Frankenstein Lives Again (The New Adventures of Frankenstein) Read Online Free PDF

through the place, and had I been superstitious, I might have mistaken that baleful sound for the howl of some unseen spirit. Taking my flashlight from my jacket pocket, I cast a yellow beam upon the dank floor.
    “The place was a complete shambles. I wondered if Victor, obviously no housekeeper, had found the place in a similar condition when he first entered it. The years had added smells of dampness and decay and I was overcome by the sensation that I had just opened an ancient tomb. Still, I wasn’t really concerned with the look or smell of the place. All that mattered was that this was Castle Frankenstein — and that it was mine.
    “At once, I started to explore the castle, hoping to find some positive clues that would prove what I had come here to find. I didn’t have to explore too far, for soon I came upon a very large chamber. Stepping inside that room, I cast my flashlight beam upon what remained of an impressive set-up of eighteenth century laboratory apparatus and realized, to my utter delight, that I was actually standing in the room where Victor Frankenstein had done his experiments!
    “For a full minute I could do nothing but stand there, flashing my beam in every possible direction, trying to see everything that I could in that meager illumination. It was the closest thing to a religious experience I had ever felt. Finally, I regained my composure.
    “The laboratory was not the electrical amusement park that the motion picture industry would have us believe. Nevertheless, it was, in fact, a scientific marvel for its day. Some of the apparatus was far advanced for its time, more so than I’d ever imagined, and for a while it was difficult to grasp the fact that these devices — primitive though they might appear — were actually in use in Victor Frankenstein’s day. Mary Shelley had briefly passed over the particulars in the Monster’s creation, implying that both chemical action and electricity had been used to give the creature its immortal spark of life.
    "Much of Frankenstein’s equipment was damaged or corroded or both. The great engine, which occupied a prominent place in the laboratory, was beyond repair. Not that it mattered, or its principles were easy for me to decipher, and I could easily replace the machine with more modern and efficient equipment. Already I felt certain that by combining Frankenstein’s techniques with my own I could easily restore the laboratory and bring it to full life once again. 
    "But what good would the laboratory be if I could not first obtain the remains of the Monster?”
    It was then that Pierre Dupré finally interrupted. “But, if the novel’s account is true, as is what Krag told you, you’d surely not find the Monster in Germany.”
    “Ah, how true, Monsieur Dupré,” said Winslow. “But don’t let me get ahead of myself. In the center of the laboratory, I saw a large table, complete with primitive electrical hook-ups and large restraining straps, that indicated that it was once used to accommodate a veritable giant. Mary Shelley described the Monster as eight feet tall — in its bare feet, I’d imagine. I kept searching...
    “In one of the warping bookcases, I pored through the many moldy-smelling volumes, hoping to find something actually written by Victor Frankenstein. The volumes by Paracelsus and Cornelius Agrippa must have been priceless in value, but I wasn’t concerned with the writings of the alchemists. With my heart pounding, I finally came upon the great leather-bound volume, its pages inscribed by a hasty hand. The cover boasted, in raised lettering, its title, The Journal of Victor Frankenstein ; and on its yellowed pages was the secret , the step-by-step creation of the being that Frankenstein had made and brought to life. It was all there — how he violated the graves and gallows, even used animal tissue to give his creation size and strength, how he worked for two years assembling the giant which he’d hoped to be