Creatures: The Legacy of Frankenstein by Tade Thompson Rose Biggin Paul Meloy Emma Newman Kaaron Warren

Author:Tade Thompson, Rose Biggin, Paul Meloy, Emma Newman, Kaaron Warren
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Abaddon Books

I HEARD FROM my mother the next day that Geoffrey Dodd had been found beaten, was in a coma in a hospital in Canterbury, and Ann Bennett was missing, having not returned home that night. Shaun Bennett had been arrested and taken to a jail in Herne Bay protesting his innocence, reeking of drink, his knuckles scraped and bloody.

My mother was agitated. “I knew that man was going to end up like this,” she said. I assumed she was talking about Shaun. I sat at the table in the parlour, its oilcloth speckled with breadcrumbs from my breakfast. I said nothing. The news had shocked me deeply. My mother spoke again, about Ann, and I was seized from my introspection. “What do you mean, Mum?” I asked.

My mother paused. She was preparing to bake. A little sugar, a little powdered egg. Nothing much, but a distraction. Her mind was not focused on it.

“In her condition,” she repeated.

My face must have appeared blank, although comprehension was slowly dawning in my mind. My mother clarified it for me.

“Missing like that, just a girl, carrying Geoffrey’s child. Poor mite.”

I did not want to believe her; but I had seen Shaun’s reaction, his rage, and the loveless abuse he had hurled after his terrified daughter. I had no choice but to accept what she had told me. I stood, feeling unsteady. I could not bear to be in that tiny parlour any longer. I left my mother to her listless baking and went out of the house into the street. It hurt, knowing Ann was pregnant. It was a hard, adult lump in my throat. It made what I had witnessed more than a moment, something permanent growing within her, a part of the man inside her forever. It was jealousy I felt, at this appropriation of her, and for a moment my fists clenched, and I was glad Geoffrey had been hurt.

Shocked by my own venom and sick with this new feeling, I stalked through the streets of Herne Bay and headed out of town.

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