He left them tied up inside the ruins of the Whitby Abbey to carefully observe the activity around the home of Lucy over the couple of days while watching for David. He saw the men who had visited her when they believed she had died. He had stolen proper clothes in town and accompanied them as they transported her body by train to a city far from Whitby, and as he was still only beginning to understand their words, he had been careful not to speak to them or even respond to anything they said. He remained in the background during her funeral service when they had all bid their farewells to her, while he was simply biding his time in waiting for her to awaken.
His other victims had also passed into their sleeps, and he had carefully smuggled them onto a train from Whitby to the other town called London so that he could monitor both them and Lucy. He suspected his new bodyguards would awaken first.
He returned to visit Lucy’s tomb the night after they had left her, and she remained asleep, but little by little, the change was taking effect. He was not sure how the men had managed to drag the change out for so long, but he knew now that she was sleeping, it would not be long before she would join him as his child.
On the fourth night after her apparent death, Karian, now accompanied by his pair of Mutation guards from Whitby, made his way to the locked tomb and heard a voice within. He smiled and opened the door.
He glanced around the concrete structure at the reverently placed coffins and noted that one had fallen to the floor and sat open on its side. At the back of the room in the shadows, Lucy was curled into a frightened ball with her back against the wall. Her eyes shot to him as he entered.
“Can you help me?” she asked quietly. Karian froze at hearing her speak to him. He walked to her and looked closely at her face which was streaked with tears. Then he noticed she was shaking with fear, and he wondered what this could mean. “Please?” she continued.
“How do you feel?” he asked hesitantly.
“I don’t know where I am. I don’t know what I’m doing here. I don’t understand what’s going on. I’m scared, sir.”
“What do you remember?”
Lucy stared at him for a long time before she looked away, struggling to answer. Finally, she replied, “I don’t know. I’m missing something.”
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“I think so,” she said, “but I don’t know what I want.”
“Come with me, and I’ll show you,” he said as he stretched out his hand for her to take. She looked at it for a moment, and then cocked her head as he was accustomed to seeing his Mutations behave. Finally, she took his hand and he led her out of the mausoleum into the night. His guards looked at her curiously, but they behaved like regular Mutations. Neither spoke, nor showed any propensity to do so. He communicated with them through his mind.
He looked at Lucy as she seemed entranced by the moon lighting the sky, and he saw how the light shined off her funeral dress giving her an almost ethereal glow. The night was still young, so he was able to lead her to an area where children still played before their parents called them in. She approached them, and for a brief moment, they looked on her warily. To his surprise, she smiled and played with them as if she were one of them. He had never seen any Mutation ever behave in this manner, and he wondered what it was that caused the transformation to turn this way.
After a time, she began to play with only one of them, and then she acted. He saw her bite into the child’s neck and drink from him, but she did not kill him. Rather, she stopped after a short while, and spoke with him again. He seemed mostly unharmed by the ordeal other than being short a little blood. She moved onto another one of the children and did the same thing. After this second one, she left them to their games and returned to Karian.
“Why did I do that?” she asked him. “Why do I need this?”
“Their blood is what you require to live now, and you will always desire it,” he explained. “When you leave your home, you will seek someone to drink from.”
“Where is my family?”
“We are your family now,” he said. “Everyone you knew before believes you have died, and they left you. I will take care of you, and show you everything you need to know to survive.”
“Who are you? I feel like I’ve seen you before.”
“You are my child, and I am your father.”
“Father?”
“Yes,” he said taking her hand. “Come with me and enjoy the evening. You can go out whenever you wish, but the nights will be safer because people will not understand you. They might try to kill you, so you have to be careful.”
“I understand. I don’t know how I understand, but part of me does.”
“Be wary of rain. Never enter a storm nor touch a body of water.”
“Where do I live?” He paused at her question, knowing that he had found nowhere to hide any of them. Having barely arrived in town, he could not risk her new life without having somewhere secure. The others he had kept in a stable until they awakened, but she was special. He did not want her to live like them.
“I must find somewhere for us to live,” he said. “I have only just arrived, so for now, you must stay in the bed were you awakened.”
“In the graveyard?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” he said. “It is the safest place for you since few people come to visit it. We will replace the coffin and you can sleep inside it. At this time, I can think of no safer place. I will return when I have somewhere for us to stay. As I said, be wary of water, and only go out to hunt for blood at night.”
“Will I be cold?”
“No,” he assured her. “If anything, you may feel too warm, even in this climate.” He stopped and turned to her. She looked up at him with eyes like a child’s and it warmed his old heart. “Trust me. I will come back for you when I know where we can go.”
“I understand … father.”
He smiled as he led her back to the mausoleum. For the first time in centuries, Karian felt a measure of true happiness.
* * * * * * * * * *
Mina finished the last page of the journal written before Jonathan was to climb down the outside of the castle and run off into the night. She put the book down and pondered the meaning of all of this. She thought there must surely be some kind of rational explanation for the experiences he detailed since some of the things he wrote about made no sense and just did not happen in the real world. It was little wonder he had lost his mind in that place.
She had stayed up later than she intended reading the diary and went to bed that evening with too much on her mind to sleep. When Jonathan awakened the following morning to go into work, she got up with him and saw him off. Alone in the house, she resolved to type out Jonathan’s diary from his shorthand into English in case anyone else should need to read it.
As she worked through the day on this, she received a telegram addressed to her from an Abraham Van Helsing which said the following:
Mrs. Mina Harker,
I apologize for having read through the private letters of your late friend, Miss Lucy Westenra, but if you should have time, I would like to meet with you concerning the circumstances around her illness.
A. Van Helsing
She immediately sent him a reply stating that she would be willing to meet with him as soon as possible in the hopes that she could at least learn how her friend died. She asked about where he would wish to meet and offered her home in Exeter as a possible meeting place. Once the telegram was off, she quickly finished her work on the diary and was left to anticipate the meeting with this Dr. Van Helsing.
She received a reply from Van Helsing that evening to meet the following day and that her home was quite all right. She let Jonathan know she was meeting with a doctor who had treated Lucy in her final days to learn something about what might have caused her illness, and he wished her the best in whatever she might discover.
* * * * * * * * * *
Abraham Van Helsing had not been idle since Lucy had slipped into wh
at he referred to as the “comatose” stage of the Mutation transformation. Because of what he knew of her specific change so far, he had no idea whether she would only be out for a couple of days, or if it might take longer because of how prolonged her first phase was. Regardless, he needed to keep an eye on her as best he could without arousing suspicion from her fiancée and the others. In order to investigate what had happened to her, Arthur had been kind enough to allow him to go through her room for anything that might lead to something he could use to further his investigation that might lead him to the Mutation that changed her.
He discovered several letters from Mina Harker, who had gone out of the country to see her husband who was recovering from a condition he had come across while traveling. By speaking to Arthur and Seward, he learned that Mina had been staying with Lucy during the period of time when she had gotten the marks on her neck, and that Mina had taken some credit for them as well. He sent her a telegram asking for a chance to speak to her over this, and she had wired back agreement for tomorrow at her home.
Knowing that Lucy had been interred at Highgate Cemetery, he left Whitby and took the train to London to check on Lucy’s state of being. It had been three days since she had gone under, and he was concerned that she might have awakened.
He arrived at her tomb before dark, and he listened intently prior to entering. Hearing no movement, he cautiously opened the mausoleum doors, and looked around. Nothing had been disturbed, so he walked to Lucy’s coffin and opened it. Inside, Lucy remained still and quiet. He felt of her body temperature and she was certainly cold at this point. He knew it would not be long, but he also knew that he could not kill her without the others present.
He wanted to. He wanted to end her immediately, but he also felt that he would require the help of the other men before his time in England was through. As such, they needed to see Lucy as a living Mutation and a real threat before they would consent to either killing her or helping him hunt the monster who had done this to her. He dreaded bringing them into this, but he was not a fighter. They would be invaluable in catching this predator.
He closed the coffin lid and left the mausoleum. He was looking forward to meeting with this young woman that held Lucy so dear to her and hoped that she would be instrumental in letting him know what happened.
* * * * * * * * * *
It was about mid-morning when Van Helsing rang Mina Harker’s bell, and she welcomed him in. However, he was most curious before he entered her home. He stood on the porch and stared at her for what felt like an eternity. She was worried that she might have done something wrong in preparing herself, or that something was on her face by the way he stared.
Finally, he said, “Mrs. Harker?” His voice barely came out, and she was left wondering what kind of a doctor he was to act so oddly. He cleared his throat and said, “I am sorry. I am Dr. Abraham Van Helsing.”
She greeted him in return and led him into the living room. She found his attire to be curious with a wide-brimmed hat and gloves, as if he were ensuring that he were fully protected from the sunlight. He even sat in a chair that rested out of any of the sunlight pouring in through the windows before removing his hat. She was surprised at how young he appeared and guessed that he could not be more than thirty though she thought that his eyes had seen more than his age would give him credit for. Part of her wondered if she should ask him about Jonathan, but then felt that perhaps the diary might be going to her head.
“I wish to thank you for seeing me today, Mrs. Harker,” Van Helsing began. “I understand that you were with your friend, Lucy Westenra, for a time prior to the illness to which she succumbed.”
“Yes, I was,” Mina replied. “I was called away to my husband who had been working in Transylvania, but took ill while there. He spent many weeks in hospital before he could come home.”
“Transylvania?” he stared at her for a moment, and then shook his head. “Yes, I’ve been there. It is a beautiful country. Where did he have the good fortune to visit?”
“A castle in the Carpathians somewhere in the Southern part of the country, I believe,” she replied. Van Helsing stared at her once more and concerned crossed his face. “Is that all right?”
“Oh, yes,” he replied quickly. “That is quite all right. The mountains are very nice. Now, how was Lucy when you first arrived to stay with her?”
“She was quite well,” Mina replied. “We did a great many things together in and out of the house, and she was certainly not ill in any way at the beginning.”
“Did you notice anything that might have caused this change in her?”
“Well, yes,” she said and considered how to relay what she had to say. “I have to say that I am ashamed of myself for not mentioning this to her mother. But it was an accident on my part.”
“What was?”
“Lucy sleepwalks. Did you know that?” He nodded. “You see, she had gotten out of her room because we forgot to lock her door leading outside. It was pleasant that evening except for the clouds blocking out the stars. I thought I had heard something and went to check on her. Well, she was gone.
“I ran outside and looked all around until I found my way to the little cemetery outside of St. Mary’s Church there next to the old Whitby Abbey. I saw her there lying on one of the benches…”
She hesitated and looked at him. His eyes said he was listening intently to every word with no judgment or distrust. She glanced away and considered whether she should tell of what was most certainly a hallucination. He leaned forward.
“Please, Mrs. Harker,” he urged. “Do not stop there. I have to know what you saw, even if you do not believe it yourself.”
She looked at him in surprise. How could he possibly know? She took a breath and continued. “As I approached the cemetery wall, Lightning flashed, and I swear, for just a moment, I saw a man standing over her. An old man, but he was healthier than most old men I’ve seen. I don’t know how else to say that. He wasn’t frail or weak, but he stared back at me. He looked a bit like a beggar by what clothes I did see, but more like a beggar who did not need the money.
“But the thing is that in the time the lightning took to flash again, he was gone. I wondered if he were really there, but for that fraction of a moment, his image burned into my head, and I never forgot him. I can see him even now, staring back at me with desperate eyes.”
“And when did you notice the marks on Lucy’s neck?” Van Helsing asked.
“I am so ashamed,” she replied. “I had fastened the shawl around her neck, and I heard her moan when I did, but she was still asleep or in a fit of something. I removed the shawl from her neck and laid her back in bed. It was then I noticed that I had pierced her neck with the pin. It started looking so bad after that, and she started to get so sick. Did I do something to cause this terrible illness? You have to tell me the truth even though I will be devastated.”
“Mrs. Harker, I want to assure you with the utmost certainty that you did not wound your friend. Nor were you the cause of her unfortunate situation.”
“You are sure?”
“As sure as you sit before me, my dear girl,” he assured.
“Then can you tell me what did happen to her?” she asked.
“The easiest way to explain it is that you finally provided to me the answer I sought,” he said. “You did see someone that night, and it was that person who pierced Lucy’s neck and caused her illness. However, when did this happen?”
“I had made a note of it in my diary, and I looked through that prior to your arrival,” she said. “It was August 10th.”
“And when did you leave to meet your husband?”
“August 19th.”
“I did not see her the first time until September 3rd. Then, it wasn’t until September 20th that she finally succumbed.”
“Do you know what happened then?”
“Not entirely, but your information has been invaluable. You say you had chronicled your time with Lucy?”
&n
bsp; “It is just a silly girl’s diary, but if you believe it will help you, I will allow you to read it.”
“I would be most thankful.”
He rose as she left him for just a moment while she retrieved her diary from the table where she had also placed her typed version of Jonathan’s diary. She was surprised that she was so willing to allow this stranger to read her private thoughts, but whatever had happened with Lucy was serious enough that he came to her to speak of it. She also noted how he was taken aback with where Jonathan had been, and wondered if this man could also shed some light on that situation. She picked up the manuscript of Jonathan’s diary as well and returned to Van Helsing. She handed over her diary first, and he smiled as he received it.
“I will read it in its entirety tonight and return it tomorrow, so you will not be without it,” he said. She struggled for words to ask for his help. He saw right through her. “And now, you have something of your own to say.”
“Yes,” she began. “I told you my husband was in Transylvania, and you said you had been there.”
“Yes,” he said, but she noted that his tone had changed. The cheerful expression he had given upon receiving her diary had been replaced with suspicion and worry.
“Jonathan went there to facilitate the sale of a property in London to a count,” she said. “He kept his own account of the journey, but when I first met him in hospital, he told me never to open it. Well, after we returned, he had an episode where he thought he saw someone, and so in order to try and help him, I went against his wishes and read it.”
She touched the pages she had typed and shook her head. “I could hardly believe it, sir. I do not wish to discredit my husband in any way, you must believe it, but he must have lost his faculties early in his journey for some of the things he described here cannot be true. Part of me wondered if you might be able to look at this as well and perhaps tell me your opinion.”
The Elixir Page 26