Note: Work is Hell and every time I look at my writing I think it's gash lmao so updates are painfully slow
Thank you for reading despite this 3
Chapter 11: Frankenstein
The moment Iris woke up Heisenberg was fussing over her, checking her temperature, shining lights in her eyes, making her touch her nose, repeating words, answering maths questions. He was manic, the air crackling with energy, the discarded surgical tools, stained with a lot more blood than Iris expected were rattling against the table, the lights flickered, and the doors creaked, but the man paid them no attention.
As she sat up on the table, too weary and confused to be bothered about her nakedness, the nightie a bloody heap shoved in the corner of the room, her boss took photos of her in the same quick, aggressiveness of an obsessive photographer, drinking in as much of his muse as possible.
"What happened?" He barked, shoving his voice recorder in her face, "Any dreams? Visions? Do you feel different at all? Describe everything, clearly, in detail."
Iris tried to get her words out but her throat felt like the Black God's tendrils were still there, pressing a warning into her jugular. She wasn't sure who she'd rather displease first, the hulking black lump buried somewhere under the village, or the crazed man in front of her.
The furious expression on his face at her lack of immediate response answered that question for her.
"I woke up in a cave, I saw that thing that Miranda worships there, I sat under it, and it wrapped me in its tendrils…" The blinking red light of the voice recorder kept her calm, "I heard you panic, it let me go. I walked into the room, saw my body, touched my hand and woke up."
Heisenberg looked at her gravely, the static in the room dead.
"You saw the Megamycete? Shit." He shoved a hand through his wild grey hair, "Shit that means she knows."
"What?"
"She'll know. She's connected to that thing, well we all are, but she's so attuned she was probably watching the whole time! She's going to know we got something going on here… She'll wanna talk, experiment."
"Heisenberg-"
"FUCK" The metal table and all of the surgical instruments went crashing across the room by a thunderous force. The lights flickered, some bursting, the doors slamming open and close. Iris leapt off the metal surgical bed in fear she too would get launched across the room.
"Heisenberg, it's ok!" The man was pacing around the room, seemingly unaware of the increasing electrical tension in the room, as if his frustrations were bowing the very structure of the building, threatening to implode. But Iris knew how to deal with this, she was well experienced in dampening the tantrums of her Lords, this was no different. She stepped in front of him to stop his pacing, ensuring her face was schooled into a calm facade, she kept her arms loose at her sides, fighting the urge to hold them, palms open as if confronting a scared animal.
"It will be ok as you did nothing wrong. Like all of the other Lords, you have your own source of Cadou that you use for experimentation. Like Dimitrescu's Moroaica, or the lycans. I just happened to be… somewhat successful."
"She won't buy that" Her Boss spat through gritted teeth.
Something in Iris snapped, the bubbling tension of the room infecting her own mind, making her as angry and volatile as her monstrous "Boss".
"Well you should've thought about that before cutting me open" Her voice was hoarse but booming, she couldn't remember a time she'd ever raised her voice, let alone shout in anger. Her boss was stunned, the static in the air dampening with his shock, Iris knew it wouldn't last for long, and the repercussions would be unthinkable.
"You took advantage of me! You knew I could never say no to you! You shove a thing in me, changing me forever, forcing me to face that giant black mass, that God that gives Miranda all of her powers, putting a target on my back should she know that I met with her God, and you did it all without a thought? A care? A plan?" She felt tears welling in her new alien eyes, she wondered how it looked, seeing those oily black holes cry.
"I know I am just a maid, I am alive to serve the Lords of this Village, it's all I've known, but you made me think you were different? Was it all part of your plan? Get the sheep to like you enough to skip happily the slaughter for you?"
Heisenberg wasn't even looking at her, glaring at the floor as if it was his arch nemesis, it angered Iris even more, she stepped forward, noticing her feet had been stained black, tainted by the touch of the Black God.
"Look at me. Look at what you did."
His head jerked up, as if an invisible hand was gripping his chin, forcing him to look at her. His teeth were gritted, eyes flaming anger, she hoped it hurt him to look at her.
"Calm down." Oh this fucker..
"Calm down? CALM DOWN? You have the gall to tell ME to calm down when all you do is stomp around this bloody factory, with your stupid metal powers, God even now after ripping me open you're vibrating the place because GOD FORBID someone now cow to you! And you have the balls to tell me to FUCKING CALM DOWN."
For a second Iris was proud, Heisenberg seemed genuinely in pain at her words, her scolding, Good. Her anger satisfied slightly, the fog started to lift, and Iris noted that her Boss really did seem to be in pain. His head was still up at that awkward angle, chin jutting out, chest puffed out as if being tugged by an invisible rope.
"Boss?"
Whatever invisible force that had held her boss captive disappeared, he collapsed in on himself, wheezing, hands on bent knees for support. Iris froze, was it Miranda? Was she spying on them already? Punishing him?
"Boss is it Miranda? The Megamycete?" She started to panic, eyes darting around the room, the corners suddenly seeming much darker and sinister, "I'll go get Sturm" She backed away, ready to bring up a small army of Soldats to protect herself and Heisenberg from whatever was haunting the surgical room, she should've never sat in front of that Thing, it must have followed her back, was punishing her.
A wheezing laugh stopped Iris from fully leaving the surgical suite, about to sprint fully naked into the depths of the factory to find Sturm and coax him into battle.
"Heisenberg?"
The man stretched back up, laughter growing, definitely not the sound of a man under attack
"Oh my simple little maid" He swept a tear from his eyes, still laughing, a dark mocking sound, "That was a wonderful tantrum, and we will circle back to your punishment for that later, but for now." He flashed a bright smile, eyes manic and crackling with energy, he surged forward and grabbed her by her biceps, forcing her up into the air, spinning her around.
"I thought I'd get a little kick out of infecting you, maybe some heightened senses, some strength, God knows your noodle arms could do with it, but no" One more twirl and he set her down, head bent to see her eye to eye, grin never failing, "I made a fucking machine gun outta you."
Snapping up, her Boss was already walking away, calling back at her with a hand on the door.
"Well? Hurry up, we've got work to do."
And like that stupid fucking sheep, she hobbled after him.
Iris followed her Boss back up to their living quarters, in a stunned silence, he ignored her hobbling, and the fact that she was still bloody naked, and kept at a slow pace, speaking at her loudly with that permanent grin still splitting his head.
"Now we still have to deal with the Miranda issue but I bet one look at you will pique her interest enough to not immediately kill you. Maybe I'll go to her first, play the doting son, she loves that." He stopped in thought for a moment, "Yes I'll do that. Tomorrow. First thing. Oh mother, I was just carrying out a simple experiment, she would've been a much more efficient maid, but she's gone all wrong, can you give her a check up? Pretty please?"
"What makes you think she'll send me back to you?" Iris croaked, her "tantrum" as Boss put it had strained her voice even more, she sounded like a frog.
"I don't but I said, interesting enough to not kill, not enough to keep, no offence." none taken?
He led her through the living quarters, not stopping at the kitchen like Iris assumed, it's where they usually talked things out, and was his favourite room to rant in.
"Stay put." He grumbled, slipping into his bedroom, emerging soon after with a robe In a surprising show of gentlemanship, he even helped Iris into the robe, warning her against stretching her left arm too much so as to not irritate the stitches. Although even with help, the pull on her skin made her feel ill. The adrenaline from her vision, her anger and fear had worn off. Now she was sore, and tired to her bones.
"Yeah uh, you can stay in my room for a while." He awkwardly herded her into the room, sitting her on the edge of the bed. "No need for extra precautions now, you get a real room."
"Thanks" Iris muttered, wondering how mad he'd be if she revealed she'd much rather her tiny cage over sharing a bed with him.
She'd cleaned his room countless times by this point, the easiest part of her day, since Heisenberg rarely inhabited the small room. A large bed, still tightly made from her last clean, with a dark wooden four poster frame, and matching chest of drawers, bedside table, and wardrobe. The only difference between when she'd last cleaned and now was that the standing mirror in the corner now had a sheet thrown on it.
"I already know that I've changed, I saw myself before I woke up."
If she didn't know any better she'd swear Heisenberg looked sheepish, he ripped the sheet off and Iris flinched.
She thought she'd be ready for it, she'd already seen flashes of her new alien being, but staring at it face to face, black inky eyes surrounded by horrid dark bruises, a stark contrast to the unnatural pallor of her skin, rivaling Dimitrescu.
"For all it's worth, you're still a pretty little flower." Behind her Heisenberg was leering, she fought the urge to tighten her robe and welcomed the change from tentative caretaker to her usual crass Heisenberg.
"Thank you Boss" She muttered automatically, his grin widened for a beat, but he began to shift awkwardly, as if uncomfortable in his own room, she had a feeling it had been a while since he'd had… company here.
"Well I'll leave you to it. I got a lot of plans in the works now, gotta prepare for Miranda tomorrow too.. So I'll uh, leave you be for tonight."
His discomfort was more palpable now, Iris wasn't going to lie that it didn't please her to see him fumble about, but gave him a warm smile, hoping her creepy pale skin and alien eyes didn't detract from her goal.
"Thank you Heisenberg. Good Night."
"Uh night."
As he left she caught herself smiling in the mirror, she really did look creepy.
Iris threw the sheet back on.
Just for tonight.