"What's down there?" Brad asked as the elevator kept sinking slowly into the depth of the castle.
"Answers, I hope," Frank replied. "Sometimes even the sharpest genius needs a leg up."
"Phony!" Janet hissed, arms crossed, doing her best to stay as far away as possible from them both.
"Brad, did you hear something?" Frank said, his face showing nothing but utter contempt.
"Erm…" he uttered, examining the risks and benefits of each and every answer he could choose, before simply giving up. "I was thinking : you made Rocky in seven days, right?"
Frank titled his head on the side and furrowed his brows, as if this were the most incongruous question ever.
"No I didn't."
"But… you sang a whole number about that!" Janet thundered.
"Nah, it was more like a ten-ish day thing, maybe eleven, now that I think of it." Janet shot him a black look as he started humming. "It's all about rhythm : in just el-e-ven days, I can make you a – See? It just doesn't work!"
An amused smile appeared on Brad's face. What would he give to hear him sing again? His dreamy look however disappeared when he remembered Janet's current situation.
"My point is : if it took you less than a fortnight to create a full grown man, how long will her pregnancy last? And how can we be sure she won't get hurt?"
"That's we're about to find out! But, if I may put forward a slice of personal philosophy, I'd say that getting hurt is part of the process." He chuckled with a shark-like grin. "The girl is about to expel an entire human being by her front passage, so…"
"'She' is right here," Janet cut fiercely, "and there's no need to be graphic : I know how babies are born!"
"And made," Brad let out with a neutral tone.
Janet's eyes and mouth widened, while Frank bit his lip to stifle one of his signature sneers.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm just trying to help. So does he."
"By taking us to Riff Raff, the real genius who might actually know what's happening to me!" A nasty smile stretched her lips as she slightly turned to the scientist. "You're as clueless as we are, aren't you?" There was a thin line between boldness and recklessness, and Brad had the intuition that his newly-ex-fiancée would cross it very soon, should she keep taunting Frank N. Furter while standing that close to him.
"Since you've all figured it out, go ahead and negotiate with that peroxided wanker so he saves you from being literally split in half by the abomination you're carrying!" In the elevator cabin, the light was hardly forgiving, but Brad could have sworn he'd seen Janet's complexion turning greenish-yellow. "Oh, right… You can't, because you've got nothing to offer!"
There was a brief blank, during which Janet leant against the wall to take that in, her chest slowly moving up and down : she actually needed him.
"How did you guess?" Brad finally asked, not so much for breaking the silence as for his curiosity.
"Riff Raff is locked in the dungeon. We're stuck in that bloody elevator which keeps going down."
"I know."
"And what's the best place for a dungeon?"
"Beneath the ground. Very smart, Janet!"
For one fleeting moment, she seemed to soften a tiny bit.
"Well it's not rocket science, but thank you… Maybe you'd have caught on faster if you weren't so busy checking this one out all the time!" She then exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Frank.
"I wasn't –"
"You definitely were," Frank cut, not even trying to hide his satisfaction.
His second protest was covered by the elevator bell, along with the low metallic sound of the opening door. They all freed themselves from the exiguous space to enter a room coated in snapped his finger in a nonchalant gesture and light sparked along the walls of what seemed to be an endless hallway, allowing Brad and Janet to discover the premises in all their phantomatic glory.
Both walls and floor were made of the same block of an unknown material, which any human eye would have at first mistaken for marble. Darker than a bottomless pit, it somehow reflected the pale blue glow which radiated from odd shaped wall lights. The sole other adornment in this realm of sobriety was the thin veins which mottled the ensemble, forming a strange, almost fluid interlacing. Quite taken by the spectacle, Brad let his hand wander on the wall beside him, a move he soon came to regret. The usual coolness of marble he'd expected was nothing compared to the frost that gripped his entire body, almost burning his flesh.
"Oh!" he gasped as he jolted and removed his hand quickly. Janet and Frank stopped and spinned round to give him a puzzled glance. "Erm, I mean, that place! That's something!"
"Why, I'm a man of wealth and taste dear, what else did you expect?" Frank pu
"I don't know, chains, stones, a moat or two perhaps…"
Janet rolled her eyes and let out an indifferent sigh before she overtook them, sinking deeper and deeper into the long corridor. After a while, they finally arrived in front of what appeared to be…
"A dead end?" she shrieked. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Against all odds, Frank ignored her and placed his left hand on the wall without batting an eyelid. In complete silence, the wall melted into the floor, leaving Brad and Janet dumbstruck. Their amazement was however short-lived, as they entered a room in which they found a familiar face.
"Rocky," Frank began in an ominously dulcet voice, "when I ordered you to put them in separate cells, which part of the statement did you not understand?" For answer, the creature gave out a sheepish grunt but couldn't hold back a smile when his eyes fixed upon Janet. Brad stretched his neck to catch a glimpse of what had caused Frank's discontentment. Locked behind large bars, Magenta and Riff Raff were sleeping on the ground side by side. "Ugh, nevermind…" he then sighed as he approached the cell.
"So, what's next?" Janet enquired, stealing Brad's line.
Frank didn't need to be asked twice and, in a swift move, slammed violently the whip's handle against the bars, producing a loud metallic thump.
"Hey, twincests!" he exclaimed simultaneously, his lips warped in an alluring rictus.
"Twins?! It's even worse than I thought," Brad gasped.
"No, they're just regular siblings, but I do fancy a good pun once in a while."
Magenta was the first to open her eyes. Unlike her brother, who instantly got on his feet, she slowly propped herself up and sat cross-legged.
"You've got fat," she said, her eyes scanning Janet's new silhouette.
"I'm just pregnant!"
"Doesn't make it any prettier," the maid retorted sharply.
"Please excuse my sister, Miss Janet," Riff Raff said as he got closer to the bars, narrowing the gap between him and the group. "I believe congratulations are in order."
"Not really. It's not like it was a planned thing," Janet replied, a contrite look on her small face.
"For striking him across the face, I mean," he added with an almost imperceptible nod towards Frank, whose cheek was indeed still bruised.
"Ah!" Janet giggled, taking a look at the back of her slightly wounded hand. "Well, in that case, thank you very much."
Frank's eyes narrowed until they became two slits in which burned a green blaze. To anyone else, the gleam of it didn't augur well, but for Brad, it was one of the things that made him feel so glad to be born.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" he said hesitantly, indulging in pressing Frank's arm timidly. "He's a terrible butler, a traitor, and a murdered on top of that!"
"Not a very good one, though : he didn't kill anyone."
"What about Columbia? He shot her right in front of me."
"My, you're right," Frank acknowledged as calmly as he'd forgotten something on his grocery list. "Sweet Columbia… Not my best shag to be honest, but you know, she used to stroke my hair and tell me why she liked me so much. I'll miss that."
All of them gaped and gazed at him wide-eyed, including Rocky.
"You're the worst person I've ever met!" Janet darted.
"Thank you for making that announcement that no one cared about," Frank grinned before he addressed his former servants. "As you two stupidiots may have noticed, our lady friend here is in quite a predicament. Some would say she had it coming when took advantage of an innocent creature who was ready to drown his misery in the first semi-damp orifice nearby. Some would say that's simply the backlash of rubbing uglies with other people's men…"
"Go to hell!" Janet yelled, much to Magenta's amusement.
"...anyhow, same is the outcome. Riff Raff, do you remember the biggest impediment I've encountered while creating Rocky?"
"It wasn't going fast enough, so you asked me to find a way to accelerate the process," the handyman answered with a shrug, before he caught on. "I see…"
"Now that we're on the same page, I need that formula to rework it and slow that pregnancy down."
"Of course!" Brad acclaimed. "You truly are a genius!"
Frank gave him a subtle wink, but an expression of annoyance soon bloomed on his face when came Riff Raff's reply.
"How and why would I do such a thing?"
"Here, you can write it down," Frank said as he pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of his pocket and handed it to his prisoner.
"Why would I ever help you?" Riff Raff asked again, fidgeting the pen between his slender fingers.
"Freedom. Do that for me, and it will be like your lame mutiny and attempted regicide never happened. That also applies to Magenta, of course."
"Say what now?!" Brad yelped.
"You disagree?"
"No, I mean yes, but… You're a king?"
"Not yet. Just a prince. A degenerate, bratty prince," Magenta stung immediately. "That's a trap," she then said to her lover. "The earthling is nothing to him, he has no reason to save her!"
"First of all, there's no word for 'prince murder'. If so, that would be princ… princi…"
"Princicide?" Brad suggested while Janet could hardly conceal her exasperation.
"Rather nice indeed," Frank chuckled. "And secondly, Magenta, Riff Raff : you have my royal word."
Naturally, Brad had no clue about how meaningful that statement was, but found himself reassured when the siblings exchanged a knowing glance and nodded as one. Riff Raff scribbled something on the piece of paper and gave it back to Frank.
"I gather you'll let us go once everything is settled," he said plainly.
"If you don't mind. Not to be bitter but, Freaky, you tried to kill me less than twelve hours ago."
"I don't trust him! He plotted against you, and now you want to forgive and forget what he did?" Brad almost screamed, his indignation outweighing his self-control.
"Usually I'm more of a loath and remember person, here's the exception to the rule."
After leaving the dungeon, the group went in two separate ways. Despite Frank's loud reluctance, Rocky had escorted Janet to her room, for she – more than anyone else – was worn out after their journey in the bowels of the castle. As for Brad and Frank, they had made their way up to the lab, where everything would be decided.
"So…Prince Frank, huh?"
"Mmh, I haven't heard that in years," chuckled the concerned one as he mixed the content of several vials together.
Seeing that the scientist had no intention to reignite the conversation, Brad cleared his throat and twirled on his stool.
"Whatever the reasons, what you're doing is remarkable."
"Yet you disapprove of my decision to set them free, don't you?" he asked, still busy. "All they ever wanted was to go home, they won't be a problem now that they're able to do so. Officially, nothing happened, which means no investigation, no trial and more importantly, no admonishment from my bitch queen of a mother."
"It all makes sense now," Brad breathed out. "Helping Janet is a thing, but risking your life to do so… I couldn't stand it."
"Don't worry, that won't happen in a million years," he retorted while scrunching his delicate nose.
"Anyway, thank you. For everything."
"Well, I reckon I – how do you humans say? – killed one bird with two stones," he said joyfully.
"What do you mean?"
"Turns out I'm a sucker for dimples, like that very one on your chin right now," he explained, leaving his test tubes aside to face Brad completely, and skimming his face gently, started a delightful trail from his temple. "And I have a feeling that leaving Janet to her fate might have wiped it out for a very long time." His forefinger then went down his cheek, to finally slide along his jawline, scorching everything in its path.
He couldn't bear it any longer. When he cupped Frank's face in turn, the latter flinched at first, for he wasn't accustomed to such a gesture. As to make up for this excess of tenderness, he grabbed his nape and kissed him full on. Clothes were soon strewn, and what ensued would forever remain as a blissful haze in Brad's mind, with the starry dome above them for sole witness.