Chapter Text
When Victoria Frankenstein woke up that morning, she had gotten the feeling that she had woken up from a pleasant dream that she couldn't remember. Not that it mattered – she didn't believe in dreams or premonitions or anything of the sort. But if it were so pleasant, she wanted to recall it.
But she had woken up anyway, and so the next thing that she processed was that this was not the attic of the Society. And as a result, the sunlight coming in from the nearby window was too bright. She raised a hand to block the sunlight from her eyes, and then turned away – and that was when she saw him.
He was sleeping in a chair beside her bed, his head on top of his folded arms. She guessed that he had been watching over her for the better part of the night, and was now catching up on his sleep.
But it wasn't...whoever had popped into her mind first when she saw him. Of course not. This one's name was...William Grye, right?
Slowly, she moved to sit up, taking the now-warm cloth from her forehead. She then put a hand to her forehead – her fever had gone down. She then yawned a little, and looked back at Grye.
“Doctor?” she asked.
He began to stir, and then opened his eyes, before looking up at her tiredly. “Miss Victoria?” he asked, rubbing his eyes. “Did you sleep well?”
“I suppose so,” Frankenstein said. “You did not have to stay up caring for me, you know.”
“But your fever went down,” Grye said, straightening up. He yawned as well, before continuing, “I figure that has to count for something.”
She stared at him, and then shook her head. “Well, whatever. Are we getting breakfast?”
“I'd hope so,” Grye said. He grinned at her, and then stood up. “I'll check on it, anyway. Stay here, I won't be long.”
She nodded, and then he walked over to the door before leaving the room. When he left, she looked down at her knees.
This was silly. Letting herself be helped by someone who wouldn't leave her alone? She didn't need help. She didn't need anyone. How could she trust him not to bring her back to the Society, after all? He was just saying things to make her feel better.
“Because I don't want you to feel scared.”
Frankenstein huffed to herself. She wasn't scared.
She got out of bed, and then realized that she wasn't wearing her boots, either. Did Grye pull them off while she was sleeping? He didn't have to, she thought. She found them at the side of the bed, and put them on, before grabbing her coat, scarf, and gloves, before putting them on as well.
Before she could do anything else, however, a knock sounded on the door. She looked up just as the door opened.
“They're going to bring breakfast up–” Grye paused as he saw her ready to leave. “...Soon.”
Her eyes darted away. “You didn't think I would stay here forever with you, did you?”
“Well, of course not,” Grye said, closing the door behind him a little so it was left ajar. “I just didn't think you would be getting ready to leave so soon.”
“I don't like it here,” she said simply. “I want to leave this place."
“We can discuss that after breakfast,” Grye said calmly. “And we're going to leave this place.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Why do you think you're going anywhere with me?”
“Because I'm worried about your health?”
“That can't possibly be it,” Frankenstein told him.
“What else is there?” Grye asked. “I thought we had already established last night that I don't have any ulterior motives.”
She crossed her arms. “I'm still not satisfied.”
He sighed, and then walked closer to her. “I understand that you don't trust me,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “But aren't you willing to try? Isn't that why you pulled me into the hot air balloon when we escaped Blackfog, and bandaged my wound?”
She realized she shouldn't have let him run his mouth.
“What – what does it matter to you?” she asked.
“You could have left me, but you didn't.” He looked into her eyes. “Doesn't that mean you want to try trusting someone, at least?”
She looked into his eyes. There was a strange sensation in her stomach, but it wasn't nausea. Yet she found herself wishing that it was. She then realized that she had been staring at him, and so opened her mouth–
–and that was when the innkeeper arrived and pushed the door open wider, with a tray of food in her hands.
“...Am I interrupting something?” she asked.
Grye looked at her, and then moved away from Frankenstein. “No, you've come at the perfect time.” He walked over to her, and took the tray from her hands. “Thank you for the meal.”
The innkeeper shrugged, and then walked out the door. When she closed the door behind her, Grye turned to face Frankenstein again.
“Better start eating, before it gets cold,” he said. He then walked to the table in the room, and put the tray down on it. “I'm willing to wager you didn't have much to eat last night, and you're hungry now.”
“I am not–”
She was cut off, however, by a grumble from her stomach. She looked down at it, and then put a hand over it.
“You want to eat?” Grye asked.
“Just a bit,” Frankenstein relented, still a bit huffy. With that, the two of them sat down at the table, and they began eating – a little ravenously on her part, one might add.
“How is it?” Grye asked, after taking a few bites.
“Not any better than what I've been having before,” Frankenstein said, even as she was eating quite a lot. Not that she would admit that most food tasted good when she was hungry.
She eventually finished her food earlier than Grye, and burped loudly. That earned a chuckle from him. She blushed, and then frowned. “Why are you laughing?” she asked.
“Sorry,” he said, stopping. He then waved his hands, blushing a little as well. “I just felt like laughing...”
She huffed. “I thought you would have been more of a gentleman to not comment on it.”
“Well, you certainly don't have very good manners either,” Grye pointed out. “I mean, I don't burp so loudly after a meal. Or at least, I cover my mouth.”
“Are you trying to prove yourself better than me?” she asked.
“No,” he said. “But it seems to me that you are doing so.”
“...” She raised her chin. “You can't talk to me like that.”
“You may be the one in need of care, but here we're both equals. I would appreciate it if you don't talk down down to me like that.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“Yes. And I'm sorry about that.”
“Sorry?” She scoffed. “What do you have to be sorry for?”
“For the blood on your hands.”
“Ha! You believe what that woman at Blackfog told us?”
“You believed her up until she said you had blood on your hands.”
“Just shut up about it, alright?” Frankenstein said. “I don't want you to keep repeating those boring words.”
“Alright.”
He went back to eating. Frankenstein thought that was...strangely easy to shut him up. Maybe he was just a pushover. Or maybe he wanted to defer to her. But why would he want to do that? He made it clear that he didn't care about the fact that she was Frankenstein, and in fact held contempt for the person she was in the book.
He noticed her staring at him just as he finished his food, and raised his eyebrows. “Hm?” he asked with a full mouth.
“...Are you really not going to bring me back to the Society?” she asked.
Grye swallowed. “I'm a man of my word, Miss Victoria,” he said. “And you seemed, in fact, frightened by the prospect of going back to the Society.”
“I'm not frightened of that dumb old place!” she said.
“Then why don't you want to go back?” Grye asked.
“...” She looked away. “What about you? You don't have anything to gain from helping me stay away. In fact, you can't stay away from Creature forever. Believe me, I know.”
“It's fine,” he said. “I just want to help you.”
She glanced back at him – specifically, at his wounded arm. The bandages seemed to have held together through the night, and the wound didn't seem to bother him that much. Or he wasn't showing it. Either way, she stared at it for a moment before looking back up at him.
“Besides, it seems as if someone needs to see things your way,” he went on.
“Heh, you'd be surprised,” she said. “The Lodgers at the Society are enamored with my words. They turned on Dr. Jekyll when I stirred them up!”
Grye looked a little surprised. “You turned them against him? Why?”
“I was there and I could,” she said simply. “Dr. Jekyll has had them living in his shadow for far too long. They need to practice mad science without being concerned about what the bourgeoisie thinks! They need to frighten the populace!”
“Here we go again,” Grye said. “Are you trying to lure me into a debate to get me to disagree with you and end up refusing to help you, in which case you could freely escape from my grasp?”
“...You're reading too much into it, Dr. Grye.”
“Perhaps so,” Grye shrugged. “I don't want you to keep repeating those boring words.”
“Don't turn my own words against me!”
He laughed again, softer this time. “But Miss Victoria, do the Lodgers really see things your way? Or are they using your words as an excuse to stop listening to Jekyll when they had their own reasons to beforehand?”
“Why, of course they see things my way!” she said. “They refused to do the Exhibition when I told them to!”
“You – you mean the Exhibition that the Society has been preparing for a few months?!”
“Yes!” she said. “So there's no way they can't see things my way. I successfully turned them against Dr. Jekyll, and then got them to refuse his whims.”
“...You must really be trying to shock me at every turn, Miss Victoria,” Grye said.
“Impressed yet?” she asked.
He cleared his throat. “No.”
“What?”
“I mean, if you're trying to debate with me, it won't work,” he said. “And if you're trying to get me to agree with you, it won't work, either.”
“Then what are you going to do?” she asked. “I won't allow you to help me because of your delusions that I'm a helpless baby animal.”
“I never said you were helpless,” Grye said. “But I do know that wounded animals have it in their heads that anything that comes for them will try to hurt them, so they lash out and try to escape.”
“...And you think the same for me, huh?”
“Certainly.”
“I don't need you to cure my ailment,” Frankenstein said. “Especially when I know what the cure for my condition is. I can just go back to Blackfog and then leave this damned city with the materials for my cure.”
“...” He sighed. “Well, we're done. We can go out now.”
“Right, then,” she said, standing up from her seat. “Where are you taking me?”
“The doctor,” Grye said. “I think we have to have a professional take a look at the both of us.” He then shrugged, backtracking, “Or just me, if you're really going to refuse.”
She frowned a little, and then sighed. “...As long as you do not take me back to Dr. Jekyll. Or the Society.”
“You have my word, Miss Victoria,” Grye said.
Frankenstein then raised an eyebrow. “You do not have to call me Victoria anymore, now that you know my surname.”
“Why not?” Grye asked. “I think it suits you better.”
She stared at him for a while as he stood up from his chair as well. “I think it is progress, at least, that you're willing to let me take you places,” he said. “Now, we shall be on our way.”
Frankenstein and Grye walked down the stairs and past the common room of the inn. She noticed that several of them were staring at the two of them, and in turn she did her best to ignore them. If Grye had noticed those people staring, meanwhile, then he didn't voice it; instead, he opted to talk to the innkeeper a bit while he paid her.
Frankenstein's thoughts then wandered over to Grye. Why did he want to help her so badly? Maybe he just wanted to feed a delusion of his that he could help whoever he wanted.
...Still, she was sort of curious as to whether he would keep his promise of not bringing her back to the Society or not.
And he did kind of have a point.
Why did she pull him into the hot air balloon? Why did she bandage his wound? And why did she relent to letting him care for her last night?
Did she really want to be able to trust someone?
But she didn't need that.
Not after...
She paused on the pavement, and then looked down at her hands.
Blood on her hands, huh.
She clenched her hands into fists, and then shook her head. There wasn't any blood on her hands. She hadn't offended any gods. She hadn't killed anyone. She had just done what any other mad scientist should do. She was fine.
Grye turned towards her, and she also looked at him. “Let's go,” he said.
She nodded a bit in acknowledgement, and the two of them went to the door. But to Frankenstein's surprise, when they opened the door, she saw that the street outside was empty of any other people. She looked around, while Grye closed the door behind them.
“What the...?” Frankenstein asked, even as the logical explanation came to her mind.
Large, heavy footsteps came towards them, and they both looked to their right to see Creature coming out of the nearby alleyway.
“There you are,” Creature said, looking down at Frankenstein.
She gulped.