his head. Tightly holding his skull between his hands he
staggered backwards. The girl simply stood in silence, never
taking her eye of the corpse in front of her.
He gave the girl one last glance, silently cursing her,
overwhelmed with hatred and pain. He then turned around and
swiftly disappeared into the night.
The girl ignored him completely.
-----
The little girl calmly approached her friend and slowly knelt
next to her. She tenderly stroked her head and cheeks,
clearing the long white hairs from her face and closing her
large, beautiful blue eyes. She looked at her hand and noticed
it was tinged with the girl's blood. Very gently, she lifted
her finger to her face and with great delicacy traced a bright
red streak under each eye. Tear-like drops of blood trickled
down her cheeks as she bent over and gave Shumira one last
kiss on the forehead.
She could hear a helicopter a couple of kilometres away,
closing in.
She stood up, her tattered clothes stained with blood, gore
and oil, the stench of death emanating from her body, right
arm destroyed, dripping a dark brown fluid not unlike the
liquid flowing from her crushed eye and mouth. She faced
towards where Largo had fled. Slowly, she began to walk,
gradually increasing her pace, legs soon moving swiftly,
faster and faster, until they became a blur, her sleek body
cutting through the air like a knife, relentless, always
accelerating, always faster.
-----
The wind shrieked in pain, bright red ground streaking under
her feet, crimson mountains around her, bleeding skies
above. Deep within her heart agony, rage and despair consumed
her, the screams in her head, over and over again, louder with
every passing moment. And yet through this demented maelstrom
her mind kept pushing her body, instantly compensating for her
loss of balance, always focused on the minute trail of black
fluid on the ground, crippled vision notwithstanding.
The chaos of the senses.
The all-consuming fury.
The screams in her mind.
And death, once again, dashed alongside her.
-----
He knew the girl was after him.
He could sense it.
Largo quickly ran over the ruined city wasteland. The knife
she had thrown at him was still embedded deep inside his
shoulder, which now glistered from the oily fluid he bled. The
"nerves" in his arm had already blocked all pain receptors in
that region, but he didn't remove the blade since it would
only worsen the leakage.
The helicopter had quickly passed not far away from his
location. It was indeed a Genom aircraft, but they hadn't
spotted him. ADP police sirens howled in the distance.
He suddenly stopped besides the ruins of a small church.
A high-pitched noise shrilled behind him, rapidly increasing
in volume.
Largo spun around. Less than a two hundred metres away the
girl was racing towards him at an incredible speed. He
instantly readied himself, clinching his fists, rerouting all
available power to his muscles' servomotors, full combat
mode. Killing her would seal his fate, but it no longer
mattered. He was surprised to realize he really didn't care
about anything any longer. His lust for life and power were of
little importance now. For the first time everything was clear
and simple. Kill or be killed. No scheming, no intricate plans
or conspiracies. A fulminating blast, followed by a single
blow to her head, directly into her crushed eye, was all it
would take. He would then rip her brains out and destroy them
as surely as he would be destroying himself.
The pain in his head actually eased. He grinned at the irony.
Sixty metres from where he stood the girl suddenly jumped,
head first. He blasted her with the powerful electromagnetic
repulsor built into his body. The invisible shock wave smashed
into her needle-like body, which now whirled like a leaf,
furiously spinning out of control.
At 300 metres per second she desperately twisted her small
frame in mid-air, but the loss of her arm and vision made it
impossible to regain control. She had lost all sense of
direction. In a fraction of a second she would violently crash
against the ground. Panic swelled within her as she began to
scream.
And then everything froze.
And she remembered.
And she knew.
At last.
Yoko.
She slowly extended her arm, her hand almost caressing the
hard surface just below her. Gently pressing the tip of her
fingers against the ground, she pushed with all the strength
she was capable of.
And suddenly time caught up with itself.
Even with his enhanced psyche Largo was barely capable of
understanding what had happened. He somehow managed to realize
that the girl had performed an impossible manoeuvre, when her
feet smashed against his body at Mach 1. The terrifying blow
ripped through his abdomen, metal against metal, shredding it
apart, an infernal clash which exploded in a firework of
sparks and hydraulic fluid.
Largo twisted like a broken doll, torso almost split in two,
gushes of dark liquid sprouting from the shattered
bodyarmour. He was projected backwards, knocked off his feet,
out of control, quickly loosing power, actually feeling the
energy draining from his system as the delicate circuits and
servomotors within him short-circuited and ceased to
function. The neural network which laced the insides of his
body automatically shut down, severing all connections between
his mind and the robotics in an attempt to prevent the ensuing
electrical feedback into his brain. Largo's existence became
silent and pitch dark when he lost contact with the external
world.
Time had lost its meaning. He was in a static limbo, a void of
light, sound and sensation. Nothingness. The brain itself is
insensible to external stimuli. For the first time in many
years he was at peace, alone in his oblivion. Even the
continuous torment in which he had been living had ceased.
He felt... safe.
Suddenly, a searing white flash of agonizing pain shattered
his very soul.
Everything that Largo knew or felt, every single thought and
memory he ever possessed was utterly vanquished, replaced by
an indescribable torment, an all-consuming fire which
cauterized every passage within his brain, an explosion of
pain so excruciatingly powerful that it tore and ravished
through his very notion of reality.
Largo went mad with pain.
Even if he had been able to see what was happening, it is
unlikely that the agony which flooded his senses would have
allowed him understand what was being done to him.
The girl was now standing above his shattered body. His torso
had been cracked open like a shell, the artificial spinal
column ripped out of his back. A myriad of cables hung between
the metallic carcass and the snake-like spine the girl held
tightly in her hand.
It was most brutally efficient torture conceivable, a
continuous electro-shock straight through the neural interface
which connected every single nerve between his brain and the
rest of his body. Every possible receptor was excited by a
current a thousand times larger than any natural sensation was
capable of. The built-in microfuses had been immediately
destroyed by the intense discharge which jumped over the
synapses. The agony was beyond imagination, greater than any
human being had ever felt. Largo was experiencing the ultimate
Hell.
She continued the electro-torture for a long time, a blank
expression on her face. The sweet smell of ozone filled the
air. Unbeknownst to her, Largo had already ceased to
exist. Although the pain still ravaged through the deepest
confines of his mind, the extensive brain damage produced by
the massive overload would leave him a comatose vegetable for
the rest of his life.
The girl, however, had other plans.
In one final pulse she raised the power a million-fold. Her
arm blazed like a star, tongues of ionic plasma cutting
through the air, a lightning blast of electricity flowing
directly into his brain. The cables quickly melted, but not
before transmitting the infernal discharge into Largo's
agonizing mind. The synapses in his brain burned away, the
neurons literally burst apart. In an orgasm of pure,
unadulterated pain, the artificial cerebrospinal fluid
instantly vaporized, destroying everything within his skull,
causing his cranium to violently explode.
The blaze extinguished and she let go of the charred remains
in her hand, silently contemplating the metallic carcass at
her feet.
Small drops began to splash against the torn body with little
thumps as it started to rain.
A couple of minutes later she turned around and aimlessly
walked away. After a few steps, however, she fell to her
knees.
She crouched until her forehead touched the ground, and
bitterly began to weep.
-----
The small girl lay in the alley, her back against the cracked
brick wall of an abandoned warehouse. Legs spread out, she was
covered with garbage and newspapers. The tattered clothes she
wore were filthy and stained with dark smudges of oil and dry
blood. The girl did not move. She did not eat nor sleep. She
was not dead, but she wasn't alive either. In the shadows of
the abandoned buildings, engulfed by darkness during the
night, she existed, and time itself seemed to ignore her
presence. A child's favourite ragdoll, thrown away and soon
forgotten. A broken angel whose memory haunted no one but
herself.
*
The alley was dark and silent except for the monotonous
splashing of raindrops against the ground. Black clouds
covered the skies, the moon was nowhere to be seen.
A faint, rhythmic noise began to echo throughout the walls of
the abandoned streets, getting louder as its source approached
the entrance of the narrow passageway.
Footsteps.
A few moments later a figure appeared at the mouth of the
alley, a dark silhouette against a failing lamp on the other
side of the street.
He turned on his flashlight, and peered into the street,
swinging the bright beam from side to side. The spot of light
suddenly illuminated a small figure which lay against one of
the cracked brick walls. A broken mannequin, carelessly thrown
away on the street.
As he approached it the smell of putrid flesh stung his
nostrils.
He didn't even need to look at the crumpled computer printout
in his pocket.
It was her.
He knelt in front of the little girl, gently moving aside the
black strands of wet hair which covered her dirty,
blood-stained face. He winced when he saw her crushed socket
and mouth, her remaining eye blankly staring into
nothingness. As he tenderly stroked her cracked cheek he
looked down the girl's body. Her filthy clothes were tattered
and torn, the metallic body underneath scratched and
dented. He frowned upon seeing the mangled remains of her
right arm hanging limply by her side.
"You poor little girl," he whispered, "I am so sorry."
He gave her a small smile.
"Don't worry now," he told her, "I promise you, I will
make you just as beautiful as you were before, you'll see."
The girl remained immobile, her unblinking eye showing no
trace of emotion or understanding whatsoever.
"Wait a minute, I've got a present for you."
The man began fumbling his clothes, until he suddenly found
what he was looking for in the deep pocket of his overcoat. He
pulled out a little box and showed to the unseeing girl.
"Even at the antiques shop, I couldn't find one of those
fully mechanical ones, but the only difference is the battery,
and I guess it's the music that counts. You like music, don't
you, little girl?"
He pressed a small button on the side of the musical box, and
a sweet melody floated through the air.
"Do you like it?" he asked. "Imagine that! Trying to wake
somebody up with Brahms. Just comes to show you how big a
genius I turned out to be!"
He looked at her. She remained motionless.
"Please, little girl, wake up."
He moved the box closer, until it was touching her chest at
the base of her neck. The sound was suddenly magnified by her
whole body, which acted as an amplifier.
The girl blinked.
Slowly placing her hand on top of his, she pressed the little
box against herself, her ruined lips forming a weak smile.
The man smiled back, quickly wiping a raindrop that had fallen
into his eye.
THE END (for now)