Under the moonlight for another night, on the return journey, my howls drove terror into the hearts of the villagers. When it was morning, Dreich made sure everyone was awake and moving. Our presence had not gone unnoticed after we had left pawprints and they had heard the howling.
"I do believe we should make haste to leave these hills." Dreich stood upon the bluff, looking down at two pickup trucks loaded with men from the village. They literally carried pitchforks and unlit torches.
"It was a mistake to bring me." I complained.
"You needed to get out." Halo chuckled. "A wolf isn't meant to live underground."
The old man who drove our bus accepted the wine Dreich had bought in the village as a gift.
"I hope it brings you as much delight as it did for us." Dreich told him. The man looked at him strangely and said something in his own language. I asked Dreich what he had said and Dreich said:
"He finds it strange we could enjoy a bottle of wine without drinking it."
We had reached our old bus, on foot, ahead of the men from the village. By the time they had begun their hunt, we were already back at the airstrip where our cargo plane awaited.
"The return trip will take longer, the captain says we will have to stop for fuel before we go home." Lieutenant Colonel Rose mentioned.
I was very exhausted and slept through most of the flight. Only once or twice did I stir from sleep as Bruna snuggled with me, shivering. I kept dreaming of our time together as wolves, running through the forests, playful and full of mischief. She had told me that the wolf was not evil, but to me, she was only referring to herself. I had known the evils of the wolf, and she had too - but she had decided it was her human side that had used the wolf for evil.
With our collars off, back home at Ravenrock, I started to feel better. The mission was over, and I hoped it was the last one. I was so wrong.
Doctor Imbrium wanted to get another of our reserves out of cold storage. I was there at the beginning, since I asked Doctor Imbrium if we were done, and the response was that we had only just begun.
"This creature is a nameless thing, brought to life by a Promethean scientist named Victor Frankenstein." Doctor Imbrium told us of the one they were thawing out.
"I thought that was just a book." I stared at the yellow giant. "It's real?"
"It is. We captured this thing in 1919, according to the reports. It has a disposition that makes it unsuitable for our uses, but the experiment that brought it to life had one unique component." Doctor Imbrium briefly described their notes.
"You think we can communicate with it and find that component, and that component is part of the device." I concluded. Doctor Imbrium nodded.
When the creature gained awareness of his surroundings he stood towering over us, a full eight feet in height, his skin a grave yellow and his eyes sunken and ruthless. He took up the sheets on the cart and made a crude garment out of them, wrapping it around himself. He looked down at us with some hostility, but he didn't do anything else.
"Welcome to Ravenrock. I am Lieutenant Colonel Rose. I understand you were captured and brought here over a hundred years ago. It was before my time, I am merely the warden who was given you as a prisoner." Lieutenant Colonel Rose spoke to the creature.
"What do you want from me?" the creature spoke, its voice a slow and powerful sound.
"We seek answers about your creation. One specific component of the machines used to give you life. Perhaps we can make a deal; I mean to treat you fairly. Like you, we too are monsters, but we have chosen to serve our nation and protect our people. Perhaps such a purpose could be yours." Lieutenant Colonel Rose offered.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Are you trying to make another like me?" the creature asked.
"We are safeguarding pieces of an old magic. Each is just one part of the whole." Doctor Imbrium offered a detail. "Our enemies would build it and make a weapon."
"What would you have me do? I am not a person. The most human thing I've done was to commit murder. I should be alone in the frozen places." the creature seemed deeply wounded as it spoke.
"You are among murderers who live outside the comfort of human lives. Monsters, all of us. But we choose to be something more, we are a pack, a family, and our cause is for justice and peace. Do you value those things?" Lieutenant Colonel Rose asked.
"Murder and justice, family and peace." the creature considered with abnormal correlation. "You say a pack, with your eyes shining like wolves in the night. Are you werewolves?"
"We are. You ask from familiarity." Lieutenant Colonel Rose realized.
"I killed something they called Wolfman. Strongest beast I ever fought, its ferocity left these scars." the creature showed us marks on his yellow flesh, from claws and bites. "Proves I am not human, for I was not infected by its venom or contaminated by its cuts."
"You killed a lycan?" Doctor Imbrium asked. The creature just nodded, realizing Wolfman was also something called a lycan. He said:
"With my bare hands. It was justice, not murder. It felt right." the creature recalled.
"You realize the difference." Lieutenant Colonel Rose complimented him. "Would you fight for justice?"
"I am still a murderer. I killed Victor Frankenstein - and I murdered his wife. It changed me, I learned I must be alone, and that for me there is no justice." the creature sounded very remorseful.
"The world faces a great evil, hidden and threatening. You have murdered few, while our enemies would murder everyone. Billions of humans, all of them unaware of what is coming. We need your help. Would you atone for your crimes, accept a new name, hear the song of wolves and fight for justice?" Lieutenant Colonel Rose asked the creature.
"Your offer is too good for me. Yes, I will accept." the creature told us.
We took him to his new quarters, got him fed and ordered a uniform that would fit the giant. When he had rested and felt acclimated to his surroundings, his naming ceremony was held, for he had no name.
"We are gathered again to welcome another among us. Each of us was alone at one time, and we feared what we had become. We all know what it feels like to have the blood of those we love on our hands. All of us have done terrible things when we gave in to our inner monster. We are powerful things, but we do not dwell alone, suffering endlessly for our sins." Lieutenant Colonel Rose addressed the gathered pack. There was a stillness among us, as we stared back at the creature, he sensed among us the violence and horror we had collectively caused in our past lives.
"This is a monster made in the image of man. He seems mighty, but his loneliness has made him humble. He has met the demons of his past and rejected them. He had chosen to seek justice and fight alongside us, striving for redemption. He is willing to accept being part of a family, being among his own kind, monsters with very human souls. Will we accept him as one of us?"
The howl arose with a penetrating note, fully accepting him. His sunken eyes watered, touched by the welcome. Even Frosty had howled, adding a melody to our song that felt like it was of pure spirit. The creature nodded and muttered a heartfelt thanks.
"And what shall we call this man, who is first of his kind, but never given a name?"
"I am Adam." the creature said, naming himself. There were knocks of approval on the benches.
After his naming ceremony, Adam spent much of his time studying with Doctor Imbrium. Together they worked out the details of where the surgical and experimental equipment ended up. They were trying to locate the missing component.
One day, Adam called us together to gather in the massive chamber for CHILLS. He told us:
"This man, a mad surgeon, he had everything we are still missing." Adam explained. "His presence means all this research to find the amber we are seeking has already happened. Like me, he was anonymous, but unlike me, he believed in my father's work. He also committed multiple murders in the name of his experiments, and I doubt he feels remorse. He chose victims he had dehumanized, deciding they were disease-spreading, mindless, and morally degenerate. He didn't kill for pleasure or out of anger, but out of cold calculation."
I looked at the last three canisters of CHILLS. He was pointing to one of them. The man inside looked harmless and healthy, like a doctor should. And they had called him a surgeon, a student of Frankenstein's research, trying to replicate the experiment.
"Who was he?" I asked, afraid of what I would learn.
"Forget his real name. This man was a monster because of what he did. He should only be known by the name he was given, stripping him of his humanity and making him a creature of the night." Adam decided.
"And what might that name be?" Bruna asked for me, a nervousness evident in her voice. The whole pack was uncomfortable. Anyone who was held in the light of a monster's monster must be truly evil.
"His name -" Adam said with a dramatic pause as the CHILLS canister thawed and released the man inside: "Is Jack the Ripper."