Justice
Mark Simon
Mr. Groeninger
English 3
3/2/2011
"Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly, and exult in the agony of the torturing flames. Farewell." Those were the last words that the creature, the creation of my friend Victor Frankenstein, said to me. He said that he was going to travel north and then kill himself. He lied. While I was on my return voyage, after my crew forced me to return back to England, one of my men spotted a figure in the distance paddling on an ice raft. I rushed up to the crows nest and grabbed the binoculars from one of my crewmen. I spotted the figure, but he looked too big to be a normal human, and no man could have survived the extreme arctic temperatures. I concluded that the figure must be the creature, and that the creature was not going to kill himself but instead was going back to civilization. I recalled Victor's plea that I finish his work of destroying the creature, and I knew that it was now my job to make sure the creature did not bring further destruction on mankind.
I set about pondering how to do this. I had seen the creature's gigantic and abnormal frame, and I had witnessed the creature's extreme athleticism, and I knew there was no way I could ever kill it on my own. Victor had tried to do so for many years and had failed, so I resolved not to waste my life doing the same thing. There was only one possible solution to killing such a monster: creating another one like it to take it down.
The first problem was learning how to build such a creature. Victor had never revealed to me the secret of life, so I resolved to trace Victor's path until I could figure out what the secret was. My first step was to reread Victor's story and look for clues. After reading carefully I noticed the passage about electricity and how much that phenomenon had excited his interest. My next step was to visit his workplace in Inglostadt. I was not able to do so for nearly two months because I was still at sea, but the journey to Inglostadt proved worthwhile. I visited his workshop and I took careful note of the tools I found there. I strongly suspected that the secret to life was electricity, so I resolved to try to make another creature with haste. I had been reading the newspapers lately and there was an inexplicable increase in murder seemingly from a single serial killer whose trademark was the black marks of his fingers around his victims' necks. The murderer, who I knew to be the creature because of the marks, appeared to be moving southward because the murders were getting further and further south. I remembered the creature's desire to go to South America, and I concluded that that must be where the creature was heading.
I immediately started building a new creature, but I concluded that I should build a female creature so that people would not be as afraid of her as they would be of a male creature. I took the same steps that Victor had; I started to steal bones from charnel houses, and using a sketch of Victors of human anatomy I started to place them in order. I resolved to make a creature of a slightly bigger stature than Victor's creature had been so that my monster would be able to slay Victor's. After months of tireless effort I had collected all of the bones, muscle, tissue, and organs necessary to sustain life, but with the creature still loose in society and continuing his diabolical killings I could not afford to spend time giving the creature a more human like appearance, and like Victor's creature I could only give my monster a very tight layer of skin. Finally I was ready to imbue the creature with life. I resolved to do so on the first stormy night so that my neighbors would not be alarmed by the sounds of my experiment. Finally a storm came in and I started my work. I had set two large metal plates in my workroom, and I picked these up and started to rub them together quickly. When I judged that there was enough friction between them to create a very large static shock I placed the plates on the creatures chest. The creature convulsed but did not come to life. I repeated the experiment again, this time rubbing the paddles together for an even greater period of time. I did not stop rubbing them together until the metal was too hot to hold because of the friction. Once the metal started to burn my hands I placed the plates on the creature's chest once again. This time the creature jerked upright into a sitting position and immediately started to cough. I had done it! I had discovered the secret of life!
I have always stuck with the lesson, "learn from other people's mistakes". Victor's creature had a benevolent nature but had been corrupted by Victor's abandonment of it, as well as society's rejection of it. I could not help what society thought of the creature, but I resolved to nurture the creature and to act as a father figure to her. Slowly my monster became more aware of her surroundings and gained control of her senses. Once she had gained sufficient mastery of reason I taught her language, reading, and writing, and made sure she was well educated. I did not hide the fact that she was different and not human, but I made sure she knew that I would always be there for her, even when society rejected her, and I provided her with a strict moral code. Finally the time had come for me to let her know her mission: to kill Victor's creature. I explained what the creature had done, and I made sure that she knew why the creature was evil, and then I sent her off to hunt the creature down in South America. I did not accompany her, because my inferior athleticism would be a burden to her, so I had no way of knowing what was happening. The newspapers had stopped reporting killings done with the creature's trademark, so I was hopeful that my monster had succeeded. I heard nothing for over a year, but finally late into the night, well past when any decent person should have been asleep, I heard someone knocking on my front door. I grabbed my pistol and went to answer the front door. Looking through the peephole I saw a figure too tall to be a normal human. I opened the door. It was my monster! I welcomed my monster inside and asked her whether she had succeeded or not. She told me to sit down, and she proceeded to describe her travels and the results of her mission.
I took your advice and stayed away from men, like you advised. I traveled mainly through forests but sometimes also through mountains, wherein I scavenged for my food and cooked it using a fire like you showed me. I traveled for a period of about four months before I arrived in South America. When I arrived in South America I wandered around looking for a sign of the creature for about a month. I thought I would never find this creature, but one day I saw smoke rising in the distance. I hurried to the smoke and saw one of a tribe's tents on fire with people inside. I rushed in to save the people who had passed out because of the flames and saved them. In doing so, however, the tribesmen thought I was a demon, and proceeded to throw their spears at me. A few hit me, but they did not grievously injure me because I ran away very quickly. That night I stayed in a cave, and was watching the stars when I heard footsteps. I turned around and saw a figure about eight feet tall. I knew this must be the creature that you had told me about, so I prepared to engage the creature in mortal combat. The creature asked me to wait and give him a chance to tell me his story. You have already heard the creature's story so I won't bore you by repeating it. His experiences sounded eerily similar to mine in regards to our dealings with men, so I did not attempt to kill him. Instead I set about teaching him morals, and why it was wrong to slaughter men. I got him to understand that men are not evil; they are just scared of us because we are abnormal looking and more powerful than they are. He asked if he could stay with me because he was lonely and never had a friend, so I agreed. We came to enjoy each other's company very much, and I no longer felt lonely. We spent about half a year with each other when he asked if I wanted to be his mate. I realized that I was in love with him and agreed to marry him. We got married about five months ago. While I was with him I did not think about how anxious you would be to hear news of what has happened, so I did not start the return trip until about three months ago.
"I am very happy for you!" I said, "but are you sure that creature is not just deceiving you?"
"No", my monster responded, "I sincerely believe his words, and they make sense because the creature promised Victor that he would stop harming humans and retreat to isolation if Victor made him a bride. You have done so, and he is truly happy now."
"Then I congratulate you on finding love."
We talked through the night, but the monster said that she wanted to get started on her way before the sun came up to avoid running into people. I never heard from either the creature or the monster again, but there have been no reports of killings in the newspapers, so I assume that they are still in South America living happily together.