Chapter 8: You in?
"Lord Heisenberg I'm so so sorry please don't tell-"
" SIT"
The man's roar cut through the silent kitchen, spiking fear up her spine and propelling Iris towards the empty seat at the dining table. Her Lord allowed her to stew in fear for a minute or two, flicking leisurely through the prayer book with a swipe of a gloved finger, as if peering through a newspaper, or catalogue. Despite the show of relaxation, the room crackled with tension, like the air before a big storm.
" One Direction is my favourite band. I know this statement is true, but I can't remember their names, or any of their songs yet. I will keep trying." Iris's face burned with embarrassment, this was essentially her diary, her desperately trying to piece together her fuzzy memories and strange dreams. And here was her Lord, proclaiming her sins to her, probably the last words she'd ever hear before execution for blasphemy.
"My Lord please…"
"Oh no no I'm not done yet" The man had a nasty smile, the bared grin of a wolf from a fairytale, shiny white canines, a little too sharp for a human, flashing in the dingy kitchen.
" I wanted an Iphone so bad. I loved wearing makeup. I had a dream where my teacher yelled at me for wearing too much foundation. That is a type of makeup."
"Lord Heisenberg this isn't-"
" Wait-wait, my favourite is coming next." He was shaking with laughter.
" I had a vision last night. I was in a loud, dark room, chanting with a sea of fellow girls. I woke up elated, but suffered the worst migraine. Punishment for my sins. I was born to serve Mother Miranda, but in my heart I know that I am a Directioner."
"SHUT UP!" Hot tears of embarrassment clouded Iris's vision, but she didn't need sight to know the man was whooping with laughter, the prayer book dropped onto the table as he banged his fist on the table repeatedly. Whilst he mocked her Iris snatched the prayer book from the table, shutting it close and holding it tight. She scrubbed at her teary eyes and glared at the table in fury. If she were to die tonight, she'd die being honest.
" Enough! " She snapped, "There's nothing funny about this! I had a life! All of the villagers had a life! And for some reason the memories of that life were sucked away into an impenetrable fog. Why? Why are we not allowed to remember?" She slammed her own fist onto the table, tears had started up again, seemingly years upon years of desperate longing for a life and world she could only just grasp in her sleep, clawed at her heart.
Her Lord had stopped laughing.
He was still, a statue behind those damned glasses. She wished she had the gall to reach over and rip them off. Force her Lord to see his subject eye to eye. She wanted to see what he thought through his dark gaze.
"Watch your tone girl" He growled but the threat was tepid, "You're not the only one desperate to get out of this cage."
What?
The man read her confusion clearly, "What? Did you really think I was like my siblings? Too far up Mother Dearests asshole to know any sense?" He leaned forward, the wolf was back, "What did you tell my mother, little maiden? She rang you know, saying you sang my praise like a pretty little birdy, What is your judgement of ol' Lord Heisenberg?"
Iris felt like she was on stage, a spotlight boring down on her, no crooks or crannies she could hide in, the shadowy audience demanding a show.
"That you worked a lot in your factory building things to protect the village. That you were paranoid because you thought I was a spy for Lady Dimitrescu. That you're jealous of her."
"Jealous? Of That parasitic bitch? Are you high?" Suppressing a laugh, Iris quickly carried on, hoping the explanation would extend her life a little longer.
"I know you don't like my Lady. That is clear. I also know you don't.. like Mother Miranda. And that you are clearly building something. Probably to use against them. I had seen the bodies flying on the.. contraption, in the main room, when you asked me to collect your order from the Duke… I didn't want to get you in trouble with her." The last words came out in a whisper, Iris was blatantly confessing her lies.
Lying to a God? She couldn't imagine a more heinous crime.
"Didn't want me to get in trouble with Mummy hm? Aren't you a sweetiepie." He still had a bite to his voice, but there was rarely a day where he didn't. The air still crackled with that tense energy, but Iris felt less sure that thunder and lightning were about to break out in the kitchen. Her Lord leaned forward suddenly, taking over most of the small table. Arms folded casually as his head ducked, eyes meeting hers behind his glasses.
"So… You want to remember your life. Enough to risk writing down all this whilst working at Moby Dick's castle. Bet you wanna see the outside world too huh… I seem to recall you reminiscing about Paris before hm? " Iris nodded mutely, she'd never confessed it to herself, but sometimes, like the walk home, she couldn't help but feel the desperate urge to escape, as if she'd die if she didn't run now. It was suffocating. She couldn't keep living like this. "Good… I am willing to show you what I am really doing in this factory. But I need your word that you're in. You follow me. You do what I say. Like your little maid schtick, but the stakes are boutta get a whole lot higher."
A gloved hand darted out expectantly.
"You in?"
Iris shook it immediately.
She swore sparks flew from his gloved fingers through her body, jolting her bones, rattling her teeth. The tension in the room dissipated immediately, as if all of that pent up energy had surged it's way into Iris's body. She felt alive for once. It felt amazing. She realised she was stupidly smiling at her Lord. He was grinning back.
Lord Heisenberg jumped to his feet suddenly, clapping his hands together, the noise ringing through the kitchen and Iris's ears.
" Well no time like the present! You have a whole lot of work to catch up with. Time for the official tour. Case de la Heisenberg, if you will." With another brilliant grin, her Lord spun around on his boots, marching out of the kitchen. Calling back loudly, "Hurry up, I don't take kindly to a sluggish assistant."
Iris darted after him, smiling slightly at the word. Assistant was still a type of servant. But it felt like a step up.
Metal doors swung open for the two by her Lord's magic, there seemed to be way more bodies swinging over the giant chasm in the factory, whizzing away with a screech of metal. Down below, a river roared like a beast from hell. Iris thought of her grandmother yet again, but was too scared to ask if all of the dead were used to feed the demonic machine that was the Heisenberg Factory. They descended into the pit via the hulking elevator that the Duke was now vacant from.
"Now pay attention, keep them eyes peeled. I won't be doing this again. I'm already wasting enough time showing you around but last thing I need is a mangled assistant clogging up the gears in my Soldats."
"Soldats?"
He turned, flashing a predatory grin. "We'll get there."
The elevator opened its doors with a shriek of metal, it seemed like everything in here was in desperate need of oil. Iris followed her Lord through unending metal doors, flashing red warnings that went by unnoticed, opening at his will. Over metal platforms in darkened rooms, where in the shadow's, Iris swore she could hear the shuffling of boots against concrete.
"Are there other workers here my Lord?"
" Heisenberg. Ugh, that Lord stuff has never been for me. Do I really look like some pompous Lord to you? Do you? Born with a silver spoon shoved up my ass?" Iris muttered a no quickly, and tried to banish any thought of her Lo- Heisenberg's nether regions.
"I guess they are workers, in a sense. You'll meet them soon enough. But that thing down there is nowhere near the masterpiece I'll be showing you" As if offended, the shadows hissed, Heisenberg showed his depreciation for the backtalk by stomping a boot onto the metal bridge, a clatter of metal following. Whatever beast lay in the shadows had been quickly taken care of.
"God they're so fussy. You'd think after I was done with them, and them being dead and all, there'd be no sass left. Humans are so… funny that way." His eyes slid down to eye Iris, she wasn't sure if it was a warning or not, she didn't think she'd ever been funny.
The door across the metal bridge gave way to more narrow, dark hallways. All metal, with groaning and mechanical noises drifting from the vents and pipes on the ceiling. At the final door, Heisenberg turned with a flourish.
"Now, in this room is my latest project. A true beast, I can't wait to see what he'll do to Miranda. It'll be fantastic. I'll be sure to record the whole thing. For research of course…" He flashed a wicked smile, those sharp canines glinting in the darkness. The door opened with a swing, and Heisenberg jumped out of the way.
"This, my little assistant, is STURM."
It was a horror show. And Iris had thought she was immune to those by now.
"Sturm" was sat in a chair, as if it had been waiting for her patiently, it was clearly a man. He had bulging muscles, ripped trousers, and big black boots. Nothing that Iris had seen be worn by villagers. He must have been an outsider. The phrase Doc Martens came to mind. That's what he was wearing. From the torso down, he could've been a normal man. But his head was unfortunately gone. Replaced with a sort of propeller, from a small vintage plane perhaps. The man's arms were in his lap, hands tucked into his legs like a child. Iris wondered what would happen to those arms if the propeller was to take flight.
"Some survivalist that got turned around in the fog by Donna's place. Took like a dozen dolls to drag his ass here. Had to stomp on them all to get their creepy hands off this gorgeous specimen. But I'm sure she can just conjure up more." Iris nodded along, filing away the new information of sentient dolls with inhuman strength. She assumed Donna was Lady Beneviento. But she knew very little of her, just the warnings from her grandmother to stay away from that side of the village as much as possible.
Heisenberg turned to her, smiling. He reminded her of a magical cat, from some story or film she could no longer remember, a sly character that the main character wasn't sure had her best interest at heart.
"What do you think? Honestly now. I can't have an assistant that doesn't provide feedback."
"What will happen to his arms? If the propeller moves?"
"Well he'll keep them out of the way obviously." Iris assessed "Sturm", wiggling his fingers between his giant legs, she had a feeling in life he wasn't the brightest spark. The creature looked oddly innocent, sat in front of them on the chair.
"If you're sure…"
Heisenberg seemed offended about that, the grin turned into a snarl quickly, and with a swish of his coat and flick of his hand, the metal chair Sturm had been sat on went flying.
" Well go be useful somewhere else you giant lug." Sturm sluggishly got up, clearly not used to the giant weight on his head yet, Iris felt a pang of pity for the poor monster, as he stumbled off into the shadows Heisenberg spurred forwards to the next room, Iris couldn't see his face but from the sudden speed and volume of his steps she had a feeling the man was sulking. She chose to stay quiet and a couple steps further back than normal, just in case.
In a tense silence, Heisenberg toured Iris around the rest of the underbelly of his factory, through the claustrophobic tunnels of his mining system, where she came face to face with the exact creature that was hiding in the shadows during the beginning of this gruesome tour. These creatures, "Haulers" Heisenberg called them, reminded Iris of the Moroaica back in the Castle, grey decaying skeletons in rags, shuffling around and swinging rusty axes and swords at the walls. When she'd noted the resemblance to Heisenberg he'd scoffed.
"See that's what that stupid lump got all wrong. You can't just let them wander about your home unchecked. They can cause all sorts of bother. See the headgear" He gestured to the metal cage around each of the Hauler's eyes, a blinking light on the side, "That gives me control of their movement and intentions. No rogue experiments in my factory."
Next were red lit corridors, lined with narrow closets containing sleeping creatures. His "Soldats".
"These babies will be the bulk of my army" He'd said proudly, "Can't show you a whole lot right now, I'm still tinkering with sustainable power cells for them. They burn themselves out pretty quick right now…" The man stopped deep in thought, Iris almost knocking into his back. His glasses had slid down his nose, showing darting, intelligent eyes. Iris felt the unseeing faces of the Soldats glaring down at her from their glass screened prisons. In the flashing red light, she could see long weapons fused into flesh, where hands and arms were supposed to be. In their chests, wrapped with leather and tattered cloth, were what she assumed were the power cells, blinking slowly as they were "charged" by the thick wires plugged into the Soldat's backs.
"Anyways, you won't be going anywhere near these guys until they're primed and ready to go. Can't be having my assistant getting blown to smithereens too soon" Another predatory grin shot her way, Heisenberg only giving her a second to feel fear before marching forward. More corridors, more haulers, and metal, and deadly looking machines and they were in a large workshop.
"This is where you'll work." He announced, "And this will be your best buddy!" Slapping the door of a small forge, a metal impression of a Hauler helmet cooling off on a rack in front. "Now I'm sure you're not too stupid but just in case, all you need to do is make sure the forge is full, pop in the metal impressions of my choice, shut the door, press the button and wait. Does that sound too hard for you? Did my sister suck the brains out of you?"
Iris shook her head, staring the forge down, trying to take in every bit of information she could to memory. Heisenberg didn't seem like one to forgive mistakes.
"No Lor- Heisenberg. My brain is intact. I can do this." He let out a short laugh in response before shoving papers and plans into her hands, timelines and goals for how many Haulers and Soldats he wanted to make by the end of the year.
"It's easy work, just grunt work. I'm far too busy to sit around and make these all day. But will you around, production will pick up real good. I'll get that bitch in no time." He barked a laugh and clapped a hand on Iris's back that nearly sent her flying, glancing at a wonky clock on the wall.
"Now. That's enough time wasted on you. Get to work. I want twenty of these helmets done by tonight, perfectly. There's no room for error. You said you still have a brain but I will be checking for finished products.. Just in case."
Heisenberg left her in the room, which felt much bigger once his overwhelming presence was gone. Iris leant against one of the workbenches, fussing with the papers in her hand, her forehead began to sweat and she wasn't sure if it was from the heat of the forge, or the fear of letting her new boss down.
Time to work.