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Clockwork Heart Chapter 18

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.”