Our Last Year Together

By Finley Winchester

After the horrors of WW3 'The Academy' (an asteroid that orbits Earth) helps refugee children try to forget what they have seen through therapy and meditation.

But all is not well. The Ret-ror robot guardians are malfunctioning, food is mysteriously mutating, and the Mimeo Batistas are claiming control of ever more territory in the glitzy Eyrie District.

While below in the twisted slum streets of the Comic District rumours swirl of a weird kid with wings who can see into the future...

A coming-of-age Cyberpunk psycho-drama that asks what it is to be human.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Finley Winchester
• Release date: Apr 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463997451

Finley Winchester

Born from 9 elephants across the wind-whipped tundra, Finley continues to travel planet Earth in search of words.

Book preview

Summer Sits

My Finest Time Piece:

In the front window of a shop stands a mannequin who doesn’t want to be there. The word VIOLET is carved onto her palm.

Outside the window a mime sits alone at a table with an umbrella in a busy plaza. His unblinking eyes scan the cobbled street leading down. He turns his head and stares slowly round at everyone, then strokes his chin and mimes shaving.

He flinches.

He has cut himself.

silly me, he mimes, how careless.

He pats the cut with his finger. Blood crawls down it and hits the floor. The people at the other tables stand and walk off quickly. The mime turns back to the cobbled street, pours himself a drink and waits.

Behind him a screen flashes above the mannequin:

/CLOCKS FOR SALE/

Inside the shop a man in a ripped suit and purple mask bustles around with a big albatross feather duster. He stops beneath a grandfather clock made from the body of an alligator. The mouth wraps around the white clock face and the eyes are closed as if deep in prayer. The man licks his cracked lips, goes to dust it but changes his mind and moves on.

The silence is thick with timid sounds of time ticking away. A wall of parrots tick tock in competition with each other and the sounds of a fast approaching vehicle. Beneath the parrots a pig clock oinks out the seconds.

SHHHUT that RACKET! Michael! You tell time in an UGLY! way.

The man walks over and kicks the pig. He repeats this, deepening an old dent.

Satisfied, he pushes his watch into his wrist. A snake with numbers for scales meanders into view.

SSSEE YOUR WAIL, SSSirr?

Its body dissolves and the scales become envelopes.

/NEW MESSAGE/

Purple Mask,

Long time no speak. I need her tonight. For business. I’ll send the coordinates of where she should go.

Blue Mask

Purple mask opens his eyes, licks his lips again and walks past the alligator clock to the front of his shop.

At the window he stands next to the mannequin and looks out. Still staring at the cobbled street across from them, the mime takes out an imaginary pocket watch and checks the time.

Those children have become MONSTERS! Yellow Mask.

He turns his head towards the mannequin.

Whereas my experiments SAVE! people. He puts his arm around her.

Violet, that mega-corp chairman NEEDS! you. He’s back from the colonies.

He smiles.

It’s lucky that update two hasn’t KILLED! you yet. Because of me.

He moves his hand down.

Red Mask really FUCKED! up. But I saved you.

His hand grips her breast.

Violet. You've REALLY! grown. I remember when your LITTLE! head barely came up to my chest. He squeezes hard then lets go.

He hugs her.

Blue mask left you WITH! me, but you’re mine now.

He puts his head on her shoulder, breathes her in.

So SHHH! A secret. After tonight I'm going to MAKE! you my finest time piece. I’ll put the clock face right here. He pats her stomach, his words muffled against her neck.

Ah look AT! the time, things to do. He leans in and kisses her lips.

He recoils; blood is running down his chin.

FUCKING! whore. He raises his hand but stops himself.

You’re lucky Blue NEEDS! you.

He stares at her for a full minute. Dusting his suit, he turns and disappears to the back of the shop.

The mannequin looks at life beyond the window. Sensations well up inside her, only to fade again beneath the deep freeze of her barely beating heart.

A fusionist stares at her from the other side. He holds his hand out. She tries to reach for it but can't because

What is movement?

She tries to speak but can't because

What are words?

She tries to cry but can't because

What are tears?

The fusionist begins to dance but his tired body screams no and he collapses on the floor. A passing Ret-ror guardian robot stops:

/ANALYSIS: COMPLETE/

GENETIC WORTH = C RANK.

/COURSE OF ACTION/

---> Food for the colonies.

---> 18/30.

The robot stabs his leg with a blade arm and drags him off.

The vehicle sound is getting louder; and with it laughter, screams and scuttling legs.

The Weird Kid with Wings:

Inside a millipede train stands a weird kid with wings. He is the only passenger. A flash of green sparks in his eyes:

X + Y = ?

STATUS: ACTIVATED.

MODEL NUMBER: J3

BRAIN SYSTEM (BRYSTEM): ONLINE

The millipede stops in a station marked ’Comic District’. The weird kid with wings gets out and walks towards the sounds of an explosion.

A Romantic Evening:

/Welcome: Era/

/Art in progress/

---> 15

/Art completed this month/

---> 0

/NEW MESSAGE/

Today’s Horoscope for Aries: YOU WILL MEET AN OLD ACQUINTANCE

If you enjoyed this horoscope please subscribe for more products like it. Free dancing pink monkey Webway companion. (UNINSTALL IMPOSSIBLE: BY SUBSCRIBING YOU AGREE TO SHARE ALL OF YOUR DATA ALL OF THE TIME.)

It weeks end and I trippin on TV static again. The idiot box throwin blue over the sofa, lightin the lines in its arms and the needle in mine. A message flash up on the screen:

/NOTICE/

---> 2 CRIMINALS WANTED FOR THEFT OF ACADEMY PROPERTY: 300 TripCoin reward for capture.

/Adventures of QuacknWoof/

---> EPISODE: escape from feathermallow Island. SOON!

Out of nowhere a green tnaphelE with a big floppy hat and cheeky grin pop up in my Brystem, cloudin out my sight:

"Are yOu lOn3ly? look! Horny wom3n! At least 45 p3rc3nt org5nic!"

Hi! S3l3ct my bre@sts to mak3 a paym3nt and my full fuck history is yours for th3 night =)

Her body got chunks missin. She musta not had enough TripCoins to full-convert to new flesh in one go. Now there a war between who got the right to exist on her big tits: old or new.

The preview enough: Don't look her in the eyes...go quick from the beginnin...

Done.

/TIME: 17 S3CONDS/

Why sO f4st? n3w clIm4x delayers now on sale! Brystem download av4il4ble!"

/User Era/

---> SYSTEM.DELETE: Giant green tnaphelE Webway companion.

/Auto.cancel/ Horny wom3n n3xt sch3dule: 3 lun4r hours.

He tip his hat with his trunk and disappear.

DON’T TRY AND DELETE ME AG4IN, Era.

There shit leakin from my eye. I try and stand but end up on the floor with my trousers round my ankles instead. Come now ladies, don’t be so shy...

It then I hear someone knockin at my door.

A Pursuit:

A cockroach car with a stuffed polar bear tied to its roof scuttles down a road.

In the front seat are two clowns.

Boy clown is wearing a bright vomit of a suit that’s too big for him. He grips the steering wheel. Next to him Girl clown has her head out the window. She’s staring at the wooded road behind them.

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK. Boy clown swears.

SHUT UP! I don’t see them yet. Girl clown mimes.

The approaching Core District gleams with electronics leering out of bone buildings with neon adverts:

/Adventures of QuacknWoof/

---> EPISODE: escape from feathermallow Island. SOON!

/Summer sits sleepless festival/

---> IN PROGRESS

/New Biogermechanics/

---> Buy your potential today

Clusters of candy cane cameras snap their picture relentlessly. They go through the mouth of a giant skeleton of a hippo.

Carnival is everywhere.

With wild eyed laughter and Summer smells. A fusionist dressed as a butterfly jumps from a tower. He snaps his neck on the ground and is stamped on by a Leather-Kicker ripped with muscles.

Plastic-Tastics dressed as animals strut to the crowds. Their bodies arch invitingly and endorphins are uploaded to their Brystems. Someone touches the tail of one dressed as a gecko. She rips an earring off and stabs it into his eye. It pops out, and joins others on a necklace. She walks off giggling.

A signpost flashes as the clowns scuttle by in their cockroach car:

/COMIC DISTRICT/

The carnival changes.

The revellers are more unhinged, the eyes more glazed, the hearts more faint. The street becomes cobbled and bumpier and narrower. Smells of flesh and cheap synthetic are everywhere. A message flashes up in the clown’s Brystem:

W5IL W5ILLL W5IIIIL!!

/User BoyClown/

---> SYSTEM.DELETE: Pink yeknoM Webway companion

/User GirlClown/

---> IGNORE LAST COMMAND

Don’t do that.

Shoulda got the green tnaphelE instead. He comes with a HAT!

I’ve heard bad things about him...

Well, the pink yeknoM didn’t used to intrude like thi-

Your eye is leaking.

W5il!!

They see a pink gorilla walking down a corridor. It smashes through a door marked:

//:MEMORY://

Mr Orange Mask?

A tall man dressed in orange with his back to a group of children dressed as clowns.

We’ve done all our synchronisation exercises!

The man turns. There are tears in his eyes. He puts his hand on Boy clowns shoulder.

You are all a horrible mistake. We never should have played god with those SonManto mushroom spores.

The gorilla raises his arms. A clapping sound knocks him back and he dissolves.

The clown’s vision clears.

The cockroach car is stopped in a side street. Bone buildings stretch up around them.

I told you. That yeknoM is bad news!

That’s the second Wail companion to do that...

We’ll get the tnaphelE next then!

Boy clown knocks on the roof of the cockroach. It crawls out onto the main street, swaying beneath the weight of the tied-up bear on the roof.

A boy dressed as a parrot weaves past on a unicycle. He is juggling knives. He cuts through a circle of fusionists dancing with every sinew of their bodies. One cracks a syringe into his arm and roars joy.

Look!

Two Ret-ror guardian robots materialise near the cockroach. Their visors switch from toothy smile to bloodshot eye.

/ANALYSIS: COMPL3TE/

Genetic worth = INFECTED with Ed3n’s R3v3nge!

/COURSE OF ACTION/

---> Trial

They raise their blade arms and stab the insect car.

FUCKFUCKFUCK.

Around them robots multiply, secreting terror hormone. A white one leaps onto the front of the cockroach. A multi-voice booms from its rusted chest; a full choir of vocal chords from deep to high:

/TRIAL: IN PROGR3SS./

/CRIME/

---> Infection and theft of the Director’s Polar b3ab3b3arb3ar

/PUNISHMENT/

---> Death by virus

/TIMEFRAME/

---> Now

The white Ret-ror leaps to the roof with the tied-up bear and points its blade arms down. Two giant clown shoes clamp onto his torso from inside the cockroach. Girl clown twists until she hears a loud crunch. She grabs the body between her thighs and flings it away. The white robot smashes onto a rubbish heap and her legs point up like the end of a trapeze artist routine from within the insect.

A black Ret-ror climbs onto the cockroach car. Girl clown vaults out the window and faces it on the roof. The blade arms are raised in an executioner’s cross. It lunges forward but Girl clown dodges and the blades miss. She grabs its visor with her hand, cracks it with her palm and high kicks the chest. It falls off and joins its friend on the floor.

I’M GONNA USE IT!

Boy clown rips his big red clown nose off, squeezes hard and throws it out the window behind him. The explosion hits several Ret-rors in the chest, flinging wires and metal everywhere.

The blast throws the cockroach car down the cobbled road and into a plaza. The dead bear on top comes loose and crashes through the display window of a clock shop. It hits the mannequin snout first and rests on her.

The cockroach car nears a brick wall. At the last moment Girl clown grabs Boy clown’s shoulder and pulls him out the window. They jump off before the cockroach hits the wall. It explodes wetly.

The square is a carnage of drinks, debris and glass. From the roofs metallic shadows watch.

The weird kid with wings looks from the top of the hill. His eyes glow green.

What's that fluffy white geggy!?

TERRA SPECIES NUMBER: 16151225. Polar Bear.

STATUS: Extinct. Polar bears were found in the coldest regions of Earth. This one is not fully grown.

CAUSE OF DEATH: Unknown.

ASSIGN NAME: ?

Hmm, call it...

New Legs:

My head hurts.

Yakky likes to /Qu4ck n Woof Ton1ght/ play with his saliva drip drip /g3t your l1m1t3d 3d1t1on p1nk m0nk3y today!/ drip. Today’s hologram is cliff top sunset. I like cliff top sun/X/set.

Atom l-l-l-look!

"What is it /L3mongr0v3 fr33 U4EA 2nite sp33ch p5rty!/ Yakky?"

I’m m-m-m-making fffffoood.

Take me to the cliff, and watch out for the dodgy wheel.

Yak/+/ky knows how to push my wheelchair. It’s broken. Noone has fixed /Tod5ys c5nt33n sp3c1al: Cr1ck3t Curry/ it. Yakky used to be a Plastic-Tastic but then her Brystem reacted badly to upgrade three.

The ocean stretches away across the wall. I like this one the most. I can imagine jump/Y/ing off the cliff and drowning. Yakky reaches out and touches the waves. They lap her hand. I stare off to a distant shore where the sun is always setting. In the middle of the sun, if you look hard enough you can /=/ see

X: Access granted

Y: System operational

X/Y: /:COMMAND:/

---> Delete all spam/malware from Atom’s Brystem

X/Y: /:COMMAND:/

---> Retrieve Prototype white Ret-ror

I am falling. I see a cockroach car driving off and a pair of legs pointing to the sky. I land on my back but it doesn’t hurt.

X: Stand up

Y: We must hide it

WheelchairChump17: How?

X/Y: Belief and intuition

I strain and stab my blade arms into the walls around me. My knees buckle beneath my weight but I keep trying. I straighten my legs.

Walking...I’m walking.

In a reflection I see myself; chrome white and robotic.

Y: /:GPS:/

---> Send coordinates

X: Go here

Lots of people. The Ret-ror robot has no sense of smell or taste. The ground is full of other broken Ret-rors. I hear an explosion in the distance but I don’t care.

Because each step is beautiful.

I walk past a fusionist on his knees clutching at his face. He is missing an eye. I take a lift up and walk out onto a field of tarmac with rusted ships and containers. A runway rises up towards a window to the stars.

Real stars.

WheelchairChump17: I’ve been here before...Years ago.

X: Have you?

WheelchairChump17: This is where I tried to escape on a rocket, with...a boy called Era. He’s an artist.

Y: What a coincidence

I walk towards a container in the corner. The door shuts behind me.

WheelchairChump17: Who are you?

X/Y: Friends =)

WheelchairChump17: Are you alive?

X: SURE WE ARE!

Y: Why not!?

WheelchairChump17: How were you able to transfer my Brystem into this Ret-ror?

X: It’s a prototype model

Y: That’s why it is white

X: And not black

Y: Its operating systems are out-dated

X/Y: So there was a backdoor that we hacked and exploited.

WheelchairChump17: You deleted the Spamware in my Brystem too. I can think again. Thanks.

X: No worries

Y: Friend =)

WheelchairChump17: ...So what now?

X/Y: The Ret-ror needs fixing, but

X: Let’s look inside it and

Y: Get to know it more

Information comes bubbling up. I submerge my head:

//:MEMORY://

Long grass, the sound of crickets and the laughter of others in the distance. A young child scrapes his knee beneath a starry night.

MR RETROR I'VE HURTED MY LEG

The machine flits forward and catches him in an intense, warm embrace.

Its arms have hands.

/ENGAGE/

---> Administering: consolation and treatment

A cable extends from his white visor and connects itself to the forehead of the small boy. Soothing synaesthesia sedates him as the robot applies a bandage to the wound.

/ENGAGE/

---> Sensation of love and care

The cable disconnects. The boy wipes his eyes and looks up at the robot. A toothy smile is on its screen visor. The boy giggles.

Thanks Mr Ret-ror!!

...And l-l-l-look at that p-p-p-pretty cloud over there Atom!

I’m back in the specials class. My head feels clear as I stare out at the ocean.

I no longer wish to jump.

An Old Rivalry:

The mime stands and dusts off his suit. His table is undamaged. He sniffs once, and drains the last of his drink. He walks towards the two bodies, cracking his fingers one by one.

Boy clown scrambles to his feet, his balance uneven. The mime stops. They stare at one another.

Problems with your Wail companion, Pink Yeknom was it?

Boy clown wipes his leaking eyes and looks up.

The mime has gone. A handkerchief is floating to the floor. It freezes, becomes a bird, and flies at him, hitting him in the chest. The pain drops him to his knees again. The sky darkens and the buildings twist into mouths with gnashing yellow teeth. Standing over him a plague doctor with a metallic beak lowers his gun shaped hand.

We told you not to show your faces here. It’s our district n-

Bounding on all fours Girl clown lunges at him and knocks him to the ground. His body smashes into sharp shards that cut her. He reappears sitting at his table, beneath the watching shadows on the roofs. Girl Clown flips to her feet and breathes deeply. The clowns face the mime across the plaza with hands raised.

The Ret-rors will attack soon.

But only you. We are not blacklisted.

You know it’s not a fair fight, our Brystem is down.

It would make no difference. Your understanding of the Webway is infantile, individual, meagre. To you it is just code; ones and noughts, tepid binary. To us it is a work of art. Our only limit is imagination, which is limitless.

Bah! You stole your creativity from others. Your act’s MANKY chappy.

Talent and ruthlessness have always been linked. Soon we will hold a monopoly on laughter throughout all the districts. We will be the voice of the future. You’ve been left behind, clowns.

He stands up. Eight mimes step from him into a semi-circle. Their shadows stretch up behind them, joining those of the Ret-rors above. The mime gestures at the broken window of the clock shop.

Why did you take the Directors raeB?

Boy clown winks.

Who told you to take it. The Clouds?

Boy clown shrugs and smiles.

The mime moves forward and spreads his arms. The scene crumples like unwanted paper and the other mimes become blades from different moments of history. The main mime throws them towards the clowns.

They sidestep and clap their hands. A blast of energy speeds towards the mime. He back flips, kicks the sound away, and wrenches his arms across each other.

The clowns turn, too late, and the swords strike deep. The mime twists his fingertips, turning the blades left then right. They try to pull them out but there’s nothing there.

The buildings start to shake and laugh. The mime reappears sitting at an invisible table, in an invisible chair.

Tell me Who. A Plastic-Tastic wanting the next big thing? A fusionist looking for a high?

Boy clown cackles, wincing as the cuts bite.

The MUSHROOM MAN that's who, and he’s PISSED at you chaps.

Impossible. We would have felt his presence...

Yeah well, he’s back, and he’s LIVID at you!

You lie.

I speak the truth, by my own flesh and BLOOD! Boy clown cups his hands and drinks from the running wound on his shoulder.

Enough. We won’t take any chances. We will harvest the full truth from your brain and take the raeB. Curtain calls clowns.

The mimes become giant tentacles stretching up, and the buildings scream. Boy clown looks at Girl clown. They nod, and begin to clap in time, drowning out the noise around them.

Suddenly they hear a loud whistling and turn their heads.

Sharing Red:

...Peter!

Peter the polar bear is busy with the girl statue in the tick tock shop n Mr Boy Clown n Mr Mime are talking to each other. One of them is using throat noises n the other one is using gesture noises.

There is also a Miss clown; her n Mr Boy clown are sharing lots of red!

Above them geggys on a roof watch them.

I see lots of Mr clowns. In some next times his pumpy lungs stop moving. He is already sharing lots of red n if he shares any more he’ll be in trouble!

Then swords made gone into air n come back again, clowns pumpy lungs not but are, Carl cockroach car nearly exploding but not yet already has.

I see my own many me’s streeetch out before me.

I pick the one that flies forward n smashes Mr Mime in the throat muscle until he is sharing lots of red. My hand makes contact with his throat have already hit before I fly.

BOOM!

I Am Wooden:

I am lying down for the first time in a while. Around me shards of glass dig into my body painfully.

But why do I feel them?

Am I not wooden?

The creatures embrace, with stiff paws sticking out, presses onto my shoulders.

Why can't I push it off?

Because what is movement?

I hear clocks ticking, the sound hits my ears.

Old memories

But I have no memories.

I am wooden yet I can hear.

I am wooden yet I can feel.

The creature is white like its teeth. My chest is constricted, in pain, but that shouldn't matter, because I am wooden. And why are my arms still on my hips? I should move them and try to push the creature away.

You take the Raeb then WINGY THROAT SNATCHER boy.

A face appears, younger than me but I am old, because I am made from wood. I see rusted wings and curious eyes, staring down at me beyond the rows of the creature’s sharp teeth.

And then a sensation, and the sounds of keys turning. I see a dark room, wires in my body, and the life we couldn't have, you and I.

Memories; the only ice that never truly melts.

I am...wooden?

Nay! Ye be living.

My brain begins to electrify to the heat of the green in his eyes staring down at me.

Am I wooden?

No Miss! You’re a human geggy!

Heyy, errr, WTS boy, I can call you that? Hey errr...

A face appears next to the boys. It has no nose. Blood drips down from a nose-less face and bright clothes and onto the white creature.

And I understand them both because I am not wooden. I am

A minxy mannequin eh? Look at the STATS on that one. Looks almost real. WTS boy let’s go, I hear movement in the back so help us with the raeB.

The boys lift the white creature off of me and our eyes finally break contact.

The pressure is easing on my chest.

I breathe,

I feel,

I exist.

I try to say goodbye, but I can't because...

Why can't I? I have a voice too. And I have a mind, and sensations. I can live in the moment, through the moment, outside the moment. For the first time in forever, I can feel my heart beat, and my blood pump and rush through my body,

Through MY body.

Ye! It be thine and naught his!

Like a clock telling me the time, my body is constantly ticking. It always was, I just wasn't listening. Until now. Eyes wide anger, from years of pain.

I begin to roar.

Wingy Throat Snatcher:

The weird kid with wings runs down the hill and jumps. He lands with a bang before the circle of tentacles and turns into a green flame that burns them into ash.

Only one mime now remains.

The weird kid with wings reappears a few metres from him. He darts forward, clenches his hand around the mime’s throat and wrenches it clean away. The head falls to the ground in a mess of blood and arteries. The body follows it.

The weird kid with wings drops the throat; it squelches and he stares at it in silence. The two clowns watch the boy warily. At length, boy clown raises a hand and speaks:

Hey there! Thanks for schooling that shitty mime!

The weird kid with wings turns his head to the clowns. They freeze, and raise their hands ready to fight. His green eyes widen in surprise.

Oh, don’t worry! I won't make you share red like the mime geggy! Ernie said not too!

Girl clown laughs and nudges Boy clown, who shrugs.

What's a geggy, CHAP? He asks.

Anything I don't know the gegginess of. I know what the furry geggy on the floor over there is now but it takes time to ungeggify things.

Are we on FreakOut, Girl Clown?

What's FreakOut Mister Clown?

Never mind. Listen, we need to SCARPER before the Ret-rors on that roof decide to SHANK us, or more shitty mimes come. I know someone who lives near here, an artist called Era.

I only hurt the mime geggy because he wouldn't share red.

I know. So can you help us move that big furry geggy in that shop?

OK!

Ok? Just like that? No twisted deal demanding TripCoins or drugs or...?

What are Tripgeggys?

GRAND! Look, I’ll tell you later. You take the raeB then WINGY THROAT SNATCHER boy!

The weird kid with wings runs over to the shop window. Girl clown giggles silently and cart wheels after him. The weird kid with wings stares at the mannequin trapped underneath the polar bear. Boy clown sighs and runs over too.

Heyy, errr, WTS boy, can I call you that? Hey errr... A cut from his hand drips onto the bear.

Look at the STATS on that one. Looks almost real. Hey WTS boy let’s go, I hear movement in the back so help us with the raeB.

The three move the bear back into the plaza. Boy clown spits on the mime’s body and kicks it in the crotch as they pass it. They go down some alleys and into the sprawl of the Comic District.

Who is Ernie by the way?

He is an umbrella. I have said goodbye to him already.

Mmm, life is hard WTS boy.

Behind them the Ret-rors on the roof melt into their own shadows and disappear.

Awakening:

The man in the ragged suit crashes out of the back of his clock shop in panic. A platypus with an expression of defeat is clasped under one arm. His trousers are around his knees. He stops and looks at the carnage:

The crocodile grandfather clock is on the floor. Its back has snapped and impaled Michael the pig. He drops the platypus and pulls up his trousers.

I always KNEW! you were a POOFTER! Michael. I told you to LEAVE! the CROC! alone...

He pricks his ears up.

Hearing small gasps, he walks over to the shop window. The mannequin is on its back in a pool of blood.

You aren't SUPPOSED! to breathe, you are wooden.

She stares into his eyes.

It's ALRIGHT! It's ok, it's fine, it's fine? It's FINE! we'll fix this NASTY! little MESS!.

The mannequin opens her mouth. Her chest is a knife box of pain. Small noises escape her throat; vibrations from the dusty mausoleum of her vocal chords.

She makes a fist, crunching pieces of window into her palms.

now NOW! now. The man presses his watch and sees the digital snake.

/:Enable:/

---> Mannequin Freeze Mechanism

No dice, Purple Mask.

It’s not UP! for debate Sally Snake!

The mannequin mechanism was written with old code.

Old? I have UPDATE! 4. Enable it.

But the TARGET of your command is using Update 2. Woopsy. Bye!

He opens his eyes again. They’re leaking thick black slime. He looks up. The mannequin is standing now, facing him. Her uneven breathing settles into a steady rhythm. In her hand is a shard of glass.

He pulls a syringe and moves towards me.

I am human, not wooden.

No! Blue Mask will be disappointed but I can't HAVE! you back-talking MY! pretty Violet.

That name whispered over and over for so long in my ear. And on my palm those same letters, carved in flesh;

Violet.

I run at him. He punches me in the neck, grabs my right arm and twists it behind me.

Awaken, my precious seed!

All the arteries explode out of my wrists, entwine the syringe and snap it. They wrap around his hairy hand and lift him up into the air. A charge of electricity passes between us, smashing him back into a pile of parrots on the floor.

I gasp and look at my wrists: The veins and arteries hang down to the floor. 2 dimensional pixels form in my brain into the outline of a bird:

HELLO NEON!

/TIME TO LAST LOG-IN/

---> A long time!

/CURRENT MONTH/

---> Summer sits sleepless!

/WARNING POWER LOW/

---> Find a recharge socket. Sleeping

The man is slumped on the floor bleeding. I walk over, picking my way through the debris of the shop.

My name isn't Violet, it's Neon.

You ARE! VioleT.

He enunciates the T, pushing it out with a rasp. Blood’s leaking down his teeth. My blood vessels trail behind me along the ground.

How do I put these away?

I smash his chin with my foot.

Answer me!

"With RECHARGE! sockets...But there are NONE! left. Update two is OLD! There’s rust and MOULD! on your wires.