Victor was a prodigy in many ways, but parenting was not one of them. When his creation first came to life, his immediate instinct was to destroy it; something so obviously hideous and terrible didn't deserve to be alive. But the years of slaving over the monster before him made him hesitate. Perhaps there could be a way to redeem the creature, or at least keep it from bringing harm or destruction to anyone else and not have years' worth of research go to waste. I brought this monster to life. I suppose it's my responsibility to raise it, Victor had thought grimly.
Barely a week later, Victor was beginning to regret his decision, but he was afraid of what would happen if he let his monster go free. As of now, the monster still relied on him, so they wouldn't go anywhere, and that thought helped Victor a bit. He didn't know what he would do if he was forced to be cooped up with the creature every hour of the day. The few hours of solitude he could get was the only thing keeping him sane. The serenity never lasted for long, however, since he seemed to always come back to a shattered object thanks to the clumsy creature.
Currently, he was sitting at his desk writing in his journal, glancing up every few seconds to make sure the monster didn't try to get too close to the fire again. The fact that the monster seemed to understand the concept of fire was definitely progress, but he still didn't trust them around it, especially after he had to patch them up after they burned through some of their stitching. Looking down at his journal, a small part of Victor wondered why anger had replaced concern or empathy when his creation burned themself, but another glance at the grotesque monster quickly reminded him why. They may be made of human parts, but they will never be human.
Something in this meandering thought process sparked something in the creature’s mind. Whilst they couldn’t figure out why fire hurt, it led them down a different path of discovery. What if, they thought, what if like how “fire” as a sounded out word meant “fire” as in the object, well, what if other sounds meant other things too? It was truly a fascinating idea, and this led them to another idea. Tiny angry man always took out those beautiful books to try and teach them that had the most wonderful of illustrations (medical textbooks with many diagrams) to try and show them something. What if those were connected with the sounds?
They stood up and walked away from the fire, bare feet padding softly on the floor as they approached a bookshelf with curiosity. Perhaps they could figure out what all the scribbles (words) and pictures meant and how they connected, if only they looked at them long enough.
They took a book off the shelf, leafing gently through the pages as they tried to figure out what the letters and diagrams were supposed to mean. It was a code they had to crack, or perhaps a great discovery to be made. Something about the tiny print made the creature think that the sounds had more meaning than they would ever realize, but oh, was it beautiful.
Victor soon got lost in his writing, furiously jotting down notes. He knew that he could create life; the monster residing with him was proof of that. But what if he could reanimate humans, actual humans, from the dead? Or maybe he could create a more human, less hideous version of the creation he had now. He smiled to himself thoughtfully, glancing up towards where the monster was before blinking in alarm when he saw that they had moved.
He immediately got up and looked around frantically. Once his eyes landed on the monster, he relaxed a bit before realizing that the monster was going through his books.
"Don't touch that!" Victor yelped, nearly tripping over himself as he ran over and snatched the book out of the monster's hands, clutching it protectively. "What's gotten into you? My work is important, and I will not allow you to destroy it!"
Victor glared angrily at them before looking at the book and realizing with surprise that it was unharmed. They didn't ruin it at all, he thought, feeling slightly shocked. When his heart stopped pounding in his chest from fear, he looked up at the monster before glancing down at the book again, and understanding began to dawn on him.
"Oh," he said in a much calmer, rational tone than before as he once again turned his gaze to them. "Were you trying to read? Is that what you were doing?"
The monster startled when the man snatched the book out of their hands, letting out a sound of disappointment and protest. They didn’t try to take it back though, giving instead a puppy-eyes look to the little human and waiting for something to happen. When the man spoke, less brash and angry now, they didn’t know how to respond. They simply traced the words on the cover of the book with a finger, trying to map out what it all meant.
It didn’t really make sense to them, why everything they did was some massive mistake. All the creature knew was that they were walking on eggshells, and it was a confidence boost to have any sort of understanding of what was going on. When that was ripped away from them, they didn’t know how to cope.
Victor tensed a bit when the monster touched his book, but he felt a small thrill of satisfaction when they began tracing a finger over the cover of the book as if trying to say that they did want to read. A thoughtful look appeared on Victor's face. Reading and writing would probably be easier to teach than speaking, and it would make communication much easier too.
"Yes. Ok, we can make this work," he muttered to himself, pacing back and forth with the book still in his hands. After a couple of moments, he stopped his pacing and turned around, facing the monster again, focusing his gaze on one of the bookshelves beside them instead of giving them direct eye contact.
"We should start with something more simple, maybe something that has pictures in it," he said to them, tossing the book he was holding onto a nearby desk before heading over to the bookshelves and looking over the titles. Should I start with the alphabet instead? He wondered, frowning as he realized he didn't have any suitable books for teaching someone how to read. I have no idea what I'm doing.
The monster thought for a moment, looking back to the fire for a split second before looking back at the man quizzically. If only they could figure out what was wanted from them! If only this little human could tell them! They kept their gaze flitting between the little man and the books, feeling a tad embarrassed about their curiosity. They didn’t understand why this human would be taking pause, but it only made too much sense at the same time. He must be thinking, too! This discovery set the creature alight with ideas.
After a few more moments of looking through the titles on his shelves in vain, Victor let out a heavy sigh, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
"Maybe I'm thinking too hard about this," he said out loud after a while. "Maybe if I can get you to understand what certain objects are and how they're written out, then you can start writing sentences to talk."
His mind whirling with the possibility of progress, he walked back to his desk and pulled out a sheet of parchment, a fountain pen, and in inkwell before going back to the monster.
"Let's start with what you're familiar with," Victor said eagerly, glancing around the room before his eyes finally settled on the burning embers a few feet away from him. "Ah, perfect!"
As neatly as possible, he began writing out 'fire' slowly so the monster could see how to write in big letters on the parchment. "This says fire," Victor stated once he was done, pointing at the word before pointing at the fire. "Can you try writing that?"
He hesitated for only a moment before offering the pen to them, his eyes burning with curiosity at the thought of being able to achieve communication with this creature.
The creature figured that these strange symbols must mean something related to the fire, and they took the pen gingerly, dipping it into the ink the same way the little human had and began to shakily write down the letters, they looked strange and warped but still somehow legible and it was at least some measure of success. The creature eventually reasoned that the symbols must mean “fire”, and that only reinforced their desire to keep learning.
.png)