“The creature in the book is so lonely. He says he wants to have somebody else to share his life with, another creature like him. So he goes to the doctor, all freaked-out and frantic, and tells him to make a bride. When the doctor says no, the creature says he’ll kill the doctor’s new wife, he’ll stalk him, and ‘I shall be with you on your wedding night.’ That’s his curse. You understand? He’ll show up on their wedding night. And in the movie, The Bride of Frankenstein, the same actress plays Mary Shelley and the bride. When I saw that the first time and figured out that they both were played by Elsa Lanchester, it was like a bomb going off in my brain. The writer, the girl Mary, is the bride of the creature. The one who dreamed up the whole story is the one who marries the creature. Or at least she’s supposed to.
“I was the Bride of Frankenstein before I ever saw the movie or knew about Mary Shelley. It was me and my brother. Just us, together. Just us, alone in our house. You’ve seen him. You know what he looks like and how he acts. When he gets in one of his terrible moods, it’s like the whole world is going to end. You know how good-looking he is. If he was a girl, you’d say he was beautiful, right? But when his feelings start pouring out, it’s awful. Little kids start crying and dogs start whining. Business people close up their shops when he comes along. And it’s not just the weird and intense that makes people want to get away. It’s the scary and the crazy too. The wrong and the danger that glows around him. I’m not making this up, Davi. The Guardia go for the shock batons and call in to headquarters for backup. People go to church and pray just to wash the fear out of their nerves after they’ve seen him that way.
“You have any idea what that’s like to live with, to be with all the time? I would’ve killed myself if I stayed there another week, and I swear on the Virgin that I’ll kill myself if I have to go back to him. Mary Shelley never went back to her family. This is for real. Mary never went back and neither did the creature. They both got away clean and so can I. So can we, you and me. Right, Davi? Am I right? We’re going to get away, and no one will ever find us and make us come back.”