Made to Love by DL Kopp Read Free Book Online Page B

color as his left, and his legs from the
knees down were mechanical parts with rubber spacers between the
springs.  Where the parts met each other, there was fine
stitching—like he had been sewn together, a giant Raggedy Andy
doll.
    “ Oh… my God…” I
whispered.
    His eyes opened, and he
looked right at me.  One eye was ice blue, and the other
black.  “Calliope,” he said, his voice soft and velvety. 
There was such pain in his voice, and I knew he had been the one
screaming for nights on end.
    For an instant, I was
paralyzed with fear.
    My dad was keeping a
monster in our basement.
    The instant passed, and I
ran.
    Out the lab, back up the
stairs, shutting – and locking – the door behind me, and into the
secret passage once more.  I took the stairs three at a time,
dropping out of the tower and into my bedroom.
    I threw the flashlight into
the corner and jumped into bed, pulling my covers over my
head.  My heart thundered, and my breath came in short
gasps.
    “ I am never, ever leaving my bedroom again,” I whispered to no one.
    At the time, I didn’t even
wonder how the monster had known my name.

Chapter
Fifteen
     
    I stared at the ceiling for
about two hours.  There was little else I could do.  I
wasn't moved to write a poem; after all, blind terror inspired
little besides “ohgodohgodohgod.”
    It was after the two hour
point that I decided it was a start.
     
    ohgodohgodohgod
    who is the figure in the
basement
    patchwork skin
    tortured soul
    maybe he is my
brother
     
    My brother?  That was
just stupid.  I tore up the page into little pieces and put
them under my pillow.  It wasn't the first time I'd done that
with a poem; it made it easier to mull the idea over a period of
time.
    This time, I did it because
I didn't want my mom to see.  If she'd locked me up because of
practically nothing, who knew what she'd do if given
cause?
    I heard a buzzing, and my
head throbbed in response.  I groaned and stuffed a pillow
over my head.  It couldn't be the lab in the basement, could
it?  I'd never heard anything of the sort coming from that
direction, and I didn't think it'd start now. 
    But then, I didn't think
I'd find a half-naked monster in the basement, either.
    The sky outside was dark
and ominous, like my thoughts.  From the looks of things, it
was starting to get foggy, since everything I could see from my
window had a glowing halo of sorts.  There was a peace and
innocence outside that mocked the house, mocked the prisoner
inside.  My heart was squeezed so tight I thought it'd
dissolve into powder.
    I heard the buzzing
again.
    A thought occurred to
me.  I looked across the room toward my backpack, which was on
the floor.
    My backpack...that had my cell phone .
    I dived across the room for
it.  “Don't hang up, don't hang up,” I muttered, near
tears.  It didn't matter that I could call whomever it was
back.  I needed out, and I needed out now.  I couldn't
waste time redialing.
    The buzzing continued as I
searched the pockets.  Luckily, the phone was exactly where
I'd left it in the front pocket, so I extracted it and put it to my
ear.  “Hello?  Hello?  Please, answer
me!”
    It was only when the
buzzing stopped that I realized I hadn't pressed the green
button.
    “ No!” I cried.  “No,
please!”
    My fingers fumbled across
the keys as I struggled to pull up the number and hit redial. 
My stomach was an icy pit as the phone dialed, and each successive
noise was like nails in the coffin.  If the caller didn't pick
up, I didn't know what I'd do.
    The caller picked up on the
second ring.
    “ Calliope, thank
goodness.  Where are you?”
    I burst into tears. 
“Octavius!  Please, help me!”
    “ What's wrong?”
    As quickly as I could, I
recounted what had happened to me.  I didn't know how Octavius
understood me – I was still crying so hard I couldn't see, and it
made it even harder to talk – but after I finished, he said, “I'll
be there in five