The Brilliance of A Monster (finale(: Chapter XII - The Omega and The Cold .....By: Scarecrow76

((This is the final chapter)

Finally, Victor decided to ambush me when he would catch up to me and find me again. This was the case 4 times. The 2nd ambush, He broke my wrist and colar bone. The 4th time, I had to fight for my being and he drove me to my limit and vice versa. I did choke him until he passed out and took my opportunity to get away. I saw that we were by an inlet leading to the ocean. I saw an abandonned boat there as well. I thought "Well I can't get away from him on land but perhaps I can escape him on the water. But then I could not find my way to the boat.

I went over the hill to see if there was another way down to the boat and instead found a fishing village a captain rushed to me and said "My God man! What has happened to you?" I of course said I had been in a fight and he exclaimed "well I would hate to see the other guy! Ha ha ha ha ha" I smiled and he placed his hand on my back and I looked down to him and saw a very old man with a peg leg but the kindest of faces. "We could use a boy like you on our ship if you're willing to come with us." I immediately thought back on the saga Victor had been writing for us both and immediately feared for the captain's safety if he weree to have any business with me. I wanted to go but I replied "this would not be a good idea." He asked "are you certain? We will be making alot of money and room and board on my vestle is free as long as you work" I asked how far we would be going and he replied we would be nearing the pole in the north. I asked how long the trip would take and he said 4 months. I asked how that might be posssible because it was common knowledge that it was glaciers that kept man from ever reaching the pole. He pointed to his ship and it was a steamer. He said that as we depleted half of the coal to get there, we ould fill that cargo space with glacial ice to keep our catches fresh until we returned. I could not foresee Victor being able to follow. Sails could not travel as fast, he would freeze to death if he paddled and there were no ships that would hire him looking even worse than I. I agreed to join the crew but did not tell the old sea captain that I had no intention of returning. I wanted to get as far away from here as possible and quietly slip off and everyone could goon their ways and continue with their lives or existence.

We were making good time according to the captainuntil we came very near to the glaciers. Each day they would rumble and shake and chunks would fall causing a wake that pushed us back. As though the pole were being guarded by the icy sentinels. Like large god like beings telling us to "go away, come no closer". I asked the captain one night over supper what was causing the rumblings and ice falls. He told me that in this part of the world there were many perills in the sea and the ones we were facing now were due to earthquakes that were quaking beneath the ocean. I felt releived in a way. The way he explained it made it seem not so bad. It was just nature after all. He gobsmacked me though. He asked out of the blue "so who or what are you running from my friend?" I was stunned and could not answer. I was void of any words. I just stared and he said "You do not have to tell me, we all have our dirty secrets. That is why we take to the sea. Besides, you work well and from what I have seen, you are a good lad." Then I could only look at the floor. How could he say I was good? He could never know what I had done to me and did to others could he? Is he trying to deceive me into thinking him to be a friend? Or have his years brought him the wisdon of knowing the story before he opens the book?

One week into penetrating the ice brought a nice catch of narwhal whales. They sold their tusks that they use to break the ice sheet to come up for air at the market as unicrn horns. Of course it was a swindle but I have never seen why anyone would beleive in a horned horse. On a particular night our first mate was supposed to keep night watch to make sure our boat would not collide with any of the icebergs. We suddenly heard him screaming "It's coming, it's bloody coming!" and felt a rumbling that quickly and increasingly rumbled from north to south and began to toss us all about. The icy entinels had one last dirty trick to play. A glacier capsized wedging our vessel in a crevass and picked us up from the water with no hope of saving the vessel and returning it to the cold ocean waters that we watched turn to fresh water. The galcier groaned and a chunck snapped off from it and landed in the ocean but submerged and re-emerged so quickly that though our vestle was upon it, we took on no water but the suction took our first mate down from the vestle and into the depths. We still were not returned to the ocean. We were still stranded on that block of ice now bobbing in the night.

We survived the quakes and when ll was stable again, the captain decided we should get on the 2 life boats from tthe vestle and try to find help. I was too large to fit in the boat with te others which could result i the death of everyone who I would be adrift with so though the crew was willing to chance this, I was not. I volunteered to stay put and they swore to send someone to rescue me and the vestle and began their journey.In the distance, I saw glaciers taller than any mountain I had ever seen and many of them had such high vertical walls that no man could climb them. The chunk of glacial ice the vestle was disabled by was floating slowly in that direction.

The glacial discard was crashing through all of the surface ice it encountered until it cam to an end atwhat I though was land. I But then another earthquake violently shook the area fr as far as I could see. Now the glacial discard as I call it was raised roughly to the same height of the distant mountainswhen the aftermath was appearant. The bottom of the glacier chunk butted against one of the said mountains at it's foot when it came to rest. This made it possible for me to find my way down. The ice was being displaced and reveal a fleet of abandoned vestles and dead trees that were from ancient times. I gathered all of the wood I could find and stripped the graveyard of crewless vestles for any relevant items to survive. A few of these were wooden so I used their timbers as firewood in te boiler of the ship I had traveled on. I was not scared nor did I think of how hard life there was and I did not miind having nothing to call my own. I was happy because I just knew I had found my Heaven. I saw 3 different fishing vestles but never signaled to them. My indifference was slowly turning to happiness and hope.

6 months after the quakes, I spotted another but smaller sailing vestle heading for my location. I knew it was not the old captain because he would not have ever chanced coming here on just such a vestle. I knew it was not a normal fishing vestle either. It docked and a man emerged onto the shore wearing a parks. the parka's hood obstructed his face but could make out a very long beard. I had no desire to greet him because I was not trying to befriend anyone anymore. I was as happy being alone as I once was miserable because of being alone. I saw him moving his head looking about and surveying the lay of the land. He must have seen me watching him because he suddenly looked in my direction and was making haste to my location. The walls of my mountain were far to vertical for him to climb so he made camp at the foot of said mountain/glacier.

I started a new route to get down from my haven to hunt and fish for my food. Once I was kind enough to leave a bundle of firewood just outside of the strangers' camp site where I did not even try to see his face. What would i care? Maybe he was lost or blown off course and is marooned. Then came a day I came down from my new home to hunt. Suddenly I felt an unspeakable pain on my back. I turned and looked. It was Victor cowardly and narcissisrically stood there proud of what he had done. I swept him off of his feet with a kick and began slamming his head against the ice until he lost consciousness. I bound him and treated my wound. I left him bound for 2 days while I stock piled game meat in opes he would give up over time and go away.

Once I had enough to sustain on for 3 or 4 months I returned to him and knocked him unconsious and freed him and so I knew my staying put and him knowing I was there would frustrate him into giving up. One morning I heard a loud crash and saw Vixtor's sail boat drifting away. I had a sigh of releif pass my lips. I went down to his abandoned campsite to see if he left any resources I could make use of. I walked into a trap. Victor was so desperate to end me that he as now trying to kill me using an icicle. We fought for what seemed like hours. He was completely mde as no man up to the point cold overpower me but Victor was actually was matching me. Finally I put his back to a glacial wall and broke several of his ribs. Tear flowed from his eyes and I felt nothing for him at all. I left him there and heard hi yelling as his inhuries caused him to have a dangerously high fever. I no longer hadd any intention of neither helping or hurting him anymore.. One time, he lost consciousness from fatigue and the fever so I built him a fire at his campsite.and justified to not do so ever again.

The smoke from the fire was thick and black from moisturewhich caught the attention of a different fishing vestle They docked and found Victor. The captain of the vestle asked his crew to take Victor aboard their vestle. Of course they did so. Te cook felt sorry for him and started treating Victor for hypothrmia. He lost 4 fingers and a partial foot.as well as the tops of his ear lobes. I kept an eye on the situaion by sneaking down to that vestle and peering through the port holes.and listening in on conversations. Eventually Victor woke up from his vegetative sleep. When he began telling the story to that vestle's crew and captain. I hate to admit it but the little I heard him say was all accurate and honest. He even was honest about his practices speaking of them in a negative condentation..The following day I went don to spy and found Vctor was just now finishing the story and point out to the crew where my campsite was. Just as the captain was ready to have Victor chained up as a mad man, his inuries finally forced him to succomb. I saw the crew exit the bboat because they were going to creamate Victor. Not only did they see the smoke from the fire But they realized I was twice their size so, they did not want to infringe. When they left I never saw another vestle not even in passing. Having not much desire for having people in my presence I unertood I need to die again now that I found a home before something or someone would take it away and in all, I was happy though. I know people would merely seek me out to destroy all I love and care about. Feeling joy for the first time, I let my fire burn itself out and did not rekindle or repllenish. I had to die to not have my jpy stolen from me again and again.

When the crew saw me, they made slow haste of getting back on their ship. Victor just layed there until they left. So bitterly cold, I decided to finish what the fishing crew did not and I cremated Victor. I reurned to my home and was waiting and hoping to freeze to death but it turned out that I can't die that way either. My past is a story that should be told but resposibly so. I do not tresure what I have been through but only those wonderful hearted people I called friends and the phantoms of my wife and children. I do not know where or when this existence of mine will be over but I look forward to it so I can take love and happiness to the grave with me. It is so sad when men think that they are gods because the repercussions do not match up to the miseries they have caused everyone who's lives that they touch. I am free now so I guess this is the part of my story where I ask whom may so ever read this at some future date "who was really the monster?" Freedom has it's dues and those dues must always be paid from moment to moment and day to day but I do not think I will ever truly be free because of all of the memories and scars that refuse to go away. I do not think true freedom will come until my story is over so without reluctance or regret.... The End.

I hav to admit that this project though not directly about my own journey in this ife has been quite healing for me. I wonder if this is how God felt when he created everything leaving pieces of himself within us all. Watching it all come to pass and hoping we would make the best of all possible decisions and the disappointment when we do not. I am by no means God or a god but perhaps this is why mankind get's to continue. We live, we learn and when we do not find the answers it is usually because we over complicate the questions or think we should be more than what we were meant to be. In my mind Victor is the complicator and creator of the selfish nd evil whims being chased throughout the story. In essence he is really the only monster in this story. And as most monsters do, he used his wisdom to exalt himself above others and narcissistically put himself on the same level with God. He is that part of the psyche that wants to hard our darkest dirty little secrets and will do whatever it takes to see that they never see the light of day. Conrad is that part that reacts and the regrets but finally learns that he does not have to follow along and realizes that he has nothing to hide. The part of us all that realizes life is not a competition to see who is better than who and realizes we are not all supposed to have big cars, bank accounts, families or even friends because those things can hinder what your purose really is. Even though Conrad has hung his hat so to speak on wha he thinks his prose is, he remains open to the idea that he could be wrong and is even more willing still to put his own feelings aside to do what is right though we may judge the right thing is being done for someone who never deserved dignity. These parts clash daily in all people just the leve of prominence differs depending on a philosophical bend.

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