Unwound (14 page)

Edison's cabin.

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Eleven

I never saw Edison after that night. I also never got an answer

from Winter as why she was so insistent that we leave. There

would be times that I would sit in Winter's underground little

village that she had managed to construct in her time away from

London and her mansion of torture.

For the first month I was useless. I would lay around on the

hardest stones I could find in her secret wonderland of stone and

pools of ice to punish myself for letting go of Edison so easily. I lost a lot of will being away from him but Winter made sure that I would never lose focus. She knew that her only hope as living as

normal a life as possible would be if I killed London. She would

come to me every night and lay next to me with her arms wrapped

tightly around me, sleeping on the makeshift beds of stone. It

wasn't until the second month that I finally held her. She was so

small and fragile with such hope in her eyes when she would lay

with me, that I felt I had to be the strong one and hold her close to let her know I would kill London for her. I had lost the drive to

kill London for myself, now it was for my tiny companion who

would care for me nightly and patiently wait for me day to day to

see if I would finally rise off of the stones and let her help me.

The morning that I had awoken without feeling the weight of

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Winter's head against my chest caused me to finally come out of

my depression. I sat up and looked around the cavern finally

taking in how hard she had worked on it. There were carvings of

forests on the walls that seemed to have leaves of emeralds and

tree bark of smoky topaz. The flowers she carved out of the stone

and placed throughout looked as if they were filled with sapphires for Columbines, pearls for Lily of the Valleys, amethyst for sprigs of Lavender, yellow agate for the smattering of Dandelions, and

all matters of jewels. There were small lanterns hanging from the

trees illuminating the cavern and making it look like a fairytale.

The little blankets of grass in the garden of flowery jewels

seemed to be made completely of emeralds. She had even

somehow managed to carve a little home out of stone which made

me wonder why she would spend her time outside of it and sleep

on the stones with me.

I smiled because Winter fit in perfectly here. She herself

looked like a pixie so it would make sense that this was

something that she would want to live in.

I walked down the small rocky hill toward the center of the

cavern looking around to see if I could spot her. I wanted to thank her for giving me a reason to follow through on what I had

promised myself long ago and her as well.

It took me a moment to see in the pool of ice a wave of blue

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hair swaying beneath it back and forth like a flower blooming

then closing again. I panicked and ran out onto it without thinking.

I slipped and fell down hard on the surface of ice and landed on

my back. The thud of me hitting the ice was loud and enough to

start a small series of cracks over the frozen water.

I'm going to fall in, I realized frantically. Getting to my knees

I decided that before I fell in, I might be able to pull her out.

Slowly I made my way toward the fan of hair that was shown so

brilliantly under the ice. I was about fifteen feet away from her, when she burst through the ice with her bare back to me.

"Hello Caelum," she said as she smoothed her wet hair back turning to look at me.

I turned my face away not because Winter was naked, but

because I could now see the scars on her neck and I knew how

personal they were. I hated when Morrison and Edison saw my

scars so I was sure that Winter would hate for me to stare at hers.

"You don't have to look away," she said in her raspy voice.

"I ... your scars. I can see them," I explained still looking away.

"It's okay. It doesn't bother me if you see them," she replied.

"Why were you in there?" I asked glancing at her for a

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moment, " I thought you were going to die."

She smiled as she bobbed in the ice water, "I preserve my skin by submerging myself into the ice. I don't know how else to do

it."

"I stayed away from the sunlight as often as I could," I mumbled. Something about Winter being naked in the ice was

making me feel different. It was something I hadn't felt before but it was something that was making me want to be with her. I could

tell I was looking at her the way Edison had looked at me and I

turned my face away again.

I felt ashamed. I couldn't do that to him; not knowing how

much he loved me and wanted to be with me the way I wanted to

be with Winter at that moment. Edison had been the first to lay

his lips against mine and I couldn't betray his love like this.

Winter pulled herself out of the opening in the ice and I saw

more of her scars. There weren't as many as mine or as angry

looking, but she had one long prominent scar that seemed to wrap

it's way from her hip all around her body up to her shoulder.

Almost as if she had been sown by a ballroom dancer. Her body

was exquisite regardless of her scars. She looked to have the

shape of an hourglass.

She approached me and reached a hand down to help me off

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the ice. As she did I pushed her hand away. I had to make these

odd feelings go away and touching her right now wouldn't help.

The smile fell from her face but she waited for me to get up

before she walked past me back onto the cavern floor. I let my

eyes follow her body as her hips swayed from side to side. I

closed my eyes as I stood there forcing myself to not look any

further.

"Caelum, it's okay. I'm covered," she said after a few

moments.

I opened my eyes partially and saw that she had slid on a pitch

black robe of some sort over her body. Letting out a sigh of relief, I carefully made my way back to the cavern floor and looked

down at her little pixie face which bore a mischievous smile.

"That was your first test. You passed though for a moment

there I was afraid you wouldn't," she said as she retrieved her scarlet scarf from a pocket in the robe.

"Test?" I asked confused.

"London will use beautiful things to distract you Caelum. I

am not the only one that was made, you know this because you

are not the only one that was made. I saw some of them when I

escaped and they are breathtaking. More beautiful than anything

you can imagine and he will use them to her advantage if you let

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her," she said seriously.

"How many did you see?" I asked feeling myself becoming

angry.

"Two. One with hair that looked like cotton candy and the

other had hair the color of ivory. London was screaming at the

both of them. I think at the cotton candy one because she hadn't

left to find you yet and at the ivory haired one for not responding to her."

So that's why Cassara looked so angry when she first saw me,

I thought to myself. "Cassara was the one with the pink hair. I don't think she's a threat anymore."

"There was someone else," she said quietly. "One that wasn't like us. I think he was human."

"He?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

She nodded. "I couldn't see his face, but London responded to him. When she was screaming at the one with the ivory hair, he

put an arm around her shoulders and whispered something to her

that calmed her down. Then after that he turned to the other one

and said, 'Xandy, go back to your rest.' And she listened to him.

She wouldn't even listen to London, but she listened to
him.
"

"And you're sure you didn't get to see his face?" I asked 146

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curiously.

"I'm certain of it. I ran the moment Xandy looked at me as I

stood there watching. She was on her way back to the fireplace

which is where I assume she rests and as soon as she reached it

she looked over at me and stared for a moment before laying

down in the ashes of others like us that London had burned to

death. I could see partial arms and legs in the fireplace, Caelum. It was as if she had no quarrels disposing of them. Like it didn't

matter that they were alive at one point."

She turned her face away and even though I felt horrible for

her having to see what she saw, I still wondered who could

possibly be able to tame London. I thought that the nights she

would sit with me and be a normal mother were nights that she

had her mania under control. Now I wondered if he had been

there the whole time.

I didn't let myself dwell on it; there was no point. I somehow

felt a small amount of gratuity to whomever it was for the very

few nights of peace I would have because of him.

"Caelum, when London first brought me into a lifelike state I had only one thing in my mind and that was to destroy three two

five seven, I would bet anything that's how the other's were

created. I think because I remembered your scent from the

pictures you slide into my room I lost all desire to kill you.

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London never showed me the slightest bit of kindness and I could

never hurt the one being that had."

My hand went to the left side of my face and I immediately

thought of Jared. He had been the first to do me an actual act of

kindness and even in London's own twisted way he had done me

another act of kindness by giving me the gift of actual sight. I

knew how Winter felt because Jared would always be a piece of

me now.

"I understand," was all I could say.

"Then let's talk about something pleasant now," she said as she walked over to one of the stone seats she had carved and sat

down, her legs crossed. "By looking at the color of your skin I'd say you don't have much want to live. I can tell by the way you

speak of her that you're on a quest to kill London and I promise to do everything I can to help you, but honestly Caelum, I don't

know if it can be done. Besides that, I can't prepare you any other way than mentally and I will push your mind to its limits to get

you to see things as London does. There will be times when you

will feel like you're mind is going to just break down on you but

please know now that I do it for your well being.

But I also believe that you were the first that London created,

or finished anyway. I don't know why she made the others; it

could've been out of loneliness or it could've been because she

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missed you; what her intentions have been this entire time I'm not sure, but honestly I think that if you survived all that time under her iron fist you can take all of the things I will do to test your mind."

I nodded but I wasn't really listening. Nothing Winter could

do or say to me would be worse than what I had already endured.

I knew it was time to try to change the subject.

"Winter," I said, " how exactly did you manage to do all this?"

I asked gesturing around her wondrous cave.

"With the help of a couple of friends," she replied softly.

"Who?" I asked looking at her curiously.

"One you already know," she said looking slightly

uncomfortable, "and the other, you've never met."

"Who do I already know?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

She got to her feet and walked over to one of the cavernous

holes in the wall and leaned in. "You can come out. I know he won't try to fight you."

Craning my head, I wondered who she could possibly be

talking to. It took some more kind words from Winter into the

dark hole and me patience I never knew I had to sit there and wait for the mysterious being that was hiding in the wall.

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I drew in my breath sharply. I was sure she would've been

dead after she failed London, but peeking her head slightly out of the wall with her head wrapped in a scarf, much like the one

Winter wore around her neck, was the angel face of Cassara.

"But, but you spoke of her as if you didn't know her," I said confused. "You heard me tell you about her, you see what she did to me," I practically shouted showing her my arm.

At the sound of my raised voice, Cassara ducked back into the

hole and Winter looked at me sharply.

"She's different now. I've helped her past London's tortures

and she helped me build this place. You shouldn't judge her so

quickly."

"She's no less of a monster than either of us," I replied through gritted teeth. "I may not harbor London's evil inside me anymore and maybe neither do you, but Cassara can't be trusted.

She tried to take my life. I will not trust her. Ever."

"But if you can change, why can't any of us?" asked a voice behind me.

I turned and saw a pale beauty who was a small as Winter and

Cassara. She had light brown eyes and onyx colored hair which

was cut blunt in the front and tucked into two small balls on either side of her head. She had a small metal ball over one cherry red

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lip and colorful markings on her chest.

"The name's Jett," she continued walking around to face me.

"And I was made just like you, only most of my insides are made from airplane parts and some of my outsides," she said walking into a small sliver of sunlight, "is made from reflective materials."