Brilliance of A Monster: Chapter X - Time Heals SOME Wounds ............ By: Scarecrow76

As I traveled on from the latest adventure in the saga of Victor and the man who used to be called Conrad I was quietly making my way when I saw a cobblestone church sitting abandoned in the woods. I made my way to it thinkng I might use it for shelter that night. I found a fireplace in the preacher's quarters and built a fire. I looked behind me and saw a messy bed. But it was a bed none the less with all of the linens one could need or want. I could not remeber the last time I slept in a bed that was not a pallet on either a stone floor or the dirt. I walked outside where I had seen a well and drew some water for some bathing and drinking. I then entered the main hall and was shocked to find an old man seated in a pew. "Have you come here for services?" he asked. "I am sorry , I did not know anyone wasactually here" I replied. He said " That is not what I asked you son? Are you here for services." I replied " I am not sure what you mean by services." He smiled and invited me to sit beside him and so I did.

He asked if I had ever read the bible for myself and I explained that I had but I could remember very little of it. Somewhat angered he asked why I did not remember and I explained that I had spent a long time among the dead. I meant this literally but he took it to have a spiritual condentation. He asked me who I was running from. I asked why he thought I was running. He explained that a man of my stature would be highly sought after on any farm and by any king's army. I did not know how to react so I waited to see if he might say something else. We sat in silence a moment. He broke the silence by telling me how his congregation depleted years before. A plague had nearly decimated the population in the area but he was sure new people would come and settle there but had yet to ever have done so. He explained he was now too old and sick to make repairs and do other maintenance to the church. He told me he could not offer me any money but he could seee I was injured to some degree and that I was exhausted from the running. He said I could stay with him if I would do the tasks he no longer could. I almost wept when he showed me the guest quarters I would be staying in which was even nicer than his own quarters though smaller and the thought of finally having a place to lay my head. I stayed there for 10 months building, repairing and preserving the church house and drew water for he and I as well as hunting for fresh game for us both. He had a dog that was rather large who was fattening on the scraps and when the old man would sleep the dog would lay with me as I pet him for hours remembering the first friend I ever made as this abomination.

The old man taught me the bible word for word in the time we spent together. I foud out he was 90 years old and the dog was 5. He told me to take the dog hunting with me. He said that at 90 he did not foresee having very many years left and the dog would need to know how to hunt once he passed and the dog was alone. I reminded him that I was there for him and his dog. He looked skeptically at the ground and said "The repairs are all done now, you have learned all of the knowledge I can possibly teach you and your injuries have healed. At least the ones on the outside have healed. There is no money here, no friends to be made, no women to take as wives and a life to start. What is here is alll that it will ever be. I can not beleive that you want to stay here forever." I told him he was the first to not cringe at the first sight of me. I had a family and they had all passed and that there I was free to breath and no look over my shoulder every moment of every day. I told him he had my loyalty and I was not leaving. He said "I know I have your loyalty son but, had I been young when I took on this role, I never would have stayed. He gave a half melancholy smile and walked away leaving me standing there dumbfounded.

I jut went on and forgot the conversation because I was satisfied with things as they were and thought the old man would see this and be comforted by it after some time. As he begn to see I meant what I had said he seemed happy. He did not espress his happiness verbally but you could see iton his face. Then one morning I woke up to a loud coughing that ended suddenly. I went to his room and found him sleeping and his dog at his feet looking at him in a confused way. The dog repositioned himself by the old man's side turning his eyes towards me every few blinks. I went back to bed. When I woke up, I began preparing breakfast for the 3 of us ands suddenly notice that neither the dog nor the old man had come to the table. I walked into the room and found the old man awake but weak. His continence had failed him and his dog refused to leave his side. I cleaned the old man and changed his linens. I placed him back into bed and asked him what had happened. He explained that 90 years was a very long time for a man to live. He said "The Lord is taking me home slowly so I can say goodbye to the ones I will miss." He placed his hand on my shoulder and told me he saw me like a son. That I was and had been everything he would have hoped for had he ever had a child. The tears rolled down my face and then he told his dog what a good soul he had been since he found him years before rejected by his mother in the woods. He told us both he loved us and asked for the bible from which he had taught me. I brought it to him with trembling hands. He opened it up and performed his own last rights. He closed it and handed it to me and said, "this is your's now, everything that was mine to look after is now your's." I embraced him and he drew in his last breath and gravity forced his body to exhale and he was gone. I looked at the dog who was looking at me as though we were both asking. "Now what do we do?" like 2 scared children who's world just crumbled right before our eyes.

We burried the old man and I made the best marker I could for his final resting place beneath the altar of the church. I kept my promises and the dog struggled to let the old man go. If we were not hunting or eating, the dog was laying on the old man's bed occassionally whining. Then one day we sat out on a hunt. I woke up that morning with the dog sleeping at my side on my bed. We even played for an hour before we started getting ready to go hunting. He was excited and so was I. it seemed as though all was right in our world again. So we started out on the hunt and he dropped down to a protective stance with a low cntinueous growl. I was somewhat startled by it then he just took off after whatever he had seen. Suddenly I heard the loud snap of a poachers snare and a loud you series of yelps. I ran through the woods calling for the dog and found him scared and trying to pull away from the snare, I calmed him and began to get the snare loosened. All I could think was " This is a leather cord. This is not a poacher's snare, this was meant to trap and not to kill." Just then I received a blow to the head with some blunt instrument. I heard Victor's couded voice as he said, thanks for the bear meat, it helped me ssurvive the winter. Don't worry, I am not going to kill your dog.... just you. The wild pigs will make short work of him and whatever is left of you after night fall." The dog managed to work his paw free of the snare and drove Victor away. As my senses restored and the dog guarded me, I could smell burning timbers. We made our way as fast as we could to the church and found it had been partially burned to the ground. Victor had even scrawled on the front door in charred wood "Here Be Monsters" The living area of the church was undamaged and feeling dizzy and weak at the leg I decided the dog and I would spend one last night in our home. Now that Victor knew where we were, we would never be safe here again. That night I ws too dizzy to stand and so I sat on the floor and fell asleep just in that position. I woke up the next day and called for the dog but he never came. I was feeling much better and was no longer dizzy nor was my hearing muffled anymore so I looked around for him outside of the church's remains. I thought if I stayed put inside that he would return and we could move on. While I was waiting I decided to gather what surviving belongings that meant anything to me. I remebered that I had left the bible in the old man's quarters. I walked in to retreive it and found the dog laying on the old man's bed in the most peaceful of sleep I had ever seen him. I gently touched him to wake him and he was cold. I began rubbing his fur hoping to warm and wake him but immediately I felt the absence of life. He went home to whom he truly belonged.... God.

I do not think I will ever be able to doll this one up to make a children's fable of it but OK. I have been putting a lot of me into Conrad and Victor and I probably never will clarify what parts but this story like the original tale by Mary Shelley centuries ago (no I am not saying I read it centuries ago LOL) I find a lot of parallels to my life experience. I will probably post the rest of the story today or tomorrow. I hope someone out there actually reads it and enjoys it. I am not sure if I will go back and polish it at any point. I am hoping people will get the message that Conrad in the story just wants to be happy and left alone but Victor is that part in all of us that makes us punish ourselves for our transgressions that we tend to run from. Conrad is the personality that wants to find a home and Victor is the personality that likes to sabotage him and burn the bridges behind Conrad.The endless tug of war within us all. Hopefully this helps someone to enjoy this darn story that has kept me getting fussed at. You see, there is this guy I read about (clearing my throat) who's wife get's a little peeved when she has to share her time with her hubby's writing and if it makes him take too long to get something done that she has complaining about a little too long. So he travels away in his mind and that's where stories like these come from.LOL Hope somebody likes it.

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