The Metal Witch

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Quite literally. I think it went something along the lines of;

“Sick of noisy neighbors? Sick of sharing a driveway? Or maybe you just want to party all night long. Well, we have the solution for you! Get your very own asteroid! At Space Realtors, we put YOUR privacy first. After all, nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space!”

Sounds like an introvert’s paradise, right? It was the sole reason I bought this hunk of rock. It cost an arm and leg. Literally and figuratively. But for an established inventor like myself that wasn’t an issue. I quite liked my new opal covered, hand-designed limbs.

Yet, why was it that I could hear the doorbell? Each ding was perfectly spaced from the next.

“Ughhh” I grunted. It was unrelenting. I didn’t even know I had a doorbell.

“Where was the front door again?” I questioned myself as though it’d eventuate an answer. My slippers dragged along the jarrah floors as I dug past a wall of empty boxes I had been meaning to recycle.

“I think it’s back here?” My tone rose as I tried my best to remember.

“Nope. Just a wall.” I reaffirmed as I made my way back toward the dining room. I came to a halt. The open plan living left me with three options. Door number one, in all of its rust red glory, took me to my bedroom. Definitely not there. Door number two, a much plainer scratched, dented and chipped off-white door, lead to my office. Finally, door number thre- “Wait. My office!” That’s right, the front door was in there!

“Ah! Mother Fu-” I winced, “Casper?! Did you put this table here?” I yelled into vast nothingness as my pinky toe throbbed. Living alone meant there was no one to blame. Thus, Casper the ghost was now my housemate.

“Agh!” I stumbled back as the table’s glass top rudely reminded me of my appearance. This was turning into a horrible day.

I took a couple of deep breaths as I contemplated tying up my ash-blonde curls. Maybe that way you wouldn’t see the black grease stains? Could I get away with this shirt if I said I was working? My mind swayed back and forth as the ringing continued. Sniffing my shirt, I decided to switch to the sweater draped over my dinning chair. Hair lackey in hand, I bunched my hair and grumbled along.

“Just leave.” I spat. “Why should I have to answer the front door?” I continued. The wonderful invention of teleportation sent me everything I could ever need. No one delivered things by hand anymore. What use was a front door? Horrible invention.

Stood at the doorway, hand in my pocket I scanned the room. To the left of it was my drawing desk. With a view out into space. During the warmer seasons I had views of Earth. A blue ball no bigger than the end of my pen. Filled with people. I suppressed a shudder at the thought. The desk was covered. Pencils, sketches, Vitamin D tablets, lithium, an orange peel and week old coffee. You know, all the usual inventor stuff. In the center of the room sat my experimental table. Burnt in one corner, and melted in the other. It used to be a yellow timber. Not that you could tell. To the right of the room was my pile of bits. Tools, mechanical arms, wings, spare bolts. Whatever I had but wasn’t currently using. The corner of requirement, is what I called it.

It was times like these that I realized how much of a mess my office was. As I contemplated my life, my house and my state of affairs, I realized,

“Oh yeah, times like these don’t usually happen.” My smile twanged.

“I could have sworn it was in here…” I trailed off as my eyes scanned the once white walls, now covered in shelves.

“Oh! There it is!” I skipped, “Oh… there it is…” I re-evaluated, hinging my jaw to one side.

“And there’s the floor to ceiling book shelf.” I added. The one I so anxiously awaited three years ago.

“Solid Jarrah.” I nodded, because why would I get the cheap, lightweight stuff. No. Too easy.

I studied the lines in the wall that indicated a door and door frame. How half of it, the half that had a door knob, was not visible.

“WHAT?! What do you want?!” I yelled at the stranger, causing a brief silence.

“Kayla?!” It questioned “I need to speak with you!”

“I’m busy! Come back another time!” I screamed as I picked at one of the books in front of me. I glanced over my dust covered technical drawings.

“It’s urgent!” the deep voice insisted. My eyes rolled up to send a piercing look through the shelf.

“Like, life and death urgent? Or, you’re being stubborn and annoying urgent?”

“Life and death.” He replied.

“Oh, for crying out loud.” I muttered under my breath as my head fell, “Alright fine!” I sighed as I bear hugged the shelf and strained. Waddling backwards, it took another twenty minutes and profuse sweating before the door had been freed. This was ridiculous. Didn’t my realtor say no one would ever bother me here? I wonder if I could get a refund for this.

I let the door creak open just far enough. As I leant out I was greeted by a tall blonde young man, with caramel eyes. Dressed in ripped jeans and a slightly too fitted black tee. His skin was practically pore-less. A vast difference from my dry flaky self.

“Hi!” he chirped with the biggest grin plastered across his face.

Ugh. Great. An Extravert.

“What do you want?”

“It’s me! Wrex!”

I looked on in an unimpressed confusion. He stood there. Arms outstretched like he was announcing his fabulous self. He ignored my face and we fell into an awkwardly long silence.

“Who?” I gave in.

“Wrex! You know,” he begun, his eyes smaller and smile not quite as wide “Wrex from year eleven. Look, remember?” He rolled up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo that read ‘Kalya and Wrex 4 eva’.

Oh god. The saying ‘your teenage years will come back to haunt you’ just knocked on my door.

“Wrex...” My hands covered my face as all the blood rushed to my cheeks.

“Yeah!” His head picked up in glee.

“But I gave you black hair and blue eyes.” I pointed out. There was no way this was the robot boyfriend my hormone filled, teenager-self made. I had better taste, surely.

“Oh, I’ve been refurbished. It was this lovely couple. They said to invite you to dinner. The lady, her name is Rosemary, she showed me this cool technique to bleach your hair, so-”

“Stop.” I put my hand up as the rest of my body slumped. “Do you really think I’d have bought an asteroid if I wanted to have dinner with people?” My eyes shot up and glared his way.

“huh.” His head tilted “Coffee then?”

“What are you doing here Wrex?” My hand wiped over my face. As I re-focused on Wrex, an unsettling feeling of instant regret washed over me. His chirpy, golden retriever demeanor morphed into a sobbing, tearful drama. This was going to be a loooong day.

“Oh it was awful Kayla. I got sick. So very sick.” He gripped at his heart. “It’s such a common disease among my kind. You’d think we’d have a cure. But alas, no.” He draped his hand over his forehead as he leaned against my balustrade. “Did you know,” his posture straightened for a moment, “One of us succumb to it every 36 seconds!”. His eyes widened as he nodded, “It’s the big R.” he whispered.

“What?” I recoiled as he leaned in toward me,

“Rust,” he whispered, before jumping backward and covering his mouth with his hand.

“Ugh.” My eyes rolled as I slammed the door shut. What a waste of time.

“Wait! I need your help! I’m not cured yet. My heart is still riddled. Riddled I say!” He yelled through the door.

“Find someone else Wrex.” I yelled back.

“I can’t! I’ve tried! Everywhere I go, they all say it’s too intricate. That they've never seen anything like it. They don’t know how to fix it… Please Kayla… I don’t want to die.”

Ugh. This is why I left Earth. Too many people with legitimate problems making me feel bad.

“Please Kayla. You know you’re the best there is.” He started. My eye brow lifted, I didn’t hate the ego boost.

“Some even refer to you as the Metal Witch because you’re so magical!” The uplift in his voice made it obvious he didn’t know. The door creaked open once more as I replied,

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure you misheard that.”

“No really!” His eyes glistened. “They think your skills are so advanced that they call you the Metal Witch.”

“No really!” I mimicked, “Replace the first letter of witch.” I pushed the door open as the cogs turned in Wrex’s brain.

“OOOhhhh.”

I made my way over to the drawing table, shoving everything with one swipe of my arm. The banging and crashing made Wrex flinch.

“Sit here.” I instructed. Permission now granted, he ventured in.

“Oh.” Wrex said as he scanned my shelves, brows pinched.

“Oh.” He said once more as he passed my science table, bringing his hands to his chest.

“Oh.” He uttered as he dragged his finger across the drawing table.

“What?” I snapped, knowing full well what his problem was.

“Nothing,” His tone wobbled “You have a lovely home?” He cleared his throat as the tips of his fingers inched him onto the table. I approached with a wrench in one hand and screwdriver in the other.

“You know the deal, shirt off.” I said, entirely unprepared for the chiseled slice of butter my teenage self had designed. Thankyou. At least my past self hadn’t completely let me down.

“Everything ok?” Wrex questioned.

“Yes, sorry.” I cleared my throat as I opened the access door over his heart.

“What the-?!” My chair rolled back as I took in the mess before me. “Lay down!” I demanded as I pulled the light over top of him. “Who- Why- Is this a COUNTERFIT?!” I begun, “My original design was so, so, elegant! And Clean! You were my artwork!” I barked as Wrex’s wide eyes shifted to the wall. “What is this crap?! Blue plastic Tubes?! I had gold pipes! Proper, EXPENSIVE, gold!”

“Is it really that bad?” Wrex’s puppy eyes dodged my death glare.

“that bad? THAT BAD?!” I halted mid-explosion, “…. Is that… a cable tie?...”

“Where?” Wrex lifted his head.

“Is that.” I begun, “A cable- Nope. That’s it.” The wrench bounced off the wooden floor, adding another dent to the collection. “We’re re-building you.” I clarified. “Refurbished my foot.” I griped as I rummaged through the pile of requirement. “Used plastic.” I continued. “And a cable tie. Ha! A cable tie!” I stood, walking back over to Wrex. “I can’t believe it.” My hands waved as the conversation to myself continued. “Probably sold all my parts for money. My artwork. My time. The sweat and tears of my un-educated teenage self, trying to figure out engineering on her own.” I whined.

“Barbarians.” I concluded.

A giggle interrupted my train of thought. Wrex smiled at me with a tenderness I had long forgotten. Danm. Teenage me really nailed that romance programming. I had forgotten how much she loved k-drama. Stupid hormonal brain. Stupid realtor. Stupid Wrex. Stupid cable ties. I hate everyone.

“Don’t think acting cute will help you.” I pointed, welder in hand.

“I would never.” He sniffed.

“Honestly I’m surprised you even made it this far.” My goggles came down as I begun the work.

“Most of this stuff isn’t fit for space travel. Theoretically it should have burnt to a crisp when you attempted to leave the atmosphere.” I explained, switching my welder for a clamp.

“It was probably this skin.” I said knocking on his shoulder twice.

“I invested a lot of money in it. It was state of the art at the time.” I grunted as I clamped shut a vital tube, disconnecting it from its cheap plastic neighbor.

I came to a pause,

“I suppose even back then I knew Earth wasn’t for me.”

“Why’s that?” Wrex questioned. “I remember your final two years of school being happy.” He paused. “And then one day I woke up and you were just, gone.”

“A lot of things happened that you didn’t know about Wrex.” I cut the conversation short.

A hush fell over the room. It was familiar. I had always felt oddly comfortable in silence. Like I didn’t need to be on edge. I could breathe. So why did it feel so horrible this time? As the clanking of metal continued, I contemplated. This is all that realtors fault. He said no one would find me here. And now I’m elbow deep in my teenage robotic crush replacing this mess of a refurbishment. I should get a refund for this. Not as advertis- I paused.

“What?” Wrex questioned, straining to see. My hand shook as I reached in behind his heart. Please, no. I pulled my hand out, revealing a small black box.

“What is that?” Wrex asked once more. His eyes pinned to my face.

“A tracker.” My voice stifled. They’ve found me.

“A tracker? Why is there a tracker?” Wrex questioned before tilting his head sideways and lifting an eyebrow. “Kayla, have you been keeping track of me?” His hands lifted to his face and a grin stretched across it, “Oh my.” He giggled.

“NO, you idiot! You brought the tracker here!” I yelled, as I threw my goggles and stood up.

“You’ve told them where I am!” I rushed out of the room.

“Wait! You haven’t finished fixing me!” Wrex panicked, closing himself up and attempting to follow behind me.

“There’s no time for that!” I pushed. Stupid Space Realtor.

“What?! Why not?!” Wrex hobbled behind me.

“I need to leave. Before they get here.”

“They? Who’s they?”

“Black Lotus”

“Who?”

“The back of the tracker Wrex. Read the back of the tracker.” My eyes rolled as I shoved a few spare clothes in my suitcase.

“Black Lotus. Oh yeah, the couple who helped me. They worked ther- Oooooohhh.” Wrex said as the literal lightbulb in his head clicked. His eyes glowed. Apparently, teenage me had a sense of humor too.

“Can’t you finish fixing me first?” Wrex pleaded as he helped reached a book mere millimeters too high. Stupid bookshelf.

“Nope.”

“Then I’ll come with you.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“Why? What did you do?” He questioned as I stopped in my tracks.

“You ever watched Star Wars?”

“Yes?”

“You know how the creator of the death star left a fatal flaw?”

“Yeah?”

“Something like that.” I said, spinning around and making my way toward the kitchen. Wrex’s eyes remained wide as he followed behind.

“So let me help you. I can be your R2D2.” Wrex said, pointing gun fingers.

“No.” I replied as Wrex moved to stand in front of me.

“You need me.” He glared.

“Says who?” I scoffed.

“Says the lack of transportation outside.” He quipped.

Dammit. I forgot that I’d used my spaceship for parts.

“Alright fine. You can come.” I relented. “But first we do a scan to make sure there’s no more trackers in you! Deal?”

“No.”

“What?! You said you wanted to come.”

“No. I said you need me.”

“Fine, then don’t come.” I went to step around Wrex as he blocked me once more.

“I’ll be your transportation. All you need is your space suit. I’ll even go through the tracker scan. But I’ll only help if you promise to finish fixing me up.” His arms crossed as a smug smile appeared on his face. “And no cheeping out!” he added.

“Ugh. Fine. Whatever.”

“Great. We have a deal.” His hand reached for mine as we shook on it.

“Let’s go.” I said as I made my way outside, grabbing my helmet on the way.

“Wait, what about the scan?” Wrex questioned.

“We’ve been here too long already. I’ll do the scan when we get there.” I explained as Wrex nodded in agreement.

As we came to the end of my driveway, he turned to me, offered his hand and said,

“Do you trust me?” With one eyebrow raised and a cocky smile. Where did this confidence come from? Did I program him like this? How annoying.

“No.” I answered grabbing his hand. “Why would I trust the person who brought my enemies to me?” I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. His eyes widened and filled with tears,

“You see me as a person?” His question sliced right through whatever ice wall my heart had built. Ugh.

“Don’t say things like that.” I said crossing my arms, “It makes me feel bad.” I patted Wrex on the shoulder before turning away.

“Okie dokie!” He enthused, “Where to captain?”

“Space Realtors.” I cleared my throat. “I have a bone to pick.”