Frankenstein's Bastard Child

Volume 26

I made quick work of dashing out of the Inn unphased by the darkness. All the houses looked identical and there wouldn't even be enough time to check one house let alone all of them. I needed to think. There had to be something, some sort of sound or indication of anything. I had an idea but hopefully I don't kill anyone while trying to save people. I took a deep breath and blew Purple Haze making a thin layer of purple fog lining the floor. I stopped in my tracks and waited. Hopefully only a little bit got into everyone's homes but even so there's no guarantee that it'll even work or if it's even accurate. There was only silence. My palms and back began to sweat until a subtle pop could be heard behind me. The rest of the smoke ignited leaving a small trail of tiny explosions leading to a house. It was that one. It wasn't much but hopefully that was the ignition from Marda's pipe. God I hope so.

I tried the door. It wouldn't budge. I backed up and rammed my shoulder into the door to no avail. I tried again which broke the lock but not the dead bolt. There wasn't enough time to break it by hand so I pulled my revolver out and shot the bolt, breaking it with a small spark and a bang flinging the door wide open. My eyes hadn't yet adjusted to the natural darkness, let alone the pitch black room. I could hear the low hum of machinery and a low voice.

"I stared into the abyss." Something shiny and hard pierced through my shoulder. Despite the pain I managed to use Buttercup to melt it and break away. A young man came out of the small house covered in blood with an engine-like machine sticking out of his head protruding as if it had been thrown like a javelin into his skull. The machine seemed to almost start pouring down his face, taking up more and more of it as if it were holding his jaw together. The machine whirred and clanged as he spoke.

"And the abyss stared back." My eyes began to adjust to the darkness which I'd later wish it hadn't. Inside the house was a crime scene of broken plates and tables with blood splatter on the walls and floor already beginning to dry and flake up. Two bodies now inhabit the house the first being the lifeless body of Luis impaled through the throat and Marda's nailed to the wall with a big metal spike. My heart throbbed and my chest began to sink. Everything began to well up all at once confusion, anger, fear, distrust. I could barely breathe as the boy closed in on me poised to attack.

"ALICE!" Muvere's voice called as his knee (that he'd previously hardened using Heart of Chrome) slammed into the man's face sending him tumbling down. Muvere now stood between me and that thing.

"Alice, can you still move? I'm still a bit sedated so it might take me longer than usual to heal you." I forced my (still shaken up) body to stand as I took out and loaded my derringer.

"I'll be fine right now, we just need to take that thing down. I'll charge it while you flank. And don't look in that house." I forced Brown Eyed Girl to flow through my legs and arms sending me flying forward while Muvere banked to my right to attack its side. The machine boy threw a piece of metal pulled straight from its protruding engine right at me. I did a barrel roll to avoid it and pressed the barrel of the gun to the thing's chin pressing down on the trigger. The boy moved his head in the nick of time just missing the skin and hitting metal causing the ball bearing to ricochet and hit his foot. There was a slight hesitation because of the pain and with that opening Muvere slammed their hardened palm into the engine knocking it off of the boy's head causing him to collapse to the floor. The engine skidded on the dirt before letting out a final whir from the machinery. That should've done it. The boy's body laid there quietly. No movement, no noise, no heartbeat. Me and Muvere looked at each other suspiciously. Yes we'd won but this didn't really feel like a victory. Muvere spoke first.

"Was that- him." I looked the body over trying to make out any similarities between the corpse and Dr. Frankenstein.

"I don't think so. The last time they sort of "died" the body disappeared, and why would he try to attack us with brute force instead of using some sort of weapon." My thoughts snapped back to the house before my eyes could.