A/N: By the end of this chapter, you're all most likely going to be displeased with me. But anyways, I was glad to hear that you guys were alright with the mushy chapter. I've written mildly mushy stuff before, but never excessively mushy, so I was glad to hear you liked it. Expect a few more obnoxiously mushy chapters in the future! But don't worry; it will be balanced out with darker and far less mushy chapters in between.

Many, many thanks to FireRuby14, yiseunggi, I My Me Mine, Miri-chan, TheNextAlice, and princedwardriviera for their reviews. I love that a lot of you guys are repeat readers/reviewers; it means a lot when you review once, but when you review more than once, it means the world to me!

Song: Dreams of the Black Cat - Ken Nakagawa

Couple: OliverxCul

"Y-You're not going in there…are you?"

"Of course I am! There's no reason for you to be such a big scaredy-cat."

"But you know it's haunted! Our parents have been telling us that for years!"

"You still believe in ghosts? Come on! This is the era of growing science and technology – I mean we have fully steam-powered air ships! If ghosts were real, scientists would have found out about them already!"

"You're only saying that because you're dad's a scientist…"

"Shut up! Fine, if you're too scared to go, I'll just go by myself! Give me that lantern!"

"Ah! W-Wait Cul! You're dad's gonna be so angry when he find out you went into clock tower four!"

"Psh, we can go into all the other clock towers, I don't understand why the fourth one should be so different. If dad asks just tell him I went to one of the other towers. See ya later!"

"Cul!"

But the child's plea fell on silent ears as the girl named Cul yanked the tin lantern from his grubby, sweaty hands. With loud, clipped steps that served the purpose of both drowning out the sound of the young boy calling after her and bolstering her courage, she approached the clock tower that loomed large and threateningly above her.

She knew what she was doing was strictly forbidden; every adult in her life had told her about the dangers of approaching clock tower number four. Dark secrets were hidden away there. Scientific marvels that should have never been pursued were locked away to never be opened again.

That only made the allure of the tower all that more attractive to the young girl. She had watched her father work on his steam powered inventions her whole life. She couldn't claim that she understood everything, or anything beyond the basics for that matter, but that didn't stop her from loving it. The combination of grease, steam, and metal was like a siren call to her.

As she drew closer to the boarded up tower, she couldn't help but feel her heart rate spike in excitement. Not only was there the distinct possibility of discovering "dark secrets", she was also doing something decidedly against the rules. A smile snaked its way on to her face as she adjusted her lantern to see the boarded over door of the tower.

She gave a few exploratory knocks on the rotting wood and gave a self-satisfied smile. She set the lantern on the floor and began to tug viciously on one of the loose, grimy boards, causing her young muscles to strain against the sudden exertion thrust upon them.

With a satisfying pop noise, the board came loose, causing Cul to crash into the ground with a large thud. She cursed to herself as she rubbed at her now sore bottom before she threw aside the board she had just removed. Picking up the lantern once more, she tentatively looked into the opening she had managed to create, but she could only see the elusive shimmer of a curtain of cobwebs.

The young girl gave an involuntary shudder. More than anything in the world, she hated spiders. Well…maybe that wasn't entirely true; she hated chickening out more than spiders.

Taking one last, sweet breath of un-spider infested air and closing her eyes tightly, she shoved her lantern in front of her and dove into the hole. The spider webs clung to her skin and hair as she felt her body give an involuntary shudder of disgust. She walked swiftly forward into the clock tower for several more second before she stopped and opened her eyes.

The room wasn't anything spectacular. The tower stretched high above her and an unstable looking metal staircase wove around the perimeter allowing for individuals to reach higher floors. The room was scattered with beakers, papers, long desks and mechanical parts that Cul couldn't even begin to fathom the names for. It was an area that had obviously been used for research.

"Maybe I could find some stuff about why they shut down the tower?" Cul commented, speaking aloud in an attempt to dissipate the almost suffocating feeling of silence in the tower, "Yeah, that's exactly what I'll do! I could be like one of those great thieves that steal the truth!"

Her course of action decided and her excitement growing, the young girl stepped further into the tower and began to pick papers off the floor. Some of them crumbled at her touch, causing her to click her tongue in annoyance. The papers that didn't crumble away were filled with scrawled notes in short, crammed handwriting, supplemented with diagrams to help better explain the ideas presented.

Not gaining any more knowledge from the nearly illegible words and the just as confusing diagrams, Cul threw them down in anger, causing them to scatter unceremoniously onto the floor.

"This is just stupid; they look just like the same super-confusing notes my dad makes!" She fumed as she looked down at the paper carnage she had just produced, "What the heck were they working on here and why aren't we allowed to go inside?"

Receiving no answer to her question and far from simply giving up, Cul held her lantern high above her head and cast her gaze to the spiraling, perilous staircase that wound its way to the ceiling of the tall tower.

"Of course!" She exclaimed as she headed for the landing that would lead her to the rest of the tower, "They wouldn't put their important secrets at the bottom of the tower! They've just gotta be hidden somewhere on one of the very, very top floors."

Excitement rushing through her system, she began to bound up the stairs two at a time. She made it about half-way up the first flight of stairs before she felt a tugging sensation on her toe. She didn't even have time to place out her hands to catch herself before the world came rushing to meet her. Her head jarred painfully as she banged her chin on the cold metal beneath her.

Through a haze of pain, Cul was aware of a sickening crack. At first, she thought she had shattered a bone and she would slowly rot in the tower, unable to move or call for help. But as the initial fear washed away and she realized her leg wasn't burning in pain, she became aware of the fact that she was now sitting in complete darkness. With a debilitating feeling of dread, she noticed for the first time that her fall had shattered the lantern.

She should have gone back; it would have made all the sense in the world. But all she could imagine was the story of how "Crybaby Cul" had entered into clock tower four with dreams of grandeur and had emerged with only a banged-up chin to show for her efforts. Indignant rage burning inside her, she quickly silenced the voice of reason that told her to leave, hauled herself off the ground, and continued her ascent.

Her movements were much more careful this time, partially due to the sudden darkness that surrounded her and partially due to the pain that coursed through her every time her movements jostled her chin.

She managed to climb about three more steps before something skittered at her feet.

Cul stopped in her tracks as her mind quickly conjured the worst scenario possible; it was a spider; it was some big, steam powered spider that some clearly insane scientist had created to eat small children. After all, all scary scientists hated children, right?

As she continued to stand on the landing, too petrified to move forward and to prideful to run away, she could hear the telltale click of gears locking into place. A few second later, just as she expected, she heard the sound of steam as the engine of whatever creature stood in front of her finally began to operate.

"Please oh please oh please don't let it eat me God," she forced her petrified lips to annunciate, "If you don't let the spider eat me, I promise I'll tell mom that I was the one that ate the last slick of cake and not Miki."

Hoping that her prayer was good enough and hearing the high-pitched whine that indicated the steam powered machine was about to take an action, she closed her eyes and waited for the worst. She expected to feel the disgusting feeling of eight tiny little claws dig into her skin and begin to wrap her in a cocoon to save as a snack for later.

CHIRP

Was that…a bird?

CHIRP

The sound came once more, indicating that Cul wasn't losing her mind. However, something was off about the chirp…it sounded slightly…tinny? No, that wasn't right….

Curiosity overpowered her fear of imminent death from spider-related matters as she slowly allowed her eyes to open. By this point, he eyes had adjusted to the dark enough that she could see vague outlines of objects in the tower; she wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. Sure, it made things easier to see, but every shadowy figure looked like it would jump out and attack her.

Well, every figure except for one.

When she looked in the direction the chirping sound had come from, she found a vague, yellow outline resting at her feet. Curiosity being her downfall once again, she bent down to get a closer look at the object.

It took her all of two seconds to realize that she was looking at a steam-powered bird. The small creature had its wings folded at its sides and a yellow paint job that was chipped and falling away in flakes. She felt her breath escape her in a disappointed rush; practically everyone in the world had a steam-powered bird. They were so common they probably outnumbered the number of living bids.

"Stupid bird, scaring me like that," She said sourly as she stood up and gave a light kick to the fragile device. The bird only responded with another light, slightly off, chirp.

"You stay there like a good stupid bird. I'm gonna climb up higher," She commented to the bird. She had no idea why she was talking to it; maybe the big secret of clock tower four was that it made you go crazy.

She managed to climb another three steps before she heard the sound of the bird chirping once more.

Oddly, the sound issued from right in front of her rather than behind her.

When she looked down, the bird was sitting in front of her once more.

"Alright," She said with mild annoyance coloring her tone as she picked up the bird, "Where's your turnkey? I'm gonna shut you off so you can't follow me…"

She turned the small device in her hand and looked for the place where the turnkey should have been – on top of the left wing – but she found nothing. Puzzled, she turned the device over in her hands and began to search it thoroughly. The bird should have had a turnkey; it was a rule in case the machines ever got out of control and needed to be shut down.

But this small bird seemed to be without a turnkey.

"What's your problem? You're such a weirdo," She commented as she turned the bird so its beady eyes were looking at her. The bird chirped back once more.

"What? Is chirping the only thing you can do?"

As if in response to her question, the bird suddenly opened its wings. Cul watched in fascination as each jointed wing unfurled and locked into place until the small, yellow bird had expanded its wings out to their full span. She was transfixed; steam birds shouldn't be able to fly – they were made to be pretty little singing devices for people to coo at.

Defying her beliefs, the small bird lifted from her palm and took gracefully to the air. As it glided on winds only it could feel, Cul traced its pattern with her eyes. The bird moved gracefully, far more gracefully than any of the other multitude of flying machines Cul had ever seen in her life.

Before she realized it, the bright speck of yellow that was the bird had disappeared into the darkness of the clock tower.

"Hey wait up!" She called as she began to run in the direction the bird had disappeared. Her chin throbbed with each step, but she pushed it aside and kept propelling herself forward into the unknown. Perhaps it was her curiosity once more; perhaps it was fear of being left alone; perhaps it was "destiny". Whatever the case, she ignored the pain and chased blindly after the tiny ball of hope that flew in front of her.

As she climbed, the darkness around her began to dissipate slowly. As the darkness disappeared so too did her fear, causing her to quicken her footsteps in order to catch up with the mechanical bird. She was just within arms-reach when the bird suddenly stopped its flight and landed gracefully on the ground.

Cul managed to stop herself before she collided with the bird and for the first time, she looked around the room she had arrived in.

This room was vastly different than the room below. This room looked to be an attic of sorts and the large windows that surrounded the perimeter of the room allowed the light of sunset to stream through the window. She stepped towards the window and saw the sprawling city-scape beneath her. The buildings stretched high into the sky and were obstructed by the layer of steam that was ever hovering just above the heads of the citizens who prospered from the multitude of steam-powered inventions.

Towering above it all, she saw the other five clock towers that stood like sentinels for the city. She had never noticed just how tall the towers were, but standing in one of the towers herself, she realized just how enormous they were.

"It's really beautiful up here..." Cul mumbled to herself as she continued to stare out the window at the winding and narrow cobblestone streets that stretched out endlessly before her. After a few more seconds of gawking at the sight of the city in sunset, she turned once more to look at the room she was standing in.

Instead of finding scientific documents and instruments strewn everywhere like she expected, the room was littered with toys. She walked around the perimeter of the room and picked up a wooden block that proudly displayed the letter "A" on one of its sides and turned it in her hand. It didn't work any marvel of science; it was simply a wooden block – a toy for a child.

CHIRP

Cul nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the sound of the mechanical bird chirping to herself; she had completely forgotten about the mysterious machine that had brought her here. She turned around, fully intending to scold the stupid thing for scaring her, but she felt her words freeze on her lips.

Right behind where the bird rested on the ground, there was a boy cowering in the corner. He was wearing a white, button-up shirt, black shorts that stopped just above his knees, and a large, blue coat that looked to be about three sizes too big for him.

But that wasn't his most striking feature.

Cul had to fight back the urge to gag.

Where his right eye should have been, there was nothing but an empty, dry socket.

She quickly looked away from his empty socket and instead concentrated on the eye that was still there; for reasons she couldn't explain, not only did the empty eye make her want to puke, it terrified her. As his golden eye met her own, she could clearly read his thoughts.

He was positively terrified.

"…What are you doing here?" She asked as she regained her voice and took a threatening step forward, trying her best to keep the quiver of fear out of her voice. Instead of responding, the young boy recoiled against the wall he was currently sitting against. Cul felt a frown trace its way on to her face.

"I'm not going to hurt you. Stop being such a baby!" She replied as she took another step towards the boy. In response, he tried to back up, but there was nowhere for him to go; his back was against the wall and Cul blocked any hope of escape he might have. Cul watched him glance over his shoulder to confirm what he already knew to be true; there was no escape.

Instead of giving up as she expected him to, he quickly turned towards the wall and began to frantically claw at the wood, seeking to create an escape route by any means possible.

For a moment, all Cul could do was watch in horrified fascination as the boy splinter the wood away bit by bit as he searched for escape. The crazed and desperate sound of his scratching nails filled the clock tower with the frightening sounds of self-mutilation. Suddenly, she heard the sound of quite whimpering.

It was the boy; he was physically tearing apart his fingers in an attempt to escape.

That was enough to snap Cul out of her stupor and into action.

"What are you doing!" She practically screamed as she lunged forward and grabbed the young boy's wrists, forcibly pulling his fingers back from the wood. She immediately set about examining his fingertips and scolding him harshly for his stupidity.

"Why would you do that! Look what you did to your fingers!"

To demonstrate her point, she forced his hand into his own face. But instead of examining the bloodied, splintered fingertips like she wanted him to, he was instead staring at her face. His good eye didn't blink as he stood frozen in terror.

"Fine, don't look at your fingers!" Cul said in frustration as she lowered his hand once more, "But we can't just leave them like this; we'll have to wrap them up somehow…oh, I know!"

Releasing the young boy's hand, she began to tear off strips of the long, white dress she was wearing. In a matter of seconds, she had a fistful of makeshift sterile dressing and a significantly shorter dress.

"Here," She said as she once more snatched up the boy's hand and began to wrap his fingertips with the linen. The entire time she worked, the boy didn't make a sound, not even a whimper of pain or discomfort.

Cul's mind was racing a mile-a-minute. Who was this boy? Why was he in the clock tower? Why was he so afraid of her? Why had the adults told her to avoid coming to this tower? The fact that there were so many questions buzzing in her skull that had no answer only stood to annoy Cul.

As she moved on to bandaging the boy's other hand, she couldn't help but glance up at his face. He was still looking at her terrified and she would have sworn that he hadn't blinked once in the past two minutes. As she continued to examine him, her eyes inadvertently drifted to look at his empty socket and she couldn't help but shudder in disgust.

"Well now I finished your hands," Cul said as she gave one final tug on the wrappings on his left hand, "But…I do still have some wrappings left…hold on a minute."

Without waiting for his approval, Cul approached the boy and began to cover his empty eye-socket with the wrappings. The boy went completely ridged and Cul was sure he would have bolted from the room if he wasn't currently unable to move due to the petrifying effects of fear.

"Aaaand…done!" Cul said as she stepped back and appreciated her handiwork. It wasn't a perfect job, but she no longer had to look at the boy's empty eye socket. For his part, the boy didn't react in the slightest to Cul's declaration of completeness.

"So now that you're all fixed up, tell me what you're doing in this tower!" Cul asked in a rush as her curiosity returned in spades.

She was met with silence.

"Have you been living here all by yourself for all these years?" Cul questioned, her short patience already beginning to wear thin.

Silence once more.

"I just bandaged both your hands and eyes!" She said with a huff as she crossed her arms across her small chest, "I command you to tell me why you're in this tower!"

Without a word, the young boy's hands began to move. At first, Cul thought he was going to try clawing at the wood again, but instead his hands moved to the first button on his shirt. She watched in fascination as he unbuttoned three more buttons before he stopped. This time, his hands moved to point the middle of his chest.

Cul felt her breath escape in a rush of surprise.

Where fleshed should have existed, there was instead a pane of clear, perfectly polished glass. Where ribs should have existed, there were instead copper wires that looked like the wires of a birdcage. Where a heart should have been, there was nothing but gears and valves.

"…Are you a steam-powered doll?" She asked in wonder as she continued to look at the man-made heart, "But…but when you clawed at the boards before, you were bleeding! I saw it!"

Silence.

Her mind instantly thought of everything she had ever been told about clock tower four; it was a place forbidden due to scientific atrocities that should never be replicated. Cul couldn't help but look at the young boy's face. Although he had listened to her command, his face still shone with petrified terror. He looked so much like a normal boy... She had been prepared for horrible monsters; for spiders that would eat her in one bite. He was just a boy...

But his steam-powered heart...

"...Are you the secret that's been locked away in this tower? Are you the 'scientific mistake' that should never be repeated?"

Silence.

"…Just what are you…?"

Silence.

A/N: ...and you guys (most likely) will never get the answer to that question. Of course, if you want to speculate or even continue this story on your own, I encourage you fully! But I do want to remind you guys that this collection is really just a chance for me to work on my writing and different aspects of writing; in this case, I wanted to try establishing an AU in only one chapter, and that's why I probably won't personally continue this story. I feel like it would kind of spoil the point for me...please forgive me if you wanted more.