Horror QQ #1 - Do you believe in evil?

Music: Sleepdriving by Grand Archives

To un-celebrate Valentines, I'm thinking of quoting disturbing passages from horror books starting today until the 28th.

This ought to be fun.

Here's the first of the excerpts I dug up from one of the books collecting dust in my bookshelf. It's from Dean Koontz's Frankenstein--a conversation between two of Victor Frankenstein's creations, one of them a priest (Father Duchaine). And yes, he's the same Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's classic novel. Dean Koontz simply did a reworking of the said story and came out with this.

(Disclaimer: I do not own Victor Frankenstein, although in all honesty, I wish I did. Suing me will do you no good.)

"Thou shalt not kill."

"Even if there is a God, His commandments can't apply to us," said Harker. "We're not His children."

"Our maker has also forbidden us to murder...except on his instructions."

"But our maker isn't God. He's more like...the plantation owner. Murder isn't a sin...just disobedience."

"It's still a crime," said Father Duchaine, troubled by Harker's self-justifications, even though the plantation-owner analogy had a measure of truth in it.

[...]

"Do you believe in evil?"

"People do terrible things," the priest said. "I mean, real people, the Old Race. For children of God, they do terrible, terrible things."

"But evil," Harker pressed. "Evil pure and purposeful? Is evil a real presence in the world?"

The priest drank from his glass, then said, "The church allows exorcisms. I've never performed one."

With the solemnity of both profound dread and too much booze, Harker said, "Is he evil?"

"Victor?" Father Duchaine felt that he was on dangerous ground. "He's a hard man, not easy to like. His jokes aren't funny."

[...]

"If he's evil...then what are we? I've been so...confused lately. But I don't feel evil. Not like Hitler or Lex Luther. Just...incomplete."

Father Duchaine slid to the edge of his chair. "Do you think...by living the right way, we might in time develop the souls that Victor couldn't give us?"

[...]

"Grow a soul? Like...gallstones? I've never thought about it."

"Have you seen Pinocchio?"

"I've never had patience for their movies."

"This marionette is made of wood," Father Duchaine said, "but he wants to be a real boy."

Harker nodded, downed half his drink, and said, "Like Winnie the Pooh wants to be a real bear."

"No. Pooh is delusional. He already thinks he's a bear. He eats honey. He's afraid of bees."

"Does Pinocchio become a real boy?"

Father Duchaine said, "After a lot of struggle, yes."

"That's inspiring," Harker decided.

"It is. It really is."

- Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, Book One: Prodigal Son (pp.416-418)

*****

Horror QQ #2 - Copulation and mirrors