by Jason Letts
“Worms,” Westley replied enigmatically, and Vern rolled his eyes.
And then Roselyn said something that gave them all pause.
“If only Mira had been here. She would’ve been so proud of us. I can’t wait to see her again.”
In the flickering light, Mira and Widget fought violently, wrestling each other to the floor, struggling to secure their own safety. The emotion, injustice, and adrenaline made Mira cry as she fought. She railed against her own fatigue and pain as much as she raged against Widget, and so the fight felt like it was two against one. Widget clubbed her head with his elbow, and she could taste blood in her mouth.
She twisted his arm and tried to spin around behind him to choke him, but he backed up and slammed her against the countertop. A painful cry escaped her lips as he leveled her flat on the surface and put his hand to her throat. She flailed at him, cracking his jaw with the static charger and kicking at him.
Widget caught hold of her left arm and began ripping at the static charger. He twisted the arm behind her back, and Mira was helpless to prevent him from destroying it entirely. Pieces that he tossed away rattled on the floor. She struggled to stop him as he pulled the neodymium magnet down her arm and forced it over her fist.
“You have no idea how sad I was to lose this. But you brought it right back to me, albeit with a hole. It should have enough juice left for one more show,” he chattered, spinning her back around.
Mira struggled but failed to repel him, and soon he grabbed a rope from a nearby drawer and began grasping for her hands. In her mind, she screamed to resist, but her arms responded sluggishly and he soon had a hold of them. He tied her hands together, dragging her off the countertop and letting her drop head first onto the floor.
“It’s over, Mira,” he laughed, free to taunt her from just inches away. “You’re mine now, my little dream girl.”
He yanked her helplessly across the floor, and all she could do was shout and cry and scream.
“I’ll get you!” she shrieked over and over as he pulled her body up the stairs.
“Come on, back to your cell,” he chided, pushing open the door to her bare room. He lifted her to her feet only so he could push her over onto the cold floor. She collided with a thud and groaned. Everything hurt too much to feel.
“Now you just sit tight, OK? I’ll come get you when we’re ready.”
“This is the worst mistake you’re ever going to make,” Mira cursed him, struggling to sit up. Widget’s quick glance confirmed she’d successfully flared his anger, but she didn’t expect it when he grabbed her tied hands and tossed her against the wall. He bent down beside her, smushing her face and covering her mouth.
“The worst mistake? My worst mistake was ever loving a woman. And if I can pay it back to one of your deceitful, loathsome kind, then I will gladly take that well-deserved chance.”
Through her straining eyes, she watched him spew his words down upon her. They resonated so deeply that she couldn’t imagine there being anything else beneath them. He pushed her back and stormed out of the room. The door slammed behind him, and she heard the lock turn.
Time seemed to race and stand still at once, yet nothing happened. The only light in the room slipped through the cracks in the doorframe. She watched those little slivers of light, unable to believe what had happened or imagine what might happen next. Eventually, her heart slowed and she began to calm down. That’s when every part of her body started to cry out in pain.
Though she had countless cuts and bruises, the worst pain came from her mind. Everything she had worked for had all been a waste. She had ruined the chance her parents had given her to save her sister before she even got started. Somehow the world had consumed her, just as her mother warned her it would. There was no possibility of escape, and she began to cry because of it. She sobbed until crying began to hurt too, and then she simply huddled still with nothing but her misery to wallow in.
It was only then she remembered she was not alone. She pulled her tied hands up to her head and reached her fingers into the folds of her ear. The blood stone was in there, and Mira held it in her hands with all the care she muster.
“Corey! Corey! You have to help me. You have to hear me. I’m Mira! Something’s gone wrong and I need your help. There’s no escape. Dr. Widget locked me in a room in his house. I don’t know what he’s going to do. Please! Anybody, please! I think—oh, no!”
She stopped abruptly when the door flew open, revealing her tormenter. Bandages blotted his sweaty arms all the way down to his hands clutching the farm pliers. She quickly flicked her fingers and dropped the pebble to her side. It rattled as it settled, making her cringe.
“Who were you talking to?” he asked.
“You.”
Widget dropped the hefty pliers against the floor, and jumped forward. She tried to keep him away, but he had no trouble finding the tiny pebble.
“What is this?”
“What does it look like, dummy? It’s a rock. Don’t you know that?” she chided, sliding up the wall to her feet.
“Well it’s mine now,” he said.
He turned to leave, but Mira couldn’t restrain herself from saying something more.
“You can’t fill me with your hate. Because I’m bottomless.”
Widget reached down to pick up the pliers. “Don’t worry. I’ll get to the bottom.”
He reached for the door handle to again plunge her into darkness, but this time he stopped to offer a parting comment of his own. “I know what you’re thinking. No, you don’t need to help with the repairs. I’ve got some shiny new tools, thanks to you,” he said, raising the farm pliers.
The door closed. Mira listened but couldn’t be sure if he walked away or not.
“You still have to feed me!” she called. There was no response. She pondered what she had told Widget about the blood stone. Was it really just a rock? She had never heard a peep out of it.
Despite the ensuing silence, her heart beat furiously inside her chest. She tried to imagine scenarios where he would come back and she would somehow overcome him. Help would come, and she would be saved. Her brain hurt attempting to sort out specific details, where she could go or who would help her. Ultimately, she blacked out.
She awoke in a fuzzy daze. The room hadn’t changed, and the same light trickled in from the hallway. She vaguely remembered feeling hungry, but now she couldn’t feel anything except for a throbbing ache that pulsed with every beat of her heart. She groaned and dozed in semi-conscious delirium.
Pounding and drilling rumbled from downstairs. Just when Mira thought she might secure a little bit of rest, the clatter began anew. Electrical charges zapped, generators rattled, and glass clinked. At times Widget’s raspy yelps could be heard above the din. For all the noise, Mira could only concentrate enough to belittle herself for her stupid mistakes or apologize to anyone she could think of for ever being alive.
The day passed, and she never once saw Widget. She lay on her side, the skin of her face pressed against the metal floor. She passed out, awoke, and lost consciousness again. Any emotion left her. Her cuts remained open and sores developed where her hip rubbed against the floor.
Trying to imagine a better place for herself, she pictured spending a sunny afternoon making a cake. She saw Chucky there, and they laughed as they mixed the flour and the sugar. His scruffy, thick hair made him handsome, in his own way. For all the time she spent imagining the details of her fantasy, it hurt that much more to open her eyes and see her cold, dreary chamber.
She rolled onto her side and felt something on the floor. The tips of her fingers grazed a strip of bacon. Widget must have thrown it in while she slept. Mira gazed with wonder at the product of his mercy. Maybe this was all just a misunderstanding. She would forgive him if he would let her go, promising not to tell anyone. It would be OK. She slowly motioned to eat the bacon, lightly grinding it against her teeth, which felt so loose in her mouth. Though it made her feel full, she grasp
ed around for more. She found nothing else in the room and sprawled out on the floor in the dark.
The light shone on her body, but she didn’t move. Her eyelids flapped lazily over her unfocused pupils. Her arm moved, and the rest of her body followed it. Her feet no longer touched the ground.
“Thank you,” she mumbled dully.
“It’s time, Mira. This is coming to an end,” Widget said, shaking her awake and carrying her out of the room on his shoulder. She felt nauseated, unable to think straight. He brought her into the laboratory, which looked cleaner than it had after their fight. Maneuvering past the tables, he continued toward the back of the room. Instead of frayed wires poking out from a hole, the large machine had been sealed up and polished. Up behind it, it held a battery of ten Leyden Jars that had been connected near the top.
Widget set Mira down against the large metal tablet that faced the machine’s narrow point. A smile came to his face as he strapped her in. He pranced around, gleefully checking his instruments.
“We’re about to do something extraordinary, Mira! A breathtaking discovery is finally at hand. After so many trials, it all comes down to you, the hideous product of my making. You may not have a power, but you do have a soul, and we’re going to see what happens when it leaves you.”
A ravenous gleam took to his eyes, and he hastened to a glass beaker on the counter. It brimmed with a silvery liquid. Mira’s glazed eyes followed him as he brought the beaker and a funnel to her. He forced her mouth open and put in the funnel. Holding it in place, he raised the glass container and dumped in the contents.
Mira gagged, coughed, and choked as the silvery liquid overflowed her mouth and spilled across her face and clothing. She couldn’t avoid swallowing it, and it seemed to clog her throat and tear at her from the inside.
“Those metallic particles are seeping throughout your body now. They are a part of you and they’ll filter down into the fabric of atoms that holds you together. That’s where your soul is, and I’m going to draw it out using this electron magnet. With any luck, you’ll die from the metal ripping through your body and not because of your departed spirit.”
“No,” Mira gargled helplessly, still convulsing from the material that had invaded her. Her heart beat feverishly, and her eyes regained some lucidity. She noticed smoke coming in through the window from outside. Widget had a clipboard, and he scribbled a few calculations and observations.
Taking one longing look at Mira, he strapped a pair of protective goggles to his face and swung up to the electron magnet’s elevated control panel. At the touch of a button, the generators under the machine started humming as the complicated contraption came to life.
“It’s going to hurt, but please try to keep the noise down,” he begged.
The machine on the platform began to make a whirring sound, and Mira could see a tiny reddish light beam streaming through the end. It focused right on the center of her chest. The noise of the machine increased, and Widget’s mouth hung open as he stared.
Just then a thundering crash echoed from the front door. The jarring impact made Widget jump. He craned his neck over his machine to see. The laboratory door had not been closed since Widget had entered with Mira, and a sharp new dent had appeared in the front door. Mira turned her head too, but couldn’t see anything outside of the laboratory door from her vantage point.
Though the thud ended, the noise did not die away entirely. People were outside, and their commotion resounding over the drumming electron magnet.
“Hep,” Mira garbled. The light on her chest grew in size.
“It’s too late!” Widget howled. “They’ll never break down that door. Might as well be a thousand miles away!”
But the lock gave way and the door swung open. Moments later figures rushed into the room. Widget, flabbergasted, swung down and ducked under his machine to stop them. Mira turned her head, calling out the names as she recognized them.
“Yannick, Mom, Dad.”
“It’s been a long time, Widget. Let her go now!” Kevin ordered.
“You know she belongs to me! And you, you were here before!” Widget sneered upon spotting Yannick, who looped along the far wall.
“I’m back to finish the job,” Yannick growled.
“The day of your penance has come,” Kevin shouted, assembling a mist to imprison Widget. The water molecules in the air gathered together to create a dense wall that would seal him away from anything outside. As it formed around him, Jeana ran along the wall to rescue Mira. Widget stood against one of the tables, and he laughed as the cloud encircled him.
“Yannick, take down the machine. We’ll untie Mira,” Kevin said, racing toward the center of the room now that Widget had been neutralized. He approached the cloud enveloping Widget, expecting to swerve around it, but a massive flame erupted from the side and nearly hit him. Kevin dove onto the floor as the flame swiveled around and evaporated the cloud wall.
Widget stood holding a lighter and an aerosol can mere steps away from where Kevin lay on the ground. A sickening smile took to his face, which matched the gleam of self-satisfaction in his eyes.
“I’ve always had your number, Mr. Ipswich. You were just never smart enough to realize it,” he gloated, taking a step closer. Spraying the can over the lighter, he again created a flame, lowering it as Kevin tried to scramble away. The flame nearly singed Kevin, but Yannick tackled Widget from the side, knocking away his weapon. Grappling on the floor, Widget reached into his lab coat pocket, pulled out a small device, and used it to shock Yannick’s metallic armor.
Jeana struggled to free Mira from the tablet. The eerie light beamed onto her chest, giving Jeana a terrible shiver. She begged her daughter to hang on, to be patient, and to believe everything would be OK. Her hands fumbled with the thick leather, and she picked at the knots binding her to the metal plate. Mira looked ill, barely responsive to the chaos going on around the room.
“OK, finally! Come on,” Jeana said, releasing one arm out of the shackle. She quickly moved on to the next one using the same winning technique. Yanking feverishly, she pulled it apart. Once both hands were free, she dropped to her knees to undo the binds that held Mira’s legs. The commotion continued to erupt in the background, and Jeana kept looking over her shoulder and fretting.
Mira collapsed into her mother’s arms, still covered in the slimy mess that had been poured into her. She had broken into a hysterical fit, shaking violently.
“I’m not real,” she raved over and over.
“What?” Jeana uttered.
Mira slipped onto her hands and knees. Her hair hung down around her face. Jeana bent to try to help her to her feet but pulled back when Mira began to vomit. The silvery liquid spewed out of her mouth onto the tile floor. She sputtered and coughed, finally managing to calm down.
“For goodness’ sake!” Jeana cried, seeing the metallic liquid. The extent of Widget’s treachery was all too clear. She lifted Mira onto her feet and helped her limp away from the machine and its light, now projecting directly onto the metal tablet. Jeana checked Mira where it had shone on her, but nothing appeared out of the ordinary. They only made it a few feet along the sidewall before a bright bang made them stop abruptly and dive for the floor.
An explosive device had ravaged the front section of the room. It blew the door from its hinges and started small fires wherever wood remained. The shockwave sent one rack of shelves over, scattering its smashed contents on the floor. The cacophony disturbed the girls, who carefully peered over the table to see what had happened. The men had been knocked onto the floor in separate areas of the room. Each slowly struggled to get up. Yannick was closest to them. Kevin lay by the door and Widget against the far wall.
Despite causing the explosion, Widget seemed the most impacted by it because of his advanced years. His white coat had marks and burns all over it. He had trouble getting his legs underneath him. Now that the coast was clear, Jeana pulled Mira along to the open doorway. But Kevin had also susta
ined an injury from the blast. He leaned against the wall, holding his arm. Mira nodded that she could stand under her own power, and Jeana went to tend to her husband.
“I’ll be fine,” Kevin said.
“You haven’t beaten me. You know you can’t beat me,” grumbled a sour and hateful voice. Widget hobbled toward them, dragging one foot behind him. His hands were empty, but the murderous intent in his eyes made him frightening enough. His head leaned forward and his mouth hung open.
“Stop right there,” Kevin ordered with Jeana at his side. He motioned to summon a mist but the flames had robbed the room of its moisture. He could do nothing but yell. “Give up while you still have your life!”
Widget refused to stop, appearing completely repulsed and yet inexplicably drawn to her. He slunk along with Mira straight ahead. She watched him in a daze. His every step seemed like it would fail and send him to the floor. Jeana got ready to rush at Widget herself.
“My life. You have my life. I have your life,” he mumbled deliriously to Mira.
He stopped dead several yards in front of Mira when his eyes rolled back in his head. His eyelids drooped and his head cocked back and to the side. A smoky apparition escaped through his face into the air, seeming to peel away from his head and drift in front of him.
This disturbing opaque form that Widget conjured gave Jeana and Kevin stunned and sickened fits, but they could do nothing more than render disturbed gawks as it slipped out of his body. The head flopped further backward as the gaseous entity departed at the shoulders. Though the form retained Widget’s size, the features had been blurred, and there seemed no mind inside the idle haze. White and misty arms separated from the pale flesh and floated out in front of the emerging torso. All at once the floating mass animated and recoiled itself for a desperate forward lunge.
“Look out, Mira!” Jeana screamed as the apparition rushed from the peeling body to Mira’s. As it swept through the air, Yannick dove in the way, and the spirit disappeared inside him. Yannick fell to the ground with a thud, his unfocused eyes staring out into space.