Frankenstein Lives Again (The New Adventures of Frankenstein)
Page 18
The giant reached out for her, his monstrous hand resting gently upon her shoulder. His dark lips started to curl into something resembling a smile. He began to draw her tenderly away from the edge of the parapet in the direction of the stairs. But as they turned, both the Monster and the woman stopped abruptly.
“Lynn!”
Torch in hand, Winslow stepped forward from the top of the staircase. There was a look of horror upon his face as he stared at the woman he loved in the company of the Monster that he hated. “Get away from that thing, Lynn!”
Winslow knew that he had to act fast before the rain extinguished his torch. He saw the Monster’s electrodes glint in the torchlight. His gaze met the hateful eyes of the beast.
From behind, at the bottom of the stairs, the crowd was shouting, waiting for him to carry out his promise to destroy the creature.
“Lynn, get away from it!”
“No, Burt, please don’t – "
Waving his torch, Winslow rushed forward, hearing the hate-filled snarl of the Monster as he began to back away from his fire. He saw the Monster gently move Lynn aside. In a moment he felt the guilt of every death perpetrated by the creature. A second later, he was an inch away from the beast, thrusting the blazing weapon into that stitched yellow face.
A shriek of agony resounded across the rooftop.
Another cannonade of thunder roared overhead as if in acknowledgment of the Monster’s cry.
The roof was already crowding with torch-carrying townspeople as the Monster staggered about, the fiery weapon still stuck to his face, his arms flailing about helplessly as he staggered closer to the parapet’s edge.
Lynn cried out, “No!” and began to move toward the giant, but was stopped by Winslow. He wrapped an arm about her wet body, pulling her against him and holding her back.
“Don’t worry, Lynn,” he said. “The Monster won’t hurt you now.”
She began to weep. “But, you don’t understand...”
Then the Monster, his face still burning, his mouth still screaming through the crackling flames, fell against the parapet stone and off the roof of Castle Frankenstein to be embraced by the violence of the moat.
Immediately, the group of villagers rushed to the parapet’s edge and looked down, with Winslow and the woman he held moving in after them. They saw nothing below but the turbulent waters, rushing to mingle with the mountain streams.
Lynn turned away and looked into Winslow’s face, tears in her eyes and mingling with the falling rain. “Oh, Burt. He wouldn’t have harmed me. He was only trying to save me from Dartani, then bring me back out of the storm.”
Winslow, not really hearing her, pulled her nearer and guided her face against his chest.
“Well, you did it, Dr. Winslow,” said one of the men from the town. “You kept your promise and got rid of the demon. Now, if you’re smart, you’ll get rid of yourself, too, and leave Ingolstadt.”
Someone else added, “It’s all over. We can all go home now.”
Winslow did not respond to them. He continued to hold Lynn against him, shielding her near-nakedness from the villagers as they tossed their torches into the angry waters of the moat as if in a final defiant gesture against him and the Monster, then filed back down the stairs and inside the castle. A few of them paused long enough to see the young man and woman embracing in the rain or to look up at the lightning that seemed to be crashing in tribute to what had just taken place.
Even when the villagers had gone, Winslow, still holding Lynn in his arms, was staring down at the moat, knowing that its waters would eventually empty out into the Rhine. He watched the waves that smashed against mammoth rocks, as though he expected to see a stitched and yellowed hand reach out from those black waters. But no hand emerged, and Winslow finally turned away from the edge of the parapet, guiding Lynn toward the stairs.
Winslow thought of a line he had memorized long ago:
He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in the darkness and distance.
This time, he prayed, it would be forever.
THE END
About the Author
Donald F. Glut was born February 19, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois and since birth has been interested in all things fantastic. Growing up with a steady diet of listening to Superman on the radio, watching Tales of Tomorrow on television and reading comics as a kid, Don made the transition to science fiction and horror as he grew older. He started buying Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine with the first issue, which led to a meeting with its editor, Forrest J. Ackerman who was taken with Don’s many creative endeavors. Ackerman later became Don’s agent. Since those early efforts, Don has gone on to achieve success in many aspects of the entertainment business:
Don is the author of the STAR WARS: The Empire Strikes Back novel as well as over two-dozen non-fiction works including The Dinosaur Dictionary, Classic Movie Monsters and The Frankenstein Legend. He has earned a legion of comic book fans as the creator of many comic book characters including: Dagar the Invincible, The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor and for numerous stories for Captain America, The Invaders and Vampirella.
In addition to writing, Don is an accomplished filmmaker having written, directed and produced such cult classic feature films as Dinosaur Valley Girls, Blood Scarab, The Erotic Rites of Dracula and The Mummy’s Kiss. A DVD of his early film work was released entitled I Was A Teenage Moviemaker. Don has also written scripts for many beloved television shows including Land of the Lost, Shazam!, Transformers, Spiderman and his Amazing Friends, GI Joe and The X-Men.
Pulp 2.0 Press is proud to bring Don’s work back to audiences in these new digital and collector’s print editions. For more information on other Donald F. Glut books available from Pulp 2.0 please log on to www.pulp2ohpress.com .
The New Adventures Of Frankenstein Series
by Donald F. Glut
Frankenstein Lives Again
Terror of Frankenstein
Bones of Frankenstein
Frankenstein Meets Dracula
Frankenstein vs. the Werewolf
Frankenstein in the Lost World
Frankenstein in the Mummy’s Tomb
Return of Frankenstein
Frankenstein and the Curse of Dr. Jekyll
Tales of Frankenstein
Frankenstein and the Evil of Dracula
For more information on these and other titles available from Pulp 2.0 please log on to www.pulp2ohpress.com
Table of Contents
Frozen Horror
Some Legends Are Based On Fact
Castle Frankenstein
The Ravings Of A Madman
Death In The Shadows
The Ice God
Departure and Death
Traveling Terrors
A New Frankenstein?
To Walk Again
When Menaces Meet
Horror Stalks The Streets
Dartani's Secret
History Repeats Itself
About the Author
The New Adventures Of Frankenstein Series