Whisper Read online

  The Child of Frankenstein: Book One

  Whisper

  P.S. Power

  Orange Cat Publishing

  Copyright 2019

  Chapter one

  The shattering of the front door wasn’t the first thing that Liam recalled happening in his short life, as impressive as the thunderous din was. In fact, he’d been aware of his surroundings for several months already before the unexpected happening took place. The earliest such things, recollections of being a discrete and separate individual from the rest of the world, went back a long time for him. Nearly four whole months.

  There were things from before that time that sometimes came to him as he sat in his favorite chair, listening to the kind woman who loved him, his mother, as she spoke and taught him about very important things. What he was, for instance. How he was special and definitely not a monster at all. Also, how to speak, read and why some things were going to be harder for him in life than it was for others. There were differences, since unlike her, Mary, his creator, Liam wasn’t a human being.

  Which, as she’d assured him, almost daily, didn't mean he wasn’t a person or as good as anyone else. Simply a different type of being. One that few would be able to understand easily, because they weren’t trained to accept people that weren’t like they were. Not yet. It would be his job, as much as he could possibly manage, to help others learn about him, become familiar and by doing so, get them used to having people like him around in their lives.

  Special people that could help them a lot, if only he and others like him, were allowed to try without fear or hatred.

  Still, the people that had broken the door were incredibly loud and shocking in their behavior. It was a thing that Liam had no concept of how to process. The things he’d encountered in his life had never been loud at all, and shocking wasn’t a thing he had more than a word for, inside of himself. Mary, the older lady who had been his entire world before that point, staying with him and feeding him the nuts and berries that made up his diet as well as teaching him about millions of marvelous things, was thrown rather violently to the floor. That, the idea of one being harming another, had never come up for him before. Not even in the things that he’d seen on his computer.

  Neither had fear, which he felt then, for the first time. Inexorably he wanted to run away from the new stimuli, as a part of his being in that moment, as the men in the dark blue uniforms, thick things that didn’t seem like clothing at all, as far as he knew it, screamed strange things at them as the laboratory was invaded. Instead of fleeing, since he didn't know how, or where to go if he could figure such a strategy out for himself, the idea having never been discussed at all, he froze in place.

  Even when pain came and several of the men began to strike him. Pain wasn’t new to him, so he held very still, since that was what you did when a medical procedure was taking place.

  “Mother!” The word, like everything he was able to say, came out as no louder than a whisper. A thing that even Mary had to strain to hear. In the moment no one seemed to understand him at all, since the strange men were too loud for him to be heard over.

  The process that she’d used to create him had left him with that one lack, compared to other beings. His voice was soft, almost not being there at all and she’d told him that it might always be. Certainly, the screaming and wailing creatures in blue didn't have such a lack. They were, in fact, louder than anything he’d ever encountered in his entire life. Even more so than the sound of the door that had been made to explode inward.

  His vocal cords were merged with the rest of his body too tightly, grown partially into the flesh as a single unit, not allowing air to pass over them for the creation of sound properly. Liam had been assured that they were not ossified or broken, just too integrated into the single thing that he was to work in a normal fashion. That might change someday. It also might not. It was an unknown thing, that his mother couldn’t explain totally.

  So, while he had words and the ability to use them, there was most likely never going to be any great ability to make himself heard or known to those around him. Not with words, in a fashion that would be considered normal in the world. Instead he’d have to learn to write more eloquently and do other things to express himself. Mary, his creator, had spoken of learning to play musical instruments, when he was older.

  Painting and drawing as well. He’d done a bit of that, using pen and pencil on paper to record and create images. Those weren’t very good, compared to the things that he’d been shown on the computer screen, of course. Not yet. Then, he wasn’t old and had time to learn new things. It was the normal way, really. Children, the human ones, were allowed years to study and learn before anyone expected them to make a true difference in the world.

  Mary figured that it wouldn’t take him even a fraction of that kind of time for him to do that sort of thing. He was very smart and learned much more quickly than others did. Hundreds of times, if what had been measured was consistent over time.

  The back of a metal and plastic tube of some sort slammed into his jaw several times as a pale man screamed something at him. Pain flared for a moment, then went away totally, each time it happened. There were distorted words inside what was being yelled in his direction. He thought. The screaming created a situation he had to work very hard to understand, having never heard anything from a person other than soft tones or instructions being given from Mary or people on the computer.

  He did know what a man was, from the internet, even if he’d never met one in person before. Many of the people who taught things to him from there were men, after all. Most of them had been soft of tone and pleasant, compared to the ones in front of him, who brought pain and confusion to his world.

  Liam was one of those as well, a male, so that part wasn’t shocking or jarring to him as he was wrestled to the ground, the screaming men hitting and kicking him constantly. Not that he understood what they were doing to him or why.

  Not until Mary spoke, her voice gentle, even with everything going on around them. That was because she was a good person. A thing that he hadn’t realized before that moment. She was lying face down, her arms twisted behind her, making her cry out in pain at first. Then she calmed herself and spoke to him, in her normal tone.

  “It’s all right Liam. Do what they say and place your hands behind your back. Don’t harm him, he’s only five months old, regardless of how he looks.” She was kicked in the face by a man with thick seeming, strange, shoes on his feet. Boots. Liam had seen such things describes in a video once.

  “Shut the fuck up or I will fucking shoot you!”

  She was silent then, though Liam was able to understand a bit of what he was supposed to do then. The men still didn’t make any sense, but placing his hands behind his back was a thing that he could do. Also counting and as he was learning, how to feel both fear and anger. Those last two were new skills, of course. Things that he was coming up with in that very moment, in fact.

  There were twelve men in the room with them. All dressed the same way and pointing tubes at them for some reason. That, even without understanding what the things were, seemed to be done aggressively. Before that moment, he hadn’t known what that word, aggressive, truly meant. It had been in the dictionary, so he knew the word and its description. That didn’t mean he’d encountered that sort of thing before.

  After placing cold metal links on his wrists, hurting him as it was done, and striking him several more times, all while screaming and promising to fucking kill him if he moved, while incoherently babbling instructions to move at him, while also yelling that he should not do that, Liam noticed a change to the room. That came some time later, he thought. Mary was still there, but had been allowed to sit upright, on the floor. Her lightly wrinkled face, thin and tight ar
ound the mouth at the moment, had discolorations on it, from the blows that had been delivered to her.

  Looking at her, she seemed to be showing an emotion that he didn’t know. The men around him were made to be quiet, suddenly, as four people, two men and two women, walked into the room. They had shining things in their hands, bits of metal in cloth, or possibly leather, holders. Those looked to have information cards above them. When they came in, one of the men in dark blue pointed at Liam.

  “He fucking resisted arrest. We need to execute him now. That’s the law.”

  One of the new men, who had short hair instead of a hard-seeming blue hat with a clear but reflective bit on the front, made a harsh noise. A thing that seemed to involve his nose in some way and possibly the back of his throat. A snort, Liam thought. Which was another new thing in his world. It was directed at the formerly screaming man.

  “No, it isn’t. We don’t kill people for looking a bit different and I’m not seeing your men nursing any bruises. You know that we use a real-world version of resisting with supernaturals, not the fantasy that regular cops use. If he told you to not touch him, that doesn’t count for this. Not with lives on the line. What did he do? Exactly. Don’t feed me any B.S. here, Simpson.” There was searching then, done with his eyes. A scouring of the room that showed intelligence behind it.

  It was, Liam knew, important to pay attention. All the time, since learning could come from anything around you. Mary had told him that, every day.

  Now she spoke, even if doing that had caused the bad men to hurt her for doing it before. Liam was certain that they were not good, since they caused pain. That had to be a bad thing. Mary hadn’t done that back to them. Neither had he. Possibly because neither of them understood how to do such things. A portion of his being wanted to do that to them, hit them, to make them stop hurting other people.

  Still, Mary, his mother and creator, spoke, defending him from the people who wanted to kill him. Liam knew what death was, after all. The cessation of life. The absence of action. An ending that lasted forever. His mother had taught him that, so he’d understand that it was going to be very hard for him to do such a thing. Dying wasn’t a skill of his, as far as she knew. That meant these bad men wouldn’t be able to do that to him. They on the other hand probably could die very easily.

  Her voice was crackling and thicker sounding than normal.

  “He didn’t resist. Liam just couldn’t understand what was going on, so froze. He’s only a child. A baby, regardless of his size. Now, what the hell is going on here?” She seemed upset. Angry, though with more fear mixed in than the pure emotion would normally allow for. Things that had never been part of her before the bad men had come in, ten minutes before.

  It wasn’t the man with the short hair that replied then and no one said they were going to fucking kill Mary again. It was another woman who spoke then. Her voice wasn’t as pleasant as the one that he was used to hearing when his lessons came. Still, it wasn’t screaming and he was able to understand the words, if not all of their meanings.

  “Mary Frankenstein, you’re under arrest for crimes against nature. We have a warrant to search this residence and will execute that now. Not that we don’t have a good idea of what you were doing already. That… Calling yourself Frankenstein is a little on the nose, isn’t it?” The woman, who had red hair, like his mother, which was springy looking and wispy at the edges, was younger than anyone else there. Her voice was showing sarcasm.

  Liam had learned about that online, watching movie reviews. Only the rated G ones, since Mary didn’t want him to see bad things too early. Still, there had been that kind of thing on occasion from the people doing the reviews. Also, bad language. Like what the bad men had been using. That there was a link between that kind of word being used and evil people suddenly linked in his head.

  Rather than seem upset, Mary stared at the woman and shook her head.

  “A working name, as you know, nothing more. Now, as far as I’m aware, a crime against nature isn’t an actual charge that can be brought against anyone. I demand that you all leave my home, now. This instant. If the warrant was provided under false pretenses, it isn’t legally binding, so get out. I want to call my lawyer as well.”

  The new red-haired woman had rather pale skin, which had small marks on it, freckles, Liam thought, rolled her green eyes. That was another thing that he’d learned online. It was a rude thing to do, though wasn’t that bad really. Not like calling people names. Just not as polite as could be done. You were supposed to look people in the eyes. Not too much though. Human beings saw through their eyes, not all over, like he did.

  Still, he had what looked like eyes on his face, so it was important to use them correctly. Mary had shown him how to do that, so it wasn’t hard for him.

  The new woman waved in his direction, as he lay on the floor.

  “Fine then… We have you on interfering with a corpse, ethics violations and I’m sure we can find something around here that you aren’t supposed to have. What you’ve done here is frowned upon. Both in the regular and supernatural communities. Mad science isn’t a good thing, Ms. Frankenstein. Is that what you did here? Use a few lightning bolts to make yourself a monster?”

  The woman looked over at Liam then, her face questioning, as the taller man next to her moved toward Liam. He readied himself for more pain, expecting more yelling and kicking. Instead the man waved the others away, the bad men in blue, and knelt down, speaking softly.

  “Can you understand me, sir?” The words were far more polite than the yelling had been. Also different in that Mary had never called him anything other than his name or at times you. So the last word was unfamiliar, even while Liam understood the man was addressing him, directly. He understood the meaning though, since sir was a way to address a man, in the polite form of the language. This man then was attempting to treat him as if he were important.

  He couldn’t speak loudly, of course. He whispered, attempting to be polite back, in case the rules had changed again. Yelling about fucking killing didn’t seem nice at all, so he decided to avoid doing that, unless it was required of him.

  “Yes. I understand you, sir.” He didn't know that all men were called sir, for certain. He thought it had come up a few times, in his lessons. His memory was good, without being totally perfect. There had been tests of that, several times. What he was, mentally, was much, much faster in thought than a human was. That didn't mean he was going to have perfectly organized information inside of himself at every point.

  The soft words had the man move in a little closer, with the others in the room stiffening up as that took place. The bad men in dark blue. The ones wearing other clothing, things that looked like suits, except for the women, who wore brighter clothing, simply watched what was going on. It was clear that, even if his words were soft, they could understand him.

  There was a smile then from the large man with the short hair. That was just brown. Liam had black that way himself. It was longer, running past his shoulders, so he’d seen it. The biggest difference between him and all the others in the room was his skin. That was yellow. No one else there had that at all. Two of the bad men had a golden tan color. Most were pale, with the curly red-haired woman being the lightest that way, except for Mary, who she matched almost perfectly as far as that went.

  No one else had yellow eyes, either. That, both of those things, were due to the chemical bath that he’d been born in. People like him were yellow. It was just what they were. Mary had said so.

  There was a hand on his shoulder then. That was warm, even through the thin blue top he was wearing.

  “Good. That’s really good. Do you want to sit up? I can help you do that. It can be hard, with your hands behind your back like that.”

  Thinking about it, his face pressed to the floor like it was, it did seem like a good idea. If nothing else he could see the men who were going to fail to fucking kill him, if they tried, a little better. The shirt and trousers an
d his own hair, blocked his view. At the moment he was seeing through the skin on his lower arms, for the most part. His face was always bare, being almost hair free. He had lashes and eyebrows, but nothing else there to get in the way. The links of metal were a little binding and uncomfortable, though that had faded a lot already. Discomfort did with him, as he learned about it. It was stronger at first, then would fade to nothing, after a while. New pain always hurt. Once he had an awareness of it, that kind of thing would vanish. It normally took about five seconds, but the metal on his wrists was a new thing, so he was focusing on it.

  “Yes, please.” Polite people said please when they wanted something. That didn't always get you what you asked for. It still needed to be done each time. A cartoon dog had told him about that. He used the information now, just in case it was correct. So far, the cartoon dog had not failed in his lessons.

  It took some lifting and pulling to get him upright, a thing that didn’t seem to strain the man doing the work too much. The new red-haired lady moved closer to him, when he was upright. Regarding him closely. She nodded after a bit, looking at him from top to bottom.

  “Large hands and feet. Enough to mark him as unusual all on their own. About… Five-five in height. Approximately… A hundred and twenty pounds.”

  Mary spoke then, her voice soft. Gentle even.

  “A hundred and eighty. His density is greater than a human’s. He’s five months old. A child. He’s never shown any sign of violence or aggression. He’s clearly a sentient being, which means that harming him would be against all ethical and moral values. Looking different, even being different isn’t a crime. You have no reason to hold him for anything.” Then, her lips tightening, she stopped speaking. She looked at the other woman, who seemed similar to herself, very closely. They locked eyes for a while, with the new one nodding, before looking away.

  For a moment it seemed as if one of the men who wanted to kill Liam was going to try it, on Mary. Before he could do more than pull his metal pipe around, the new red-haired one waved a hand at the bad man, making him stop.