Karim was perhaps, despite his front row view of the proceedings, the most oblivious to the world and situation around him. The bloated moon in the sky brought the wolf to the forefront of his mind, and it had become a terrible struggle to try and hold back the beast. The silver shackles began to sting his flesh, but still he fought to retain the shape of a man, knowing that to change shape now was to burn his own flesh in the silver chains. But it still hurt, and Karim couldn't help but whimper pathetically.
"Are you all right?" Adam asked almost sympathetically, turning around to catch sight of Karim as he continued carrying out his creator's demands.
"S-silver," Karim hissed, closing his eyes, trying to concentrate on retaining his shape and restraining the wolf.
Adam shook his head, knowing there was nothing he could do. He shot a bitter glance towards his creator, but in the night's shadows, he knew well Victor couldn't see the hatred in his creation's eyes. At that moment, Victor was arguing with Konrad, and their voices were raising to dangerous levels.
"Victor, this is my absolute limit! This entire journey is madness, madness like we had when we built that damned monster!" Konrad shouted.
"Konrad, please shut up. You're a scientist, you should be thrilled that you have this chance to unearth a prize such as that Professor Mrad is offering us a chance to be a part of," Victor said, his usually cold tone burning with venomous contempt for his partner.
"But Victor," Konrad almost whimpered, "I've got a bad feeling about this whole infernal expedition. It's the same feeling I got..."
"When we built our cadaver puppet, yes, you've been wailing about it since we got to Egypt," Victor interrupted with a scowl on his features, "You seem almost eager to remain in ignorance."
"How in the world can you compare remaining ignorant with spiting God and doing things man was never meant to?"
"Man was meant to surpass God!" Victor shouted at Konrad, the cold hearted doctor's demented passion rising to the fore, "Medicine, machines, philosophy, all of it has been adding up to the removal of God from the natural order of things! We could become gods were it not for simpering cowards and weak hearted fools like you!"
"Enough!" Konrad howled with rage as he turned around, "I'm turning back now, consequences and science be damned!"
"Adam," Victor said, narrowing his eyes towards Konrad as his cold bitter tone returned in force, "Would you be so kind as to strangle Doctor Dippel as you did to my Elizabeth?"
"What?" the daemon roared at his master as Konrad began to run, furious that he was being commanded to slay another, "You are mad Frankenstein, I'll not end a life at your behest!"
"Oh that's right, you only kill according to your own whims," Victor retorted as he flipped a switch on his gauntlet, bringing a swarm of lights into being around his wrist.
Victor turned a knob on his wrist ever so slightly before turning it back, but that was all it took to illicit a scream from Adam. The insane scientist's cold stare relayed his orders again, and Adam bounded after the unfortunate Konrad. Konrad's legs weren't the most practiced, as life in the labs and universities hadn't pushed him to keep his body in shape, but he ran with the desperate passion of a gazelle amid hungry lions. He didn't dare look back as he lost himself in the maze of rocky outcroppings and cliffs, but the sound of the monster's footsteps thudding against the stone sent shivers up his spine. The monster on the other hand wasn't breaking a sweat keeping up with Konrad. The pursuit continued until a panicked and fearful Konrad ran into a dead end in the maze of rocks. His eyes widened, but in his frenzied retreat, he turned around in a desperate attempt to flee.
Adam continued his charge even as Konrad charged towards him. The monster's arm shot out and knocked the breath out of Konrad as the mad doctor hit the ground with a thud. Konrad scrambled to get back on his feet even as his heart burned his chest from exhaustion, but as soon as he was standing again, the fiend he had a hand in creating sent its huge hand crashing into his chest, knocking Konrad against a stone wall. The jagged rock tore into Konrad's flesh. Between the dozen or so wounds sliced into his flesh by the tiny stone razors and his fatigue, Konrad could do little more than pant and stare at the monster with frightened eyes. He had never contemplated his down death as he was then. Konrad knew nothing of what was awaiting him on the other side of life, and he had no idea what he had done over the course of his life to earn whatever was there.
In that split second while Konrad was lost in thoughts of his certain death, Adam's massive corpse colored hands reached for the man's neck and squeezed. There was no sound and no struggle after Konrad blacked out, his last thought lamenting his work on the fiend that was choking him.
As the constructed monster was slaying Konrad, Rafik Mrad was dragging Karim out of the cart and marching the vagrant ever closer into the valley, the silver shackles allowing for a bare minimum of movement that still seemed too sow for Rafik. He had been dead for thousands of years, years spent waiting for this exact moment. He didn't exchange a word with either his key or his compatriot Doctor Frankenstein, who was busy overseeing the murder of his sniveling colleague. Rafik merely dragged Karim by the scruff of his neck into the rocky valley.
Karim opened his eyes just as Rafik reached the bottom of the deep valley, where shadows were cast by jagged rocks and imposing cliffs in the moonlight. Despite the lunar haze his curse had thrown him into, Karim glanced down towards the bottom of the valley, and saw only shadows at first. He closed his eyes once and opened them a moment later to the sight of an altered sea of darkness. He forced his eyes to remain open afterwards, and he beheld something not of the world he knew. A rippling blanket of darkness was dancing at the valley's bottom, black tendrils of an abyss swarming around something even further below. The darkness it seemed was pulsating, beating and surging like a devil's black heart. Glancing over towards his captor, Karim could see only the darkness reflected in the old man's eyes, but the darkness in the eyes of Rafik Mrad was gleeful, embracing the bottomless pit whole heartedly.
"Who, who're you?" Karim stammered out as he saw into the creature's eyes.
"That doesn't matter," Rafik hissed with his wild eyes, "What matters is who you are my vagrant friend."
"My name is Karim Tadros," Karim replied with a groan.
"You're not quite understanding me," Rafik replied with a twisted chuckle, "You're just another nameless vagrant so far as I'm concerned."
"So then why'd you go, go through alla this trouble to drag me out here? Is it because of my..."
"You call it a curse, but that's because you have no idea what it means or where it originated. Tell me, did your father ever speak of your curse? Or did he simply neglect the matter?"
"My father disappeared when I was a child. Did he, was he the one who cursed me?"
Rafik broke out into laughter, openly mocking Karim.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Karim shot back, trying and failing to be angry with this strange man. Fatigue prevented him from being stirred to anger, and frankly Karim had never cared much for his father in any case.
"You have no idea what it means to bear your so-called curse," Rafik continued, quietly gloating about the secrets he was keeping from his key.
"You must be mad," Karim muttered, as he could think of no other explanation.
"And you'll see in due time my damned fellow," Rafik continued, still chuckling as he reached the apparent bottom of the valley, soft footsteps echoing through the night. The aged professor walked right up to the wall of darkness, turning his eyes away from his captive and gazing into the abyss.
"When?"
"Right... now," Rafik said as he pressed Karim against the darkness.
It was all Karim could do to scream. He had suffered pain before, but this was unlike anything else he had suffered. Ten thousand suns seemed to be compressed in this one pool of darkness, and the burning sensation was total. It seemed as if Karim was trapped in an inferno for centuries with every second he spent in the grip of the madman pushing him ever deeper into the black flames, burning razors tearing across his flesh. The werewolf's cries echoed out of the valley, causing Frankenstein and his creation to shudder. But even as Karim was pushed further into the darkness, the black tendrils retracted back into the shadows. The process was slow, and for Karim it was unnaturally painful, but in time the black barrier opened a portal just large enough for a man to enter. Once the hole stabilized, Rafik tossed Karim's unconscious body aside like so much garbage. It was about that time that Victor reached the bottom with his abomination in tow.
"Come Victor," Rafik said happily as he entered past the now broken barrier, "The secrets of the forgotten past await."
"Adam," Victor said to his creation as he followed behind Rafik, glancing over his shoulder at Adam, "Keep an eye on the vagrant, and make sure no one else enters."
Adam snorted and sneered in response, but Victor simply disappeared into the darkness.