The Monster lumbered through the forest, his sinewy body convulsing in spasmodic movements, throwing himself onward into an unknown and hateful world. He had suffered much at the hands of the ignorant and he was more afraid of humanity than he ever had been. Ragged breathes wheezed from his reanimated lungs and the putrid stench of cheated death clung to each violent exhalation. Onward he moved, using the trees to push off of in order to provide erratic momentum. He was tired. It was late afternoon but he had been chased through the night by a gamekeeper and his slathering hounds. Everything hurt. Everything was an effort. He just wanted to rest his aching body and exhausted mind.
The trees ended abruptly and a large field filled with long grass and wildflowers stretched out before him. The Monster stopped and surveyed the beauty, the sun dancing off of the golden wisps of tall grass as it swayed in the light summer breeze and the heady scent of wildflowers in full bloom filled the air as much as their colours cascaded across the ground. It was perfect and serene and empty. The Monster stumbled out into the sunlight and threw his arms out, laughing in childish glee at the beauty of the world. He began to run, whooping and calling to everything that he could see.
And that's when he saw her. A woman in her early twenties (if that) whose long ebony hair reached to her waist, curling gently at the ends. Her skin was as pristine as the finest china, and she was just as delicate in form as the flowers that surrounded her. She was beautiful. He fell towards her; each step hitting the ground hard despite his want for elegance and normality. The girl was sat on a tartan blanket and was surrounded by a partially eaten picnic and varying art supplies. She was sketching the image of a field mouse in a large drawing book. She looked up when she heard him approaching and shrieked in terror, propelling herself back from the hideous, scarred corpse which moved towards her. A nightmare in the daylight.
"No!" cried the Monster, reaching out to her but having some sense to stop moving, "no, please. I will not harm you."
His speech was elegant as always but marred by the musculature in his jaw and neck, which still suffered the locking of rigor mortus. To his surprise the girl did not run, nor did she cry out again, she simply stopped where she was, the skirt of her sky blue dress in disarray, revealing the heavy black walking boots she wore as opposed to the delicate footwear usually favoured by women from estate families.
"Please", he said gently.
The girl looked him up and down, taking in the stitches, the scars, the bruises, the rags and the filth. Her green eyes flicked up and locked to his. It was the first time he had ever been looked in the eye. A long silence fell where the two simply looked.
"Who", breathed the girl, "who are you?"
"I am a man", said the Monster proudly, beating his chest with a fist, "I am a man like any other."
The girl swallowed but didn't speak again. The Monster faltered then gestured wildly around him at the field.
"This place is beautiful", he said putting strained emphasis on the word "beautiful" as he found it hard to pronounce.
"Yes, it is", replied the girl.
"You are alone?"
"Yes."
"Why are you alone?"
The girl smiled faintly and indicated to the paints.
"Because this is where I come to be on my own. Where I can paint and think."
"Paint and think what?" asked the Monster not breaking from her eyes.
"Anything I want", smiled the girl.
After a moment she began to move hesitantly, arranging her dress and eventually standing. She was much shorter than the Monster and she had to tilt her head up to look him in the eye causing the light to catch her soft features and make her eyes sparkle. The Monster gasped and laughed his childish laugh.
"You are beautiful", he said grinning, the scars pulling tight on the side of his neck as he carefully pronounced the last word.
"Thank you", said the girl modestly.
The Monster took a jarring step forward and thrust out his right hand. The girl leapt back, terror flashing across her face once more. The Monster simply stood, his hand out and a shy smile on his lips.
"I won't harm you", he said as softly as he could manage, "I promise you."
Another hesitation and then the girl reached out to his hand and took it. They shook.
"Pleasure to meet you, Miss", said the Monster politely.
"A pleasure to meet you too, Sir", she responded in kind.
The Monster pulled his hand away and danced around in the grass laughing. He stopped when he heard the girl giggle. She was watching him, studying him, trying to work out who and what this creature was that had appeared from nowhere in the field.
"What is your name?" the Monster asked abruptly.
"Anna", she said, "what's yours?"
"I do not have a name. Man has never given me a name."
"But you must have a name", she said gently, "didn't your father name you when you were born?"
The Monster looked sidelong at her, trying to gauge the question she had put forth. There was a darker tone to his voice when he spoke,
"My father ran from me. He wanted to create, to give life but he ran when he had succeeded. So no, he didn't name me when I was born; he fled, like everyone else. Everyone else…except you and the blind man. Are you blind?"
"No", Anna said simply.
"Why do you not flee?"
"Why should I when you promised not to harm me?"
The Monster stepped back. He looked down at this tiny creature before him. He could kill her so easily but...
"Are you hungry?" she asked when the silence had stretched between them.
The Monster looked down at the remainder of the picnic scattered about the blanket and partially filling the wicker basket sat to the side.
"You can eat it if you like. You look like you haven't had a meal in a while."
Anna smiled brightly at him and the Monster, after the briefest of hesitations, smiled back before dropping to his knees and beginning to devour whatever food he could lay his hands on. He chewed and swallowed in ravenous gulps, his tongue smacking wildly about his lips as he went. Anna sat at the edge of the blanket and watched him eat. It wasn't long before he had finished and he fell back with a contented sigh into the grass. Anna giggled again.
"Feel better?" she asked.
The Monster responded with a noise which was part sigh, part laugh and part affirmation. Anna laughed with him. She studied the Monster for a while as he lay at rest in the grass, relaxed and at peace. Time passed and then Anna began to clear away her things, placing them in the empty basket. She was folding her blanket when the Monster spoke.
"Where are you going?"
"I have to go home. It's getting late."
"Will you come back?"
Anna regarded the Monster who sat up, staring at her with wide eyes. He was almost childlike. She smiled and nodded.
"Of course I will."
"When?"
"Tomorrow."
"Do you promise?"
"I promise."
Anna smiled brightly at the Monster who smiled back but he couldn't conceal the anxious look in his eyes. Anna looked down at the blanket resting on top of the sketch book in her arms then held it out to the Monster with her free hand. He looked at it perplexed.
"Here. You'll need it if you are sleeping out."
The Monster grinned and took the tartan blanket, clutching it to his bare chest and inhaling deeply from the fabric. Anna giggled then turned and left.
He watched her walk all the way through the field, then watched as she made it onto a dirt road and waved to her back as she turned behind a hill and disappeared. He wished with all of his heart and soul that she would come back as he ambled back to the forest clutching the tartan blanket to his chest.