1848 – On the Run

The Creature POV

I slowly pulled myself out from the thick haze of the first full night's rest I'd had in a long time. Instead of the cold, damp and yet dry and scratchy feeling of straw prickling at my exposed skin - which seemed to be a confusing mixture overly sensitive from the cuts and gapes that marred the ghostly pale skin, and yet numb all over from the wide mesh of scar tissue - I woke instead to the feeling the achingly perfect feel of soft skin - like the most luxurious silken gloves - caressing my fingertips. My grasp tightened automatically, stirring the soft, lovely angel that had fallen from heaven and right into the grip of a devil. She made a gentle snuffling sound that seemed to be all the more entrancing to me and then, for the first time in my life, soft and warm body pressed back against me, fitting to my own like we had been born of one body and torn apart, into two pieces that complemented each other in a way I could never had hoped for.

Her head tipped back and then she was rolling over, her hands seeking something to hold onto and when they settled on the collar of my stolen shirt, they tightened as if she would never let go. As I placed my hands on her hips, pulling her to my chest, I was certain that I knew exactly how that felt. When she was so close, so warm and pliable and fragrant in my arms - with the smell and feel of freshly grown rose petals, in her fragility and her gentle beauty - it hardly seemed real. The night before she had allowed me to touch her in a way I had touched no one since Victor's Elizabeth, but now I had my own and I had been given permission to touch her… in fact she had begged me, desperately calling out her love and asking for mine. There was nothing so endearing as to hear someone give their heart and soul and body to you, and to feel that in that instant you would return the favour a hundred times over.

I had never hoped to hold someone so tight, so lovingly, I had thought that everyone would run and scream, terrified by Victor's creature. But here she was, of her own will, so close that I could – and already had – kissed every freckle on her alabaster skin, run my hands over and explore over every bare inch of flesh. I had been with a woman who loved me, for reasons I could not fathom – but would certainly not protest - and I could not imagine being with any other. I had stolen an angel from Heaven, I become so utterly infatuated that I had no intentions of ever giving her back.

One bare leg, entwined as it was around me, began to move and stretch out as she woke, her eyes blinking like a startled animal as she looked around at the small abandoned cottage we had taken shelter in, confused for a second until realisation hit her eyes as she saw the expanse of my chest in her eyeline. She shivered slightly and then looked up at me, so charmingly rumpled with her curls sticking out at odd angles and her lips swollen, she had never looked so beautiful,

"You're still here." My heart felt like it had been plunged into icy water,

"Do you- did you want me to leave? I- I can if that's-"

"No, my poor thing, I didn't mean it like that. I want you to stay here, for as long as you want to be with me."

"Then you will never be rid of me."

"I merely thought-" Her voice dropped to her whisper, "I worried that, you might- you might leave me, you might realise what I had done, you're so smart and you can tell so much about a person from their behaviour. I thought, by now, you would have realised what I'd done, and left me in disgust." I was aware of my head cocking slightly to the side, curious as to what she meant, but then a chuckle falling from my lips,

"I'm sure it is not so bad as you say, Elizabeth, and I'm afraid that I cannot quite lay my finger on what has upset you so. But I can assure you, that it is nothing so bad as I have done in my life."

"Tell me, my love. Whenever we talked back at the-" She went to say circus and then something held her back, as if she couldn't bear to say it, to remember out time there, and then she continued, "when we talked back there, I told you my life story but you told me so little. I don't know how you came to be in London on the day you were snatched, I know nothing of the time before, and I want to know everything of the story that breaks your heart so much that you cannot bear to speak of your pain, I want to know you better."

She pulled the threadbare blanket tighter around her beautiful, lithe form and wrapped her arms around my chest, she was so close that I could hardly remember a time when her arms had not held me so, when I had been starved of affection and the single greatest comfort in the world of a touch. One touch is all we needed to portray our love, our care and our devotion, to our friends or our families or our lovers, but I had never received one, and I had been unloved for so very long. But now that past, which was only a few hours behind me - when this simple comfot had been denied me by my appearence and metal bars - now that past seemed a million years ago. Her pale cheek pressed to my chest, just above where my heart beat, as if listening to the sound of the melody that she had inspired, that only she would ever hear. She looked up at me pleadingly, with wide china blue eyes, "please, I must know the truth, my dear. If I am to love you then I must know you, and I know so little. If you told me your backstory then I know that my heart would surely explode out my chest with the love I'll feel for the man you truly are, but I don't even know your name."

Her hands reached out tentatively, caressing my face gently and tipping it towards her, pressing her lips to mine with silent encouragement, so that when I answered I mumbled against the soft contours of plump rosy skin,

"I told you the truth when I said that I wasn't allowed one."

"Well then, what was your name when you were allowed one."

"But that is just the thing, Elizabeth. I was never allowed one; not in the eyes of society, of my master or my father, who were one and the same. Albert was never my master, only Victor Frankenstein ever held that power over me." She looked at me with such utter compassion and understanding that it almost broke my heart, his Elizabeth had looked at me like that once. But the sadness in the eyes that looked at me now were not pitying me for my pains, Elizabeth had merely felt sorry for me but did not allow it to break her heart. Not as I saw it now, now I saw my pain reflected in these eyes and shared it. My pain became hers, she was heartbroken because that was how I felt.

"And what of your mother?"

"She did not exist." She drew back slightly, the fingers which had been lightly tracing my scars, thoughtful as she tried to listen and understand, suddenly stopped where they were poised in the air,

"But surely, even if she died in your birth, she existed once upon a time. You must have a mother. It is not possible-"

"My mother was electricity, my father's mistress was science and his wife was his work, the woman he married filled none of those positions. She was just another woman in his life, and because of it she came to a bad end, which she did not deserve."

"I don't understand what you mean; tell me the whole story."

"Promise that you will not leave… no, I cannot ask that. You cannot hope to make that promise now, I wouldn't want to tie you to a monster with such an oath only for you to realise what you have done and want no place beside me."

"And I wouldn't want to be tied to anyone else. I will be with you no matter what tale you tell me now."

"Then listen to my story, my whole story, and make that judgement for yourself. Please, do not judge me too harshly."

And so, over the next hour or so, I regaled the whole story. I was very particular about leaving no detail untold and no crime of nature, nor of action, untouched, so she would know exactly what she was letting herself into. She knew the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, I laid out my whole sorry tale and put my heart into her hands, relieved that I had finally gotten it off my chest after years of guarding the whole sorry story, then watching warily to see if she would care for it, protect it and its secrets, or freeze if with her icy glare and shatter it into a thousand pieces.

And then she did something truly amazing, for a second I didn't even know what to do – I feared that she was about to reject me – because she wept. Suddenly the light blue oceans in her irises were spilling out over her cheeks, tiny sparkling droplets making their way down her face steadily and, just as I feared she was about to say she was crying because she could not love me after hearing of my atrocities, she held me closer,

"I'm so sorry, my sweet angel. You did not ask to me be brought into this world, to be created like this – and I would not have it any other way because I love you just like this – but we have been so cruel to you. It's no wonder you fought back against the world, tried to get back at it for taunting you so, but are so strong for escaping that life, my love."

"I killed people-"

"And now you suffer the consequences and the guilt. Do you honestly think that anyone else would have done anything different? They were accidents and mistakes, which you will carry on your shoulders for the rest of your life, you are a good man, no matter your past."

"Doesn't it bother you? What I did… to Victor's Elizabeth? Doesn't it repulse you that I have caused such pain? That you are lying in bed with a murderer, a torturer, a rapist and a fiend-" A long, pale finger jabbed into my chest and she hissed through the tears she wept for me,

"Don't you dare talk like that! You are not that man anymore, you never truly were. I'll admit you've done bad things, who has not! I love you, right here in this moment and I will continue to do so until the end of my life, I don't care what you were before now. All I care about is stopping your pain, helping you and always being with you. And that's where I'm going to stay… if you'll let me." I just held her tighter, calming her down – truly touched that she could feel like this for me, that she took my pain and made it her own – and gently pressed my lips to her forehead, muttering,

"Of course I will. I love you, I always will."