Author’s Note
Happy Monday! I’m already excited to post tomorrow’s chapter, I hope you guys like this chapter and if you do please vote and comment. Today has been a good day for me because it’s a snow day, so no school. :) That’s why I’m posting at noon instead of around 5/6:00. Also, listen to the song I put in multimedia... it came on Pandora while I was editing this chapter and I thought the lyrics kind of fit this story... thanks for reading!
Chapter VII
“Elizabeth, will you marry me?” asks Victor, holding up a ring with a large sparkling diamond attached to the band by gleaming silver fingers. Marriage? It feels like I’ve only met this man a few months ago! I can feel my face getting redder by the second. I can’t believe it has already been ten years since I arrived here at the castle. I can still remember the moment that I saw the elder Mr. Frankenstein for the first time, while everything before that is still a blur. But marriage! Something in my heart aches at the word, as if some forgotten memory is trying to burst out. I stand there in front of the man on his knees, trying to find the right words to say. I’m not sure I even know what the right words are. Justine has been hinting at this all week, only I was too scattered to even put the pieces together. I hear a crack of thunder outside.
Then it hits me, whoever my heart keeps aching for is gone, nonexistent for all I know. Victor is an extremely nice man who really does care for me, and he is handsome I must admit.
“Yes,” I answer, hearing the word come out of my mouth makes everything seem so final. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. He replies with a huge smile and a sigh of relief.
“Then since you have made me the happiest man in the world, I have something to show you,” he tells me, gesturing for me to follow him.
“What is it?” I ask curiously as we make our way downstairs to his lab. I haven’t been down there since the first time we met.
“Remember that thing I was working on the day you arrived?” he asks, cracking a small smile.
“Yeah,” I answer, raising my eyebrow.
“I think it’s almost done, but I want you to be here if it succeeds,” he says.
We walk through the door and immediately I notice something covered up on the table. “Is that it?” I ask.
“Yes,” he says, his smile growing larger with every step we take. I notice that it’s big, a lot bigger than the thing I saw when I arrived. It looks almost in the shape of a… human? He takes the long white sheet and uncovers the thing on the table to reveal a large being, its skin an earthy hue. It has long scars everywhere and looks like every appendage was once from a different place, each coming from a different person. The thought is disturbing, but it in itself is absolutely fascinating. The oddest part though, is the large metal bolts sticking out of his neck.
“What are those for?” I ask, pointing to them.
“Those,” he explains, “are what will bring this creature to life!” Right as he says this, one of the other scientists hooks something onto the bolts which connects up through the floor by a machine. I watch as he flips some of the switches and waits for the machine to get to full power. There is a small dinging sound coming from the machine every second or so.
“What’s the noise for?” I ask.
“To tell us that it’s still taking in electricity. When it stops dinging, it will be ready,” he explains.
“Where is it getting the electricity from?” I ask.
He points up to the ceiling, “The lightning outside,” he smiles. As if on cue, another strike of thunder rattles through the lab. Then the machine dings a long ten second ding before it silences. Victor and the other men in the lab crowd around the man on the table and around Victor’s machine.
“I want to press it!” they all argue, referring to the large red button on the side I assume. Victor raises his hands up and tries to calm the men down.
“Come on now guys, it’s mine so I’m picking who gets to press it,” he says. The men all look at their boss in anticipation. He looks at me and walks over, grasping my hand and bringing me to the machine. “Would you like to do the honors?” he asks me. I can hear a collective groan from the men, but they know that arguing won’t do any good, so they stand there shooting me jealous glares.
“Maybe I’m not the best person for the job,” I tell him, glancing at the other men who have spent more than ten years of their lives on this project while I lay upstairs reading and studying science.
“Pushing a button takes no special skill my dear,” he chuckles. I can tell that I’m not going to be able to get out of it, so I go for it. I raise my hand up to the glowing red circle and place my finger on the top of it, hand shaking. I have no idea what will happen when I press this button. I feel Victor’s arm wrap around my waist. I close my eyes and push it.
Even through my closed eyelids I can see bright white lights pulsate through the lab, along with intense vibrations and loud cracking sounds. I scream, but it is muffled with the deathly noise. What did I just do? Suddenly after what seems like forever passes, everything stops at once. I hear a groan coming from the direction of the table. I don’t recognize the voice of the person who made it. I then hear Victor gasp and run to the table where the greenish man lay. I walk over and can’t believe my eyes. The thing that was dead -or not living- just moments ago was now swaying his head and arms back and forth on the table. Then the thing opens his eyes.
It takes a while for it to adjust before it jerks up, violently trying to rock its way off the table bolted to the stone floor. Luckily Victor and his men thought of chaining it down before all this, or I’m sure it would be destroying half the castle by now. Victor runs to another work table and grabs a potion, it looks like the same glowing pink liquid that I drank that night in the rain so long ago.
“What’s wrong?” I ask as Victor measures out a dose of the stuff.
“As I predicted, the brain I placed in the monster remembers his past life as a convicted murderer, who had quite the list of mental problems might I add,” he explains, “This is a formula I created to erase its memory so it can start its new life with a fresh start.”
“Wait, so that liquid erases every past memory?” I ask; my heart rate accelerates as I realize that this compound is the reason for my memory loss. “Is there a way to regain someone’s memories back if they drank it?”
He shuffles the glass and the compound in his hands quickly. I can tell he’s extremely busy, but now that I know what happened to me, I want answers.
“Well, I haven’t yet made a compound that would counteract this one, but I do know how,” he replies, rushing some to the man and forcing it down his throat. The green man immediately relaxes, to the point of sleep and I can feel a sweep of relief spread through the room. I am little disappointed that I will never have the questions about my life before answered, but then again, I haven’t heard of anybody looking for me. So my life couldn’t have been that great if nobody from it cares enough to find me, right?
“So what should we call it?” Victor asks his men, who are all crowding around their work in awe. One of the younger skinnier boys with curly red hair and glasses steps forward.
“How about Frankenstein’s Monster?” he suggests with a toothy grin, the rest of the men groan in unison.
“Suck up,” I hear one of them whisper. I smile, knowing that Victor’s narcissistic side will probably jump at that opportunity. Sure enough…
“Great suggestion Charles! Are there any others?” he asks, scanning the rest of the men. They all have their eyebrows scrunched together like they’re trying to quickly come up with something else before Victor takes Charles’ idea. They’re too late though. “Frankenstein’s Monster it is!” he exclaims, clapping his hands once and moving on the next point of business.
“Well, I’m going to go help Justine with dinner,” I tell Victor when it’s clear that my presence is no longer needed.
“Okay, I’ll see you later then?” he asks, looking deeply into my eyes.
“Of course!” I tell him. He smiles and kisses my forehead. I look behind him at the scientists ganging up a little on Charles. I giggle, “I think Charles needs some help over there.”
“Ever since we brought him aboard he’s been stuck to my side like glue,” he laughs, “as annoying as he can be; nobody ever actually does him any harm.” He looks back down into my eyes. “I love you,” he tells me; I can see his eyes sparkle with sincerity.
“I…” I start, pushing the unknown feelings out of my mind. “I love you too.” I think I really do love him, but again, something in my heart just doesn’t feel right.
*
I wake up so late the next morning that morning is actually twenty minutes from being the afternoon. A sharp pain runs through my head. “Ugh,” I sigh out loud, rubbing my temples. I think back to my dream and open Henry’s storybook to the page I left off. Sure enough, the words match my dream exactly. I even recognize the picture as if it were an exact painting of Victor’s lab.
My heart starts speeding up, how could all of this actually be real? I think back to Jefferson’s questions earlier last night. I really don’t remember anything that has happened to me when I was younger. In fact I, like everyone else, has seemed to have stayed the same age, frozen in time for the past twenty-eight years. But if Simon and I are really a part of this curse, how did we end up outside of Storybrooke? If the queen hated us that much she could’ve just sent us to some other world, or even killed us if she wanted to. It would have been a lot easier then to risk us finding Storybrooke like we did.
In the midst of my thoughts I hear shoes running down the hallway. I really hope whoever it is isn’t here for me. I drop my head when the footsteps stop and I hear five clear knocks on my door. “Come in!” I yell, unwilling to get up and get the door myself. Then I see the bright, smiling face of Henry walking through the door.
“How did you sleep?” he asks, gazing at his book I set down last night. I hear more footsteps in the hallway only to see Simon’s face appear moments later.
“I slept alright,” I tell him, looking at Simon.
“Great!” Henry exclaims, “Did you read the book? Did you find your story?” he asks with more excitement than my head can handle.
“I think so, but I still don’t think I’m Alice,” I tell him. He tilts his head at me.
“What? But Jefferson recognizes you! He has that painting with you and everything! You are Alice!” he tells me.
I turn the book around to show him, “This is what I’ve been dreaming about,” I say pointing to a page in the Frankenstein story. He snatches the book from me and starts skimming the pages.
“That’s impossible,” he mumbles, still skimming. “Everything else adds up though!” he starts again, “You coming here with Simon, the Cheshire Cat, Jefferson recognizing you, everything but this!” he says referring to the story. I just shrug. Simon, who has been silent for the past few minutes, speaks up.
“Elle, you were even in my dream last night. It was the first time we met. I jumped out of a tree expecting to land on a pillow, but landed on you instead,” he says. That’s just how Jefferson said we met.
“I just don’t remember any of it!” I snap. But then it hits me, the pink liquid that I thought was a potion and drank erased my memories back in that time and in my dreams. Maybe those memories are still erased! I can’t believe I didn’t put the pieces together before! “What is Alice’s sister’s name again?” I ask Henry.
He flips back a few pages. “Elizabeth,” he says. I laugh so loud that Henry and Simon look at me confused. “I know what happened!” I tell them, excited for once that things are starting to fall into place.
After I finish my story, they look pretty shocked.
“We just need to figure out who Victor Frankenstein is and get him to create the compound that will counteract the one I took!” I tell them, excited at the chance of my memories coming back.
“It’s not that easy though,” Simon starts, “Whoever this Victor guy is won’t even remember that he’s the same guy who made that compound. He won’t know anything here.” My head drops at that realization.
“The curse needs to be broken before he can help us,” Henry sulks.
“How can we break the curse?” I ask him, desperate to know what my life was like before I reached The Frankenstein’s castle.
“We can’t break it,” he starts, “Only Emma can, it’s her destiny, and even she doesn’t know how to break it. I don’t even think she fully believes in the curse herself.” Emma? The sheriff? As many questions as that gives me, I decide that he knows what he’s talking about so I leave it be. But there’s one question that’s been nagging at me more than the others.
“Why is it so important that I know that the curse exists? That Simon and I know who we are really supposed to be?” I ask.
Henry thinks for a minute, then smiles. “Two reasons. One, Jefferson found me after he met you and begged me to get you to remember who he is if he couldn’t, and if you haven’t already noticed, Jefferson can get a little extreme at times. He is the Mad Hatter you know. When Emma went over to his place a few weeks ago, well,” he pauses, “He’s just a guy who will do anything to get his family back.” I furrow my eyebrows together, but he moves on right away. “The second reason is that I’m curious about your story too. You are a part of all this, yet you haven’t been living here in Storybrooke. I want to know why.” I nod. Those are the same questions I want answered, and I suppose that if anyone can help me find the answers, it’s these two.
“Alright,” I tell them, “Do we have a plan?” They look at each other.
“Not at the moment, we kind of thought that you would remember being Alice by now,” Simon admitted. “We had no idea that there was a memory erasing drug involved from way back when,” he tells me.
“Okay,” I sigh, “Well, I’m kind of hungry, I’m going to see if there’s any food in this hospital,” I tell them, wanting to mask my disappointment by changing the subject. I slide my legs off the edge of the bed and attempt to stand up, but am immediately hit with a wave of a huge headache again. “Ugh!” I press my hands on my head.
“Here,” Simon says, helping me lay down again, “We’ll go and find a doctor to check that out,” he says, pointing to my head, “and we’ll tell him to find you food while he’s on it.” Simon gives me another one of his trademark smiles, which I guess really is trademarked now. Henry grabs his book and the boys leave back down the hallway with a wave.
*
Where’s my food? I ask myself after ten minutes. Maybe Simon forgot to find me a doctor. I can hear my stomach grumble and I groan; it must have been a full day since I last ate, probably longer though.
A few more minutes pass and I’m back to resting on the bed, eyes closed, and listening to the activity of the hospital. Then I hear the familiar sound of footsteps in the hall. I silently pray that whoever’s out there has some food for me. I hear three knocks at the door. I smile, “Come in!” I shout to my next visitor.
“I was told you wanted some food?” the voice asks. I take in a breath and hold it, snapping my eyes open again at the familiarity of the voice. “and that if you didn’t get some soon you were going to run like a madwoman on a rampage around the hospital,” the doctor says chuckling. Hmm, I wonder who told him that. Looking closely at him, I see he has the same blonde hair as the man in my dreams. How didn’t I see it last night? I must have just not wanted to believe that any of this curse business was true. The only thing he’s missing is the dark eye makeup. Even his medical coat looks the same on him!
Oh my God, I think to myself. It’s Victor Frankenstein. What did he say his name was here? He starts walking to my bed with the tray of food and as he places it on my rolling table I check out his nametag. Dr. Whale! That’s right. He steps back again and looks at me. I realize that my eyes have been awkwardly glued to him from the second he stepped foot in the room and I quickly look away hoping he didn’t notice.
“How are you doing today?” he asks, taking out a notebook and a pen.
“Good,” I tell him, but my head throbs as if on cue for my forgetting about it. “My head has been hurting a lot though.” He nods and starts writing in his notebook.
“Well, your test results we took last night came out this morning while you were sleeping. You do have a very minor concussion. It’s healing quickly and you should be back to normal in a few days. You could even go home as soon as tomorrow if you feel up to it,” he tells me.
“Okay,” I say again, “Thank you.” I wonder if he actually does know about the curse or not, I mean, it seems like there are still some people here who know about it, Jefferson for example. He turns to walk out, but in my desperation, I decide that I want to test him out for the slight possibility that he remembers. “Wait!” I call as he’s opening the door, “Do you know of a medicine or something that could bring back someone’s memory?” I ask. He immediately turns around and looks seriously at me.
“Did the accident cause you memory loss?” He worriedly asks.
“No, no!” I reassure him, “I’m fine, I was just wondering if there’s a formula or something that would help in case something like that were to happen.”
“I’m afraid I don’t, as of yet nobody in this world has that knowledge to know how to create something that advanced, otherwise Alzheimer’s would pretty much be non-existent at this point,” he chuckles and starts walking out. At the door he pauses, “Something like that really would be amazing though, wouldn’t it? It sure would have come in handy a month ago when one of our patients came out of a coma and couldn’t remember a thing about his life.” He stands there staring into space, no doubt thinking of all the other possibilities. “Well,” he says, snapping back into reality, “Call if you need anything, there’s that red button on the side of the bed that will signal a nurse into the room. Enjoy your pizza!” he says walking out.
I look down at my plate to see a large slice of pepperoni pizza with potato chips and juice on the side. It’s apple juice! I’m a little surprised though; I would’ve thought that a hospital would serve healthier food. Oh well! I look to the side of my bed and search for the button he was talking about. Sure enough, there it is. Is it a coincidence that it looks identical to the one that I pushed in my dream, bringing Frankenstein’s Monster to life? Coincidence or not, I brush the thought off.
I think back to what Victor, or Dr. Whale said about the drug. “Nobody in this world has that knowledge,” is what he said. Nobody in this world. I know that he wasn’t actually implying that there are other worlds out there, but it is a funny choice of words now that I know what I know. He comes from a world where he alone is that advanced and he alone is my only hope of remembering my life as Alice.