The early morning was dark and quiet, a thick fog coating everything in and out of sight. The moon was still ripe and full, just beginning her descent. I stood, silent and shaking, as the light coloured houses seemed to spin around me in a nauseating rush of green, pink and yellow. Everything seemed silent that morning, the wind rushing through and over perfectly manicured shrubs providing the only sound in that pastel hell. My breathing was ragged and harsh as though I had just run for miles. I stood shivering in my ripped, mud stained clothes, my dirty, matted hair falling like a veil over my face. For a moment longer, the fog was hushed, before I turned and retched into a nearby begonia bush. Wiping the vile, bitter, metallic taste off my lips with my sleeve, I looked around me. The sight that met my eyes disgusted me. Each house was exactly the same as the one next to it. Everything was pale, perfect, pristine ugliness. Looking father ahead, however, I saw a dark, spindly object. So, clutching my stomach as though I would lose it, I staggered towards the mysterious object. Coming closer, I realized that it was a gate. Dark, gothic, old, and absolutely beautiful in my eyes. My free hand reached towards it, and a dazed, vague smile clouded over my pale features. A light rain began to spit onto me as I gently pushed on the rusted iron. To my great surprise, it opened quite easily against my damp, dirty fingers, and I soon found myself standing in the dark forest on the other side. My eyes ran over the trees, and up to a large mountain. I took in the sight, my eyes widening as they took in the rocky monstrosity. Finally, I looked directly up at the top of the rock. I saw a mansion on top of the mountain. It was beautiful, all turrets and stone. I could see a large hole in the roof from there.
"Wow.."
I whispered, not exactly sure what to make of the sight. It was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen! I decided, and a cool breeze made goose bumps on my pale arms, that the place on top of the mountain would be the ideal place to spend the night. So I began walking quickly through the forest, towards the mountain, brambles and branches catching in my hair and clothing, not that I cared. After about 20 minutes, I found myself at the base of the mountain. Taking a deep breath, I began my ascent up the rocky exterior of said mountain. As fate would have it, as soon as I reached the top I saw a road winding down the rocks face that would have made my journey a lot easier, but I didn't care. I had made it.
In front of me, there was a second gate. A stone dragon was perched above it keeping guard, its snout pulled back in a snarl. I pushed the gate open, stepping through into a veil of vines. Gingerly pushing them aside, I found my breath being taken away for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. Before me was the most beautiful garden I had ever seen! The hedges had all been trimmed into different creatures. Here a ballerina, there a peacock, and in front of me a sea serpent whose coils slid through the earth. But most amazing of all was a giant hand in the middle of the garden, its fingers raised in greeting, its palm turned to the heavens. Passing through this garden, I found myself at a door. I knocked on it several times, but there was no answer. So I leaned against the rotting wood, pushing myself against it, till with a loud creak, the door opened a crack. I slipped through, and was somewhat disappointed by what I found on the other side. I had expected to see silver gleaming banisters, deep violet drapes, candles.. What I got was a lot of dust in a big, empty room. I walked into the room, halting in the middle to examine my surroundings. To one side there was a load of large, eccentric looking machinery. I walked over to it, smiling, and very confused. As I traced patterns in the collected dust on the conveyer belts, however, I was distracted by a sound. A sound like blades rubbing together. It came from above me. I hesitantly crossed to a large set of stairs.
"Hello?"
I called, my voice reverberating eerily around me. The only answer was the same noise, like scissors snipping continuously. So, I slowly began climbing the steps, curiosity making me forget my unease.
After what seemed like forever, I found myself in another large room. A large room with a gigantic hole in the ceiling. I gasped at the sudden cold rain that pelted me from the hole. Looking around and shivering like mad, I found a fireplace. I walked over to it, my confusion mounting as I saw a small bed on the hearth, complete with thin, moldy sheets. Even more curious, there were clippings from newspapers and magazines taped to the back wall! I stood there for a moment, studying my findings, till once again I heard the snipping. I straightened quickly, cracking my neck most painfully, and whirled around to try to find the source of the noise. There, in the shadows, I swear I saw something. Squinting, and taking a few steps closer, I recognized the clear figure of a person. "Hello." I called over to the person. They made no response. "What are you doing back there?" I asked next, hoping for an answer. When none came, I tried, "Are you hiding from me? If you are, you don't need to be. Please come out, you don't need to be afraid of me, I don't bite. Well, actually I do, but let's not get into that.." I smiled meekly at the figure in the shadows. My smile widened a fracture when I saw that the figure was moving towards me. "Get into what?" I heard the voice say- male- softly. I was about to reply to his question, when I saw something that made my throat close up and my heart stop for a moment.
"Oh god.." I choked out. As he was moving out of the shadows, I could see quite clearly that the man was holding a series of sharp, lethal looking blades in his hands. I began backing away slowly, holding my hands out in front of me. I began talking very quickly in a very quiet voice. "I'm sorry if I offended you, I didn't mean to, and please don't hurt me, please! I'll- I'll go now." I turned to the top of the stairs, prepared to run, to jump if I had to. I placed a foot on the top step, when I heard that same, small, quiet voice say, "Don't go." There was enough of a plea in his voice to make me turn. I looked back at him. He had cleared the shadows. I looked at him, still quite frightened. He was very, very pale, with wild black hair that seemed to go in all directions. He was wearing some sort of a black, leather body suit, with metal studs holding it together. I looked at the things at the ends of his wrists.
"My god." I said quietly. He wasn't holding blades.. His hands WERE blades. Like the long blades of a pair of scissors.
"What happened to your hands?" I asked after a moment.
"I'm not finished." He replied softly, holding his 'hands' out to me. I took a small step towards him, my curiosity overwhelming my fear I reached out towards the blades and gingerly touched the blunt end of one. I jumped back slightly at the cool feel of the metal, positive that I would wake from this bizarre dream to find that I was huddled beneath my blankets, holding my teddy in a death grip, any time now. After a silent moment, I asked, "Who are you?"
"Edward." He replied in that same, small voice. After another small moment, he began to talk.
"Have you come to take me back down there?" He asked. I finally brought my eyes up to his face. My gaze met a series of scars that I decided not to ask about at that time.
"Where?" I asked, now quite confused to say the least.
"Back there." He replied, indicating to the suburbia below.
"No," I replied, confused.
"Why would I take you down there?" He didn't say anything to that.
"Is Kim ok?" He asked next. My confusion grew.
"Who's Kim?" I asked. Again, no reply. After another moment of silence, I decided to ask some questions myself.
"How old are you, Edward?" I asked him gently.
"I don't know." He said simply.
"You don't know how old you are?" I asked incredulously. He shook his head.
"Well, when were you born?" I asked, deciding that might be easier to understand. He looked very confused, and a bit like he was going to cry.
"I wasn't born." He said in his quiet voice. I raised an inquiring eyebrow at that.
"How can you not have been born?" I asked.
"I was created." He said softly, as though he thought that might help. I tilted my head, looking at him, still very confused. I decided to save that topic for later. I moved on to, "What happened? When you went down, I mean?" He looked down at that, and remained silent.
"Well, I mean to say, I assume something happened, otherwise you would probably still be down there.." I trailed off, not really able to think of anything else to say. Finally, Edward replied.
"They were scared." He said. That was all that was needed. I understood entirely. I think almost anyone would have been scared seeing him. I had been myself.
"Have you always been here?" I asked next. He nodded.
"Have you always been by yourself?" He shook his head.
"Who was here with you?" Edward looked up at me.
"My creator." He said gently. I nodded.
"Where is he now, is he still here?" I asked.
"He never woke up." Said Edward. I nodded after a moment. He was dead. I had no desire to press the subject. Instead, I crossed my arms over my chest, and looked around the attic, trying to think of something to say, meanwhile I was uncomfortably aware that Edward was staring at me, as though expecting me to say something. Finally, my eyes came to a halt at a window. Through the broken glass, I could see that it had begun to rain quite heavily. Finally, I decided to move onto some more pressing matters.
"Edward," I began. "I was wondering.. Would you mind horribly if I spent the night here?" He looked rather confused at that.
"It's just that.. Well, it's raining quite hard outside, and I've already come a long way. I just don't want to have to keep walking." He nodded to show that he understood. After a moment, he asked me something that made me feel quite sad for him.
"You aren't scared of me?"
I looked into Edwards dark eyes, and replied in a quiet voice,
"Should I be?" He shook his head.
"Then I'm not." I said with a smile. He gave me a small smile in return. He led me downstairs to a door that I hadn't seen before. "You can stay in there." He said quietly. I smiled over my shoulder at Edward, and pushed the door open. To my surprise, I found myself looking at a small bed with clean sheets. Looking around, I also spotted a small chest of drawers. There was even a proper window, with panes of glass, even some airy looking drapes. A cobwebbed candelabra stood on a small bedside table, complete with candles and a small box of matches.
"Edward, what is this?" I asked, still slightly in awe of this room. After all the bare, empty space in the rest of the house, it was a very welcome sight for me.
"The guest room." He replied in his small voice. I smiled over at him. "Thank you very much, Edward, this is lovely." I said softly to him. He smiled down at me in return, then turned to leave. I reached out before he could, and tapped his shoulder. He turned, and I lifted his arms, careful not to cut either of us, then gave Edward a hug.
"Goodnight, Edward." I said gently, smiling at his shoulder.
"Goodnight." He said in reply. For a moment we just stood there in our friendly embrace, before he stepped back. I nodded to him, smiling. A small smile was also on his face. He turned and exited the room. I closed the door behind him, then looked around the room. I began beating the bedclothes, whipping the blanket at the wall till there was no more dust. Then I lit the candles in their holder, and smiled at the golden glow that filled the room. Then, opening the window a crack so that I could hear the rain, I stripped to my underclothes, and crawled under the blankets, sleep very welcome to me. But for quite a while, I just lay in the bed, staring at the ceiling. Just a few floors above me was a very confusing, gentle, mysterious man. I didn't really understand how he didn't know how old he was. In fact, I didn't really understand anything that he had told me. He had been created by an inventor, most likely on one of the machines outside. His inventor had died, by the looks of it, before he could finish poor Edward. Then Edward had probably stayed in this haunting house for a while.
But judging by the little he had said, someone else had probably come up here to this house, and brought him down to the town below. I wondered what had happened when the town members had seen him.. For some reason, I just couldn't picture someone as dark and quiet as Edward down in that town, most likely with busybody housewives bothering him day in and day out. And who was this Kim? From the way that he asked about her, I guessed she had to be someone special.. But who was she? A sister? I found that unlikely.. A girlfriend? Who knows. But as I rolled over onto my side, the sweet sound of rain serenading me, I had a thought. Whatever had happened to Edward, it would defiantly be interesting to find out.
End