Justine flinched at the sudden aggression, curling against the car door farther—if that was even possible. A vertical crease formed between her eyebrows while he talked. And then kept talking about what sounded like nonsense to her, at least without context. She had never imagined Victor as a dangerous man. Granted she only saw him once or twice in passing, but it was hardly believable that the scrawny student she met could be responsible for all of this man’s troubles, unless she went back to what he said about being a child. “I-I’m sorry—“ more disbelief than an apology—“are you his…son? Or nephew or something because you don’t exactly look it.” Either way the creature had made it obvious that he was in pain, and she did feel for him, as much sympathy as one could hold for one’s captor with a tragic tale.
“You have no idea.” he said, laughing bitterly and turning the car around a corner, the rickety old thing rattling even louder as he did so. “Listen to me. I’m about to tell you something you’ll never believe, but I’m going to have to trust you won’t call me a liar. If you do, I can’t help you. But… Victor. I suppose he must have been interested in the sciences relating to life and death for a while, judging by his journal. I’ve read the whole thing through. ‘Total failure’ he called me. As far as I know, I’m nothing more than the result of a few hundred cadavers strung together, although I have no idea how. But from what I’ve come to understand of his journal… Victor created me. Out of dead bodies. And then he brought the sum of those bodies to life, and that resulted in me.” the creature drove ahead, further refusing to explain himself, and the road gradually became smoother, after a few hours it began to fill with cars and people walking the streets. They were in the city now, and any questions Justine may have had were likely going to be ignored until they stopped. “We’re almost there. You would count as a relative to Victor, yes? Or something of that ilk. I’ll need you to help me visit him, since despite my… unusual status in relating to him would probably not qualify.”
