Colors and Clockwork

Chapter 3

Five dances later, I notice the owner pull back the curtains. The sun is lighting the whole living room up, streaming in through the windows and making everything look a lighter shade of grey. I sit behind the wall by the doors that lead out onto the balcony. I'm not supposed to be up here until it's time to dance, but I couldn't care less. There's a tree by the window whose leaves cast a shadow on the wall in front of me. I watch the shadow leaves sway to the wind. Too bad there's nobody else here to see them. Is this what I am? I dance for the owner to see, but half of the time he's in another room! Am I really just a shadow? It's not like anyone else notices me, either. Why was I made this way? Am I just an experiment gone wrong? Could I be fixed? I would be doing all of us a favor.

Determination flows through my body as I get up. Why should I be limited to this place? I bet everyone else would like me to leave, anyway. After making sure the coast is clear, I hop down the gears. The clock hands are protected by a layer of gears in front of it. No one has tried to fit through them before. I get on my hands and knees and start inching forward. A smaller gear scratches against my head and I wince. That's going to leave a mark on my yellow paint. My head is pounding and the adrenaline is pushing me forward.

"Blue!"

I spin around and see Green waving at me frantically. "What the heck do you think you're doing?"

"What I should've done a long time ago." I reach my hand through the gears and nudge the bigger hand. It moves slightly, but it's definitely not enough to be brought to the Fixer.

"Blue!"

I ignore her and keep pushing, but the gear is getting dangerously close to my hand.

"Stop!"

There's no way for me to move the big hand enough to draw attention. I have to change the small one. Barely able to see it from behind the gears, I scooch to the left to find a gap. This is going to be interesting.

"Blue! Get down here right now!"

That wasn't Green's voice. I spin around. Bird is yelling at me from the ground. She can't risk flying with all of these gears everywhere. Everyone else is down there, too. Green looks up at me. Of course Green would tell Bird. I guess she doesn't know me as well as I thought. I break eye contact and continue looking for holes.

"I won't tolerate this reckless behavior! What's has gotten into you?" Bird is freaking out. It would actually be pretty funny if I wasn't in this situation.

I smile wistfully at her. Reckless. I like that. It makes me sound brave, important. What has gotten into me? she asks. As if I wasn't like this already. Funny how people don't take the time to get to know you until you do something dramatic. I reach my hand through a small gap between the two biggest gears. There's barely enough space for me to My hand could get crushed if I'm not careful. I feel my fingertips brush against the small hand and start to push on it as hard as I can. The gear is getting close again.

"Blue!"

The sudden sound makes me shift my arm, and the gear scrapes against my palm with an ugly grinding noise. I scream and a string of profanity starts gushing out of my mouth.

"You're putting us all in danger, Blue! Come down and we can talk about it!"

I pull my numb arm back and examine the damage. Talk about it? Bird thinks that everything can be solved just be talking about it? Ha. As if anything was that easy. A good-sized gash reaches diagonally from my index finger to my wrist, but everything still works fine. I turn my wrist to make sure.

"Blue!"

This time the voice is closer, and it's not Green's or Bird's. I glance down and see Red climbing up to me. No. Nononono... I have to do this now.

"Blueifyougetuskilled..."

My ears pick up heavy footsteps. The owner is in the living room. I'm not paying Red any attention anymore. I stick my arm into the gap again and shove the small hand as hard as I can. The high-pitched sound is deafening. The footsteps stop. Red shoots me a deadly glare. Then the chaos subsides and everything is silent.