Hello, Unbreakable Machine Doll fandom!
(cricket noises)
Ummm...okay then...well (clears throat) this story is a really special case. Why? Because I didn't have any other stories to read about in this fandom, that's why. I usually write a story for a fandom after having read a few examples, but the lack of stories in this fandom isn't going to stop me from sharing what I have in mind.
Anyways, enjoy!
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Prologue: Second Chance
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~London, 1812~
A black hooded figure walked through the hospital annex's hallway casually, completely ignoring the various inquiries coming from the nurses and doctors, along with, the inquisitive and skeptical glances that accompanied said inquiries. Not many visitors come to the annex building, since there was only one patient here.
The figure clearly showed no interest in providing them with a response to their inquiries or any response at all, for that matter, which didn't seem to bother the nurses and doctors...much...
This was the annex building and there's a very good reason why this building is separated from the main one. Granted, almost no one from the outside actuallu knew said reason, but they had stayed away from it nonetheless.
If a hospital, of all places, was going out of its way to create a separate building for something...or someone, then it would be wise to steer clear.
The point is that no person would so much as set one foot in the annex's direction, if they did not have an obligation or desire to do so.
Which brings us back to the current anomaly, presented before them.
The figure suddenly stopped in front of a very particular hospital room and any doctor or nurse who saw this, froze in their tracks instantaneously and their eyes went wide in fear and their mouths went slack in disbelief.
There were numerous rooms in this annex building and all of those rooms are completely and utterly empty, which was done partly to ward off any curious cats that may have decided to snoop around.
Mostly to divert suspicion.
"Is this Shelia Winchester's room?" The person asked without turning to address them. The person's voice was a casual and pubescent- sounding with a subtle Swiss undertone in his mild Bristish accent. It sounded distinctly male, despite the high frequency.
The surrounding doctors and nurses merely flinched at the name and even moreso at the implication of who the person was looking for. Doctors and nurses alike stayed away from that room and with good reason.
Afterall, they neither held any desire to contract a lethal virus nor spread said lethal virus across England.
"I'll take that stunned silence as a yes" The boy said, sounding distinctly amused.
The boy was about to reach for the doorknob when one of the doctors finally broke out of his stupor.
"Th-that room is under quarantine, if you go in there as you are, then you'll likely-" he didn't get to finish.
"I am aware of the consequences, so there is no need to continue that sentence" the boy said casually, while waving a hand dismissively.
"Th-then you should know that it wouldn't be advisable to enter that room" said the doctor, sounding incredibly fearful.
"And what, pray tell, are you willing to do if I were to enter this room" said the boy casually. The doctor flinced at his words as if they knives that nicked his skin.
Everyone else in the room simply went paler at they boy's intention.
"You have already went out of your way to isolate this Ms. Winchester from any other patient and judging by your reactions, you haven't even so much as set one foot beyond this door, which is, for all intents and purposes, a clear indication that you are turning a blind eye on your obligiation to this young girl, who is your patient" the boy casually, albeit angrily recited. "That leads me to believe that not one of you would so much as set another step in my direction, if I were to open this door." He reached for the doorknob again, which prompted more than a few shouts of outrage.
"Are you mad, she's just one girl, she's going to die either way there's no point in risking an epidemic" one doctor shouted. "there's nothing we can do!"
"Correction," The boy turned to face them, while the cloak still concealed his face. He had an amused smile on his face. "There's nothing any of YOU can do about it"
He opened the door.
Pointedly, ignoring the panicked shouts of the nurses and doctors mixed in with the sound of rapid footfalls as they ran out of the building.
No other patients were going to hear them anyway, since this room was inside an isolated annex and that the only reason these doctors and nurses were even here was to keep up appearances.
They couldn't afford to look like they were overtly neglecting their duties, after all.
Preventing a potential pandemic didn't justify the fact that they had intentionally neglected their duties and left a young girl for dead.
Alas, I digress.
The boy walked inside the room and closed the door behind him because he knew that no one outside would dare do so and also because he wanted to keep whatever he was going to say inside this room.
Conveniently enough, this room is sound proof as well.
A single standard hospital bed was placed on the very edge of the room and lying on it under the blankets was a young girl whose eyes went wide in shock, relief and fear.
"Hello, Ms. Winchester, I hope you don't mind my visiting, but I thought you'd like a little company" The boy said casually, as if she was just any other girl. "Please pardon the intrusion"
The boy then started leisurely walking towards the bed, which prompted the girl to meekly speak up and shake her head at him.
"Please don't come any closer. The doctors said that I have a very lethal disease and if you come any closer then the risk of contracting it will become more apparent for you" the girl said in a weak voice with more than a few coughs in between words.
"Is that so?" The boy inquired in mild amusement, yet he continued to walk towards her.
"I-Indeed, which is why the doctors placed me in this room away from other people, so that I may not infect the others" the girl said as she finally managed to sit up. She looked like a 10 year old girl who had been slowly drained dry. She was bony. "Not even the doctors and nurses wanted to risk it"
"You must be lonely then" the boy said as he proceeded to walk, without a so much as a falter in his step. His tone had a gentle, yet nonchalant tone to it.
He certainly didn't look like he was apparoaching a girl infected with a lethal virus that's for sure.
"Th-that is true, but i-it's all worth it, if this illness will die along with me" answered the girl before going into a series of coughs.
"A noble gesture, indeed. Sacrificing yourself for the sake of a million strangers, who will more likely not even know about what you did. A hollow victory, wouldn't you say?" The boy said in a casual tone. His voice sounded young and pubescent and yet his words held a certain weight to them, like they were coming from someone more experienced...more mature.
Noticing the boy's continuing advance, as well as, its progress.
"P-please do not come any closer, I do not wish for my efforts to be in vain" Shelia said in a raspy voice followed by a coughing fit.
"You will not harm me, Ms. Winchester" the boy said with a firm, yet gentle voice.
The certainty in the boy's reply shocked Shelia. How was he not afraid?
"B-but the disease" was all she could splutter out.
"If, as you say, no one has ever been in this room with you, not even the doctors or nurses, then how can you be so certain that your disease is, indeed, contagious?" The boy reasoned, as he neared her bedside.
"I-I...I..."
She didn't know what to say...
"I certainly know that you did not magically pop up in this room, that's for sure. I may not be a physics major, but I know enough to deduce that for you to have arrived here, some manner of manual labor must have been used and that a few, if not, more people may have come in contact with you or at the very least were in range tp be infected by the so-called virus."
It was too much for her to process, all she could do was stare at the boy. She didn't even have it in here to speak when the boy sat at her bedside.
"Humans often fear what they cannot understand, that which is different from them, that which is unknown" the boy started in a gentle and soothing tone. "To the best of my knowledge, this "illness" of yours has neither been contracted nor documented by anyone, it is unknown, which prompted these humans to fear you"
The boy soothed the girl by tracing circles around her palm with her thumb.
"I'll get straight to the point. As far as I know, this illness of yours has never been contracted by anyone and I do not think that it ever will." The boy said gently, yet frankly. "I'm afraid you spent the last few months of your life in solitude for nothing"
All Shelia did was cry. The tears ran down her cheeks and whimpers filled the silence inside the solitary room.
For nearly 3 months, she had been completely alone with nothing but the four sides of the room and a locked door filling her vision every single day and now here she was, being told by the first person whoever dared approach her that it was all for naught.
Regret.
What if's and what could've been's filled her every thought. What if she hadn't went to the hospital in the first place? What if she had never contracted this disease? What if she never believed that she was sick?
Desperation.
Shelia wanted it all back. She would do anything to get back those precious months! She couldn't die like this! She wanted to get out! She wanted to see the city!
Longing.
How Shelia wished she could take it all back. How she wished that she could've spent her last few months with her sister. How she wished that she hadn't let her fear control her.
How she wished...she could have...
"a second chance..." Shelia whispered, when her tears had finally dried up.
Despair.
There was nothing she could do now. All she could do was calmly wait for her death. She didn't have it in her to fight anymore. It was only a matter of time before the grim reaper appeared before her.
Her strength waned and she slowly started to fall towards her bed.
Only to be caught by the boy's hands.
Shelia looked at the boy's hooded figure through her half-open eyes. She couldn't help but let out a small smile at the fact that she was going to die in the arms of the first person she's seen in months who just so happened to be dressed like the grim reaper.
Oh, the irony.
Maybe...he really is...the grim reaper...
"Shelia," the boy started and Shelia, having no energy left to raise her eyebrows or speak, looked at him through half-open eyes. "Do you want a second chance?"
Yes...She wanted to say, but the words could not leave her mouth.
Instead, she just gave the slightest and almost non-existent nod of her head, hoping that he got the meaning.
He nodded his head and slowly removed his hood.
If Shelia didn't feel like she was on the verge of death, then her eyes probably would've went wide in alarm.
What greeted Shelia was a face of a pale gray-purple bed-haired, blue-eyed pubescent boy.
He had a stitch running down from rightmost side of his face, from his forehead, between his nose and right eye, and to his neck. He had another one running from his forehead to his left ear, encircling topmost left part of his face. Finally, there were stitches above and below his lips, which gave off the illusion of his mouth being sewn shut.
That wasn't even the most disturbing.
Sticking out from his head was a gigantic screw. The head stuck out of his left temple and the tip out of his right. He even had a pair of bolts on the side of his neck.
Yet, when all was said and done, Shelia, couldn't bring herself to feel any fear. If she felt anything...
...she felt hope.
"What is your name?" She whispered ina barely audible voice.
The boy gave her a small smile and said.
"It's Frankenstein. Doctor Victor Frankenstein"
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Okay, fess up, readers, which one of you actually thought that the boy was Death and/or the Grim reaper? Hmmm...?
Anyhoo, for the following chapters I have three options in mind.
The first being that I elaborate on the events that lead up to the scene in this chapter, do a time skip to when Yaya and Raishin come to Liverpool, and slowly show what happened after this chapter (the events before the timeskip) in flashback chapters.
The second is that I do the timeskip first and then elaborate on the past events as the story progresses.
The third is that I tell you all what happened directly after this, do a time skip and do flashback chapters to what happened prior to this chapter.
Simply put, the first : Events before this chapter - timeskip - events after this chapter
The second : timeskip - past events (Before and after this prologue)
The third : What happens after this - timeskip - what happened before this chapter.
Please tell me what you think is best and I hope to see you all again in the first official chapter.