Chapter Twelve
The image of Victor faded away on the projection screen, and revealed what was an all too familiar location to Marilyn, Fantastica.
"You recognize this place? You should, for it is of course your home. As difficult as you may find it to believe, this used to be my home too."
Marilyn was speechless for a moment, then spoke.
"I, I don't believe you Victor."
"YOU BETTER BELIEVE ME. I have not even told my story yet. PLEASE, NOT ANOTHER WORD!"
Marilyn said no more as Victor continued.
"In the beginning, when the Earth and universe was born, the Creator wanted to have beings who would protect and represent his masterpieces such as the elements, time, and space, along with the natives of Earth. Well, he decided to create five more masterpieces, or our kind, the Fantastics. As I am sure you already know, Benjamin was created as the soldier of the earth, spring, dawn, and Venus. Johnny was formed as the soldier of fire, summer, daytime, and Mars. Susan was conjured as the soldier of air, autumn, dusk, and Venus too. Cursed Reed was concocted as the soldier of water along with ice, winter, night, and Uranus and Neptune. But instead of you being the fifth Fantastic, pathetic Marilyn, it was I; the great Victor was created as the fifth one. Reed and I were created as twin brothers, so each of us represented the same aspects, but in different ways. Reed symbolized the time of night that took place at the very beginning of the day to sunrise, along with the time of winter that lasted from the start of a new Earth year to the beginning of spring. As you probably have figured out in that miserable mind of yours, I represented the time of night that began at sundown and ended when the moon reached its apex, along with the time of winter from the very beginning to the end of the Earth year."
As Victor weaved that tale, the projection screen showed Marilyn's friends and Victor's creation. It shocked Marilyn to finally know that this cruel creature that held her captive was in a way her uncle.
"Oh, in the beginning, life was fine in Fantastica. All five of us got along... oh who am I kidding? I HATED LIFE THERE!!!!"
Victor roared in such a way, Marilyn felt like the room was going to cave in.
"Anyway. Your father, your CURSED FATHER was soooo perfect in everything he did and said! So perfect, he felt he had to teach me how to do everything properly!"
Before Marilyn on the projection screen were images of the times her father and Victor were together. All of these times featured Reed trying to aid Victor in some way, only to either be brushed off or ever slapped to the side by Victor. What Marilyn saw appalled her.
"Victor, Father was just trying to help you. He would never scorn one over their intelligence or ability to do certain thing."
"You have it all wrong brat, dead wrong. He was ridiculing me through his so-called aid. Speaking of ridicule, what about Benjamin and Johnny? They had to be the two most immature imbeciles I ever had to deal with!"
"Benjamin and Johnny? Immature? Yes, they can be that sometimes, but overall, they both have good hearts. Whatever the jokes they were doing upon you were, I am sure it was out of good humor." Marilyn said in response to Victor's tirade.
This time, the images on the screen showed Benjamin and Johnny playing various pranks on Victor, and he did appear to be the least bit amused. Victor growled, and said.
"If those were jokes, they better be delighted that they were not reborn as court jesters for me in my past life, for they would have been obliterated from the start."
He snickered over this remark, then went on.
"It finally got to the point where I wanted to be rid of these swines. So, I decided what better way of getting rid of my then and still most hated enemies than through poison. And before you say it is impossible to kill a being of spiritual matter through poison, think again. I was able to go down to my true home, the Underworld, and obtain a special solution that can dissolve spiritual matter in a matter of minutes from an apothecary down there! But then, I had to think about how to fool your darned friends into consuming this substance. Then just like that, I thought of it, food! No creature, living or dead, can resist it! And besides, your shortsighted friends would regard my making a little something special as a huge apology for how I had acted towards them in the past."
Victor let that out in an extremely sardonic voice. So sardonic, it made Marilyn feel sick.
"But alas, I would never carry out my plan of attaining peace, and being rid of the most insolent souls. For one of those souls, your father discovered my precious bottle of solution lying in of all places, behind what was his favorite book at the time in the bookshelf within Fantastica's study!"
What Victor described flickered before the trapped Marilyn on the projection screen.
"So what did he do about it? He of course called upon that cursed Creator, and told him how I was going to poison him, and the rest of the Fantastics. How in Hades did HE KNOW I was going to poison THEM?!"
"Perhaps because you were thinking out loud to yourself, and that bottle of spiritual dissolving solution was the icing on the cake." Marilyn thought to herself, as Victor continued with his sorry tale.
"The Creator along with the so-called Fantastics then banished me to the Underworld. And as far as I know, that was the best thing they did!"
Victor let out a laugh as his banishing appeared on the projection screen, then said.
"After my banishment, the Creator took that cursed Reed aside, and before the other three Fantastics, split him open, and took the part of him that was more feminine and youthful. And thus, you, darned brat, were created to replace me!"
Victor sighed a sigh of anger as he said.
"But instead of what I represented, you were to represent beginnings, while your father would take over the symbolizing of endings. Of course, I do not appreciate being replaced by a MERE GIRL!"
Marilyn knew this was where the "provocative story" ended. There was no telling what Victor was going to do to her. Would he make her suffer for a little more time, or go ahead and annihilate her right there? Whatever he planned to do, Marilyn was praying and hoping for the arrival of her friends before Victor enacted it.
The image of Victor faded away on the projection screen, and revealed what was an all too familiar location to Marilyn, Fantastica.
"You recognize this place? You should, for it is of course your home. As difficult as you may find it to believe, this used to be my home too."
Marilyn was speechless for a moment, then spoke.
"I, I don't believe you Victor."
"YOU BETTER BELIEVE ME. I have not even told my story yet. PLEASE, NOT ANOTHER WORD!"
Marilyn said no more as Victor continued.
"In the beginning, when the Earth and universe was born, the Creator wanted to have beings who would protect and represent his masterpieces such as the elements, time, and space, along with the natives of Earth. Well, he decided to create five more masterpieces, or our kind, the Fantastics. As I am sure you already know, Benjamin was created as the soldier of the earth, spring, dawn, and Venus. Johnny was formed as the soldier of fire, summer, daytime, and Mars. Susan was conjured as the soldier of air, autumn, dusk, and Venus too. Cursed Reed was concocted as the soldier of water along with ice, winter, night, and Uranus and Neptune. But instead of you being the fifth Fantastic, pathetic Marilyn, it was I; the great Victor was created as the fifth one. Reed and I were created as twin brothers, so each of us represented the same aspects, but in different ways. Reed symbolized the time of night that took place at the very beginning of the day to sunrise, along with the time of winter that lasted from the start of a new Earth year to the beginning of spring. As you probably have figured out in that miserable mind of yours, I represented the time of night that began at sundown and ended when the moon reached its apex, along with the time of winter from the very beginning to the end of the Earth year."
As Victor weaved that tale, the projection screen showed Marilyn's friends and Victor's creation. It shocked Marilyn to finally know that this cruel creature that held her captive was in a way her uncle.
"Oh, in the beginning, life was fine in Fantastica. All five of us got along... oh who am I kidding? I HATED LIFE THERE!!!!"
Victor roared in such a way, Marilyn felt like the room was going to cave in.
"Anyway. Your father, your CURSED FATHER was soooo perfect in everything he did and said! So perfect, he felt he had to teach me how to do everything properly!"
Before Marilyn on the projection screen were images of the times her father and Victor were together. All of these times featured Reed trying to aid Victor in some way, only to either be brushed off or ever slapped to the side by Victor. What Marilyn saw appalled her.
"Victor, Father was just trying to help you. He would never scorn one over their intelligence or ability to do certain thing."
"You have it all wrong brat, dead wrong. He was ridiculing me through his so-called aid. Speaking of ridicule, what about Benjamin and Johnny? They had to be the two most immature imbeciles I ever had to deal with!"
"Benjamin and Johnny? Immature? Yes, they can be that sometimes, but overall, they both have good hearts. Whatever the jokes they were doing upon you were, I am sure it was out of good humor." Marilyn said in response to Victor's tirade.
This time, the images on the screen showed Benjamin and Johnny playing various pranks on Victor, and he did appear to be the least bit amused. Victor growled, and said.
"If those were jokes, they better be delighted that they were not reborn as court jesters for me in my past life, for they would have been obliterated from the start."
He snickered over this remark, then went on.
"It finally got to the point where I wanted to be rid of these swines. So, I decided what better way of getting rid of my then and still most hated enemies than through poison. And before you say it is impossible to kill a being of spiritual matter through poison, think again. I was able to go down to my true home, the Underworld, and obtain a special solution that can dissolve spiritual matter in a matter of minutes from an apothecary down there! But then, I had to think about how to fool your darned friends into consuming this substance. Then just like that, I thought of it, food! No creature, living or dead, can resist it! And besides, your shortsighted friends would regard my making a little something special as a huge apology for how I had acted towards them in the past."
Victor let that out in an extremely sardonic voice. So sardonic, it made Marilyn feel sick.
"But alas, I would never carry out my plan of attaining peace, and being rid of the most insolent souls. For one of those souls, your father discovered my precious bottle of solution lying in of all places, behind what was his favorite book at the time in the bookshelf within Fantastica's study!"
What Victor described flickered before the trapped Marilyn on the projection screen.
"So what did he do about it? He of course called upon that cursed Creator, and told him how I was going to poison him, and the rest of the Fantastics. How in Hades did HE KNOW I was going to poison THEM?!"
"Perhaps because you were thinking out loud to yourself, and that bottle of spiritual dissolving solution was the icing on the cake." Marilyn thought to herself, as Victor continued with his sorry tale.
"The Creator along with the so-called Fantastics then banished me to the Underworld. And as far as I know, that was the best thing they did!"
Victor let out a laugh as his banishing appeared on the projection screen, then said.
"After my banishment, the Creator took that cursed Reed aside, and before the other three Fantastics, split him open, and took the part of him that was more feminine and youthful. And thus, you, darned brat, were created to replace me!"
Victor sighed a sigh of anger as he said.
"But instead of what I represented, you were to represent beginnings, while your father would take over the symbolizing of endings. Of course, I do not appreciate being replaced by a MERE GIRL!"
Marilyn knew this was where the "provocative story" ended. There was no telling what Victor was going to do to her. Would he make her suffer for a little more time, or go ahead and annihilate her right there? Whatever he planned to do, Marilyn was praying and hoping for the arrival of her friends before Victor enacted it.