Victor tossed the unread book on the counter, making a loud thunk in the otherwise quiet lab. The CDC Policy Guide For Containment and Study of Bio-Engineered Organisms stood at yawn-inducing three thousand and seventy six pages. Too long. Didn't Read.
He looked over his masterwork through sleep deprived eyes, seeing the steps taken to create it, layer by layer in his mind’s eye. Skeletal frame, musculature, regulatory and circulatory supply chains. Tonight, he would begin the activation sequence, after all these months of sleepless nights. Whether it worked or failed, he would sleep after tonight. Too long had he sequestered himself. Perhaps to his detriment. Unanswered emails and text messages from his father, to say the least of Elizabeth. No, he was not ready to speak with them yet. Tomorrow.
Turning his attention to the task at hand, he worked through his checklist. All the cables plugged in, circuits primed. His hands tingled, not with electricity, but exhilaration as he grasped the down-turned handle of the primary activator, like dipping his torch into the burning bush. And now, his hand raised as a modern Prometheus bringing the fire of life to a new humanity.
The circuit closed and the spark of life jumped and crackled illuminating the darkened room and revealing that which the doctor built in purest arcs of light. The broad sweep of forehead, pitch black shock of hair, and solid rack of gleaming teeth took on a new meaning as sweat poured from massive thews and straining muscles and unnatural proportion re-asserted itself. The fog of obsession cleared from his eyes and Victor Frankenstein saw the disturbing reality of his creation.
What have I done? His hand dropped from the lever, the current halting it's devilish dance about the room.
With crazed panic, Victor fled the room, leaving a newling to sort out its environment, alone. And fatherless.
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