Essex Factor

Years; time untold; this would have been wonderful weather for a picnic, would it not? Not a cloud nor a concern within the sky to mar the mood, ever prevalent and wonderful. Evenly, each single image carved into notion. Ever perfect, anything more would be unforgivable.

All the headstones lined in rows, chipped, sounded down through years of weather eroding at their surfaces. Perhaps the families of those were uninterested in the upkeep of stones? Perhaps no one was left to cater to them?

Shame. All any of these people were completely gone, nothing more than taking up land better suited for anything else. These honored dead a sham, waste of time and resources. Remove them from their tombs, their graves, and burn them down. A parking lot would serve more use than anything here.

“Nathaniel? Are you home? Nathan?...”

All but one. All but a single, wonderful difference. There, beyond the decaying memories and poorly kept stones; beyond a simple plot of land for some miserable miser or useless mistress, sat a fully polished and wonderfully kept headstone.

Up to His chest, shaped in vibrant reds and blacks, shaped like their favorite suite, a headstone admired yearly, no matter the existence that He would find Himself in. Carved perfectly, never a scratch or mark, maintained daily, at no point abandoned.

“Are you listening to me? Nathaniel?!”

It was not often something as simple as a folding chair would need to be with Him, poorly crafted. But yet, the day was just being started, and He would be here the duration. Others were left to tend to themselves, they would be fine. He was busy with the most important thing on today.

“Hello, my dear. I have missed you.”

REBECCA ESSEX December 15th 1585 - May 8th 1616

It was not the specific day that mattered. It was what that day would become. The second Sunday of May. Mothering Day. “I brought you some flowers, Rebecca, hopefully these will be good enough,” placing them gently at the base, His hand returned to His lap, giving some thought to His being, “had them picked specifically for this event, thought they would be special.”

No no no, she can’t be home now, no I’m too close! Quickly, his frame turned about face, staring to the door. It was locked, thankfully, giving him some time to hide what was going on. Silence. Be silent and figure your next need.

“Thomas is too close, so close to being cured and I can’t have her down here yet. I must finish this process...” Hands rushed about the lab, body nearly floating in place to make amends to his actions. Were she to come down here, it would be over. Everything he’d spent months planning would be for naught and their family ruined.

“Come on, hurry up your ignorant machinery. I hate this damned technology...” No matter how advances the machines got, these Celestial computers, they were still machines. Computing nonsense.

“Nathan?” Short breathes, attempts at the locked door knob just at the foot of the stairs. No! He’d lost focus, no longer shielding her eyes from the door. He’d have to hurry...

“I found a wonderful few prospects, have I told you yet? Oh, my, they are a mess. One of them has physical needs, a very... Touchy person. My, he cannot go without contact. Yes, why yes he is a member of homo mutare. Oh, do not give me that, they are not everything. I have moved on from that, Rebecca, please.”

It was not uncommon to find men and women speaking to deceased loved ones at their graves, though it was odd to see them speaking to one so old. The diamond shaped marble a stark contrast to the ivory stones reaching to the sky. And the Man sitting their, speaking His heart out, pale and colorless skin radiant off the sunlight.

“The other one? Dear Me, Rebecca, the child is a mess. She needs better vocal training, badly. And such panic and simplicity. While the other one needs broke from their desires, this one needs broke from their dependency. And yes, I shall break them.

In time, My dear, things do not just get rushed about. I need time. I still must return the alien and the strigoi as well, as useless as they were, I have need for their skills I bestow them. Yes, I am working on that too.”

“Nathaniel Alexander Essex you open this door NOW!” Forceful woman, you don’t understand. None of them would. Tubes and wires pumped into their toddler son, chemicals rushing through his veins. Any moment now the process would be done and he’d...

“What is that beeping sound?” THUMP! “No, no no no!” THUMP!

Gingerly, Essex leaned back in His chair and reflected at her stone, remembering she was gone. “Hours, you and I would stay up just... Blabbering about nothing. Nothing in the world. You would ask Me about work, I would make a terrible joke, and you would laugh. Bless your soul, you would laugh to save my ego.

My pride. It was always that, was it not? My fragile ego getting in the way of us, Thomas, everything. I was a fool then, Rebecca. A foolish, terrible man...”

The door busted open, clothes torn from Rebecca’s shoulder as smooth blood stained her outfit. Bleeding from the shoulder, trickling down her arm, the woman examined the equipment around her in awe.

Machines- foreign and alien- clung to the wall in fantastic lights and colors. Sounds inhuman echoed all over the room, blaring a terrible sound. In the center stood a man, if she could dare say it, bleached white with terrible red eyes.

And on the table lay her son. Her baby boy hooked with wires and machines. Machines beeping a terribly monotonous sound. What was going on, what was... “Nathan what are you doing?” What happened to him?

“It’s not, it’s not...”

“What are you doing to my son?!” Down the stairs she rushed, never faster in her life did she move like now. Greased lightening, poised and readied to scoop up her son from this freak, this monster, but he was faster, catching her within his grasp and letting her see him for what he was-

-but all she could see was the hideous and illuminated diamond on his forehead.

“I am... I am going to make this right, Rebecca. Not like I had done prior, no, Lord En Sabah Nur is long taken care of. I mean make it well. Fix this, all of this; what I should have done from the start! I am a fool, a blind and arrogant man, unable to see the wealth I had before me.

Too much, I let things get out of control, every out of hand. I will change that My dear, I will make the proper amends.”

“Let me go what did you DO TO HIM!”

“Rebecca calm down, I’m fixing him!”

Eyes widened, the words searing into her brain, “You strapped him into whatever these machines are and turned yourself into some demon creature of the night to FIX HIM?! Let me go Nathan, LET ME GO!”

They struggled, gaining and losing ground. As forceful as she was, he was stronger. Nathan always had been. Her footing slipped, forcing him forward and throwing her behind. It was quick, it was final.

Behind her jutted out a large metal rod, jagged, a useless piece he’d yet disposed of. Her eyes flickered, they wavered back and forth looking for hope. She only found him. Warmth filled his torso, bleeding downward as they’d been impaled straight through and out.

“No, no Rebecca I...”

Blood trickled gently down her mouth, lips staining red. With her cheeks puffed up, she took a pull and released, spitting her blood across his face. “I.. I can’t believe this. I find you, utterly... Contemptibly sinister.”

Day passed Him by, the Sun slowly edging to the horizon to once more sink into the ground; disappearing for another night. All day He joked, teased and colluded with, longing.

Building a laboratory while having a family would, under normal circumstances, would have been a challenge. From these ‘enhancements’, however, I am finding a lack of difficulty in which I can accomplish most tasks.

The current being curing Thomas of these dreadful ailments. Soon, I can begin the proper diagnosis and begin actual treatment! The healing of my family is right within my grasp; soon I will be able to see my son laugh and smile freely, legs developed properly and structured!

At what cost? Thousands, I surmise. Thousands of lives lost to Lord En Sabah Nur and his project. A mighty wave of Pestilence to stroll across the land.

Let me fall, suffer and fade. The lives of my family out-way them all, and the scales have tipped in the favor of those I care about.

I will need to convince Rebecca out of the house, once that happens, I can begin studies on Thomas, then perform the eventual operations.

So soon. So soon.

- Doctor Nathaniel Essex

- London, England

No sedatives. No kind words. Complete disfigurement and dismemberment. Every incision lasted a lifetime. Every heartbeat pumping more blood onto the table, parts laid out in front of my own eyes.

I can still hear the sound of ribs cracking and snapping off, testing the foundation of the experiment, my throat- healed from the newfound abilities- still feels like claws and etched down it.

Tubes shoved through my skin, through every orifice they could, vile liquids pumped into my body. My skin now sports a full white town, colorless.

Clearly, there was something done to my psyche, what I cannot say at this time. But I have been gifted! Now that the pain, the never ending pain has passed, my eyes are open clearly!

I shall take proper catalogue and documentation of my gifts once I am home. I feel weak, tired with so much energy. I just want to see Rebecca again.

Before I begin my work.

- Doctor Nathaniel Essex

- Unknown

Muddled footsteps, car horns fuzzing with every step. Lights blurring in a daze, buildings warping together. Colors bleed through, warping into singularity with every passing moment.

Gust of wind ushered down and around their feet, billowing up through and above. It was a simple deed, listen, ascertain her words. Feel them out and simply turn the page.

Miss Lee was correct, he could not particularly probe her thoughts. No, it felt like an emptiness rather than a body. Irrelevant, or course, but it would make interactions with her difficult.

Were he already not so familiar with the young girl and her thoughts. Her moods. She was not her own first to him.

“What activities indeed? We both know exactly what life has been for you all these years, no need to hide it. It is what it is, Miss Lee. One should wonder, though, just how much you have come to terms with it.”

None. She had come to none of the terms. And yet, still she clawed like a feral animal at some semblance of normalcy. “Having to come to terms with your mutancy, then having that stripped from you. Then having to come to terms with your humanity, and having that stripped as well.

Now you have neither, neither a mutant nor a human. The irony that you belong within either yet you keep forcing yourself in those settings is amusing, is it not? Take humor in cosmic coincidence. You will prolong your life.”

Many proud of telepathic immunity immediately forgot that the basis of communication is observation. Hunched, tightened down, projection. “You could leave this conversation at any time, yet you have chosen to stay.”

Turn the page.

“Here you are justifying yourself to me, desperately struggling to come to terms with your removal to humanity. Your urges, that you would project that at me. So, let me regale you.”

Once a subtle glow of the ruby atop his cane turned into a vibrant red, loud and demanding to be heard. “You call me a monster, attack my ‘humanity’, think me some demon. Tell me what you are doing is normal.

You flinch when you were called a ‘beast’, yet you do not protest. You want to be left alone yet here you are arguing with me. You want to call me out on my lack of humanity, yet I am the one remaining civil.

My humanity occupies two slots at Highgate Cemetery at this very moment,” that smile, gentle and inviting, began fading across his face. A somber visage, eyes mapping the sidewalk replaced the jovial image, “and every year, I pay them a visit. I find the right bouquet of flowers with the right meaning, handsomely pay the groundskeeper, and spend twenty-four hours having a discussion with my deceased family about the world I occupy.

About all the people I have seen and helped, about the on-goings in the world, medical and technological wonders. Finally having a name for the diseases and disorders my son was overcome with.

Yet you question my humanity? Without any second thought, hidden under your jacket, you attempt to defend your esteem by attacking another?

You do not want to be alone. Far from it. You are scared to be alone. But do you know what you fear more?” The smile returned, bright and lively, as the ruby faded back into obscurity. “My, Miss Lee, you are terrified of yourself.”

Words are power, the basis of language, magic, laws and science. Words are power and turn the page. “You tell me you have nothing I desire, you are correct. However, that is not whom I am.

You have been mapped and sequence. Mutant, human, vampire. You are not special, Miss Lee. Remove the idea that you are of universal significance. That is not way I appeared.

But I had met you, in another life, that wanted. We all want, Miss Lee, we all need. Something. You crave. Desire. Hunger. She wanted something. Freedom. Normalcy. She sought me out.

I am apart of creation. When the hunger for something grows so strong it physically strikes me, like you do, I react. I do my part, I have my purpose. I grant the desires of those strong enough to attract me.

You have nothing I desire. But standing next to you is an escape; and you know it. Removal of all your pain and anger, a chance to see the sun as a natural beauty instead of a burden. The removal of those primal desires.

Like me or not means little to me, Miss Lee, but I am not the one that yearns. I am not the one wanting my sanity and safety restored. I am not the one wanting to not be the danger to those I hold dear. So, tell me, you could leave right now and still be stuck in your anger and fear, but you have not.”

Turn. The. Page.

A gush of wind, blowing forth and through them both. The patrons of the city dipped their heads down, hiding from the breeze that tore them apart. Miss Lee and Essex stood firm, differently.

Absent smirk, full of discord and vigor, stained his face, visible to the world. Unlike Miss Lee, he was not scared of what the world made him. "Judging by your recent activities, I believe if I were to 'science' onto someone," that was not a verb, "it would be you, am I incorrect?"

With every step- turn the page- members of the oncoming crowd split away from them. Parting the sea were the two former humans, walking alone amongst the folks.

Sound began to mute, what was once lively now a white noise of formality in their discuss. Handcrafted, tailor made to the doubt built up. "You are a predictable beast, Miss Lee."

With taps of his fingers, the gem atop his black cane gave a gentle glow, a subtle illumination amongst them. "Besides mind reading capabilities, where could I possibly be getting my information from?

Why, it could not be from the generally outgoing and vibrant Miss Jubilation Lee moping and pouting around the city like a teen scolded by their parents.

Come now, I am not so daft as to see this is not a leisurely stroll. You attitude is too poor to confirm that. And you have those detestable phones with earbuds shoved down your head, yet, you still want to tell me you are just 'out for a walk'?

Sometimes, all we can strive for is second best. To be the benchwarmer, keeping the seat primed for when the ‘big leagues’ are given a break.

What a terrible life it must be, hm, when our highest aspiration merely is to have an aspiration. That is no life worth living, no life indeed. To constantly live in the shadows of those bigger than you.

Those better than you.

Hiding in the dark as if your time will come. Instead a newer generation will emerge, I have seen it a dozen times before, brighter and stronger than the previous.

Sometimes we can only strive for being second best, and what a struggle it is.