“Well... this is it, Ghost.” Prometheus took a deep breath before dialing the phone number written in William Frankenstein’s file on his rotary phone. 

As the dial tone resounded on the other end, he tapped his fingers on his quilted face with his heart pounding in anticipation. 

“Hello? Baron Victor Frankenstein’s residence. If you’re calling to make an appointment for body modification or treatment, please call his office number.” a woman’s voice replied in a way that sounded like she did this frequently. 

“Hello, miss. It's not for that. I’m a doctor myself calling to make a follow-up appointment for Mr. William Frankenstein please. He was a walk-in patient at my clinic for a broken arm. Is he there by any chance?” he replied nervously. 

“Oh, so YOU are Dr. Prometheus. Thank you for being so kind to William. That poor boy is always being run like a rag by the Baron. I know it’s important for young men to be put to work but.... but anyway, I’m afraid he is out right now. I can take the appointment for him though, if I may.” the young woman told him. 

Prometheus pursed his lips with disappointment before a thought came to him “I would like to make this a house-call type appointment, miss. You see my clinic is... being refurnished and it’s not the best environment for doing my work right now.” he gave Ghost a wink as he fibbed “May I?” 

“Let me see....” for a moment, Prometheus could faintly hear the woman talk to another woman “Alright, you may come here, Dr. Prometheus. Is Friday morning at 9:00 convenient?” 

“It’s perfect, miss. I have the address on William’s file. We make a point of making one for every patient even for one-off patients just in case at our clinic.” Prometheus smiled as he petted Ghost on the other end. 

“That’s so caring of you. We’ll see you this Friday then. When you come here, just say Justine Moritz, that’s me, sent you.” Justine informed him. 

“I shall. Goodbye for now, Ms. Mortiz.” he politely said to her. 

“Goodbye, Dr. Prometheus.” she replied before she hung up the telephone on her end. 

He sat back sighing in relief before looking at his owl companion “Onto step two, Ghost.” 

Later, Prometheus was holding a single rose while walking in the woods he once resided in before meeting Albert and the DeLacey family. He was accompanied by Igor who was admiring the woods and Ghost who was perched on his hump. 

“It’s so beautiful. I can see why Albert had a cabin out here, Prom. I used to live in the woods myself as my father was a hunter.” Igor stated as he admired the natural beauty around him “Not that I’m doubting you, but are you sure we’re on the right path?” 

“I know we are, Igor.” Prometheus stated and pointed to the unique pile of stones. 

Ghost flew over to the foot of the pile leaning down and rubbing her head against it emotionally. 

“Is that...?” Igor began. 

“Yes. It’s her mother’s resting place.” Prometheus got down on his knees and placed the rose at the top of the pile before bowing his head down in respect. 

Igor removed his hat and bowed his head as well. 

Prometheus then got up as Ghost perched on his shoulder “This way. The lab is that way.” 

“I have to say that you’re being very brave about going back there considering what happened there including the details you don’t remember, Prom.” Igor commented as he put his hands in his pockets. 

“Make no mistake, I’m terrified of what I might find out there, but I NEED to know, Igor. I also have a feeling that it is related to what Lord Stein was doing with Mark Eldrich’s arm. Like you said; such a medical feat should be impossible, yet I know what I saw and look at me. I doubt every patch of skin on me was mine to begin with and I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of my eyes, arms, legs or more belonged to another man. Perhaps even several different men.” Prometheus explained. 

“How you can say all that with a straight face...” Igor muttered before clearing his throat “Say, have the Eldrichs talked to you at all since Mark got attacked?” 

“The other day, I came by their house to check on Mark’s health. His physical wounds are healing, but... he is not himself anymore, Igor. All he does is sit around not speaking and his father has turned to alcohol. The only person trying to keep it together is Mrs. Eldrich and I'm not sure for how long.” Prometheus replied sadly while stroking Ghost’s head. 

“Damn...” was all Igor could say. 

“Anyway, we will soon get answers...?!” Prometheus encouraged him, but once they got to clearing where the lab was supposed to be, it was no more. 

It had been burnt down years ago with one wall collapsed inwards while the other three burnt eroding walls barely held up. The roof was no more, the doors were gone and even the ground around it was black and bare. 

“Well... we would have found the answers if there was still a lab to search.” Igor frowned. 

“We might STILL find answers. It was destroyed for a reason. Come on, Igor.” Prometheus insisted and he walked towards the dilapidated remains of the lab. 

Igor followed right behind him as Prometheus pushed the stone and wooden beams out of the way with ease thanks to his great strength. What remained inside were things like chains, a metallic slab and what looked like a deep well that was now filled with black hardened muck. There were even some papers, but they were rendered illegible from being burnt and would only turn to dust upon being touched. There were what looked like beakers and decanters that were either broken or deformed from extreme heat with scorch marks here and there. Igor even found the remains of some jars, but they had been broken and empty for a while... all except for one buried underneath the rest and a thick layer of dirt. 

“I found something!” he called out to Prometheus who came over. 

Together they carefully dusted and dug out the one intact jar Igor had found. Prometheus carefully examined it and he could barely make something out inside of it. 

“There’s something still inside of it...” he commented as he tried to open it, but when he did, he wound up dropping it with the contents inside spilling out onto the ground. 

What was revealed caused Ghost to screech and soar up into the trees while Prometheus and Igor walked in silent horror with their blood turning cold. It was a human hand still perfectly preserved thanks to the green glowing liquid it had been contained in. 

“Oh, my Lord...” Prometheus shuddered as the hand even twitched a couple of times before clenching into a fist, then melting into a pool of blood which evaporated right away “Now, I am SURE this is connected to those body modifications, Igor. This is exactly what happened to Lord Stein after he died.... Igor? Igor!” 

The poor hunchback felt sick and lightheaded for a moment after what he saw as he swayed back and forth. He nearly fell backwards, but his friend grabbed him by the shoulders. 

“I-I’m fine. Just... shocked... wow. How were you able to see that happen to a whole body without throwing up?” Igor commented as Prometheus still held him. 

“I understand if this is too much for you. You can wait outside while-” Prometheus offered, but Igor raised his hands. 

“I came here to help and I’m a man of my word. Maybe we can find something else...” Igor insisted. 

Prometheus allowed this as they continued to look, but this time, he stuck to the area where the jars were while Igor looked over some knocked over shelves of burnt books. Ghost watched from up above the trees curiously. Eventually, the creature-doctor did find another intact jar which was the size of a jam jar though it only contained that strange glowing green liquid. No body parts. Meanwhile, Igor did manage to find some books with their contents intact, but the contents inside were either faded or the writing inside was just too illegible as it was. However, he found one notebook that had some unusual anatomy illustrations that were still very clear. 

“Hey! I found something, Prom!” Igor called his friend over. 

“Good work, Igor... The writing is chicken scratch, but these illustrations are clearly about experimenting with body parts. Specifically... stitching them together. Looks like they started with animals...” Prometheus pointed out. 

“You know... I don’t think extreme surgery was the only kind of experimenting done here. Judging by all those beakers and all those jars which probably had other body parts, I think there was also chemistry going on here. Maybe even alchemy.” Igor commented as he looked at the pictures with Prometheus. 

“That crossed my mind too and judging how this place is isolated, it’s safe to assume that nothing legal was going on here.” Prometheus frowned as Ghost noticed that the pile of debris behind them seemed to move for a moment. 

“Does any of it look familiar to you, Prom?” Igor dared to ask as the debris pile behind them continued to stir and rise every so often. 

“No. Not yet anyway. Wait... this notebook... it belongs to Victor Frankenstein!” he was cut off when he heard something creak behind them. 

The two of them jerked around to the pile of debris rise more and more until something sprung out from beneath the rubble and scorched earth roaring in a distorted tone. At first glance, it looked almost humanoid, but its features were indistinguishable due to its body being burnt and having pieces of stone, debris and even glass fused into its body like armor. Only its deformed mouth and bulging eyes, which were not even in the right place and had up to five, were visible. The monster towered over them roaring and reaching out while the pair screamed in terror and Ghost above them also screeched. Prometheus grabbed Igor by the collar and yanked him just before the monstrosity grabbed him. 

“RUUUUUUUUUN!!” Prometheus commanded as they headed for the woods with the monster in hot pursuit. 

While panicking, they left the notebook behind on a grassy patch. They ran through the trees with the monster catching up until it managed to grab the creature-doctor by the braid pulling him backwards. 

“PROMETHEUS!!” Igor looked back in horror. 

Prometheus elbowed the monster in the chest repeatedly to make it let go, but it was futile. Its body was too armored. Igor whipped out his bow-knife and tried to stab the being, but that too did not do much though it did distract it for a moment. It backhanded Igor causing him to fall and roll backwards. In that moment, Prometheus punched the monster right in the face seemingly ‘cracking’ its head and knocking out some of its teeth. However, the monster was still determined as it roared while looking at its prey. Prometheus grabbed its arms holding it back while wincing from feeling the sharp debris dig into his hands. It was then that Ghost joined the fight by swooping down with her talons out taking out one of the monster’s eyes. It staggered backwards, howling in pain which gave Prometheus the opportunity he needed. He grabbed the bow-knife that lay on ground and quickly plunged right into the roof of the monster’s large gaping mouth. In doing so, he stabbed it in the brain. Prometheus leapt backwards watching as the monster staggered and moaned with the knife still lodged into the roof of its mouth. When its remaining eyes rolled backwards, it dropped forward with a loud thud dead on the ground. Its body then melted and evaporated right before their eyes until all that was left was a black scar on the ground in the shape of the monster that was lying there just a minute ago with the knife half melted. Igor was sitting up trembling with his nose bleeding, Ghost kept her distance up in the trees as Prometheus stood there speechless with his hands cut up. 

He turned to the trembling hunchback “I think we’ve seen enough here.” 

The two hastily got up and left still unaware that they had left the notebook behind. As it lay there for a few seconds, a masked man in black picked it up and looked at a page with a full diagram illustrating Prometheus’ body before pocketing it.