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give me only at night. I'd ask him later why he decided to give it to me at this time, for now I just extended my arm and let him

inject me.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," he said grabbing the rifle he had leaned next to my chair and disappeared out into the snow

covered wonderland outside.

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Glancing out the window I could feel my body wanting to rest.

I was becoming tired very quickly and couldn't understand why. I

fought to keep my eyes opened, but that fight didn't last very long.

Before I knew it my eyes had closed.

When I came out of my resting phase the sun was staring to

go down over the horizon and I could hear Edison working on

something outside. I sat there for a moment feeling myself

becoming fully restored.

I heard something being dragged around the side of the house

Edison grunting as he dropped something. I heard the front door

open and watched him step in and place a large

canvas bag down, setting the rifle down by the door. He

pulled his cap off and tossed it on one of the counters and

removed his coat which he hung on a hook on the wall. Leaving

whatever he was dragging in the bag by the door he walked over

to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water and drank it in almost one gulp.

He glanced over at me and I closed my eyes slightly so that he

didn't know I was awake yet. I wanted to see what was in that bag

and I had a feeling he wouldn't produce it if he knew I was

watching him. Edison took a deep breath and went over to the bag

which he slung over his shoulder and disappeared into his room

with. After a few moments, I heard him emerge from his room,

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locking the door firmly behind him, and disappearing into the

washroom. I waited until I heard the sound of the water pouring

out of the metal spout he called a shower, before I got up and

walked over to the window. I craned my head out to look and

could see a big pool of scarlet against the pure white snow.

It was obvious he had slaughtered something. Instinctively, I

climbed out of the window and lowered myself as gently as I

could with one working hand. I walked a few feet to the puddle

and reached down my fingers to graze it. It was cold now because

of the snow, but I lifted it to my nose and smelled iron. I stared at my scarlet stained fingertips and wondered where I had smelled

that before.

The night that London had torn her fingernails from their beds,

I had smelled the iron strongly. This was blood I smelled.

The water in the washroom stopped. I couldn't hear it

anymore, but for how long it was stopped I wasn't quite sure.

Frantically, I ran back to the window and hoisted myself up with

one arm and dove for the chair hoping I had beat Edison out of

the room.

"That was a hell of a jump."

I jumped and looked up behind me. Edison was standing there

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looking at me with a carefully blank expression on his face. I

guess I wasn't as fast as I hoped I could be.

"I saw the blood outside," I mumbled looking down at my

shredded hand.

"It's okay. Curiosity doesn't hurt," he said. "I'll fix your hand after I've eaten. I'm a little tired and hungry right, but I promise to do it right after."

"What's that like?" I asked looking back up at him.

"What?" he asked coming around the chair and heading into the food preparation area.

"Hunger."

Leaning back against the counter he looked at me, "I’m not

really sure how to explain it. The body, the human body, needs

food to survive. Hunger makes you tired, weak, malnourished if

not taken care of, and in a lot of cases pretty angry," he explained with a chuckle. "Does anything make you feel like that?"

I took in genuine look of curiosity on his face, wondering how

I could answer this.

"Sometimes."

Shrugging he turned his back to me and started to prepare his

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meal. I heard the sounds of popping as he tossed some sort of

animal meat into the pan he was using and soon the entire cabin

was full of wondrous aromas. I wondered what it would feel like

to eat, but I was always afraid that I would ruin myself on the

inside. If I never felt hunger, then putting human food in my body was probably not a good idea. Leaning around the wall, I watched

him take small bottles of various spices and add them to the meat

as he would flip it every so often.

"How do you know when it's ready?" I asked stepping closer.

"Color, texture; depending on how well you want it cooked

that is," he said turning the flames down on the stove. I watched him take a fork and spear the meat, putting it on a round white

plate and walking over to a small table set up near the windows.

"Sit with me Caelum."

I did as I was asked and watched him eat as we sat in silence

for a few moments. Edison would glance out the window a few

times, almost as if he were expecting someone or something, and

then go back to his meal.

"I don't think we have much to worry about when it comes to

your strength," he said conversationally, "I just think that maybe we should work on your sense of how to do things. I know you're

strong; I saw it all over your body the night I undressed you and

placed you back into your cot, I just wanted to see how strong

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you could really be. Now that I know that we can move on. I want

to work your thought process; how you evaluate situations. I want

to understand how you view things so that I can better understand

you and know how best to help you."

I looked at him. I didn't know how to tell him that I still

wasn't sure if the thoughts I was having were mine or borrowed.

How would he be able to help me when I still couldn't tell the

difference myself?

"Edison, I don't know if you can help me like that."

"We won't know for sure unless you let me try, right?" he asked glancing up at me for the first time since he sat down.

I just looked out the window. No matter what I said to him he

was bound and determined to help me. If only he knew what kind

of monster I was up against, I don't think he'd be so quick to help.

If London ever knew of him and what he was doing with me,

she'd kill him for sure.

"Edison --"

"You can't change my mind Caelum. Please stop trying. I

want to help you because I've come to care about you, but also for selfish reasons."

Ah, so he does have an ulterior motive, I thought to myself.

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But still, even knowing this I couldn't let what happened to Jared happen to him too.

"She'll kill you if she finds out you've helped me," I blurted out.

He stood up and grabbed his place and went back into food

preparation area and put his dishes in the sink. He turned on the

water and grabbed a sponge and began to clean them. After he

had was finished, he placed them in a rack and came back to the

table and put his hand on mine.

"I'm not afraid of London," he said squeezing my hand

reassuringly. "Someone who is as mentally damaged as she is --"

"She's not mentally damaged, she's a genius!" I shouted

tearing my hand away from his. "My mother is a creator of life from death! My mother loves me! My mother wants me to come

home! I LOVE MY MOTHER!!!" I screamed at the top of my

lungs.

Suddenly I swayed on my feet and fell to the ground. Edison

immediately came over and took me into his arms. He lifted me

off the wooden floor and carried me into my room and placed me

on my bed. I felt myself slipping in and out of rest as he used the sheets to tie my arms and legs to each bedpost. I felt like I was

being splayed out for another one of London's horrible tortures

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but I didn't have the energy to fight him. He sat next to me and

looked deeply into my eyes.

"I have to remove something from the inside of your brain,

Caelum. You may not have noticed, but you were screaming at

me in a half female voice. I assume it to be London's. Somehow

she seemed to have manipulated her way into your brain and I

need to go in and see what it is and remove it. I know that you've suffered at her hands, but please tell me you trust me enough to

do this. I won't hurt you. You know I won't," he said in a pleading tone.

My eyes rolled back and forth in my head not focusing clearly

anymore. If what he said was true, how long had she'd done this?

Is that how she knew it was Jared? Is that why Morrison went

missing? What about Finnegan?

"Caelum, please tell me its okay," Edison begged.

"I ... can't see you."

"I'm going to induce your resting phase. I'm going to make

sure that you don't feel any pain, but Caelum, I need you to tell

me you'll let me do this."

I forced myself to shut my eyes. They were so erratic that I

was beginning to feel that I might lose control if I left them open and tried to focus on anything.

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"Caelum?"

"I trust you. Help me Edison," I said my voice barely above a whisper.

I heard him run out of the room across the hall into his. I

heard him throwing things around frantically and I heard him

cursing as he tried to find whatever he was looking for. I heard

his labored breathing as he came back into my room and drop a

multitude of things onto the floor next to me.

"I promise you won't feel a thing. I'll wake you when it's

over," he said as he injected serum into my arm.

I felt myself slipping away into a heavy resting phase.

I felt his hands as they brushed my hair gently over and over.

Before I slipped completely away for the time being, I felt

Edison lean down and press his lips gently against mine.

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Ten

Edison told me it was three days later when I had first shown

signs of still functioning. He had been worried that entire time

that he had killed me. I knew right away when I had first opened

my eyes again that something was very different about how my

body worked now. There was no ticking in my head. None that I

could hear anyway. Instead it seemed to be replaced by a steady,

soft humming sound. Nothing like London's deluded humming

but more like a power source of some kind. I tried to sit up with

Edison's help. I put a hand to my head and looked around the

room. Everything seemed to be clearer than ever before. I looked

at him. His hair was not light brown as I had originally thought, it looked more like burned coals after a tiring days’ work. It looked so smooth and pristine that it made it hard for me to believe that hair like his could exist. I looked into his eyes and thought of how well the two complimented each other, because now that I could

see better than ever, I saw the light in his gray eyes. Almost as if one spark from them could set the night on fire. His boyish face

looked like it held an infinite secret. One whisper from his lips

looked like they could either save your life or destroy your soul.

There was something very special about him. Edison may be

young but the wisdom you could see in his eyes far exceeded his

years. I felt lucky to have him as an ally. I also had some

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questions for him

."What did you do to me?" I asked laying back down.

"It's complicated," he replied with a smile. "But the easiest way to explain it is, I removed every wheel and cog of every type

that I saw implanted in your brain and wired you instead. The

brain runs on electricity to begin with so I knew that would be

best. London can't get into your head ever again this way either."

"But that meant you would have to have cut into my head," I said looking at him intently

"Unfortunately, yes I did have to. The skin beneath your hair was dying anyway, so it was best that I did. I replaced it with

what I brought home a few days ago. I have enough left to fix

your hand too, but only one radical surgery at a time," he said chuckling. "I had to replace your entire scalp. You have new hair too. I didn't think the other hair would work since the rooted

pieces were stuck in the rotted scalp." He got up from the bed and disappeared out of the room for a moment, returning with a small

hand mirror which he placed on my stomach. Obviously he was

giving me the option of looking, but not forcing me too.

"I tried to stay as close to your original hair color as I could, but there's only so many animals to hunt in these woods," he said apologetically.

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After a few moments of sitting in silence, he reached for the

mirror, but I placed my hand on it. I knew I wanted to see but I

wasn't sure that I would be able to handle another transformation.

One thing was for sure though; I hadn't felt any pain like he

promised. I pushed myself back up to a seated position and turned

the mirror up to face me on my lap. I didn't look down at it yet,

because there was one more thing I wanted to know from him.

"Edison, as I was falling into rest, I felt your lips against mine," I said giving him a level stare.

"I was caught up in the moment," he explained clearing his throat and avoiding my eyes. "You looked like a tortured prince ready to lay in rest forever and I wanted you to wake back up. I