Beloved Monster (5 page)

After the horrid incident, she never spoke to him again. The few times she’d seen him in the village, he gave her the cut direct. Yes, her heart had been broken. Smashed, really. Glenna had been entirely caught up in her awakened, passionate emotions that she dared to dream there could be more between them. Months later, after the pain had lessened somewhat, she confessed what happened to Susan. It was then she learned the depraved depths of his horrid reputation and his ill treatment of Susan’s friend, Hannah, and many other young ladies of different classes in and around Charlwood and beyond.

Many nights she had lain mourning the loss of her shattered, romantic delusion. From the ashes of her heartbreak Glenna emerged a stronger woman, determined to put the unfortunate episode behind her. She also made a vow to herself that in the future she would embrace life and love when it came her way. No unfeeling rake would destroy her heart. Or destroy her dreams.

A rumble of thunder interrupted her hurtful recollection and jarringly returned her to the present. The storm approached.

“The time is nigh, dear Cousin. Come, I will need you to take notes. Write down I am using copper wire as it will act as a conductor and also does not melt under high temperatures. Also, you are to record the time and document everything that transpires.”

Glenna could not go through with this--lunacy. “Reed, I beseech you one last time. Abandon this folly. You are not God. You cannot give someone life who no longer possesses it. Not like this. You haven’t thought this through….”

He gave her an incredulous look. “I am not mad nor do I think I am God. This is pure science, nothing else. No grandeur or feelings of exaggerated greatness. Besides, in all honesty, this will not work. Not totally. But I have to try. I need to prove to myself my theory is correct, even if the end result is not entirely successful. How can I make you understand?”

Another boom of thunder cut through the awkward silence between them. Lightning struck the rod outside the partially open window, traveling along the wires with a decided crackle and snap.

“Now!” Reed cried out as he pumped the handle of the generator. Sparks flew between the two electro-magnetic rods and darted along the wires, meeting the blast of electricity from the lightning rod. The corpse shuddered and jerked violently on the table. Smoke curled up from the wires, and Glenna could smell burnt skin. “Again!” Reed gave the generator another blast, and glowing embers filled the air, floating slowly to the stone floor. Again, the corpse shook. A burst of energy resembling a bolt of lightning danced on the metal plate screwed to his skull, causing his head to move back and forth at a fast speed. “Wait…” Agonizing minutes ticked by; the wires hissed and sizzled. The corpse stilled. Reed leaned in. “Glenna, observe its eyes. Make a note.”

Gulping deeply, she stood next to Ravenswood. The eyes appeared to be as glassy as they did before. However, something
was
different. They weren’t blue as a summer sky any longer. Instead, they contained nearly all colors of the spectrum, as if the irises had exploded. “Like a kaleidoscope,” she said with wonder.

Thunder still rumbled outside, and heavy rain lashed against the house, the storm one of the more vicious ones she’d witnessed. Without any warning, lightning struck the rod once again, sending another wave of current through the viscount’s lifeless body. This time, the blast nearly lifted him off the table. Reed sprung into action, giving the generator handle another downward thrust. The amount of power running through the corpse lay beyond her imagination. Black burns were noticeable where the wires were attached. Again, visible energy passed through the metal plate on Ravenswood’s head.

Reed stepped back and waited for the body to stop twitching. Sparks caught and flame leapt from some of the wires, spreading to the canvas covering the body. Reed calmly snuffed out the blaze with a piece of fabric.

Glenna felt sick. Physically and morally sick at heart. “Enough. No more. The body will catch fire if you keep this up. It did not work….” She glanced at Ravenswood, and he stared back at her, his eyes firmly focused on her face. Try as she might, she could not stop the scream from escaping her throat.

He’s alive.
Alive.

Innumerable sensations inundated him all at once. First, he shivered with the cold and smelled burnt flesh. A disturbing thought struck him. How did he know what burnt flesh smelled like? Then he heard a woman’s voice, the tone soft, though he could not make out the words. It was then he guessed he was dead, and damn it, there turned out to be a heaven after all for surely the sweet, feminine voice belonged to an angel. He immediately sought out the direction of the sound. Since for some strange reason he could not move his head, his gaze followed the resonance instead, or tried to since everything was indistinct and awash in vivid colors. Concentrating, he managed to blink. It was then the lady screamed at an ear-splitting volume.

“Start recording the time, Glenna. It blinked!” a man’s voice called out.

Apparently they were speaking about him. The woman called Glenna leaned into his line of vision. Through the blurred, swirling colors he could make out she was young and attractive. Quite appealing. He blinked again as it seemed to be his only means of communication or movement which concerned him greatly.

“Two minutes and he did it once again.” She wrote furiously in a notebook.

This time, the man stepped into his vision as if examining him. Again, hard to make out his features clearly, but he looked to be older than the woman and wore a white coat. “The pupils are dilating. Make a note.” The man lay against his chest for a few moments and stood. “The heartbeat is strong. I probably should have tied its legs to the table as well as its arms. No matter. Come here, Cousin. The creature seems to respond to you. Speak to it.”

Glenna visibly recoiled at being shoved closer.
Creature? It?
What did the man mean? At first, he experienced a blast of cold. Now he felt nothing at all. All manner of thoughts and expressions filled his conscious, but he could relay none of them. His tongue and lips were seemingly frozen, his body as well.

“Can you understand what I am saying? Blink twice if you do,” Glenna asked.

“Oh, I say, Cousin. Well done. You missed your calling,” the man replied, admiration clear in his tone.

Here lay a conundrum. Does he let these people know he is able to comprehend everything they are saying--or not? Perhaps they were torturers. As if the lovely lady had read his thoughts, she soothed in a reassuring voice, “We will not harm you.”

For some bizarre and unexplainable reason, he believed her. Concentrating, he blinked twice in rapid secession.

“Did you see that, Reed,” Glenna cried excitedly.

The man in the white coat was called Reed. Neither name rang a bell. Cousins Reed and Glenna. It was then he realized he did not know his own name or anything about himself, or how he came to be in this strange place. A blank slate. A thick fog. How odd. Not only odd but concerning. Panic started to set in, but he fought it, not wanting to show his feelings to these people. If he was even able to do so.

“The eye movement could be a trained or automatic response, or perhaps a leftover flutter from the experiment. We have no idea if it understood,” Reed stated emphatically.

The couple remained quiet, watching him with wary intensity.
What experiment?

“The time, Glenna.”

“Six minutes,” she replied.

This bordered on the ridiculous. He must do something. Concentrating, he tried to move his head. Nothing. Instead, he attempted to talk again. “Mmmuuunnn.”

“Seven minutes and thirteen seconds, it tried to speak. Write this down, Glenna, now,” Reed demanded.

Devil take it.
He must try and make them understand that his being here was a grave mistake. “Ggglll…”

“It is trying to say your name,” Reed marveled.

The woman leaned in close. At last the blurriness dissipated and the colors were not swirling quite as fast. Yes, she was lovely, with golden-brown hair and eyes, luminescent skin, and full, sensual lips. Even though she wore a plain brown dress, there was no denying she possessed a magnificent bosom. The fastened buttons straining across her chest attracted his complete attention. His fingers ached to explore the swell of material. He was fascinated with her, aroused by her, and the reaction so swift it caused blood to roar in his ears.

“Good God. Glenna. It has an erection.” Reed coughed uncomfortably. “No doubt stimulated from the electric shocks it received. Make a note of the response. I will cover him up better. An innocent young lady should not be subjected to such a sight. And we just passed the cat’s record.”

Cat?
He had no idea about any damned cat, but he certainly knew what an erection was, though he didn’t sense it. It was hard to tell if the man Reed covered him as he could not feel anything being laid against his skin. Stark fear spread through him with the realization that not only could he not feel his limbs or other appendages, but he could not remember anything about himself, including his name. Nor his past. Struggling, he searched his mind for any spark of recognition, a fragment of a memory--anything. He was given electric shocks? Why?

More agonizing moments passed. “Reed. It has been ten minutes. Do something,” Glenna demanded.

Reed paced back and forth, rubbing his chin as if deep in thought. “I am at sixes and sevens. It was not supposed to linger like this.”

“Address his leg. Susan mentioned it had been fractured and it should be set, correct?” Glenna asked.

Who in hell is Susan? A fractured leg? It seems I was in an accident, then.

“Oh, you wish me to call the doctor?” Reed retorted.

“No, I have seen Sam address such an injury. Lash it to boards so it will heal properly. Like it or not, Reed, this man lying here is your responsibility.”

Reed laughed with a cruel tone. “Mine? It’s an experiment, nothing more. I should send it back to whence it came.”

Glenna stood at his side, as if protecting him, and he felt strangely comforted by the gesture. “You will not do any such thing. Like it or not, he is alive. I begged you not to do it, now you must live with the consequences.”

Reed tore off his white coat and tossed it aside in anger. “Be damned if I will. I need a drink.” The door slammed. Reed had apparently left the room.

The young woman gazed at him and murmured. “Fifteen minutes. What on earth will we do with you?”

“Should send it back to whence it came.” What could Reed have meant by that cryptic statement, he wondered? “He’s alive?”
Was I dead?
A potent stab of fright moved through him. He was trapped, helpless, and a prisoner within his own body. He moved his gaze to the opposite side of the room. Wires lay on the floor. A large machine sat on the table nearby. What had this mad man and his assistant done to him? Raw fear moved through him, and he wanted to tear the room apart and run as far and as fast as he could from this living nightmare.

But he could not move.

* * * *

Glenna watched in disbelief as Reed stormed upstairs. How dare he? He created this… this…situation, and now he leaves? Thunder still rumbled outside, but at a distance as if the storm had moved off. But a storm still lingered in this cellar. Glancing at the--well, she could not refer to him as “the corpse” any longer.

His gaze met hers. Dead doll eyes no longer stared back at her. Life and awareness glittered within the multi-colored irises. And questions. Perhaps it was her imagination working overtime, but the eyes seemed softer, his countenance held none of the arrogance of Ravenswood. Heavens, she was thinking of him as separate from the viscount.
How silly.
Gathering her courage, she moved to his left side and laid a comforting squeeze to his arm, trying to avoid the horrendous, mismatched hand. The light gray skin was slightly cool to the touch. Being wracked with electric current did nothing to warm his flesh or change the color. Glenna leaned closer and inspected his strange but fascinating eyes. The kaleidoscope colors of the iris were extraordinary while the left eye was noticeably bloodshot. “I am going to ask you some questions, and I want you to blink once for yes, twice for no. Do you understand?”

He blinked once.

“Can you move?”

Two blinks.

“Do you know your name?”

Two blinks.

There’s a mercy. It would be a mistake to let on she knew of his true identity, at least for tonight. How confusing and how on earth to explain it all? In the interim, she should give him a name. Searching her mind for a suitable one, she settled on one close to his first name of Lucas. A nickname. “I shall call you Luke, is that all right with you?”

One blink.

“Are you in pain?” Absently, she brushed a lock of his raven hair from his forehead. A soft moan emitted from his lips. They were a faint shade of pink, the only hint of color on his skin.

Two blinks.

Luke was covered with canvas to his waist. She dared to glance further along his body. There was still a noticeable bulge under the covering. Perhaps the response did indeed come from the electric currents pumped through his body as Reed stated. Or it could be the beginning of movement and bodily reactions. He seemed to understand what she said to him. So much for the grievous head wound and brains of pudding.
Oh, what to do?
Glenna stepped back and wrung her hands in nervous agitation. Luke followed her motions, his eyes never leaving her, his gaze penetrating and inquiring.
Do something, Glenna.
She unfastened the straps. That horrible looking hand. She must find something to cover it. “Try to move a finger. Any finger.”

Glenna stood at the end of the table and watched. The strain on Luke’s face was plain to see as he tried to accomplish the task. A low growl left his throat. There. The pinkie of his own hand moved a fraction of an inch.
Success!
Try as she might, she couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across her face. “It moved. Did you feel it?”

One blink.