Frankenstein Theory (16 page)

The lush velvet curtain rose as the orchestra expertly played the overture. A large woman, decked in full, brilliantly polished armor, took the stage. She inhaled a great breath and then unleashed a masterful vocalization. As she sang along with the orchestra, a young man stepped onto the stage and then, with much pomp, regaled the audience with a story of a heralded love born of angelic ties.

I glanced to Elizabeth; she was absolutely enthralled. A smile graced her lips that I hadn’t witnessed in such a long time.

Under the booming orchestra and fluttering and flailing soprano, a commotion could be heard. Rustling bustles and angry whispers from the gallery behind our tiny balcony alcove. When the curtain to the booth opened, I instantly realized what had caused the rise and fall of frustration.

“
Igor,” I hissed. “What in heaven’s name…”

He silenced me with a wild glance. “We have a problem, Doctor.”

“
Victor, what is going…” Elizabeth turned and gasped. “You,” she hissed. “Get out of here immediately.”

Igor raised his goggles, his pinhole pupils dilating against the dim light. Fear registered on his face like nothing I’d seen before. With the slightest shake of the head, Igor conveyed a darker truth beneath the warning.

I turned to Elizabeth. “My love, I…I’m terribly sorry, but I must take my leave. It seems there is an emergency that requires my immediate assistance.”

She wept. My heart shattered like the most fragile glass. I wanted nothing more than to have this moment with Elizabeth. Unfortunately, the name Frankenstein carried with it such a heavy burden as to never allow such freedoms as joy.

I leaned in for a kiss; Elizabeth shied away.

“
My love…I promise you…”

“
Do not make promises you cannot possibly keep, Victor. Run to your first love.”

She turned her attention back to the stage and dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief.

With every fiber of my being, I wanted to turn on Igor and crush him under my heel. At the same time, I knew beyond doubt, beyond hope, my mind and heart would never rest knowing
something
was afoot with my creation.

I vanished from the booth and followed Igor down the hall to the main stairs. We descended quickly and were out of the hall before my heart could complain about the pace.

The sidewalk outside the theater was alive with humanity, a mixture of joy and desperation as opposite sides of prosperity collided.

I grabbed Igor by the arm and turned him sharply. “What on Earth is this about?”

Igor stood silent, chewing his upper lip and wringing his hands together. He swallowed deeply, drew in a breath, and spoke pointedly.

“
He’s gone.”

Two words, and my world collapsed from beneath my feet. My head spun in a panic-induced delirium. “What do you mean, he’s gone?”

Another wring, another swallow. “I only laid my head down for a moment. I swear to you, Doctor, it was such a brief lapse in time. When I woke, the laboratory was silent; he was no longer seated at the piano. I looked in every possible hiding place and then realized the door to the lab was standing open. He’d climbed the stairs and ventured beyond the passage and your study. I dashed about the castle to find it empty and the front door standing ajar. I swear you, Doctor, I had no intent…”

A single finger raised between us was all I needed to silence the man. “Your excuses mean nothing to me at the moment. We must find him, else everything I have worked for is lost. In his condition, he couldn’t have gone far.”

“
I can gather a few men to aid in our search, Doctor.”

I nodded. “Do that. Tell your colleagues there will be a reward for his safe return to the castle.”

Igor nodded and hobbled off into the shadows.

The street lamps cast a warm glow over the streets, just enough light to lend an eerie pallor over the evening. Somewhere within the nooks and crannies of this city’s heart, my creation wandered. I shuddered to think what might befall him, should he stumble into the wrong hands.

Before doubt’s darkness could settle over my mind and heart, I raced off into the streets. I considered calling out his newly begotten name. That, however, would only end in failure. My only recourse was to open myself to the surroundings…take in every sight and sound and hope that something, anything, would guide me to his whereabouts.

The streets were thick with socialites. Women and men, dressed in their finest, out with a singular goal…to see and be seen. The populous roaming the streets made it challenging to navigate at speed. Nevertheless, I ducked, dodged, and danced my way through the crowds.

Every so often a scream would thread itself through the night air, leading me off my chosen path. In the end, the sounds only ever turned out to be reveling youth.

“
Where are you?” I asked nothing and no one.

This task shouldn’t be such a challenge…looking for a frightened child of a man, clothed in little more than a dressing gown, in the metropolitan city of Geneva. A monster among men.

I stopped running. In the distance, under the brilliant glow of a full moon, Castle Frankenstein stood sentinel, begging for my return. But for what? Everything I lived for was in danger of vanishing from my grasp. Should that eventuality occur, the process would be forever lost, the last vestiges of my father’s brilliance gone.

“
Failure is
not
an option, Victor.” I said to myself before steeling my legs for another blistering run. Prior to that first step, I heard it…a soft piano playing an all-too-familiar melody. The sound was distant, but audible. I turned and started off in the direction of the music.

I had no idea what to expect. Would my creature be seated at some darkly lit bar, hunched over a piano, plucking out the notes that brought him peace? Some disjointed melody, cast from a fractured mind, played by unsteady hands?

Much to my surprise, what I found was a mixture of comfort and fear: Johann in an alley, facing a building. Silent. He stood tall and stared skyward toward an open window. I carefully slipped in beside him and mimicked his stance. When I looked up, I noticed a silhouette framed in the window…playing the piano.

“
Mozart,” I whispered.

The creature sighed and wavered. I reached out to steady him but was met with a low, rumbling growl. I retreated, giving the man all the space he needed.

The piano continued playing. The creature continued staring intently.

“
We really must…”

The growl raised in pitch and meaning. He was now threatening me with sound. I had no choice but to comply. The creature’s return to my care would happen on his own terms…no matter how long it took to convince him it was for his own good.

Had I assumed the escape of my creature could be a reality, I might have left the castle with a sedative on my person. Instead, I had assumed either the worst or the best. Either way…shame on me for making such bold and naive assumptions.

From above, the piano drifted into a profound silence. Johann reached upward, high enough to cause him to lose his balance. He stumbled forward until his head careened off the stone wall of the building. In a brief moment, I’d hoped fate had handed me a simple gift. When Johann righted himself, his hand to his head, I understood how deeply challenging my task would be.

I approached the creature, my arms raised in a calming gesture. “You really must allow me to care for your wounds.”

He glared at me…his eyes wide with rage, the corners of his mouth turned downward. This was not a weak, frightened child before me, but a man burning alive with anger. To make matters worse, he knew I was the cause of his crisis. It was at my hands that chaos had overtaken his mind, his heart, and his soul.

To my shock and surprise, he lunged at me, grabbed me by the lapels of my coat, and tossed me against the stone wall.

With a grunt, he had me in his murderous grip and dangled my feet above the ground. I wrapped my fingers around his wrists and pulled with every ounce of strength I could muster…to no avail.

“
You must put me down, Johann,” I begged. The creature didn’t so much as budge.

Before I had a chance to offer another plea, Johann leaned in until his hot breath blew against my right ear. Up close, he whispered in a death rattle voice unlike anything I’d ever heard, “Monster.”

He dropped me without ceremony or threat. I lay on the ground at his feet, unsure if his message was an accusation or a plea.

The solo piano began anew. Instantly, Johann dropped all pretense of malice and returned his attention to the window, lost in the strains of melody and harmony. For a brief moment, I considered bashing a rock over the man’s head, but tossed aside the idea, knowing that his brain was precious cargo at the moment.

In a flash of desperation, I shot out of the alley and glanced about the busy street. Before I opted to sprint off, I grabbed the arm of the first passerby and asked, “Where is the nearest apothecary?” The gentleman glared at me as if I’d gone mad. “Please, a friend of mine is in shock, and I need to acquire medicines. I’m a doctor.”

The man shook the fear from his shoulders and pointed to my left. “Four blocks.”

I released the man’s arm and sprinted off in the direction of the point.

The sign above the door indicated the shop had closed for the evening. I had no time to either wait for morning or to race about town in search of what I needed. Instead of allowing failure to take control of my fate, I grabbed a sizable rock and hurled it through the glass of the window. The shattering sound echoed off the nearby buildings, but aroused no concern or alarm from the busier, neighboring blocks.

I reached through the hole, grabbed the lock on the door, gave it a twist, and pulled the entryway open. Without so much as a glance over my shoulder, I entered the building and started a desperate search for what I needed. The room was dark, with barely a glint of moonlight to guide me in my search.

Two shelves later I had what I needed—a bottle of ether and a cloth. “This should do the trick.”

I spilled back into the street and raced off toward the creature. After a single block, the commotion behind me clearly indicated the constabulary had been alerted to the vandalism. Fear lit a fire beneath my heels, and I raced faster than my heeled boots would allow. I tripped and tumbled to the ground; a loud crack sent waves of shock through my arm and into my chest. I had no time to ascertain what damage had been done. All I could do was run, else risk an unavoidable prosecution.

Johann was still enthralled by the anonymous pianist from above. I slipped into the alley and, with great pain, opened the bottle of ether. Once the cloth was soaked in the becalming liquid, I approached the creature from behind and, with the quickness of a striking cobra, had the cloth over his mouth and nostrils.

The creature struggled against my grip—one that was clearly marked with damage from the fall. Pain radiated from the center of my forearm into my fingers and shoulder. The agonizing shock waves nearly took me down. Before that could happen, Johann went limp and dropped to the ground.

As he lay at my feet, his heavy breathing a shallow comfort, I grabbed my right arm with my left and gave it the slightest squeeze. A shock of agony spilled through my system…In the heat of the fleeting moment, I could not ascertain whether the bones were merely bruised or broken.

“
Beautiful, Victor. Just beautiful.”

No matter my condition, I still had to return the limp body to the castle before the sedative wore off. I reached down to pick the man up. My right arm gave out. I attempted to lift Johann with only my left. Again, the creature dropped when my arm gave out. I quickly realized my folly. Even with both arms intact, there was no way I’d manage to return him to Castle Frankenstein.

I walked to the end of the alley, pain flushing through my system, and did my best to hail a carriage. It took overlong, but eventually a gentleman riding atop a massive buggy stopped before me. “Where you heading?” The driver asked, his voice husky from barking at his horses..

“
Castle Frankenstein,” I said succinctly. “I need your help.” I pointed back toward the alley. “My friend had a bit too much ale, and I cannot carry him alone.”

The driver laughed. “No, no, no. I’ve been taken by the likes of you before. You get me alone in there, and the next thing I know I’m out cold, with every coin in my coffer gone.”

“
No, sir.” I held up my wounded arm. “As you can clearly see, I am incapable of doing you harm. I may well have broken a bone in my arm.”

The driver stared intently, but shook his head.

“
Look, sir, you can carry a firearm with you. I’ll walk far enough ahead that I cannot possibly harm you.”

Still he stared.

“
My name is Victor Frankenstein. My father was the Baron von…”

“
I know who your father was, young man. I even know who you are. What I
don’t
know is what ruffian you may or may not have waiting for me at the end of that alley.”