new body from the morgue to experiment on. Gregor had no idea the body he took from the morgue was a serial killer's.
Dr. Lister removed the hand from the killer’s body and reattached it to Dr. Van Lewton's hand and after a few hours of recovery everything seemed to go well with the surgery and with no complications. Dr. Van Lewton thanked Dr. Lister for giving him a new hand. Dr. Lister gathered his instruments and placed them back in his doctor’s bag and Josette saw Dr. Lister to the door and said, "Thank you for everything, I can't thank you enough. Goodbye, Dr. Lister.”
Dr. Lister boarded his carriage and headed back home. Dr. Van Lewton's hand was doing well for the first three months until he woke up in a cold sweat from a nightmare about strangling a young woman. He looked over at Josette who was lying by his side and the new hand was around her neck choking her. Josette woke up screaming and tried to release Dr. Van Lewton's grip around her neck, but it was too late. Dr. Van Lewton tried his best to release his hand but Josette was already dead.
Dr. Van Lewton yelled "What have I done to my poor Josette." In a fit of rage Dr. Van Lewton got out of his bed and ran to the kitchen grabbed a butcher’s knife out of the drawer then ran down stairs to his laboratory. Dr. Van Lewton poured alcohol on the hand and with one solid whack he cut the hand off and rolled off the table onto the floor. He immediately wrapped bandages around the bloody stump where his new hand was, to stop the bleeding. Dr. Van Lewton got a bottle of hydrochloric acid and poured over the hand, then burned it in the fireplace but when he opened the bottle of acid to pour onto the hand, the hand started moving at a fast pace across the laboratory floor. No matter how hard Dr. Van Lewton tried to capture the hand, the hand got away. The hand eventually made its way up the stairs and out the front door ready to kill again. Dr. Van Lewton ran up the stairs of his laboratory with the butcher knife in hand hoping to stop the hand from killing again, but when he ran outside it was too dark and there was no sign of the hand.
The severed hand made its way onto a coach that was parked just a hundred yards down from Dr. Van Lewton's castle. Apparently the coach had stopped because the driver had to empty his bladder while a man and woman were sitting inside the coach patiently waiting for the drivers return, but he never made it back to the coach. The severed hand got its first victim and headed back to the coach to kill again. The couple in the coach started kissing while the severed hand crawled onto the man's shoulder and with a tight squeeze the man collapsed dead. His lover started screaming for the driver, but there was no response. She jumped out of the coach lost her balance and fell to the ground. The severed hand was on the back of her dress crawling up her back and as she tried to get up to run for her life the hand squeezed her neck so tight her head was severed all the way through and just rolled off her shoulders onto the ground.
As Dr. Van Lewton was outside looking around the grounds of the castle for the severed hand he heard the woman's scream so he headed in the direction of the screams and by the time Dr. Van Lewton arrived at the coach there was no sound, just dead bodies lying on the ground where the severed hand had been. Dr. Van Lewton shined his lantern on the bodies to see if anyone was still alive but found no pulse, just red hand marks around the driver’s neck and the man that was dead in the coach. Dr. Van Lewton tripped over the woman’s body and fell to the ground as he looked eye level to the ground his lantern was shining directly on the woman’s head. Dr. Van Lewton got and ran behind the coach and threw up from the grotesque scene.
Dr. Van Lewton ran over to where the lantern was and ran back to his castle to board his carriage and head into town to tell the Constable of his findings.
"Constable, Constable! Josette is dead and three other people down the road from my castle are dead. Hurry! Hurry! Constable," said a distraught Dr. Van Lewton.
"Settle down, Dr. Van Lewton, you're talking too fast. Why don't you sit down and tell me all about it from the beginning," said the Constable York.
"The terror began when I awoke from a terrible dream about strangling a woman somewhere in the woods but the woman I was strangling was my beautiful wife Josette. I glanced over at Josette lying next to me and I froze in terror of what I had just done. It was an accident I tell you, I would never harm Josette. I loved her with all my heart. The hand that strangled the life out of Josette was the one that was attached by Dr. Lister. You see Josette and I were taking a quiet ride in my carriage when all of a sudden the driver lost control of the carriage. All I remember was hearing Josette screaming for help and as I was fading in and out of consciousness. I asked Josette what happened and she said that I lost my hand during the accident. The next thing I remember was lying on an examining table in my laboratory and this doctor by the name of Dr. Lister telling me he would give me a new hand and not to worry. Months went by without any sign of any complications from the surgery so I assumed everything with my new hand was ok, but I was dead wrong. Now four people are dead and my new hand is to blame for all this. I don't expect you to believe a word I'm saying but I fear more people will die unless you destroy the severed hand. You got to help me Constable York" said Dr. Van Lewton.
The Constable York said, "I would like to see the body you got this hand from."
"Let’s go,” said Dr. Van Lewton.
Dr. Van Lewton and Constable York headed to the morgue to find out what body was taken from the morgue by Dr. Van Lewton's assistant Gregor. "Just as I thought, the body that your assistant took from the morgue was the town’s strangler," said Constable York.
"It’s my fault I made Gregor go to the morgue so that I could continue my experiments. If I wouldn't have been so absorbed in myself, Josette and the other innocent people would still be alive and Josette and I could have had something special, but for selfish reasons she's out of my life now forever. I could never love another woman like I did my sweet Josette. She came back into my life and I destroyed everything that she meant to me. Constable, I just can't go on without her. There wasn't a day that went by that she wasn't on my mind. If you must take me in Constable please give me the death penalty. My life is useless now since she's out of my life, said Dr. Van Lewton.
"I'll have to finish my investigation before I can take you in and you will have to stand trial for all the murders. Right now my men and I will search for the severed hand. I'll send someone from the morgue over to the castle to pick up Josette’s body," said the Constable.
"Thank you Constable York, you've been so helpful to me. I hope you can find the severed hand and destroy it before it kills again, said Dr. Van Lewton.
Not long after Constable York's visit to the morgue with Dr.Van Lewton, the severed hand strikes again. The severed hand killed an elderly couple relaxing by the fire place in their cottage. It didn't take long for word to get back to Constable York about the elderly couples death.
Dr. Van Lewton didn't have to worry about standing trial for all the murders because while Constable York and his men were busy looking for the severed hand, Dr. Van Lewton was busy working on some notes in his study from his experiment when the severed hand crawled up the back of his chair latching onto the doctors throat, chocking the life out of him until the doctor was found slumped over in his chair by Gregor.
Gregor got a horse from Dr. Van Lewton’s stable and road in to town to tell the Constable about Dr. Van Lewton’s death. Gregor wrote down what he had witnessed and told the Constable that he has the hand secured in the study with a knife stabbed right through the middle of the hand into the floor. I nailed a strap over the hand to reassure it wouldn't escape and kill again.
The Constable and Gregor rode back to the Castle Van Lewton to destroy the severed hand. As the Constable and Gregor entered the study the severed hand broke free from the strap and knife and crawled away but the severed hand was too damaged to escape and the Constable gave the severed hand one whack with his night stick and the severed hand was destroyed. "It looks like the severed hand's strangling days are over, said the Constable.
The Constable went down in
to the laboratory and took the stranglers body along with the severed hand to the crematory and them cremated to stop the evil forces from happening again in this town.
Josette along with her husband Dr. Van Lewton were buried on the castle grounds. Geston the butler and Gregor remained at Castle Van Lewton to attend to the castle's needs till their dying day.
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