City of Cruelty and Copper (Temperance Era) by Rhiannon Paille Page B

hair. Steam billowed out of the adjoining room and crawled across the ceiling. “What’s the theme this year?” I asked, feigning interest.
    Hattie’s heels clicked along the floor. She went to check on Ursula and Eden. The door opened and more steam billowed out, making her wave her hand in front of her face.
    “It’s boiling,” Ursula or Eden said. I hadn’t heard either of them speak yet and so I couldn’t be sure, but the voice wasn’t Hattie’s. Hattie ducked into the room for a moment, the steam still circling her in wisps as she emerged and moved towards me. She didn’t look at me as she unchained me from the pillar, but didn’t set me free from the chains. I rattled like jingle bells as I crossed the floor and entered the steam. Both Ursula and Eden were on either side of the lavish tub. There were stairs leading to it, a perfect seashell sunken into the porcelain, and funny-looking soaps in the shape of ducks on the side of the bath. They were right: it was bubbling like it was hot as hell in there. I wasn’t nervous as Hattie removed my clothes. I boldly took the stairs, chains and all, and lowered myself into the boiling water. My skin reddened and my cheeks flushed. I couldn’t feel the heat. Not in the way I used to at least. I was still curious about the theme and with my hands bobbing on the surface I narrowed my eyes at her.
    “The theme?” I asked.
    Hattie looked unpleasant. She glared at Ursula and Eden and both of them ran out of the room like she had dangled a scorpion in front of their faces. She folded her hands together and gave me that this-is-all-for-the-best expression I hated. “You know how the kids are these days. They want the gore.”
    Bloody stuff, exactly what I wanted. I opened my mouth to protest, but she put a hand up to silence me. The old Fable Ketterling was a hero, she was a saint. She signed autographs until her hands were numb and posed for pictures with every little kid that came her way. She appeared at not only the big Temperance Day, but at all the major festivals throughout the year. She traveled to the East side and shook hands with the sheriffs and people in the slums. That Fable Ketterling was a dare-devil, sky-diving without parachutes, setting herself on fire, letting herself be ravaged by feral Tigers. That Fable Ketterling was a superhero.
    “They want a masacre,” Hattie said firmly.
    I looked away, not willing to let her see me cry. Things weren’t the same anymore and I regretted all the years I took my immortality for granted. Hattie would never understand. She was a child compared to my years. If I wanted to I could pull her into the tub and boil her alive. I didn’t though. I stared at the beige-tiled walls and squeezed my eyes shut, pretending they were watery from the steam.
    “Colin,” I whispered, gulping back more tears.
    “Colin won’t be a problem, Jonathan is learning, he’ll take over soon.”
    I pursed my lips. Colin Cray had hated me since the first day he met me, and every Cray before him hated me too. Over fifty generations raising their voices against me. He was by far one of the most influential members of Senate. His ancestor was one of the eight that originally founded Temperance and gave the entire human race refuge from the nuclear bombs that tore apart everything anyone had ever known.
    I was the last one left from that grim reality. We used to live in Argentina. My parents owned a lucrative mining company based out of Ontario, Canada. We were knee-deep in rubies, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, you name it; we mined it. I had started working for them when I was twelve. I knew how to harness up and spelunk through the caves like the best of them. I knew my way around the rain forest and I was pretty handy with a knife. When the sirens went off and the bombs began dropping they rocked the entire planet to its core. Storms erupted all over the world and because of the velocity of the blasts, the entire planet tilted on its