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The Madness in Me... Can You Help Me Escape? Ch. 1

Professor Franken Stein woke to the bright screen of his computer glowing on his face. There were notes about his latest project all over the screen. He yawned and looked at his wrist watch and noted that it was three a.m. "Damn." He said as he raised his arms, leaned backward and stretched his back in his green and white stitched office chair. While he was stretching, he turned his head to the left and saw the slightly broken seven-foot-tall mirror leaning up against a wall. All he saw was his same old self: grey hair, stitched white lab coat, grey stitched boots, large iron bolt going through his head from the left temple and a stitched scar going across his face. But after a moment he saw something strange in his eye.

It was as if his eye had changed color for a brief flash of time. As if it went from green to a sick greenish- red. Puzzled, he limped- his leg had fallen asleep- to the mirror. He stared into the mirror, observing his eye. Perhaps it was just the glare of the computer screen on my glasses. He thought as he removed them and cleaned them on his lab coat and put them back on. But this bothered him slightly for some reason... Then he looked at his face, he ran his fingers over the growing stubble on his cheeks, and he ran his right index and middle finger along the stitches on his face. "Why do I do these things... To myself and to others...?" he asked hisself aloud.

He then removed his lab coat and grey thermal, setting them down on the couch just a few feet away to his right. He observed the stitches all over his body: the one that is on his right bicep, the one on his chest that goes from his left shoulder down to the right side of his mid-torso and the one that went from the right side of his mid- torso down to the left side of his lower- abdomen. "Am I still the same person I was when I was so young? Who am I now...?" he asked hisself under his breath. Although the closest thing to an answer he could get was right in front of him. He is Franken Stein, who else would, or could he be?

He continued to dwell in his thoughts and observe his abnormal flesh until he heard a rapid knock on his door. He checked his wrist watch again to confirm the time; It was indeed three a.m. Well, three fourty seven a.m. I was lost in my thoughts for that long? That's the longest I've done that...

"Hmm," he breathed out of his nose as he walked toward the door. It's not that he forgot to put his thermal back on, he just chose not to. He was still wearing his black pants anyway. He opened the heavy laboratory door to see none other than Marie Mjolnir, the Death Scythe watching over Oceania.

"Marie, hello. What are you doing here at this time of night?" Stein asked the short blond-haired woman in the black and yellow zig-zag skirt and black jacket. When Marie saw Stein towering over her in the door way, she gasped slightly and looked to the side with her one eye a bit.

"Um, hello, uh, Franken..." Marie mumbled.

"Is something wrong?" Stein asked, twisting the bolt going through his head until it made a small 'click'.

"No, uh," she said, trying to look him in the eye instead of his bare, well-toned chest and abdomen and muscular biceps and shoulders... "Shinigami asked me to come back from Oceania and to teach here at the academy." Marie said, still trying to figure out where to set her wandering eyes.

"Hang on," Stein said, "give me a second." He turned, leaving the door open, and headed over to the couch where his thermal was. Marie watched through the doorway as Stein slipped his arms through the sleeves then raised his arms to slide the thermal down his head. As he did this, she watched every detail of how his shoulder blades and muscles moved through his skin as his arms raised and lowered. As Stein began to turn around, Marie averted her single eye.

"Now, why exactly are you here, Marie?" he asked as he gestured for her to come in while he pulled a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth. They both sat down on the couch, and Stein was holding a lit match to his cigarette. Right before it caught the flame, however, he noticed Marie's expression. It was as familiar as day, "Franken, you know I don't like it when you smoke..." So he shook the match and extinguished the flame, putting the cigarette back into his pocket.

Marie smiled and said, "Shinigami hasn't gotten me a place to live yet, so he told me to ask you if I could stay with you for a little while." A long pause followed, and Marie was not sure what to say. He was smiling, but not smirking, which is strange for Stein because he rarely ever smiled like that. Yet he wasn't saying anything at all, he was barely breathing for that matter, which only confused her. "I can go some where else if it's too much to ask... I'm sorry I bothered you." She said sadly as she turned and began walking toward the door. Then she felt a large, warm hand wrapped around hers, and she turned.

"No, stay. You can have the room down the hall. Or, you can stay in my room with me, if you'd like." Stein said and smirked and she gave him a strange look. He then laughed a bit and said, "I'm only kidding, Marie."

She still had a little of that strange look on her face, but it was soon dominated with a smile. Without even knowing how it happened, Stein found Marie with her arms wrapped around his waist. At first, he didn't know how to respond, but then decided to do what he saw other people do. He put his arms around her, gently yet firmly, and held her close. They stood there for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality, it was really only a minute or so.

Marie looked up to see Stein smiling down at her. It was that same, good-natured smile he had just a few moments ago. She blushed and turned her head down a bit. "Um," Stein mumbled, "I'll show you to your room, then I'll go out to get your bags." Stein had learned what he thought might be a new emotion: awkwardness.

"Oh, it's ok, you don't have to do that, Franken. Besides, I left them at the academy, I don't want you to go out of your way. The reason I left them there anyway was because I didn't know if-" Marie stopped talking as Stein put his finger against her lips.

"Marie, you're babbling. I'll show you to your room, and then I'll go get your bags."

"But-" She was cut off again.

"I will," he insisted.

Marie sighed then said, "Alright."

Stein gestured her to follow, and he led her to her room, turning on all of the lights while they walked down the hall. Although he was used to the dark, he knew she preferred the opposite. When he got to the door of the room, he pulled a key ring out of his pocket, took off one of the keys, unlocked and opened the door, then gave her the key.

He turned on the light and caught her expression at the room. For a moment he wondered what was wrong, then he figured it out. By his standards, this was a perfect room. Although, by her standards, this room was lacking every house touch. The walls were worn and grey and had stitches covering them, as were the bed and lamp. The dresser, desk and bedside table were black. There were not even any windows.

"I apologize if the room is too... Dark and... Uh... Creepy..." Stein muttered.

"No, no! It's fine." Marie said looking at him with her right eye, her eye patch covering the other.

"Well," Stein sighed, "I will go get your bags. Make yourself comfortable. Well, try to anyway..." He then looked around the room.

Marie smiled and said, "Thank you, Franken. I don't know where else I could really go if you were not here."

Stein looked her in the eye for a moment then nodded and left the room.

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