Tales from iDEATH: Notes on the Subject of False Life...

Notes on the Subject of False Life...

The following is a piece of artwork I produced as part of my third year at University. We were told to go out, buy a book and re-contextualise it, to change it up,destroy it, remix it, do whatever we wanted with it.

For my submission, I picked up a copy of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and transformed it into "Notes on the subject of false life" the confessions of Dr j. Osterman, a biologist inspired by the Frankenstein novel to go forth and attempt to reanimate the dead himself.

It's a piece of work that I've always been proud of. While I think it could be better, I think I got the idea across well and some parts of the book are suitably creepy. It's something I've wanted to try again ever since and I may well. If I ever do I'll be sure to post it here, but for now I hope you enjoy reading through Dr Osterman's confession.

Some pages can be really hard to read so I'll include the text of the story below.

Notes on the subject of creating a false life

From the desk of Dr. J Osterman

God forgive me……god forgive what I have done. Eighteen years in that cell…I have spent every day thinking

...of the terrible sins I have commited….and now….my story can be told…perhaps finally….I will be granted reprieve from these nightmares…

It is appropriate that I write these words here….in this book….the very book that at so young an age was my inspiration for joining the world of science….I first read it when I was nine years old….the following year, having announced my plans to become a biologist, my father gave me my first copy of Grey’s anatomy….. and how that book changed things…

for it was in reading that book that I first realised….the human body is only a machine….a machine that can be repaired…..a machine that can be rebuilt…

Unlike so many children, not once did I stray from my childhood ambition, by the time I was 25 I was a biologist, working at the state of the art Gilla Flats research lab in Washington state. It was there that I first met Rebecca. Oh Rebecca...my first and only love…..how I wish I could just take back…..no…I’m getting ahead of myself.

We met and a whirlwind romance followed. We were wed within six months and bought a home the following year less than a mile from the lab.

Oh god…Rebecca…I’m sorry…….

I suppose…it was my brother’s death that began it….his battle with cancer had been long but when it ended, well…nothing can prepare you for the hurt of loss….

I watched as his body was lowered into the earth and, as Rebecca sobbed on my shoulder I swore, that I would end all this suffering. I would find a way to stop the inevitable…I would create life from death.

Over the next three years I spent large chunks of our lab research budget on expensive pieces of equipment. My colleagues’ tempers were often raised over the use of these machines however I was always able to convince them of some remote application and managed to persuade them they were essential for my work. Day to day I continued to work on my various project.

Secretly however, I continued to fund my own research.

I stole a body from a fresh dug grave…amazing how simple it was…and hid it in the freezer storage chamber. Following this I cleared the floor of my office, sat in it’s centre, ate the ball of hashish I had hidden in my desk drawer and asked the spirits for guidance.

I aware of the contradiction in my dual beliefs in science and the occult but both have inspired my path from as young as I can remember, and ever since I have been able to get my hands on drugs I have used them to connect my mind to the spirit world.

My daemon guide is named Lucien it was he who appeared to me.

He instructed me on how to preserve the body and provided answers to some of my more mind boggling questions. Just how could I breathe life into the soulless shell that lay in the chamber behind me?

The main issue was how to keep the cadaver hooked up to the machines while keeping it hidden, certainly there were often bodies around the lab, but this research was so extraordinary there was no way I could share it at so early a stage.

I shrouded my work in secrecy, I hid myself away from my colleagues, speaking to the only when I had forms I needed them to sign to secure more equipment. George Sanders, the head of research at Gilla flats was the biggest problem. He demanded entrance to my labs and I continually had to create reasons to keep him out. I even went so far as to change the locks on my door. My laboratory became a mass of tangled wires and beeping machines in the centre of which lay the creature…..I say the creature because over the course of my research that’s what it became…..I had been unable to stop the body decaying and had had to replace various parts with cadavers I ordered in. The chest lay open, the organs replaced with a mechanical heart of my own design. It’s face had crumpled in on itself, plagued with rot….I never replaced it.

Over the time I worked on the creature my relationship with Rebecca suffered. I was rarely at home and when I was we argued constantly. Our sex life was non existent and I suspected she had began an affair.

But still I was certain my work would bare fruit. I knew I could complete my task and that the rewards from my efforts would eliminate all the ill suffered during my work. I knew I could mend my relationship with Rebecca….I was so sure….

I was contacting the spirit world on an almost nightly basis, Lucien appeared every time and became more aggressive as my work progressed. I had never made physical contact with a daemon before but as I slipped into darkness I began to awake with strange scratches across my skin….and as I searched my naked body for new marks my eyes would inevitably fall on the face of the creature….and it appeared to be smiling….

And then it happened…

I was naked on the floor…..Lucien stalked around me…snarling…speaking into my mind…telling me what to do…I was helpless….drifting in and out of sleep…..and then I seen him…..standing in the doorway to the lab…..George sanders….he stood, mouth gaping, at first I was worried he would see Lucien….but then I realised….the body…he was staring at the body…..Lucien growled in my head. I stood. Sanders met my eye and took a step back. I looked to my left, a small table lay by the creature’s side. Upon it lay asset of surgical knives. Sanders saw my glance, turned and ran. I chased him and pounced, driving the blade into his neck……

I don’t remember picking the knife up…..

…he fell to the floor……

There was no time to waste now…I was a murderer. I dressed and flared up every machine in the lab. I cranked the generator and pumped electricity into the sordid flesh of my creation. I saw a slight twitch in the eyes of the beast, it’s fingers went into spasms….and the…nothing….

I smelled burning….then I realised….the brain was on fire….the rotting mush in the beast’s skull was smoking…..I knew immediately what I had to do…

…god forgive me…..

I caved in the creatures skull and scooped out the black liquid within…then I put sanders on the operating table, I opened his skull with a surgical saw and transferred the brain to the open vase of the beast’s skull…all the while Lucien looked on smiling.

I fired up the generator, the same spasms occurred in the fingers….then it opened its eyes.

I fell back….the creature stood….it was unstable on its feet, but it managed to stand. It surveyed it’s surroundings. I couldn’t believe it, I had succeeded. I had created life from death. I had done it. Laughter took over my body and I howled in joy.

I doubt the creature had any intelligence, it appeared to be working on pure animal instincts, and it’s instincts told it my laughter was a threat. It charged at me and lifted me above it’s impressive shoulders. It threw me across the room where I smashed into the equipment still hooked up to the creature. I managed to turn back in time to see the monster tear the cables from it’s chest and flee. Storming it’s way through the lab and out the front door.

I chased after it but by the time I’d made it outside it had vanished. I jumped in my van and raced home…..I was terrified, what had I done? I had killed, and created that foul beast….I faced jail…perhaps death? But…I had cured death…

I had saved mankind….we were invincible…..death was conquerable….I was a hero….wasn’t I?

I headed home, I needed to be back with Rebecca. I got back, left my van running in the driveway and headed upstairs and straight into bed.

Rebecca awoke as I cuddled into her, she turned and saw the scratches across my body and screamed. I hugged her and held her close. I told he we needed to sleep and pulled her close…we lay in silence for two hours, neither of us slept, we just hugged each other.

Then…there was a crash downstairs, I leapt up in my bed. Somehow….I knew…I just knew….the monster was downstairs…it had followed me home…I tightened my grip on Rebecca, she whimpered in my arms…

…footsteps began to pound up the stairs……and then…the creature was in our room.

Rebecca screamed…..the beast’s animal instincts kicked back in……he leapt….