Off Limits
I stood alone under the blinding white light of my ring lamps, my heart pounding a frantic, high-frequency rhythm against my bare ribs as the sweet, heavy scent of my vanilla wax warmer continued to coat the pristine white walls of his empty empire.
I looked down at the model of The False Engine resting on the counter. The blue dental alginate was curing perfectly, its smooth, heavy stone matrix beginning to lock the metallic plating and the violet fiber-optic cables into a permanent, unyielding configuration of geometric flesh. The machine was fracturing. I could feel it in the rough, gravelly break of his baritone, see it in the dried crimson fluid staining his black compression wrap, feel