It is known to those of you, that Herbert West created an artificial woman in the efforts to expand his horizons of experimentation, to toy with his own boundaries, to test what he could do and could not like a cynical child, however he built it more or less for his close companion Daniel with the temptation of bringing back Meg. As you can see by now Meg here is not dead, and I will tell you now Herbert West created that woman for solely himself.

It came at a time where perhaps Herbert West had grown tired of his own failures and wanted to see some results. All his life had at that point amounted to mere simple movements of limbs, or horrible creatures walking around in human bodies, killing anything they saw. Herbert lacked to see the inhumanity in all these things, yet despaired over the fact that at that point his seventeen years of life had basically shown fruitless. He speculated on the amount of seventeen years, how valued they should be, how far he should be, and yet was not. Where life could not be restored perhaps creating it would be easier, and from her he would learn, and he would perhaps succeed with her. At least this is what his scientific mind allowed him to believe. Whatever human capacity was within Herbert West at that rather fragile time sought out companionship and at some unconscious level knew he would not be able to seek it out a woman, given his setbacks, so he decided to make one.

"Why a woman?" Daniel Cain asked in utter disgust one night.

Daniel had known Herbert for merely a few months then, he was not yet tired of the experiments and was still optimistic. Though horrified by the very idea of his roommate becoming Dr. Victor Frankenstein, he still felt that perhaps some good could come of it.

"Women are fascinating." Herbert West explained to him.

He touched the stomach of his lifeless creation and gently slid his fingers down her to the stitches that he had been so careful to give.

"They have the ability to do what I cannot. They can create, and store life within them. It is a fascinating ability, one that I hope I have succeeded in giving her." He told.

Children. Herbert West did so love infants.

She was a challenge worthy of him he felt. But it was more than that. She was a companion worthy of him. She would be alone, as alone as he was. She would not know how to act amongst others, just as he. Together in immortality they would teach each other.

This would be the action in which Daniel would separate his ties with Herbert's work, for the events that followed her so called birth were unspeakable for Daniel, partly because that woman West made tried to kill Meg, and Meg would learn the workings of that thing that appeared so human, Herbert West. Daniel was at first excited, as he too partook in the teaching of Herbert's creation. He too sat beside her and attempting to teach her language. He would say "Daniel" and he would point to himself "Dan," he'd tried simpler. "Daniel." "Dan." "Daniel." "Dan."

Daniel would tell Herbert she seems somehow afraid, Herbert had no idea what he was talking about.

I will tell you, Herbert West had the theory that life would be stored into this creature, for there had never been a life prior to it. For life he felt was not central, the mind was not stored in the brain, but it was stored all through out the body. Hands knew what hands did, they knew what they touched, they knew what they held. The heart knew it beat, the brain knew it thought, legs knew it walked. That is why most of Herbert's experiments return with minimal levels of intelligence, for only the body returns, not the higher thought, the higher mind, but simply the body parts and what they knew they did. The body parts would all remember their functions, but without the entire body to go into a spasm of thought the body parts would see that they need to work together, and eventually a mind would be created from each part. And that is why he chose his parts carefully. The womb of a virgin. The heart of a mother. The hands of an artist. The feet of a dancer. The legs of a runner. The lungs of a woman who lived far from polluted air. The spine of a gymnast. The eyes of a brain surgeon, whom he had actually known from the hospital. The stomach of a vegetarian. The lips of a singer.

One can imagine it took quite a long time to find all this.

He even forced Daniel Cain to take out a good portion of Herbert's own liver, an organ that was a fairly easy procedure to do on their kitchen floor, and an organ that could regenerate what was taken. He trusted Daniel. He really wanted her to have something of his. So he gave her a part of his liver, and a good portion of his blood to flow through her heart. He gave her the brain, which he felt was too difficult to compile as the body was, of a young intellect, and felt it would suffice for him to teach her.

It took four hours before she came to life, and she did so by waking Herbert who rested upon her chest in the waiting of a heart beat. She stood and walked fairly quickly, learning faster than he had anticipated, she was bald as Herbert felt it would be a polite gesture to allow her to choose her own hair color, and for a moment she stumbled and he grabbed her.

He looked upon her with a fascination he has not yet felt again, and she the same. So strange was it to see your work get up and look at you with soft eyes, after all Herbert had been through. So strange to have her hold onto you for support instead of trying to strangle you. He looked upon her and felt she was beautiful, her stitches, her swollen parts, her exposed muscles in places, it was amazing to witness.

This was going to be the companion Herbert West was going to have for the rest of his life. For he would make her in his image, for she will know of re-animation and together they would perfect it so they two would be immortal.

However he had not anticipated caring for her mental state when he himself did not have the most perfect of mental states.

She became possessive, obsessive, but very smart. She was silent despite her brilliant intellect, she did not wish to speak. She saw not the value of another's life, and grew to hate all others besides her Herbert West. She tried to kill Daniel in his sleep, and killed a solicitor by what she called an accident. She was not going to be denied what she wanted, and she wanted to see the world. And upon all this when she said that Herbert was a failure, and that he was pathetic and needed to make his own girlfriend, did Herbert attempt to cast her into a fire, and kill her.

However she did survive, attempting to kill Meg, Daniel, and Herbert himself. She stood by him in graveyard, dressed in a bride's outfit that Daniel shuddered to think where she had gotten it. She was burnt on half her body and her teeth could be seen through her lips. But she did not seem to notice.

"Creator," she called him, "I am sorry for what I said. I was upset. I made a mistake. I should have thought about it more."

He was covered in blood and so was she. Megan was crying in Daniel's arms.

"I am sorry as well." Herbert said. "I was upset. I made a mistake too. I should have thought about it more."

She kissed him.

Herbert ripped her apart as she screamed for his mercy, her last words that she uttered before he deprived her of her tongue, were "I hate you!" And proceeded with dismantling each of her parts to their very organs, where they were left to twitch and bleeding on the ground, where he carried them into a metal trash can, and poured gasoline into it, and made a bon fire for himself.

To this Herbert walked over to the near hysterical Meg, and warned her to never speak of this, or worst things would happen to her, Daniel screamed at him, and Herbert stared at him, telling him I expect you to handle this.

He still has the scar over where parts of his liver were taken.

He does not think of her often anymore.

He would have named her after his mother.

If only he knew his mother's name.

-------------------

Now despite what ethics will allow there is something quite admirable about Herbert West in his determination, weather you'd admit it or not. There is something quite honorable in all. How he does not falter. How he will never, ever give up. How he has sacrificed all that would have made him human. From childhood and onwards was Herbert West on a mission, and has yet to stray from it like so many others would have. Perhaps it is for selfish reasons, and he has hurt so many to get as far as he has, yet still, there is a dignity to it all.

He was at that time merely twenty-two, younger than Daniel, and older than Meg. But he saw the world with even younger eyes, yet felt a hatred of it of a man older than lifetimes. His actions too were that of men with no souls. Herbert West did not philosophize much, he did not care if the reality was as it seemed, for either way no amount of effort could change what was perceived as reality and thus he was bound by its rules, and that included for the time death. But he felt that there was no God, and there was no soul, there was human intellect and reason that had been evolved to be used as a tool for survival. His efforts he saw were then a natural extension of that reason and its power.

Herbert West stood up to meet his greeter's lifeless eyes.

"Who are you?" He said with anger, real and utter anger perhaps the only emotion he welcomed.

The Greeter's eyes narrowed as if it could not understand what he was saying. Then it smiled like it finally got it and then lowered its head in a bow. The Greeter was now revealed even in the dark to have one long and endless stitch straight down its body beginning at the neck as Herbert examined the bare chest with careful eyes. Then the Greeter opened the door and stepped in, motioning for Herbert to follow.

"No." Herbert said. "Tell me who you are."

The Greeter looked at Herbert with no sense of self, no sense of what it was doing or why it was there, completely mindless, lifeless, like all the experiments except it was not trying to kill him. Then suddenly life filled those eyes and it appeared to have a thought and then it smiled with love and life in its face. As if it had been taken over by something else, or inhabited by something else. Its mouth opened for words to come out, but first only blood and spit did.

"Come on Herbert." It said. "My Boy wouldn't leave me now would he?"

Once these words were said the life disappeared once more, to return the Greeter to a mindless body that moved. The Greeter opened the door wide to allow Herbert in, who after a moment of pausing step forth. He did not know what to think, this Greeter so calm. But Herbert West was perhaps more confident than he should have been, his many encounters with the strength of the dead allowed him to think rightfully so he had some anticipation of what the Greeter would do upon attacking, and he was sure he could have handled it.

And so Herbert West ventured deep into the ground, following this bag of moving flesh. All his life he had seen that iron door, he was told it was an old bomb shelter from the wars, he should have known that man he called father was lying, that man always lied. Yet that man, he wouldn't have comprehended this, perhaps he didn't really know what was down here. For Herbert looked on, and saw only a long a narrow hallways light by green lights that hung from the far off ceiling. Cramp this hallway was, the walls were rusted metal with some dirt being exposed from beneath it. Pipes ran up and down over the walls, off to places unknown, and hinting that the size of this place was enormous. Which turned out to be true as they kept walking and walking deeper into the Earth. It became very hot and very dark and very damp.

Herbert's mind raced with thoughts. He had not anticipated this. This place was old and expanding, he could tell by the foundations it was decades upon decades old and new construction was continuing. He didn't know what lived down here. The size gave evidence for a whole community, and Herbert began to wonder if the size was to house the amount of dead corpses there were walking around like this Greeter, for the smell of death began to appear to him. He could smell it at its varying stages and he knew, he just knew there were many, many down here. Leading to the idea that there was quite a dedicated re-animator down here, living here, perhaps more than one, a whole community in search of immortality.

That thought made Herbert very excited, for it meant that there were more minds working as his, wanting the same goal, and ready to accept him despite the gruesome things he had done, for they had done the same.

Yet Herbert West was not about to let himself get happy, and he stayed tense and allowed anger to enter him to give him an adrenaline which he knew he would need to escape whatever was down here if escape was necessary.

To anyone else at this point there would be terror, but Herbert West, probably nearly a mile underground was calm and collective, not noticing how horrifying an underground metal community that was dark was. Yet finally he could see where the hall opened up and the Greeter with his lifeless eyes looked behind him to see Herbert. Herbert stared over the Greeter to see the coming room. He could not see it yet, but he saw a green glow that illuminated the entire room and part of the hall. That glow, the greenish glow he knew so well. That glow that was within his blood, that flowed through out him giving him life.

His mouth slightly opened and a bit of awe came over him, quickly disappearing in the determination of Herbert West.

The Greeter stopped at the end of the hallway and allowed Herbert to pass, to see this room. He estimated that the ceiling which was just dirt with lights coming out of it was about a hundred feet above him, and the walls were laced in metals, with stairs, and a second and even third floor. To his right were huge barrels twenty feet tall in rows of five of that green glowing formula of life. At the end of them were metal capsules with round glass holes to see into them, they were filled with that formula and huge tubes that ran up to the sides of the wall connected them to the large barrels. Nearest to him was what appeared to be a morgue and a hospital all in one, he supposed a morgue and hospital were one in the same when dealing with re-animation. He saw various hospital equipment some twenty years old, and some newer than he had seen. He could smell death in the air but he could not find the bodies that the smell belonged to. He looked below him to see another floor where there was more of that formula. He looked down to his left to see more barrels of a clear liquid he suspected by the scent it made to be acid. A rather strong acid, a rather wonderful way to get rid of bodies.

Yet despite all this size he found no one there. He looked back to find the Greeter was gone, and it was then he pulled out his gun and held it close to his heart. Cautiously he stepped forth, trying not to be overwhelmed by the might of that place, the perfect laboratory for him and his workings.

Oh Daniel, he thought, Dan who wanted so much for him to give up that life, Dan who wanted so much to have a normal life, and for Herbert to have one with him. But Herbert West stood in that lab and knew that he was not meant for the norm. He somehow knew, by the air, the smells, that this was where he was meant to be. Whoever worked here if they wanted to be enemies he would kill them and take this place to continue his work. He just knew it, he has killed before, it gets easier he finds. His father, his Creation, countless others he has not revealed to Dan. Killing is part of all this. We must kill to understand life, ironic but true. His mind raced with what he could do there. With that near endless supply of his formula, a lab so far away from anyone or anything that would disturb, the perfect place to get rid of bodies without leaving a trace.

It was so utterly perfect he almost called it beautiful.

He almost forgot to aim his gun when he finally heard a voice.

"Herbert West." A man spoke out.

Herbert swung his gun in the direction he heard the voice but found only dark corners. Then he heard the same man laugh slightly.

"I mean you no harm, boy." The man said.

The voice sounded aged, probably forty or so, and he spoke with an amusement that angered Herbert.

"Perhaps I mean you harm." Herbert spat back, and the man laughed even more. "Who are you!?" Herbert yelled. "How did you get here? How long have you been here? What is your formula? Did you steal it from me?"

The man stopped his laughter and rested his hand on a rail on the second level.

"It could be said you stole it from me, Herbert West." The man said. "But we cannot blame ourselves for simply inheriting a likeness of minds, this is to be expected however given our relationship and that fact that we both know, we are our bodies, we live through them, they shape us." The man said.

"Our relationship?" Herbert spat.

"Yes, Herbert West." The man nodded in the darkness. "Do you like it?"

"What?"

"My Lab. It has been made with the culmination of decades in preparation for our great discovery." The man said. "I made them work you know, tireless bodies that knew not of suffering, working day in and day out until this place spread across this entire god forsaken town. I offer it to you now, this too can be yours, I give you room to grow, a gift that has been waiting for you since you left."

"Enough of this!" Herbert yelled and fired his gun towards the voice. "Who are you!?"

Yet his threats went on unnoticed for the man did not flinch and his voice did not falter.

"It is a rare occurrence that one would empty his pistol, isn't it Herbert West?" The man asked.

Herbert stopped in his mental thoughts to listen.

"But not for you." The man nodded. "I can tell by the readiness of which you hold your gun. It must be an even stranger occurrence for all of those bullets to be shot in a hospital. But not for you."

"How did you…?"

"Herbert West, Re-animator. You are an amazing boy, Herbert West. Look at what you've managed to accomplish in your short years on this Earth and with such little materials and with such little room to work. I am so glad you have returned."

"Who are you?"

"Did you, Herbert West, that your full name is Herbert West Junior?" The man paused. "I apologize for not giving you a middle name, but you see I was quite rushed and there was no time to think of a proper one that would have followed you all your life."

Herbert West paused.

"My father's name is Bruce Abbot." Herbert said.

"Do you really believe that? If we live through our bodies do you really think that man's DNA has determined who you are?" The man spat.

Herbert West, Re-animator, held his gun all the more tighter fixing his aim on the coming man who spoke such terrible words. Herbert entered a state of absence, he no longer allowed himself to be fully there, he was not about to listen to these lies. He was going to kill this man and take this lab for his own.

But then the man stepped down from the stairs, and Herbert saw his face. The man stood only a little taller than Herbert himself. He wore a white lab coat and white collar shirt. He knew the man was somehow in his forties, yet the face was youthful, free from age or pain, stress, or any of things that came with bringing back people from death. The face looked upon Herbert with sincere and hopeful eyes, calm in all this.

The only flaw in that face was of something Herbert assumed was a genetic defect. For the man had one eye green and the other blue and cold like ice. The man's hair was a mix of a light and aging blonde and brown dark hair.

Herbert stared at that face as the man titled his head and smiled so slightly, and Herbert saw the resemblance.

"Bruce Abbot is not your father, you know that." The man said.

"And you are?"

The man smiled proud like a father would.

Herbert's reaction to this was a mix of emotions he did not particularly like as he was never an expressive lad and he never allowed himself much of a chance to develop these emotions. To have them now he knew there was some danger as he did not know if he could control them as well as say Dan, who was so practiced with them.

"How can that be?" Herbert was able to say. "I mean, I don't believe you!" Herbert lifted his gun once more. "If you are who you say you are, why did you leave me in the care of that man!"

"You killed him didn't you? Before you left?" The man asked, and Herbert stared. "Why would you do that?"

"That man did not deserve the life he had within him!" Herbert yelled.

The man suddenly did something Herbert probably could never do. He frowned with sincere dissapointment, shame, and despair. Then the man drew closer to Herbert. Even if Herbert did not say it, it became clear to the man. (Or the man already knew about it).

"It wasn't supposed to be like that." The man with two eye colors said. "When I knew him he was a good man. I trusted him to take care of you."

"Did he know about this!?" Herbert motioned with his gun to the Lab.

"Of course not, for all he knew I had abandoned you."

"You did! I mean, if you are what you say you are!" Herbert said, still in denial.

"You have to understand, Herbert." The man tried, and he took another step.

"Don't touch me!" Herbert yelled, waving that gun, and the man stopped.

"I am your father. And I did not want to expose you to this." He motioned around them. "I wanted to spare you of this work, of this death, how could I have had a mere child here with me, watching as I carved up corpses? Even I knew that was not a life a child should have. I did it in the best interest for you."

"Why didn't you just stop this?" Herbert said, meaning this work with death.

The man stopped and he lowered his head.

"You wouldn't stop would you?" The man finally asked.

"I still don't believe you." Herbert shook his head.

"I have worked all my life Herbert, on finding immortality and bringing back the dead. I left you to live a free life I lacked, so that I may come back to you with an answer. But here, you have beaten me, you've come and found me." The man smiled. "But look at you, you've followed in my footsteps. My God, you have too much of my genes, the desire for it took over you as well, oh, my Boy, I'm sorry, I'm so…"

"Be quiet!" Herbert yelled.

"Herbert please, you and I, we can work together. Our common genes have led us to the same formula on life and death. Together we can figure this out, I know we can. Each barrel over there holds a variation on the formula, and look, come."

The man ran over to the copper cylinders where he pointed into the glass window. Herbert cautiously leaned down to see what was in it, and he was absolutely astounded. Within it he saw what appeared to be a fetus. A human fetus being given life by the same formula, a mechanical womb, given life by that serum.

"Now it appears human, but it is not." The man said. "This is my version of a cloning machine." He smiled. "Through alchemy I am able to reformat the chemical properties of dirt to create a body exactly like a human." The man spoke with pride. "But coming from dirt, these clones are not perfect. Their main purpose is to not raise suspicion within this small town and its providing of so few human experiments. So when I am forced to take a citizen I am able to replace them with one of these clones so no one notices they are missing. This copy is engineered to last only two days, and within those two days exhibit natural death. The body is buried or burned and then turns back to dirt without anyone noticing."

It was genius Herbert's first thought was. It would be impossible to engineer a real person, with life and soul, a mind, but a copy, just a copy of a body so that it may give the illusion of death, it was perfect. No one would know, no one would know the difference.

"I made it between waiting on more human subjects." The man explained. "I have had a lot of practice at this you see."

"It is marvelous." Herbert could not show his anger to this, it was beautiful, a leap in science the likes of which Herbert could have never imagined.

"Thank you, son." The man placed his hand on Herbert's shoulder and Herbert threw it away. "Imagine then, I am not your father." The man tried. "I propose we still work together, for our goal is worth it. There is so much we could learn from each other." The man continued.

Herbert backed away, but he backed away into another Dead man, not the Greeter he had previously seen, but another one, a new body held together by stitches. Herbert jumped as it stared mindlessly and tilted his head.

"I control them." The man said.

"How?" Herbert West immediately asked.

"Prolonged exposure to our creation has given some unknown and unpredicted side effects." The man took out a vile that he kept in his pocket. "The serum creates a connection between those who have used it, making something similar to telepathy. Have you seen this before?"

Herbert's Woman.

"No." Herbert lied.

"It occurs you see, so my mind connects to theirs, which is not existence, thus I am dominant."

"You've injected yourself with that?" Herbert's eyes widened.

He swung the vile so slightly.

"A small potent, so I don't have to sleep. It keeps the mind sharp." The man said.

He smiled.

"Herbert please, there is something I must tell you. I would have allowed you to find all this on your own, but when you returned I saw there was something different about you from that young seventeen year old that I last saw."

"You've been spying on me?" Herbert hissed.

"You died didn't you Herbert?"

Herbert stopped and he could no longer keep his composure, it was all too much.

"Yet here you stand, breathing, alive." The man's voice saddened. "There is something in your genes isn't there? Our genes that has allowed this miracle to happen."

"I don't believe in Gods."

"Merely an expression." The man paused. "I did not want to tell if you if I was unsure, but this has happened to me countless times. Herbert I have found few people in my life, that have returned from death, who have been successful re-animations. Who have stood and spoken just as you do before me due to genetic defects. But Herbert, they always die."

Herbert shook his head.

"They always die, the re-animation wears away, the life they have been given deteriorates as the body cannot contain it or maintain itself." The man neared him. "The longest I have witnessed this, the longest anybody has lived from this is three months. And I went to your room, Herbert, as you slept, I sent my eyes to go and take your blood, and I have found that is going to happen to you."

The man placed his hand on Herbert and this time Herbert could not find the strength to push him away.

"You are dying, and I am here to save you." The man held up a syringe of serum. "This is a medicine I have developed, it has the same basic properties as our formula. It will continue your life, but you will need to take it. Soon you will feel weak, Herbert, and you must take this or you will die."

Herbert after a long time of pausing stepped away, pathetically, and weakly.

"You're lying. You're manipulating me." Herbert West said.

"Please, son, you can't die."

"You're right. I can't." Herbert nodded.

"I have not seen you all your life…"

"Exactly!"

"Herbert please, we can save…"

Herbert hit that man who called himself his father with the barrel of his gun. The man leaned to the side from the force, spatting out blood from his mouth and revealing a long cut down his cheek. The man stared with no shock or resentment, he merely stared, as Herbert looked on, enraged, and about to do it again.

But Herbert stepped back, and ran back down that hallway up to his home.

------------

He entered the Emergency Room of the hospital he called home, and asked if an Amanda was in. The guard recognized him and told him she was on the night rotation and should be sleeping in the doctor's room. Herbert did not need to ask where this was and merely continued on, too much in a rush to engage in further and unnecessary conversation despite the fact it made him seem rude.

He banged on the glass window to the Doctors' room, making the most noise in that quiet and near lifeless hall of the hospital. The only noises coming from breathing machines and the beeping of heart monitors.

Amanda brushed her hair as she opened the door, and in a groggy voice she spoke.

"Herbert?" She asked.

"Let me in." He said with intensity.

He did not wait for her, he pushed her out of the way and turned on the light and placed a bag of blood samples on the nearest table.

"Wait you can't!" Amanda tried.

But then he turned to her, and in his fury she could see fear. In his intensity she saw panic. He lowered his head in anger and his brow narrowed, there was sweat over his forehead and fire in his eyes. He breathed deeply adding more evidence that he had ran over here like he did when he was a child, except near sunrise the run was colder.

"What is it?" She asked.

He pointed to the bags of two blood samples. One was his, the other was the blood he had scraped off the barrel of his gun he had taken from that man underground, the man with two eye colors.

"I need you to see if these two people are related. I want a genetic map and I want it now." Herbert told her. "You will do this for me."

She shook her head.

"Herbert, I don't understand." She tried.

"You don't need to understand, you just need to do what I tell you."

"Herbert, please! What's wrong?" She went up to him.

"Don't touch me!" He yelled at her, and backed away.

"I'm sorry." She said, looking down, and grabbing the bag. "I'll um, ask them for a favor downstairs."

"Thank you."

He began to leave.

"Who are they?" She asked.

"That is none of your concern." He said.

"Herbert, what the hell is the matter with you?" She ran up to him.

He stared at her with hate in his eyes and he shook his head.

"Please…" he tried, "just do this for me." And to this she nodded.

"Sure." She said further.

He was about to leave before he paused and turned back to her.

"Did you know anything about my father?" He asked.

She looked up at him, and she wanted to tell him, my mother said he hit you but not to tell you that she knew. She wanted to say she knew he was abusive and cruel and a drunk, she wanted to say that she knew that he really wasn't his real father because that was impossible given his mother, but no one knew the real father, for he left before anyone knew to ask. She knew this, all the nurses knew this, they were there when he was born, they were there as he came back with bruises.

"Is this your blood, Herbert?" She asked.

He then held her wrist very tightly as if about to break it.

"You tell no one." He told her.

She was not scared. How could she be scared of the boy she'd beat in the simplest of childhood games? She was oblivious to his brilliance when she was little as she would always beat him in their games, she didn't know he just wasn't trying because he found it boring, found her boring. But she stared up at him and she grew very sad for him.

She shook her head, fearless.

"I won't. I promise." She promised.

And she watched as the anger slowly went away, and Herbert West began to calm down. He heaved in heavily as if he had been holding his breath this entire time.

He began to leave, again stopped.

"You have to come back you know." She said.

"Yes, for the test results." He said.

"No, to tell me what Europe was like."

-----------------

The sun rise came to him, bathed his cold sweat in warmth. But he saw no beauty to it, he saw no beauty in that giant gas ball that held so much gravity to it, no beauty in that hellish fire ball that would one day erupt and consume all life it had caused. Like a father regretting his child. He did not know what to think of the situation he found himself in. He reflected on his childhood to find no evidence of this man who lived underground, the man with the two eye colors, this man who claimed to be his real father. It wasn't so much that the man claimed to be his father, for fathers for Herbert weren't important as made by the man he killed. Family was not something Herbert West knew, the saying blood is thicker than water, was completely lost upon him.

But it was the idea that there was another Re-animator, living right below his feet all this time. A man who claimed to care about him, casting him away to fend for himself in that so flawed world when all his life Herbert had attempted to reject it. Life in that laboratory was sounding all the more appealing. Where Herbert would not have known of the beauty he was missing, the love he was missing, there would be no distractions, no anything, there would only be the work. How wonderful it would have been to have been raised solely for that work, and to come into the world with a welcoming heart.

Even more disturbing beyond all else, was the fact that the man had said he was dying.

This frightened him.

Herbert West knew the coldness of death, and he truly did fear it. He did not want to go back, he did not want to die again. The very idea of it sent him back to those few moments where he lacked life. He was afraid. His better judgment told him that the man was lying, yet the mere possibility, the idea…he feared he'd be force to work with that man below just to save himself. Truly Herbert wanted to learn all the man knew and kill him, he did not like competition, he did not being toyed with

Daniel sat on the porch, waiting for Herbert West to return. He had heard West run out of the house but an hour ago during the night, and he has waited ever since, slowly rolling out of Meg's arms and bed. Now Daniel Cain was sure there was something wrong with his friend. Daniel shuddered at what it could be. He was afraid most of all it somehow related to Herbert's father, but Dan did not want to think Herbert had much to do with that, but Dan knew Herbert, he knew him well.

Dan felt a responsibility over Herbert. Especially since his death and his reanimation. He felt Herbert was coming into a world he obviously didn't understand and didn't want to understand and Dan was trying so hard to force it down his throat. This is what is called love, this is fun, this is joy, this is anger, this is sadness, and this is what it is to be happy. Sitting there on Herbert's porch he grew sad thinking of what Herbert had done all his life before Dan met him. How lonely the work must have been, how horrible it must have been for a child.

Daniel was having trouble balancing Megan with Herbert, as he was taking care of both of them now, and each demanded a very different side of him. He knew Meg would wake up soon, she was an early bird like that, and she would hate to wake with him not there. He didn't blame Herbert for this any more, he used to when he first met him, but not anymore.

"Why did you choose me?" Dan asked after the silence.

"What do you mean?"

"You had all your life keeping your discoveries to yourself, and you choose me of all people to share them with?"

"I did not realize your relationship with Meg."

Dan gave a smile to this.

"Do you even understand what she and I have?" Dan asked. "When you see us, do you know what's happening?"

"Chemical charges respond to stimu…" Herbert spoke.

"No! Herbert, I mean…if I died would you…"

"You told me not to bring you back." Herbert interrupted.

"No, would you be sad?"

Sadness, despair, faults Herbert wished not to get himself involved with. Sadness as he understood it, and he understood it probably better than any other emotion, was the most distracting and self destructing of the emotions possible. Sadness, Herbert was once a very sad person, however he worked very hard to get rid of these things, as he remembers very distinctively at his adolescent age not liking them in the least. Herbert meanwhile mused on the idea of being sad, without completely considering what it would be like if Dan died.

"I suppose I would be disappointed." Herbert said.

"In what?"

"Well, several reasons. One you would not allow me to attempt to bring you back. Two that I would allow such a thing to occur. Three you would allow such a thing to occur. Four I would be without a set of hands. Five we would not find our answers together."

Herbert told these things in a very mechanical manner that truly sucked up the humanity in the last statement there, that Dan had to really focus on to realize that was quite a nice thing to say. Dan was a bit shocked for a moment as he stared at West who seemed not to understand the impact of his own words, or perhaps not register them as being strong evidence to true friendship, the likes of which Daniel had not seen.

"You used to scare me, West." Dan said, sitting back. "You look at dead bodies in a strange way, and you began looking at me that way. I thought you might…I was very afraid, and I tried to stay helpful so such a thing would not happen." Dan said.

"I would not kill you, Dan." Herbert said very plainly. "Except for extreme conditions."

"Oh? Like what?"

"You were going to turn me in."

"Yeah, I'd turn you in, in a heartbeat." Dan smiled. "God, what would that newspaper say? 'Herbert West, Re-animator.'" Dan held up his arms gesturing the words. "There was a while there I really would have though, the same time you looked at me that way, but, Herbert, it's over isn't it?" Dan asked.

"No." Herbert said plainly.

Herbert watched as Dan seemed to grow very, very sad, but then he looked up.

"You know what I want to do?" Dan asked. "I want to open a practice with you."

"You are much more suited for the Emergency room, Dan."

"Yeah but I wouldn't want to tempt you." Dan smiled and Herbert glared a bit.

Then silence came.

"Then what was it? Why'd you pick me?" He asked again.

"You are brilliant. You are fast. Your hands are delicate and strong and they save lives. You have an unmistakable hatred of death. You fight, and fight, denying its victory." Herbert said.

"That makes me a good canindate, but still, why'd you tell anyone in the first place? I mean…you obviously didn't want to be that social with me." Dan gave a grin.

Herbert stared long and hard at him then at the floor.

"I suppose…it was a lapse in judgment." Herbert said. "A fault in my psyche."

"You were lonely?"

"I did not say that."

"Sure you didn't." Dan smiled and Herbert glared at him. "Come on, you're only human. Remember that." Dan tried. "You are Herbert West, you are a human being. You have flaws and you have boundaries."

Herbert stared as if he didn't believe him.

"Come on." Daniel looked increasingly worried. "All of this, Herbert? And you were never lonely?"

"I was lonely." Herbert admits. "I was tired of fending off the dead by myself, and you showed such interest in my theories when others scolded me."

"Like Hill."

"Like Hill."

"Well, Herbert, it's a real honor." Dan said. "And you know, I take our friendship very seriously, I understand I think how difficult it was for you to do what you did. So, listen. I know something is wrong, I want you to tell me."

"Dan…"

"Herbert, I pulled a god damn woman you made yourself off of you! I…I pulled those intestines off of you as it was choking you to death. I brought you back when you'd died!" Daniel tries.

And Herbert merely stared.

"You may be willing to do these things again, but you do not want to."

"Of course not!" Dan laughed. "Do you?"

Herbert stared in confirmation.

"You cannot help me with this, Dan." Herbert told. "This is something I must do without you. It will not hurt me, or you, or your Meg. No harm shall come from this, you won't even notice. But I may have to stay here as you return home."

"What are you talking about? You got to finish school."

"So I can what? Become a doctor?" He said with such disdain.

"Yeah!"

"I am not a doctor, Dan, I am the complete opposite. I do not want to help people like you, I do not like people. The world is overpopulated, I would be pleased to have the population suddenly fall."

"Herbert…"

"Just know that we are safe. And I will handle this on my own."

"Herbert, listen to me. You've put me through a bunch of shit, and you've made me question everything I have ever loved or believed in, the least you owe me is knowing what the hell is going on."

"What I owe you is what you want, and what you want, has nothing to do with me."

"That's not true."

"Go tell Meg that."

Daniel stopped.

"I didn't make a lot of friends." Daniel said. "I mean I had friends, a group of people like any kid did, right?"

Herbert had no idea what he was talking about.

"Herbert, I am your friend."

"I know. But am I yours?"

Herbert shook his head.

"Now, I do this out of what you would call kindness, so stay out of it."

And with this Herbert left.

-----------------

Next Chapter coming soon.

I always felt that Herbert would be very strong and held down by his own ethics. Meaning if he didn't like Daniel Cain his ethics would at least bind him to not killing him, for Daniel Cain has done so much for him. It may not be friendship as we know it, but perhaps it is the closest thing Herbert is able to achieve at this moment. Herbert and Dan's relationship is so very interesting to me. We have Herbert West who feels superior to all people and uses them like tools, with his assistant Daniel Cain, made his assistant in a stroke of unknown loneliness. Herbert feels he must take care of Dan as they experiment, knowing full well Dan is not as…say strong in that manner. Yet Daniel feels he too must take care of West, control those urges West gets, and monitor him, and try to show him the life he's lost. Each taking responsibility for the other, I just like it.

I didn't want to pull a Star Wars on you people, but just keep with it, there's a twist unseen, friends and family must be weighed.

Just picture today's Jeffrey Combs as Herbert's dad.