Chapter Twenty-One: Creator

Victor

"Papa, I smell smoke." Lothair's voice is hushed.

"Go back to your room, son. It will go away soon."

He turns away, obediently. I look at his small body, and feel a sharp pain in my chest. I kneel down behind him, and pull him into my arms. "I love you, son."

His small arms wrap around my neck. "Papa, I love you too. When are you coming back?" He stops talking, his small body shaking. "Where is Mama?"

I feel the sting of tears in my eyes. I hold him away from me and grasp his small face in my hands. "She loved you. I love you. You must always remember that, Lothair." I kiss his forehead and hold him close as he cries.

I begin to here sounds outside, the scream of the horses.

"Go back now, son. I have to go, but I'll come back, I promise." I wipe his face and push him gently towards our rooms. Turning I run for the outer doors.

The stable! I see the light of a fire inside the doors. The fiend must be here.

I run to the wagon and get the pistol. Walking back, I search the shadows along the edges of the trees. People are coming from the sanitarium, heading for the well to fill buckets and what ever they can find to hold water. I move among them. In the confusion, no one challenges me. Peering inside I see one side of the opening is where the fire is centered. A chain is tossed over a rafter, it holds up the tarp with my wife's body.

"Elisabeth!" Her name rips out of my throat and I plunge into the building throwing up a hand before my face. Smoke unfurls along the rafters, the heat takes my breath away. Getting closer, I see the edges of the flame have charred her legs; they lick their way up her torso. "No, oh God, no!"

I try to reach her, my hands sting as I try to grasp the tarp and swing her towards me. The smoke chokes me, and my eyes are streaming with tears. "Elisabeth!"

I am forced to stagger back away from the flames. The others try to drag me out of the stable. I fall on my knees and crawl away from the fire. A sharp cracking sound makes me look back. The rafter has given way; my wife's body falls to the center of the flames. Closing my eyes, I know that she is gone.

I climb to my feet, holding on to the stable door. I turn away. There is nothing for me here now. Elisabeth is forever beyond my reach.

Standing at the edge of the light is the demon. His eyes reflect the leaping flames. "Damn you!" I whip up the pistol and squeeze the trigger. It jerks in my hand, the sound drowned out by the roar of the fire and the strident shouts around me.

Michael

I move easily from the path of the bullet. Victor's face is a rictus of pain and rage. He throws the gun at me and rushes towards me. He attempts to grab me, but with a stiff arm I shove him backwards to the ground.

I hear the report of a shot, moving, a bullet grazes my back. Turning, I see Ragache pointing at me, a man stands next to him fumbling to reload the gun. Another man pushes Thomas' chair out of the sanitarium door. Ragache must have seen this as an opportunity to take Thomas.

Victor is on the ground, but Thomas is in danger and cannot hope to defend himself. I run towards them. Ragache starts running passed the man with Thomas. The other man lifts the gun, but I bring a hand down onto his wrist. He screams as it breaks, the gun falls and I pick him up by the neck and shove him backwards into the door jamb. His head slams against it and he goes limp.

Thomas

Ragache has made it to a coach that sits waiting near the building. He snatches open the door and steps aside, pointing a pistol passed me. He must be aiming for Michael.

Under the lap blanket that covers my knees rests my pistol. I slide my hand around the handle and point it towards him. Pulling the trigger, the bullet cuts through the blanket and hits Ragache in the belly. He clutches himself and falls to his side.

The man who was pushing the chair reaches over me, searching for the gun. The barrel of the damn thing is now hot but I grab onto it and refuse to let go.

The man is jerked away from me. Catching a hold of the wheels of my chair, I spin it about and watch as Michael passes my chair dragging my attacker by the collar. He tosses the man down and goes to Ragache, who is now pushing backwards, holding out a blood covered hand.

Michael picks up the gun and tosses it away. Ragache cowers before him. As Michael turns back to me, a primitive fear buries its claws in my shoulders. The hellish light from the stable makes his yellow eyes appear to glow. Michael is a vision from a nightmare. He turns back towards the stable.

Victor

I rolled to my side. My bullet missed and so did Ragache's henchman's. I wonder for a fleeting moment if the fiend truly is a demon. He has been shot before and survived. My mind reels at the thought that he is invincible.

He walks towards me, that arrogant sneer that the scar forms across his face. "Damn you." I get to my feet. I am only a man, I cannot hope to stand against him.

Michael

I stop close to Victor, he attempts to shove me back, but I do not move. I catch hold of his arm and drag him close to me so he is forced to look up into my face. "Creator, behold what you have created." I sweep my arm in a wide arc, passed the stable where Elisabeth burns, the coach where Ragache lies bleeding, the doors where the henchman clutches his wrist.

Victor struggles to get away from me. "Would that I had had the strength to kill you that first night."

"Yes," I bellow in his face. "You should have killed me Victor. You could have saved all of these people from your madness!" He tries to spit in my face, and I pick him up and toss him several feet away from me. I wipe the spit from my jaw and look at the man whose twisted mind has caused so much pain and death.

"Go ahead," he shouts. "Kill me. It's what you've always wanted. Kill me you vile wretch and have done with it! Give me the peace that you have denied my family."

"I'm not a killer, Victor," I reply softly.

"Your first act was fratricide, don't you remember?" He's speaking of the next man he was creating.

"That pile of bone and meat was no more my brother than you were my father." I look down at him. "Are you my father, Victor? Was Astrid my sister? And if she was, what does that make you?"

He's shaking his head. "You damned devil, you've destroyed everyone I have ever loved."

"No, Victor. William drowned in the lake when you came back from Ingoldstadt; you were supposed to be watching over him. Clerval seduced Constanza Jaeger at your behest. He paid for it with his life. I paid for it with mine."

I point a finger in his face. "You set this all in motion. You were my judge and my executioner more surely than the man who pulled the lever and hanged me."

"Demon! Liar! Your foul hands reek of the blood of the innocent."

I squat down next to him. "Victor, who cut your face?"

He mouths something. "She lied."

"No she didn't Victor. Elisabeth tried to protect you. You killed her Victor, you killed your wife."

"No…" His will is seeping away. His mind has turned upon itself. I can see in his eyes the horror he is allowing himself to remember.

"Elisabeth," he whispers.

I am not a killer. I am ashamed of the man I once was. For all that he believed himself to be, he lost himself in a jealous rage and killed the woman he loved. In that respect, Victor and I have both committed grievous sins.

I take him by the arm. "Get up, Victor."

He's weeping, wrapping his arms around himself as if he could protect himself from the truth. "Kill me..," he whispers, "Elisabeth."

I look down at this man who so carelessly damned me to an existence without hope until I became the creature he imagined me to be and forced him to give me what I needed. "No. Your wife would not want me to…and neither would mine."

I give him a little shake. "You have children Victor. Elisabeth's children. They need their father."

He shivers as he climbs to his feet. "My children?"

"Your sons and your daughter. They will have no one if you let yourself descend into your self pity. They need their father." I keep my voice low and steady. He seems to be rallying. The though of his family is restoring some of the Victor Frankenstein that Elisabeth saw.

He takes a halting step towards the building. People have stopped to look at us. The Frau has gone to Ragache's side. Thomas sits waiting for me.

Victor stops before the door, pulling his arm out of my hand. He wipes his face on his sleeve and straightens. "I need to see my children," he says quietly. Herr Dirneg moves forward and accompanies him to his rooms.

I go to join Thomas. "Are you alright?"

"Yes. I burned my damned hand," he says and lifts it. He's shaking badly. Thomas has not seen the violence that I have experienced. "Is it over?"

"Yes, Thomas. We will leave soon. Therese will be waiting."

Around us, people stare. The stable has fallen in on itself. They can only stand now and watch it burn, keeping it from setting anything else to light.

The man with the broken wrist is hustled into the building by the guard, and two men carry Ragache into the sanitarium accompanied by the Frau and another nurse.

I feel empty. After the worry, the deaths, and the capture of Victor, I stand listlessly as people gaped at me, unsure of who or what I am.

The Frau has one of the servants make up a bed for me. I wait in Thomas' room until the Frau returns for me. I have my dark glasses, but the people still skirt around me. So much has happened around them, it splits the foundation of their beliefs and leaves them wandering, looking for something tangible to cling to.

One brave soul came by with some warmed stew in a bowl and a few slices of bread for me. When I finished, I sat the dishes outside my door. I sat for a long time staring at the small lamp in the room.

For so many years I have battled the rage inside. My anguish over my loneliness and my belief that no hope would ever come to me feed my anger. Since Therese has been born, hope has blossomed to soothe my internal pain.

If she had not been reanimated, would I have killed Victor? Or would I have hounded him for the rest of his life until he did produce a companion for me? Was I any more than what Victor expected me to be all of those years? Although I only ever caused the death of the second man he was working on, my battle with Victor caused the death of all of these others.

I cross to the door and lock it. Laying on the bed I finally drifted off to sleep.