There is a video of "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence on YouTube and none other for the movie Re-Animator itself. :D This was among setting the foundation for the whole story, so it befits what will transpire in this chapter.

Chapter Thirteen

Bring Me to Life

She opened the door and closed it loudly behind her, relief washing over her only to be replaced with an overboding feeling that wrapped cold around her heart. Did she really mean that she hated him? She did not ever remember telling her father that in her life; it was supposed to satisfy her now that it was a first...but she had doubts.

"How much did you hear?" she asked Katherine and Crawford, both still standing there.

"Everything," Crawford answered, fingering the sleeve of his sweater nervously. "So, it's done. You and Herbert, finished. This means the end of this." His lips quivered. "Now I'm more worried for the both of you than I was then; I did warn you guys..." He stopped and feebly cried out when Katherine gently swatted his arm. "Kathy, what was that for?!"

"To keep quiet," she said with a playful laugh before turning back to her sister. "Meg, it's not the end of the world. What happened to Herbert across the ocean didn't stop him, so don't think this will stop you guys now. This is your opportunity now." She joined them both into her embrace for a "group hug". "See, Meg is free to be with us now. We're finally the family we should be, no more answering to that man who dared called himself your father. None of us leave the other behind in time of need from now on, and we'll do this as a team, make them see this as the miracle it ought to be."

Meg was really happy for her sister's genuine love and support. Yeah, this was love, this was family. Her new one she found when she sacrificed the false one had made her into an utterly different person than she'd been. She had no sympathy for Carl Hill because he was so creepy and so eager to marry her; those looks he gave her were enough for obvious reasons. Her mother had made it clear that her life had been ruined because of her, when it was young Meg who had no fault in it.

And her father...she didn't love him anymore, or did she still? He might have lied to her, had her as a replacement for Marianne, but he was still her father. Or was she having confused feelings? She felt so different now she couldn't tell. The pain was so overwhelming. If he didn't come around once they made a real breakthrough with the research...

"Yes, and Halsey will have to see the light."

All heads turned to see none other than Herbert standing there, either doing his best to hide how he really felt about being expelled or just simply not feeling anything at all. This man who had begun to make her so reckless and daring in her decisions, and making her body experience primitive desires she'd never felt before. But it was also scaring her because he'd just been expelled, and if her father saw him... "Herbert, you've been thrown out of school, and I just made the decision of joining you," she said fearfully, tearing from Katherine's hold. "If Daddy sees you, he'll call the police."

His eyes widened mildly, but other than that, no emotional response. "Oh, yes?" he mused thoughtfully. "No doubt that he's been talking to Hill. He has noticed how much...closer we are. He's so jealous of me he got into Halsey's mind."

Crawford had spoken up because he was so left out. "Might as well be. So, what are you guys going to do now?" he asked anxiously, his gaze darting back and forth between his cousin and Meg.

Herbert smirked. "Prove it to him, of course. Hasn't that what we've been talking about? Once we do, we can save everyone's life. But for now, all we need is a lab animal..." He stopped there to reconsider before shaking his head. "No, we can't use an animal. He'll claim it's some artificial stimulus response. So, there is one kind of proof that he'll accept." He locked his green gaze with Meg's. "That he'll have to accept."

There was no doubt what he was referring to, and they'd talked about it not so many days ago. Meg almost wholly agreed before – "Oh, Herbert, no, we can't do that –" Mace was always there, and if he wasn't and the doors were locked so the possibility was none, or maybe if the doors WERE unlocked and Dr. Riley or anyone else was there –

Herbert laughed softly and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Oh, Meg, yes, we can."

~o~

Herbert stayed outside the locker room with Crawford with a gurney taken from the hospital ward, taking off his shoes and socks, his little black bag beside him and filled with what he'd taken from the house; it was Crawford who snuck it out while making sure nobody saw them. It was risky enough that if Dean Halsey hadn't contacted anyone to let them know of his expulsion – and possibly Meg's, his own daughter who finally found it in her to rebel and call off her engagement, but that also costed her the bright future she had – but he wasn't afraid of the security to expect it. Nothing scared him other than his life's work taken from him...as well as Meg, who finally came out of the women's locker room with Katherine, wearing her scrubs he first saw her in the day he came to Miskatonic and insulted her fiancée in front of her and her father.

Her scrubs hid her body's curves, but she was so precious and devoted as he was. But she was so frightened that she was fighting to keep the worry from her face. "Meg, we'll be fine," he assured her, sitting on top of the gurney and pulling the teal sheet over himself, baring his feet on the other end. The only way to get them both into the morgue was him posing as a new addition to the "territory of corpses", as he took to calling it himself, and her part was bringing him in. That is if nobody else was there at the present. But it was nearly half past ten at night, so why would there be? If Hill wasn't there already...

~o~

Herbert was not at school today, staying at the house today despite when her father made it clear he wanted him out tonight before he'd called back his words that it was impossible to pack and finish in a single day. Meg felt terrible leaving him there by himself without her, but she didn't want to see or speak to her father. She wanted nothing to do with him today; he tried calling for her, but she refused to pick up the phone. So, she spent much of her day with Crawford and Katherine, also wanting nothing to do with Carl Hill and avoided him, too.

The sooner she removed her engagement ring, she actually felt an indescribable sensation of exposure to a new opened road of the unknown. How long now had she wanted to do that? Her scholarship was likely killed thanks to her rebellion, her loan repealed and void, and she wasn't a student here anymore like the man who lay on the gurney she'd pushed towards the elevator and waited now to get to the morgue downstairs. She had no idea where she would go now that her own father disowned her and their houseguest, whose feet stuck out from beneath the sheet. Meg blushed when she thought how cute Herbert's feet looked, no words needed. She was tempted to reach out and tickle them...

The elevator dinged then, telling her they'd arrived at their destination, and the doors swished open to show the hallway of the Miskatonic morgue...and Mace at the end, outside the doors on guard as always, and playing solitaire, looking up when he saw her coming with the gurney holding the covered "cadaver". "They just keep on comin', huh?"

"Oh, yeah," she answered, watching as he went to the doors and unlocked them for her, before walking over to her; she mentally went into a frenzy attack when he began to lift the head of the sheet and expose Herbert's face as well as get them into an awful lot more trouble. "You ain't got my lunch under there, have you?" Mace asked; he barely got the sheet any higher when Meg stopped him while trying her best not to make it look suspicious, and put on her best grin at the joke she cracked which fit what she hoped would make him back off.

"Yeah, one meatball run over by a semi."

"Ew!" he said, turning his face away. "I lost my appetite." He found it in him then to take the covered body one last look before moving to her face. "Are you gonna be around for awhile? I might go fetch me some, uh, coffee." Perfect! This gave her and Herbert the privacy they needed, but that also meant someone else was free to come in while he was away...

"Take your time," she forced out, glad she was still composed but for how long?

From the corner of her eye as she steered the gurney inside, Mace walked away and vanish behind the corner. He was gone, but they had to hurry. The autopsy room was dark as expected; pausing the gurney and abandoning it, she moved to close the doors after seeing that nobody else was coming just as Herbert flung off the sheet and hurried to get his shoes back on. "Meatball?"

Meg rolled her eyes. "Just put your shoes on," she said, turning the lights on and returning to the table for her flashlight. Looking over at the morgue, she tried not to think of her father finding out where they were and all hell breaking loose. Herbert snorted as though reading her mind.

"Oh, if they do catch us," he said sarcastically, "what WILL they do? Embalm us?" He had finished tying his shoelaces by then. "Let's go," he announced, jumping off with the bag in hand, following her to the door which housed more than enough sorts of corpses in various stages of rot, dismemberment, illness, et cetera. The smell didn't bother Meg now as much as the fear of discovery. "Let's try over here," Herbert said, pointing to their right, the first being the second away from the door. He read the tag aloud. "Burned victim."

"Ugh," she said in spite of herself. Now she doubted they would find a "perfect" body in here. Herbert had made it clear that the corpse had to be devoid of ailments of any kind as well as burns, limb ruin, and so forth...but what about the heart? Death doesn't come free from casualty. The next one was her "meatball", which she laughed at in irony. Oh, yeah, and free from shots to any part of the body, such as the head, as the next one depicted.

"Malpractice," he said of the latest, and she was more than ready to pack up and get out of here now. None of these bodies fit what they were looking for. But before she could open the door to leave, he stopped her. Turning around, she saw him shine his mini flashlight on the tag of the true newest arrival, covered in a gray sheet. "Yes, I think you," he said, mostly to the card still in his hand.

So all hope was not lost, but that depended on how long this guy had been dead, and what he'd died from. "How long?" Meg asked, joining his side briefly before moving to the head and pulling the sheet down. The guy was young, if not much older than herself, dark-haired and strong in both face and body, upon drawing it down to show a muscled chest as well as tattooed arms.

"He arrived early this evening," Herbert answered. "John Doe, apparently just dropped dead. No record of any damage." He clicked off his light and smiled. "He's almost perfect. Could be heart damage at most. Since a dead body doesn't just fall from the tree."

Meg stared at him in shock, then down at the dead man's face again, which looked more asleep than dead in contrast to the others around him. If his heart was damaged... "Well, then, we should find another one," she said, but doubted her own words after the painstaking search before this one.

Herbert shook his head furiously. "No time for that. All we need tonight is a specific conscious reaction. He's been dead for hours, and any evidence of re-animated consciousness will justify proceeding. We won't stop until we get this right, I promise you that." He had unzipped the bag and removed the recorder, handing it to her. "You know what to do, I trust." Meg snorted and nodded, turning the device on and speaking into it as he pulled out the vial and syringe. The green fluid glared threateningly in the dark, like a sinister omen. Oh, how true it was.

"September twenty-third. Subject John Doe, age about early twenties. No deformities of any sort, appears to be in excellent physical condition. Cause of death believed to be..." She paused, struggling over the condition; the guy had simply been found dead, no identification, no one to claim his body. He'd been brought here just like that, his death unexpected and unfortunate, but he seemed so young and fit and healthy, how could he have collapsed from...? "Heart, uh...failure," she managed, her throat clogging now from the fact they were doing this in the dark and trespassing..."black and forbidden realms of the unknown", no thanks to Frankenstein.

"Time's ten-thirty-three PM," Herbert told her, checking his watch. She repeated the time into the recorder, wanting nothing more than to pass out here on the floor. "Fifteen CCs administered."

Meg repeated the dosage, wondering if that would be the one, remembering the one from Thursday as well as his telling of Dr. Gruber, worrying this one would do the same, or worse:

Go into a murderous frenzy like Rufus.

~o~

"She's my sister,and I love her!" Katherine said angrily as she followed the man she refused to call her father up to the desk counter where Dr. Joan Harrod was. She and Crawford had tried to talk the man into accepting what was happening only for him to explode and decide to take matters into his own hands to get his daughter and Herbert out of the school at once. He rounded on her, stopping halfway in his steps, glaring at her murderously.

"Keep your voice down," he warned. "The last thing I need is a former student of mine telling everyone she's actually my daughter and ruining me."

"Oh, I believe you already are," she spat, struggling to get herself out of Crawford's hold on her arms. "You think you haven't sunken any lower than you already are. Meg is right, and you know it. They see more than you do, willing to not follow you and Hill's shadows like frightened little animals." She jerked away from Crawford at last and began to follow him again. "They're more human and honest than you ever will be!"

Halsey stopped again and faced her. "I've seen this happen to students before," he stated. "Good ones, too. But never did I think this would happen to my own child." He shook his head and turned to Harrod then. "Where is Dr. Riley? I've called him and specifically told him to expel Megan from this school this instant."

She stared at him, puzzled and shocked at the same time. "Sir, Dr. Riley's been at surgery for the last four hours. I haven't seen him."

"And where's she then?" Halsey demanded.

"The morgue, I think. That's the best I can think of."

Halsey groaned and rubbed his eyes. "Page the morgue then. She and West are in so much trouble I want to deal with them both myself." Katherine moaned in despair and put her face in her hands; her fiancée's hands on her again made her want to explode and beat Halsey to a bloody pulp right now. How could she have been so stupid then? They were in seriously hot waters now.

~o~

"Time elapsed?" Herbert was beginning to lose his patience; a sign should have been seen by now, and normally it was no more than a few seconds.

Meg looked down at his watched since she didn't own one of her own. "Fifteen seconds," she answered.

He looked at it out of habit when he didn't need to; what had gone wrong? Was it the formula, the fact a human subject was more complex than an animal, or something else entirely? "Something should have happened by now," he said irritably before picking up the vial again as well as the needle, the need to increase necessary just to be certain. He ignored the sound of the ringing phone outside unlike Meg who panicked again; she really needed to calm down as he was. He made it loud and clear, and would do so again: he would NOT leave until the process was complete. "Obviously, the human dosage factor is unknown. Increasing the dosage by five, making it twenty CCs of re-agent."

"Damn it, Herbert, let's go!" Meg cried, working on his nerves.

"No!" he countered back, finishing the injection before withdrawing the needle and searching the body for any twitching or opening of the eyes. Anything. But no. "DAMN!" he spat, angrily swatting the corpse's shoulder, wanting to do more than just that only to release his frustration.

"Herbert..." Meg's voice didn't make him feel any better, and she was too frightened to even try to get through this. "...we failed. Let's get out of here now; someone – like my father – could be coming at any minute!"

"HE failed!" Herbert shouted angrily. "Not I."

"Miss Halsey...Miss Megan Halsey, please report to the Security Desk Level L." The announcer didn't say his name, Herbert West, but he knew he was included. He knew time to go was now; next time would be difficult to obtain another body, as it would be to get more of the needed ingredients for the formula after today. He began to put the tools away at Meg's insistence. He hoped she would just shut up so he wouldn't lose control and strike her harder than he did the corpse...

...which caught them both off-guard and nearly onto the filthy, cold floor of the morgue.

The cries which burst were horrible to his own ears, no denying that, but the pride and excitement in his blood lit up like gasoline on fire that the serum worked! The thing actually got off the table, didn't self-mutilate like Gruber and the old woman, but Herbert could see the blood dripping down its chin as its dead life's blood reacted negatively to the life-giving solution. Herbert backed away with Meg as they both watched it pick up a table and throw it down as it did the most unnatural of dances while trying to get used to being alive again. If it did anymore damage to anything else – as well as to itself if it rammed against the wall – they were all to blame. "Grab him!" Herbert yelled, running to the left and Meg to the right; the monster was actually stronger than them and hauled them off, into the wall. "STOP!" Herbert shouted as high as his lungs would allow him to. To his surprise, the creature ceased its gel-like movements, flopping around like a rag doll, and turned around slowly to the beam of Meg's flashlight in its face, the blood illuminated to a vivid ruby red enough to match the horrible lipstick his mother still wore. "He listened to me!" he exclaimed to Meg, making the mistake then in not paying attention to their subject which rushed him and grabbed him by his shirt, throwing him off to his right and hitting the wall corner. He stayed where he was while the monster grabbed Meg and threw her in the other direction; she knocked over another bagged body table, the loud banging not drowning out the painful screams of the walking corpse they brought back.

"MEGAN!"

Halsey!

The dean was here! But Herbert couldn't find it in him to stand sooner when his subject tried to advance on him again; looking past its shoulder, Herbert saw that Meg had picked herself up and tried to unlock the door again only to fail. "Megan Ann Halsey, you better open up this door!" her father roared on the other side.

"HELP!" she screamed out, over the inhuman howls of the corpse which clumsily stumbled over to her. Herbert had shrunk back against the wall but managed to stand up slowly, his body numb. "Daddy, get help!" Meg wailed, sinking to the floor, trapped even though she could find a way to dive away from the thing over her. Her father yelled back through the steel door again.

"Is West in there with you? You're in a lot of trouble, the both of you!"

His threat and voice seemed to enrage the corpse now, and its attention was no longer on her or Herbert; she got away in time for the beast to charge faster than a stampede, its powerful strength breaking down the door; Herbert wouldn't be surprised that it crushed Halsey in the process. The father of the woman who was now at his side, who had just kicked them both out of school earlier that day. Meg helped him stand, draping his arm over her shoulder and her arm around his waist. Her body against his felt so comforting that he was able to walk better and out of that room behind him. He had been looking down at the floor the whole, but then Meg's cry of "NOOOO!" caused him to look up in time to see her father, now covered in gore, grabbed from behind by the corpse and thrown into the air in all its might, smashing into it in the process. A slight crunching sound was heard. "DADDY!" Meg screamed, letting him go and running over.

Their subject was now slamming the dean's body forcefully, repeatedly against the wall a number of times so blood smeared behind him on the white wall. Herbert finally gave up, deciding this thing wasn't going to quit, and decided there was ony one thing left to do, and it rested in the glass cabinet where the other medical equipment was. He couldn't unlock the doors himself, so he picked up a metal saw which wasn't the one he wanted, and smashed the glass so he finally had access to the weapon on choice.

"STOP! For God's sake, STOP!" Meg wailed, helpless that she could not help her father. Why did she get so soft now over the man who kicked her out of her life along with him? Herbert shook his head and announced his part, turning the buzzing tool on and crossed the room in four quick strides so he was behind this success – and failure – and dragging it away from the dead dean, plunging the blade into the back with all his might. Keeping a tight hold around the monster's neck, its head shaking side to side in protest, he sliced his way through flesh and bone – and any important organs, such as the heart – and out through the chest, some meats jutting out and dropping to the charcoal-colored floor. Meg had watched the whole time, and he knew she was getting sick, looking like she was going to pass out simply from the sight as well as all the blood spilled, both from her father and his murderer. Once he was sure the thing was dead a second and final time, Herbert turned off the saw and yanked off his hand; some meat was on his hand, and he disgustedly threw his hand down to get it off.

Halsey still didn't move, but what was Herbert really expecting? He was dead. "Meg, get the recorder!" he said, the excitement returning; now they had a new one, a much fresher one, so perhaps since he hadn't been dead any longer than the one now on the ground between them and Meg – who had sunk on her rear before the operating table – he could be brought back to life with more reason, realize how wrong he'd been and welcome them back in.

Meg still didn't move, only shook her head no. "Did you see him?" Herbert said, pointing to the other one. "He listened to me! He made a conscious act!" He'd stopped at the sound of Herbert's command; that was the perfect start! But Meg's reaction was the exact polar opposite of his own. She shook her head again.

"He heard you as an animal would!" she said angrily. She leaned her head back and moaned. "Oh, you can't be serious. After what he tried to do to us?"

Herbert was glad she said that, because this was not how he wanted the dead to come back; he wanted a normal thinking human being, but he should also always expect some bubbles to burst and make a bigger mess. "Hell, you may be right. He probably had been dead too long. It wasn't fresh enough. We probably only revived the senses and instincts, so come on and help me with this!" He started to move her father in their direction, ready to get him on the operating table instead of remaining here on the floor.

Meg gave the corpse of her father a numb look. "Is he...dead?"

Herbert sighed loudly. All these questions were nothing but a waste of time. "Of course, now would you just give me a hand here? He interrupted an important experiment in progress, but granted it was an accident. But this is the freshest body we can come across instead of killing one ourselves, and every moment we spend talking about it costs us results, now will you give me a hand?!" She still didn't move, just continued to stare at him; her shock was slowly ebbing away into anger once more. She didn't believe him. He tried one more time. "Meg, we can bring him back to life."

He was more than happy that she finally complied. Together, they hauled Halsey's body onto the table, ready to tie him down. "Get the recorder and find my serum," he told her as he grabbed the unbreakable plastic used to keep the body restrained; unbreakable plastic being one of man's few durable inventions. Meg returned, though unlike before, her steps were slow and like a ghost, her face grim and unfeeling. She was in shock. So had he when he lost Gruber, but she would get over it eventually. His mentor's death didn't stop him, so neither would her father's death.

"Twelve CCs being administered," he spoke into the recorder she held up to him. "The dosage lessened in accordance to the freshness of the subject." He followed through while she slumped to the side of the table again. He paid her no mind then, but as long as she kept up with the timing. "Five seconds." She repeated the time into the recorder, though softer and duller. Herbert gritted his teeth as more passed. "Come on...I'll show you..." He looked down at his watch again. "Fifteen seconds..."

And then the eyes snapped open, the body spasming slightly. Herbert almost jumped again. "S-seventeen seconds!" he cried happily. "Re-animation at seventeen seconds; the eyes opened!" It worked; it finally worked! He couldn't wait to hear the man's first words of life again, for the mouth was struggling to get them out, and more gooey blood poured out from the side and onto the steel table surface. "Doctor! Dr. Halsey! You once did me a favor by letting me into your medical school," Herbert spoke into his ear. "Doctor...welcome back to life..."

The number thirteen is a bad luck number, and this is the thirteenth chapter - as well as what just happened. Do the math. :D