Chapter 4
1 stared in horror at the dried up mummy of the scientist which lay before him, face down on the floor.. He couldn't believe what he was seeing even as his mind processed the information. It couldn't be...
He walked cautiously toward the corpse as if expecting it to rise up and attack him. His optics moved across the body, taking in every gruesome detail. The man's skin was dried out against the bones and he could see the man's teeth beginning to show through the flesh.
1 shuddered, remembering when the scientist had been alive, He hadn't had much meat on his bones even then but the way he looked now was just dismal. The stitchpunk looked away, feeling as if he might throw up if he could.
No... why? Why did the closest thing he had to as father have to suffer such a fate?
He covered his face, his mind reeling. He stumbled froward, blindly bumping into an arm. He gasped and backed away from it, tripping over his own feet and falling onto his back with a cry of pain..
Whimpering he pushed himself up and backed away, his optics staring widely at the body.
The corpse remained where it was, a cold truth to the world's hard reality even as he refused to believe what he was seeing.
1 quickly scrambled to his feet and got out of there, not stopping until he was halfway down the hall and could no longer see the body. He leaned over, resting his hands on his knees as he panted heavily, partly from running and partly to calm himself down.
I can't believe this! he kept repeating in his head over and over. How did it happen? I thought he wouldn't be dead...
But he was and the fact sent chills through the old stitchpunk's entire body and he began to shake again and this time he couldn't stop, even when he rubbed his arms and dashed into a patch of sunlight streaming in from a broken window.
Why was he suddenly so cold?
"Come on," he muttered to himself, jumping up and down rapidly in an attempt to get some heat in his frame. "Get warm, get warm."
His attempts did little good to remove the deathly chill. With a moan of agony mixed with sadness, 1sat down in the sunlight, curling up into a fetal position, beginning to cry and rock himself helplessly. At the moment his mind seemed to have shut out everything but the horror he'd seen and the chill of death knifing through his small, canvas frame.
How long he remained that way he didn't know but by the time he regained his senses, mostly due to a hand resting on his arm, the patch of sunlight was gone which indicated it was an extended amount of time.
1 practically jumped out of his fabric when he felt the hand rest on his shoulder and he cried out, sitting straight up and turning slightly.
"Wha-" the word froze in his throat when he saw another glowing ghost standing over him. This time it was 8 and he looked extremely worried about his "best buddy". "8?" he exclaimed his optics going wide with surprise and disbelief. Was this real?.
The bigger stitchpunk gave him a smile and removed his hand before he vanished into thin air.
"Wait!" he shouted, reaching up to grab at the other stitchpunk as if he could prevent him from vanishing. "8, don't go yet!" At least tell me why you're here!
But he was too late and all he grabbed was air.
1 stared at his empty hand as a cry escaped his throat. Gone. Just like 2. He was alone, alone with only ghosts to give him comfort.
0000
7 woke up to find the twins gone. Sometimes during the night they had come into her room and joined her in bed, cuddling up to her like two small children and fall asleep almost instantly. Now it seemed they'd woken up before he and went off somewhere.
"3? 4?" she called, sitting up and looking around.
The room was empty, she was alone.
Where had the twins gone? Were they exploring the house? Had they gone outside to pay their respects? 7 looked down at the talisman which lay nestled against her side and sighed. So they hadn't released the souls by themselves. Why had she worried that they would have?
So then where were they?
The female stitchpunk, deciding to find out, got up and moved toward the doorway, peeking out into the hall when she reached it. She looked both ways up and down the hall, trying to spot the twins but seeing nothing but a ruined house and spots of sunlight seeping through the windows and cracks in the walls.
"Hello?" she called out.
Silence.
Frowning she stepped out of the room and headed down the hall, looking this way and that for any sign of the twins or even 1. She knew neither would wander off too far, the twins because they wouldn't go anywhere without her and liked to stay close to people who could protect them if they were unable to hide, and 1, well... he probably felt the need to protect them in a weird way by staying close.
"Even if he can't fight worth anything," she muttered to herself.
Her feelings for 1 had grown worse during the night instead of better. Maybe it was because she refused to admit she was part of the problem and not just the older stitchpunk. She stubbornly held onto the belief that everything was solely his fault even though she knew he wasn't.
7 shook the through out of her mind and focused on trying to find the twins. She scanned the entire hall, even looking up toward the ceiling, though it was very unlikely they'd be climbing up the walls like spiders.
But the passage was empty.
7 kept walking, reaching the end of the hall and looking into what remained of the living room.
It was also empty, showing no stitchpunks or anything of interest. Sighing she turned away and headed into another part of the house, the dining room. This one also proved to be empty but she could hear sounds coming from the kitchen across from the room and quickly increased her steps.
When she entered the kitchen she found the twins up on the counter, their optics click click clicking away as they took everything in and filed it away in their minds. She paused, watching them for a moment and couldn't help smiling. Somehow the sight of them doing something common made her feel a bit better.
If only everything else could be the way it used to be.
7 sighed and leaned against the wall, watching the twins move around the kitchen. She didn't call to them, not wanting to interrupt their project. As she watched them she wondered where 1 had gone off to. She hadn't seen him since she'd gotten up and it nagged at her even though she was sure he was perfectly fine and not out in the wastes getting himself into trouble.1 wouldn't do that anyway, he was too much of a coward to go outside without someone baby-sitting him.
He's probably hiding somewhere, she thought to herself. Most likely. There are no more machines so why would he be afraid to go out? Part of her really did want him to go out and maybe even get into some trouble.
Stop that, 7!
Suddenly the twins were in front of her, flashing their optics. She gasped and covered her optics. "Whoa, hey, don't do that!"
They backed away, looking apologetic.
She blinked a few times and rubbed her optics. "I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head. "Just warn me next time, okay?"
The twins nodded in unison and flashed their eyes at a lower brightness as they grabbed her arms and started tugging on them. She frowned and pulled her arms away, feeling a bit annoyed at this. They noticed and quickly retreated, placing their hands at their sides, their expressions sad and apologetic.
"What?" she asked them.
They looked at her then glanced toward the doorway. 7 looked over her shoulder to see what they were looking at and spied 1 standing in the doorway. From where she stood it looked like something was bothering him, his optics were wide and he kept on fingering his mangled hand in a nervous fashion.
"1?" she asked, her voice actually holding a sincere note on concern. What was wrong with him? Why did he look so terrified? Had he gone outside and seen something after all? "What's the matter?"
The older stitchpunk gasped and looked at her, his optics widening further for a brief moment before he regained composer. His optics returned to normal and he shook his head, trying to act and look as normal as possible. The last thing the older stitchpunk wanted was for 7, of all people, to know what he'd seen earlier that day. She wouldn't have believed him anyway. "Huh?"
"Are you all right?" 7 asked again, her body language giving off an air of concern.
"I..." he cleared his throat. "I'm fine Why are you asking me such a thing?"
The female frowned, feeling defensive because of his tone. "Because you looked like you'd seen a ghost."
"Of course not," he said quickly."That's an irrational thing to assume. Why would I see a ghost? There's no such thing!"
7 made a face and looked back at the twins deciding not to make any further comments, lest she get into yet another fight with him. After last night she wasn't in the mood to argue with him further on anything. She'd rather just avoid getting into anymore discussions because they always ended with a fight.
1 wasn't willing to let it drop so soon, however. "No, why would you think that?"
"1," she sighed. "let it go."
"First answer my question." he pressed.
7 folded her arms and gave him a look, her temper beginning to rise. "I don't think I have to," she informed him. "But if you wish I asked you because you seemed upset for some reason and before you ask me how I would know it's because of the look on your face and your body language. If I'm wrong then fine I conceed but otherwise there's no reason for you to get after me about a simple question about your well being."
1 started to respond to that but shut his mouth, realizing she was right and he'd overreacted. But could anyone blame him? It was bad enough he felt like trash but now he was being haunted and that only served to make him feel even worse.
"Never mind." he sighed. "Just forget I said anything." he looked at the twins, frowning a little as they quickly ducked behind 7. "What is wrong with you two?" he demanded. "Don't tell me you're afraid of me!"
The twins ducked out of sight making 7 frown at 1 in disapproval. "You didn't have to do that," she told him, folding her arms.
"I didn't like the way they were looking at me," he shot back.
"Well they wouldn't look at you like that if you weren't constantly being such a jerk about everything!" she snapped. "and if they are afraid of you can you blame them after the way you treat them?"
"What would you know about that?"
"Plenty since I was unfortunate to have to live with you!"
"And you think you were an angel?" he shouted. "Trust me, you were no joy to live with either!"
"Then maybe you should leave!"
"Maybe I will!"
Just then the twins came out from behind 7 and ran at 1, their optics flashing and their heads shaking back and forth.
"What?" he demanded.
They grabbed onto him and started pulling, forcing him to move toward 7.
"Stop that!" he ordered. "Let go of me!"
But the twins didn't obey his order. They continued to pull him toward 7 until he was nearly standing beside her then let him go and took hold of 7's arm shaking her head and flashing her optics. The other female frowned. "Hmmm."
"What are they doing?" he demanded.
"They don't want you to leave us." she told him.
This statement struck 1 dumb. He looked surprised and had no idea what to say to that. They actually wanted him to stay even though he acted so uncivilized?
Why?
7 sighed. "I think we should just try not to argue so much," she told him. "We're not accomplishing anything by doing so anyway."
1 looked at her and after a moment of silence, nodded. "Fine," he agreed, honestly tired of fighting anyway. "very well then."