Book Description

The Wilson mansion loomed against the autumn sky like a dying thing, its Victorian turrets piercing the low-hanging clouds. Located miles from the nearest town, the estate's wrought-iron gates were perpetually rusted half-open, as if eternally inviting – or warning away – visitors. Local teenagers whispered stories about the place, about the screams that sometimes echoed across the overgrown grounds on moonless nights. But Dr. Clive Wilson paid no attention to such tales. In his basement laboratory, surrounded by humming machines and walls of mysterious equipment, he was on the verge of something unprecedented. The doctor's hands, once steady enough to perform the most delicate surgeries, now trembled with excitement as he reviewed his notes for the thousandth time. The formulas, the calculations, the precise measurements of electrical current needed to bridge the gap between life and death – it was all there, waiting to be proven. His daughter Maria watched him from the doorway of his study, her dark eyes filled with concern. At twenty-four, she had inherited her late mother's ethereal beauty – pale skin, raven hair, and features that seemed almost too perfect to be real. But lately, living alone in this massive house with only her increasingly obsessed father for company had taken its toll. Dark circles had formed under her eyes, and her once-vibrant smile had faded to something more haunted. "Father," she said softly, "you need to rest. You've been at this for days." Dr. Wilson barely looked up from his notes. "Just a little longer, dear. The alignment of the electromagnetic fields must be perfect. One miscalculation and..." He trailed off, lost again in his work. Maria sighed and retreated to her room, where she spent hours staring out the window at the family cemetery that dotted the far corner of the property. The marble mausoleum stood like a sentinel among the weathered headstones, holding generations of Wilsons in its cold embrace. She often wondered if her mother's spirit wandered those grounds, and if so, what she would think of what her husband had become. When Derrick Stevens answered the advertisement in the newspaper, it seemed like fate. He appeared at their door one crisp morning, his blonde hair catching the autumn sun like a halo. Maria felt her heart stop when their eyes met – his were the color of a summer sky, bright and clear and full of life. But there was something else there too, a shadow of desperation that made her want to reach out and comfort him. Dr. Wilson's eyes lit up for entirely different reasons when he saw Derrick. Here was his perfect subject – young, healthy, and most importantly, alone in the world. The doctor's questions during the interview were precise, calculated: No living relatives? No close friends in the area? Perfect. What Dr. Wilson didn't count on was the way Derrick and Maria gravitated toward each other. During the preliminary tests, they would steal glances across the laboratory. When Dr. Wilson was absorbed in his work, they would meet in the garden, walking among the dying roses and sharing pieces of their lives. Derrick told her about the car crash that took his parents, about bouncing between foster homes, about his failed modeling career and mounting debts. Maria shared her own loneliness, her mother's death, her father's growing obsession with his work. The mansion seemed less oppressive with Derrick there. For the first time in years, laughter echoed through its halls. But Dr. Wilson noticed the change in his daughter, saw the way she looked at Derrick, and something dark began to grow in his heart. The thought of losing his only child to this penniless drifter, of being truly alone in his great house of shadows, was unbearable. When Dr. Wilson's old colleague, Dr. Steve Timmons, arrived to witness the experiment, the tension in the mansion was palpable. Timmons was a cautious man, his years of medical practice having taught him that playing God always came with a price. He watched with growing unease as Dr. Wilson explained the procedure – how Derrick would be technically dead for precisely three minutes before being brought back through a specific sequence of electromagnetic pulses, activated by a series of taps on the control panel. "Three taps, pause, two taps," Dr. Wilson demonstrated, his fingers drumming on his desk with practiced precision. "The sequence must be exact." Derrick had done this before, multiple times, each successful resurrection building Dr. Wilson's confidence. But this time was different. Just before the experiment began, Maria burst into the laboratory, her face glowing with joy, an engagement ring sparkling on her finger. "Derrick and I are getting married!" she announced. The look that crossed Dr. Wilson's face in that moment was something Dr. Timmons would never forget – a flash of such primal rage and fear that it transformed his features