Chapter Text
Hope was man's greatest weapon, as well as his greatest torment.
Hope was a terribly fragile, yet festering thing, endlessly seeking out holes in his resolve and burrowing deep into his soul, furrowed far where he could not tear it out. Why did it hound him so? It clawed and struggled and resided stubbornly in his breast, small but encompassing. Were it but a physical thing he could rid himself of!
The Creature trembled; his rough, marred hands clutched at himself as if in agony; was it not? Tears flowed, free and uninterrupted, down his wretch-like visage. Who knew what horrors he could be likened to when he was like this: brought low in fury and shame and grief?
The man’s words resounded in his head like the church bells, loud and sweet and it burned in his chest: “Wait! Please, I know Victor’s tale, but does not every story have more than a single perspective? He told me of your story, but I would hear the words from your mouth.”
Wretched, hopeless creature! Had I not learned of man’s treacherous nature? Have I not felt the blows of violence enough times? Yet still, that detested, desperate hope smoldered to life in his chest.
“You do not know what you ask.” His voice was frigid as the air surrounding them, completely at odds with the vulnerability reflected in his watery eyes, the last defense against the suffocating swell of emotion.
The Captain stepped forward, hands slightly raised and apart, as if he were approaching a wild animal. “I ask for your account, unbiased as… Victor’s may have been.”
The sight of his cautious approach only enraged his passions further. “I am the abhorred, the wretch of his monstrous work.” The Creature hissed, a hot sting of pressure behind his eyes. “I am treated as less than a beast, a daemon from the lowest pits of Hell. Thou art a heartless being, sowing the blackened seed of hope within my breast.”
The Captain’s face twisted, distress present in his features. “I do not believe as Victor does—did. You were once capable of great love and compassion; you had said so yourself. But you were never given a chance. I want to give you that chance.” He shook his head. “To stand by and let you— I cannot, that would be inexcusable.” His lips firmed, determination steeling his gaze. “Extinguishing yourself in this manner is not the only path.”
He stilled, struggling with the burning flash of that miserable want; the want to live, to deserve the life that his Creator had bestowed without thought of consequence.
However… Flashes of faces, eyes wide with terror, crossed his vision. He flinched, unable to ignore the phantom sensation of a silky skin of a throat, warm in his palms… His hands clenched, tight as a snake’s coil, as he bowed his head. Dark strands curtained his face from the world, granting the man a small mercy, alleviating him from his repellent visage.
“I have killed,” the Creature moaned, anguish surely rending his features horrific. “I murdered the innocent, all for their connection to my Creator. All to make him suffer as I have.”
“I know,” he whispered. “But you regret. You lament your actions, and that is more than some men can say.”
The Captain jumped as the being fell to his knees, shaking, weeping openly. “Your words,” he gasped, hiccupping, “Your words are the kindest I’ve heard. No other—” He gazed at the Captain’s face, a fresh wave of tears falling. He was looking at him, seeing him, and he did not flee, even faced with his wretched grotesqueness. Insistent now, he leaned closer, pressing a hand to his breast. “Do I not bleed as a man? Do I not feel? Am I not worthy of any of mankind’s more gentle passions?”
Tentatively, the man placed a hand on the Creature’s shoulder, immediately releasing when the being flinched as if burned. “I believe you are a man, a scarred, heavily wronged man. You deserve a chance at redemption, to see the good side of human beings, where you’ve only been witness to the evil. I lend you my ear, to hear your story. Come, so we may talk inside.”
The being stared, eyes appearing to glow in a feverish state. “You… You would—Oh, desolate beginnings! Were that I had found one of your disposition in my first days.” He shook his head, using the knuckles of his hand to wipe fruitlessly at his eyes. “Kind, benevolent Captain, thou cannot imagine the happiness you’ve granted me. Yes, I will explain my origins and the subsequent tale as I understand, and perhaps… Mayhap, I can learn the better nature of mankind, under your guidance.” The Creature hesitated, lifting the end of his sentence as if in question, unsure.
“I believe,” the man began softly, “that would be a desirable goal, my friend.”