“Certainly.”
“And that it’s filled with spirits and angels and devils, and could only be governed by an all-powerful God.”
“Ah. Let’s just say I believe it’s a world filled with wonders, and one I plan to visit many more times.”
“Is that wise?” Henry asked.
Elizabeth said nothing for a moment, then, “I won’t go again.”
Aghast, I stared at her. “What do you mean? You saw him.”
She put her face in her hands. “But I don’t know if it was more solace or torment. He could barely look at us. I couldn’t even touch him. He’s gone from us, Victor. In time he’ll be gathered and taken to his final home.”
“I mean to bring him back,” I said quietly.
Silence boiled through the room like a thundercloud.
Elizabeth was shaking her head. “We can’t bring him back, Victor.”
“I don’t accept that. And you shouldn’t either. Two days ago you didn’t believe a door could be opened to the spirit world. We’ve opened it. We’ve passed through. Why can’t Konrad pass out?”
She was trembling. To my surprise Henry lifted a blanket from my bed and draped it over her shoulders, kneeling beside her. “You’re exhausted by all this.”
“Don’t play nursemaid, Henry,” I said impatiently. “She’s as strong as me, and you don’t see me traumatized.”
At this Elizabeth stood, threw off her blanket, and glared at me. “I should’ve known this was your intent all along. Just when I think your egotism has found its limit, you amaze me afresh. Yes, we’ve passed into the realm of the dead-a place we likely shouldn’t have-and yes, we saw Konrad’s spirit. But do you actually think you have any authority in that place?”
“We’ll see.”
“No. We will not see. Only God resurrects people, Victor, and, as startling as this might be to you, you are not God!”
“I never said I was,” I retorted. “You see, this is exactly my point. You think only your God has the power to govern these worlds. All I’m doing is raising a question: Might we as well?”
She swallowed. “I feel sickened by all this. It was a mistake.”
“What about Konrad? I thought you loved-”
“Yes, and that’s precisely why I can’t bear it again. It’s torture, Victor, for him and me. I vowed to let him go.” More quietly she said, “Nothing good can come of it. I won’t go again.”
I took a moment to marshal my thoughts. I nodded. “I understand. If this is something I have to do alone, so be it. All I know is that Wilhelm Frankenstein somehow found a way into the spirit world, and who knows what else he found? He might’ve made all sorts of incredible discoveries. Maybe he even knew how to bring the dead back to life. If he did, there must be some record of it.”
“The Dark Library is ash now,” said Henry.
This stopped me for a moment, and then I realized something.
“Only in our world,” I said with a grin. “In the spirit world it’s still there. Every book that ever came into this house will still be there, unburned, unblemished.”
“Books,” said Henry wearily. “Our last adventure was filled with books, and-”
“It ended with failure, yes. Alchemy and science, primitive and modern, they failed us. But clearly the occult holds more wisdom than I gave it credit for. There will be a great many books to read…” I looked over at Henry. “For someone as clever as you, it would not be nearly so great a chore.”
“Your flattery’s shameless,” Elizabeth said. “Henry’s too sane to help you with such a mad plan.”
I sighed, nodding. “It’s too bad, though, Henry. Inside the spirit world there’s such total… vitality. Elizabeth felt it too. Somehow it makes us more of what we are. It gave me my fingers back. What might it give you?”
I saw him chew at his lip.
“It’s remarkable.” I watched his face, trying to gauge if I were swaying him. “You’ll find what’s best about you, what’s most powerful. It allows you to be the self you always wanted to be but kept hidden, or thwarted. I felt I could do anything-”
Henry laughed sarcastically. “That’s nothing new!”
I chuckled. “No, maybe not. But inside it just might be true.”
“I’ve had enough of this blasphemous talk,” said Elizabeth. “Good night, both of you.”
“Don’t forget your prayers,” I said before she shut the door.
“That was a bit sharp,” said Henry.
“But funny,” I replied, and we both laughed.
Henry looked at me, intent. “What else?”
“Inside it’s simpler, truer.” I thought of Elizabeth, how our feelings for each other had been raw and uncomplicated, animal in their urgency. “There’s nothing stopping you from doing anything you might like.”
He looked away, as though afraid of betraying some secret. “Truly?”
“Truly.”
He blinked and pushed his wispy blond hair back from his forehead. “When you next go, I’ll come with you.”
I woke early the next morning, dressed, and waited in the music room for Elizabeth to pass by on her way to breakfast. When I heard her footfalls in the hallway, I trilled a few notes on the piano-the same melody that Konrad had played the night before-and heard her stop. Hesitantly she entered the room.
I improvised a tune on the keys and quietly sang, “I don’t think someone’s quite ready for the convent yet.”
“Shhh!” she hissed, closing the door and coming closer.
“Were you planning on pretending it never happened?” I asked. “That bit at the end?”
For a moment she said nothing, and I wondered if she would refuse to speak of it altogether.
“Thank you for not writing it down in your account,” she said finally, then cleared her throat. “It would seem that our behavior in the spirit world is… uncensored. All our base impulses are given free rein-”
“ Base impulses,” I said. “You make it sound like they’re evil.”
“Just because one has feelings doesn’t mean one has to act on them.”
“What a prig you are! Why’s it so hard for you to admit your feelings for me? You had no trouble showing them last night.”
“Do you know what distinguishes us from animals, Victor?”
“Yes, but I think you’d like to do the explaining-”
“They know only instinct. No knowledge of right or wrong. They have no self-control. Humans do. And we’re meant to exercise that control.”
“So is this the real reason you won’t go back inside?” I asked her. “Because you’re worried you might be overcome with passion for me again?”
“I won’t go back inside because it’s a wicked endeavor, and if you were smarter, you wouldn’t go back either.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I’ll be blunt, Victor. I am not in love with you.”
This stung, but I pressed on. “You’re just angry because I was the one to end the kiss.”
Her cheeks reddened. “Rubbish.”
“You would’ve had us kiss until our bodies died. Hah! You feel rejected by me!”
“If you must know the cruel truth, Victor, I kissed you only because I couldn’t kiss Konrad.”
And she turned and left me there, wondering whether it was true.
Mother was not at breakfast again, and our morning lessons were subdued. Father seemed dispirited, and dismissed us early. I needed to be alone with my thoughts, and went for a long walk into the foothills.
The clouds that had oppressed us the past week were thinning, and by the time I paused to catch my breath, the sun had broken through. I took off my jacket and looked back across the lake, glad to see some color returned to it. My gaze lifted to the mountain peak where the Frankenstein family crypt was carved into the glacial rock.
