Mr. Factory holstered his gun and approached her. Once he was near enough to Posy, she took her damaged hand and held it up to Mr. Factory.
“Look what you did to my hand.”
“Yes, it’s quite horrible.” He snickered.
And while he kept his eyes on the hole in her left hand, Posy took her right hand and slid it behind her, grabbing at something.
Mr. Factory grinned before letting out a bout of laughter. “I’ve never seen a gunslinger like you, you know. So interesting.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re a woman to start with, and not just that, but a left-handed one, quite lousy I must say.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re not what?”
“Left-handed,” Posy replied as she saw Mr. Factory’s bug eyes remarkably grow even bigger. Instantly, she unsheathed Little Lass and stabbed the saber straight through Mr. Factory’s heart. She took it out as quickly as she put it in and then swiftly crawled away from him.
Shocked with disbelief, Mr. Factory Liberty Hotel stood motionless, taking his right hand and placing it on the wet blood streaming from his chest.
“You’ll be dead in three seconds.” Posy raised her right hand, and while still grasping Little Lass, did her best to count to three using her fingers.
One, two, three. He fell onto the floor like a felled tree, dead as a doornail.
Posy, reeling with pain, lay flat on her back, feeling the cold tile floor penetrate her skin. “Nurse,” she called out. “NURSE!”
Nothing.
“Nurse, please,” she breathed out, trying to get up. “I’m losing blood.”
Up ahead, she saw a door open. Out came Charles, who was doing his best to pull Belloc up the stairs in his wheelchair.
“I’ll never ride that thing again,” Charles remarked.
“You and me both,” Belloc replied. “Quick. Turn me around. We need to find Posy.”
“Belloc?” Posy yelled out, spotting him through the shadows.
Charles turned Belloc around, and when he saw her, he screamed.
“That’s her! Come on, Charles. Get me to her, now!”
“Where’s that man?” Charles yelled out to Posy.
“Dead,” she screamed back.
“Oh my.” Belloc made his way towards her. “Once again, you surprise me, dear girl.”
***
Far away from where Posy lay wounded, a frightened girl did her best to manage a couple of heavy suitcases down a steep set of stairs. At last, after almost tripping twice, she reached the last step. Peeking out the front door’s window, she saw the carriage sitting outside, waiting for her to bring the luggage out. Exiting the taxidermy shop, she took the two suitcases and set them near the back of the carriage. Then she slowly crept up to the driver’s bench, where she saw a man in dark clothes and hat waiting for her.
“Hop in,” he said.
“But the luggage,” Frances replied, hesitating.
“I’ll take care of it. Just step inside, please.”
Frances pulled up her dress enough where she could easily jump onto the carriage.
“How are you doing?”
“Excuse me?”
“I asked how you were doing,” the man repeated. “It’s going to be a long trip, and I just want to know your current state.”
“Um...I don’t know. I guess I’m all right. How do you think I should be? I’m frightened.”
“Don’t be.”
“Easy for you to say.” Frances fidgeted in her seat. “Where are you taking me?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“Safe?” Frances doubted his answer.
“Yes, Miss. That’s what I said.”
“How do you know Klaus?”
“I don’t know him very well. I was only hired to drive you two wherever he needed to go. No questions asked.”
“I thought you were maybe part of his brothers.”
“Brothers?”
“Yes.”
“Do tell me more about his brothers.”
Frances scratched her arm, feeling the nervous electricity tickle her goosebumps. “Maybe I shouldn’t.”
“Very well.” The man made a bit of commotion. “Wait here, please.”
“Where are you going?”
“Inside.”
“For what?” Frances asked, wary of what would happen to the driver if he went inside the shop and found Mr. Factory doing something nefarious.
“Mr. Factory has yet to pay me. I’m going inside to collect.”
“Oh, don’t do that. Just wait here for him. Don’t disturb him. It’s better if you didn’t.”
Finally, the driver turned to her, and all Frances could see of him were his eyes, for every other part of his face was shadowed by his large hat and unique coat. “Don’t be afraid,” he said as he looked into her eyes. He then jumped off the carriage and proceeded into the shop.
Inside, Klaus had just finished retrieving a few things right before he put on his long coat and hat. Glancing at the second-floor workshop one last time, he then proceeded to head down the stairs after extinguishing all the candles.
“Was that you, Miss Dupuys, that I heard coming in?” Klaus asked as he descended the stairs. “I thought I told you to stay inside the carriage.”
But it wasn’t Miss Dupuys. When Klaus reached the end of the stairs, he turned to look into the shop’s main room, and there he saw Silas waiting for him at a nearby table, the same table that Lucy once occupied. “Oh, well, isn’t this quite a surprise.”
“Was this where Lucy sat when you killed her?”
Klaus Factory carefully approached Silas. “I thought you were rotting in some jail cell with the rest of the city rats.”
“And where did you sit?” Silas nodded with his head. “Right there, across from her?”
Klaus stopped a few feet from Silas. “Just what exactly do you expect to accomplish, Officer de San Michel?”
“It’s Inspector.”
“Oh, sorry. Yes, Inspector de San Michel. You’re moving up in the world.” Klaus took his hat off, and with the wave of this motion, a slight breeze slapped Silas in the face, making him wince. “What’s the matter?”
Silas slowly looked down towards his feet and said, “I can smell her urine.”
Klaus clenched his jaw.
“At first, I thought maybe you had gone back to the countess’s manor, but then I figured you couldn’t care less about the Valentine Society. It’s really all about you.”
“You have me all figured out. So, what now?”
“Sit down, please.”
“Very well.” Klaus sat across from Silas.
They sat staring at each other for a moment.
“If you can make this quick, I do have a life to get to,” Klaus said.
“I’m thinking.”
“About what, may I ask?”
“About making it quick or taking my time.”
“I see. Careful there, Officer. You’re starting to remind me of...me.”
“I’m nothing like you.”
“So you say.”
“Why did she wet herself?” Silas continued with his inquiry. “You must’ve had her incredibly scared.”
“Oh, you have no idea.”
Silas clenched his fists.
“But you’re wrong. I didn’t kill her here. I just cut her up a little bit and let her run outside, and out there is where I...climaxed.”
“I see,” Silas replied, doing everything in his power not to mutilate Mr. Factory right there on the spot. “Why did you kill her?”
“Oh, you mean you don’t know?”
“She wasn’t part of the circle. So why her? Was it just to get to me? You think it would’ve stopped me from chasing after you?”
“Oh, no, dear Inspector, of course not. Perhaps I killed her precisely for you to come after me, or maybe I killed her because, well, she was wanted dead. Or perhaps you’re the one everyone wants, dead or alive.”
“Me? What do you mean?”
“There are a lot of people that know you’re in Boston.”
“Excuse me? What do you know of me and what I’m doing here?”
“You think I was sent by the Factory to kill these babies? Do you think that was my mission?”
“Mission?”
“It may appear to you that I was somehow hired by the Valentine Society to complete some vendetta against their children; immoral evil saps are all they are.”
Silas smiled at the irony.
“But the Society didn’t really hire me. It was made to appear like that, as if they really did, but the truth is, I was chosen by something far more ominous, far more evil. And that something wants you to suffer.”
“You’re saying that this was all about me?”
“Absolutely.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Well, believe it, Inspector. I’m afraid it is all entirely true. Everything has been orchestrated to get you to where you are. The amnesia they weren’t expecting, but that was something we could deal with easily. It even helped us in a way. But there are a lot of people who know you are in Boston, and if I’m not successful, they’ll keep on looking for you.”
“People? You mean The Factory?”
“Oh, no. We’re just a means to an end. You’re just another project in a line of endless projects.”
“So you were hired to lure me, entrap me, and then kill me?”
“Absolutely not, Inspector. That is something an amateur can do on his worst day. No, I was hired to make you miserable, to ruin your life. I was selected to make your life the biggest pit of hell you can ever imagine. And Lucy? Lucy was the best means to an end. Lucy was my checkmate, the one thing that would send you back into the darkness in which you came from, the darkness you so desperately tried to flee from, but you just don’t flee from darkness, especially not from the darkness that pursues you.”
“I don’t understand. You murdered Lucy to make me...insane?”
“No, but to fill you up with rage, to bring you back to where you and I come from.”
“Which is?”
“From shadow, from everything that is evil.”
“No, you lie. You’re nothing like me, and I’m nothing like you.”
“We are brothers. We are a brotherhood. We may not have come from the same place, but we are kin in darkness, we are both birds of the night.”
“No!” Silas said, pounding the table. “You killed her to spite me. You don’t need a reason, ‘cause you’re nothing but a psychopath!”
“Keep thinking that, but it won’t help you to truly know who you are. These people that hunt you, the same people that hired me to approach the Valentine Society and help them with their dilemma, the same people who ordered me to snuff out Lucy’s light; they’re not after you because they want to kill you—they’re after you because they want you back!”
Silas’s eyes trembled with shock.
“They want you back in the Order. They want you back in the darkness.”
“Well, they failed.” Silas looked straight into Mr. Factory’s eyes. “Killing her didn’t send me back to the pit of hell I came from. It only made me resolute in stopping you and anyone else who gets in my way.”
“Oh, is this the justice you cry for?”
“Sooner or later, we’ll all have to face justice,” Silas said, standing up.
“Well, then,” Klaus replied, “it’s about time I faced it, don’t you think?” He stood up and began walking towards the stairs.
“Where are you going? Don’t walk away from me, you coward.”
“Come with me. I want to show you something.”
Klaus started walking up the stairs as Silas carefully followed. “Just what do you think you’re luring me into?”
“I’m not going to deceive you in any way. I just want to have a drink with you before I die. Come, come.” Klaus reached the top of the stairs, motioning for him to follow.
Silas climbed up the stairs, his hands placed firmly inside his overcoat, grasping at his kama blades. Once he reached the top, he saw Mr. Factory make his way to a table at the far end of the room. It was very dark, since all the candles had been put out except for a few downstairs. Silas could only see what Mr. Factory was doing, but everything else was covered in shadow.
Klaus then reached for a bottle that was hidden inside one of the shelves. He took it out along with a couple of glasses and proceeded to pour himself and Silas a bit of wine. “I want you to have one last drink with me,” Klaus said.
“A last drink?”
“You don’t really think that you’ll be able to take me out of here alive, do you? No, this justice will end with one of us dead. So let’s drink before one of us dies.”
“And if I refuse to kill you? It’s obvious now that you’re worth more to me alive than dead.”
“Oh, you won’t refuse.” He gave a glass to Silas. “Drink.”
“You expect me to drink this? How stupid do you think I am?”
“Very well.” Klaus gulped down his glass of wine. After he was done, he set the glass down, and Silas was shocked from what he’d just witnessed. Painted across Klaus’s mouth was a large red stain, and Silas knew right then that it wasn’t wine that he’d drunk. Silas looked down at his own glass, and he took his finger and dipped it inside. When he pulled it out, he rubbed it against his other fingers and then smelled it.
Blood. “What the hell is this?”
“You mean you can’t recognize the smell of your own dear love’s blood?” Klaus took out a light, lit it, and used it to turn on the candles sitting atop the table.
In a flash, the space around them bloomed with life, and Silas was at last able to see what hung up on the wall, the stuffed head and torso of his dear Lucy Reilly. Caught in a state of shock, he stood stiffly as his bones took in the rage and pain swelling up inside.
“She is my best work yet. I really loved killing her, knowing that I would snuff away the only real chance you ever had at true love. Did you ever get the opportunity to taste her, Silas? I’m sure you dreamed about it so many times, watching her from afar, guarding her while not allowed to touch her. I, on the other hand, had my fill of her, and let me tell you, she felt so good. Even when she was dying in my arms, she was still real warm inside.”
Silas’s darkness took over, and without thinking, he reached for his kama blades, taking them out with one swift movement.
“Silas, if you strike me down now, you’ll never know anything else about your past and that who hunts you. But then again, you’ll finally be with me in total darkness.”
Silas seethed with rage. “I don’t need you. I’ll know more about my past when more people come for me, and I'll be waiting.”
“You can’t fight us all. They’ll send more of them like me. We are a band of brothers. We are legion. We are many.” Klaus took out his large knife and lunged at Silas.
With little effort, and with a dark strength he never knew he had, Silas blocked Klaus’s attack, followed by breaking his forearm, elbow, and shoulder. Klaus stood paralyzed out of pain and shock, his arms twitching, his knees buckling.
“You’ll never get rid of people like me,” Klaus struggled to say, blood dripping down his chin. “There are far too many of us.”
“One less of you tonight,” Silas replied as he then took his kama blades and skewered them through both of Mr. Factory’s shoulders, pinning him down on the floor like a butterfly being pinned to a wooden board. “I’m never going back to that darkness, no matter what you do or have done. You, Mr. Factory Boston, scum of the earth, need to find yourself a lawyer.” Silas then took out a small dart and stabbed it through Klaus’s lips, successfully pinning his mouth to the floor. “But I suggest you remain quiet for now.” Klaus twitched in pain as he moaned like an injured animal caught in a trap.
Silas slowly backed away, keeping his eyes on his beloved Lucy mounted on the wall. He put his arm to his face in
order to block the horrendous vision, and made his way downstairs. Reaching the first floor, he darted towards the entrance and exited the shop. Immediately, a couple of carriages that had been waiting in the shadows lit up with life as a group of young officers began pouring out of them, one by one. They rushed towards Silas.
“How did it go?” Officer Graham said once he reached the shop.
“He’s ready for you. You’ll need an ambulance, unless you want to take him straight to Boston City Hospital yourself.”
“So he’s alive?”
“Yes,” Silas replied, still trying to compose himself from seeing his beloved Lucy mounted on a wall.
“Good job, Inspector.” Graham reached out his hand.
“Thank you.” Silas shook it.
“Are you all right?”
“I will be. Just give me some time.”
“What happened?”
“You’ll see once you enter. He’s on the second floor. I left my blades stuck inside him. Make sure nothing happens to them. Secure the scene. No one goes in or out except you and your men. Get someone to photograph the whole of the place. Report back to me when you’re done.”
“Oh,” Graham said, taken aback. “Will do, sir.” He snapped to his men. “All right, you yellow lilies, you heard the man, up and at ‘em.” Graham stepped inside the shop, followed by the rest of his men.
Silas approached the carriage. He peeked inside and saw Frances sitting in the corner, shadowed by the vibrant moonlight. Her face spoke a multitude of emotions. She knew that she was safe, but Silas could tell that she was reluctant to believe it.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m f-fine.”
“And the baby?”
“I think the baby will be fine as well.”
Silas smiled. “Good.”
“So, is...is he gone?”
“He’s going to be taken into custody, put on trial, and then most likely executed.”
“So you didn’t kill him?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I thought I could, but...I’m not that person anymore.”
Frances just stared at him, confused by his words.
“Now we’ll take you somewhere safe.”
Frances’s eyes lit up with fear. “Please, not back home. I can’t go back there again.”
The Valentine Circle Page 38