The Vault

six

DEATH AND THE MONSTER.

The thing had started without the passion that came later. It grew in his brain by stealth, fitting into his life as no more than an idle thought here, a possiblity there. He could not trace its origin; the monster is so all-pervading that every child has heard of it. It seeped into his consciousness and was reinforced by the images everyone grows up with and has nightmares about.

"My application was at first fluctuating and uncertain; it gained strength as I proceeded and soon became so ardent and eager that the stars often disappeared in the light of morning whilst I was yet engaged in my laboratory."

Only now did he accept that he was a willing slave to Frankenstein and his monster.