The days passed.
Hugo was in his room for days. He didn't know what to do. He was a prisoner in there. The clocks were all wrong now. He couldn't go to work in the clocks. The automaton said that, he could try to escape, so Hugo couldn't go.
In his heart, Hugo was not sad with that. I wished in silence that, if Isabelle noticed the wrong hours in the clocks, she would see that something was going wrong with him. So he was waiting to see her entering the room.
He talked with the automaton. They shared some topics about automatons and about the world.
"We are in Paris, France. The city is very beautiful, full of light and glamour. We are in the train's station. A train is a vehicle. It helps people to go to places. And I rule the clocks of the station." Said Hugo.
The automaton was happy with the conversation.
"I wanted to see everything I used to see, when I was with my maker. He was nice to me. I was a gift to his wife and she got very happy when she saw me. She was very glad. I wanted to see them again…"
Hugo whispered:
"I could help you, but I'm here every day. That makes the things very difficult. Return me to my real form and I will find your maker. I promise you!"
"That is not possible, my friend…I don't know where he is. And you don't know, as well."
"But I could try!"
The automaton said "no".
"But…it's true! I could find him…"
"Maybe, one day. Not now." Said the automaton.
Hugo remembered something they had talked some days before.
"You said I can't drink or eat…"
"Yes. If you do so, you would ruin your system and die."
"And, if that happens, will I become human again?"
"No. You'll die forever. Only changing you in time would save you."
Hugo wanted to get out of there, but he knew he couldn't go like an automaton. Everyone would run away in fear.
So he waited and waited for Isabelle.
And one day, someone knocked on the door.
Hugo looked at the automaton.
"Don't do it."
Hugo was lying on his bed.
"Please…let me open it…"
But there was no need to have permission. The door opened itself. Isabelle entered in the room with a lamp and a hairpin and a bag of things on the other hand. She was a little afraid, because the room was dark.
"Hugo?" she whispered, walking through the room.
When she saw him on the bed she moved quicker.
"Hugo, are you ok?" she looked at him and froze in fear.
She put the lamp on the little table, as the bad and the hairpin and touched Hugo's face.
"NOOO! WHAT ARE YOU?" she screamed in fear.
Hugo's eyes were dazing to her.
"Isabelle, it's me. I'm Hugo."
"But, you are like him!" she pointed to the automaton.
"No…I'm still Hugo. Forgive me…Oh, I'm so sad…"
"Why are you lying on the bed? Are you hurt?"
"Oh, no…" he said, rising.
"Seeing you like that, lying on the bed, was pretty chocking. Like in a fairytale. A dead prince, lying, waiting for the princess to come and help him." Said Isabelle, smiling at him.
"But, if the prince is dead, what will the princess do?" asked Hugo.
Isabelle hugged Hugo, crying.
"Oh, wait! And if the prince was not dead?" he whispered on her hears.
"Not dead?" she asked, whispering too.
"Not dead. I'm still here, Isabelle. Help me. He made me like this. He transformed me, because he wanted me to be like him. Help me Isabelle. I want to be a boy again. I want to be the clock's boy again…" he whispered.
"What can I do to help you?" she asked, in the same level of voice.
"He told me one thing: I can't drink or eat. If I do so, it will destroy my mechanism and kill me."
"Hugo!"
"Wait…then he said that, if that happens, the human part of me will die as well, if I couldn't change to human in time."
"Do you know how to change?" she asked.
"No. I believe only he can do that. And believe he wouldn't let me die. He likes me, he is my friend. And I promised to find his maker. He will transform me again into the human boy. I'm sure, Isabelle!"
"And if that doesn't work?"
"It will work."