Steampunk Shenanigans

Evie could tell that the bullet had missed Damien’s heart, but he was still going to need help, and fast, if he was going to make it. Evie tried to stifle her panic as her attention was divided between Damien and the Mycrofts. Corbin was definitely going to kill her if he found his spare bullets. An enraged Olessa was recovering from the blow Evie had given her; it was the most rumpled Evie had ever seen her.

“You’re not going to be quite so pretty when I’m done with you, little Evie,” Olessa snarled, stalking towards her.

“You’re really obsessed with how I look,” Evie said. “Do you secretly have a crush on me, Lessa?”

Olessa’s scowl deepened, looking especially grim with the blood on her face and a black eye forming. Corbin was still digging around in the desk drawers and cursing loudly, and Evie was desperately trying to form a plan to get her and Damien out of this alive. Olessa’s scowl eased into a cold smirk as she watched Evie hold her hands over the wound in Damien’s chest.

“Oh, Evie,” she tsked, shaking her head in mock sadness. “We already had a sense that you two were putting your twenty foot limit to good use. But don’t tell me you actually fell for him. You can’t possibly think he’d really want someone like you. Not when he could do so much better once this was all over. Whatever he had with you was just the best of a bad situation.”

“Even if that’s true, I don’t care,” Evie said, staring Olessa down. “I’m not going to let him die, and I’m not going to let you use the spider to hurt anyone.”

Olessa laughed, glancing over her shoulder at Corbin, who had finally found some bullets and was reloading his gun.

“Do you hear that, Corby? Little Evie thinks she’s tough now.”

Evie glanced down at Damien again, then looked at her bracelet. She didn’t know why Damien had been trying to talk to her about it before he blacked out. It was a pretty gift but she didn’t see what it had to do with their current predicament. Then she noticed a tiny light blinking against the skin of her wrist. She flipped over the little pendant and realized it was a minuscule switch. She barely had time to process this before she had to dive for cover as Corbin shot at her. She didn’t want to move away from Damien but she couldn’t help him if she was dead.

The bracelet had to connect to the spider; she couldn’t fathom why else Damien would’ve mentioned it. She rolled behind a chair as Corbin fired at her again; then she pushed down on the light on her bracelet. Instead of flashing now, the light just stayed on and the spider suddenly sprang back to life, scuttling on its eight metal legs right toward Evie. For a moment she was alarmed, scrambling back slightly. But the spider didn’t attack her; it just stood there as if awaiting her instructions.

Damien, you sly little evil genius.

Evie yelped and had to fling herself forward as Corbin shot at the chair she was hiding behind. Stuffing from the cushions blew out everywhere. The spider followed her movements.

“Stop the gun,” Evie instructed breathlessly. The spider turned and began to scuttle with impressive speed toward Corbin. He hadn’t seemed to realize that she had control of the machine now, and he wasn’t quick enough to outrun the spider as it sprayed a sticky, vaguely web-like substance at the gun. It stuck to the gun and the spider tugged, pulling the gun from his hand. Evie stood up, a little pleased to see the Mycrofts looking so stunned.

“How did you-“

“Did you really think Damien and I were going to help you?” Evie asked, adopting the same sort of mocking tone Olessa had used on her earlier. She squared her shoulders.

“You shouldn’t have sent me to help him with this, you know. After all, I’m just a rat, right?”

“Evie, I get it. You’re mad about the cuff. Maybe we shouldn’t have left it on so long,” Olessa said, actually seeming nervous. “It was Corbin’s idea to keep it on.”

“Oh, shut up, Olessa,” Corbin snapped. He started toward Evie. “I should’ve just snapped your little neck, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Evie looked down at the spider, still waiting patiently for her orders. Then she looked up and locked gazes with Corbin, remembering all the times he’d hurt her.

“Destroy,” Evie said calmly to the spider. Corbin halted as the spider ran at him and fired the same acidic goo that had destroyed the table. Only this time it consumed Corbin’s face. His body thumped to the ground once the substance cooled. Olessa shrieked, cowering back. Evie and the spider advanced on her.

“I am mad about the cuff,” Evie said. Olessa abruptly tried to spring at her, a knife in her hand. Her effort was a little clumsy and Evie easily dodged, telling the spider to disarm Olessa. The spider hopped into action, wrenching the knife away from Olessa with savage force. It threw the knife across the room and then Olessa screamed again as the spider began to wrap her in the sticky web stuff until she was wrapped up tight. The screaming stopped a while before the spider finished.

“Um. Good…boy? Now just stay there.” Evie ran to Damien’s side, making sure he was still alive. He was but his breathing was shallow. Evie ran down to her apartment, digging out some basic medical supplies. She rushed back up to Corbin and Olessa’s apartment and managed to bandage Damien up enough to stop the bleeding. She had the spider help her lift him onto a chair that Corbin hadn’t shot up, then help her get the chair down the stairs. Cabs didn’t really come through this part of town, so she loaded Damien into Corbin and Olessa’s steam powered carriage.

The spider rode with them to Damien’s house, then helped her get Damien inside and up to his room. She phoned a doctor first, and then flipped through Damien’s address book to find the numbers for Sylvia and Mr. Hart. She was reluctant to see them but figured Damien’s family should be here to take care of him. She just told them Damien was hurt, and he was at home. The doctor arrived first and Evie brought him to Damien, hovering nervously in the corner while he tried to patch Damien up properly.

“Will he be alright?” she asked anxiously. Now that the commotion had died down, her adrenaline went with it and she felt exhausted. She hadn’t stopped crying since the doctor arrived.

“If it had taken me ten more minutes to arrive I wouldn’t be sure,” the doctor admitted. “But I think he’s going to pull through.”

Evie nearly collapsed with relief but it didn’t stop the guilt she felt for getting Damien into this mess. Damien stirred faintly as the doctor went to dispose of the bloody gauze. Evie hurried over and leaned over him.

“Don’t move,” she said as his eyes opened and he looked up at her blearily.

“Evie,” he croaked.

“Don’t talk either,” Evie said, wiping tears off her cheeks. “I called your family, they should be here soon. I just wanted to make sure you were going to be okay. Once they’re here to take care of you, I…I should go.”

“Go?” he repeated.

“I said don’t talk,” she scolded gently. “I’m sorry, Damien. This was all my fault. I got you into this and you almost died and it’s just best if I go away. The cuffs are gone, so I can get out of your life and stop causing you so many problems.”

Damien tried to say something else but she shushed him yet again and his eyes closed again. The doctor came back to finish bandaging him up and gave him some hefty pain killers. The doorbell rang and Evie went to answer it. Minnie and the spider; she’d started calling it Webster; both followed her. When Evie found the worried Hart family on the porch she burst into tears again.

“What happened?” Sylvia exclaimed, ushering Evie into a chair before she crumpled.

“Damien was shot,” Evie sniffed.

“He was shot?” Monte repeated. Evie took a couple breaths to calm her crying, and then she reluctantly told them the whole story. How she worked for the Mycrofts, the cuffs, the kidnapping, and everything that followed.

“And then Corbin tried to shoot me and Damien pushed me out of the way and so Corbin shot him instead and he almost died because of me and I brought him back here and he’s sleeping upstairs and I’m so sorry about all of this,” Evie said pitifully, about to start sniffling again. She stared at the floor, where Minnie and Webster were seated by her feet.

“Now that my cuff is off, I can leave the city,” she added, swiping at her puffy eyes. “So I was going to go now that you’re all here to-“

“Leave the city?” Sylvia said, frowning. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I kidnapped Damien and almost got him killed,” Evie said dully. “He’s asleep now but he won’t want to see me when he wakes up.”

Sylvia and Monte exchanged a look.

“You can’t leave,” Fallon protested, looking offended. “I haven’t even seen you for three years.”

“Yeah, you can’t just go,” Alexis added.

“I would suggest waiting until Damien is awake and coherent before you do anything,” Sylvia agreed and Monte nodded.

“Yes, you shouldn’t make any decisions right now,” he said. “We’ll all wait here together.”

Evie shrunk down further in her seat, not sure why any of them wanted her to stay. They must be angry with her for all this, and she felt so bad she wanted to throw up. She felt very much like the little rat Olessa always said she was. But they insisted she stay until Damien was conscious, and she felt so guilty that she obliged them; sitting miserably at the table.

“Why don’t we make something that Damien can eat when he wakes up?” Sylvia finally suggested, gently tugging Evie up from her chair. Evie reluctantly agreed and Fallon stood on a chair next to her, helping her fix some hot soup. Sylvia and Monte had a whispered conversation in the corner and then Sylvia said it was her turn to go check and see if Damien was awake. Evie watched her bustle up the stairs and then went back to staring sadly into the soup.