The Bloody Bride Of Frankenstein

Seeking Grace

I connect the wires to both sides of her head as the electricity surges. Tonight is the perfect night. I've found that the electricity from the rain and lightning will produce enough power and energy to help obtain my goal. The perfect amount to bring my love back to life.

It's been ten years- the worst tens years of my life. Gracelin didn't deserve to die when she did, not the way she did. It was our wedding day. The nerves had gotten to her and I failed to console her.

Grace paces the room, pulling the hairs at the sides of her head. Her heels click fiercely beneath her strapless, white beaded dress. I enter the room and walk towards her. They said it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, but I prefer bad luck over losing the only woman I'll ever love.

"Calm down." I tell her reassuringly as I grab her by the shoulders. "When you become my bride it's all going to be okay. It's just pre wedding jitters, nothing to worry about. Once we're married you'll wonder why you even had them."

"No, I- I can't do this Benji, I can't be with you. I can't spend my life with you. I'm not selling my soul to a man like you." She stresses in a panicked manner.

"What, Gracie, what are you talking about? Of course you can marry me, I love you. We love each other." I assure her.

She shrugs away from me. "No, we don't. This isn't love, you're obsessed. The only reason we made it this far is because I didn't want to hurt you and I was afraid of what you'd do. I know you care, but I'm not going to spend my life afraid of a man that I don't want to be with."

"Don't say things like that, Grace. I want to spend my life with you and our love is nothing to fear. I don't know what I would do without you. And you love me too, you said you loved me too."

"I do, but not the way you love me. Not the way your obsessed with me. You want me to be this perfect girl that bends to your every will but I'm not. I care about you and I love you, I'm just not in love with. And I'm not going to be with you."

A single tear falls from my eye as I just stare at her. She gathers up her dress and leaves the room in tears. No matter how much she denies it she loves me, I know she does, and I love her. She's just worried, that's all. I'm not letting her go. I'll never let her go.

"Gracelin!" I demand as I go after her. She faces me before turning and going into the chapel.

As I enter the hall everyone looks away from her and stares at me. By now half of the room is standing. I ignore their stares though. My focus is solely on her. She looks back, making eye contact with me for a second before bursting out of the double doors.

My footsteps accelerate as my feet stomp onto the floor in anger. I forcefully push open the doors just in time to see Gracelin back into the street. Everyone is up and behind us by now. She faces us.

"I'm sorry for wasting your time, but the wedding is off. I can't be with him, and I'm not marrying him." She says as another tear slips past her eyes. With those as her last words she turns away.

"Grace!" her mother screams to her as she runs into the lane of an approaching car.

Everything seems to go into slow motion. Before I know it I'm on my knees, sobbing like a child as I hold her in my arms. I can't lose her, I won't! I'm never letting go. I'm not living without her as my bride.

Lightning strikes causing electricity to surge through the wires. Gracelin's body begins to shake violently as the energy enters her. I grin to myself. I did it, I'm actually bringing her back to life.

In one last violent jolt her body goes into a sitting position. I turn of the machine and rush back to her. I pull the cables from her skin and eye her hopefully.

Her eyes open slowly, revealing a foggy gray that is hinted with its original blue.

"Grace?" I smile happily, "It's me, Benjiman, your husband."

She look as me with shock and horror clouding her grayed eyes. She blinks fiercely as tears begin to form. "No, no, no, no. No!" She shakes her head with force.

"Grace, please." I beg, taking her hands in mine. "You're back, I brought you back. For us." I lean into her with hopeful eyes. "I brought you back so that we can be together like we'd always hoped."

"No," She shakes her head, becoming more frantic with each breath. "Away! Leave me. Alone!" She demands.

No- no this can't be. She's supposed to be back and to the way she used to be. How she was before the wedding. What could I have possibly done wrong? She couldn't have meant the things she said all those years ago. She didn't. It had to have been me. I made a mistake and I have no idea how I can fix it.

"No! Dammit, no!" I scream as I back away. Overtaken with rage I throw everything off of the lab table. I lean over, taking in deep and calming breaths. Than realization strikes me. "I have to start over." I whisper in a low breath. "I have to start over again."

I grab a pole and smash it onto her head for her own sake. I made a mistake and I changed her. Now I'm going to fix it.

The pole makes hard contact with her skin a few more times until I'm sure she's gone. I won't operate on her while she's here, while she can feel. I'm not calling the state she's in now death, because this I can fix. Though the scientific term for it isn't life.

The basement door slams loudly, bringing me back to reality. I look up to find the basement door ajar. My wife, my "real" wife, my legal wife, Paige, had heard and seen everything.

I met her four years after Grace's death. For the first year after the accident I was utterly depressed. I lost myself. I had just turned twenty-three so I was barely old enough to get my own lab and start my own research.

I had loved Grace since high school and there is no one I'd rather love. I wanted to bring her back and I had to, so one night I went out to the graveyard and I stole her body. Her mother and I had her mummified like an Egyptian, her brain and heart still intact. I had kept it frozen up until the past few weeks ago or so, when I started operating.

For the next three years my main focus was her. I had to work my way up to the highest branch of government and military, where their scientific research knew no bounds. Where I could continue my work above the law and get away with it for the sake of "science".

Soon after I had received an award for my, then, biggest achievement. But it wasn't enough. Not for me and not for my partner. No matter how focused I was, I was slowly losing my sanity.

Some of our colleagues took us to a local bar that night. By 2 a.m. I was drunk out of my mind, and Paige was there. She was the only one that showed me compassion and kindness. My coworkers left me at the bar to head to some other club that I wasn't sober enough to go to. Paige saw me and insisted on driving me home. She somehow ended up taking care of me the entire night.

Being alone for so many years had done something to me. I needed someone to keep me sane, to keep me connect to life, and not let me consume myself with death. Paige, she did that- she does that. She keeps me connected to the real world and makes me feel sane.

That's all she is, that's all she ever was and all she'll ever be. Paige is for show, even after four years of dating and two years of marriage. I don't love her, I don't care for her. But she loves me, that I know.

After taking in the events and sulking because of her jamming the door, a thought strikes me. An ingenious idea that can save Grace and all the work I've done.

Maybe I can use Paige. Grace's heart had been deteriorating for a while before I dug her up. Maybe if I replace her's with Paige's it will rekindle our love. She still loves me, we're still in love, Grace just needs a bit of a push. She's been gone for so long and I've used so many other parts. Paige's love should definitely help fix the mistakes I've caused.

This way I can get rid of her and take Grace as my wife. No one would know, no one would care. They'll see Grace as the Bride Of Franklin L. Stein, and Paige as mere material.