Author's note: So here it is, the final chapter. I will most likely write a short epilogue just to give a look into their lives, buuuuut you saw my track record with updates before.

Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 13

Henry

The snow was starting to chill my feet straight through the leather of my boots. I knew it was foolish to go looking for Miss Aizen up the mountain. Frankenstein and his creation had probably found her in town and were somewhere warm and hidden by now. I almost hoped that was true for her sake, but that last sliver of personal desire and hope had me wishing I would be the one to find her, to confront her one on one in regards not only to this situation with the book and the creature, but also to my own feelings. Which was selfish, but I could not bring myself to care.

I tromped through the snow and the trees trying to find any sign of her passing—a footprint, a piece of cloth from her clothes—just something to know she had been standing in the same spot as me.

After some time I found myself at the edge of the forest and an expanse of white snow stretched out before me, glowing in the light of the moon. I wondered if it would be foolish to walk out into the barren, open field, unshielded from the eyes of anyone passing by. Perhaps those eyes would be Miss Aizen's. Or they could be the angry villagers'. I almost didn't care if I was found, an image of my body bathed in the light of moon appeared in my head, and I knew I had to go make it true.

I walked out of the trees and into the clearing, enjoying the soft crunch of the snow beneath my feet. The air felt cooler here, I could see my breath in the moonlight, a cloud like smoke twirling in front of me. When I stopped, I wasn't quite in the middle, but I was far enough out that if anyone did pass by and see me, I'd have to run very fast to make it back to the trees before I was caught. If they had guns, which according to Horace they did, I'd have no chance.

I let my face tilt up towards the moon. Standing still, letting the frozen air wash over me, not fighting it, there was a sense of peace. It felt good to be alone in the open for that brief moment.

Then the moment passed. And my feet were starting to ache with cold.

I turned to go back the way I came, but there was a small crackling that was not the crunch of snow. I stopped, trying to listen for the noise again.

"Henry!" Her voice rang out clear as a bell in the frozen air. "What the hell are you doing!"

"Miss Aizen?" I turned around to see where her voice was coming from, but as I shifted my feet, I heard a deep groan beneath me, followed by a series of cracks. I looked down to find the ground beneath me was not solid earth as I had presumed, but rather ice, covered by a thin layer of snow. She was running towards me from the trees, barely distinguishable under the large bulk of her coat. She stopped as she stepped onto the ice and walked carefully but quickly towards me. She was now standing a few meters away. The ice was splitting even more now. She pulled off her hood, her eyes wide with fear.

"Okay, uh, try to get low, spread the weight of your body out, hands and knees, slowly," her voice spoke quickly while her hands undid the buttons of the over coat.

"Miss Aizen," I started lowering myself. The ice beneath me crackled under my feet.

"Don't talk, just concentrate on getting to your knees." The coat was at her feet as she watched my progress with bated breath. "That's it, careful."

I was to my knees now, and I could feel a definite give in the ice. The coldness stung my skin through the fabric of my pants, and stabbed into my hands as I lay my palms flat against the snow and ice in front of me. I looked back to Miss Aizen. She too was getting to her hands and knees, the great overcoat in one hand. She crawled onto the ice, brushing snow out of the way to create a path. The ice beneath me continued to splinter with hair-like fissures.

She was closer now, only a few meters or so.

"Lay down, Henry," she said, voice low now, "Lay down and reach for me."

I slowly did as she said. I lowered my torso and legs to the ice and brought my hands above my head, reaching out to her. She slid closer and there were more cracks.

"Miss Aizen, please, don't come any closer," I said frantically, "I can bring myself to you." I pressed my toes into the ice and tried to propel myself forward, but the movement caused the ice under my legs to collapse and my lower half was plunged into the freezing water of the lake.

"Henry," she screamed, "Grab hold!" She tossed the edge of the overcoat towards me. I scrambled to grab the garment, but the ice was slippery and my hands and body began to slide backwards further into the water. The coldness was like nothing I had ever experienced. Each inch of skin that sank into the water felt as if it were being stabbed with a thousand needles, each slowly pressing further, past muscle and into my bones. I was up to my chest and already I felt as though I could not breathe.

Miss Aizen was yelling. Then suddenly she was beside me, her body pressed sideways on the ice. Her hand found mine, and she pulled, slowly dragging my body out of the water. Beneath our combined weight, the ice continued to crack, somehow though, Miss Aizen was able to slide our bodies to the bank of the frozen lake. I could barely move my body and my legs felt numb. Miss Aizen lay beside me, breathing heavily, her hand still clutching mine tightly.

"I have got to stop saving your ass," she said, her voice coarse and raspy from yelling.

I squeezed her hand. "Especially since my intention was to save yours," I laughed. I began to shiver uncontrollably, but I could not help but laugh. It, like the shivering, was unrestrained. I imagined I must have appeared mad to her.

"There's a cave close by," she said getting to her feet and picking up the overcoat from the side of the bank, "I was hiding there before I saw you."

She threw the coat over her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders to act as a crutch. My legs felt so stiff, as if they would snap if I bent them too much. I adjusted the coat over my shoulders. It was comfortably large enough for us both. "Are all women in America this resilient, Miss Aizen, or just you?"

She snorted and bent lower to get a better purchase on my waist. "I have no idea, but I'm pretty sure I'm the most stupid when it comes to people I care about."

My face felt as though it were suddenly scorching beneath the layer of frost on my cheeks. I remained silent while we made the trek to the cave, but pressed my legs to work harder to relieve the burden of my weight from Miss Aizen's shoulders. Her last words seemed to have revived me a bit.

The cave was closer than I had thought and was visible once we turned the corner of the hill. There was a small subtle glow coming from within its small opening.

"You lit a fire?" I asked, "Weren't you afraid the townspeople would see?"

She shrugged and led the way inside. "It was either that or freeze to death," she said simply.

Inside the cavern the air was warmer, but the occasional gust of wind pressed in and chilled my wet clothes. Some places in my shirt and pants had even froze during the hike to our safe haven. I sat down, the shivers still raking throughout my body. Miss Aizen looked down at me, a look of apprehension in her gaze. She rubbed her hands up and down her bare forearms. It was the first time I noticed the state of her clothing. Her servant's dress was ripped in various places along the skirt and bodice, and the sleeves had been completely torn off. Most of the outfit was damp as well, though not as drenched as my own.

She looked away. "Listen, not to sound like the beginning of a porno, but we both need to remove our clothes and get under that coat. You know, sharing body heat and all that."

I felt my face flush again. "I suppose that is the best course of action."

Miss Aizen nodded. "All right then." She began undoing the sash of her dress, laid it across the ground, then pulled the dress over her head. Beneath there was no corset, only thin white knickers that clung to her thighs with wetness.

I quickly began removing my own clothes, starting with my soaked shirts. I tried to lay them by the fire. I undid the belt on my pants and began unbuttoning them. I tried to slide them off, but the material was stuck in places to my legs. Miss Aizen had been crouched down on the other side of the fire laying out her dress. The orange glow of the flames shined on the naked curve of her back. She turned her head to check on my progress.

"I need help," I said, trying not to meet her eyes, "They're stuck."

"So help me god," she started, "If you are lying, I will dick-punch you so hard."

I gulped, but tugged at the fabric of my trousers to demonstrate that they were partially frozen to my skin. Reluctantly, she got to her feet, the fire lighting the length of her legs, the cup of her buttocks, and the indentation of her spine in the small of her back. For the merest second I could not help but stare. Then I looked up, and the discomfort apparent on her face made me look away, even when she came close and freed my legs from the partially frozen pants. She laid them beside my shirts, close to the edge of the fire, then sat beside me.

She pulled the large coat around our bare shoulders, and suddenly our bodies were touching. She shifted closer. Her skin felt like a hot iron against me, painful and invigorating. I tried to move my own body closer. I wanted to wrap my arms around her, yet I did not want to seem too eager. Her touch excited me, but I did not want her to know this. I felt myself go rigid as she began leaning into me. She seemed to sense my unease and looked up at my face.

"Okay, let's get something straight," she said putting a hand to my cheek, "I know this is really uncomfortable for both of us. This moment, or whatever, doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to change my mind about things. We are doing this to survive, because I'm freezing and you're going to lose a limb if you don't stay warm."

I nodded. "Understood."

"That being said," she continued, "You need to relax. You can touch me, okay? You kind of need to if we're going to make it through the night. Here." She moved my arms so they wrapped around her back and waist. At first I held my hands in fists, but as she settled against my abdomen, her head resting on my chest, I let them unfurl and grasp her body. She gasped slightly. "That's better, I guess."

I tried not to think of her body, only the warmth it provided, but I could not. The soft plumpness of her bosom pressed alarmingly low on my abdomen and her legs intertwined with my own. I could smell the heady scent of sweat in her hair. I tried to keep my hands still on her skin, but they longed to explore. Her hands were wrapped around my waist as well.

"Your legs feel like ice," she muttered.

"I can barely feel them at all."

"What?" she said, alarmed, "That's not good, Henry." She pushed herself off of me momentarily. "Tuck them up against your chest."

I did as she said. Immediately she went about rubbing her hands up and down my calves, the outside of my thighs, and massaged the ice out of my feet.

"So I take you found the book? I figure you wouldn't be here otherwise."

"Yes," I replied. My shivers were starting to dissipate, but I felt a new chill culminating in my stomach.

"Did you see him?"

"The creature," I tried to keep the fear from my voice, "Yes, Victor and I came upon him while looking for you."

"So he did leave the cabin," she said absently, "I thought he would. Or at least I hoped."

She continued rubbing my legs. I was starting to gain more feeling in them. Numbness had subsided to pins and needles.

"Miss Aizen," I said, "Tori, do you truly intend to stay with the creature? Sacrifice yourself to save us?"

She stopped rubbing. "What?" she laughed, "I'm not sacrificing myself." She looked into my eyes. "I mean, keeping him from killing anyone was my plan, but…" She stopped and lowered her gaze.

"But what?" I put a hand beneath her chin to bring her eyes back to mine.

"Well, I did it for his sake," she shrugged, "And mine, too, I guess. He was becoming so despondent and mopey."

I shook my head. "You speak as though you've known him a long time."

"Look, Henry," she sighed, "You don't have to believe me or anything, but I think you of all people deserve an explanation. Maybe even more than Victor. I really didn't expect to like you as much as I do. And it's pretty hard not to notice that the feeling's mutual."

"Sorry," I said, feeling the heat of embarrassment flood my entire body, even down into my thawing legs. I shifted my waist away from her.

She laughed and continued speaking. "The truth is, Victor's creature is not going to die at the end of the story. He lives. For a very, very long time. And if there was one gift that Victor endowed him with, it was a vastly intelligent mind." She paused and moved to sit beside me again, and wrapped the cloak tighter around us. "He's going to become a brilliant, albeit reclusive, scientist one day. His scars will heal, and the only thing odd about him will be his size, which isn't that odd in a hundred years or so. And he's going to teach at a university, where he meets a girl who offers him an extra coffee she had, and they become best friends until one day he digs up the courage to ask her to marry him. And I said yes."

"You're engaged? To him?"

"I'm flattered that that's what you question, but, yes. I'm engaged. And from the future."

"So why come back? It sounds like things end happily for him." I felt a pang of jealousy in my stomach as I said the words. I hoped that Miss Aizen could not detect it.

"He killed five people, Henry, and lived with the guilt of those crimes for over a century. After we got engaged, he started getting more depressed and I didn't know why until he told me everything. He gave me the book, the one you found, and I understood why our upcoming marriage would bring back so many bad memories."

"Murder does tend to do that."

She pinched my arm beneath the blanket. "I stopped him from murdering anyone."

"Yes, but what's to keep him from killing anyone in the future?" I said, my voice rising, "You say there is over one hundred years before he meets you. What's to keep him from killing during that time? And with that said, now that you've changed his history, what makes you think you two will meet? Will he even be the same man you fell in love with?"

"He's that man now," she said fiercely. Miss Aizen turned her face away from mine and pulled the coat tighter around herself. "We should get some sleep."

Together we leaned down against the ground. She pressed herself tight against my chest, and I wrapped my arms firmly around her back. It felt like a tease, some cruel joke, that the woman I should feel so strongly for was not even a part of my world. Here she was in my arms, and I could not even act on the most basic of impulses to kiss her, to confess my feelings because she had already rejected me. And instead of gracefully accepting that my love was not wanted, was not even meant to have happened, I argued against her actions, like a child not getting their way. I could see now that she understood the risk that her happiness could be taken away, that she could potentially never end up with the man she was loved, but she did it anyway for his sake. She did it to take away his sin, remove the guilt that would haunt him for his entire life.

Knowing this only made me realize I admired her even more, respected her more than anyone I had ever met. And suddenly that was important. Growing up, thinking of my future wife, I had always pictured my wife as an admirable woman, someone respectful, but never held in high respect. A demure woman, soft and obliging. It wasn't fair to have someone thrown into your life you never even imagined, and then having them so totally steal your heart and mind. My stomach ached slightly, as if it were eating away at itself. The emptiness there felt so heavy, as though it could pull me into the cold stone upon which we lay.

I closed my eyes to the warm glow of the fire. I gave myself over to the oblivion of sleep, hoping that in the morning we would be met with more promising circumstances.

The next morning we were awoken by a loud cough, followed by the heaping of blankets and clothes upon our bodies. Victor and his creature were there, standing in the light of the cave opening. Our fire had long since burned out and I did not realize how cold I was until Miss Aizen moved away from me. She got to her feet, wrapping one of the heavy cloaks Victor had piled on us around her shoulders. She immediately walked over to the creature and began tenderly touching his chest to check the bandages there. She leaned against him warmly and he tentatively put an arm around her, looking quite lost in how to react to her gesture of affection.

Meanwhile, Victor kneeled beside me, a barely hidden smirk on his face as he ruffled the ice from my hair. He helped me sit up and then pulled more blankets around my shoulders.

"I see you two found a way to stay warm," he said smugly.

I pushed him away weakly. "I wonder if you know how truly painful it is to sleep beside someone you love and know they do not return your feelings." I said the words more harshly than intended.

"I'm sorry, my friend. I am truly happy to see you both alive." His smile shifted to one of sincerity. "And though I have no experience in that brand of heartache, I am familiar with others."

I nodded and tried to smile conciliatorily, but my face was so cold.

Ice had formed on the ends of my hair and eyebrows, but the core of my body had managed to stay warm. Victor and his creature had brought with them not just more suitable clothing for both Miss Aizen and myself, but also food and water. We dressed quickly and ate a meal of stale bread and cold cheese. The taste was not great, but it did go a long way to banish the emptiness in my stomach.

As I ate, I watched Miss Aizen do the same. She was not delicate with her eating, not that I expected her to be at this point. I remember the meals we used to share so long ago in Victor's apartment in Ingolstadt. She was not delicate then either, and at the time I just took it as the mannerisms of an American. Now, I suppose that was still true, but thinking about how carefully the women even in my own family partook of their meals, I could not help but think it silly. I noticed the creature had been staring at me as well, taking in whom my eyes had been fixed on for the last minute or so.

I wanted to look away from his bright yellow eyes, but there was a question in them I could not understand. They looked pleading and somewhat hurt. I wondered if he felt the night before had compromised his relationship to the girl. I could take his stare no longer, so I lowered my eyes and concentrated on the meager meal.

"We must make it back to my family's house by nightfall," Victor said. His voice was firm and rang low in the cavern. "The village is still looking for you both," he said looking at the creature and Miss Aizen, "It won't be long before they begin their search anew for the day. Horace agreed to try and set them in the opposite direction, but I doubt that would keep them busy for long."

Miss Aizen and I dressed in the warmer clothes Victor brought. I noticed that he had brought trousers and a long travel coat for Miss Aizen, as well as a messenger's cap. When all was said and done, she looked quite like a young man. She tucked her hair into the cap and pulled the collar on her coat high to hide the gentle slope of her neck.

The creature led the way down the mountain. He seemed to have an instinct for finding the clearest, most sure-footed path through the trees and snow. The creature moved swiftly, almost lithely, through the terrain. It was slightly unnerving. I could tell he was holding back, going slower than he was capable for our sakes. Even so, he constantly seemed to be stopping to let us catch up. I noticed he slowed down even more when Miss Aizen began falling behind from her place by his side. I also noticed he would occasionally glance back at me, his yellow eyes perpetually asking a question I still did not know.

We stayed away from the main road and thus did not run into anyone coming from or to the village. By midday we had descended past the snowline and our hike became much easier. We stopped in a small sunny clearing to rest and eat some more bread and cheese. A small creek bubbled downhill beside us, shockingly cold and just melted from the snow above. The creature sat by the creek, away from us until Miss Aizen beckoned him to sit beside her against a stand of boulders. We ate in silence until Miss Aizen cleared her throat and began talking.

"I'm guessing you have questions, Victor," she said bluntly, "so, let's hear them." She stretched her legs out in front of her and leaned back against the rock face behind her. The creature looked slightly lost at her words, I remembered he did not speak English. I thought about translating for him, but decided against it. I did not want to have him looking at me with that intolerable questioning gaze of his.

Victor looked at Miss Aizen but did not start talking immediately. He finished the bit of bread in his hand, took a deep breath, then began. "I have read your book so many times in the past days and nights I feel it has been seared into my mind. It answered so many questions, opened my eyes to my own life in so many ways, and yet there is still the one mystery. What has happened to Elizabeth?"

"She's in my place."

"And where is your place?"

Miss Aizen pulled her legs up against her chest and looked uncertain of herself, a look I was not used to seeing on her face.

"About five-thousand miles away and one-hundred fifty years in the future."

"I see." Victor's whole body seemed to slump a little. I could not tell whether it was in relief or anxiety.

Miss Aizen continued. "When I came to this time, there had to be a switch, an exchange."

"That would explain the equations written in the margins of the book," interjected Victor, "An equal exchange of matter. That brings me to my second question. How is she going to come back if you're staying here?"

"She's not staying," I said, much to the surprise of my friend.

"You're not?" Victor's eyes went from me to the girl, then finally to his creature.

"No," she shook her head, "I came here to keep Adam from committing murder. Henry can fill you in on the details some other time." The creature looked up at the mention of the name.

Victor raised his eyebrow and smirked. "Adam?"

"What? That's the name he gave himself. Well, actually now I gave it to him. But he did originally choose it for himself. For obvious literary reasons." Miss Aizen smiled up at the creature and touched the side of his face gently.

I decided to ask the next question. "Now that you've done what you meant to do, when are you going back?"

Miss Aizen pulled her glance away from the creature and looked at me and Victor in turn. "Do you have the book with you?"

Victor reached into his pack and pulled the ragged paper-bound book from inside. He handed it to Miss Aizen and she carefully opened it, treating its pages as if they were likely to crumble upon touch.

"It's going to be soon. I think. Elizabeth's probably ready to come home too." She put her hand on the creature's and squeezed.

"So how does it work, do you just disappear?"

"Essentially, yes." She held the book up. "I needed the book though."

Victor leaned closer to look at the book. "Is there some sort of mechanism?"

"Not really," she shook her head and smiled, "Now that things have changed here, my present needs to shift to compensate. When that happens I'll be snapped out of this time and hopefully back to my own, probably won't even remember any of this, since it won't be necessary now that Adam's got a clean slate. The book's going to disappear with me though. It can't be left in the past." She looked at Victor, "Though you could probably reproduce it from memory at this point."

The creature looked at the book in her hand. He held his hand out and the girl placed it in his palm. It looked so tiny in his massive fingers, but he handled it gently. I could see a look of understanding as his eyes read first the cover then opened to the middle and began scanning.

He looked over to Victor and me. "She is going to be leaving soon?" His pronunciation of French was startlingly precise and soft. I couldn't help but feel empathy and a certain camaraderie for him. Though he would eventually end up with the woman I loved, I felt sympathy for the years ahead of him. Here he finds another being that not only accepts his company but seeks it, journeys through numerous hardships for him, and now he must wait a century before seeing her again. The only thing I envied him was that chance of an again.

Miss Aizen got on her knees and turned to the creature. Even though he was sitting down, she still just barely came up to his face.

"There are many things I want to say…but my French is bad."

Her accent was atrocious as always, but the earnestness in her words was palpable. I wished she could be looking at me, speaking to me in that way.

"Live a good life, Adam. Find your happiness. Je t'aime." Then she kissed him, softly, on the lips and there were tears in the creature's eyes. And once again I wished I was in his place.

Miss Aizen got to her feet and wiped her eyes. "I'm going to go, uh, get some water from the creek, I'll be back."

When she was out of ear-shot, Victor leaned over and nudged me. "Okay, Clerval, out with it, what details am I missing here?"

I rolled my eyes and looked to my friend. "Is it not obvious by now, Victor. She is in love with him. In her time, they were engaged to be married."

"And she came back because…"

"Because she wanted to keep him from killing your family. From living the terrible existence he would have lived if things continued as they did."

Victor was silent for a moment. "I suppose that makes everything clear, her actions from the very start, her attitude towards him when I was still so blind." He looked over to the creature. "Adam, what do you want to do? When we reach my family's house, I mean?"

"I do not know," he said after a couple moments thought, "I have never known anything but survival." He looked down at the book in his hand. "I think I would like to learn."

"Learn what?"

"Everything."

Victor laughed and got to his feet. He patted his creation on the shoulder. "I suppose that is the worthiest endeavor of a seemingly endless life."

The creature seemed about to speak, but a loud crack like thunder followed by a splash pulled our attention to the creek where Miss Aizen had gone.

The three of us ran to the edge of the water where in Miss Aizen seemed to have fallen. She was just discernible under the surface, her hair seemed lighter from the few strands of sunlight that snuck through the trees. The creature ran into the creek, kicking the freezing water up around him as he went to the submerged girl in the water. With ease he lifted her in his arms and brought her to the shore.

And we saw that it was not Miss Aizen.

The woman's eyes opened, searched our three faces and fell on Victor's. And she smiled.

Victor's breath seemed to hitch. "Elizabeth."

He pulled her tight into his arms and they held each other, shaking with laughter and tears. The creature removed his cloak and placed it around Elizabeth's shoulders.

She looked up from Victor's embrace. "Dear Henry." She squeezed my hand and kissed my cheek. Then she looked to Adam, smiled and grabbed his hand as well in affection.

"I suppose you have many stories for us, my dear?" asked Victor, getting to his feet.

"You have no idea, dearest cousin," she stood as well, her golden hair stuck to her face, "but they can wait for later. I just want to go home."

They held each other's hands and walked along in front of us. I looked up to the creature and shrugged. We seemed to have been forgotten by Victor and Miss Elizabeth, though I did not begrudge them in the slightest.

We started walking side by side.

"It's going to be quite boring without Miss Aizen around," I said, trying not to think fully of what her absence meant.

"She will not come back."

"No," I said, feeling quite terrible, "Not for a while, at least."

We walked in silence, letting Victor and Elizabeth get farther ahead.

"I suppose I will be returning to the University soon," I said, "now that things are settled. I still have a couple years to finish my degree."

The creature looked at me, his eyes seemingly surprised that I would talk about these things to him.
"It's going to be lonely without Victor though, since he'll most likely stay at home once him and Elizabeth are married."

"Loneliness is a terrible thing to endure."

"Yes, my thoughts exactly," I said, taking a deep breath, "If you want to learn everything, perhaps getting some basic foreign languages would be a good place to start. The University would be a good place to go."

The creature smiled, "It would make reading this much easier." He pulled the girl's book from his coat pocket.

My mouth fell open and words would not form at first. "She said it would disappear with her."

The creature shrugged. "Apparently not."

Well there it is. I'll be honest, I'm not really happy with the note we end on, but oh well. It's done and that's what I care about right now. Maybe we'll get that epilogue in a couple years. Haha.

Also, sorry for my really bad explanations of time travel. It made sense in my head, and Tori doesn't exactly know how it works either since she wasn't the one who built the machine.

Anyway, tell me what you think, my two people who will read this all the way through!

Cheers,

Rean Darkle