-Only a week before the next Fullmoon.

Carvo stayed alongside Abigail in the basement sorting out his research papers and equipment while she read through some of the history books and journals he had stored in his library for the last fifty years. She scrolled through them while lying on a chair Carvo just bought especially for her.

Although they didn't talk and Abigail hardly asked any questions the two of them had the same thoughts and worries. Abigail felt scared but not of Carvo nor the Protector legions, she was scared of her own self.

"Why aren't you married, Carvo?" Abigail broke the silence between them. Carvo turned around and looked at Abigail with a reddish face, it looked like Abigail's question was a little bit hard for Carvo to answer.

"Uh-Well,I..," Carvo trembled but Abigail looked at him still awaiting an answer.

"What's it? No women left in Irongate?" Abigail laughed but Carvo just frowned and looked back at the documents he was reading, it was true he felt relieved to see Abigail display human behavior, but his past was something he wasn't willing to dwell on.

"First of all it's Boneclad now, second of all.." Carvo said, fixing his monocular and clearing his throat. "Me and my wife are divorced." He continued while avoiding Abigail's very sharp eyes that has been starring at him for a few minutes now.

"I'm sorry-" She said calmly, reading the rest of the journal in her hand and the silence went on again.

"It says here that Sir Dunken is the Protector Legions' high commander, he looks very familiar though" Abigail said as she turned the journal around showing it to Carvo.

"He's our cousin." Carvo said, "Huh?! You gotta be kidding me! I changed his diapers!" Abigail gasped and Carvo couldn't contain his laughter.

"He's a pain in the ass now, who do you think sends me those corpses?" He laughed and Abigail just glared at his picture in distress.

"Does that mean he visits you..?" Abigail asked. "No, no. You don't have to worry. We exchange letters only for my own safety." Carvo assured Abigail who sighed in relief. She threw the journal away as she jumped up and walked to the mirror, Carvo quickly left his documents and kept tracking her movements. He grabbed a pen and a note and started writing down his observations.

Abigail reached the mirror then stood still. Her eyes weren't teary nor broken instead, they were confused and enraged. On the other hand, Carvo was teary and remorseful. He still felt guilty just for breathing wile she was imprisoned in Gabriel's hell. 

"You didn't tell me it was this bad." Abigail sighed and Carvo let go of his pen and walked next to her.

"You know I can't see you the way everyone does, or the way you do." Carvo said, gently putting his hands on her shoulders.

The more Abigail starred, the more her heart became red with fury. Abigail's ocean blue eyes were glimmering in her pale face. She had very little hair and an obvious scar in her scalp, her face was normal all until her jaw. Her jaw was entirely metallic. rusted silver covered that jaw and no lower lip. Carvo could see that her upper lip and teeth were still intact and only her jaw was replaced, and he knew why.

Abigail was shot in her jaw.
Carvo's observations were getting more complex as he hardly touched a thinker before. Abigail traced her body touching it as if it wasn't hers.

Her confusion grew as she realized that her torso is still intact but her chest has some sort of a gap in it. This gap had an orb-like substance in it that she decided not to touch. The orb had dozens of wires flowing out of it to various directions. They weren't longer than five centimeters and disappeared underneath her chest. as for her arms, her left arm was still in flesh and blood, but her right one was not.

"They completely removed it.." Abigail said, showing her right arm to Carvo who inspected it carefully. It was completely metallic right from the shoulder. There were several buttons lined along her arm and a deep line extended from hand her elbow.

"There must be something inside-" Carvo said, taking a screwdriver and inserting it inside that gap.

"It's like..A sword?" Carvo said as he kept tapping his screwdriver on whatever was inside her arm.

"I think we should push down those buttons?" Abigail asked, and Carvo nodded.

"I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do..Aim your arm at the cupboard." Carvo said and Abigail followed his order.

Carvo pushed the button one after another and soon a surprise terrified them. "An arrow?!" Abigail screamed Carvo held her hand steadily and inspected her elbow. He found a hole enough to fit arrows in it from there. Abigail's right arm was a crossbow.

"I'm sorry, Abby.." Carvo sighed, "Why are you sorry?! That's fucking awesome!" Abigail said and soon her burning red eyes became somewhat playful as she started messing around with the crossbow leaving Carvo stunned behind.

No matter what happened, Abigail was still a seventeen years old after all.
"Carvo" Abigail suddenly stopped and called her brother in a serious tone. "Yes, Abby?" He calmly replied.

"I feel something strange" Abigail said, touching her chest. "It's like there are heartbeats, but I know for sure that there's no heart" Abigail sighed.

Carvo slowly walked closer to her and placed his hands gently on her shoulder, reassuring her. "Whatever they did, I'll fix it. And I'll make sure you will be able to walk the streets safely. Please, don't worry. I dedicated my entire life into studying Gabriel's methods." Carvo said, he signaled Abigail to sit on her chair and he sat down facing her was a book in his hand.

"I call it The Reaper's Art." Carvo said, opening up his book and showing Abigail the several pages he had drawn and written by his own hands.

"You see, Gabriel managed to give life to the dead through steal and wire" Carvo said, showing her a thinker's dissected anatomy. A brain still functioning with the absence of a beating heart.

"He did what the English, Chinese and Russians have spent an eternity trying to do, and when he succeeded, they locked us down here and watched as we killed each other, I must say he was a clever devil." Carvo sighed, Abigail kept tracing her arm and even legs.

"They cut contact with us?!" Abigail said in concern. "Yes, we have no connection to the outside world and we can't survive outside these walls. The city can't fly anymore." Carvo said.

"We are on our own, aren't we?"

"Yes."

Silence went on between the two as Abigail suddenly jumped out of her place. "My feet!" She said, taking off the shoes Carvo gave to her. "They're artificial too!" She screamed in fear.

Carvo went down and inspected them. Her legs were entirely human all until few centimetres above her feet. They were completely artificial and still had the same buttons as her arm.

"Huh..Its the same mechanism but I can't tell what are those buttons for." Carvo said, Abigail seemed to calm down and a little bit of curiosity was drawn on her face. Abigail seemed to grasp the reality she was in so well that she would not cry or stay shocked for longer than a minute, Carvo suspected she liked those limps but he was sure he hated that face.

"Let's not play with those buttons now." Carvo said, getting up.

"What now?" Abigail asked. 

"I should start working on covering your jaw up and fixing all those broken screws" Carvo said, signaling Abigail to lay down on her surgery chair.

"I'll get you a wig too, a dress and a coat." He said, gathering his equipment.

"Can you make me look like-like how I used to.." Abigail said with a sparkle in her eyes, she seemed hopeful and Carvo smiled warmly towards her.

"Yes, it's easy, but I need to ask you something." Carvo said, his tone turning slightly serious. "Are you hungry?" Carvo said, Abigail stayed silent a little bit then shyly nodded.
Carvo felt stressed once the thought of gathering human flesh for his sister crossed his mind. He hoped for the best, but he knew the best in Abigail's case meant she would enjoy the human flesh while it's dead.

Carvo went up stairs and took something out of the oven, he went back to Abigail who was stressfully lying on her chair. With each minute passing by Abigail proved to be entirely human when it came to her reactions and expressions, but still, the hatred and fury inside was something they both feared.

"Take a bite of it, and tell me if it does the deed." Carvo said, handing her a sandwich. "It doesn't have to be tasty." He continued as she slowly took a bite, and Carvo carefully awaited her reaction.

Abigail munched on the sandwich slowly, and from her expressionless face bloomed a very pleased one which made Carvo's heart skip a beat.

"That's so delicious!! I've never eaten anything that tasty before, I didn't even know I was hungry!" Abigail said, finishing the sandwich in one bite, and Carvo starred silently.

"What was that? A burger?" She asked him as she licked her lips and lied down happily.

"That was my friend's right arm." Carvo replied, his fears were true.

Abigail desired human flesh.