I settled on the balcony of the incomprehensible machine, looking out over a derelict landscape like many times before.  Destroyed building stretched on to the horizon.  It was dark and decayed.  Large parts of the scenery were that fleshy glaze.  From a distance, you could observe it pump blood through its great nerves.  The skies were a crimson haze, occasionally flashing for lightning.

Velora was chatting with a few of the maskers about weapons downstairs.  She seemed to be at home in a place like this, as if Velora were acquainted to this.  Made me wonder, where did she come from.  Who was she exactly?  I shifted and found a bleak stare.  I jumped! Masker! A woman in a threadbare gown, sullen with grim. I seized my chest as I faced her with alarm.  “I am sorry deary, I did not mean to frighten you.” I took a moment to catch my breath as words would not crawl from my throat. “I had to see you for myself.  I do apologize.”

I quickly recomposed myself, “It’s no problem.” The alien woman made me feel different, but then again in a sense I must admit I felt special.  “With everyone making such a fuss over me, I have to ask, is there really no one else like me?”

She slowly goes over to the porch, dragging the hem of her dress as her feet suggest it stashed away horrors under those rags. “It has been so long since I have a seen a someone with so few blemishes, I almost forgot what someone looked like without them.” She replied as she got closer. “Can I, can I touch your skin with my hand.”  It was an odd request, though one I was happy to grant.  I nodded my head to her.  She took off a patchwork leather glove from her hand as she reached.  Three claws like things with steel cables traveling up the arm, veiled by her cloths.  Her hand was wilted and felt like sandpaper across my skin.  “Your so smooth.  I had forgotten. So this is what we had.” She hastily stuck her glove back on.

“May I ask something of you,” the masker slowly bowed. “I want to see you without your mask?”

She swings the expressionless mask towards me.  “I could not bare it. This mask is my face now.  The abomination that I have become.  I was once human like you belive it or not,  at least that’s what they say.  Memory is a funny thing, it comes and goes as it pleases.  Now I can hardly consider myself human at all.” It was there with her canvased between the bankrupts and the red sky, that I realized it.  There was no hope in her.  “I know you lied darling.” It disturbed me, I curled my hand inward hiding my palms.  “I know your not part of any colony that has others like you.  You would not ask if there was any other like you if it was true.”

With a heavy throat I quipped, “I didn’t lie.”

“That is a dream too perfect to be true.” the masker replied.

“Then what do you think I am?”

“A haunted memory from a past long ago.  A past where there were cities, and flowers, and all the things you remember.” She angled herself to stare off the balcony.  “But now, your a ghost.  My eyes have lied to me, yet you stand.  You are an unfortunate soul.  Forced to walk and toil with death.  You walk in a land that hates you. Your very exestance insults the earth. You are not supposed to touch the ground here. You walk where fear treads. I feel sorry for you.” There was a silence we shared. The futility of my plight was becoming heavy on my heart… yet I planted my life in Velora’s arms. She was my guardian angel sent by God, at least I believed that was true.

“I hate to be a bother but I am getting tired.” She slowly bends her neck.  I realize she did not expect to be cruel with her words, but they cut deep all the same.

She shifts to regard me.  “Yes, that’s right.  I forgot what it is like to slumber.  As I said, a dream too perfect.” A long sigh exits the woman’s nostrils. “Tomorrow, before you leave, come to my room below.  I have a gift for you.”

“Of course.” I nod and she disappeared, as I trudge over to the makeshift bed of cartons and box and lay down my head against the lumber and closed my eyes.

~

I awoke to fear creeping between the sodden sheets as I laid slumber. Startled, it forced me out of my bed.  The covers rolled off my body, now sitting up in the dim chamber.   My left hand trembled and floundered.  The flesh raised up and coiled as something was rolling under Vanity’s arm.  I flipped the borrowed hand over to look at a crack in my palm exposing a cavity.  The teeth spread wide and delivered a wail I quickly joined.  My fingers disjointed, rupturing the meat from my bone as rods of metal coil out of them.  My forearm also gives way, turning into razor wire.  It latches onto the rear of my head cutting deep, leaving me shrieking.

I opened my eyes to be laying quietly in my makeshift bed.  I was sweating and my heart was pounding. I knew I would not be having anymore sleep that night.

I rose from my rusty bed and drove the whole slathered rag off me.  Sitting up I noticed Velora standing in the room brooding over me.  “Have you been watching me all night?”

“I don’t sleep.  You know that.” she reminds me.  I delivered a long sigh in this humid heat.  The sky was still thick with the red clouds, but they were brighter.  The sun must be out.  Turning my legs over the bed, I stood up.

“I must go do something.”

~

Traveling through the network of iron tunnels; narrow arteries, channels in which the machine breathed, was difficult.  The maze became more complex as the trail narrows from moaning cogs and pumps. I showed up at the terrace soon after.  The masker was waiting for me; hunched over the rusty railing.  She reminded me of an injured bird hunched over like that. He room was not unlike the one I settled in. There were decorations at all. Nothing… aside from a few trunks to hold her things. The cabin was soulless.  She gestured to me and that impassive mask stared back at me.  “Oh good you came.  I was starting to worry you would not show up.” I continued my walk over to her along the withered plating. She reached under her cloak and drew out a mask.  “Here take this with you, it will protect you from the elements.”

It looked akin to a face guard with goggles.  It was all one piece with a ventilator around the mouth.  It strapped on from the back and allowed my hair forehead and hair to lay over the covering.  “That is mighty kind of you.” I managed before she holds my speech with the flap of her hand.  The lady then moves over to a box.  She leans in and captures a hard piece of metal, yanking it from the box, she reveals itself to be a complete set of armor.  It is sturdy and the metal portions are kept together by cloth.  The elegant structure had my eyes looking all over the thing.  The fibers of the cloth looked curious but remarkably durable.  It looked untarnished, like it was factory produced.  “I.. I can’t!”

“Don’t be silly my dear, of course you can, and you will!” the masker sternly says. “You are not traveling to get food for your colony now are you?” She was right.  “Don’t worry my dear.  I won’t out you. I don’t know what your true mission is, but you are going to need some help.  That demon you have out there bruting around for you, can’t always keep you safe.”

I hesitantly reach towards the costume. “Are you sure?” the woman softly nods.  I stick my arm in the suit.  Then my other arm and step into the legs.  The trunk of the armor folds over mine.  It dips at first, but suddenly the armor springs to life and fits snuggly against my chest.  I grab the mask put it to my face and fasten the back. The suit automatically adapts to my size binding itself against my skin thoroughly. The large cloak would be plenty sufficient to stop the desert sand.  The mask fit well too.  It was more like a gas mask.  It covered my eyes perfectly and ended at my forehead.  “There, my don’t you look the part of a wanderer now.”

The full assembly fit very finely.  Almost as if I was not wearing any of it.  Only the extra weight, I noticed. “I cannot thank you enough for this.” I said to her.

“There is one last thing I want to give you.” She turns around and combs through the trunk.  “Ah, here.” with her outstretched hand she displays a narrow cylinder to me.

I reach out and pick up it.  Studying the thing, I can not figure out what it is.  “I dont ’t understand.”

“Hmmm, strange.” She made for the cylinder in my palm.  “It’s a beam sword.” the masker lifts it from me and pressings a small switch on the side.  Instantly out of the edge of it a spark reached out.  It displaced a faint light gleaming from it and the circling area.

“Wo.” is all I could muster.  She renounced the laser sword and then handed over back to me.  A slithering sound from the hall directs my attention.  I swiftly turn to look at a bunch of slithering cables and body parts coming from the hall.  “What is that?” the masked woman steps in front of me, as if to guard me.

However, as the body parts and cables came in the room I could make out Velora’s face, the confusion of tangled parts reform her body as she is growing together she peers at me.  “Prina!  What are you doing!?”

“What the hell Velora?” I say shocked and a little frightens if I am to be honest.

“You are a devil are you not?” the masker says to Velora.

She regards her for a moment, stern faced and almost, almost haunting.  “Maybe.”

“Take care of her.”

“I wouldn’t harm her.” Velora growls quietly, clearly offended by the maskers bias. “Did she give you that armor?”  I nodded my head sheepishly.  “Thank you, it is very kind of you.”

“I dont know why?  She reminds me of my daughter.  It was the least I could do.”

“Your daughter?” I ask.

For a moment the masker paused to look at me.  She swiftly turns away lowering her head.  “You take care of that girl.  You don’t want the blood child on your vile hands.”  She continues into the hall without even looking back.

“Come Prina.” Velora says as she makes her way down the staircase to the desert below.  I turned to look back at the woman as she walked away.  Into the shadows far from my sight she left and I too walked my own path following after Velora, gripping the beam sword in hand.