Whitby Vampyrrhic

by Simon Clark

  Nimbly, he lowered himself through the iron struts beneath the vast bulk. Yet once more the vampire closed in. The creature’s huge fist slammed into the boy’s back. Tommy wove in and out of the ironwork. Behind him, boots clattering on girders, the Vampiric soldier followed.

  The structure juddered. Tommy felt motion. The bridge-keeper was now closing it again. Several hundred tons of metal rotated slowly, as it swung backwards in order to align itself with the far bank. The powerful creature that pursued him didn’t know exhaustion. He would pursue him to the ends of the earth if need be. All that registered in the vampire brain was that Tommy had cheated him of the precious red stuff. The vampire wouldn’t rest until he hurled shreds of the boy into the river.

  Tommy reached the huge steel cog on which the bridge rotated. At fifteen feet in diameter, it lay flat on a platform of wooden timbers. A second cog, this one upright, and with dozens of teeth six inches long, connected the drive shaft to the electric motor. Slowly, the cog turned about its axis, those six-inch teeth meshed, winding the bridge round towards its closed position. Tommy leapt on to the big turntable of a cog, then ran across its spokes. The vampire pursued him. A second later Tommy felt fingers slash at his back. Tommy sped towards the smaller vertical cog. Then he dropped into a crouching position, head tucked down, arms holding his body into a ball shape.

  The momentum of the big vampire kept him moving. He stumbled over Tommy to slap down hard on to the rim of the cog. He tried to scramble to his feet, but Tommy clutched his ankles. Before the creature could kick free, the upright cog, still mechanically engaging steel teeth with the corresponding teeth of the horizontal cogwheel, took hold. The vampire’s head entered the intermeshing cogwheels. He still kicked his legs in fury. Only the machine devoured him now. Like a garment fed between the rollers of a mangle, the body from head to hips passed between the formidable steel wheels. As it emerged from the other side, the cog teeth left deep indentations, a regular crimp pattern along the back of the head, then between the shoulder blades, and down the spine.

  Leaving the twitching form to continue its slow revolutions on the rotating bed of steel, Tommy scrambled back on to the bridge as it reconnected with the mainland. Now he must find Sam. And Miss Eleanor Charnwood. Fast. Very fast.

  Twelve

  Beth ran into the upper room of the cottage to find Sally cradling the still form of Theo on the floor. His eyes were closed, his expression somehow deathly. The man wore a plain white shirt, open at the neck, and black trousers. As before, his skin had the same pale gleam. She glimpsed the masses of puncture wounds on exposed flesh. Unlike Eleanor’s wrist wound that never healed, these spots of glistening scar tissue were a pale grey.

  Sally hugged the man, as if simultaneously trying to comfort him and wake him. She kept repeating, ‘He’s dying, Beth. I can’t wake him.’

  Alec gripped the man’s wrist. ‘His pulse is strong as an athlete’s.’

  Beth added, ‘It must be an effect of the drug withdrawing from his system.’

  ‘Well, he’s not getting his dose of that stuff tonight.’ Alec lifted Theo on to the bed. ‘We need his help.’ None too gently, he slapped Theo’s face. ‘Wake up, laddie. Come on, join the living for once.’ He slapped harder.

  Theo’s eyes snapped open. ‘Ah, pain . . . you don’t know how good it is to feel again.’ He smiled. ‘So, what have they done with my dear sister?’

  Beth asked, ‘Do you know what happened tonight?’

  Smiling, he shook his head. ‘Eleanor hoped the vampires would simply go away if she ignored them. It was only a matter of time before they came for her. After all, I know Gustav has been obsessed with my sister ever since they went to school together. Unrequited love . . . that makes all hearts ache, whether mortal or not.’

  ‘This is serious,’ Beth snapped. ‘Those monsters have kidnapped Eleanor.’

  The gaunt man bounded to his feet. ‘Then we should save her from those filthy bloodsuckers. But who will save her from herself? That’s the insoluble conundrum.’ From a corpse of a man, to this restless figure that crackled with energy, had only taken seconds. Despite the predicament of his sister, he appeared to be enjoying himself hugely. ‘Just give me a moment to find some shoes . . . do you know, I haven’t donned a pair of shoes in more than a decade? I don’t know if I own shoes any more. After all, for year upon year, I’ve existed in a cold, loveless, painless, senseless zone between life and death. My dear sister, Eleanor Charnwood, maintained that perfect status quo with aplomb. She’s quite a woman, isn’t she?’

  Beth shot Alec and Sally glances that said, Are we doing the right thing here? This guy’s crazy.

  Sally gripped the gaunt man by the arm. ‘Eleanor’s in real danger. We all are. Those horrible creatures have broken into the hotel.’

  ‘Fantastic!’

  Beth shook her head. ‘You’re not going to be much use to us, are you, Theo?’

  ‘On the contrary. I’ve got the vampire germ in my body . . . oh, don’t look at me like that, my friends. You know I have. Vampiric tendencies are crawling through these veins of mine. Eleanor’s witch potion merely froze the transformation.’ He paced the room with restless energy. ‘I share some of those vampire instincts.’ His eyes swept up to the ceiling. ‘High above the roofs of the town are ravens, flocks of them, black clouds of them, all wheeling round and around.’

  ‘Ravens don’t fly at night,’ Alec stated coldly.

  ‘Not normally, no! But these aren’t normal circumstances. And Whitby never has been a normal town. Whitby is where land meets the ocean. Yet it’s more wonderful than that: Whitby is where the world of humanity overlaps the realm of the gods. So, ravens fly at night. They are carrion eaters. They sense a huge battle is to be fought here. Moreover! Ravens are the eyes of Odin. Whatever the raven sees, then the mighty Viking God sees. And, by the feasting halls of Valhalla, he is very, very interested in what happens tonight.’ Theo ripped aside the curtain so he could gaze upon the night-shrouded buildings. ‘Out there, across this sorry planet, the armies of the Nazis and the Allies clash. Here in Whitby, the clash of the vampire and human.’

  ‘We have weapons,’ Beth began. ‘Eleanor has—’

  ‘Oh! The X-Stock. I know about that. She talks to herself as she tucks me into bed. How much have you got?’

  Alec said, ‘We’ve brought forty bombs with us.’

  ‘They work?’

  ‘I’ll say.’ Sally refused to be daunted by this firecracker of a man. ‘Hit one of those vampires with a bomb and boof!’

  ‘Boof?’

  Beth explained, ‘Two vampires tried to break into the basement. Sally burnt them to ashes.’

  ‘Good for you, Sally.’ Theo headed for the stairs. ‘You are a warrior. And I think I’m falling in love with you.’

  Sally blushed. Beth couldn’t say for sure whether her friend was angry or flattered.

  ‘Hurry up,’ Theo shouted. ‘Let’s toast us some monster meat.’

  They followed him down into the kitchen. He tore boxes from a cupboard until he whistled in triumph. ‘Got ’em.’ He drew out a pair of black shoes into which he slipped his bare feet. ‘Now, to bring Eleanor safely home.’

  ‘Wait a moment,’ Alec told him. ‘We don’t know where they’ve taken her.’

  ‘Or what they plan to do with her,’ Beth added.

  Theo ran his fingers through his hair. ‘They’ll know that Gustav pines for her. Maybe they’ve delivered her to him as a gift . . . as a bride.’

  ‘Tommy is looking for her.’ Sally’s expression was hopeful. ‘Maybe—’

  ‘Maybe,’ Theo said quickly. ‘Maybe not. Though should we rely on a vampire boy?’

  Sally retorted, ‘Tommy’s saved us before. I’d trust him with my life.’

  Theo took a deep breath. Ever since he’d come fully awake he’d been a whirling blur of movement. Now he stood absolutely still, as if feeling a sudden pain.

  Beth studied his frozen expression. ‘What�
�s wrong?’

  ‘You won’t feel it. But it’s those creatures in the sump cavern. They’re like old wine in a cellar. Something so intriguing about them. Utterly beguiling. They cast a spell . . . even on a part-vampire like me.’

  ‘You can sense them?’ Alec asked.

  ‘Oh yes! Indeed, yes! It’s like a domestic dog that picks up the scent of the wild fox. For them, there’s something so alluring about the scent. The smell of fox; it drives a pet pooch to distraction. It fires up its nerves. Fox odour proclaims what it’s like to be able to run free, to hunt, to feed on living prey. It can drive a dog to howl at the moon, and to mourn its own prison of domesticity. Those ancient vampires in the cavern are like that fox. The new vampires want to have their power and strength.’ He inhaled deeply. ‘The sump vampires are trying to break out. Soon they’ll succeed. Then they will pour out into the world. They’ll make Hitler’s battalions seem as harmless as children playing in a field. That’s when planet Earth will know eternal chaos. Take me to the bombs.’

  While Alec showed him the satchels, with the bottles of X-Stock nestling inside, Beth murmured to Sally. ‘This might not be a good idea. Theo’s too unstable. Heck, he’s downright manic.’

  ‘He’s not crazy, Beth. He’s fully alive after who knows how long.’

  ‘Just be careful. Eleanor kept him drugged for a reason.’

  Theo studied one of the bottles that contained the blue liquid. ‘Beth’s right, Sally, my dear. I’ve never gone without my evening fix of Quick Salts. Who knows what I might become before morning?’ He handed the bottle to Alec. ‘So reserve one of those for me . . . just in case.’

  Once more, he paced the room, as if the soles of his feet were itchy. ‘Stage Door Johnnies,’ he blurted. ‘You’ve heard the phrase?’

  Beth shrugged, puzzled. ‘We’re actresses, of course we have.’

  Theo smacked a fist into his palm. ‘Stage Door Johnnies. What are they?’

  ‘Men who hang around the stage door at the end of a show in the hope of picking up actresses. What’s this got to do with—’

  ‘So – Stage Door Johnnies. They’re drawn to the theatre’s back door. Thespians are an allurement.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Our latter-day vampires are a lot like that. They’re drawn to the ancient vampires in the cavern. They want to be close to them. If they weren’t driven down into the town to find victims, they’d spend all their time at Hag’s Lung Cave; there they’d simply bask in the glow of those old beasties. Remember my comparison with the domestic pet dog finding the scent of the fox so enticing?’

  Beth said quickly, ‘You mean we can exploit this fascination that Gustav and his friends have for the ancient creatures.’

  ‘Absolutely. But we shouldn’t waste time here.’ He gazed up at the ceiling again. ‘The sump vampires. Their excitement. Their anticipation. I can taste it!’

  Sally asked, ‘Are they really close to breaking out?’

  ‘They are indeed. And the ravens are massing over Whitby. They know what’s to come.’

  Alec shouldered his pair of satchels. ‘We still need to find Eleanor. And how, in practice, can we kill the vampires? Even though we’ve got these bombs, the creatures are scattered throughout the town. We can’t track them all down in one night.’

  Theo smile’s was a wild one. ‘I’m working on it.’

  A clatter sounded from outside; much like crockery being hurled on to the ground.

  ‘Was that a window?’ Sally hazarded.

  ‘Roof tiles,’ Theo replied. ‘The vampires know you’re in here. They’re up there on the roof, stripping away the tiles.’ Cheerfully, he added, ‘They’ll break through any minute. Time to move on out.’

  Alec grabbed the man’s arm. ‘This is no laughing matter.’

  Beth launched in. ‘Alec’s right! You’re treating this like a game. As if you’re some giddy child who’s been let out of school early. Listen to me, Theo, your sister is in danger, we’re in danger. I looked through that hole in the cave and I saw the damned monsters for myself. If we don’t stop them, innocent men, women and children will suffer. Not just here in Whitby. But across the entire world. So quit the melodramatic performances; stop being so damn happy about all this. It’s a tragedy; there is pain and trauma. People have died. Or worse, they’ve been transformed into vile creatures. Now’s the time to prove you’re a man – not a ridiculous caricature!’

  Theo took a deep breath. ‘Alright. I may sound deranged. But you don’t know what it’s like to rot in this tomb of a place. I’ve never been out. I haven’t talked to anyone but my sister, not until I met you three, just a few hours ago. For years I’ve been a corpse – well, as good as. I spent my days asleep, or stumbling about the cottage, not knowing who I am. My nights pass by in a drugged trance. Just a lethargic half-man. Yes – I don’t know what tonight will bring. Or whether or not I will turn into one of those monsters. After all, I won’t have the drug in my blood. It could all end horribly for me. Or for you. But . . .’ He flexed his hands. ‘I feel life inside of me again, Beth. It’s roaring through my veins. My heart’s on fire.’ He gave a grim smile. ‘So, don’t worry. I have two quests tonight. To save my sister. And to kill the vampires. Trust me.’ Solemn, he extended his hand.

  Beth shook it. Then Alec and Sally did the same.

  From outside came another loud clatter.

  Theo nodded at the satchels. ‘We need more of that stuff.’

  ‘There are gallon jars in the basement.’

  ‘I’ll be right back.’

  ‘What about those things on the roof?’ Sally’s anxious gaze roved over the ceiling.

  ‘They’ve still to break through the boards in the attic. That should give me enough time to collect more of Eleanor’s vampire killer. Lock up after me.’

  With that, Theo was through the door. Quickly, Beth shut it, then pushed the bolts home.

  ‘Can we trust him?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes.’ Sally spoke firmly. ‘Absolutely.’

  Alec nodded. ‘The man cares about his sister. He’ll be fine.’

  ‘Great God, I hope so,’ Beth said with feeling.

  For a while, they stood there, listening. From the roof came scrabbling sounds; then there’d be a rattle as a tile slid off the roof to shatter in the yard outside.

  Sally gave a strange little giggle.

  ‘What’s so funny?’ Beth asked.

  ‘We never told Theo about the curfew.’

  Alec sighed, then with a touch of gallow’s humour added, ‘Somehow, being shot by soldiers is the least of our worries.’

  Beth cocked her head to one side, as she listened for sounds outside. ‘Of course, has anyone thought what we’ll do if Theo doesn’t come back?’

  Alec grimaced. ‘You mean, he might decide he’s more vampire than man, and decide to go hunting with his pack?’

  ‘He won’t.’ Sally showed no doubt. ‘Theo will stick by us.’

  At that moment, a swift tapping on the door. Beth put her hand on the bolt then hesitated.

  A whisper from the other side, ‘It’s me . . . Theo.’

  Beth opened the door. Theo’s bone-white face blazed in the darkness. His eyes were alive with excitement. In his arms, he hefted a gallon jar full of X-Stock. ‘Time to go,’ he announced. ‘Our friends are in the attic.’ From above, the sound of splintering boards confirmed his statement.

  Sally and Beth grabbed their satchels of home-made bombs.

  ‘Stick close together,’ Alec warned. ‘They’ll pick off stragglers.’

  Beth nodded at the jar of blue fluid. ‘Be careful, Theo. If you drop that it will annihilate half of Whitby.’

  Theo’s nostrils flared. ‘Danger of death. Those three words are guaranteed to make you feel truly alive. Am I not right?’

  A groan sounded deep in the night. It seemed to rise up through the ground beneath their feet. Up, up, up the note climbed into the sky. That groan became a rising wail. One that cried out to the
world that a fresh danger approached.

  Sally paled. ‘The air-raid siren!’

  ‘There’s no sheltering from what threatens us.’ Alec’s expression was dark indeed.

  ‘Just listen to it.’ Theo quivered with ecstasy. ‘Can’t you hear the very note of doom pouring through that sound? Doesn’t it sound like the symphony you’d hear at the death of the universe?’

  Beth’s voice rose over that despairing wail of the siren: ‘Curfews, Nazi warplanes? Forget them, we’ve got our own battle to fight.’ Taking a deep breath, she walked into the cold night air – and prepared to greet whatever dangers lay in wait.

  Thirteen

  This is it. Beth saw the end was in sight. But how will it end? She walked quickly along Church Street. In this narrow lane, flanked by unbroken lines of cottages, she could have been in the bottom of a deep canyon. Darkness would have been total, if it weren’t for the searchlights that probed the night sky for enemy aircraft. The low cloud reflected some of that glow to earth. Windows glinted. The square stones that paved the street were as knobbly as the scales on a crocodile’s back.

  Alongside her, Sally and Alec. They wore their satchels of bombs. Theo, the gaunt man in the white shirt, didn’t feel the cold. He carried the flask of blue liquid. More than once she imagined its destructive force if he were to drop it. The explosion would wipe those cottages from the Earth. And in those cottages would be innocent people. Already they must have taken refuge in cellars, as the mournful cry of the air-raid siren called out that death and destruction were on their way.

  Every so often, Beth would catch a glimpse of the sea down to her left. Dark waters surged through the harbour mouth. The chill breeze would have had its genesis somewhere over the Russian Steppe. It might have been her imagination, but with those scents of brine came hints of dark forest. Then this was Whitby, a town that lingered on the borderland between this world and realms stranger than she could imagine. Might those scents of fern and leaf and animal musk have drifted from some other sphere? At one point, a group of soldiers hurried along the street. Beth and her companions sought refuge in one of the alleyways. With the siren screaming, as if it were hell-bent on being heard beyond the grave, the soldiers didn’t hear the curfew-breakers as they ran for cover. However, the moment the four stepped out into Church Street again they immediately encountered a figure.