Steaming

Chapter One (Part 3)

Part 🕒

Sounds of gears and music surround my delirious state. The grainy sound of the notes tells me it's a gramophone. Just like my mothers old one...

Something cool covers my forehead, my eyes snap open to see a hand less than an inch away from my face.

I stare at it for a few minutes. The odd thing about it, is the fingers are long, but the skin is worn. Young, yet hard working. It's even more peculiar that they're clean... hands that aren't black from all the oil and coal. I can not remember ever seeing such clean hands before.

"Well, hello there," a deep voice pairs up with the hands. "You've been asleep for quite some time now."

The hand is removed from my view to reveal the extraordinary site.

A sharp jawline, dark brown hair, and magnified blue eyes. The young man takes off his glasses, only to show that his eyes were normal. I peered over at him, sitting next to me. He's clean. Truly, he's clean. The man smiles for a second, and flashes me with bright white teeth.

A voluminous ring barges throughout the room, waking me up fully. I sit up and look around. Gears. Books. Papers. Boxes. Pens. Drawings. Mechanical parts. Glass. Records. All of it was shining brightly in brilliant gold. It looked like something my mother would tell me about as a child.

I glance back at the young man, now wearing his glasses again. Our stares catch and stay for a few moments.

"Do you have a name?" He asks me quietly.

My mouth opens to speak, yet nothing comes out of all of my coughing. His hand is right in front of my face again, but with a glass of water. I sip it. It's pure... I've only had pure water twice in my life...

A few more coughs and sputters until I can finally get out: "Where am I?"

"Water Clock." He replies, still holding the water. It's rimmed with bronze.

Water Clock. I'm in Water Clock. I made it.