Chapter 7*

Awkward young Felix meets and becomes part of the family...

Upon our approach to the house, I heard a dreadful scream issued from the forest beside us, and rushed in after it, Felix treading after me. The screaming only got louder and more frightened as we approached. We rounded upon the bush it was crying from, and found little Justine, curled in a ball on the ground, screeching and hiding her head.

I yelled over her frantic shrieks, grabbing her shoulders and hugging her, “Justine, Justine, my dear! Are you alright? What has gotten you frightened so?” She hugged me too, pressing her crying face into my chest and balling up the back of my shirt in her hands. Felix stood above, both worried and confused.

Her words quivered with panic, pointing weakly at Felix, “What horrendous monster have you brought with you, my brother Frankenstein? Can you not feel his hideous presence behind you? What plague have you brought upon our home?”

Shocked, I yanked her away from my chest, staring with disbelief back into her rattled eyes. Felix behind me shuffled awkwardly, beginning to back away out of respect for the feelings of the young girl. I shook my head, “No, no, Justine! This is my new son, your new nephew! He is a kind boy, if you will just give him a chance. Haven’t you always wanted to be an auntie, Justine?”

Felix outstretched his hand to Justine, showing his clammy skin and ripped but clean fingernails. He looked to the side out of embarrassment, not wanting to make eye contact with the horrified girl, and only frighten her more. “My name is Felix, Aunt Justine. It is a pleasure to meet you,” he said, in as steady a voice as possible.

She, with my gentle urging, took Felix’s hand, and, upon feeling that he was trembling as much as she was, gave it a tentative shake. Felix relaxed a little, and smiled at her as I helped her up. She still seemed dismayed, and stuck to my arm, keeping me between her and Felix, but she was no longer screaming, and was not demanding his immediate demise, such as Henry.

We approached the house and Elizabeth ran out to greet me, the smile on her face brighter than even the evening sun. “My dear cousin, how wonderful it is to see you! We have been awaiting your arrival for as long as we’ve held your letter in our hands, and have only good things to tell you.” Justine dove into Elizabeth’s arms, vying for a hug, and Felix shifted on his feet beside me, awaiting the dreadful response he would now elicit from this poor girl.

As soon as Elizabeth was finished remarking on my health, the meat on my bones and shine of my countenance, her attention inevitably fell on Felix. Her eyes grew wide and she flinched away from his horrid person out of instinct, but she did not scream. She held stiff, Justine clutched in her arms.

“You are the vile apparition Henry spoke of,” she stated, inching further from him and closer to me. “Why have you kept him, Victor, why have you allowed him to come here?” Her voice sounded nearly choked with petrified tears.

“Did Henry not mention that this ‘vile apparition’ is my own creation, and I will take care of him as my son?” I remarked flatly, vexed by the constant accusations of wickedness made on my darling Felix.

Without hesitation Felix also stretched his hand out to Elizabeth, brave enough to look in her direction this time, though intently at the ground. “My name is Felix. I take it you are the lovely Elizabeth I have heard so much about. It is a pleasure to finally meet you.” Elizabeth started at the sound of Felix’s gruff but mannerly voice, and, out of courtesy to me, took Felix’s hand, shaking it weakly, half-grimacing the whole time. It was not the reversal Justine made, but it was a solemn grace which made Felix feel not quite so unwelcome.

The same routine followed with father, but he was much more forceful than either of the girls, physically pulling the two and me behind his back as if to protect us from this dreadful monster, who turned around and offered him a firm handshake and a civil greeting. Father was perturbed, but relieved for the lack of threat Felix posed. The four of us went inside, proceeding with introductions, to Edward and Ernest, the former of whom reacted violently, sobbing and fleeing until calmed down enough to listen, the later of whom shoved down all his judgements and foul name-calling to give Felix the first respectable greeting he’d ever received, from someone other than myself.

At dinner I announced my intentions to return to my hometown permanently, and to make Elizabeth my wife, and Felix’s mother, as soon as possible. Felix was well-behaved and quiet, and though no one would look him in the yellow eyes, for fear of betraying their own disgust, the family as a whole came to respect him and almost recognize him as one of them by the time we laid down to bed that night. Felix was still flustered and uneasy, especially around the girls, and we had heard nothing from Henry, though I had left Felix unbaptized in hope that he would come around. We all prayed nothing had gotten to him.

Author's Note

*Any chapter numbers line up with the chapters the events correspond to in the book, that's why they jump around a lot.