The woman’s screams drew the attention of the town as her baby was ripped from her arms. A man in a pure white uniform held the crying infant aloft, a look of disgust on his face. The crowd, full of the woman’s friends and neighbors, gathered around, curious.


    “Please.” The woman begged, held up on shaking legs by her teenage daughter. “He’s just a baby. Please don’t hurt him.”


    “He’s an abomination.” The man sneered, shaking the baby, causing his cries to turn shrill with fright.


    “The peace corps aren’t living up to their name, are they?” A dark-skinned man in a three-piece suit asked nearby, tapping an empty pipe against his lips.


    “Do they ever?” The woman at his side replied, her eyes narrowed at the officer who held the child. “Sebastian.” Her hand reached out to grip his arm tight as he took a step forward, a tiny blade peeping out from the inside of the pipe. “We can’t interfere.”


    He stopped, tense with frustration, and watched the officer shake the baby once more before tossing the bundle onto the ground with a sickening crack. With a wince, he looked away, hands balling into fists. In the resounding silence, no one moved. Not the mother. Or her daughter. Or the baby lying on the dirty ground. The blue blanket he was wrapped in darkened with blood.


    “Murderer!” The mother screamed and rushed to her baby. Two armed officers stepped into her path. They grabbed her arms with their white gloves and dragged her to the center of the crowd, the dirt staining her dress as she was tossed onto the ground. Her eyes focused wildly on her child inches away, so close yet too far away now.


    “Mother!” Her daughter cried. An officer strode towards her threateningly, but Sebastian, having shaken off his companion, placed himself between them.


    “She’s innocent.” He hissed, golden eyes narrowed.


    The officer snorted in disgust but turned away, clearly not interested in a fight he wouldn’t win. “Alyssa, are you alright?” Sebastian glanced back at the shaking girl. Her eyes stared past him at her sobbing mother, on her knees before the growing crowd.


    “You have to stop this. Someone has to stop this.” She murmured, but even she knew the futility of it. No one would step up to protest even if they wanted to. And no one wanted to.


    “We have these laws for a reason.” The officer began, trying and failing to sound sympathetic. He enjoyed this. “Your son passed away once before, and you ignored our laws, God’s law, to bring him back. You created a monster.”


    “He was just a baby.” The mother sobbed, reaching out a hand to the bundle. “Such a sweet, beautiful baby.”


    “How many of you noticed?” He called to the crowd. “The baby who wouldn’t stop crying, a child that couldn’t be consoled, the darkness in its eyes. The chains on a soul that was stolen from God’s hand.”If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    “No!”


    “You broke Frankenstein’s Law!”


    “I didn’t!”


    “You brought your dead child back to life.”


    “He wasn’t a monster!”


    “No,” The officer glanced at the baby, a glimmer of sorrow in his eyes before turning back to the mother, “but you are. Execute her. Show them all what happens when you defy God; when you rip souls from Death’s hand and chain them to the living.”


    “No.” Alyssa breathed as her mother turned her head to meet her daughter’s eyes for the last time.


    The officers brought forth a heavy ax, the wicked edge glinting in harsh sunlight. The mother looked away, her eyes locked onto the baby she had sacrificed everything for. An officer grabbed her hair and bent her head to reveal her pale neck. A strong wind whipped about the leaves left by Autumn’s entrance as she began to pray, her voice choked with tears.


    The lead officer knelt before her. “What right do you have to pray? God won’t listen to a creature like you.”


    “God always hears me.” She whispered just as the ax fell. Her head rolled towards the baby. Some would swear later that her pale eyes had stared at them accusingly while her lips formed the true name of God. A curse against their inaction.


    “This is what happens when you go against God.” The officer claimed as he stood. He made to turn away when Alyssa darted from Sebastian’s side, too fast for him to grab her. She had the officer’s gun in her hand before anyone could move.


    “You’re the only monster in this town.” She hissed and fired. The bullet lodged in his shoulder, blood staining the innocent white of his uniform. He went to grab her when she turned the gun on herself. “See you in heaven, Mom.” She pulled the trigger and fell to the ground beside her mother and brother. Her blood splattered against the officer’s name tag, obscuring the first two letters of “Davis”. The crowd screamed, some openly sobbing as the blood inched towards them. They stepped back, eager to disperse now that the entire horrifying scene had unfolded.


    Sebastian stared in shock until his companion returned to his side and pulled at his arm. “Brie.” He acknowledged, staring at the body of a girl he had just tried to protect. “She...she…”


    “I know. We can’t stay here.” Brie tugged him away from the grisly scene.


    “This is the effect of Frankenstein’s Law. An entire family. Gone. Lost. Because one mother could not bear to bury her son properly.” The officer’s voice followed them as the two of them pushed past grieving townsfolk. “God cries for these poor souls, but rejoices knowing there is one less abomination running free in his name.”


    “God is crying,” Brie murmured at his side as they reached the docks, “but in fury at that man’s actions.”


    Sebastian ran a hand over his face, unsurprised to find it wet with tears. He stared up at his skyship, highlighted by a bright Autumn sun on a planet far from home. “You’re assuming God is even still watching.”


    ***


    Halfway across the universe, in another galaxy, a middle-aged man worked tirelessly in a cemetery, the rhythmic hacking of an ax against stone the only sound. The darkness enveloped him in a lonely solitude, the hour too late for even the owls, as sweat and tears dripped from his cheeks. The remains of the tombstone crumbled under his boot as he tossed aside his ax and stepped over the broken pieces towards the body he had wrapped in an old blanket. The faded print of firetrucks nearly had him bursting into tears again as he hefted the body into his arms.


    “This never happened.” He murmured to the unmoving body, cradling it ever closer. “You’ve just had an accident, but don’t worry, I can make you well again.”


    As he passed his neighbor’s home, a wild wind sent the lanterns swinging, casting shadows out towards him. “You can’t have him.” He hissed to no one, tightening his hold on his burden. “He isn’t yours to take. Not yet. Not yet.”


    As he spoke, the lanterns blew out, and in the eerie silence of a cool October night, he thought he could hear the echoes of a gunshot as he hurried home and locked the doors.