Lily Marin - three short steampunk stories

by Paul Kater

Published by the author at Smashwords - Copyright 2011 Paul Kater

License Notes, Smashwords Edition:

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Contents:

Lily and the motley crew

Lily and the avenging angel

Lily and doctor Drosselmeyer

About the author

Books I published

Lily and the motley crew

"Lily?"

The voice made her look up from her improvised make-up table. In the smudgy mirror, which was flanked by oil lamps with cracked leather caps, she saw the outline of the owner of the bar.

Lily had just sung in his establishment and now she was removing the make-up from her face. "What do you want? And why don't you knock when you come into a lady's dressing room? I could be naked for all you know." She assumed that was what he had been hoping for.

"Just wanted to bring your pay, Lily, that's all." Part of the man in the shadows became visible for a moment as a hand put an envelope on the table. "I'll get in touch when we have another evening. You're the best, Lily." For a hesitant second it looked as if the hand wanted to come to a rest on her shoulder, but its owner decided differently. He did not know how smart a decision that was. Footsteps moved away from the singer.

Lily waited until the door closed. "Sure. The best. That's why I sing here and not in something like Albert Hall." She knew she wasn't the best singer in the world, but that was fine with her. She could live her life anonymously and do what she liked. And what she had to. "Speaking of which, I should get moving," she told her hairbrush.

The singer quickly put her few belongings in her bag, slipped her coat on and with her umbrella in hand she left the bar through the back door. A fine rain greeted her as she walked away.

"Wonder when there is an evening I won't need it," Lily muttered as she fought the umbrella. She won, so she could walk along under the small portable shelter. Since the start of the alchemists' convention it seemed to rain more than usual.

She reached her modest home. It was not far away. Lily got out of her dress and washed her face. It was time for action again. The newspaper had told her so, earlier that day. She tied her long dark hair in a tight knot at the back of her head to keep it out of the way.

As she slipped into the tight black leather pants, she thought of the audience in the bar. Good people, she knew, hard-working folks out for a nice time. And they didn't object to her singing, she thought with a grin. Lily put on the red shirt and buttoned that up. A leather vest went over it and then she buckled up the tool belt, as she called it. Once the belt was around her waist, she checked the tools.

The dagger was shiny and sharp, the razors in place. The rad-gun, big and heavy, was full as she picked it from the charging unit. The weight of the radiation thrower felt comforting on her hip as it slid in the slightly worn holster. Without looking Lily switched it to standby, so the internal circuitry could warm up.

She went to get the long coat and put it on. It never ceased to amaze her how light it was, considering how many strands of reinforced microfibres were woven into the fabric. It withstood bullets and had once saved her life from the blow of an axe. After putting on the black sturdy boots, Lily opened the small cupboard that was hidden under her coat rack and disconnected the backpack. It was her pride.

She strapped the pine wood case to her back; the leather padding settled itself quickly to the contours of her back like the hand of a lover. She tucked the flexible copper tube with the ruby on the end in her pocket, hooked the whip to her tool belt, grabbed the big umbrella and then she was ready. The mask was in her other pocket, she always kept it there, but she would not need that yet.

As she walked down the streets, none of the few people who were out in the rain paid her any mind. They all just wanted to get home and stay out of trouble and the rain. Lily had opened the big umbrella to keep the downpour away from her. No need to get soaking wet just yet.

Once she was several streets away from her small apartment she stepped onto the road, where she kicked the heel of one boot against the other. The compact mechanisms in the thick soles reacted flawlessly and raised her up four feet. She started walking again, now with the long strides her artificially extended legs made possible. Walking faster than a regular person was forbidden on the sidewalks, but walking in the street like this usually was a pain, with carriages and cars getting in the way. Good thing there was hardly any traffic now.

Soon Lily reached the area she had read about in the newspaper. She stopped at the side of the road and put the mask on. It hid most of her face, and contained the special lenses that helped her see clearly in the dark. As she moved the lenses into place, everything bathed in a familiar green light.

In the area of Hurst Street and Ambly Road, the newspaper had said, a band of vagabonds made life of the people living there very difficult, with muggings, beatings, fires, explosive devices and the like. Several police officers had already laid down their lives trying to capture the thugs. That had been enough for Lily.

She didn't care much about property, but when officers were dying in the line of their work, like her father and her uncle, that was where she drew the line. She wiggled her toes to make the elevation mechanism slide back into the soles of the boots. She wanted to attract the vagabonds and standing out like that would probably have the opposite effect.

Lily stepped onto the battered sidewalk. That too bore the marks of the vagabonds. She closed the umbrella and pulled up the collar of her coat. Lily tried to decide which way to go first. A loud bang and a tremor beneath her feet helped her. She walked back to the crossing of Ambly and Lowell and turned into Lowell Road.

Three people came running towards her. It was unclear if they were the vagabonds or their victims, so she hid in the doorway of the house she was in front of. Some shouting and a few shots later, she heard the bullets fly, it was clear that she had seen victims run.

Lily counted the seconds. Too long, experience told her. The running folk should have passed her by now. They had probably been in the way of the bullets. The street was silent again, so Lily moved out of the shadows. Immediately she saw the bodies lying in the street. Perhaps, she hoped, they were only wounded, not dead.

The left glass in her mask, which had heat seeking abilities, did not show any significant cooling down of either body, but that meant nothing: they had been down for only a few seconds. Slowly she folded up her umbrella and hung that from the tool belt. The people on the ground, she found, were all dead.

The vagabonds had moved on. The street lights assisted the lenses in showing Lily the desolate place that was Lowell Road. Cars and carriages had been blown to smithereens or burnt to crisps, windows were shattered, some had been hastily nailed shut with pieces of wood, and there were many cracks in the pavement. She could almost smell the fear that lived behind the closed windows. A few loud bangs, shots from firearms again, told her where the vagabonds had progressed to, so she started walking. They could not be far; as the vagabonds considered themselves masters in the area, they would not be in a hurry.

Lily turned into the first street she came across. There a group was standing, as if they had not a care in the world. Most of the street lights here were off. Damaged probably. The light-enhancers in her mask showed her six men, all dressed in torn, ill-fitting suits. In a reflex her hand slid over the rad-gun that was under the coat, making sure it was there.

Four of the men carried handguns, she saw, and at least one of those was a rad-gun. Her coat would take a good beating if they had a shot at her with that.

In the darkness, the six men did not notice Lily until she was very close. The thick soft soles of her boots dampened her footsteps, which usually was an advantage.

"Now look what we have here," one of the men said as he saw Lily walking up to the group. Four barrels of guns were pointed at her. "Halt, raise your hands."

"Wrong. You will raise your hands," Lily said, "and after I tied you up you will come with me. About time that this neighbourhood is freed from the likes of you."

The men looked confused, despite their weaponry. Lily never changed her voice; the sound of a woman speaking from inside the fearsome attire usually was in her advantage. Now also. As the six hesitated, she brought out her whip from under her coat and made it dance a few times. The four guns flew through the air and landed on the street somewhere, out of the range of triggerfingers.

As the whip landed in her other hand, she drew the rad-gun and pointed it at the group.

"Make no mistakes, gentlemen," she said, "I know how to use this and my finger is faster than all your legs combined.

"Madam, if you allow me-" one of the men said as he stepped forward.

Lily did not allow him. With her other hand she was very well able to crack her whip as the man learnt. He landed on the pavement. Hard.

With a flick of the wrist, Lily undid the end of the whip from his ankle. "No tricks. I am here to bring order back to the area."

Her voice had gotten hard and strong, the way it always did once she became her true self again. The singing bit was just a cover for the daytime, no one should know who Lily Marin really was. The more out of sight she was in her public life, the better.

"Oh my God," one of the other men said. "It's her. It's the Masked Woman!"

Lily hated the unoriginal name the press had given her, but it was hers apparently. "Yes. I'm the Masked Woman."

"Behind you!" the man yelled as he and the other four dropped to the floor.

Nicely synchronised trick, Lily thought, just before she sensed something wrong. Behind her. She ducked and swivelled round, raising the rad-gun and blasting a round. The rock that had come for the back of her head fell harmlessly on the ground behind her, as the man who had thrown it fell on the ground in front of her. He was with a few more men. Or rather, he had been, as he was no more.

Crap, there are many more of them, was the first thing she thought. Then it dawned on her that the six she had taken for the gang were possibly a few of the not yet scared people that wanted to go against the vagabonds.

"Stay put, I'm going after them," she called to the six as the rock-throwers made a run for it, away from her. She saw how they turned left, back into Lowell and heard their footsteps echo away.

Lily slammed the gun back in the holster as she got up. She estimated where the vagabonds would be going and positioned herself as she reached into her pocket. She pressed hard on the ruby. It slipped into the copper tube. At the hiss from the backpack she braced herself; this was going to be nauseating again.

The fierce jolt from the pack pushed her upwards. She hoped that she had positioned herself properly, once airborne there was no way to make any changes. The thunder behind her deafened her, the skin on her face that was not protected by the mask wanted to retreat to her neck as she sped upwards. Up and higher she went, over the buildings.

Below her she saw the gang running. So far, so good, Lily the Masked Woman thought. A splutter from her pack told her that the flight was almost over and she prepared for the smack-down. Landings were unpleasant and she never got the timing right to make her boot extensions break the fall.

She started to drop. Falling was not so bad. It was the moment of hanging suspended in the air that made her stomach turn a few times.

"Oh shit," Lily said as a true Masked Woman. She had already spotted that her landing zone was a building. Before the stone masses took the view away, she saw that the motley gang had slowed down and was looking around. Somehow they never looked up.

Just before the last hiccups and snorts came from the backpack, Lily threw her weight into the straps, trying to turn herself in the least damaging position before she hit the building. She was lucky this time: she slammed into the wall only eight feet from the ground. The coat took most of the impact and she slid down the bricks, landing on her feet. "Oooomph....."

The Masked Woman shook her head a few times to get her senses back in place, then she ran out of the alley that her short flight had taken her to. She looked left, then right.

There they were. Blood was racing through Lily's veins now. She had gone through the transformation completely, all traces of the singer had vanished. She now was the hunter, the stone cold killer that stepped in where justice feared to go. She paced towards the group of five, rad-gun in one hand, whip in the other.

Two of the men carried swords, not an uncommon sight in these parts and hardly anything to be concerned with. The others had a small selection of hand weapons. One of these men aimed at Lily and fired without wasting time and breath.

The impact of the steel pellet barely stopped her progress. She'd have a nice bruise of it the next day, she realised in a fraction of a moment. Then she fired a blast from her rad-gun and the shooter went down, never to come up again.

One man stared at the figure in the long coat that came steadily towards them despite the shot from the gun. He almost dropped his gun for fear as a certain area of his pants coloured dark. The two sword-carriers had different ideas. As a trained team they each moved to a side and then charged at Lily.

She had anticipated that. The rad-gun was holstered again, and her hand came back with the umbrella. Lily flicked a small nob on it and the blade of a rapier jumped from the tip of the folded-up umbrella. She blocked a strike from one of the attackers and dove under a swoop from the other man, then turned quickly and lashed out to the second man with her whip in the same movement. It caught the man's wrist.

Lily yanked. Not with the minimal strength of the singer. No, she now had command of all her power, the power that had been unleashed when the experimental transformation-ray of Doctor Drosselmeyer had gone wrong and the device exploded, charging Lily with more than a thousand times the level that she was meant to get.

The man's wrist broke. Lily's ripping was so powerful and the whip's end so sharp that his hand came off. As he screamed and blood spouted from his stump, Lily was already on top of the other sword fighter.

Her handling of the rapier umbrella was so fast that she was no match for the man. A dozen or more deep cuts in his chest and abdomen sealed his fate. Lily turned to the two remaining men, one of which had fallen to his knees and reduced himself to a snotty heap.

The last one standing was a bear of a man. Not only was he huge, he also had a rad-gun and a very large calibre fire arm, and both of those were aimed at the Masked Woman. Oh shit, she thought. This could get really painful.

"Give up," she said, aiming her umbrella at the man. "You're alone now, nobody's going to save you."

"Who says I need help, bitch?" the man growled.

Lily saw his finger twitch and closed her eyes. The beam of electrons from the rad-gun hit her straight in the chest and face. The microfibre coat absorbed most of it, but the unmasked skin on her face stung and burnt. It was over soon, though. Rad-guns did not keep up such a power drain for long.

Lily forced air into her lungs and opened her eyes. She saw stars dancing in front of her eyes, something that hindered seeing. She knew he would shoot the other gun too, but when? Then the crack of a shot reached her ears - the bullet would hit any moment - but it didn't.

Another shot was fired and again the burning sensation of a bullet didn't come.

She blinked a few times to make the stars go away and saw the bear of a man on one knee, clutching his shoulder, blood seeping through his fingers. Blood also came from a thigh. Then she heard the panting behind her.

The men she had mistaken for the vagabond gang had come up behind her and someone from that group had fired at the last gang member standing.

With a groan the wounded man lifted his gun, aiming to hurt someone. Lightning fast, Lily grabbed at her tool belt and threw. The man fired the gun, but the bullet went harmlessly up into the air, as the dagger had pierced his forehead and forced him backwards.

"Dear Lord," she heard one of the men behind her say. "Madam, are you well?"

Lily turned towards them, ignoring the feeling of pepper under her skin that the rad-gun had left there. "I'm fine. Thank you for coming, gentlemen, and my apology for mistaking you for the gang."

She turned and walked towards the fallen bear. She yanked her dagger from the man's head which let go of it with a sucking sound. She wiped it clean on the dead man's clothes and tucked it away. Then she turned back to the small group.

"Perhaps it is best if you are not here when the police come to round up these folk," she said. "They will ask all kinds of inconvenient questions."

"But madam, we have nothing to hide."

"Suit yourself," said Lily. "I do, so I am leaving." She clicked her heels. The mechanism raised her up again and quickly, without another word, she walked off at a high speed.

None of the gentlemen even thought of trying to stop her.

Back in her small apartment she first took care of her equipment. The coat was cleaned, the rad-gun and the backpack were attached to their chargers.

She retracted the rapier, unfolded the umbrella and put the thing in the umbrella stand next to its harmless cousins. Her boots were already in the closet, wiped clean and ready for the next event. She checked the dagger for damage, but the fine Japanese blade had not suffered from the skull. Finally she took care of herself.

With a grateful sigh Lily sank into the tub, letting the hot water clean her skin and thoughts. She took her time to soak and relax, until the water was getting cold.

Drying herself in front of the mirror, Lily saw that she had a few massive bruises. Buildings and bullets never failed to do that. Also the skin on the lower part of her face looked damaged; the remainder from the blast from the rad-gun.

She sucked in air through her teeth as she touched it. Painful. Lethal as it would have been for regular people, she would heal in a few days, as she always did, but it meant that she was not going to sing the next day.

Her voice would be fine, but she wanted to avoid questions about her appearance.

Dudley, the neighbour's boy, would be glad to take an apology note out for her, as usual. He wasn't the brightest person in town and never asked uncomfortable questions.

Lily looked at the tub. She'd clean that tomorrow. She was knackered, so she slipped into her nightgown and went to bed.

That night she dreamt of Dr. Drosselmeyer again, of how he asked her to assist in this 'harmless experiment' gone bad, and how that had turned her into the person she was now...

Lily and the avenging angel

"Right, everything in the bag, umbrella in the hall - oh, I will need this."

Lily enjoyed talking to herself as she went about her place to get her things together. She was about to leave for some singing. There was a reason she never called it a 'performance'; she did not think her voice good enough for that. Instead, Lily always went for 'some singing'.

The this, being a hairbrush, disappeared into the bag. Lily looked around the room and decided she was all set for the singing. She was already dressed for it, her long coat would cover up her dress.

The dressing rooms she usually had at her disposal did not always offer enough space for changing, and this way she did not have to carry so much either. A definite click assured her that the lock on her bag worked fine.

Once in the street, Lily focussed on the songs she was going to sing.

The piano player'd better be better than the one she had worked with two evenings ago. With that one, Lily was surprised that he knew what side of the piano he had to fondle, because that was all he had done. Well, that and almost ruining the evening.

Today she would sing at the dance hall, not very far from her house. The weather was wonderful, so initially she decided to walk. Then she stopped a carriage after all.

Ladies, she reminded herself, do not walk those distances, and certainly not with heavy bags. Ordinary women did. As the carriage took her along Lily missed the walking, but this way she would not be seen as someone who had the physical stamina of the Masked Woman, her alter ego. She had to avoid any resemblance, even at the price of a ride.

The carriage came to a halt. The driver opened the door and helped her out. He was so kind that Lily felt sorry she could not give him a better tip, but he seemed well pleased.

"Have a nice day, Miss," he said as he tipped his hat and climbed back into his seat.

"You too, sir," said Lily. Then she walked towards the dance hall. She'd been here before. The singer entered, announced her presence to Jonathan, the manager of the hall, and located her dressing...

"A closet. Of course."

As she was laying out her belongings on the desk that had been shoved inside, there was a knock on the door. Without waiting for a response, a woman entered. She was too blond, her eyes were blue and her figure was a tad too voluptuous.

"Lily! How nice, you've arrived!"

"Hello, Selma."

Lily and Selma went back a long time. Back to school, actually. It was often difficult for Lily to keep her life as the Masked Woman hidden from Selma, as the woman made Lily talk too easily.

"Jonathan told me you were coming to sing," Selma said as she somehow moved into the closet and sat on the desk. Jonathan was her husband. "I always tell Jonathan that you should not be singing here. Your voice is so nice, Lily, you should be in better circles. I know you have it in you."

As Lily tried to do something to her make-up, Selma brought her up to date on the latest gossip. Selma was better than any tabloid. "And did you hear about that creep that seems to drop in from God knows where and then starts killing people without any reason?"

Lily carefully shook her head as she was touching up her lipgloss. "Drat," she muttered. She had not been careful enough. "No, I haven't. When did that happen?"

"Last night. Some people had told the reporters that a man had fallen from the sky and killed people, after which he had gone up to the sky again," Selma knew. She wasn't only better than a tabloid, she knew more than Lily's newspaper too.

"The problem is that nobody has a decent description of the person, and the dead people did not look as if they were murdered. Cause of death was called a heart attack and the description of the murderer had been an angel." Selma sighed. "Wouldn't it be magnificent if there was a real angel here?"

"One that murders people? I can do without that, thank you very much," Lily said.

"You have a great voice, Lily, but you lack a romantic heart," Selma stated as got up.

"That kept me alive so far," Lily grinned.

"And alone," said Selma as she opened the door. "It is down to me to do your dirty work, asusual. I shall have to find you a decent man, Lily. With that attitude you'll never find one." With an overdone dramatic gesture Selma left the closet.

"A decent man," Lily muttered as she continued finishing her make-up. "An angel. Where does she get all that from..." Before she could mutter any further, there was another knock on the door.

"Miss Marin? We're ready for you," a gentle male voice said.

"How wonderful, sir, but I'm not yet ready for you," Lily said through the door. "I will be with you in a few minutes. Where will I find you?"

"We'll be waiting for you in front of the stage, Miss Marin," the leader of the band said.

-=-=-

Lily enjoyed singing in the dance hall. As she saw all the people revolving over the floor in front of her, it made her feel good to be there, to be part of their joy, and the musical band was fantastic. The difference with what she did in the evenings was enormous, so Lily had made it a point to get as much from these singing sessions as she could.

At one point she caught Selma's eye, who stood next to a young man. Selma was waving at Lily and tried to direct her attention to the young man, but Lily ignored these attempts and left the stage after finishing her last song before the break. She needed a drink of water. Behind the stage, almost as usual, there was a table with a glass , a caraffe and a chair. Lily sat down and sipped from the glass.

A sudden upheaval in the hall made her walk back in to see what was going on. After a while, as people were all talking at once, Lily managed to learn that there had been another attack by the man that Selma had told her about. And again there were mentions of the person being able to fly, 'like an angel'.

"The police are taking it serious now," someone said, "they'll have him in cuffs in no time."

Several others disagreed, as the police probably was no match for a flying person. "I want to see them go after him with a dirigible."

Lily silently agreed. Her flying pack had helped her get away from the police more than once.

The peaceful and jolly atmosphere had left the dance hall as this news came in. Lily sang the rest of her songs, but the dance floor remained frighteningly empty as most people were talking about this latest attack. As she was taking off her make-up, Jonathan asked to speak with her. He handed her an envelope with her earnings.

"I am truly sorry that the afternoon went like this, Lily. Someone should learn to keep news like that outside our doors. I do thank you for your singing and I would gladly call on you again, next time."

Lily said that she was looking forward to his call. Soon after that, she was on her way home. This time she walked, as she was curious about what rumoured in the street about this strange flying person.

The rumour mill was churning, as she found out soon, but the amount of rumours was enormous, and not many of them agreed with each other. The only thing she was fairly sure of was that both attacks had been in the same part of town, if one could consider an area of five square miles a part.

That evening Lily dressed up and the Masked Woman went out. Her special boots with the extendable legs quickly took her to the area where the last attack had been, and from there she went patroling until deep in the night and she was certain that nothing would happen. Not there.

The next day was a quiet one, and she used that to look after her equipment. The glass that covered one of the small gauges on her flight backpack had cracked, so she took that to master Wilfred Bond, who was one of the few people who knew about it, and who took care of it for her. He mounted a new glass for her, and now the backpack was perfect again.

That evening Lily was outside again. She had selected an area that might be the logical next place after pinpointing the previous two spots on a map. It was a big gamble, she knew, but if this flying person really existed, he had to be stopped. Lily was very much against the killing of innocent people.

As the Masked Woman she went through the streets, waiting and watching, but nothing happened. Not there. The newspaper that the neighbour brought her the next morning (she and he shared the costs of the paper) told her that this time there had been an official sighting of the flying person. According to the article it was most definitely a man, and he had struck two people down. One of them had died on the spot, the situation of the other person was described as 'critical'.

In the afternoon Lily still pondered the case of the 'angel' as she was preparing for some singing. She stared at her rad-gun and her purse. That would never work. The folding umbrella with the rapier however would not be a proper tool against that flying creature, so the singer repacked her things into the large bag, stuffed the rad-gun in there and then went on her way.

As she reached the restaurant where she was going to sing at a dinner and dance, she noticed a young man standing outside. He stood still as a statue and looked as if he was in deep thought, or waiting for someone. Somehow he looked familiar to Lily. As she was about to enter the restaurant, the young man suddenly sprung to life.

"Miss Marin?"

"Yes? Oh, it's you. From Selma." Lily knew she sounded like an idiot. She never did well communicating with strangers who suddenly addressed her.

"Yes. No. I mean, yes," the young man blundered along just as much. "I saw you at the dance hall a few days ago. With Selma. I mean, I was with Selma, not you. Although I was not with Selma, of course. She's married." His face turned red as he got lost in his words. It made Lily laugh.

"I know what you mean, Mr.?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," the young man said as he grabbed his cap from his head. "Billy Masterson, but my friends call me William. No. They call me Billy. I'm William."

His face could not get worse, Lily suspected. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Masterson. Will you be joining the dinner and dance this evening?" She hoped she could cut this conversation short, as the large bag was getting heavy now.

"I doubt that, Miss Marin," William, Billy for friends, said, "I am not that good a dancer. And I will have dinner at my uncle's." He fumbled with his cap and showed expertise with that: whatever twitching he did, he did not drop it.

"Well, give my regards to your uncle then, Mr. Masterson," Lily said with what she hoped would be a deterring smile. As she walked on, into the restaurant, she heard Billy's surprised voice asking if she knew his uncle. She did not bother to turn and set him straight.

After 'some singing', Lily packed up her belongings, received her fee for the evening (which was amazingly generous), and wondered if she would find Billy Masterson waiting outside. Apparently he was still at his uncle's, though. Lily's curious side wondered why he would be eating there and decided to ask Selma about him some day.

Her Masked Woman side urged her to go home and get ready for action. The Masked Woman won, the way she always did. On the way home she caught a snippet of a conversation where someone vowed that the 'angel' had killed someone by simply touching the man's head. The speaker unfortunately just went into a house, so Lily could not hear more.

Lily came home, unpacked the large bag and put the rad-gun to the side. After getting in her black leather pants, a dark blue shirt and the leather vest, she put on her tool belt, slipped the rad-gun in the holster and tied up her long dark hair. Then she took her long coat, the one with the micro-fiber reinforcement. After making sure the mask was in the proper pocket, she slipped the coat on.

Her keen sense of hearing, something that had also been boosted by the accident in Dr. Drosselmeyer's laboratory, told her that the street was quiet. She slipped outside and walked off. The Masked Woman was not sure where she should go, but everything was better than staying at home while such a dangerous creature was around, murdering people. With a touch. That sounded strange perhaps, but Lily was painfully aware how different she was from regular people. Who knew what had happened to this 'angel'?

Lily had been walking around for a while when suddenly there was an awkward sound overhead. It was not uncommon that inventors were experimenting with new kinds of air transportation, or the occasional airship that came over, but - not in the dark! As she lifted her head, she put on her mask and flipped the light-enhancing lenses over her eyes. Lily could not believe what she saw.

A man with large wings was flying through the air, over the trees. Behind the airborne shape she saw a double trail of what had to be a gas or some other propellant. That had to be him.

The Masked Woman brought her rad-gun in position and fired a shot at him. Silently the ray of radiation particles stormed skyward, at the flying man who now passed right over her head. She could not miss - but did, to her surprise. The stream of the rad-gun was deflected, a few feet before it should have hit the man in the chest. Her aim had been flawless. Her firing at him did have the desired effect in a way though: he came down.

The few people who were still in the street at this hour stared at Lily, as whispers went from one to the other. Most of them had heard of the Masked Woman, and now they saw her in action. Nobody dared to do something, either for or against her, as everyone had seen her shoot. Big rad-guns made people very respectful and wanting to keep a safe distance.

The woman in the long coat hardly registered the people as the man with the wings landed in the street. He looked breathtaking. Stunning. He wore a gold coloured helmet that covered his face, it had a slit for his eyes. He had a complicated rigging over his chest. But the most impressive about him were the two enormous wings that seemed to protrude from his lower back. They looked metallic, but in the darkness, even with the help of the light enhancing lenses, Lily could not be certain. Their span was roughly twelve feet, and truth be told, it did make him look like an angel, were it not for the helmet.

The man slowly walked up to her. "You took a shot at me." His voice was muffled by his headwear.

"I did. And I could not have missed you," said Lily as she raised the gun and pointed it at him. "How did you do that?"

"Look at me. Woman." The last word carried a mild form of disgust. "I am an angel. You cannot kill me. I can kill you however." With unexpected swiftness he stepped forward and touched Lily's cheek. Before the nausea hit her, she noticed he wore some kind of rubber glove..

The world spun around her for a while and she almost collapsed. By the time she had recovered, the flying man had disappeared. Most of the people were still where they had been before the angel had landed, but none of them made a move to help her. As usual. Her cheek, the one the 'angel' had touched, burnt as if it was on fire.

"Where did he go?" Lily asked someone as she had gotten herself upright again. She was swaying on her feet, but despite that nobody dared approach her. As soon as her eyes obeyed her nerves again, Lily understood why: there were two people lying in the street, in a very uncomfortable position. She understood that the 'angel' had not only touched her, but also these two unfortunate ones. Her stomach tightened as she felt responsible for the death of them. Why had they not run away?

"He said that he would be in front of the cemetery tomorrow evening," someone called out from behind her.

As Lily looked over to where the voice had come from, the people shrunk back as if her gaze from behind the mask was as lethal as the angel's touch. "He killed them, didn't he?"

A few heads nodded. A few others turned as the sound of a police wagon announced its approach.

The Masked Woman decided that there were enough witnesses here. If she remained at the crime scene, the police would want to question her, and see her face. And that was clashing with her intentions. "I have to go," she announced. "I am very sorry that these people died." She kicked her heels together, and on extended legs she quickly disappeared into a dark alley.

-=-=-

At home, Lily fell on her bed and cried. The image of the two bodies in the street seemed burnt onto her mind, and she was to blame for their deaths. Had she not taken a shot at the 'angel', he would have flown, but they would still live. She hated herself, her life and how she was. She also hated Doctor Drosselmeyer who had put her in this situation, who had turned her into the abomination she now was.

Lily cried and sobbed until she ran out of tears. By then she was so exhausted that she fell in a deep, colourless sleep.

She woke up with a sore throat and crumpled clothes. As she remembered what had happened, she wished for sleep to come back and never leave again. Sleep however did not hear her so she got up, washed her face and spent the day preparing for the coming evening. She would go to the cemetery and face the false angel. There was no question that the police would be there; doubtlessly the people in the street had told the officers what the man had said.

A few hours before she wanted to leave, Lily treated her face with coconut cream. It would make her cheeks somewhat rigid, but she had discovered that this cream made her skin almost as impenetrable as the microfiber coat. Whatever it was that the man had done to her face last night, it would not work this time.

Fully dressed for action, her backpack where it felt best, she left her house through the rear door, because it was still too light to go out directly into the street. The Masked Woman should not be seen leaving the house of the singer Lily Marin. In two steps she crossed her tiny weed garden, stepped over the low fence and disappeared among the sheds and bushes that flanked the narrow path that ran along the back of the houses.

Lily was on extended legs as she reached the street, and as fast as she could she made her way to the cemetery. Good thing there was only one around town, otherwise this would be a gamble. One mile from the place she retracted her long legs. Being careful was important now, no one would tell her if the police had already taken position. As she walked along, keeping under the cover of the trees, she put on her mask and flipped the magnifying lens over her right eye...

Four groups of three police officers were there. They had positioned themselves cleverly, but Lily caught all of them. Under the trees she waited until evening was well on its way. Meanwhile she wondered what would happen. Would the 'angel' wait for her to show herself? Her unspoken question was answered very quickly.

Almost soundless, the winged man landed in front of the large cast-iron gates. He did not seem to have a care in the world, nor did he look afraid of anything. As he walked around, Lily saw that the man also wore a backpack. So that was how he flew, it was not just the wings. It probably got its propulsion from the two central cylinders that were hooked up to the rigging on his back.

The police force stayed out of sight. Showtime, Lily thought as she stepped out into the open.

"Ah. There you are," the winged man said. "We can do this quickly and relatively painless, or you can try to have another go at me." The hand with the rubbery glove pointed at her, as if he could shoot a beam of nastiness at her. It was something she would have to be aware of, despite her coat.

"I must say you have stamina, showing up here. Do tell me why you did not die. You're the first one who survived my mortal touch."

Lily took her rad-gun and aimed it at the talking 'angel'. "Put down your weapons and your wings. If you surrender, we can do this quickly and painless."

The man laughed coarsely and brushed his uncovered hand over his jacket. "How cute. A radiation gun. Come on, shoot me."

Lily fired, but she half expected that it would be useless. It was useless. The particle beam simply bounced away from the man who evidently had activated a deflective field around himself.

"Again that did not work," the 'angel' stated as he walked towards Lily. He did something that made his wings spread out all the way. It looked impressive but it also sounded like grating mesh metal. These things were mechanical. With an arm stretched out he walked towards Lily, who seemed mesmerised by his approach.

As he was only a few steps away from the Masked Woman, she grabbed her whip. She cracked it, felt it catch, and yanked. She only got one of his ankles, but that was enough: the angel stumbled backwards and fell onto his backpack.

The man cursed like a professional, kicked with his legs and managed to sit up. He grabbed something in his coat. A moment later a splutter sounded from behind him and he shot up into the air. The whip was still around his ankle and his sudden speed ripped its grip from Lily's hand.

Lily did not hesitate for a moment. She grabbed the tube in her pocket and pressed the ruby button. Her flightpack hurled her into the air, faster than the angel went. Her angle was perfect. After speeding upwards, she reached the fake angel, got hold of one of his wings and succeeded in folding it double.

Holding on to him, she pulled at the tubes that fed his backpack. They came off easily. Then she had to let go of the man, as her own backpack kept pushing her up while he started downwards again, screaming and waving his arms very un-angelically.

The Masked Woman released the ruby button, cutting the flow of energy inside the backpack. She followed the 'angel' downwards and prepared for a rough landing.

They had flown quite far she noticed, as the ground sped up to greet her. Just before she slammed into the branches of a tree Lily heard a loud crash from the landing of the disabled angel. Hanging from a branch, she decided she had gotten off lucky this time. A tree was much better than a brick building. She dropped herself to the ground and ran towards the fallen angel.

The man lay on the ground. The wing that Lily had not folded was now crumpled because of the fall. Parts of his flight gear were scattered around, his helmet had gone. He tried to move away from her, but one of his legs prohibited a fast retreat. It looked convincingly broken.

Lily looked at him. "Who are you? Where did you get that gear from? And why do you go around killing people at random? Or should I ask why you -did-, as I am not going to let you do it anymore." She pointed at the leg that was in an awkward angle, even a broken one.

"Don't!" the man yelped. Apparently her mere pointing already hurt. "Don't!"

"You sound like a broken grammophone," the Masked Woman remarked. "Not so much a talker as you were before, are you? Now answer my questions, or I will give you a real reason to squirm." She put her foot down very close to the broken leg.

"No, stop, wait!" The fallen angel had located the shrill part of his speech.

Lily repeated her questions and this time the fallen man was eager to talk. He had helped at a convention of alchemists and inventors, preparing tables, going around with food and beverages. "Seeing all these modern things there made me want them. And one evening when everyone had left, I took a few little things."

"Like the wings and the flightpack," Lily guessed. "Little things."

The man did not react to that. "And the glove."

"Yes. The glove. What is that glove, that you killed people with it by a touch?" Lily slowly brought her rad-gun in sight, to convince the man of her sincere interest.

"The glove is amazing," the fallen angel said, with some fire in his voice. "It has this thin rubber tube that runs to a small reservoir of poison I wear on my shoulder. And the glove has these very thin needles that spray the poison on touching anything."

"Really," Lily said. "And what kind of poison is in there that works so fast?"

"It is some kind of frog poison," the man said, his eyes on the rad-gun with more respect than before the flight and the crash. "Brachotoxin or something."

"Batrachotoxin by chance?" Lily knew her poisons. Batrachotoxin was the fastest and most lethal frog poison she knew; it would stop a normal person's heart in seconds. Hardly surprising it had made her feel so sick.

"Could be, yes," the man nodded. "Are you going to report me to the police?"

"I should, shouldn't I?" Lily looked the man over. He was not in a state to make a rapid getaway. She felt a sudden desire to kick the man's upper arm, to crush the container with the poison. He deserved to die the same way he killed these people. "Why did you go about murdering people?"

The man, his face pale from the pain in his leg, grimassed. "People have treated me badly all my life. This was my chance to return the favour."

The Masked Woman could not bear hearing more. She lashed out and rendered the man unconscious. A better fate than he deserved, she thought. The police would find him here. Lily would make sure of that.

-=-=-

A few days later, Lily found an interesting article in the newspaper. The police had located a man with artificial wings near the cemetery. He had admitted to being the person that had killed several people and claimed that a flying woman had taken him down. The article reported that the man was an 'acquaintance' of the police. It also mentioned the fact that he had helped at a conference for alchemists and inventors.

As Lily read the last paragraph, she almost dropped the newspaper: "The police have traced back the names of the inventors whose material has been stolen, and they are kindly requested to contact the local police in order to retrieve their belongings. Their names are Doctor Igor Zacharov and Doctor Herman Drosselmeyer."

Lily and doctor Drosselmeyer

"Miss Marin? How wonderful that you have come on time." The man in the white coat and ditto hair looked at Lily. A monoscope seemed to protrude from his forehead, as if he tried to impersonate a unicorn. The looking device, held in place by a rubbery band, had been over his left eye too long. The eye still showed red-rimmed evidence of that.

Lily had been here a few times, and at each appointment the good doctor had surprised her with new eye-wear. "Good afternoon, doctor Drosselmeyer," she said. She held back a remark about his comment; she always was on time. Making such a remark would not serve any purpose, however. Doctor Drosselmeyer was impervious to such things.

"Would you please follow me, Miss Marin..." The doctor went before her into his large office and sat down behind the sturdy desk. The desk was, as always, littered with papers, looking devices in many shapes and boxes that contained a plenitude of the most modern and sophisticated devices.

As usual Doctor Drosselmeyer forgot to offer Lily a seat, so she picked a chair that looked safe and clean enough. Meanwhile he picked up a sheet of paper. On it was, Lily knew, in a meticulous handwriting, a detailed report of the progress that had been achieved.

Doctor Drosselmeyer was the local leading expert on throats and voices. Lily knew there had to be even better ones, but doctor Drosselmeyer was highly spoken of, and also, to get to him she did not have to travel very far.

"So..." the doctor said, after studying the paper for a while. He then looked at Lily. "How is your voice, Miss Marin? Do you notice any improvement at all?"

Lily wanted to be a singer. Her family did not approve of that. They hoped for her to marry, settle down and start a decent family, but Lily had rebelled against being married ever since she had gotten this idea of singing in her head. Her voice however needed some 'encouragement' to become stronger, more stable and also to reach the higher notes in the songs Lily desperately wanted to sing.

"Yes, I do, sir," Lily was pleased to confirm. "The medication you gave me last time seems to work."

"It was not the medication, Miss Marin," the man in white lectured, "it was the treatment with the ray-device. The medication, and I did tell you, was to soothe the effect of it."

Lily nodded, although she was not sure if she remembered that particular part. The doctor was rather eccentric at times and normally it was best to agree with him.

Doctor Drosselmeyer took a device from the desk. Lily wondered how he was able to find anything in that assortment of - well - too much. The device consisted of a long flexible tube with a round brass piece at the end that made it look like a miniature horn. The other end of the tube was connected to a small metal splitter from where two thin rubber tubes came. The doctor put the ends of the two thin tubes in his ears, got up and held the small horn in front of Lily's mouth.

"Can you please sing the lower range of what you want to be able to." It was not a question.

Lily suppressed a sigh over such lack of manners and sang. Had she known he was going to ask this, she would have warmed up her voice before coming over. Now it would sound all wrong.

"Very good. Now the middle range. Please."

Less miffed, Lily sang again, and after that she sang the highest notes possible for her. This procedure was repeated for half an hour, until Lily's jaws began to hurt. But her vocal chords reacted well, and she was feeling better about the sound of her voice.

"We are indeed improving, Miss Marin." The doctor sat down again, started to write on the paper and then he looked in a book with impressive charts. At times he would nod, mumble and write down a few more things on Lily's paperwork. "Yes... yes... yes..."

Those were the good words, Lily thought.

"No..."

Not such a good one, perhaps.

"Well, Miss Marin..." He looked at her, stapling his fingers. "I am quite content with the progress, but I have a feeling that there is more we can bring out of you. But we may have to resort to the less common procedures for this." Doctor Drosselmeyer regarded her, as if he was judging what she would be worth at a meat market. At least that was how it felt to Lily.

Lily waited as long as she considered polite. Then she said: "You know, sir, how much I want to sing. If there is something we can do to improve my voice even more, I would really like to try it."

The man nodded slowly. He leaned back in his chair. "You should know, Miss Marin, that the procedure I have in mind is not one that is very accepted by my more conventional colleagues in the field."

Lily had suspected so much. "If it works, I trust you, sir."

Doctor Drosselmeyer smiled. "Very well. I thank you for this trust, Miss Marin, and you will not regret it. As a token of my appreciation I shall perform this treatment for free."

Lily stared at him. This was not what she had expected. "For free? But..."

The physician raised a hand. "None of that, Miss Marin, if you can arrange to be here again tomorrow afternoon, around three o'clock, that would be wonderful."

-=-=-

The next day Lily Marin arrived at the practice of Doctor Drosselmeyer, at the time they had agreed on. For some reason it was the doctor himself who answered the door and let her in.

"I am grateful for you being as punctual as ever, Miss Marin," he said as he helped her out of her coat.

It made Lily feel good that he was after all aware of this.

First the doctor treated her to a cup of tea, as he explained what procedure he was going to submit her to. "It is not more than polite, of course, that you know what my plan is. After listening to me, you can still decide whether you want to proceed or not, of course."

The man told her about a special cream he had developed. "It contains some elements that will be approved by the medical commission soon, so that is nothing to worry about. The cream will be rubbed on your throat. Then I shall use a special lamp to project light onto your throat. This procedure might be rather uncomfortable, as part of the lighting will have to happen inside your mouth. Would you feel hindered by that?"

Lily calmly put down the cup of bone china and considered the words. "How long would this have to be done, if I may ask?"

"Oh, by all means," the doctor said. "The lighting inside your mouth would be done three times, over a period of one minute each time. You would have to keep the light inside your mouth, but please do not worry, Miss Marin. Let me show you..."

Doctor Drosselmeyer left the room for a few minutes, and returned with a small contraption that looked like a light bulb the size of a teaspoon on a short flexible brass tube. "This is what you would keep between your teeth, Miss Marin." He handed her the device.

Lily looked at it and decided this was not so bad. She had eaten lollipops larger than that, but she did not tell the doctor this. There were certain things a lady did not divulge.

"The light may be a bit alarming to you," the doctor continued, "as it will change colours during the procedure. This is however nothing to be worried about."

Lily felt safe with the doctor. He was very careful with his work, and he was clearly very dedicated to whatever he could do for her.

"The light," the doctor continued to explain, "will be powered by the latest, state of the art power boxes, from the well known company of Mr. Enderson."

Lily recognised the name from somewhere. With the doctor placing his trust in them, this too had to be a good thing. "When do you think we can begin the procedure, if you do not mind me asking?" Lily was very anxious to get her voice treated so she would be a great singer.

The man in the white coat smiled at her as he arranged the light on his desk, next to the power box he had pointed out. "Of course, I understand you are looking forward to this, Miss Marin," he nodded, "but if you would like some more tea..."

Lily asked if this would be beneficial to the treatment. As the doctor said that it would not make any difference, she said she did not want to wait. Upon the doctor's request she undid the high collar from her blouse so he could rub her throat with the special cream he had told her about.

The cream felt very cool on her skin. Lily sat as still as she could, so the doctor could work in peace. He almost startled her as he said that she was allowed to breathe normally. Lily coloured red; she had not noticed she had been holding her breath.

"Now we have to wait for the cream to settle on your skin," doctor Drosselmeyer said as he wiped his hands on a fluffy white towel. "This will take a few minutes, Miss Marin. If you feel anything that is uncomfortable, please tell me. In the time we wait I shall prepare the table."

"Table?" Lily was so surprised by this that she forgot all rules of etiquette and blurted out the word bluntly.

Doctor Drosselmeyer, who had already started walking away, stopped and turned. "Yes. Oh, I am sorry, I did not explain that part, Miss Marin. The procedure should have the best effect if you lie down. That will enable you to relax as much as possible and should provide us with the best results. Which is what we want, don't we?" Apparently he had not heard her bluntness.

Lily nodded. "It is, indeed, sir." She watched as doctor Drosselmeyer worked on what looked like a kind of bed that was in a far corner. At least that was better than a table, she thought.

Her throat started itching. From the inside, which was awkward as the cream was on the outside. She told the doctor about it, who asked if the sensation was very bad. "No, not very bad, but it feels strange so I thought I would tell you."

"Good, good, I am satisfied with this, Miss Marin," the doctor said as he turned back to the bed that was a table.

Lily waited.

Suddenly the doctor rushed to the desk and picked up a clock. He shook his head, mumbled something and then he invited her to lie down on the table.

Lily, wondering why he shook his head, then noticed the leather straps on metal chains that hung from the bed. "Excuse me, sir, but do you think these are necessary?"

"These are merely a precaution, Miss Marin," the doctor assured her. "It is imperative that you remain lying still, so a few supports for that should be in place."

It struck her as odd to call these straps 'supports', but the doctor was the expert in this field, she told herself once more, so she lay down and let him secure her arms. And her legs. That worried her slightly, as the man was touching her ankles during that. And he was a doctor, yes, but still... As she wanted to make a slight comment about that, she noticed that, for some reason, she could not speak anymore. Could it be that the cream was not so innocent as it had looked? As the doctor had said?

As she tried to talk, the doctor smiled at her. "Good, good, Miss Marin, move your jaws, so you can hold the light in your mouth more easily in a little while. We're going to do the first minute soon." He walked off, out of Lily's angle of sight.

The young woman, strapped to the table, started to worry slightly. How could she tell this man that she could not speak? She could not move her hands nor her legs, so she had no way to write something on a note for him. As she was trying to think of something, doctor Drosselmeyer came back, holding the light in one hand and the power box in the other. He had connected the two together.

"Now, Miss Marin, if you would be so kind to open your mouth," he asked with a polite look. "No, please keep it open, do not pretend you are a little goldfish, Miss Marin." Doctor Drosselmeyer chuckled at his joke.

As Lily tried to force a sound from her throat, the doctor saw one moment that her mouth was open long enough and he slipped the light between her teeth. The presence of the strange object in her mouth startled her and she had to use all her self-control not to bite down on it. The rate of her heartbeat went up as she tried to calm down.

"Now, Miss Marin, just relax," the doctor said. "We will commence the first minute of light treatment - now."

As he said 'now', Lily heard a click. At first nothing seemed to happen. Then a faint blue light crawled over her upper lip and lit up her nose. She was so surprised by the unexpected colour that she lay still, watching it. Before she knew it, the click was there again and the light faded.

"Wonderful!" the doctor exclaimed, "you did wonderful, Miss Marin. Now open again, so I can take the light out... very good."

Lily sensed a strange tingling feeling in her throat. Very deep inside it. She had to cough and felt ashamed that she could not cover her mouth. So unladylike! She gladly accepted the drink of water the doctor offered her, and when she thanked him there actually was a squeak coming from her throat. So it was not all bad, her voice was coming back!

The doctor fussed over her, made sure she was comfortable on the table she was strapped to, and checked the cream on her throat. All seemed to be fine, and he did not comment on her squeak.

Suddenly he was there again with the light. Lily, a little more confident this time, opened her mouth voluntarily and let him put the light in. Before the click there were some rattling sounds and then the blue light appeared again. Lily wondered how her cheeks would look with all that light from the inside, when she heard a few more rattles. The light became orange and then an awkward feeling went through her whole body, something she had never before experienced.

It was like an itch, but it wasn't precisely that. She seemed to vibrate everywhere at the same time, while her muscles seemed to stop reacting to her wishes. She was subjected to the slight jolts that they performed on their own accord, while the light glowed brighter and brighter. Its reflection now gleamed from the metal tube that came from her mouth, which had not happened during the first session. Shocked, Lily realised that she was rationally following the strange procedure while she should be terrified.

Click.

The orange light faded quickly. She opened her mouth without being asked and the small bulb disappeared. Lily waited, with closed eyes, until the shaking of her body would stop, which eventually happened.

"Oh dear," said doctor Drosselmeyer. "I think we are shaken up a little, aren't we, Miss Marin?" The chuckle again.

Only when Lily was certain all the tremors had left her, she slowly nodded. Her eyelids were heavy like the rest of her body. What a strange thing, she thought, for something that was only meant for her throat. After taking a deep breath, she tried to speak. She asked for water. It came out as if her words were being mauled by a grinding stone, but at least she could speak again. Somewhat.

The doctor helped her drink again and checked her throat, her eyes and her pulse. "You are just fine, Miss Marin."

"Will I be able to sing?" she asked. The doctor could not understand her words at first, she had to repeat them a few times.

"Oh, certainly, certainly," he nodded, "the voice is a delicate instrument, and we are treating it in a way it is not used to, Miss Marin. This coarseness is a matter of time, you will see and you will hear."

"How much time?" Lily cracked. She knew she was not very polite, but she did not want to hear the rasp that was her own voice now.

"A few hours at the most, Miss Marin." The doctor did not seem to mind her terseness. "Are you feeling well?"

Lily started telling him again, with considerable difficulty, about the shaking she had felt. As she spoke, a strange dizziness came over her. She rested her head back on the table, closed her eyes and hoped that the nauseating feeling would quickly pass. Alas, it did nothing of the kind. On the contrary...

The young woman's body went rigid, all her muscles seemed to be pulled tight from somewhere. She couldn't even breathe anymore, as an invisible band around her ribs began to squeeze all air from her lungs. Lily panicked, but could not do anything about it, not even cry out for help. Balls of light started a slow and nauseating dance before her eyes as pain coursed through her very veins, pushed along by the irregular beating of her heart.

Her body protested against the air deprivation by bringing a thundering roar to her ears which invoked even more pain. Lily desperately wished to lose consciousness, so this agony would end. Even death crossed her mind as a welcome option.

Suddenly everything was gone. The pain, the noise, the stiff muscles. Slowly Lily raised her hand and touched her forehead. Something cold touched her cheek; she opened her eyes to see what it was and stared at a short chain, dangling from a leather strap on her wrist.

"Doctor?" she asked, looking around in the room. The office was empty. The orange light coming in through the windows told Lily that the day was coming to an end. But the good doctor could impossibly have left her there, alone, bound to the table?

Lily looked at her other hand. The leather strap was still on her wrist, and chained to the table. She lifted her arm and pulled. It felt strange. She pulled a little more and the chain broke with a loud snap. Confused, Lily sat up and stared at the dangling chains. Then, slowly, she undid the buckles.

"I am probably dreaming," she told herself. "I can't break metal chains like that." In a sudden impulse Lily pulled up her knees.

The chains on the straps that were on her ankles suffered a similar snapping fate as the ones on her wrists. After taking off these straps also, she swung her legs over the side of the table and grabbed hold. A wave of dizziness washed over her. It was so violent that she had to lay down again, waiting for the feeling to go away.

After some time, Lily had no idea how much but the receding sunlight still came in through the window, she heard the click of a lock in a door. Carefully she turned her head, fighting against the ghastly sensation in her head. The door to the doctor's office did not open.

"You are going mad, woman," she muttered to herself. Then there was another click. And again the door to the office remained shut. "See, you have clickings in your head." She hardly noticed that her voice was almost back to normal.

Click.

Curiously, as this one had sounded so much louder, Lily gazed at the door again. And this time it opened and the doctor came in. His eyes found her immediately.

"Oh, Miss Marin! You are awake! How wonderful!"

Lily wondered why he had to yell like he did. "Could you please talk in a normal voice, Doctor Drosselmeyer? You are hurting my ears." She hoped she was polite enough through her unnerving feeling.

The doctor frowned. "I am not speaking loudly, Miss Marin," his voice boomed.

At least this time it was not so deafening for Lily. "Thank you, sir," she said, touching her head.

Only then it was that the doctor noticed she was not tied up anymore. "Miss Marin..." he started, pointing at the leather strap on the floor. "Can you tell me what happened?" A mixture of surprise, curiosity and fear showed on the man's face.

Lily rubbed her wrist. "I had hoped you would be able to tell me, sir. I woke up and then I broke the chains. What has happened to me?"

The doctor did not respond. Instead, he turned and quickly paced over to his desk where he started sifting through the stacks of papers.

Lily waited for a while, wishing that he would not make so much noise with the sheets of paper. The noise they made was like lightning bolts to her. Finally she sat up and covered her ears with her hands. She knew that if this would persist, she'd go crazy over the sounds that seemed to come from everywhere now. She just wanted it all to stop. The thought had not even fully developed in her mind when the noises indeed stopped.

Carefully she removed her hands from her ears. She heard nothing special. Still there was the doctor rummaging through his papers but somehow the lightning-like noise had gone. Lily relaxed.

The doctor turned to Lily, a few papers in his hand. "I must admit, Miss Marin, that your quick recovery pleases me tremendously."

There was something in his voice that should not be there, Lily noticed, even though she had no idea what it could be.

He walked up to the bed where she was still sitting. "Would you mind showing me your arm? I would like to check your pulse, before we... uhm... yes, thank you."

"Before we do what, sir?" Lily asked. As she spoke, she saw the doctor make a swift move. She saw how an injection needle landed on her arm, she felt the sting of it - and then watched the needle break. It was obvious he did not want to check her pulse. "Sir!" she yelled out, even though the needle had not done her any harm. Instinctively she yanked her arm away.

Doctor Drosselmeyer stared at her, then at the broken needle. "Miss Marin," he started, while Lily got off the table. "You can't leave!"

"Oh yes I can!" Lily said, abandoning most of her courteous behaviour. The man, after all, had tried to stab her with a needle without warning!

The doctor grabbed her arm with both hands. "You will stay, Miss Marin, the procedure is not finished yet!" His voice had lost all of its charm and niceness.

Lily looked the man in the eye. "Sir, I request that you take your hands off my person, or I will be forced to do that for you."

Doctor Drosselmeyer, much taller, wider and heavier than Lily, could not suppress a grin as he tightened his grip on her arm. "You will stay." Each word was accompanied by a strong squeeze of her arm.

"I shall not!" Lily pulled her arm free of the hands that held it, and with her free hand she gave the big man a shove. The effect of this startled her so much she clasped her hands over her mouth: the doctor literally flew through his office and landed just short of his big wooden desk. The thud that resounded when he hit the floor, made the lamp on the desk tremble, its glass cap making threatening sounds of an impending demise.

After a moment, the doctor moved and sat up. He first needed to confirm where he was, and then he looked at Lily again. There was terror in his eyes. "Miss Marin. Please." He worked himself to his feet.

"I am so sorry, sir," Lily said. She was relieved the man was standing again. He appeared to be well.

Suddenly the man charged at her again, throwing his entire weight onto her! Lily screamed, closing her eyes, tensing her muscles - and the doctor almost bounced off her. The impact of his body hitting her made her stumble backwards, her eyes flying open as she fell back onto the table. From there she heard the man groan as he rolled over to get onto his knees.

"What is happening?" Lily asked, half in a scream. She looked at her hands. They shook. So did her voice. She could not remember ever having been in such an floundering situation. "Tell me what is happening, doctor. This is not normal. What have you done to me?"

"I just want to improve your voice," the man on the floor said. "Trust me."

Lily was halfway tempted to do that, when he jumped up with an ease she would not have believed possible for such a big man. He landed on top of her, pressing her down on the table. Before Lily had understood the situation, the doctor had grabbed a small flask from his pocket and sprayed something in her face. The world went fuzzy, and then black...

...until she woke up again. Lily was instantly aware that she was on the table again. Tied to it. And the doctor had not taken that lightly this time. A heavy chain was wrapped around her and the table several times. She could not move her arms nor her legs, and she could barely lift her head high enough to see all these things, as a big metal ring around her forehead effectively restricted her movement.

"Doctor Drosselmeyer?" she asked, blinking her eyes. Whatever it had been the man had sprayed in her eyes, it still stung. There was no answer to her calling out his name.

"Doctor!!" Lily threw all politeness overboard. Still no answer. She strained her ears to hear something. It was all she could do; the ring on her head made it impossible to look sideways. Then she heard it. Breathing. Breathing and a slow thumping. His breathing, she suddenly knew, and his heartbeat.

"I know you are there," Lily said. "Come here and release me."

The thumping became faster, the breathing too. Then she heard a creaking sound and the loud rustle of... clothes? Puzzled, Lily tried to understand this as footsteps came closer, until the face of Doctor Drosselmeyer loomed over her.

"Miss Marin. Welcome back to the living." His voice was cold now, very different from the gentle and understanding tone she was used to from him. "I have taken the opportunity to make sure you will not become violent against my person again, as you may understand."

The man's first words had thundered in Lily's ears. Very quickly her hearing seemed to react by itself, the noise the voice had made was gone.

"I assume you are not willing to let me complete the procedure that we started..."

"Certainly not!" Lily fumed, yanking the heavy chain..

"I thought so much. That is why I proceeded without your approval. Oh yes," the man said as Lily's eyes grew large, "the third part of the procedure is done by now, and it all went very well. I am sure you are going to be thrilled with the result, Miss Marin."

"How dare you! Without my consent!"

"Oh, I beg to differ," the doctor grinned, as Lily noticed a red mark on his face that had not been there before. "Before we started the procedure, you agreed to it. As you were not able to respond when I was ready to continue, I went ahead and completed the procedure."

"You are going to regret this, sir," Lily hissed, "I will report you to the authorities."

"I am sure you feel that way, Miss Marin, but by the time you reach the authorities, I will have gone. Yes, the procedure I performed was slightly outside of the law, but I needed to do this to complete the preliminary experiments."

"Preliminary..." Lily's voice failed her as she understood that she had been used as nothing more than a test-person. And one for illegal experimentations too!

Calmly the doctor held something in front of her face. It was the same spray he had used before.

-=-=-

Lily woke up. It was dark in the room, and cold. Her eyes stung.

"Hello?"

There was no reply. No sound. She strained her hearing, the way she had done before. There was no breathing, and also the thumping heartbeat was missing. There just was the loud ticking of a clock somewhere.

"Hello," she tried again. It was hardly surprising there was no reaction. "Think, Lily," she told herself. "You have to get away from here, and nobody is going to help you." After a while in which she tried to decide what to do, she told herself: "You will have to break the chain."

It sounded so stupid and impossible that she almost had to laugh at herself, were it not that she had broken chains before. Even when these were thinner than the massive one that lay over her chest and stomach now.

She had, Lily understood, no other choice than to try it. She took a deep breath, tensed her arms and started pushing against the chain. To her surprise there was some movement. She pushed harder. A cracking sound told her that parts of the table she was on were about to give up their support.

Lily yanked one more time. Something gave way and she tumbled down -

Lily found herself on the floor of her bedroom, her blanket and pillow on top of her, the sheets of her bedlinen wrapped tightly around her.

She'd had the dream again.

Slowly she curled up, pulling the blanket over her head. Underneath that she was alone, with her tears.

###

About the author:

I am an IT consultant who loves reading and writing.

I've been an amateur-author since years, writing SciFi, Fantasy and lately also Steampunk. My home is in the Netherlands.

I hope you liked "Lily Marin - three short steampunk stories".

All books I published so far:

Hilda the wicked Witch series:

Hilda the wicked witch (Smashwords, July 2010)

Hilda - Snow White Revisited (Smashwords, September 2010)

Hilda - The Challenge (Smashwords, December 2010)

Steampunk:

Aeroparts Factory (Smashwords, December 2010)

If you want to connect with me online:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pagan_paul

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/paulkater

My website: http://www.nlpagan.net