Judith's Shadow

Michael

Michael eventually went to the bathroom to collect Judith from her sobbing floor state. Picked her up under her knees and along the small of her back. Wrapped her arms around his neck. Wouldn't look at him. Cradled her in his long, muscular limbs and walked the Factory girl back to the horizon carved headboard bed. The art upon the wooden bedpost was like a dark sun rising to end the light of a bright moon. There was an inscription carved into the frame along the panelled border, "the living night is dissipated in the brightness of death." The words had the smell of a Mary Shelley autopsy every time he considered them.

There was another inscription carved into the artisan landscape, one that Michael had once taken to heart with his many experimental chemical cocktails and serums. "The soul is the prison of the body." It truly became that when in a single, well rat tested mixture, he became someone he never wanted to come across again. A kind of Hyde to his Jekyll, only he remembered the blood drenched horror of watching from inside a monster for a night, like his knowledge was caged within his body and he had no control over himself. Could only witness the event as his body murdered a man whom Michael knew from his youth. A man who didn't need any of the experimental serum to become a terrifying piece of shit. Nigel Leonard deserved to die in his home, alone with a violent psychopath. Nigel Leonard was responsible for the miss-allocation of funds for the poor district. All that coin managed to end up in his pockets for decades. Many people starved to death because of his theft, coupled with the internment camp regulations surrounding the poor district. You could only buy your way out, like Judith did. Otherwise, there was no escape from destitution.

It was still easier to think about Nigel's misdeeds when comparing that malevolence to what Michael Leonard did to him. Michael had injected him with another certain serum of his own creation to keep Nigel from passing out. He tore him limb from limb and relished the old Leonard's pleas and screams. He left him looking like a broken, inhuman art project. Nigel resembled a plucked, half eaten, headless bird in the end. And for some reason, the Michael of that night brought home Nigel's severed jaw along with a rusted old surgeons bone saw. Michael discarded the jaw as soon as the horrible serum wore off. He kept the bone saw as a reminder to slow down. Not get overly ambitious with his experiments. Knew he was breaking new ground and needed to be careful with the potential nature of things. There were many deep dark places within Michael that he hadn't known ever would or could possibly exist within him. How many others had a "bone saw man" in them?

Michael gently laid Judith on the aqua ocean colour comforter. Kissed her on her nearly raw, tear drenched cheek. Decided he was going to take care of her today. She seemed too broken at this point to even comprehend placing the shards of her emotional state back together. So Michael rolled Judith under the covers and waited with her until she was once again, asleep. Got up and gathered Judith's clothes. Hugged them to his face. Took a long, deep whiff of her body oder. Flavour. Made sure to smell deeply into the crotch of her pants. Mesmerized him. Intoxicated by the autumn and coffee and soft kind of salty spice. Her sweat was delicious to him. Could drink from her cup for the rest of his life. Judith was his miracle. His person. His shadow within him, pulling toward the gravity that existed between them. Was instant last night between both of them. By rights, she should've hated him for being a Leonard. But something happened to change the course of both their lives. A memory beyond recollection. Beyond need or want, like they were each other but combined to make something else far more profound. More powerful than the word "love." It seemed to Michael that he found a vast precision for that feeling when it came to Judith.