Prologue: The Creature
He came for his bride, expecting the light of heaven. Instead, he found the fires of hell, consuming all that he might have loved.
"What have you done?" he bellowed at the small figure standing in front of the burning laboratory. Frankenstein trembled all over, but he did not faint or flee in the face of his creation's rage. "You made a promise, Victor Frankenstein-you dare to break it now?"
"Yes," he cried as sparks burst in the air behind him, "I dare! I shall never create another like you, nor shall anyone else on this earth!"
He loomed over his creator. How diminutive Frankenstein was, how frail. How imperfect and perfect at once. "I reasoned with you before, but now I see you were unworthy of my efforts. If you insist, Frankenstein, I can bypass reason with force." He raised a finger to Victor's face. "You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!"
"There is nothing you can do to me," Victor seethed in return, wielding a tiny and near-harmless scalpel for a weapon. "You shall never, never have your vile request."
In his despair, he laughed at the smoke-filled night sky. "And yet you believe me the monster."
"You are the monster!" Victor shouted, his voice shrill and broken with exhaustion. "You and your fellow demon both. If I had not, together you might have caused chaos and bloodshed rather than go away into the wilderness."
"Do you believe me so faithless?" he asked. "I have not broken my promises. I would have honored this one, too."
"Would she have honored this promise?" asked Victor, gesturing back into the ruin. "A vow made before her birth? Or would she have resisted, and left you to the world of men-there to be abused as you were, and there to wreak further destruction? You both would have ruined everything I could love."
"I still can do that," he threatened. "I still have revenge-if you destroy what I might have loved, I can destroy every cause you have to rejoice in this world."
Their tirade was interrupted by a loud crash beyond the building. Startled, he viewed the ruin, as did his creator by his side. He and Frankenstein in silence walked quickly around the side of the building. There, he found a broken window. Among the shards on the earth were footprints trailing into the sea.
Victor caught his breath. "She survived."
He felt his heart drum against his chest. "Rejoice, creator; I may stay my revenge upon you yet."