Lily Marin - three short steampunk stories

by Paul Kater

  Lily and the avenging angel

  "Right, everything in the bag, umbrella in the hall - oh, I will need this."

  Lily enjoyed talking to herself as she went about her place to get her things together. She was about to leave for some singing. There was a reason she never called it a 'performance'; she did not think her voice good enough for that. Instead, Lily always went for 'some singing'.

  The this, being a hairbrush, disappeared into the bag. Lily looked around the room and decided she was all set for the singing. She was already dressed for it, her long coat would cover up her dress.

  The dressing rooms she usually had at her disposal did not always offer enough space for changing, and this way she did not have to carry so much either. A definite click assured her that the lock on her bag worked fine.

  Once in the street, Lily focussed on the songs she was going to sing.

  The piano player'd better be better than the one she had worked with two evenings ago. With that one, Lily was surprised that he knew what side of the piano he had to fondle, because that was all he had done. Well, that and almost ruining the evening.

  Today she would sing at the dance hall, not very far from her house. The weather was wonderful, so initially she decided to walk. Then she stopped a carriage after all.

  Ladies, she reminded herself, do not walk those distances, and certainly not with heavy bags. Ordinary women did. As the carriage took her along Lily missed the walking, but this way she would not be seen as someone who had the physical stamina of the Masked Woman, her alter ego. She had to avoid any resemblance, even at the price of a ride.

  The carriage came to a halt. The driver opened the door and helped her out. He was so kind that Lily felt sorry she could not give him a better tip, but he seemed well pleased.

  "Have a nice day, Miss," he said as he tipped his hat and climbed back into his seat.

  "You too, sir," said Lily. Then she walked towards the dance hall. She'd been here before. The singer entered, announced her presence to Jonathan, the manager of the hall, and located her dressing...

  "A closet. Of course."

  As she was laying out her belongings on the desk that had been shoved inside, there was a knock on the door. Without waiting for a response, a woman entered. She was too blond, her eyes were blue and her figure was a tad too voluptuous.

  "Lily! How nice, you've arrived!"

  "Hello, Selma."

  Lily and Selma went back a long time. Back to school, actually. It was often difficult for Lily to keep her life as the Masked Woman hidden from Selma, as the woman made Lily talk too easily.

  "Jonathan told me you were coming to sing," Selma said as she somehow moved into the closet and sat on the desk. Jonathan was her husband. "I always tell Jonathan that you should not be singing here. Your voice is so nice, Lily, you should be in better circles. I know you have it in you."

  As Lily tried to do something to her make-up, Selma brought her up to date on the latest gossip. Selma was better than any tabloid. "And did you hear about that creep that seems to drop in from God knows where and then starts killing people without any reason?"

  Lily carefully shook her head as she was touching up her lipgloss. "Drat," she muttered. She had not been careful enough. "No, I haven't. When did that happen?"

  "Last night. Some people had told the reporters that a man had fallen from the sky and killed people, after which he had gone up to the sky again," Selma knew. She wasn't only better than a tabloid, she knew more than Lily's newspaper too.

  "The problem is that nobody has a decent description of the person, and the dead people did not look as if they were murdered. Cause of death was called a heart attack and the description of the murderer had been an angel." Selma sighed. "Wouldn't it be magnificent if there was a real angel here?"

  "One that murders people? I can do without that, thank you very much," Lily said.

  "You have a great voice, Lily, but you lack a romantic heart," Selma stated as got up.

  "That kept me alive so far," Lily grinned.

  "And alone," said Selma as she opened the door. "It is down to me to do your dirty work, asusual. I shall have to find you a decent man, Lily. With that attitude you'll never find one." With an overdone dramatic gesture Selma left the closet.

  "A decent man," Lily muttered as she continued finishing her make-up. "An angel. Where does she get all that from..." Before she could mutter any further, there was another knock on the door.

  "Miss Marin? We're ready for you," a gentle male voice said.

  "How wonderful, sir, but I'm not yet ready for you," Lily said through the door. "I will be with you in a few minutes. Where will I find you?"

  "We'll be waiting for you in front of the stage, Miss Marin," the leader of the band said.

  -=-=-

  Lily enjoyed singing in the dance hall. As she saw all the people revolving over the floor in front of her, it made her feel good to be there, to be part of their joy, and the musical band was fantastic. The difference with what she did in the evenings was enormous, so Lily had made it a point to get as much from these singing sessions as she could.

  At one point she caught Selma's eye, who stood next to a young man. Selma was waving at Lily and tried to direct her attention to the young man, but Lily ignored these attempts and left the stage after finishing her last song before the break. She needed a drink of water. Behind the stage, almost as usual, there was a table with a glass , a caraffe and a chair. Lily sat down and sipped from the glass.

  A sudden upheaval in the hall made her walk back in to see what was going on. After a while, as people were all talking at once, Lily managed to learn that there had been another attack by the man that Selma had told her about. And again there were mentions of the person being able to fly, 'like an angel'.

  "The police are taking it serious now," someone said, "they'll have him in cuffs in no time."

  Several others disagreed, as the police probably was no match for a flying person. "I want to see them go after him with a dirigible."

  Lily silently agreed. Her flying pack had helped her get away from the police more than once.

  The peaceful and jolly atmosphere had left the dance hall as this news came in. Lily sang the rest of her songs, but the dance floor remained frighteningly empty as most people were talking about this latest attack. As she was taking off her make-up, Jonathan asked to speak with her. He handed her an envelope with her earnings.

  "I am truly sorry that the afternoon went like this, Lily. Someone should learn to keep news like that outside our doors. I do thank you for your singing and I would gladly call on you again, next time."

  Lily said that she was looking forward to his call. Soon after that, she was on her way home. This time she walked, as she was curious about what rumoured in the street about this strange flying person.

  The rumour mill was churning, as she found out soon, but the amount of rumours was enormous, and not many of them agreed with each other. The only thing she was fairly sure of was that both attacks had been in the same part of town, if one could consider an area of five square miles a part.

  That evening Lily dressed up and the Masked Woman went out. Her special boots with the extendable legs quickly took her to the area where the last attack had been, and from there she went patroling until deep in the night and she was certain that nothing would happen. Not there.

  The next day was a quiet one, and she used that to look after her equipment. The glass that covered one of the small gauges on her flight backpack had cracked, so she took that to master Wilfred Bond, who was one of the few people who knew about it, and who took care of it for her. He mounted a new glass for her, and now the backpack was perfect again.

  That evening Lily was outside again. She had selected an area that might be the logical next place after pinpointing the previous two spots on a map. It was a big gamble, she knew, but if this flying person really existed, he had to be stopped. Lily was very much against the killing of innocent people.


  As the Masked Woman she went through the streets, waiting and watching, but nothing happened. Not there. The newspaper that the neighbour brought her the next morning (she and he shared the costs of the paper) told her that this time there had been an official sighting of the flying person. According to the article it was most definitely a man, and he had struck two people down. One of them had died on the spot, the situation of the other person was described as 'critical'.

  In the afternoon Lily still pondered the case of the 'angel' as she was preparing for some singing. She stared at her rad-gun and her purse. That would never work. The folding umbrella with the rapier however would not be a proper tool against that flying creature, so the singer repacked her things into the large bag, stuffed the rad-gun in there and then went on her way.

  As she reached the restaurant where she was going to sing at a dinner and dance, she noticed a young man standing outside. He stood still as a statue and looked as if he was in deep thought, or waiting for someone. Somehow he looked familiar to Lily. As she was about to enter the restaurant, the young man suddenly sprung to life.

  "Miss Marin?"

  "Yes? Oh, it's you. From Selma." Lily knew she sounded like an idiot. She never did well communicating with strangers who suddenly addressed her.

  "Yes. No. I mean, yes," the young man blundered along just as much. "I saw you at the dance hall a few days ago. With Selma. I mean, I was with Selma, not you. Although I was not with