Page 78 of Thunder with a Chance of Lovestruck

A scream tore free from me. I thought for sure he’d broken Drest’s neck.

Drest spun fast and punched a hole clean through the thing’s head. He then moved before me in a protective manner and kept the monsters from getting to me.

Astria screamed, and it seemed to be timed with a massive lightning strike.

Monsters continued pouring out of the basement. They were everywhere.

I glanced toward the front door to find it was open, and monsters were rushing out of it. That meant they’d be out in the world.

Part of me thought it couldn’t get any worse. That this was as bad as it could be. That was until I saw what came out of the basement next—or rather, who.

Amice was there, looking less stitched together than the others but nothing like how she’d been. Her coloring was off, leaving her looking almost greenish-gray. Her eyes were sunken in and lifeless. Henry had resurrected her?

I looked directly at him from across the foyer. “Ohmygod, Henry! You didn’t!”

“Mommy?” Astria ran from Torid, right toward Amice or whatever it was Henry had brought back to life.

Before I could scream at her to stop, Torid was to her, lifting her into his arms and kicking away other monsters.

“Get her!” shouted Henry to the creatures.

The monsters stopped coming at Drest and me and shifted their focus to going at Astria. I patted Drest’s back and gave him a small shove.

He nodded and ran for Astria too, yanking the monsters back as he did.

The Amice-Monster cocked her head to one side and looked to be fighting against my brother’s command.

Was a part of her in there somewhere? Did she understand how wrong he was and what he’d done? Oh God, did she realize what he’d done to her?

“Henry Frankenstein, what in the hell did you do?” demanded Stratton.

Amice-Monster blinked several times, her attention going to Astria, who was screaming more. She went right for her daughter.

My breath caught.

Drest thrust his arms out wide. “Amice, over here. Focus on me. Not—”

The static energy I’d felt before returned tenfold. It hit me full-on, knocking me into the wall so hard that I crumbled to the floor with my arms around my stomach, trying to protect the baby.

The last thing I heard was Drest shouting my name, sounding frantic, right before everything went dark.

PartIII

“Nothing is more painful to the human mind, than, after the feelings have been worked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows, and deprives the soul both of hope and fear.” —Mary Shelley,Frankenstein, 1818

ChapterTwenty-Six

Rachael

Eighteen years later…

“Mom, have you seen my blue ballet flats and the earrings I was planning to wear to the banquet tonight? They didn’t get packed, did they?”

“Did you look in Astria’s room to be sure they didn’t get mixed in with her things?” I called back from the kitchen. The girls were close to the same size, and I was guilty of mixing up their clothing on laundry days.

I pulled out the four-tier cake that I’d spent the day prior baking and set it on the counter. I set a butcher knife next to it. I kept meaning to buy a cake knife but hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

I leaned back, craning my neck to see down the hall of our tiny yet comfortable three-bedroom. It was a far cry from the manor that I’d grown up in, but it fit our needs. Plus, it was what I could afford while raising two girls on my own.

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