When I heard Frankenstein agree to my proposition, I felt a physical wave of relief hit my body. I wasn't sure if the man had seen through my disguise, but he was definitely weary of me. He didn't even bat an eye when he saw Lilith by my side, and her whole purpose was to try to distract the man as much as possible. Still, I seemed to have caught his interests for the time.

“I believe that we should continue our discussions in a more private place.” Frankenstein said, “How about my manor?”

“Of course.” I answered, “And where, if I may ask, is your manor?”

“Oh yes.” He answered with a sly smile, and pulled out a small business card out of his suit jacket, “I almost forgot. How silly of me.”

I'm pretty sure he didn't forget. But it was a good thing that I did not forget to ask him in any case.

“Thank you.” I answered, “Shall we make our way there?”

“Lets.”

* * *

Lilith and I made our way out of the hotel, and I got my car back from the garage. We drove a while to Frankenstein's place, but this time, I was invited. It seemed that Frankenstein had already replaced the gates that we broke down last time, and even the damage that was done to his lawn and fortress had been fixed up. Remarkable, really, given how little time had passed.

Frankenstein was waiting for us outside of the front gate, and when he saw us approach, he opened it up, and pointed to a nice spot where I could park the car. I drove in, and was greeted by some servants – humans from the look of them – when I got out of the car. The lead me inside to the lounge area, and politely left when Frankenstein made his way inside.

“Welcome to my humble home.” Frankenstein said with a smile, “Do you want something to drink? Wine perhaps?”

“Lovely place,” I answered, “and I'm good for now.”

“Wine for the lovely lady, perhaps?”

Lilith smiled, and said, “Sure.”

“Excellent!” Frankenstein shouted, before turning to one of his many servants, “Get me a glass of our finest wine, now!”

Less than a minute later, another server handed Lilith a glass of fine red wine. She took it gracefully, sipped it, and gave Frankenstein her thanks.

“Perfect. Let us go down to the lab then. If I am to work with you, then you should get to know my... methods. I am told that they do not suit everyone's sense of ethics, but I am sure that a man of your standing will appreciate what I have done.”

I nodded, and followed the man through a maze of corridors and passages. I have no idea where Lilith and I were, were by the time we made our way down some dark stairs and into the basement of the manor.

I'm not sure what I expected when I entered his supposed lab. Maybe I thought it would be a brand spanking new, state of the art medical facility like you'd see in sci-fi movies, or maybe a chaotic medieval space filled with notes and strange liquids like the original Frankenstein of Shelly. But what I saw instead was not really a lab, so much as a place of torment and torture.

The lighting was made deliberately dark, and the whole place reeked of faecal matter and human waste. The walls were lined with tiny cells filled with disturbed looking individuals. Some where chained to walls, others were unconscious on the dirt floor, and the people in there were from all genders, backgrounds, and age groups. The one thing that they all had in common, however, was the look of absolute terror when they saw Frankenstein walk in.

When they saw Lilith and I enter, another expression entered some of the more energetic ones eyes: hope. The ones who could still move immediately crowded towards the bars that caged them in, and they started to plead and beg me for mercy. They told me what Frankenstein will, and has, done to them.

They begged for their lives.

I ignored them though. After all, I've lived in Hell for thousands of years, and I had already given up caring about people at this point. I still felt a pang of sympathy, but it was brief and it didn't amount to much. As much as I wanted to help them, I also knew that I could physically do nothing for them.

Lilith was even worse than me. She looked at the suffering masses not in pity, but rather, she had a look of amusement in her features. She laughed as one old man tried, in vain, to grab onto her legs, and instead of ignoring them like I did, she kicked the poor man, and stabbed his arms with her stiletto heels.

“Fuck.” Lilith swore, spitting towards the now screaming man, “Blood's a bitch to get off, and these heels are expensive.”

Frankenstein laughed, obviously amused at the way that Lilith treated the prisoners, “No worries, I'll have them replaced.”

I just shook my head.

“Is this want you wanted to show me?” I muttered, “This is hardly what I call science.”

“Oh no, Bishop my friend, these are just the raw materials. Does it... disturb you? Does it offend you that I cage up people and use them for experiments?”

I shrugged, and answered, “Hardly.”

Frankenstein smiled, “Good, good! I would hate it if you thought of me as a monster.”

“What is the point of all this?”

“The point, Bishop,” he said firmly, “Is for me to see if you are a man who is capable of working with me. You see, I've had many people like you who appear out of nowhere with equally wild offers. Those same people, of course, did not live up to their claims, and were in fact sent from the various groups of people who are not fond of what I do. Why, you can probably still find some of them in here, if you understand what I'm saying. So tell me, Francis Bishop, are you one of those people?”

“No.”

He smiled again, and said, “Good, but they all say that. To make sure, I'm going to have to ask you to do something for me. To make sure that you are not one of those dispensable people who would wish me harm.”

Frankenstein casually walked to a seemingly random cell, and pulled out a young girl who looked like she couldn't have been older than 15 or 16. She pulled her towards me, and forced her on her knees, in front of us.

“Kill her.” He said, simply.

When the girl heard that, tears welled up in her eyes, and she stared at me with eyes of terror. She broke down into hysterical sobs, and begged me to spare her. To do something.

I furrowed my brows at Frankenstein. I didn't want to murder the poor girl in cold blood, but I saw no way of getting out of this situation. I already knew when we entered the room that this whole place was designed to keep people in, and there was no way that I could make it out of here if I chose to go against Frankenstein. And there was equally no chance for me to actually save the poor girl, or anything else in this place.

“I'd get my suit dirty.” I grunted.

“Not a problem.” Frankenstein answered, still smiling, “I'll replace it for you after, better than what you have on now.”

I thought about the situation one last time, and looked down on the girl... and I cursed that there was no other way. Ah well, I've done worse in my life, and it's not like I'm a changed man. Uriel may think that I'm no longer a demon, but that does not make me a good man.

“Fine.” I answered, “And you better have a good suit ready.”

I was about to kill the girl as painlessly as possible, when I thought of something. I could still perhaps spare her...

I turned to Frankenstein, and said, “This is also a wonderful time to give you a practical demonstration on the breakthrough that I made.”

Frankenstein looked at me with a puzzled expression, obviously confused, but after briefly considering what I was going to do, he nodded.

I then willed both Banefire and the Fires of Creation into being, one on my left hand and the other one my right. I waved both of them in front of the crouching girl, and forced the two opposing forces together. According to Uriel, this would be enough to create a literal rip in reality, and create a portal to another dimension. My plan was to pull the girl into the portal, and hope that she lives through the experience.

Unfortunately, I have had no practice doing that at all, and when I shoved the two polar opposite forces together, I created more than a simple portal. Oh, the portal appeared in front of the girl was there all right, but it closed so quickly that it was impossible for anything to make its way through, and the resulting feedback that the portal created was like a miniature bomb of air pressure. The force was so strong that it blew up a huge chunk of the floor, and scattered the pieces of brick outwards at incredible speeds. The girl, contrary to being saved, was engulfed in the explosion, and the chunks of brick killed a few more unlucky individuals that were caught up in the blast. Lilith laughed hysterically at the outcome, and I could only frown at my failure. I thought that Frankenstein would be angry at the damage, but he looked anything but. He looked absolutely fascinated by what happened.

Frankenstein, Lilith and I were naturally all right, but our clothing was not. After checking out the damage that I've caused, I muttered a silent apology to all the poor prisoners that were unlucky enough to have met me today, but I guess that death was a better fate that what Frankenstein had lined up for them. Death, after all, is not the end.

After the last of the dust and debris cleared up, Frankenstein looked at Lilith and I – not thoroughly dishevelled – and clapped his hands.

“Well I'll be!” He said, his voice booming, “That was indeed very interesting. If I am not mistaken, you created a brief gateway out of this dimension. Tell me, how did you do it?”

“I'll explain after.” I answered, dusting off pieces of rock and blood off my ruined suit, “I think it would be in everyone's best interests to get cleaned up first.”

“Of course! Where are my manors!”

“And I hope that I passed your little test?”

“With flying colours.” He answered, “And I apologize for putting you through that. Precautions and all that.”

“I understand. But I do want a new suit.”

“And a dress for me.” Lilith muttered, looking sternly at Frankenstein and I.

“Not a problem. I am a man of my words, after all. Come, let's get cleaned up, and we can discuss business over dinner.”

* * *

After a long, long shower and new clothing – it seems that Frankenstein really did keep his promise, the new suit I got felt even better than the overly expensive thing I wore before – Lilith, Frankentesin and I sat down for dinner to discuss our new found partnership. He asked me about what I had previously done, and I fed him the lies that I had practices over the last week. I told him that I had been researching anti-matter and creation magic for the past few hundred years, and that the two fires I used earlier was the result of my hard work. Frankenstein had no reason to doubt me, and aside from a few elementary questions about my research methods – which I deflected with the guise of not trusting him enough with that information – I was able to gain some of the man's trust. Or at least his co-operation for what I needed to do.

“So if I am not mistaken, Bishop, the problem you need me to remedy is the fine controls for this portal.”

“That's correct.” I answered, "As you might have seen, I have no way of stabilizing the forces, or controlling where the portal might go. That's what I need you to do"

“That shouldn't be a problem...” He muttered, “But I'll need some of that fire for my experiments. Can you somehow contain that material for later use?”

I thought about it, and imagined that it shouldn't be a problem. As long as I don't will the Banefire or Fires of Creation out, it should continue to burn indefinitely in a vacuum. I told Frankenstein what needed to be done, and he agreed to provide me with an air tight container that should do the trick.

“So how long do you think the first results will arrive?” I asked.

“Well... I imagine that with enough research, I can get some results out within the month. No promises of course.”

“Excellent.”

“Now if we do manage to perfect this technology, I will expect some kind of compensation for my help.”

“Of course.” I lied, “While you are researching on a method to stabilize the portal, I'll work on a method of mass producing the necessary components for opening up the gateway. That way both of us can benefit from each other's work. Once that is done, we can trade the information, and I believe that this proposition is more than fair.”

I didn't actually know how I would fake giving him the plans of mass producing the two fires, since that was impossible, but I'm sure that I can figure it out when the time comes. Worst case, I'll just take his final research information by force.

Frankenstein looked pleased at the proposition, and as far as I can tell, he was not doubting my intentions. He smiled that same, big smile, and shook my hand, thus sealing the new found partnership. After we finished eating dinner, he took me down to his real lab, one that is very much like my image of a high tech research facility, and I deposited as much Banefire and its antithesis as I could manage into the containers that he had previously prepared. After testing to make sure that the two fires were sustainable inside the container, I shook the big man's hand one last time, and made my way out of his home.

Hopefully, within a few weeks I'll be getting a call from Frankenstein, and I'll be finished with the first part of our plan to save Sara. Now it's time to start on the second part: finding out where the girl actually went.