My Gift To You

Supernatural Stories | May 10, 2013 | 24 min read
16 Votes, average: 4 out of 5
Victor sat at the small fountain, the church bell pealing solemnly behind him, each knell pulling the knot in his stomach tighter. His fingertips hovered above the water, the tiny fish following them in an almost hypnotic fashion. He shivered despite the warmth of the autumn day. He could hear the townspeople further down the hill. The fishmonger shouting and the washerwomen gossiping in high pitched voices.
"Victor?" A gentle voice asked from behind him. He jumped, his hand skirting the water and startling the fish. He turned and looked at the man who sat down on the wall next to him. The man had dark hair, which almost looked black against the startling ivory shade of his skin. It was combed-back but a few strands hung carelessly around his young face, framing his large light blue eyes. He seemed as if he were about to speak again when they were joined by another."I'm so sorry." The newcomer said, stopping next to the fountain and looking directly at Victor. This man looked a little older, his light hair tied at a knot at the back and he held his hat in his hand. Victor smiled as much as he was able, his eyes tired and dull.
"Thank you, Will." He stood up and took his hand. "Thank you for coming all this way."
Will shook his head slightly. "Don't think on it."
"What about me?' The dark haired man asked, jumping to his feet in an excitable manner.
"I came too."
"You live here, Thomas." Victor said, turning to him and raising one eyebrow slightly, managing another small smile. "And you were very nearly late."
"Trivial details at best," Thomas said, stepping off the wall and shoving his hat back onto his head. "Where are my thanks?" Victor studied him for a moment before putting a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you." He said, and he felt a heavy lump forming in his throat, not for the first time that day. "Thank you for everything. If you hadn't been there I don't know what-"
Thomas silenced him by pulling him into a rough hug, Victor's expression changing from one of turmoil to pure grief, as the tightness in his throat seemed to spread into his whole body, making his knees buckle as tears filled his eyes. "You don't have to thank us," Thomas said as he held him upright. "We are your brothers, Victor"
Will laughed and pulled their friend to his feet, taking his arm. "Thomas is right." He said. "We have been brothers since the day we met- you owe us nothing." Victor laughed and turned to look at the tiny church once more, the graveyard spreading out behind it. The sky was darkening now and he knew that if he didn't go now, before nightfall, he would not be able to leave her there all alone.
Thomas seemed to read his thoughts and said. "I think all of this calls for a drink. What do you say, gentlemen?"
It seemed a lifetime ago that he had come here, away from the small village where he was raised, to the university. He had met Will and Thomas after getting lost in the labyrinth of hallways. He had stumbled across them arguing over their chosen sciences... Will thinking with furrowed brow and looking so serious, while Thomas jumped around like a mad man, using his books to gesture dramatically. They had stopped when they noticed him there and Thomas smiled. "This-" He said, pointing wildly towards Victor. "This will settle it." He bounded over to him and put a hand to his shoulder. "You are a student, yes?" Thomas asked him. He studied Victor in a way that made him shiver, his light eyes seeming to analyze everything about him. Victor nodded slightly. "Good man!" He said, tightening his grip. "That wasn't so hard, was it?" Victor frowned at his smirk, continuing unperturbed. "What is your chosen profession?" He asked. "The study of medicine"... pausing slightly... "Or of the mind?"
Victor snorted slightly. "Medicine, of course- the study of the mind is nothing more than a false science-" He stopped when Thomas let him go and shouted out in joy, turning to Will and laughing. "Poor Will." He laughed. "I did warn you, though."
Victor winced and looked over to Will. He was leaning against the wall, a defeated look on his face.
"Sorry." Victor said, after a couple of seconds. "I thought-"
Will laughed suddenly, stopping him mid sentence. "Think nothing of it." He told him. "Can I help it if you are both as narrow minded as the cockroaches that seem to infest this place?"
Thomas looked over to Victor with a look of sheer disdain and pulled a face. "Did he just liken us to cockroaches?" Victor laughed quietly, looking between the two of them. "I believe he did."
Thomas looked past Will at the low window behind him, the surface of the lake almost blinding in the midday sunlight. "Shall we?" He asked.
"I think so." Victor said, and before Will could move, they abruptly tackled him, knocking him backwards and pushing him through the open window.
Will cursed when he landed in the water a few feet below and they leaned over, Victor laughing and a smirk on Thomas' face that both Victor and Will would soon learn to know very well. "So, my prestigious doctor of the mind," Thomas shouted down as Will waded out of the lake, soaked and grumbling to himself. "If your science of the human mind is so wonderful- why didn't you know we were going to push you out of the window?"
Will looked up at the both of them and seemed about to reply, before he started laughing profusely and shaking his head in complete disbelief.
The three of them had become the best of friends as time went on despite their differences. They found that with Victor's empathy, Will's serious demeanour and Thomas' unpredictable behaviour, they could do anything they wanted to do.
Between the three of them, their theories were stronger, their work far surpassed the others in their classes.
Will, shaking him roughly and laughing aloud, pulled Victor from his memories.
"Victor?" He shouted over the voices and the music, "Can you hear me?"
He focused groggily on him, frowning. The tavern was crowded and noisy, as Will pointed roughly in the direction of the door. "I think we had better go and find Thomas." He continued. "I think the landlord just threw him out onto the street again." He fell back into his chair laughing, but quickly hauled himself to his feet and headed for the door, skirting around the brawling men and drunken women.
Victor almost fell through the doorway but took a deep breath as the cold air hit his face, the now cold air sobering him almost immediately. He couldn't say the same had worked for Thomas, who was sitting on the floor shouting all the curses he could remember at the Landlord who was inside and certainly couldn't hear him.
"Come on." Will laughed, helping him to his feet. "It's time to go home."
"Wretched place." Thomas spat, then seemed to brighten up as they turned to head back into the small town. They tavern was on the top of the hill, just below the university and from where they stood they could see for miles. The night was so dark it was almost as if the air had been blackened with ink and they could see hundreds on tiny lights flickering in windows as they wound down the hill into the valley below.
"It really is beautiful here." Will said, keeping in pace beside his two friends. "I do miss it."
"Move back. ‘Thomas said, his hands deep in his pockets to ward off the cold. "I'm sure most of the people here could use a doctor for their mental problems."
Will smiled but didn't reply, drawing to a stop as they neared the inn where he was staying.
"Until tomorrow." He said, and then threw Victor a sympathetic smile. "I truly wish we could have been reunited under different circumstances. Maria was truly a wonderful woman." He looked over to Thomas for a second. "It seems near impossible that we have not found a cure for that wretched illness." He shook his head slightly. "She was a very lucky woman to have such an adoring husband." Victor stared at him for a few moments, before looking away, and nodding slightly.
"Why does home always seem so far away after we've been to that tavern?" Thomas asked, swaying as he walked. Victor smiled slightly. Thomas had insisted he would not be left alone that night, and so they were returning to Strathmore house. The grand manor stood down a long driveway surrounded on all sides by a thick forest. Thomas had always lived in the town and had inherited it from his father when he had died.
His years of drinking and strange experiments may have been brief so far but they had already frightened away most of the servants, and now the house stood quiet and mostly uncared for. They came to the end of the pathway and entered the courtyard. A small lake glittered tiredly in the moonlight and the house loomed over them, as if awaiting their return.
"Finally." Thomas complained as he staggered through the doorway. He removed his coat and hat and threw them onto the floor. "You know where your room is." He said, gesturing in the rough direction of the room Victor always slept in when he stayed there.
"Where are you going?" He asked. Thomas ignored him and walked to the opposite side of the hallway. He glanced at the large spiral staircase as he passed, as if wondering what it was doing there and roughly opened a small oak door beside it, the one Victor knew led down to the basement where he had built his laboratory.
"If you need anything, shout." He slurred, then half fell down the stairs.
Victor looked around at the house, cold and empty much like the one waiting for him now Maria had gone. He heard the second hand on the grandfather clock in the corner slowly ticking away the minutes and he swallowed, suddenly feeling very small and alone in the darkness.
The minutes passed into hours which turned into days and eventually into weeks, Autumn leaving at last and Winter beginning to seize the town in its icy grasp.
Victor sat at his desk in the large townhouse he and Maria had shared, staring at a small portrait of her, her mind not on his work. He picked it up, the usual playful smile gone from his face. "How long has it been since I lost you?" He asked, quietly. He remained silent for a few seconds, as if waiting for a reply. When the only sounds he heard were the creaking of the old house and the crackling of the fire he sighed quietly and gently placed the portrait back where it belonged.

A few hours later Victor wandered through the gateway to Strathmore house, the first snow of the season fresh on the ground and crunching beneath his feet. He whistled a slow, sad tune as he walked, watching the birds flutter to and fro in search of insects.
He wondered if Will would already be there. He had decided to stay a little longer than originally planned and had moved back into his old house. Victor was hopeful that he would decide to stay.
"Thomas?" He called, closing the door behind him and entering the familiar hallway. It was as silent as ever, and his voice echoed off the walls and bounced back at him. "Thomas!" He shouted, again. There was no reply and victor pulled his coat more tightly around him, the air inside just as chilling as it was in the garden.

He made his way towards his laboratory, the one place he knew he was always sure to find him. He opened the small door and began taking the winding steps two at a time, anxious to find his friend.
As if on cue he heard a crash from below and Thomas' voice followed, cursing and shouting and his equipment. Victor smiled and rounded the corner, the lab lit up so brightly he had to wait for his vision to adjust. Every table was piled high with bottles and books, medical tools shining, littered here and there. Thomas was hunched over by the opposite door, picking up something he had undoubtedly just thrown there.
"Equipment is only as good as the scientist who wields it." Victor said, smiling slightly.
Thomas stood up so quickly he almost fell over, and instead of replying to his remark he laughed, an unmistakable fire in his eyes.
"What have you discovered?" Victor asked, eventually.
"I could see it- torturing you." Thomas said. "Maria being gone so I- I set out to create a device that would allow you to talk to her." Victor stared at him, bewildered.
"Only it wasn't as simple as all that." He continued. "Nothing turned out the way I had hoped it- it turned out to be…" He paused, a hand to his head. "It turned out to be so much more than that."
"Thomas." Victor said, gently. "What are you-"
Thomas ran up the small staircase that led to the books on the higher shelves, not listening. "I took the basic theory that after we die a part of us is left behind." He said. He found the book he was looking for and plucked it from the shelf. "A part of us to either be punished or given eternal salvation." He threw the book at Victor, who caught it clumsily. It was a bible, a book Victor has seen Maria reading many times in the last few days of her life.
"If it worked at all I expected some part of the soul to come back to- to talk to me."
"Like a phantom?" Victor asked, staring at the book he held in his hands.
"Precisely." He said. "I wanted to find Maria so she could tell you that she was alright, that she was happy." He looked over to him. "I thought it might stop you feeling so guilty."
Victor looked at him and managed a very small smile, when Thomas spoke again.
"There is no Heaven and certainly no Hell." He laughed excitedly and continued. "The church is wrong- the Bible is wrong." He jumped over the banister and fell a few feet to the floor, that crazed look in his eyes that all but Victor and Will feared. "That Bible is wrong." He said, waving towards the book Victor grasped tightly.
"Help me, Victor." He laughed, grabbing the arm of his coat and leading him to the opposite side of the lab. "Me?" He asked, laughing quietly despite himself. He had seen Thomas in this state numerous times, usually just before collapsing from sleep deprivation. He would wake up the next day and forget completely about his idea.
"Who better to help me than my dearest friend?" He asked, steering him through the maze of tables and bookshelves. "We'll show them all!" He laughed, then came to a stop next to the longest table and turned to face him. "Just like we always do." He finished, gently.
"What do you want to do?" He asked. Thomas smiled. "A mix of science and hypnosis." Victor laughed but Thomas silenced him with a wave of his hand. "I know I sound like Will, but he said something to me the other day that got me thinking." He paused for a second. "I can't remember what it was but it isn't important now- what's important is this." He turned to the table and picked up a tiny metal device, almost box like in structure but small enough to balance on the end of a fingertip.
"The dead." He said, quietly. "You will hear them- as long as this device is inside your head."
"You want to put that inside my head?" Victor asked, horrified by the tiny object Thomas held proudly up at him.

"It's not as scary as it looks." He said. "It simply- re-directs electrical impulses- that is all the thoughts of the dead are- basic electrical impulses- it's almost simple. Using hypnosis I intend to match connect you to the thoughts of those who have died- but I need to use this as a conductor- so you have the ability to hear them."
"In my brain." Victor said, finally understand what his friend was asking of him. "You want to put that thing in my brain."
"Have I ever let you down before?" Thomas asked him, pleadingly.
"Have I ever let you put anything in my brain before?" He asked.Thomas smiled slightly. "There's a first time for everything, Vic." He laughed quietly. "I must be going mad."
Thomas smirked. "I'll be sure to get Will to check up on you."
"You will be the death of me." Victor said, a slight smile playing on his lips. They both laughed and Thomas placed the metallic device on the table next to him.
"I tried it on a local volunteer first." He admitted. "He told me what he heard and how they sounded but-" He sighed and shrugged. "I took it out after a couple of hours. I think I could have gotten more a more intelligent conversation from the dog."
He patted the table and Victor jumped up. He frowned and looked over at Thomas. "You really think this will allow me to hear Maria?" He asked, and for the first time that morning his face betrayed him and Thomas almost double took when he saw the sadness in his eyes. "Yes." He said, averting his gaze and taking a needle from the tray beside him. "I believe so." Victor rolled up his sleeve as Thomas injected him, knowing there were countless questions he should ask, but far too tired and bereaved to bother to ask.
Victor yawned as the sedative began to take effect. "What did he tell you? The first man?"
Thomas smiled. "That would be telling-" He picked the device up again. "I don't want to put any ideas into your head." Victor nodded slightly, his eyelids heavy before he finally fell asleep.

He groaned and opened his eyes, his head throbbing painfully and his mind slow as he sat up, Thomas standing next to him with a triumphant look on his face.
"It's alive!" He cried, laughing like a child who had just been given a present. Victor laughed weakly but stopped when his memories returned to him.
"I don't hear anything." He said, after a few moments of silence. "I can't hear anything out of the ordinary." He yawned. "I just have a headache."
"You will, for awhile." Thomas told him."I just pushed that little device up your nose and into your brain. Stay here and rest- I am certain that you will hear them soon enough."

"What exactly is your theory, Thomas?" He asked him later that night, looking away from the fire and over to his friend who had a drink in his hand and was sitting sprawled in the great arm chair as if he had been thrown there.
He looked over to him after a few seconds, a slightly bewildered look on his face. "Were you talking to me?"
"Your name is Thomas, isn't it?" He asked, a trace of amusement in his voice.
"Not anymore." He said, struggling to perch himself on the arm of the chair. "From now on I wish to be referred to only as ‘The creator.'" Victor tried to hide a grin but failed miserably.
"What?" Thomas shouted, wobbling slightly where he sat. "I will be the creator of a new age." He laughed. "A new world!" He set down his glass so heavily it almost broke and said. "And you, my dearest friend- when you begin to hear them- which you will-‘ He shifted slightly and had to hold onto the back of the chair for support. "I will have created you- made you anew."
"I wish you would tell me what your village idiot said that he heard." Victor said, rubbing his sore temples. "I can't help but wonder what has gotten you so excited."

Thomas muttered something unintelligible and Victor smiled but jumped when he head a scream. "Did you hear that?" He asked, quietly. "What?" Thomas asked, sitting up straight.
Victor shushed him and listened intently for a few seconds when he heard it again, a scream so loud and harrowing that it turned his stomach.
"Screaming." He said. "You must hear that, Thomas."
"You can hear them!" Thomas laughed, standing up. "You can finally hear them!"
Victor turned to him when a thousand voices seemed to fill his head at once. Screams rang out in his ears, desperate wails of agony and despair. He fell to his knees, gasping for air as the shock stole his breath.
"We rot!" A woman's voice screamed inside his head. "God help me, we rot!"

Victor looked up when Thomas knelt in from of him, speaking to him although he could not hear him over the voices inside his head.
Thomas took him by the shoulders and shook him when he did not reply. He heard people begging for the pain to stop, children wailing for their mothers and shrieks so agonized they were almost inhuman. He struggled to his feet and shook his head. "What is this?" He cried, the voices fading just enough so he could hear Thomas laughing, taking his hands in his own.
"You can hear them!" He yelled. "You can!"
"These- these are the dead?" Victor asked. The pleading voices filled his head, the noises in the room only just audible.
"Isn't it wonderful?" Thomas cried. "We have done it, Victor- we have done it!"
"They're screaming!" Victor choked. "What kind of magic is this?" He stumbled towards the chair and fell down, his head in his hands.
"No magic." Thomas reassured him, taking the seat next to him. "Not really- just science."
"They just scream!" Victor sobbed, beginning to pull at his hair as if to tear it from his scalp. He covered his ears but the wailing continued. "They aren't dead, Thomas!"
"They are definitely dead." He said, quietly. "But their minds are very much alive."
"Make it stop!" He begged, tears streaming down his face. "Turn that damn device off, Thomas."
He sat back in his chair and Victor looked up at him as he heard him sigh slightly.
"What?" Victor asked, sitting up as best he could. "I- can't." Thomas admitted, avoiding his gaze.
"You can't?" Victor shouted. "What do you mean you can't!"
"It doesn't turn off." He said, eventually.
"Then take it out!" He shouted, bile rising in his throat as the begging and pleading continued.
"I can't." He said, again. "It was easy enough to put it in there but getting it out-" He grimaced. "I would very likely remove a large piece of your brain."
Victor stood up and stared at him for just a moment, before his eyes rolled backwards in his head and he fainted.

He awoke to the screams. The pleading and the crying. He too screamed and rolled out of the bed, coughing violently. After a day or two the voices were almost all he knew. They kept him awake until he fainted from exhaustion and they woke him again when his mind was able to function.
He could soon distinguish between the terrified screams of the freshly dead and the tortured wails of those who had started to rot. When they talked between the screams he heard them pleading for someone to help them. They cried out about a pain and suffering they did not seem to entirely understand. He could not talk to them, he had realised. They could not talk to him. He was only listening to their thoughts, eavesdropping on their agony. Victor did not leave the Strathmore house. The sudden change in him had left him weak and tired. His skin had turned a snow white even lighter than Thomas', his eyes were dark and lifeless and he wandered around in a zombie like state, Thomas checking on him every few hours as he tried to push all thoughts of Maria from his mind.

After a few more days he stumbled into the library and found Thomas sitting at a table, studying a large tome. He stopped beside him and stared at him, his eyes cold and fierce.
"They can feel their flesh festering!" Victor hissed, his breath heavy in his chest and his hands shaking. "They can feel themselves rot and they cannot escape it."
"My theory has been proven." Thomas replied, quietly.
Victor stood staring at him, ignoring the voices in his head and the fog clouding his vision. "You knew?" He asked, though gritted teeth. Thomas nodded and sat on the edge of the table. "My theory was that, after death the electrical impulses that keep the brain alive remain." He shrugged. "Where else is it to go when the body is lying in a wooden casket?" He laughed. "If the brain thinks that it is alive, it will not rot. Resulting in." He shrugged slightly. "This."
"The pain they feel is not real." He continued, softly. "The body is dead- the brain does not keep the heart beating of the lungs working- it simply keeps a little of their consciousness alive- the pain is merely a trick of that consciousness. They expect to feel pain- so there it is."
"I spent so long trying to protect Maria- to shelter her from whatever horrors I imagined to be lying in wait outside of our door!" He cried. Beneath his eyes were red and bruised he moved erratically, his hair tangled and dirty and his eyes glazed over. "Only to leave her alone when she is enduring an evil worse than anything I could have prepared her for- each passing second she will feel- every tear and every damnable bite as the insects eat her alive!" He cursed and overturned the table, sending bottles and equipment flying in all directions.
"She is dead." Thomas told him, firmly. "That is the point."
"I know she's dead!" He roared, grabbing him by the shirt collar and slamming him into the wall. "What have you done to me?" He shouted. "For the love of God, Thomas what have you turned me into?"
"I have turned you into a God." Thomas told him, quietly. "You can hear the dead, Victor. You alone truly know what awaits us after death- I have given you a gift that-"
Victor continued to stare at him for a few moments, before saying. "And you do not fear this?"
"You disappoint me." Thomas told him. "Your madness is dimming your mind." He threw himself back into his chair and motioned for Victor to sit across from him. He ignored him and continued to pace, shaking his head every few seconds. "It is the smallest part of our consciousness that survives.: He told him, his elbows resting on his kneed and his fingertips pressed together. "It seems fairly obvious to me that if this small part of us is ordered into a permanent slumber just before we die then we will be none the wiser."
At this Victor stopped and looked over to him. "You mean hypnotism?"
Thomas smiled. "Exactly."
He laughed. "What do you not understand ,Victor? We will be saved." He laughed again. "No matter how bad the pain or how long the mind really does stay active for it does not matter because you and I will be peacefully unaware." He threw his friend a wicked smile. "They do say ignorance is bliss."
"What if there is a God?" He asked. "What if this is some- punishment for the wicked things we do while alive? The sins we are all guilty of?" He sat down heavily. "What if we are all damned, Thomas?"
"Then what does it matter?" Thomas asked him.
"If we are damned either way, Victor- why not tell the world that it is simple science-" He paused. "We are not damned if there is no one there to damn us."
"Can you imagine it?" He asked, leaning in a little closer. Victor struggled to focus above the voices in his head and stared groggily at him .
"No more will man worship false Gods." He said, his eyes shining in the candlelight. "No more will they speak of Heaven or eternal damnation." He stared at Victor for a few more seconds, that mad smile playing on his lips. "You, my friend are our salvation."
"What if I refuse?" he asked. "What if I refuse to speak?"
"With the state you are in you will most likely be considered mad and hauled off to the nearest asylum." Thomas smiled.

Victor found he could not even muster the strength to reply. He simply stared at his friend for a few seconds before running from the room, out into the darkness and the rain.He ran until he reached the churchyard, the voices becoming louder and louder until they all mingled together into one banshee like scream.
He jumped over the wall and walked over the graves until he found the one he was looking for, the screams so loud he expected hands to rise from the earth and drag him down. He fell to his knees in front of the large headstone he had had made for Maria and looked down at the earth which was now flat and solid despite the rain. He wanted to talk to her but found he could not, and instead he lay down and rested his ear against the earth. The other screams quietened and he heard one rise above the rest.
"Maria?" He asked, his voice cracked and broken. She screamed, an almost animal sound that made him heave. "Victor!' She screamed. "Please, Victor where are you?" He knew she could not hear him but still he shouted back to her, crying into the ground.
He didn't realise he was digging until one of his nails snapped away from his finger. He paused for a second but then continued, determined to get her into the open, to hold her in case any part of her knew he was there. He dug until his hands were covered in blood and he had lost all the feeling in his fingertips when someone grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him backwards to sharply they both fell. Victor landed heavily and Will hooked his arms firmly beneath his shoulders, holding him while he struggled.
"What are you doing?" He shouted, the wind carrying his voice. He looked at the hole and then back at Victor. He was covered in earth and blood, his face rain and tear stained as he shook. Will pulled him to his feet and steadied him as he walked him back towards the village, half fearing his friend had lost his mind.
"They will send you away to an asylum if they see you doing things like that." Will cried, later. He closed the curtains in the library and left for a few seconds, reappearing with two towels, one which he threw to Victor. "And with the way you have been behaving lately they will more than likely keep you as a permanent feature."
He sat and watched Victor as he shook, ignoring the rain dripping from his hair and into his face. He looked crazed, tired enough to fall where he sat and as though he had not eaten in a week. He swayed slightly in the chair, tears still in his eyes.
"You are lucky I saw you running through the streets like a mad man. I do not want them to take you away." He said, gently. "You are my friend." He smiled slightly and sat opposite him, leaning towards him. "You are my brother- I will help you, if you only tell me how."

Victor looked at him, shaking as Will took a drink from his glass and shoved another onto the table in front of him. "I can't." He said. "I don't know what Thomas has…" He trailed off when Will dropped his glass, his face pained as he fell to his knees, gasping for breath. "Will?" Victor asked, falling to his knees beside him. Will seemed to hear him and looked up at him but then collapsed into his arms, unconscious.
"He will linger for awhile." A voice said, and when Victor looked up he saw Thomas there. He smiled. "Before he dies, I mean." Thomas smirked slightly; the mad look in his eyes that Victor knew so well and now had come to fear more than anyone. "What?" He asked him.
"The poison." Thomas said, gesturing towards the open whiskey bottle. "It'll act slowly. All the better if we intend to hypnotise him beforehand."
"You have poisoned him?" Victor said, laughing humourlessly. He laid Will down and grabbed Thomas by the neck, throwing him against the table. "You have poisoned William!"
"I don't see what you're getting so touchy about." He complained, dusting down his coat. "I put it in the whiskey because I know how much you hate the stuff- I wasn't trying to kill you."
"Do you have no compassion?" Victor roared, only able to control his anger because of the voices weakening him. Thomas seemed to think about this for a few seconds before saying. "Not really, no."
"He loved you!" Victor shouted. "I loved you- have you no guilt? No remorse? No- no…"
"Victor." He laughed, taking him by the arm and sitting him down in the nearest chair. "My friend- you always were far too kind." He smiled at him. "This is the beauty of it. It is simplicity in it's entirety- we need not waste ourselves on these emotions anymore. We have no reason to act in anything other than the way which seems the most appealing to us." He laughed. "There is no one watching to judge our actions- there is no great and powerful being ready to cast us into Hellfire- no matter what we do!" He grinned in triumph and moved over to Will, ruffling his hair as e lay dying. "We are free, Victor- I have freed us all-" He looked down at Will and said. "True, freedom has its costs, but so be it."
"You have murdered our brother!" Victor shouted, his chest heaving as he stood up and strode towards him.
"Do you think I would have chosen Will if I had a choice in it?" Thomas shouted, suddenly angry. "I would have taken one of the homeless- one of the worthless imbeciles that line the streets!" He covered the last few steps between them and stopped nose to nose with him. "But I couldn't because you were going to tell him." He shook his head slightly. "He would have tried to stop us, we both know that."
"We need to be stopped." Victor said, his eyes were tired and tortured, and he struggled, to stand. "We need to be stopped, Thomas."
"You have changed." Thomas hissed, an anger in his eyes that Victor could not hope to rival. "And you have gone mad." He whispered. "I have only changed because you have turned me into this thing." He continued. His voice barely audible. "A freak of nature." He looked up at Thomas. "You have murdered me, too." He told him, then his world faded to black.

"Will?' he asked, as the screams awakened him once again. "He is here." Thomas told him, gently. Victor sat up and found himself back in Thomas' lab. Will was lying on the nearest table, dead.
"Come." Thomas said, smiling kindly. "Come and listen."
Victor did as he was told. The will to fight long gone and he knelt beside Will, resting his forehead against his cheek, the tiny voice inside his head that was his own praying he would not hear him. "I don't hear him." Victor said, after a few seconds. "He is not there."
Thomas almost screamed in joy and threw his papers into the air, scattering them as if they were confetti. At the Victor felt a rage so bitter he thought it would choke him and he stood up, punching Thomas so hard in the face he fell. His strength was spent but he stood glaring as Thomas stood up. "I trust you feel better now?" Thomas asked, leaning against the table and wiping his bloodied mouth with the back of his free hand. He is dead." Thomas told him when he didn't reply. "Dead as he should be- as perhaps only he is." He laughed.
He laughed. "We are saved, Victor." Victor seemed to think about this for a few seconds, before a sudden, almost terrifying change came over his face and he said. "You have saved us from that fate, haven't you?" Thomas smiled.

A few days later Victor ran down the steps to Thomas' laboratory, his eyes wild with excitement. The voices were still haunting him but during the night he had had an idea so brilliant it had revived him a little.
"We can search for immortality." Victor said, bursting into the room. Thomas glanced up at him and smiled. "That sounds like the Victor I know."
"If the electrical impulses linger around the body and can trick the consciousness into thinking it feels pain-" He straightened up, his eyes more alert than they had been in weeks. "Why can we not fool it into keeping the body alive?" He tapped the side of his head with a finger. "Even after natural functions cease surely we can force the brain to keep the major organs working" He laughed and looked over to Thomas. "We could live forever."

Thomas laughed. "You know how to hypnotise, I presume?" Victor beamed proudly. "Of course- Will taught me all he knew on the subject." Thomas jumped onto the table as Victor busied himself with the medicines and herbs he would need. "You so willingly allowed me to shove that thing into your brain." Thomas said. "It's only fair if I return the favour and allow you to test this on me." He laughed. "Immortality aside, it's the least I can do."
Victor smiled slightly as he sat beside the table. "I'm so glad you came to understand, in the end." Thomas said. "You mean more to me than you seem to think , Victor. You truly are my blood."

Half an hour later Victor stopped talking. He had successfully taken Thomas into that stage where he himself had been put before the device was inserted through his nose and into his brain. He stopped, adding the final touches to his hypnotism.

"You will awake in the morning a raving lunatic." He said, quietly. "You will be unable to speak, and unable to harm yourself in any way.' He paused and the screams in his head distracted him. "You will be taken to an asylum- When you arrive you will behave so erratically that they will commit you." He laughed, a look in his eyes that he had learned from the helpless man lying asleep in front of him, the man he had once adored and whose friendship he had treasured more than he now remembered. He smiled when he realised how unaware he was of the fate that awaited him as soon as he awoke.
"You will rot." Victor told him, quietly. "You will rot and you will feel it- you will feel insects and the rats gnawing at your skin." He smiled cruelly. "And your body will never die." He coughed, his breath rattling in his throat. "When your natural life ends your mind will keep you alive- until your bones break and turn to dust." Victor stood up and shrugged on his coat, heading for the door. He turned at the last second and looked back.

"Immortality is my gift to you, Thomas."
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