Chapter Eighteen

Pressed against the wall, Stretch, Percy and Millie held their breaths and waited. The automaton stood silently in the corner, its head bowed where it leant against the wall. Millie pocketed the little box and sighed.

She hated to do it but she did not want it to resist when they tried to remove its heart – that was the mistake her father had made. He had assumed the automaton was unfeeling and had removed the heart anyway.

They waited for some sign that the Ripper was coming but they couldn’t look back as they walked the streets – that would have looked suspicious. So with their bodies held so tight they had to wait. And wait.

A few minutes of holding themselves completely still had passed and they had almost given up to peer around the wall they were hiding behind when…

“Did you hear that?” Stretch whispered causing the other two to glare at him before looking around the small wall which hid them from view of the door. It was still closed but the light streaming through the door was blocked by someone’s shadow.

They drew back and pressed themselves back against the wall.

A second later a loud crash reverberated through the small building. The trio closed their eyes and clenched their teeth together to stop their cries to escape their lips. Instead both men grasped one of Millie’s hands each and hoped that they would make it through this.

A figure paused in the doorway, its footsteps crunching on the dust that had broken free on the destruction of the door. It paused and there was a rustle of clothing which was the only thing that broke through the silence. The three friends tried to stop themselves from breathing, afraid that it would bring attention to them even though they knew it was inevitable.

The Ripper, now free of the hood, stepped into the centre of the room and surveyed the space with penetrating eyes, catching everything down to the little flecks of dusts that moved through the shafts of light.

“I know you are in here.” A silken voice murmured just loud enough that it filled every corner of the room. “I watched you enter and there are no exits so come out before I decide to rip out your hearts.”

The coldness wrapped through those silken tones sent a shiver down their spine. They might have gone unnoticed if Stretch, who had had his nose tickled by Millie’s hair, hadn’t sneezed loudly and repeatedly.

The head snapped around and immediately the trio gasped. Whatever they were expected from her father’s letter, the face that looked back at them was far from it.

The automaton of her father’s making was a female and most shocking and yet obvious of all, was that she looked like an older version of Millie. The only difference was the skin and the eyes. The Ripper had a golden radiance that shone from within, probably the metal underlay reflecting light through the skin causing her to have an ethereal glow.

Where the automaton was all about the sun, Millie was like the cool moonlight but with a heart that shone through her grey eyes with this creation that glared down at them was cold and lifeless. She may have looked like an incredibly beautiful woman who would be passed by in the street as an ordinary woman with extraordinary looks. But she was far from human. It was her hands which gave her away though as they pure exposed gold. They were delicate but tough.

What drew Millie’s attention were the areas where the shine was dulled because of the rust coloured substances dried onto the limbs.

“Oh my god, is that?”

She shook her head and stopped herself from saying anymore. Of course it was blood. Her stomach turned. That was probably her father’s blood.

“Give me the heart and I will leave. Refuse and I will tear each of your hearts from your body while you are still conscious.”

The expression, or more accurately the lack of expression, upon the automaton’s face sent tremors through her body and she felt physically sick. She only hoped that the automaton didn’t realise their intentions or they might kill them all before she took the heart.

“Okay. We’ll give you the heart.” Percy said firmly, moving to stand between his friends and the killer clockwork.

The Ripper cocked her head to the side and surveyed him up and down before letting her gaze move to the two behind. Her gaze looked upon Millie and she smiled wickedly. It was bizarre as there was nothing in the eyes to show the emotion of what the automaton was truly feeling or thinking.

“No I want her to bring it to me. Only her.” She smiled, showing off her pearly white, perfectly straight teeth. When neither of them did anything she clucked her tongue and clicked her fingers at them. It was such a human gesture that it threw them off balance.

Millie lightly touched Percy’s arm from behind, trailing her fingers down until she could clasp her hand in his. They held onto one another for a long second until she stepped past him and closed the distance between her and her father’s masterpiece.

“You killed my father.” She said bitterly as she looked into the face that was so much like her own.

“No, he killed himself for he created me.” The immediate reply had her stumbling back before she remembered the reasons she was there and the thing that she was facing.

Reaching into her skirt pocket, she pulled out the heart, and tentatively stretched out her hand.

There was a glint of gold as the Ripper swiped so fast that she had barely caught the movement. One moment she was handling the heart with delicacy and the next she was looking at her empty palm. Gaping she glanced up at the Ripper but they were already lost to the heart, marvelling at it as the blue glow seeped between the metal plates bathing her face.

Pulling aside her cloak and the top of her blouse, the men at the back of the room gaped before averting their eyes. Millie however held her breath and waited.  The automaton before them dug her fingers into her man made flesh and pried it from the exoskeleton to reveal a panel underneath – much like the one covering the heart in her new automaton.

Prying the panel open, Millie gagged when she saw the heart – a living beating human heart that had been wired into the chest. She looked away as her stomach rebelled and she promptly lost her stomach contents over the floor.

Something wet and squidgy dropped to the flood with a squelch. Lifting her eyes, the blonde turned green and wavered on her feet as she saw the heart now discarded on the floor, it was still as it oozed black oil onto the floor. Unable to stare at it any more she lifted her gaze even higher and she stared at the automaton who was quickly plugging in the heart.

This was the moment that the Clancy heir had been waiting for – revenge. For it certainly wasn’t justice but she felt good watching the automaton relishing in the feel of a superior heart that would last for centuries if it was built right.

The golden blonde hair was thrown backwards as the automaton sighed and relaxed. And then, Millie dipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out a small box with a little dial. She watched for a few moments as the automaton, which was a replica of her late mother, with sad eyes. And then she twisted the dial around sharply.

Nothing happened for a second and she eyed the being with fearful eyes. But then it shrieked in rage and its eyes fell upon her. Her hand reached out towards the young blonde but she backed away as quick as her feet would allow. She didn’t get very far before she was tripping over her skirts and crashing to the ground.

The skirts cushioned her fall but she was now in a prone position, watching the automaton stumble towards her. But her plan wasn’t working, at least not fast enough to be effective.

Two sets of hands grasped her arms and drew her backwards. The automaton gave a screech of rage as they stomped over the ruined heart on the floor and tried to reach them but the steps faltered and the automaton crashed to the ground.

With bated breaths they could only watch as the body flailed around on the floor as the metal started to fizzle as the acid that had been contained inside of the heart ate through the metal within.

It took several slow minutes but the body collapsed in on itself as more of its body dissolved and collapsed in over and over. When it started to slow, Millie stood and pulled a glass vial from her jacket. Ever so gently she uncorked the end and poured it over the remnants, watching coldly as the rest of the automaton dissolved into nothingness, leaving behind nothing but a horrible stench and a stain upon the floor.

But finally it was done and the automaton – the ripper of portside was dead.

She staggered backwards and held on tight as Percy caught her and pulled her into a hug. Millie felt her chest heave and the ever familiar tears made themselves present in her mind. Dumbly she reached inside her pocket and pulled out another glowing heart, the one belonging to her gentle giant and a coil of metal wire that was so thin it could be thread.

“Here Stretch, put this back in Titan and make sure you reset the trip wire.” She sniffled and paused as she looked at the giant they had created. “You know – just in case.”

“Yeah, just in case.”

Stretch crossed the room swiftly to do as she asked but all three were feeling a sense of relief. Not only had they stopped a blood making machine but they had creating something that would not only redeem her father but save them all in the long run.

“Come on Percy, let’s go home.” Millie murmured as she buried her head further into his embrace. “I promised your sister she could do my hair again and I don’t like to break my promises.”