Jekyll & Hyde Inc.

Daniel produced the knife he’d taken from Tina earlier, and his arm snapped forward. The long thin blade flashed through the air to bury itself in the creature’s right eye, and Daniel thought he saw a fleeting gratitude in the scarred face, before the body slumped lifeless in its frame.

Everyone in the banquet hall turned around in their seats, to take in Daniel and Tina standing by the doors. Daniel smiled at them coldly, while Tina waved cheerfully.

“Don’t mind us! Just passing through. Hope your evening goes off with a bang.”

“Get them!” The voice of the Clan’s spokesman was thick with rage at being so openly defied. None of the Frankensteins sitting at the tables so much as stirred in their chairs, but the rows of creatures standing behind them turned as one and lumbered steadily toward the two Hydes. Dozens of dead things, pieced together from the remains of better men, with murder on what was left of their minds. They moved slowly at first, but soon built up a head of speed as they closed in on their prey.

Daniel stood his ground, his face as set and implacable as theirs. He’d faced this scene so many times before in his nightmares that it had lost much of its power over him. In fact, this was better, because he was looking forward to getting his hands on these creatures. He wasn’t helpless anymore. He was a Hyde. Part of him wanted to see the creatures as victims of the Frankensteins, like the hybrid, but in his mind’s eye he could still see the death of his friends in that awful cellar, at the hands of things just like these.

“Time we were leaving,” said Tina.

“No,” said Daniel, his chest so tight he had to force the words out. “Not yet. I have unfinished business to attend to.”

His hands clenched into fists, and he could tell from the look on Tina’s face that his smile was a very cold thing. He needed to face the Frankenstein creatures. Needed to stand his ground and let them come to him, so he could hurt them they way they’d hurt him, and his friends. It was the only way he’d ever be able to leave the cellar behind him. He barely felt Tina grab his arm, until she used all her strength to turn him around and face her. He yanked his arm free, ready to shout at her if that was what it took—and then stopped as he realized that, while her face was angry, her eyes were understanding.

“You can’t physically hurt them, Daniel!” she said urgently. “You can’t. They don’t feel anything, because they’re just dead men walking. But they can hurt us. Or at the very least, hold us here until it’s too late to get away.”

And just like that Daniel remembered the bomb, with its preset timer ticking away. He nodded stiffly, and turned to follow Tina as she headed for the door.

But his moment of indecision had given the creatures just enough time to catch up with them. Daniel was within arm’s reach of the door when a heavy hand dropped onto his shoulder, and dead fingers clamped down with sickening force. He cried out at the pain, as the creature hauled him back from the door, and then he threw off the creature’s hand with an effort, turned back, and punched it in the face with such force that its head snapped all the way round, the neck broken. The creature staggered backward, head lolling to one side at an unnatural angle, but it quickly recovered its balance and came forward again. Behind it came more of the Frankenstein creations, closing in on the Hydes with cold, relentless purpose.

Daniel lashed out at them with all of his Hyde strength, grunting out loud with the effort he was put into every attack, but his fists only jarred against the cold unyielding flesh. Bones broke and shattered under his blows, but none of it was enough to stop the dead men pressing forward. Tina threw punch after punch with happy abandon, hitting one creature so hard under the sternum that she must have crushed its heart—but no blood flowed from the creature’s mouth, and the expression on its face never changed. The Frankensteins made their creations to last. They kept on pressing forward, a crowd of cold merciless hands reaching out to rend and tear.

Daniel forced down his anger, so he could concentrate on what was in front of him. He focused on the creatures’ weak spots, breaking their extended arms with swift, calculated blows, shattering leg bones with vicious kicks, and even thrusting two fingers deep into unseeing eyes. The crippled creatures fell sprawling to the floor, but there were always more, stepping uncaringly over the fallen to take their place. Daniel lashed out again and again, hitting them as hard as he could, until his fists were bloodied and aching from the impacts, but it was like fighting death itself. He could hold it off for a while, but he couldn’t stop it.