A Turn of the Key Chapter 7: To Be a Knight (End)

The house loomed ahead, a cancerous blemish against the night sky.

A lonely figure, buffeted by wind, staggered up to it and stopped, pulling his ratty cloak tighter against the rain. He cocked his ear, straining to hear anything through the hiss and spatter of water and the occasional rumblings of thunder.

Dead silence.

Wink shivered and continued on, easily vaulting over the crumbling fence and making his way to the front window. He peered inside, but could only make out the first few feet in the grey gloom.

"Here goes nothin,'" he muttered as he whipped his cloak off. He looked around, located a sizeable rock, wrapped it with his cloak, and with a single, deft swing lobbed it through the window.

crack

The old, brittle glass shattered somewhat quietly, and he quickly, carefully reached through the hole, snatched up his cloak, and wrapped his hand in it, peeling off the rest of the glass from the frame.

This done, he reached in, felt around the floor for stray pieces with his bare foot, and eased his way inside with the greatest of care.

Once he was inside, he stopped, held his breath, and listened as intently as he could.

The house was silent, save for the settling of beams, and the light rumbling of what could be thunder outside.

Whew, guess nobody heard me, he thought with relief. He stepped forwards, setting his jaw in renewed determination-

And stopped as the floor sunk slightly beneath his foot.

Somewhere deep within the house, a different rumbling, the rumbling of treads on wooden floors, began to roll towards him, followed by the clanging of a distant bell.

Spoke too soon.

Quickly, desperately, he searched around for someplace to hide and finally settled on a nondescript door nearby, set into the wall under the stairway. Wasting no time, he sprinted towards the door as quietly as possible.

Just as the first of the machines emerged from around the corner, he turned the knob, slipped inside, and shut it noiselessly, praising every god he could think of that it had been unlocked.

But even then, he didn't relax. Taking only a few precious seconds to catch his breath, he felt around in his pocket and lit a match, trying to get his bearings.

Assorted lengths of metal, wood, and half-finished devices littered the room, casting warped, unnatural shadows as the match flickered and sputtered. As he looked around for anything useful he could use or perhaps a secret way out, Poppy's words came back to him.

Ah, the supply closet- this must have been where she got her tools.

With that realization, though, came another, darker one- unless he came up with a way to distract or disable his pursuers, he was entirely trapped.

He shook those thoughts out of his head, tossed the match away, and forced his focus on the here and now.

Right then. Ok. Maybe they left- lemme check.

He held his breath and peered through the keyhole. Nothing but a tan-colored blur. Is the keyhole blocked? Or-

The blur moved and a single, glowing orb peered back at him. He recoiled, just barely managing to stifle his cry of surprise. No, they certainly hadn't left.

He waited a few seconds, holding his breath, and let it out in a huge, shuddering whoosh as he heard whatever-it-was slowly rumble farther away from the door. He turned back to the closet and lit another match, examining what he had to work with.

I already have a weapon, but these things mean business. I can't go out there without some kinda protection. His eyes lit on a tan-colored hunk of metal, a scrap he originally thought was useless. He picked it up, surprised at its lightness, and turned it over, pleasantly surprised to find its inner bits were soft and flexible, similar to cartilage. The piece was hollow, with a hole perfectly shaped for his head. He nodded and smiled grimly. This would definitely do.

He kept looking, scanning the opposite wall, until he saw what appeared to be some sort of bulky eye-wear, once again partially composed of that strange flexible material. He fit it to his face and pulled its strap over the back of his head, gave it a tug, and it tightened to just the right size.

He was as ready as he could be. He slipped the makeshift armor over his body, stuffed his straw hat back on his head, and took his weapon of choice from his back pocket.

Wham! he slammed the door open and whipped out the extendable steel pole, his finger itching to pull the lever and activate the sharp crystal at its tip.

"Let's rumble, fellas," he grinned.

The machines turned at the strange figure that had burst into their midst, their eyes narrowing as they processed his arrival. They looked at its spear and back at it, then, as a unit, began to move towards him, their steely claws snapping rigidly as they advanced.

Wink looked at each of the machines with more than a little caution. He didn't expect them to be so large, or so intimidating. But they each had the same armor he wore- a chestpiece hanging on a frame beneath- and knew exactly where to aim.

Acting quickly, he ducked beneath the first one's flailing arms and thrust upwards, clicking the lever on the makeshift spear's handle at the same time. As planned, the weapon punctured right through the chink in its armor. As he pulled the handle, the bit of wire he'd fixed to its tip scraped the crystal's surface, causing showers of sparks to leap straight up into its cog-filled brain.

With a shuddering jerk and a whine akin to that of a teapot, the mechanism spasmed once, twice, then moved no more.

Wink yanked the spear from its neck and turned to the rest, new confidence blooming in his chest as his grin grew nearly manic.

"Who else wants some? You? You? Come on, fellas, let's tango!"

The other two machines turned to each other, then him. Their prime directive was no longer applicable- their success at eliminating the threat was less than fifty percent. Opposing him now presented too much of a risk for-

Before their processors finished running through the odds, two more of them had fallen to Wink's spear, each one dispatched in a mere instant.

The last one, no longer able to act on its master's orders, turned around and rolled down the passageway as fast as its treads could take it.

"That's- what I- thought-" Wink panted. He thought briefly about folding the spear away, then thought better of it and kept it readied.

Once again, he listened intently, hoping to hear Poppy or the thing that called itself her father. This time, however, very faintly, he could just make out the sound of a high-pitched voice, keening sorrowfully.

"Poppy?!" he shouted, no longer caring about stealth. He sprinted up the stairs, trying to follow the noise to its source.

"Poppy!"

The keening echoed about the halls, making it hard to determine where it was coming from.

He ran down the second floor's halls, being as quiet as possible so he could listen for the strange cries, until, just ahead, he could make out a huge, vault-like door. Scrawled on its metal surface were the words, "HER ROOM" in shaky, crude lettering. Poppy's words came back to him, bringing with it a heaping dose of guilt.

He'll lock me in my room again

He looked inside, and saw only a single, plain white cot. No books, no toys, just a bed, bolted to the floor. Two straps lay across the bed's surface, a scene he thought he'd only see in bedlam. He shuddered and stepped back, then took off back down the hall, even more desperate to find her.

He stopped again at the stairway, trying to determine which floor they came from.

Damn this place, he screamed mentally, everything echoes in here!

There. It was downstairs, after all.

He sprinted down the steps and around the staircase, thudding down the hall like a bat out of hell.

"Poppy! Poppy, where are you?!"

click clack whirr

That sound-

click clack whirr

The bastard- he must be here! He located the door where the sound was coming from, this one simply titled "CHORES" in the same, crude scrawl as Poppy's room. He slammed open the door, and gasped at the scene before him.

Hundreds of levers, dials, winches, and pulleys littered the room, all in motion. A large, glowing gauge on the ceiling counted down, showing 27 minutes, 38 seconds. Every one of the operable switches and levers were covered in reddish-brown stains, as were the walls.

Rust? he hoped. But as his gaze drifted across the room, he saw the one blank wall was covered in smeared handprints.

And right under that, in the same morbid paint, was writing.

I promise I'll be good

Look what you did, daddy

It hurts, it hurts so much

The red water, it won't stop coming out

Help me, make it stop

Wink reeled, nausea threatening to overtake him. He tasted the stale copper, smelled the stink of layers and layers of Poppy's blood, smeared on the walls...

And the pulleys and mechanisms kept turning, caring not a whit at the suffering that lent it life.

I am going to kill you, he vowed, his teeth gritting so hard they creaked, I am going to condemn you to hell where you belong, you heartless demon, and I will enjoy every minute of it.

He charged back down the hall, his righteous anger giving him renewed vigor, getting closer and closer to the horrific, inhuman keening that echoed down the corridors. Finally, he spotted it- a door titled "FATHER'S LAB- ENTER AT YOUR PERIL". Without a single ounce of hesitation, he slammed the door open, spear hefted and ready, his chest heaving with exertion and fury.

What greeted him was a scene straight out of a nightmare.

All along the walls, animals were nailed, spread-eagled, their bodies cut open. Some of them were still alive, but most were either dead or on their way, eyes clouding over, mouths long dried of any moisture, tongues swollen and purple. Most were silent, their vocal chords either removed or broken after hours of endless screaming, but a few still struggled and moaned or keened pitifully, fighting a losing battle as they tried their hardest to stay alive.

Wink's vision swam, warping the dying creatures into twisted apparitions. He gagged, then vomited, the stench of his vomit mixing with the butcher-shop aroma of exposed flesh and cold bodily fluids, of clotted blood and curdling flesh. He stumbled against the wall and wiped his mouth, willing his vision to come back into focus, the horror he was witnessing a grim reminder of what lay in store for Poppy if he didn't hurry.

As he caught his breath, he looked around, trying to find something, anything, that wasn't mortally wounded, something he could save. He looked at each of the display cases, most housing either tools or more failed prototypes, and finally spotted a strange form against the opposite wall.

He got up and sidled closer to it, just to make sure that it was still alive and wouldn't instantly try to kill him if he released it. The creature stepped forwards as if it sensed his intentions, and Wink stopped a few feet away, gazing at the creature before him.

It appeared vaguely horse-like, but had six legs instead of four, a narrow proboscis as a snout, and four multi-faceted eyes that blinked and looked at him with surprising intelligence.

This creature is not of this world, Wink realized, but for some reason this fact didn't bother him too much- most likely due to the horrors he'd already witnessed that day.

Knowing that horses were sensitive to emotions like fear, he gently, carefully opened the door and reached in, tentatively patting it on the snout. Its skin was surprisingly smooth, like the skin of a newborn calf. The horse slightly jerked back at first, surprised at the movement, but then nuzzled forwards into his strokes, enjoying the attention.

"Thatta'...boy?" He wasn't sure how genders worked with these things, but he supposed it didn't matter. He led the alien horse outside his prison, calming it as much as he could as it sniffed the air nervously and stamped the ground with its strange, 3-toed feet."Shhh...easy now," he cooed as he gently guided to the door leading outside, "almost there."

When he finally got the door open and the alien creature through the doorframe, he gently closed it so he wouldn't spook the poor thing, and turned back to the room.

"Alright Poppy," he said as he made his way towards the door in the back. "OPERATING ROOM". He suppressed a shiver as he approached.

"Alright. I'm on my way."

---

The last of the blue sparks flew from the creature's tools as it successfully transmuted flesh to steel once more. It admired its handiwork- it had turned out much better than he'd ever imagined it would. He'd even go as far as to say it was his best work.

Flesh joined with steel seamlessly down the female child's arm, turning from bone and sinew to smooth, blemish-free alloy. Muscles ripped up and down as his subject weakly struggled against his bindings, its mouth opened in a soundless scream. The creature was surprised at the child's resistance- surely it would see the necessity, the true strength that lay in living metal? In immortal flesh?

The child was staring at the door, her mouth closing, forming into a hopeful grimace.

The creature turned, shuddered to the side, as something whipped by its head, missing him by inches.

"Let Poppy go, you piece of worthless shit!"

The creature turned to face his assailant, the same sweaty-faced boy he'd had the misfortune of meeting earlier that day. At first, he was angry, but he let some of his rage evaporate as he examined this...thing. A farmer by profession, it seemed, armed with nothing more than a crude spear, inventor's goggles, and a slab of metal stolen from his guard drones.

It could afford to toy with him.

It swept one of its primary arms towards the subject, and if it could smile, its face would be creased in a Cheshire grin.

"Ah, it appears you've caught me at an inopportune time, child," it began, "But, alas, you've caught me in a generous mood once again. Perhaps I am going soft in my old age." He moved to the side, affording Wink a clearer view of Poppy.

"Behold! My greatest work! Unfinished as of now, but still marvelous, no?"

"What have you done to her?"

The creature stopped, unused to interruptions. He wondered how he should react to such arrogance. Rage? Cold indifference? He decided on something far sweeter.

Blunt honesty.

"I have transmuted her arm, turned it from weak, flawed flesh into living, breathing metal. Immortal and absolute." He cocked his head, a nightmarish, unnatural motion that made his gears creak. "Have you come to stop me, child?"

Wink stared at his life, his love, forever marred by the gibbering schemes of this creature, and felt white-hot rage course through his very soul.

"I'm sorry, Poppy," he said. His voice was ice-cold despite the raging fire singing through his veins. "But I'm gonna have to commit patricide." He readied his spear, his muscles so tense he nearly expected them to snap.

"How amusing. A mere mortal, against that which will never age, that which will never die?" The creature opened and closed its claws with a snap, turning to fully face the impudent grub that dared oppose him. "Then come, witness your folly firsthand!" No sooner had those words ground out through its gears than Wink was charging forwards, spear hefted at chest-height, arms ready to thrust with every ounce of strength. The machine also charged forwards, jittering and shuddering with each step, but keeping steady with its dangerous claws.

snap, snap!

The two claws of the creature whisked over Wink's head as he slid to the ground, kicking as hard as he could against its legs, hoping to trip it. His feet stung with the effort, but the creature budged not at all, as if its feet were somehow connected with the accursed house. He quickly rolled to the side as two more claws came out of its chest, trying to catch him off guard.

Wasting no time, he sprung to his feet, spear across his chest, ready to block any further strikes.

This thing is much more dangerous than its lil lapdogs, he mused, panting. He quickly took stock of his opponent, now sporting four snapping claws.

About 3 minutes.

He charged back in, whistling past the four snapping claws as he whirled around him till he faced the back of its head.

Maybe the neck..

He darted the spear forward, his other hand supporting it from the butt-end of it as he thrust with as much strength as he possessed.

Whack!

The creature rotated its chest to face him, and blocked his spear with two of its arms, latching onto the tip with the intention of ripping it out of his grasp, then froze and looked down as those two arms inexplicably stopped working.

"What- how did you gain access to a shard of-"

Wink used the momentary confusion to rip the spear from its deathlike grip and lash out again, this time directly at its face. It instantly threw up its other two claw-hands to block, one of them coming in contact with the crystal and going limp.

The creature growled and lashed out with two more arms, each containing scissors and scalpel respectively.

Two minutes

The scissors clanged uselessly against his armor but the scalpel sliced inches from Wink's eyes, slicing a deep cut in the bridge of his nose as he moved his head back, narrowly avoiding blindness. The creature's last remaining claw-arm snapped inches from his face, nicking the goggles and sending spiderwebbing cracks through the glass. Wink stepped back and tried to aim his spear at the creature again, but hesitated just one millisecond too long as the blood from his cut stung his eyes.

With a terrible roar of triumph, it snatched up his spear just below the crystal tip and flung it far behind him until it rolled to a stop a few inches from Poppy's steel arm, hanging limply off the bed.

"No!" Wink cried. He tried to lurch past the monstrosity but before he could move any further, the creature grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wooden floor. Wink jerked and cried out as stars exploded behind his eyelids, but the creature wasn't done with him yet. With another gleeful snarl, it picked him up from the ground and slowly, savoring the feeling, began to tighten its grip on the boy's throat.

"Daddy, stop," Poppy wheezed. Her steel arm, once limp, gripped the spear loosely, and the straps that had bound her fell to the side, cut in twain by the spear's crystal tip. The creature turned to face her, his claw momentarily ceasing its grip on Wink's windpipe.

37 seconds

The creature turned back to Wink and squeezed again, briefly, as if ensuring its prey was still there, then turned back to Poppy, its eyes glowing with confusion.

"You would save this scum?" His claw twitched eagerly, seconds from ending Wink's existence. Tears streamed down Poppy's face as she hefted the spear, steady despite her emotion.

"I won't hesitate, you know me, I'm stubborn," she whispered hoarsely. "I-" she looked at Wink, making sure he heard this, too, "I-I love him!" Wink's heart soared at her words despite his predicament and he realized he could die happy hearing that phrase from her lips.

"I will not allow it." His claw tightened further and further around his throat, ending all pretense of hope with a single, crushing phrase. "You will see my way in time. Say goodbye to your lover, child." Poppy screamed and thrust the spear towards the creature, throwing away every last thing she thought she loved for this boy she only met a week and a half ago, throwing away her old life because she knew it was right.

0 seconds

But before the spear made contact, the creature went slack, dropping Wink as the last of Poppy's childhood years drained from its body. The creature sagged, its gears finally settling down, and the key on its waist slowed to a crawl.

"So close," it whispered, "So close to immotality. Poppy, what have you done- we could have been...gods..."

click clack whirr

click clack whirr

The key turned thrice, and he was gone.

They both stood in shocked silence, staring at the pitiful excuse for a device that had, up until now, given them both so much grief, had stolen Poppy's childhood, had nearly destroyed Wink's only remaining reason to live.

Then, before he had a chance to react, she tackled him to the ground in a massive hug, causing the spear to clatter to the ground.

"Oh Wink, I'm so glad you came- I thought you abandoned me," she sobbed in her voice, so hoarse from pain.

"I'm sorry, Poppy," he murmured into her shoulder, "I'm so sorry."

They would have stayed there for hours, simply embraced like this, each pouring themselves into the other, but almost immediately, the house issued an ominous rumbling and dust sprinkled from the ceiling.

"What's happening, Poppy?" Wink shouted above the noise.

"The house, it must be falling apart- years of mechanized walls and floors suddenly ceasing movement must've made the place structurally-"

"No time!" Wink hollered. He scooped Poppy up over his shoulder and grabbed his spear, folding it back up inside his pocket. "We have to go, now!"

Drawing on reserves of strength he didn't even know he had, he somehow managed to sprint the entire length of the cavernous laboratory and to the door, just as massive chunks of ceiling began to fall from the second and third stories. As he passed through the doorway, he saw the alien horse, still obediently waiting for him and, without hesitation, tossed Poppy on its furthest end, jumped on the middle, and slapped its rump as hard as he could.

"Heeeyahhh!" he shouted, but it was unnecessary- the horse felt the vibrations, too, and needed no further prompting as it galloped forwards with blurring speed.

Almost, almost... the front door loomed ahead, but it was locked and bolted. Shit!

"Hunker down and hold onto your hat, Poppy! We're breaking through!"

Crash!

With a thunderous boom, their steed jumped, knocking the door right off its hinges and busting through the front gate, just as the last support beam cracked and the house came crumbling to its foundations.

"Holy mother of god, that was close!" Wink shouted, but his phrase was drowned out by a lovely sound, a sound he thought he'd never hear again.

The sound of Poppy's laughter.

And as the last of the Algernon Estate crumbled to dust and they galloped away at full speed, her laughter spread to Wink, the love between them burning stronger than ever as they rode off into the sunrise.

The End

---

Or is it? Perhaps more will lay in store for young Wink Hardly and his sprightly love, Poppy Algernon. Make sure to follow my blog and stay tuned to find out!

Brief apologies for the length of this chapter, i had to decide whether to split this up into two chapters or keep it at one, massive epic chapter. I chose the latter, perhaps moronically. I hope you enjoyed my little contribution to the swords of st valentine event!

Total words: 14,734

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