Frauleinstein

Chapter XVI: Livin' on the Edge, Part I

Zolfina looked on, horrified by the titanic battle. Sometimes, when everything was at its worst her gypsy gift of future sight could offer some hint, some way out of disaster. She concentrated, but no images of the future came to her mind.

Nothing, Zolfina thought to herself. No images of the future! Nothing to save us. But then...

What was that? An image, a scene, from a time and place in the long, distant past! Yes...

"Steven Frank!" Zolfina called out to Fräulein Stein. "Tell him your name! You must tell him your name!"

Steve put all his effort into shifting The Monster's arm from his throat so he would have enough air to speak.

"Hi, I'm Steve," he managed to squeak, holding one hand over his shoulder to The Monster behind him, offering to shake. The Monster, for his part, completely ignored him.

"No, not that name!" Zolfina shouted. "Search your memories, Steven Frank. Tell him the name your grandmother used. Her special name, just for you. Remember, when you were a little girl!"

Steve searched through the memories of Giselle Gottlieb. It was becoming difficult to remember; so little of her memories remained, and what little there was, was all mixed up. It was so difficult to think with this monster crushing him; he just didn't know...

"It was Gisa!" he suddenly remembered. "My name was Giselle, but my grandmother always called me Gisa."

The Monster stopped fighting, a look of dismay crossing its face. He had shown no interest in anything anyone had to say up to this point, but at least now he was listening. Still, his arm remained firmly around the Fräulein's throat.

"She told you about monsters!" Zolfina called to him. "Please, do you remember?"

"I was alone in my room, and I was afraid!" the Fräulein said as tears suddenly flowed down her cheeks, whether from the memory or from her current circumstances even she was unsure. "It was night and I was afraid of my room, afraid of the dark. Afraid of monsters!" For some reason The Monster loosened his grip, and so Fräulein Stein continued.

"My grandmother came to me. She sat with me, and she said that there were no monsters. She told me a story, about a train. She was traveling with her mother, and her mother told her that there was a monster on the train. But she had seen the monster, seen his face, and she knew he was only a sad old man. And she thought if he would smile, maybe people wouldn't be so afraid. Her mother had bought a bouquet of flowers, so she took one. She snuck away from her mother, and gave the flower to the monster, and he smiled. Then she knew he wasn't a monster at all."

The Monster let go of her, no further thoughts of violence on its mind. It stood and walked away from Fräulein Stein, walked away from the fight. It reached into a deep pocket of its great coat, and pulled out a very old bible. Opening it, he stared at the tiny daisy pressed between its pages.

Fräulein Stein stepped up cautiously behind The Monster. She put a hand on its arm and said, "She told me, if I ever should see a monster, I should try being kind to it. Because maybe, no one had ever tried that before."

Zolfina joined them and told him, "She did not ask for this. She is also an innocent."

The Monster stood, deep in thought for a long time. But eventually it reached a decision.

"You should all leave," it said in its deep, gravelly voice. He then ignored them all once again as he moved to the column, the pillar supporting the roof above their heads. The Monster shoved against the column of reinforced stone, with no immediate effect. He punched the column several times, raising small clouds of dust, and chipping small amounts of concrete from the pillar, but making little progress.

"No!" cried out Pretorius. He grabbed The Monster's arm and tried to stop him, with about the same effect as if he tried to hold back a freight train.

"You cannot do this!" Pretorius screamed. "The secret to life! It's here, we can find it! It is ours for the taking! Stop before you destroy everything!"

Fräulein Stein approached The Monster, grabbing his arm as Pretorius had. But unlike Pretorius, she was able to stop his massive fist mid-punch.

"He's right. You can't do this," she told him. The Monster turned, letting her know with a look that he would not allow her to interfere and would fight her if necessary. Pretorius smiled at suddenly having a super-strong ally on his side.

Fräulein Stein took The Monster's hand, and gently moved it to grab a piece of reinforcing steel bar exposed from the concrete by the earlier blast. With her hand over his she helped him to pull the bar free, and with it a large chunk of concrete.

"You can't do this," she explained. "But you can with my help." The Monster smiled, and together they grabbed another piece of steel.

Pretorius' face fell as he realized what was happening. "No!" he screamed, grabbing at The Two Monsters, ineffectively attempting to prevent them from pulling down the pillar.

Fräulein Stein laughed over her shoulder as she spoke to Roddy and Zolfina while shoving Pretorius out of the way. "Thanks Gypsy Lady. I guess I should have listened to you the first time we met! But now I think you had both better leave."

 Roddy grabbed Zolfina's hand and led her up the stone stairs to the first floor door. Zolfina exited, but Roddy remained a moment to look down from the balcony, as he had seventy years earlier. Then, it had been to watch two monsters trying to destroy one another. This time he saw two monsters working together as they alternately slammed the pillar with either their fists or their shoulders. That, and one mad scientist ineffectively attempting to stop them. Roddy turned and left, following Zolfina out of the building.

A/N: Oh no, it's almost over...