04. Meeting the Maker

Her eyes squinted, looking up into a bright crystaline orb that only made painfully obvious the dust on her dry eyeballs. She could feel the particles grinding against the inside of her lids as her vision adapted to the light levels, a dark aproned man stared down at her, his front covered in viscera and a filth covered rag tucked into his collar. His mouth was moving, but she could make nothing of the words he spoke. it took a minute for him to set her back down on her side and pull and prod a few more times at her brain before a muffled stratchy rumble echoed in her skull...

"...-is wi-... -ile to get u-... -ually its painless but not always. Now, open your mouth if you can hear me."

In her petrified horror, it took an extra second to register what he was saying before she did as she was told.

"Ah, progress." the man sighed and smiled. His calmness disturbed her even more. How any person could be that calm covered in what she assumed used to be in her own body was unsettling to the highest degree, but clearly he was being somewhat gentle with her and having her pieces assembled was better than the alternative.

She didnt know whether to be horrified or grateful... she settled for dread anxiety.

A pair of fingers reached up the ragged base of her neck and she felt a brief searing pain as the back of her tongue was pulled back and somehow attached to something else. she could feel her tongue being pulled down the back of her dry throat, and she knew if she were truly alive, she would be choking and gagging. She attempted to move her tongue forward, and as she did so, she felt resistance. Her head pulled backwards as her tongue muscles contracted.

"Careful dear, I need room to continue working, you need more than one muscle to keep your head attached."

She rolled her eyes silently in their dusty sockets

One by one, the nerves down her spine came online. A shock indicated a second freshly connected arm, then her core, then a leg, then the other, another shock made the heart convulse, though none of her blood seemed to be moving... one by one, individual muscle groups jolted, confirming their presence as the mysterious man worked. He worked with an emotional detachment that was almost machine like, stopping only to wipe the sweat and occasional squirt of viscera out of his eyes.

Finally, a long ribbed pipe was jammed up her neck. a searing sensation as the two parts of her trachea fused together and she could feel air moving through her throat. She moved her jaw around to work the tension out and attempted to speak. but what came out was a raspy gust of air.

"Take it slow, your body needs more time to heal."

The pale blood splattered man continued mending the neck tissue. He is exceedingly gentle, though the pain is still poignant.

She thinks that... maybe this isnt hell...

She tests her hand again, and a finger twitches. She feels the rough aged wood grain under her skin. The surface is wet and sticky... presumably with the same ichor smeared across the mans apron.

She limply lifts her arm, a delicate pale hand comes into view, splattered in coagulated blood. She suddenly realises the mans breath is visible due to the temperature... it is freezing cold, but she cant feel it at all. Shes not even shivering. She touches her hand against the hands mending her neck.

"Na-... naam?"

She inwardly cursed her numbed senses and body... but it seems the man understood and smiled.

"Liliya"

Her hand relaxed, at rest. She let the man finish his work on attaching her neck. she continued pondering her predicament...

'Thats a pretty name I suppose...' she thought inwardly.

'Thats all for now. I need to make preparations for the next stage. Until then, rest."

The bloodstained man gathered his macabre tools into a bowl. A flick of the wrist and a twisting gesture created wisps of vapor that flowed over and across the table, a slight wind followed by a light peeling sensation rippled across her skin, and she watched as the blood and viscera dried and flaked apart, floating upwards and collecting into a ball of dried black dust. The table, the tools, and her body were all clean.

She carefully turned her head, the neck muscles straining from stiffness as the man walked out. He closed the door behind him gently, leaving her to her own thoughts...

"... Liliya huh?"

She lay staring up into the crystal orb. its light now calming and soothing. With a bit more effort, she turned her head back to the mirror, the sight was beautiful, yet grisly.

Her skin was perfect and smooth, round with youth, though stretched and swollen around the eyes. she was exceptionally well preserved once you looked past the gaping hole atop her head. From her angle, she could just barely make out the top of her brain. she looked down to the neck and found perfectly fused tissue. no signs of scarring, and not mismatched as if shodilly assembled from multiple bodies. She strained to lift her head and found it too heavy, but could just make out an ample bosum just past her chin.

"Well, of course he would make sure to include those..."

It took a second for her brain to register the state of her indecency, but after a blush she wasnt quite sure was physically visible, she calmed down... "If he loves me this much, I guess I cant really see the problem with him seeing that much..."

She relaxed her neck and let her mind wander.

As her eyes closed, she tried to think back as far as she could... her mind tried to recall memories, back to the sea of pain. she tried to recall this mans name, some hint of past relation. her mind just started to ache after some time.

"Maybe this isnt hell... "

... and with that thought she was content to simply drift into sleep.