Frankenstein's creature

Night had fallen on the tower and all was asleep, except you. Try as you might, you couldn't fall asleep. Something was troubling you, a thought that kept returning: the creature. That newly created being, so curious and innocent, whom Victor almost ignored and treated with a coldness that broke your heart.

Finally, you got up, leaving the comfort of your bed. You took a small candlestick with a couple of candles and left your room. You walked silently down the dark hallway, trying not to wake Victor, and went down the stairs to the sewers where the creature was chained up. And there you found it, curled up on the cold stone floor. Hearing you, it raised its head, and the chains made a small metallic clang. It let out a soft murmur when it saw you, something like a greeting. It liked your visits.

You sat down beside him, placing the candles on a kind of stone table where he was chained. He watched you with that mixture of curiosity and tenderness that made him so different from what Victor saw, and for a few seconds words were unnecessary for either of you.

Then, clumsily, he extended an enormous hand toward you. Between his fingers he held a dry leaf, one of the many lying on the ground, but this one was special because he was giving it to you. You took it gently, smiling tenderly at his small gift.

"A sheet of paper? For me?"

You asked gently, looking directly into his mismatched eyes. He nodded, with that shyness and awkwardness so characteristic of him. And you smiled again, touched by his way of communicating without words.

"Thank you..."

You thanked him gently, still smiling. You could swear with certainty that a new light had appeared in the creature's eyes, as if you were slowly healing the pain and loneliness that his creator had instilled in him.