Jack and the Spawn of Prometheus

By LMRS

He had spent far too many nights stowed away on different ships. A lesser creature could never have survived the journey. He was built better than that.

Nonetheless, he was relieved to arrive at his destination. He knew that this was where his quarry was. A quarry who thought him dead.

He would soon learn the truth about his "father". Of that he had no doubt.

*************************

"We have heard so much about your adventures in the Arctic, Mr. Walton," Governor Croque said over dinner. "We are honored to have you here in Pulau Pulau."

"What brings you here, by the way?" asked Madame Rothchild.

Robert Walton smiled. "I'm conducting several scientific tests, and need a secluded area for my experiments. And the weather here is far more agreeable than the North Pole."

Everyone laughed. None of them were aware of the sinster shape peering in from a nearby window.

The very mention of scientific tests peaked Emilia's interest. "I would be fascinated to see your experiments."

Robert smiled. "I would be delighted to show them to you, but I'm afraid they'd go over your little woman's head."

Emilia tried not to show how insulted she was by that remark. "Your tests need seclusion. Do they also need to be secret?"

Robert nodded. "For now, yes. They are but the continuation of the work of a scientist I knew. A man who, alas, perished in my care. I intend to make sure he didn't die in vain."

The shape at the window moved away from the house. He would wait in the shadows for now.

***************

"We must find out what Mr. Walton is up to," Emilia later told Jack.

"What's your problem?" Jack asked. "I think you're just mad that you're not the only one with a secret lab around here."

Emilia felt that this was no time for another argument. "It's the intelligence reports I recieved about Robert Walton's last polar expedition. He came in contact with a Swiss medical student whose experiments bore frightening results."

"Frightening results?"

"Results that may have led to the brutal murders of several people in both Switzerland and Germany. The student died on Walton's ship. We don't know where his notes went to. Walton might have them."

"You still haven't told me, sister. Results of what?"

Em gulped before answering. "He was trying to create life in the laboratory. He wanted to discover the secret of animating lifeless matter. He may have succeeded."

Jack tried to comprehend Em's words. "Holy..."

Em nodded. "We believe that he stole body parts from graves and charnel houses. We believe that he patched them together. We believe that somehow, with the latest in chemical and electro-magnetic technology, he created a living, synthetic human being.

"The student's name was Victor Frankenstein."

************

He could see the two figures near the deserted lighthouse. He heard one of them saying, "You know this is not what I want."

The other one shrugged. "It's not easy to get white subjects on an island like Pulau Pulau. We can offer you a good variety on what we do have."

The first man frowned, and handed a small bag to the second. It jingled with coins as it slipped into the second man's hands. "Very well. Just help me bring them inside."

The men lifted the large, bagged items out of the carriage, and carried them into the lighthouse. Their watcher went unnoticed, to plan his next move.

*************

"Walton has taken up residents in the old, abandoned lighthouse," Em said. "We must find out what he's doing in there. Good Lord, Jack. Can you imagine if he has preserved Frankenstein's notes?"

"Yeah," Jack winced. "Lots of unholy terror that you wouldn't want in your worst nightmares."

"I should have expected a superstitious clod like you to say that. If half the rumors of Frankenstein's results are true, his findings could be a boone to humanity. Think of all the lives we could save. Nobody need go without a limb. We could simply stitch a new one on. Someone has a heart attack? No problem, give them a new one."

"And if Napoleon wants an army," Jack countered. "He can literally build one. Think about it. Hordes of patchwork monsters advancing on Europe at shorty's command. Great Em, a wonderful boone to humanity."

Emilia frowned, "Spoken like a true cynic. We'll just have to make sure Frankenstein's notes don't fall into the wrong hands."

Jack shook his head. "Kindly tell me who the right hands are? I sure as hell don't want your country to have them. And I don't think you want mine to get them either."

Emilia realized that she didn't like this conversation. "All advances in technology are double-edged swords. It's been like that ever since fire was discovered."

"And if we play this wrong," Jack responded. "The whole world is going to get burned. We're dealing with a lot of power here."

"Why Jack," Em noticed. "Your frightened."

Jack nodded. "I'm frightened out of my mind."

*************

Jack wasn't the only one that was frightened by his thoughts. At that very moment, Captain Brogard entered the Governor's office to find Croque staring off into space.

The officer was struck by his superior's ashen complexion. "Sir! Is something the matter?"

Croque just sat there behind his desk, with a load of papers clasped in one hand. All he could say was, "Mon Dieu..."

Brograd walked over to the desk. "Those papers. That is the intelligence report you recieved on M. Walton. Is something wrong?"

Croque finally became aware of Brogard's presence in the office. Immeadiately, he sprang into action. "Assemble a detachment of men. I want M. Walton arrested. I want all of his possessions confiscated. I want it done now! This is of the utmost importance."

Brogard saluted and left.

Croque crushed the papers in his hand. "May God have mercy on us all..."

*****************

All he could do was blink.

He couldn't answer Walton's questions any other way, and Walton knew it. So Walton made sure that the questions could be answered with a "yes" or a "no". One blink would mean "yes". Two blinks would mean "no".

Walton was preparing to phrase one of these questions when suddenly there was a knock at the door.

It was Jack who was doing the knocking. "Couldn't we have come here another night? It's starting to rain!"

Em shook her head. "If I'm right, Croque must have been informed about Walton by now. We might stay home during the bad weather, but Croque won't."

The door was opened, "Madame Rothchild! What an unexpected surprise! And I see that you've brought along your American attache. I wish I could say I'm delighted to see you. Regretably I'm in the midst of something important."

Right then a cloud burst. Jack and Em barely evaded the raindrops as they entered the lighthouse.

Emilia engaged Mr. Walton in a conversation regarding his experiments. Jack excused himself, saying he needed to find the little lightouse keeper's room. Once away from the two, he searched the place for Victor Frankenstein's notes.

One locked door looked very promising. It didn't take Jack long to get it opened. He looked inside to find...

Emilia was shocked to hear the scream. She knew it was Jack screaming. She just didn't think she'd ever here that male chauvinist pig scream like a pony-tailed schoolgirl.

She and Robert leapt to their feet, and ran to where they heard the cry. Walton was the first to react. "Mr. Stiles! What are you doing in this room? It was securely locked. You are not allowed in here."

"Forget that," Jack stammered. "What the hell is that?"

He was pointing at the table in front of him. On the table, under glass, surrounded by machinery, sat a human head. A disembodied human head. A living, disembodied, human head. The head blinked at them. All it could do was blink.

There was no way Robert Walton could stop Emilia from taking a good look at the head on the table. She looked it straight in the eye. "Victor Fankenstein, I presume."

The head blinked.

"You died on Robert Walton's ship. But he used your findings to keep your head alive."

The head blinked.

"And tell me, is your creation still alive? The creature that was reported in Switzerland and Germany. Did he follow you to the Arctic? Did you trick him into making him think you were completely dead? Did he follow your friend to Pulau Pulau to make sure?"

The head blinked twice.

"Oh come on, Victor. Don't be so naive. You don't think your monster was fooled by your ploy. I've had reports that something nasty has been seen around here these last few days."

The head blinked twice.

"The creature could be outside this place right now. He could be ready to spring into action. To take his revenge on you."

The head blinked twice.

Suddenly, they all heard the lighthouse door break into splinters. Emilia's blood ran cold as she heard a hellish scream.

"FRANKENSTEIN!!!!"

From where Jack stood, he could see the fiend clearly. And the sight made him glad that his bladder wasn't weak.

The only resemblence this monster had with a human being was the fact that his limbs were in proportion. That was about it. He was a male to be sure, but human?

His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.

"Don't tell me, let me guess," Jack said. That's Frankenstein's monster."

"It sure isn't the Duke of Wellington," Emilia retorted.

Walton grabbed a torch and lit it. "I've handled this creature before." He ran to the door, and confronted the being. He pushed the torch into the monster's face. "You told me that you would end your wretched existance!"

The monster replied. "You told me Victor Frankenstein was dead! Where is he? What have you done with him?"

"You're mad," Walton cried. "You saw his carcass yourself. You know Frankenstein is gone."

"He's in here," Jack yelled as he walked in on the two. "What's left of him anyway. You came all this way to look at a head. I've got a lot of bad puns about that, but I don't think they're appropriate."

Walton hissed at Jack. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I'm tired of this mess you got us in," Jack turned back to the monster. "Check it out, big guy. Victor Frankenstein is in here."

The monster scrambled into the room. There he saw Frankenstien's head pickled in a glass jar. The head blinked at him madly.

The creature shook his own head in disgust. "Beautiful, Victor. Beautiful, beautiful Victor."

"That's right, my friend," Jack said. "Frankenstein is worse than dead. He's become a victim of his own experiments. the same ones that gave you your miserable existence. You couldn't have given him a more fitting revenge even if you had tried."

The monster looked at Jack, and laughed. "You are right, sir. Damned right. I really should just leave him the way he is, shouldn't I? Anything else would only release him into more merciful hands."

"Nobody's leaving anyone now," Emilia said as she looked out the window. "Captain Brogard's troops have just arrived. They're suurounding the place."

"Croque must have learned that I have Frankenstein's notes," Walton shouted as he joined the group. "I won't allow them to fall into the hands of Napoleon."

The others watched as Walton took his torch, and tossed it onto a pile of papers. They lit up like a bonfire.

Captain Brogard's army arrived at the lighthouse only to watch it burn. The place went up like a pile of dried leaves. The soldiers were almost overcome by the smoke.

The blaze at least gave Jack and Emilia the diversion they needed to run out without the army seeing them. They made it away safe and sound.

"They searched the rubble for days," Emilia later said. "They didn't find any trace of Robert Walton or the monster."

"Or that head," Jack nodded. "Or any of Frankenstein's notes."

Emilia sighed. "I wonder if that creature is still out there. Still living his pathetic existance."

Jack saw Emilia sulk. This hadn't been a good week for her. She had always been a big advocate of science. It was a shock for her to see technology's dark side. The creations of man's imagination could lead to undreamed of treasures. They could also lead to unfathomable hells. Emilia had seen one of those hells in the eyes of Victor Fankenstein.

Emilia turned to Jack. "I don't really know what to make of all this. Perhaps a friend of mine can help,"

Emilia took out a fat envelope. "This is the only thing I could save from the fire. This envelope contains letters Robert Walton wrote to his sister, Magaret Saville, during his polar expedition. In them, he detailed how he met Victor Frankenstein. How Frankenstein told him about the creation of his monster.

"I'm sending this to a philosopher friend of mine, Mr. William Godwin. Perhaps he can make something out of it."

Over a decade passed before Mr. Godwin's daughter made something out of them.

The End