An Evening at the Fire with Josephs

     I looked into the fireplace, mesmerized by the flickering flames. Sting beside me, Professor Adamson swirled his cognac in its snifter, watching the firelight through the cinnamon-colored liquid.

     “I suppose we should do something about it,” I ventured, broaching the subject for the umpteenth time this evening.

     Adamson started from his reverie. He took a sip from his snifter before replying. “No,” he said for the umpteenth time this evening. “Now is not the time.”

     I sat back in my chair. “The longer we wait, the greater potential for harm. You saw how strong that thing was. I doubt those restraints will hold it for much longer.” If I strained my ears, I could just hear the thing struggling against its bonds in the laboratory below. The sounds came and went as the thing downstairs ceased and resumed its campaign against the restraints. It was unnerving. I knew as certainly as I knew my own name that the creature would win out in the end, my mind imagining what would happen then.

     Adamson stood and went over the gas light nearest the fireplace. He turned the key, filling the small corner of the room with soft, golden light. “We must wait,” he said, turning towards me. “He may yet regain his wits. Think of what they will say of us. ‘Conquerors of Death’!”

     “And what if he doesn’t regain his wits,” I asked. “What would they say about us then? They’ll call us arrogant fools who decided to play God and suffered His wrath. It’s been two days Adamson! Two days! Admit it, Josephs is lost to us, replaced by that slavering thing downstairs!”

     “No!” Adamson screamed suddenly, his face red with rage. “My life’s work is down there! Years of my life culminating in this latest experiment! I can’t be wrong! I won’t be wrong! Down there is the answer to man’s greatest fear! I’ve worked to long, invested too much to just throw it away due to one failure!”

     The man was mad, I could see it clearly. I felt that nothing could sway him from his course, but decided to try to do so anyway. I leapt up from my chair and threw my snifter of brandy into the flames. “Damn you! You saw what that thing did to Stevens and Bradley before we managed to chain it up! It tore them apart! This is not a problem simple failure, it’s a catastrophe! We can’t ignore it! We have to do something before it is too late!”

     Adamson refused to be moved. “Listen to me Jenkins,” he implored. “It’s just shock! Shock, I tell you! Josephs had been dead two days before we found him. It’s bound to take time to recover from that. We need to give it more time!”

     Just then, a resounding crash came from below. More crashes followed. I felt the blood draining from my face. It had broken free and was laying waste to the laboratory. I looked at Adamson, whose visage mirrored my own. The time to do something had passed.

     “It’s too late to do anything now, it’s gotten loose!”

     It was coming up from the laboratory. We could hear its progress as it smashed and wrecked all in its path as it ascended. Screams erupted as it encountered the few servants that remained in the manor, screams that were suddenly silenced, replaced by sickening thuds.

     A desperate plan formed in my head. “Quickly,” I shouted to Adamson. “Extinguish that light and turn all the others to full! Our only hope is to destroy the manor before it can get out!”

     Adamson made to protest, but the reality of the situation must have gotten to him as he quickly extinguished the one light. We ran to all the other lights and turned the gas jets to full. I could smell the gas starting to fill the room. In a matter of moments, the manor would blow itself to heaven, the thing along with it.

     “Let’s go,” Adamson cried, pulling open the door. Framed in the doorway was Josephs, formerly our friend and collaborator, fists raised to batter down the door. He was almost unrecognizable. His face, once warm and jovial, was twisted into a mask of primitive emotion I could not decipher. His brown hair hung in greasy strands, his lips curled into a silent snarl, and his eyes glowed with fury.

     “This way,” I shouted, moving towards the other doorway into the drawing room. “The gas will ignite at any moment!”

     Adamson was paralyzed with fear, his eyes riveted on the creature that was once his friend. Josephs reached out to grab Adamson, jolting the latter into action. Barely evading Josephs’ clutching hands, he bolted towards the other door. Josephs emitted an eerie howl and lumbered after us.

     We ran down the hallway towards the main entrance, Josephs chasing after us with inhuman speed. Josephs was reaching out to grab Adamson’s flapping coattails when the gas in the drawing room ignited, causing a terrible explosion. A massive jet of flame raced down the hallway and engulfed Josephs, setting him ablaze. We threw ourselves out of the main door onto the ground, flames licking at our bodies before subsiding.  

     The manor was ablaze, flames leaping into the night sky. Out of the flames staggered Josephs, intent on catching us and killing us as he did Adamson’s unfortunate servants. He stumbled a few steps, fire wreathing his body, before collapsing to the ground.  

     Adamson ran up to the corpse and beat the flames out with his jacket. He then prodded the corpse, checking to see if it would stir. Satisfied that the danger was over, he turned to me, silhouetted by the flames consuming his manor. I could tell by the look inn his eyes that the madness that had been pushed aside by Josephs’ escape had returned.

     “The next time will be different,” he said, again poking at Josephs with his foot. “I’ve been thinking and I believe that I know where I went wrong. The formula needs some adjustment, maybe a more controllable source of electric current, and we could-“

     Another explosion rent the air, this time emanating from the pistol I had drawn from my coat. Adamson tore at his vest, ripping it away to reveal a red stain that slowly spread across his chest. He looked at me in disbelief, his mouth attempting to form words.

     “Why,” he gasped as he fell to the ground. “We were so close-“

     “This has to end,” I told Adamson’s corpse. I thought of those who had died as a result of Adamson’s doomed experiment. How many more would have suffered the same fate had I spared him?

     “This has to end,” I repeated. I put away my pistol and turned to start the long walk back into town.