NEW LIFE

Chapter Sixteen

No matter how much he washed, the blood didn't seem to come out of his fur. It still felt like the evidence was all over him, taunting the humans to find it. As if it was some badge of honor.

But it was worth it. He had found the greasy man speaking about Don, hissing black lies about his sanity to someone on the phone. He knew it wouldn't have been long till he had stolen them from their father and done whatever horrors they could to them before death. If the truly could feel death.

It had all been done for a purpose.

After all, it wasn't as if he was like that man. Yet he still felt strange after the act. It had come so easily at the time; a calmness that settled into his small core. Even as he was bashing his head against his desk, it was easy. Even has he disposed of the corpse, bit by bit - easily handled chunks into the garbage chute. It had been easy and efficient.

He ripped out more of his fur, pulling out the parts he felt he couldn't save. The parts matted with the invisible staining of blood.

All he wanted was to keep her safe. To keep them safe from the world. That was right. What he did was right.

His eyes stared up, past the headlights of a car running past. The small pool of water, gathered from the felled sprinkling of rain shuddered a strange reflection back at him.

Jerry had struggled, and the battle cost him some aesthetic appeal. The right side of the creatures face had been pulled away, ripped off with the last desperate grasps of a dying man. Now underneath the metal jaw and skull peered out.

Like flickers of fireflies, the wires and circuits visible made a colorful light show of distorted proportions. It glimmered off the metal inside his head and reflected in the open cavity of his jaw and throat. He could hear it now, with every word. The gears were grinding a little.

He was broken. All the more broken now.

"It had to be done." He stated to the reflection, watching it shudder and ripple in the light of the dull alley.

It made no response.

It was approaching nightfall and he knew he needed to get back before they realized he was missing and what he had done.

The small monkey splashed more water into it's fur. More handfuls he yanked out, leaving some bare patches and thinning coat.

Notnow felt all the more naked in the dark alley now. He pulled away from the puddle and wandered back to the entrance of the alley. The sirens were still at the building; most of the cars had gone from the parking lot.

It felt like hours he had waited there until he felt he was safe enough to go home. Back to the arms of his father.

And so he did.

The battered soldier limped and hid, every passing of another human made him afraid of being caught. Brought back the memory now imprinted in his cluttered little skull.

Silicone made realistic flesh, but it was an aesthetic appeal. It wasn't battle armor and it wasn't made to survive being ripped apart with metal edges and alley filth. It wasn't even the thick, more sturdy silicone plastic. It wasn't soft enough for a child's touch.

It still did its purpose however.

Even if it wouldn't come completely clean.

There was a persistent thought in the back of his mind that edged into that place where a heart should have been. What if it all was worth nothing? What if he went back there and he was still alone? And she was merely an empty shell like all monkeys piled in his hiding hole?

He shivered again. He thought for a moment that he could feel cold. That almost, if his nerves had existed he would have felt 'cold'.

One thing he did learn however - Humans were pretty oblivious. He found a clear path back to the buildings even in his paranoia. Under everyone's noses, people too busy with financial issues and minor grievances to notice him. He imagined he could have stumbled over one of them and they might not even flinch. That is, if he wasn't so terrified of being stopped. Of being caught for what he did.

Leap and run, sneaking through shadow after shadow in the urban jungle. The concrete and metal - poly fiber and fiber-optics. He found himself soon back to the safety of the air vents which would take him painstakingly back up to the very room he left. Unnoticed, uncaring.

Yet before he could peek his mangled head inside he heard something call him. Felt something inside his head direct his eyes up. There on metal guarding of the balcony, he saw an angel.

She lightly glistened in the dew of the brief rain. Her feathers brushed against the air and wrapped about her small child-like form.

Logic made him aware that this angel was Maven. Even before logic made him aware that 'Angels' weren't even real.

He thought it strange that even from the distance he could feel something funny in his head. Something different then the normal clouds of thoughts and confusion. It was as if suddenly there was something more in him.

Suddenly, he was aware of HER. He was familiar with her. As if somehow, by something more then that silver dreamsnake, they were connected.

His father didn't seem to matter much anymore. It was no longer his only link to the world. He had another of his kind. A daughter. Someone who needed him just as he so desperately needed her.

He abandoned his previous trail which would have taken him back up to Don's office, and instead with innovation from his designer, Notnow used primate agility to scale the outside of the building to go straight to her.