City of Light

Chapter 5

"Let her go!" My lungs put all the got into my voice. It looks at me, Tick. Tick. Tick. It's neck moves, reminds me of a broken doll.

"Drop it! Please! It will kill you too!" Mercy chokes on her words. I drop the knife and hold my hands up.

"Now let her go. Please. She is all I got..." My eyes tear up, no change in its behavior, yet. Whats it waiting for? I look at Mercy, what set it off?

"Mercy, let go of the knife." I look at her. She's not happy.

"You kidding?!" She painfully yelps.

"Let go of it! Now Mercy." Her hand shakes, after a while her hands fall open. The protector grabs it and folds the blade over and over again, it's a cube now, useless.  

It undoes it's hold, Mercy coughs and holds her neck. It stands up and looks at me, Mercy runs to my arms and I hold her lightly so I don't compress her chest. Suddenly it looks out the bedroom window, everything goes quiet. The hum of its engine, the rhythmic turning of the gears scares me. With a blink of an eye it freaks out, sparks fly around the room.  It's lights blink red, and screeching deafens me and Mercy. It collapses to the floor and it goes limp, no more sparks or noise, just silence. Not even a hum. It's eyes softly and slowly blink red, hazard lights? It's not dead, I have never seen that happen before.  

"What the- I- Is it..." Mercy can't find words neither can I. I release her, and take my knife from the floor and slowly approach. I poke it and my finger burns. It's burning hot, I rip my finger away and rub it. 

"Your sleeping by the fire tonight." I tell her. She looks at me in shock.

"No way-" I cut her off and explain my self.

"It's not safe for you to be near it, I will sleep in here tonight to make sure it doesn't go anywhere." I walk over to the small single bed under the window and place my knife under the pillow.

"I don't trust it, but you always know what best..." She sighs and walks out and closes the door behind her. It's just the two of us, I can't believe it.

That night I didn't sleep a wink, tossed and turned the constant feeling something was behind me. My demons, my dark passenger, my sins? No. I left that behind a long time ago. When the world went black I heard something, I turned on my lantern and looked at it. It was de-pressurizing. It went on all night and stopped when a little beam of light peeked through the sky, to my cloudy mirror. I got up that morning and checked on it. It is slowly dripping water from its face plate. Very little came out but it was still odd, I thought it de-pressurized. 

After about a week or so, it still never moved, nothing changed. I straightened its legs and its arms at its sides. Its body was freezing cold, and we ended up putting a smaller fire in the bedroom. Mercy still sleeps in the other room. I stayed in all week and never took eyes off it, we have food to feed dozens but are rationing just in case. I kind of want it to wake up. One day I grabbed white paint from the scrap shelve in the closet and I carefully and intently traced over what remains on the previous message that was there. I only got a few lines that none of them connected. Still a mystery.

I waited and waited for so long for it to awake, the endless nightmares, the dreams, that feeling I have. I want this all to stop, I want it all to fade away, I wish everything was the way it was meant to be.

Wake the hell up you piece of metal, you're not finished yet.