Frankenstein's Bastard Child

Volume 22

I am Muvere Cruz, the happiest living thing on earth. Am currently hunched over a toilet dry heaving over one of the house's many gold encrusted toilets. Terrible for sitting but I will admit it is pretty to look at. Alice, my new wife, was holding my hair back. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what caused this but this morning Alice explained to me what wine was after finally discovering the wine cellar. It was super hard to get into. It had like 3 padlocks and stuff. Guess that stuff doesn't really matter though when you have this badass woman willing and ready to kick down a solid metal door (I love her so much). I had to try it. I mean what makes fermented grape juice so appealing anyway. It wasn't. It was not appealing at all. It tasted like drinking printer ink and liquid smoke. I wasn't exactly the most alert at the time but I could see Alice's somewhat concerned, somewhat absent minded face. She had had a rough night. She was tossing and turning in her sleep all night, possibly from a bad dream or maybe because of her new talent coming into focus or possibly because of the sudden loss of iron in their blood. Either one is equally possible but I can tell it's still wreaking havoc on her body. I decided to ask despite my own ailments.

"Uugh, hey Alice, are you doing ok? You seem a bit distracted. I'm not saying you look bad or anything." Alice's attention was fully on me now, seeming to find the fact that I was asking about her health comical.

"Muvere I think you might want to look at the situation you're in before you ask someone that." My stomach wretched and I lurched forward.

"Hey, hey you're ok everything's ok just let it all out." She patted my back a bit running her finger along my spine in little figure eight patterns. It shouldn't have but it definitely helped. Something did feel off though. Every so often I'd find little colorful marks left behind by some sort of chemical substance. Her ability only awakened only a few days ago but we still haven't found out what exactly it does. Well maybe I should say that I don't know what it is yet. While gaining a new talent isn't something to just scoff at and move on it's not totally unexpected seeing as how it was born from my Do the Evolution which seems to have a nasty habit of mutating itself whenever the conditions are correct. But this is a bit different. I receive new talents that are a result of mimicking the qualities of the people I absorb and manipulating it enough to make it useful. Not Alice though, Alice seems to be awakening talents as a sort of survival instinct. A fight or flight reflex if you will. I never really liked that phrase much, I believe that every question always has at least 3 answers and right now I think Alice was experiencing the third option. Freeze.

"Alice? You know I'm not exactly in the best shape to talk right now but I can still listen." I grasped the seat with both hands at the piercing stomach pain. "Uuuuuuuuuuugh just please talk to me about something, I need a distraction." Alice seemed to consider it for a second then paused for a minute.

"Hmm well I think I at least know why you're feeling this way. The old man was a bit of a druggy but not like one of those regular crackheads I mean like the drinking antifreeze for the thrill of it kind of druggy. I'm guessing that was what you were drinking. I mean obviously you won't die but I'm guessing since you haven't experienced anything like this yet it's eating you from the inside." Damn the one time I don't want to be an immortal freak.

"I'm glad you don't like it actually. I don't want you being tainted by things, especially things my old man liked." She began to dig her nails into my back. Not intentionally of course but still noticeable. She was still being affected by the things her father did or maybe it's a way to cope with past regrets. Regardless, I didn't like seeing her like this. I stood from my hunched position into a less hunched facing upward position (it's called standing).

"Hey wait what're you doing? You still need to process it might get worse if you-" I strode past them to the doorway.

"You can feel it too, right?" Alice shifted to her back foot possibly in discomfort or maybe a little denial.

"The oncoming threat?" Alice responded.

"Ya. I don't know what you saw out there but whatever it is we'll handle it. We're a team and I consider you my partner. So let's go train and wreak some havoc!" Alice smiled and chuckled a bit as a response.

"Wow you're corny. You know you're gonna get us killed one day?" She playfully rammed me in the side.

"Ya I know. Fun right?" We both walked into the main room ready for another day of sweat, blood, and a whole piss load of freedom.