“I can’t forget about it, Albert... The whole estate was so luxurious, yet William’s room could put a prison cell to shame. He’s Victor’s little brother and he makes him live like... ugh.” Prometheus explained as they walked through the farmer’s market. 

“It’s definitely an indication of the poor boy’s rank in that family. A sad situation I’ve seen relatives live in.” Albert commented as he selected apples on how they felt and smelled. 

“What drives a person to treat their own family that way?” Prometheus sighed as he assisted Albert by holding the heavier bags while Ghost was on his shoulders eyeing the sausages in one of the bags. 

“What drives a person to do any of the evils you-know-who committed and still could be?” Albert pointed out before turning his attention to some vegetables. 

Prometheus could not answer. 

“Igor tells me that it’s not just William’s room that was unnerving either. The staff was unusual.” Albert exclaimed while picking up a tomato. 

“Unusual? More like... unnatural. They all acted strange and all of them looked...” Prometheus struggled to find the right words. 

“Ugly?” the old man asked turning, but not quite facing him. 

“Quite the opposite. They were all beautiful and perfect looking which within itself is off. Nobody looks perfect and yet, ALL of them were. Also, something about their eyes was wrong as though they were the eyes of-” Prometheus was cut off from his words when some man grabbed his bag from him and took out the sausages “Hey! Stop!” 

“What’s happening?” Albert was alarmed. 

“This man grabbed your groceries!” Prometheus stated and he tried to take the bag back. 

The man only seemed interested in the sausages though much to Ghost’s anger. She tried to take them back by grabbing one end with her talons and pulling, but the man was determined to keep them. It was also then that Prometheus noticed that this man was of the upper class judging by how he was dressed. 

“Let go! Let go, you dirty bird!” the man growled. 

Prometheus put the bags down and held the man’s arms forcing him to release the sausages “Sir, please! I think you need to calm down.” up close, he could see the man was sweating and pale. 

“I-I need meat. A lot of it! Must have meat!” the man yammered. 

“Harold! Harold, there you are. What’s gotten into you?” another man who looked identical to the one Prometheus subdued was running up to them clumsily “I’m so sorry. My brother hasn’t been well since this morning. Harold, I think you need to go home and-” 

“NO! WHAT I NEED IS MEAT!!” Harold roared wriggling away from Prometheus and grabbing some lady’s leg of lamb. 

He then began eating it raw like a beast causing the crowd to gasp and the lady in front of him to scream in terror before running away. Prometheus then noticed that Harold’s eyes were slightly glowing green the same way Lord Stein’s were, and his bulging arteries were also slightly glowing. This man was in the beginning stages of transforming. 

“Harold! Stop it!” his brother begged, but Harold’s only response was to jump on him and bite him hard on the shoulder causing the fabric to turn red making the crowd scream. 

Luckily, some men came over and pulled him off, but he then pounced on one of the men and began munching his bare arm. That was when Prometheus grabbed Harold and pulled him off while noticing that he had now reached stage two of the transformation. 

“Forgive me.” Prometheus said before knowing Harold out cold. 

“H-Harold...” Harold’s brother whimpered upon noticing that he did not look normal anymore as the man with the half-eaten arm cried out in pain. 

“You two, to the clinic now!” Prometheus commanded as he carried Harold over his shoulder. 

“What is going on here?” Albert begged to know. 

“I’m sorry, Albert, but I need to go now. I’ll see you later and explain.” Prometheus said before leaving with Ghost who returned the sausages to the old man. 

Back at the clinic, Prometheus put the man with the half-eaten arm under to do minor surgery on him. Luckily, it mostly just consisted of closing the wounds. However, this required more stitches than he could count, and there was no replacing the flesh that was lost. As that went on, Igor treated the shoulder of Harold’s brother. Thanks to the thick layer of clothes he wore, he only needed minor stitching and none of his flesh was lost. As for Harold himself, he was still out cold while bound in chains and tied to a bed as they all waited for the hospital to collect him. Once Prometheus was finished, he escorted his patient outside to the coach where he would be taken home to rest. He then went to the waiting room where Harold’s brother awaited him. 

“Is everything alright here, Mr...?” Prometheus began. 

“Hahn. Herman Hahn. You’ve... met Harold.” Herman introduced himself with most of his upper body bandaged “I’ve been worse, doctor. What about Harold though? Will he be alright?” 

Prometheus pursed his lips. 

“Please, tell me the truth.” Herman begged standing up looking Prometheus in the eye. 

Prometheus took a deep breath “I don’t know.” 

“What’s wrong with him? What does he have? Am I going to become like that too? Did he give me what he has when he bit me?” Herman rambled on. 

Prometheus gently took his uninjured shoulder to calm him “Mr. Hahn, I understand that this is all very frightening, but whatever your brother has, it is not a disease, and it is not contagious. You are clean.” 

“Have you seen this happen before? If you did, what happened to that person, doctor?” he demanded. 

“I have and... the last person who had Harold’s condition got worse and wound up accidentally killing himself.” Prometheus confessed and Herman looked heartbroken by this “However, this time, we know how to subdue Harold better, so he doesn’t have an accident and he will go to the hospital where he will get the proper help he needs.” 

“How? You don’t even know what this is.” Herman lamented as he sat back down. 

“But maybe another doctor at the hospital does, Mr. Hahn.” Prometheus tried to encourage him, but it was no use “... Mr. Hahn, I know this is not easy for you, but if there is anything you can tell me about what lead up to Harold’s condition, please tell me.” 

Herman took a deep breath while pulling himself together “As far as I know, our family has no history of hereditary ailments. The one and only medical anomaly we’ve experience was our own. As you can tell, Harold and I are twins though we were born conjoined at his right foot and my left one. When we toddlers, we underwent surgery to be separated, but since then, our feet where we were once joined were gimped since, but I doubt that made Harold become like he is now.” 

“When did he start craving meat so much?” Prometheus asked while stroking his beard. 

“Just today really and that’s honestly out of character for him! You see we’re both vegetarians, so to see him hungering for meat to the point where he would even try to eat me or someone else is... is... pardon me...” Herman’s eyes began to tear up and sniffle. 

“It’s fine. You have every right to feel as you do, Mr. Hahn. I do have one other question and I ask only as a doctor not a judge.” Prometheus began as he handed Herman a tissue “Is your brother a patient of Baron Frankenstein’s?” 

Herman’s eyes narrowed “You’re hinting about that body modification, aren’t you? Yes. Harold went through with it. Unlike me, he never made peace with his imperfect foot. You think THAT did something to him, don’t you? I always suspected the damn treatment was fishy!” 

“Did Harold start to act strange after his treatment?” Prometheus was now suspicious. 

“No. I must be honest. He had his foot corrected five months ago and was just fine. He's also been doing the maintenance treatments weekly, yet he only acted out today.” Herman confessed sighing. 

“I see. If you don’t mind me asking, what can you tell me about the maintenance treatments?” Prometheus asked curiously. 

“It’s not a secret really. I would go with Harold sometimes and see everything. All he had to do was soak in the bath for an hour once a week. According to Baron Frankenstein, it’s a special kind of mineral bath that helps maintain the modified organ, so your body doesn’t reject it. It involves complex chemistry and alchemy using rare minerals that have medicinal properties which explains the price tag.” Herman grumbled. 

“A mineral bath?” he was taken aback. 

“I don’t know what minerals they are, but they make the water smell horrible, and it would glow green.” Herman went on. 

“Glow green?” Prometheus perked up. 

“Yes. It was all very strange, but-” Herman was cut off from the sound of Harold waking up and hollering for meat “Harold!” 

“Wait!” Prometheus instructed, but Herman got up and opened the door to the room where Harold was supposed to be resting. 

He was on the bed thrashing and almost foaming at the mouth hollering “meat” repeatedly. Despite being bound with chains, unlike Lord Stein who was bound only with rope, he was still able to make the bed shake. 

“Harold, stop. Please.” Herman begged, but his brother’s only response was to snap at him. 

“Mr. Hahn, you must stay away from him. He’s not himself right now.” Prometheus warned as he pulled him away from Harold. 

“But he's my brother! He needs me!” Herman insisted. 

“What he needs is to not be a danger to anyone including himself. I’m sorry, but until we know how to help him, you must stay back and let me sedate him.” Prometheus explained while holding a syringe making Herman relent “I’ll have to give it to him in his leg though since his arms are tied up.” 

Of course, he had an ulterior motive for wanting to do this too. Prometheus held down Harold's right leg and lifted the pant leg slightly then lowered the sock to expose Harold’s ankle. As expected, he found a white rim around it. He then administered the shot which seemed to make Harold angry. After ten seconds, he grumbled and slowed down before nodding off much to the creature-doctor's relief. However, Herman did not look the least bit comforted. After Prometheus closed the door, Agatha made her presence known. 

“Uh, Prometheus. The hospital coach is here.” she informed him. 

“Thank you, Agatha. I’ll bring them in.” Prometheus replied and went up to the front of the clinic with Herman following. 

The men got Harold onto a stretcher and as instructed by Prometheus, they tied him to it too for his own safety as he was put into the coach. As they did that, he took a moment to speak to Herman. 

“Pardon me, Mr. Hahn, but if you know anyone else who underwent Baron Frankenstein’s body modification, please tell them to come visit me especially if they find themselves hungering for meat a bit more than usual.” he requested. 

“So you are suspicious of the miracle treatments, aren’t you, doctor?” Herman frowned. 

“I don’t want to make any accusations though right now, that is the only common factor Harold has with the last person who had the same condition.” Prometheus admitted indirectly. 

“I do know one other person and I’ll pass it along. For now, I must tend to my brother. Goodbye, doctor.” Herman nodded and put on his hat before entering the coach and leaving. 

Once alone, Prometheus reentered the clinic with a pensive expression. He entered his office where Igor and Ghost awaited him.