The crowd applauds ecstatically as the lift carries this strangely alluring cross-dressing man away, then disperse, leaving the room. The hunchback and the wild-haired domestic close in on Janet, Brad, and me. They start to towel off our hair with cloths that I swear have blood stains on them.
"Thank you," Janet says with a smile.
"Thank you very much," Brad echoes her.
Janet sees one of the stains and shrieks, and they start to slowly peel off our clothes.
"Brad!" Janet hisses, sounding panicked.
"It's alright, Janet, we'll play along for now and pull out the aces when the time is right," Brad tells her, awfully confident for a man wearing nothing but his underwear.
"For god's sake, you two," I say in exasperation, "our clothes are dripping wet and freezing. We'd catch hypothermia if we stayed in them." Janet and Brad nod at me, looking troubled.
"Slowly, slowly," the ginger girl tells the servants, "it's too nice a job to rush."
"You got that right," I say, chuckling slightly.
Each piece of clothing is removed from our bodies and piled into the ginger's arms until the three of us are standing in our underwear. Brad is wearing a pair of tighty-whities, Janet is wearing a plain white bra and a white slip, and I'm wearing a lacy black bra and matching panties. Janet and I are both holding purses, hers white and mine black. I'm completely comfortable with my body and exposing it, and why shouldn't I be? I've worked hard to make it just the way I want.
Brad says to the ginger, "Ah, hi, my name is Brad Majors, this is my fiancé, and my sister, Katie Majors. And you are...?"
"You are very lucky to be invited up to Frank's laboratory," the ginger says. Frank, Frank is the name of that enchanting man, I think. "Some people would give their right arm for the privilege."
"People like you, maybe," Brad says haughtily, and I give him an angry look.
"I've seen it," the girl says, tossing our clothes on the floor. Janet makes a move to try to pick them up, but is bundled along toward the lift by the wild-haired woman as the grandfather clock chimes again. The hunchback is already in the lift, waiting to operate it.
"Come along, the master doesn't like to be kept waiting," the wild-haired woman says, and tells the hunchback, "Shift it!"
He closes the gate after we're all inside, turns it on, and it starts to rise.
"Is he, Frank, I mean, is he your husband?" Janet asks the wild-haired woman. That's silly, of course he isn't. Didn't you hear her call him master?
The wild-haired woman laughs, and the hunchback says, "The master is not yet married, nor do I think he ever will be," Maybe, just maybe, I could change that? The thought makes me roll my eyes. I hardly know the man, what am I thinking? "We are simply his servants." The hunchback gives me the creeps, and his voice makes my skin crawl, not in the good way, like Frank's does...
"Oh," says Janet.
As we come up to the laboratory's level, Frank is waiting for us, wearing a long green smock with a red triangle on the left side of his chest. I'm reasonably certain that he's still wearing the corset and garters underneath, given that he's still wearing the gloves from earlier. He's holding pink rubber gloves in his hands and is standing in front of a large object draped in a red curtain. The laboratory itself is something like a cross between a student observation operating theater and a Greek gymnasium, with two levels and a curved ramp leading from the bottom one to the top one. It's pink-tiled throughout with pieces of blush-colored marble. The top level is a sort of observation deck, full of the crowd of guests from earlier, to look down on the rest of the lab, and under it is a bunch of machinery, all made of red-painted metal and glass, or perhaps clear plastic, with many switches and buttons, and a monitor. There's a dome in the ceiling, and in the middle of it is another red-painted piece of machinery. I see a couple of tall white Grecian-looking columns topped with white statues of nude men on either side of the deck, and on the opposite side of the room is a small stage with white curtains across it and a microphone on a stand in the middle. On either side of the stage are small alcoves with more statues of nude men, these holding speakers. There are some other objects against the wall next to the lift, but they're draped in red velvet.
Brad, Janet, and I step out first, since we're closest to the front of the lift, the heels on my shoes and Janet's clacking softly in the silent room, then the hunchback steps out and hands Frank a wine glass before walking away.
"Magenta," Frank says, and the wild-haired woman steps forward, "Columbia," the ginger girl steps forward, "Go and assist Riff Raff," The two women go behind the red curtain, "I will entertain...?" He trails off questioningly, chuckling, and holds his hand out to Brad, who steps forward and shakes it firmly.
"Brad Majors, and this is my fiancé, Janet Vice," Brad says.
"Weiss," Janet corrects him quickly, and he echoes her in embarrassment.
"And I'm Katie Majors," I tell this strange, beautiful man, smiling.
He takes Janet's hand, lifts it to his lips, and kisses it, then does the same to me. I hope that I'm not imagining his lips lingering on mine longer than hers.
"Enchanté," he says, and Janet giggles girlishly.
"You're the enchanting one, far more than any of us," I say in a low voice.
"Now, that is a blatant lie," he says, looking at me with those exquisite eyes of his, "Well, how nice," he says, circling us, "And what charming underclothes you all have," he takes three dust coats from Riff Raff, as I now know the hunchback's name to be, "but here, put these on. They'll make you feel less... vulnerable." The crowd of guests all chuckle at that.
"Who's vulnerable?" I ask, then look at Brad and Janet, "Well, besides my brother and my future sister-in-law."
Frank smiles at that, and I feel rather victorious as I slip the coat on, having to juggle my purse to do so, not bothering to close it up in front, while Janet and Brad hurriedly cover themselves up as much as possible.
"It's not often we receive visitors here, let alone offer them hospitality," Frank says.
"Hospitality! All we wanted to do was use your telephone, goddamnit, a reasonable request which you've chosen to ignore!" Brad exclaims, advancing on the transvestite. Janet quickly gets in front of her man, opening her mouth to speak, but I stepped in front of Frank the moment my brother raised his voice.
"Don't be ungrateful!" I tell him angrily. He and his fiancé are both such children, it disgusts me sometimes.
"Ungrateful?!" He protests in fury, taking off his glasses.
"How forceful you are, Brad," Frank says, smiling and appearing to not have a care in the world, "Such a perfect specimen of manhood. So... dominant," this causes a slight ruckus amongst the crowd of guests, as they laugh and titter, "You must be awfully proud of him," he addresses that last part at Janet and I.
"Well, yes I am," Janet answers, smiling and blushing, and Frank chuckles along with her.
"I'm not particularly," I say, with a scathing look at my brother, "Passion can be nice, of course. But yelling at one's host... not so much. Personally, I prefer a man who's more in touch with his feminine side," I look at Frank, smirking slightly, and see him smiling back at me, looking rather pleasantly surprised by my response before quickly composing himself into the role of flirtatious, eccentric host.
"Do you have any tattoos, Brad?" The transvestite asks my brother.
"Certainly not," my sibling says, seeming offended by the question.
"Oh well. How about you?" He asks Janet. She giggles and shakes her head. "You?" He asks me. I simply bend over and pull my panties up, revealing a black orchid on one buttcheek, and a gothic black butterfly on the other. "Delightful!" He exclaims, and reaches out, and grabs my ass, squeezing it slightly and quickly before letting go. Janet and Brad look shocked, and I feel thrilled as I straighten up.
Riff Raff approaches Frank and looms over his shoulder. "Everything is in readiness, master. We merely await your word." Magenta and Colombia are standing on the little stage in front of the white curtain. Frank hands the hunchback his wine glass and approaches the stage as Brad puts his glasses back on. The transvestite stands behind the microphone, facing the room, and speaks into the device.
"Tonight, my unconventional conventionists, you are to witness a new breakthrough in biochemical research. And paradise is to be mine!" Everyone claps. "It was strange the way it happened. Suddenly, you get a break. All the pieces seem to fit into place. What a sucker you've been. What a fool. The answer was there all the time. It took a small accident to make it happen. An accident!"
"An accident!" Columbia and Magenta echo him.
"That's how I discovered the secret. That elusive ingredient. That spark that is the breath of life. Yes, I have that knowledge. I hold the secret to life itself!" Everyone applauds enthusiastically at his dramatic speech, including myself and Janet. Brad grabs her and pulls her against him, making her stop.
Frank and his servants go over the red-draped object that the cross-dresser had been standing in front of earlier, and with one gesture, all the guests go silent. "You see," he says to Brad, Janet, and me, pulling on the pink rubber gloves with a loud snap, "You are fortunate. For tonight is the night... that my beautiful creature is destined to be born!" Everyone applauds again, some of the guests shaking noisemakers. There's a drumroll, and he dramatically turns his back on us, facing the covered object, and Magenta and Columbia lift off the red draping to reveal a coverless glass tank, filled with slightly cloudy water, a humanoid shape wrapped in bandages like a mummy floating in the middle. It doesn't float to the surface or sink to the bottom, but just stays still in the middle, strangely enough.
Frank moves behind the tank and points to Riff Raff, who's standing at the machinery. "Throw open the switches on the sonic oscillator!" Frank commands, and Riff Raff flips a pair of levers, "And step up the reactor power input three more points!" The hunchback does so, and the room goes dark, lit by a bright light behind the glass of the machinery as Riff Raff turns a wheel. The light flickers brighter and dimmer as he cranks the wheel, and the red machinery that was up in the dome lowers down over Frank and the tank.
"Oh, Brad!" Janet gasps, clutching my brother.
"It's alright, Janet," he replies, attempting stoicism.
Frank laughs maniacally as the machinery slowly lowers, reaching his arms up toward it. An electronic-sounding noise pulses through the room over and over again. Riff Raff stops cranking and it stops moving when it's right above the level of Frank's head, and it's dead center over the tank. It's a round thing with eight different colored nozzles pointing down at the tank. Frank quickly flips the nozzles on one at a time, grinning like a madman, which I don't doubt he is (in the most attractive way), and colored liquid spurts out of each. He flips them off as quickly as he turned them on, and the tank now has a rainbow coloring. Then the arms of the bandaged creature reach up tremblingly, grasp the sides of the tank, and it pulls itself up into a standing position. Riff Raff moves over to the creature, and pulls the bandages off its face, revealing a handsome young man with blonde hair and blue eyes. "Oh, Rocky!" Frank exclaims. 'Rocky' gasps and reaches up, grabbing the machinery overhead, and Riff Raff swiftly moves back to the wheel and starts cranking it hard. The machinery hoists Rocky high into the air.
Frank runs over to the hunchback and kicks him, and he starts to lower Rocky back down. Frank climbs on top of the tank, reaching for his creation, but the blonde lunges forward, landing in front of the tank, and Frank falls inside it. Somehow the tank has become dry, the glass itself stained rainbow colors. Magenta and Columbia approach Rocky on either side of him with scissors, and snip cut into the bandages at his shoulders, pulling the bandages off his arms. Next, they tear the bandages off his legs, then start to unwrap his torso, when Frank stands up and wraps his arms around Rocky's shoulders. The creation whirls away from him, the bandages unwinding. "Oh, my baby!" Frank exclaims, lunging for him again, but now Riff Raff trips him, he falls down, and Rocky runs away from him to the second level. Now that the bandages are all gone, he's wearing a shiny golden speedo. Frank chases him to the second level, crawling, then gets back to his feet and runs after his creation again, the two of them completely two loops around the room before Rocky stops and perches seated on top of the edge of the tank. Frank stands next to him. "Well, really. That's no way to behave on your first day out," the mad transvestite scientist tells his creation, who looks rather hurt, and Frank rubs the blonde's muscled thigh, "But, um, since you're such an exceptional beauty, I'm prepared to forgive you."
Rocky grins happily and bangs excitedly on one of the bars on the tank.
"Oh, I just love success!" Frank exclaims.
"He's a credit to your genius, master," Riff Raff says.
"Yes," Frank agrees.
"A triumph of your will," Magenta tells him.
"Yes," Frank concurs.
"He's okay," Colombia states, leaning over the tank, and I watch Frank's face go still.
"Okay?" He asks angrily, and bangs on the side of the tank, "Okay?!" He goes over to Rocky and takes his hand, and his creation jumps down next to him. "I think we can do better than that," he says haughtily, and takes him over to Brad, Janet, and me, "Now, Brad, Janet, Katie, what do you think of him?" He asks.
"Well... I don't like men with too many muscles," Janet says, with a glance at Brad.
"I didn't make him for you!" He says angrily, "He carries the Charles Atlas seal of approval," he announces, to the applause of the crowd, and then he turns to me. "And you?"
"Oh, he seems flawless. Muscles are indeed, amazing. Though personally, I find a man's style more important," I tell him, with a sly sort of smile. He grins back at me, seeming taken aback by me once again, then he takes Rocky over to one of the red-draped objects by the lift. He pulls off the red material, revealing a stand of weights, marked with a tag saying, "Happy Birthday Rocky"
I hear piano music, then Frank starts to sing, "A weakling weighing ninety-eight pounds will get sand in his face when kicked to the ground,"
"I don't know about you," I say, "But this," I tap my chest, "ninety-eight-pound weakling makes do just fine. And no one has gotten away with trying to kick me to the ground in a very long time."
He grins at me, looking me up and down, before continuing his song, "And soon in the gym, with a determined chin, the sweat from his pores, as he works for his cause," he hands Rocky a pair of weights, nearly making himself fall trying to hold them, "Will make him glisten, and gleam, and with massage, and just a little bit of steam..." he traces a finger from Rocky's chest to down just above his golden speedo and chuckles delightedly as the muscle man strikes a pose and starts to lift the weights, "He'll be pink, and quite clean. He'll be a strong man, oh honey, but the wrong man!" He moves over to the other side of the lift and pulls out another red-draped object, singing, "He'll way nutritious high protein, and swallow raw eggs," he pulls off the red fabric, revealing a vaulting horse, which Rocky pulls himself on to, "Try to build up his shoulders, his chest, arms and... legs. Such an effort, if he only knew of my plan! In just seven days, I can make you a ma-a-a-an!"
"I can make you a man in a lot less time than that," I murmur and Frank only just catches it, grinning at me in surprise.
Rocky drops to the ground and starts doing push-ups, as Frank sings, "He'll do push-ups, and chin-ups, do the snatch, clean and jerk," Frank pulls himself on to the vaulting horse, "He thinks dynamic tension must be hard work," Frank starts sort of humping one of the vaulting horse's handles, "Such strenuous living, I just don't understand, when in just seven days," he gets off the vaulting horse, pushes it against the wall, and goes to his creation, "oh, baby, I can make you a man." Frank is standing with his arms around Rocky's neck, in front of a red-painted metal, vault-like door, with a label next to it on the wall reading "Deep freeze" over a red light. The red light turns on suddenly, beeping, and the door starts to swing down, like a drawbridge. With a yell, Frank pulls himself and Rocky out of the way.
"Eddie!" Columbia shrieks, as the door reveals that it's blocked by squares of frosted glass. Then a man on a motorcycle bursts through it, the motorcycle roaring. The crowd is in an uproar as the rather rotund man kicks down the kickstand on the motorcycle, pulls off a pair of goggles and a helmet, tossing the helmet on the floor, and hops off the bike with a hoot. There's a saxophone strapped to his back, and he starts to sing, "Whatever happened to Saturday night, when you dressed up sharp, and you felt alright?! Don't seem the same since cosmic light came into my life, I thought I was divine!" He grabs Columbia and sets her on top of his motorcycle, "I used to go for a ride with chicks who'd go, and listen to the music on the radio! A saxophone was blowing on a rock 'n' roll show, we climbed in the back seat, we really had a good time! Hot patootie, bless my soul! I really love that rock 'n' roll! Hot patootie, bless my soul! I really love that rock 'n' roll!" He dances with Columbia, and she seems delighted, while the crowd sings along with him and dances as he goes, "Hot patootie, bless my soul! I really love that rock 'n' roll! Hot patootie, bless my soul! I really love that rock 'n' roll!"
He then starts to play his saxophone, while the crowd keeps dancing, and I hear one of them say "Lovely party!"
"My head used to swim from the perfume I smelled. My hands kind of fumbled with her white plastic belt. I'd taste her baby pink lipstick and that's when I'd melt, and she'd whisper in my ear, tonight she really was mine. Get back in front and put some hair oil on, Buddy Holly was singing his very last song. With your arms around your girl, you tried to sing along. It felt pretty good, whoo, really had a good time!" He was dancing with Columbia again as he and the crowd sang, "Hot patootie, bless my soul! I really love that rock 'n' roll! Hot patootie, bless my soul! I really love that rock 'n' roll! Hot patootie, bless my soul! I really love that rock 'n' roll! Hot patootie, bless my soul! I really love that rock 'n' roll!" Frank has been looking rather horrified during this whole ordeal, but it was when Rocky started dancing to the music that his mouth really twisted in disgust. He locked Rocky inside the lift as Eddie got back on his motorcycle and started to ride it, around the room. Guests are leaping, panicked, out of his way. I see Frank edge into the refrigerator unit and grab an ice pick. Rocky bangs at the gate of the lift as Eddie gets back off the motorcycle and grabs Columbia again, lifting her into the air and setting her down again. Then Frank approaches him, brandishing the ice pick in front of him, and Columbia starts screaming as the transvestite chases the Elvis-like man into the refrigerator unit, and kills him. The transvestite comes out with blood on his gloves and dress, and stumbles back out, clasping his hands charmingly in front of him.
"One from the vaults," he says in explanation, and guests chuckle slightly. He holds his hands out and Magenta peels the gloves off for him. Rocky bangs at the gate of the lift in panic, and Frank quickly goes over to him. "Oh, baby!" He exclaims, And opens the gate for him. Rocky looks at him in distrust, and Frank says, "Don't be upset. It was a mercy killing. He has a certain, naive charm... but no muscle." Rocky immediately flexes, putting his elbow on Frank's shoulder, and the transvestite gasps delightedly, and sings, "But a deltoid, and a bicep, a hot groin, and a tricep, makes me, oohhh, shake! Makes me want to take Charles Atlas by the hand. In just seven days, oh baby, I can make you a man." Frank walks away from Rocky and Magenta and Riff Raff pull the green dress off of him, revealing the corset and garters underneath. "I don't want no dissension, just dynamic tension," Frank sings as he struts back to Rocky.
"I'm a muscle fan!" Janet sings in an irritatingly high-pitched voice, as Brad looks at her in surprise.
"In just seven days, I can make you a man," Frank sings, "Dig it, if you can! In just seven days, I can make you a man!" He loops his arms through Rocky's, and Riff Raff opens the white curtains on the little stage, revealing a bridal suite. The guests cheer and throw confetti as Frank leads Rocky into the dark room and jumps into his arms before the curtains close.
Is he... in love with Rocky? Or is Rocky his plaything? Frank seems like the type to have playthings. And Riff Raff said he doesn't think Frank would ever marry. So perhaps I still stand a chance, to at the very least sleep with the man.
Janet and Brad look both apprehensive and uneasy, as the guests depart and the three of us are shown to separate rooms.