Halfway Down the Stairs

by Gary A Braunbeck

  I crossed the street and entered the place, nearly soaked through.

  The first thing that assaulted my senses was the so-very-right smell of the place. Perhaps you have to be a true lover of books to understand what I mean by that, but the comforting, intoxicating, friendly scent of bindings and old paper was nectar to my soul.

  I called out, asking if anyone were there. When no response was forthcoming, I removed my coat, draped it on the rack near the door and—after patting down my hair and shaking off the remnants of rain from my shoes and sleeves—proceeded to browse through the offerings.

  The walls were lined from floor to ceiling with sagging shelves full of books, and I could see at a glance that, though the stock contained everything from academic texts to the usual classics, its primary focus was on matters philosophical and occult; everywhere I turned there were books such as Agrippa's De Occulta Philosophia, the ancient notes of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae detailing his conclusions that the Earth was spherical, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the Hindu Rig Veda, the poems of Ovid, the plays of Aeschylus, Lucan's De Bello Civilia...my heart beat with tremendous anticipation. What treasures would I find here?

  It was only as I was admiring an ancient copy of the Popol Vuh which sat under a glass case in the center of a great table that I became aware that I was no longer alone. How I knew this I could not then say, though what was soon to follow would make the reason clear.

  I turned and saw the proprietor.

  Though he appeared to be only a few inches taller than I, there was, nonetheless, a sense of power and great, massive presence about him. His fierce, dark eyes stared out at me from underneath thick eyebrows that met over his knife of a nose. His heavy white moustache drooped down past the corners of his mouth, drawing my attention at once to his red and seemingly swollen lips, which were flagrant and somehow femininely seductive against the glimmer of his face. Though he was obviously an older gentleman, he carried himself with the grace and power of man fifteen years my junior.

  “Mr. Fort,” he said, in a heavily-accented, full, rich basso voice the New York Opera would have swooned to have sing upon its stage, “I am so very pleased you were able to accept the invitation.” He offered his hand. “It is a great honor to meet a gentleman such as yourself, who shares my interest is matters of data that Science has excluded.”

  I shook his hand. His grip was steel. I winced from the great pressure and the pain it sent shooting up my arm.

  “I beg your pardon,” he said, releasing my hand. “I sometimes forget that, in my enthusiasm, my handshake can be a bit....”

  “Formidable?” I said, massaging my fingers.

  His smile was slow in its appearance but total in its chilling effectiveness. “What a kind way to put it.” He turned and started toward a door near the back of the shop. “If you’ll be kind enough to follow me, sir.”

  I did, though somewhat reluctantly. After all, what did I know of this fellow or his intent? True, in my studies I had come across many strange tales told by sometimes stranger individuals, but (at this point in my life, at least) I rarely had to meet any of these people face to face. Still, I must admit, my curiosity was stronger than either my anxiety or trepidation.

  I need speak in a bit more detail of the cryptic note which was delivered to my room as I was readying myself for the day’s research at the Museum. It arrived in a heavy envelope which contained—aside from the letter itself—several newspaper clippings, which I will summarize momentarily. It read as follows: “My Dear Mr. Fort: I know that you will read the enclosed with great interest, but also with your Intellectual’s eye. Come to the address written below before the noon hour and I will give you irrefutable proof that these incidents are, indeed, based on fact and not myth. I urge you to keep this appointment.”

  Below the body of the writing were these words: Denn die Todten reiten schnell (“For the dead travel fast,” a line from Burger’s “Lenore”).

  The letter was signed only: A.S.

  Having read with great delight Mr. Jules Verne’s famous novel, I found myself smiling at the thought that I might encounter the fictitious Arne Saknussemm at the end of my own “journey.”

  The clippings came from newspapers such as Lloyd’s Sunday News, the Brooklyn Eagle, Ottawa Free Press, and the Yorkshire Evening Argus. All of them detailed stories of various bodies which were discovered to have died from massive blood loss—often the bodies were drained totally of their blood supply. All of the deaths had another fact in common: each victim, though at first thought to have been the target of a robbery-related assault, was found to have “...tiny puncture marks” near or on a major artery. Sometimes there were more than one pair of these marks (a body found in Chicago had at least thirty such puncture marks on her legs) but, in each case, saliva was found within these punctures, leading, naturally, to the conclusion that each of these victims had been killed by “...mentally disturbed” individuals who suffered “...the delusion of vampirism.”

  My hope is by now you will understand why my curiosity overpowered any anxiety I might have been experiencing.

  The proprietor opened the door and led me down a long stone stairway which emptied out into a surprisingly cavernous basement. Lighting a kerosene lantern, he proceeded to lead me down a slope in the floor to an area which I can only describe to you as being a sort-of hidden theatre; there were a few rows of seats (which smelled of old fire) and a raised stage, more than a few of whose boards still bore the black marks of a fire.

  As I sat where the proprietor directed me, I noticed the insignia of the Lyceum Theatre on the back of the seat in front of me, and realized at once that these seats—as well as portions of the stage before me—had been scavenged from the great fire which destroyed the Lyceum in 1830. (That they might have been scavenged from the wreckage of the 1803 fire did not, at the time, seem a possibility to me.)

  The proprietor wandered away into the darkness, the light from the lantern growing smaller and more dim as he made his way through a curtain off to the side. I heard him moving around back-stage, then a few squeaking sounds, a cough, and then the curtain fronting the stage rose slowly to reveal a series of chairs and small podiums, each on different levels, arranged in a manner befitting a “dramatic reading”—what is often called “Reader’s Theatre” in America.

  There was, however, only one person on the stage as the lights came up, and he was neither standing nor seated behind one of the podiums.

  He was in a wheelchair, down-stage center, illuminated by a spotlight from above. His face was half in shadow, even after he raised his head to look out at his “audience.”

  Newspaper clippings of blood-drained victims.

  The Lyceum Theatre.

  A.S.

  I knew even before he spoke in his watered-down but still musical Irish brogue that I was in the presence of none other than Abraham—better known as “Bram”—Stoker.

  “Mr. Fort,” he said, barely above a whisper. “Thank you for coming. Have you paper and pen?”

  “I do,” I called from the darkness of the theatre, then produced said items from my jacket pocket. (Fortunately the light from the stage bled forward enough that I could see to make notes.)

  “Excellent,” said Mr. Stoker, then wiped at his mouth with a dark-stained handkerchief he clutched in one shaking, palsied hand.

  I knew—as did many of his admirers—that Stoker had been in seclusion for the last few years. Ill health was rumored—a rumor which I saw now to be sadly true (though whether or not he was suffering from the final stages of untreated syphilis I had not the medical knowledge to ascertain). I can tell you that the rumored feeble-mindedness was true, for several times during his narrative did Mr. Stoker begin muttering gibberish for minutes on end, until he would fall into something like a brief trance from which we would emerge lucid and articulate.

  “I am a great admirer of your writings,” he said from his place on the stage. “You must assemble your articles into a book for pu
blication one day.”

  “That is my intent,” I replied, suddenly aware of the single bead of perspiration that was snaking down my spine.

  “May I suggest, then,” said Stoker, “that you call your work ‘The Book of the Damned’?”

  “Why?”

  He laughed. It was not a pleasant sound. “Because all so-called ‘unnatural phenomena’ comes from damned places, sir. Speak of damned places and you speak of places where powerful emotional forces have been penned up. Have you ever been within the walls of a prison, Mr. Fort? Where the massed feelings of hatred, deprivation, claustrophobia and brutalization have seeped into the very stones? One can feel it. The emotions resonate. They seethe, trapped, waiting for release, waiting to be given form, Mr. Fort. What you might call an ‘unconscious confluence’ were you to label it in one of your articles.

  “You now sit in the remnants of one such ‘damned place,’ sir: the charred remains of the Lyceum Theatre. These stage boards, the curtain above me, the very seats which surround you and the one in which you now sit, were discovered by myself in a basement storage area of the Lyceum during my time there as manager—along, of course, with Sir Henry Irving, my own personal vampire.”

  He spoke Irving’s name with a level of disgust that was absolutely chilling to hear. Even though Stoker attempted to hide his true feelings about Irving in his biography of the famous actor, it was now well known that, during the twenty-seven years he worked as stage manager at the Lyceum, Irving treated Stoker little better than a slave, paying him so very little that, upon Irving’s death, Stoker was forced to borrow money from friends and relatives in order to survive; when he was no longer able to borrow money, he was forced to write such drivel as his latest (and, I suspected, what would be his last) novel, The Lair of the White Worm.

  I could not help but share the sorrow of this broken man on the stage before me; there had been a potential for true literary greatness there, once, but no more...and the late Sir henry Irving was as much to blame for that as were Stoker’s so-called “personal indulgences.”

  “Remember as you listen, Mr. Fort: emotions resonate. They seethe, trapped, waiting for release, waiting to be given form.”

  I wrote down his words, though they seemed more the ramblings of mind surrendering to the body’s sicknesses.

  Stoker coughed into his handkerchief once again. Even from my place in the “audience,” I could see that he was coughing up blood. His handkerchief was useless to him now. I took my own, unused handkerchief from my pocket and rose to approach the stage and give it to him, but was stopped by the appearance of a great, dark wolf by Stoker’s side.

  It wandered on from stage left and seated itself next to his wheelchair. Even sitting on its haunches, it was nearly as tall as he. I had never seen such a magnificent and terrifying creature in all my life. It looked upon me with pitiless eyes that, in the light of the stage, glowed a deep, frightening crimson.

  I returned the handkerchief to my pocket and took my seat once again.

  “You’ll come to no harm, Mr. Fort,” said Stoker, reaching out to rub the fur at the nape of the great wolf’s neck. The beast growled contentedly. I thought of a line from Stoker’s most famous novel, about the Children of the Night, and what sweet music they made.

  What follows is my transcription of Stoker’s narrative. I have taken the liberty of removing the sometimes-prolonged pauses he took between words, as well as excising those instances where his crumbling mind led him down rambling paths of incomprehensibility.

  I ask only that you remember this was a man who could have achieved true literary greatness, but who is now only remembered as the author of “...that dreadful vampire book.”

  Even now, I still sorrow at the thought of What Might Have Been, had Fate been kinder to him.

  * * *

  The Narrative of Abraham (Bram) Stoker, as told to Charles Fort.

  Little Russell Street, London, 1912.

  I was born in Dublin in 1847, one of seven children. Though I was a very sickly child, I was nonetheless my mother’s favorite. During those years I spent in my sickbed, my mother tended to me with great and loving care. Having fostered a lifelong fascination with stories of the macabre, she entertained me with countless Irish ghost stories—the worst kind there is, I should add. As a child I was lulled to sleep each night with tales of banshees, demons, ghouls, and horrific accounts of the cholera outbreak of 1832.

  My mother was a remarkable woman—strong-minded, ambitious, proud, a writer—she hoped that I, too, might one day become a person of letters—a visitor to workhouses for wayward and indigent girls, and above, she was a proponent of women’s rights—much like her close friend, the mother of Oscar Wilde. I sincerely believe that, were it not for her kind ministrations on my behalf, I might have surrendered to the illnesses that plagued my early years. But she gave me strength and a sense of self-worth, and for that alone I shall always cherish her memory.

  When I became of college age and was accepted at Trinity on an athletic scholarship—you would not know it to look at this pathetic body now, but there was a time when I was a champion. I was a record breaker, in my day...and, I must admit, I gained a reputation among the members of my class for a somewhat exaggerated masculinity—some would even call it polemical. But I assure you that I was never less than chivalric toward the ladies with whom I kept company. I often wonder now if my way with the ladies back then is not the reason I am being punished in my final days with a wife so distant and frigid I might as well be wed to a corpse.

  In 1871 I graduated with honours in science—Pure Mathematics, which enabled me to accept a civil service position at Dublin Castle. That same year I began to review theatrical positions in Dublin, and in 1876 I was privileged to review Sir Henry Irving’s magnificent performance in “Hamlet.” Shortly thereafter, we became great friends—or so I thought.

  The great actor is a strange beast, indeed, Mr. Fort, for his ego is such that it requires—nay, demands—constant feeding. Sir Henry was much like a child in that way. He took more of my friendship than he ever did return, but I was simply too awestruck by the man’s genius to take notice of this.

  I became his stage manager when he took over management of the Lyceum Theatre. That same year, I began to publish my writings—The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland. It was released to unanimous indifference from critics and the public alike. Sir Henry urged me to explore more ‘universal’ themes in my work, much as Shakespeare and Milton and Marlowe did in theirs. The man was simply hoping that his lap-dog assistant would, perhaps, compose a play in which he might once again take center stage and be the focus of attention...but I digress.

  I served Sir Henry well and loyally over the years. His opinion of my writing remained, as always, dismissive...until I wrote Dracula. On this, he at last expressed an opinion. ‘It is absolute, pandering rubbish,’ he said. Still, in ‘reward’ for my many years of service and friendship to him, he agreed to allow me to stage a dramatic reading of the novel before its release from the publisher.

  The novel was, as I’m sure you know, quite dense, and so several long, sleepless editing sessions were required in order to make the work an acceptable length for theatrical presentation. During this period in the latter part of 1896, I insisted on being able to rehearse with a cast so as to determine the success of my editing process. Sir Henry would not allow his personal company of actors to be ‘inconvenienced’—his word—with a ‘work in progress,’ and so left it up to me to assemble a cast of unknowns with whom to rehearse the piece. It took me several weeks, but at last I had my cast—with the exception of an acceptable actor to portray Abraham van Helsing. But I shall come to that.

  You need to understand that, during this period of intense concentration, the character of Count Dracula became even more alive to me than he was during the years of research it took to create him and write the novel. He was so alive to me, in fact, that I often found myself talking with him as I would stagg
er home nights after hours of emotionally draining rehearsal. ‘My dear Count,’ I would say, ‘have I lost all perspective where you are concerned?’ I did this to relieve my anxiety: if the novel were not reduced to an acceptable three-hour theatrical entertainment, Sir Henry made it quite clear to me that he would not permit me to present the work to the public...not in his precious theatre. And so the Count became my constant companion, sir, my father-confessor, my only true friend.

  I began to realize that the only way for the work to be made right, it was necessary for me to make the cast believe in the Count as fiercely as did I. I spoke to them one night of my imaginary conversations with the Count, and though they were at first amused, they came to understand that my dedication to the project was unflappable. I have to say, they were far more accommodating to me than Sir Henry’s personal players would ever be with him; being unknowns, there were no egos to soothe or feed. Until the last rehearsal, it was the purest, most enjoyable theatrical experience of my life.

  Soon, all of the cast were holding conversations with the Count. I recall encountering the actress who portrayed Mina Murray one night during a break in the rehearsal: I found off-stage left, sitting with her book, eyes closed, whispering, ‘Why does someone as remarkable as you, dear Count, have to be so very, very wicked?’ It moved me, sir, to hear that—and not only from her, but from all of the cast members.

  Oh, the stories I could tell you of their recountings of their conversations with the Count. They came to believe in his existence as much as I.