Dracula Ascending (Gothic Horror Mash-up)

by Cindy Winget

  He wrote to his father, Elizabeth, and Henry at once, letting them know that he would have a change of address. He packed his bags and in less than two days, and the three friends set sail for England upon the next available ship. All along the journey, Victor carefully weighed his options and decided, upon Jack’s recommendation, that he would join the academic halls of King’s College.

  “I always figured you for an Oxford or Cambridge man,” Jonathan said with some surprise.

  Jack gave him a knowing smile. “In truth, I have been to both, but I think Victor would benefit most from King’s science and medical programs.”

  “Before getting situated at King’s, you really must travel to Whitby with us and meet Mina and Lucy,” Jonathan said.

  Victor readily agreed, delighted that his friends had invited him. He would very much like to meet the two women who had stolen his friends’ hearts and about whom he had heard so much.

  “Mina is short for Wilhelmina, but no one but her parents would dare call her that. She is a stenographer and is quite proficient at shorthand. She tells me that she wants to be a help, not a hindrance, in my work. Bless that woman! No finer specimen can be found anywhere else in the world! She is an assistant schoolmistress while I am away, but I plan on rectifying the situation upon my return. No wife of mine will need to work when I am around to provide for her.”

  “Too right,” agreed Jack.

  “As of right now, she is living with Lucy and her mother until my return. I would have been worried constantly for her safety, and I will not have her bored or lonely whilst we are apart.”

  Upon their arrival at Whitby, a woman of around twenty years of age ran out the front door and flew into the open arms of Jonathan Harker.

  “Oh! My dear Jonathan! You are back! How I have missed you!”

  Her dark hair, reminiscent of Elizabeth’s save for less red in its long tresses, obscured her face briefly as she laid her head upon Jonathan’s shoulder. With a pang so acute Victor could hardly breathe, he missed Elizabeth as the crops missed the rain during a drought. Normally, his zeal for his work overtook him and prevented him from even thinking of her, but as he gazed at the young married couple, he couldn’t help but long for her to embrace him in like manner as Mina embraced Jonathan.

  “Surely my company couldn’t have been all that bad,” came a sweet voice from the porch. Victor turned from the scene of their embrace and saw an exquisite woman of similar age, with long flowing hair the color of sunshine and crystal blue eyes. Her lithe figure was very becoming in her rose-colored dress. Her alabaster brow was furrowed with mock sorrow. She wore a velvet choker with a diamond buckled at her slender throat.

  Mina lifted her head and Victor was relieved to see that her eyes were a dark brown and not hazel like Elizabeth’s. She gave the young woman a look of chagrin. “Of course not, Lucy! I am only overwhelmed at once again seeing my beloved husband. I have scarcely felt like a married woman since he left me so suddenly.”

  “Never to part again,” Jonathan promised fervently.

  “What impropriety is this?” came a new voice as an older woman walked outside, presumably Lucy’s mother.

  “Is it not lawful for a married woman to greet her husband in such a manner?” Mina asked teasingly.

  “Well, I suppose as long as Lucy keeps her distance from Mister Seward I will be satisfied,” laughed Mrs. Westenra.

  “It’s Doctor Seward now,” Jack said proudly.

  “My apologies,” mocked Mrs. Westenra.

  “Are you planning on introducing your friend?” asked Mina.

  “Oh, yes! How foolish of me,” said Jonathan. “This is Victor Frankenstein from Geneva.”

  “Welcome, Mister Frankenstein. Jonathan has mentioned you in several letters.”

  This bit of information made Victor absurdly happy.

  “Well don’t just stand there, come on in. You are just in time for dinner,” Mrs. Westenra said.

  Victor was glad; he was starving. They all followed her inside the parlor and entered the dining room. The oil lamps were turned down low, and Victor had a hard time seeing after the brightness of outside. There was roast mutton, corn bread, oyster stew, steamed vegetables, boiled potatoes, and English trifle for dessert.

  “This fare is delicious,” he complimented Mrs. Westenra.

  “Why, thank you! Aren’t you sweet.”

  A maid brought forth a decanter of wine from off the sideboard and placed it in front of him. Victor poured himself a glass and sipped at it, pleasantly surprised by the intensity of the flavor. It was a good vintage.

  “So, what is it that you studied at the university?” Mrs. Westenra continued.

  “Chemistry and physics, mostly.”

  “Ah! A man of science!”

  “Yes, the subject has fascinated me since I was a boy. However, I would like to try my hand at another branch of science. Biology perhaps. I plan on attending King’s College.”

  “Wonderful! I confess, I know little of science, but I have heard that one of the professors there is quite good. He teaches one of the sciences, but not biology. What was it?” She appeared to be thinking it through. In time she spoke, “I believe he teaches human anatomy or some such.”

  “What is the gentleman’s name? I have been considering taking some courses in that field as well.”

  “Abraham Van Helsing.”

  “I shall look him up.”

  “You want to be careful studying that subject in England. Perhaps you would have been better off taking those types of courses back in Ingolstadt,” piped up Jonathan.

  “You’re the one who wanted me to come here!” Victor pointed out.

  “Yes, but you know what a rogue I am,” laughed Jonathan. “I wanted you to come to England out of a selfish desire to keep my friend close by and to show off my darling Mina.”

  “Hush now! Don’t frighten the poor boy!” Mrs. Westenra said, glaring at Jonathan.

  “What do you mean?” Victor asked.

  “It’s nothing, dear.”

  “Now, now. Victor deserves to know what he is getting himself into,” Jonathan said, clearly relishing the attention. “You see, Victor, a few years ago, back in 1828, there were a series of murders committed in the name of science. Or rather, for the monetary gain that can be had by providing cadavers to medical students. I just thought you ought to know, when you are in class studying the human body, where said body came from.”

  “Are you referring to the Burke and Hare murders?” Jack asked.

  “The very ones,” confirmed Jonathan.

  “What happened?” inquired Victor, his curiosity piqued.

  “Shall we retire to the drawing room, and I will tell you all about it?” Jonathan asked.

  “This topic may not be suitable for the ladies,” said Jack, glancing at Lucy.

  “Nonsense! They will be alright, won’t you?” Jonathan asked, expecting compliance.

  Mina readily agreed, but also looked apprehensively at Lucy, who had always been a bit more innocent than herself.

  Mrs. Westenra seemed to agree, for she was quick to say, “Lucy dear, why don’t you go see to the preparations for Victor’s stay with us.”

  Lucy looked about to protest but at the look her husband gave her, she stood up and did as her mother requested.

  The rest of the group walked into the other room, where a fire jumped and crackled merrily in the fireplace and the plush couches and chairs looked inviting. Jonathan settled into an overstuffed chair, the fire casting shadows on his face. Lowering his voice, he began his tale, with all the relish of telling a ghost story.

  “Here in England, there were only a few bodies a year that were legally sanctioned to be dissected in operating theatres for furthering the education of medical students—those bodies that were volunteered by the deceased or donated by the deceased’s relatives for anatomical research. Which as you can imagine, didn’t happen often on account of the belief that when a body was dissected, it was no
longer fit for resurrection come Judgment Day.” Jonathan’s tone indicated that he did not share this belief.

  “Because of this shortage of cadavers with which to gain a working knowledge of the human body—how the different organs functioned, the way that disease and illness worked its will on the body, how to improve medical practices, such as amputations—medical students often resorted to body snatching. The demand for human bodies was so great that hospitals and teaching centers began to pay for bodies to be brought to them, no questions asked.”

  Victor stifled a small gasp, and in spite of himself, leaned forward.

  “Fear of loved ones being stolen from their graves became a true risk. Throughout all of the United Kingdom, body snatchers—who came to be called Resurrectionists—exhumed human bodies soon after their death and subsequent burial. They would sell them to hospitals and research universities as anatomical instruction for surgeons.

  “The fresher the cadaver, the more money it would fetch. As a result, men who were already inclined to be corrupt, turned to murder. As it turned out, the bodies of the poor, orphans, or foundlings of the street were worth more dead than alive. A man could sell these bodies to medical students for seven to ten pounds.”

  With such an incentive, it’s no wonder that men resorted to murder! Victor thought.

  “Resurrectionists became such an epidemic that the wealthy people of the United Kingdom began to take measures to ensure the safety of their deceased loved ones. They would watch over the body of the departed until burial and then build iron cages or grilles around the graves, called mortsafes, or commission coffins made of sealed metal or with heavy stone slabs that would make it more difficult for Resurrectionists to steal the bodies. They installed watchtowers at cemeteries and posted guards as night watchmen over the graves.

  “Finally, the Murder Act was passed by Parliament in 1752, which stated that criminals and suicide victims could be used in dissections by doctors, teachers of anatomy, and medical students as a deterrent in murder crimes. But unfortunately, even this new way for medical students to receive bodies legally did not supply enough bodies to meet the demand.”

  “Especially since criminals who would previously have been executed were now being set upon prison ships and taken to Australia instead,” Jack interrupted, scratching at his nose.

  “Right,” Jonathan continued. “Riots were commonplace at execution sites where anatomists could collect legal corpses, because it was public opinion that this meant the medical students and research hospitals were enforcers of the death penalty.”

  That’s crazy! thought Victor.

  “People continued to go missing among the poor and unconnected on account of the new difficulty of stealing fresh bodies from their graves, but the most famous instance of opportunists murdering for monetary gain, was in the case of William Burke and William Hare over in Edinburgh, Scotland.

  “Hare ran an Inn, but not successfully; he was deep in debt. When an old army pensioner, named Donald, rented a room and happened to pass away of natural causes while staying there, Hare turned to his friend William Burke for advice. Donald owed back rent but had died before his pension check had arrived, and Hare was now facing a financial crisis. The two men decided to sell the body to a doctor by the name of Robert Knox, in order to make up the debt. Upon discovering the amount of money that could be earned in such an enterprise, they resorted to the killing of innocent people in order to sell their bodies for medical research.

  “Their first victim was a lodger by the name of Joseph, who had fallen ill with a fever. Hare and his wife were worried that his illness would deter others from staying at their Inn, so Hare and Burke decided just to help him on his way, as it were. They plied him with whiskey and Hare smothered him with a pillow, while Burke lay across his chest in order to restrict his movements. After that, they resorted to killing healthy people who would go unmissed, having no kith or kin. They went on to murder women, handicapped young men, and an old man, in the space of ten months, putting the grand total up to sixteen people!”

  Thoroughly absorbed in the story, Victor asked, “How were they found out?”

  “One of the guests remembered an older woman who had had too much to drink and was laughing and dancing with Hare, Burke, and their wives and then suddenly she was gone the next day, with no explanation.”

  “Surely the wives weren’t involved!” exclaimed Mina in evident horror.

  “Apparently so. The guest, Gray her surname was, found it suspicious that they wouldn’t let her go and retrieve a pair of stockings that she had left on her bed, stating that they were cleaning the room. When Hare and Burke were away, Mrs. Gray and her husband searched the premises and found the final victim—an middle-aged Irish woman by the name of Margret Docherty—in the basement. She was sprawled on a pile of hay used to make up the bed pallets; stripped and clean and ready to be shipped.

  “They left to inform the police and, in the meantime, the body was taken to Knox for dissection. Burke and his wife gave different times that the victim left, and that was suspicious enough for the police to take them in for questioning. Docherty’s bloody clothes were found under the bed, and early the next morning the police went to Knox’s dissecting-rooms where they found her body. James Gray identified her as the woman he had seen drinking with William Hare. Hare and his wife were both arrested.

  “They received immunity for testifying against Burke, who was publicly hanged for his crimes. To add insult to injury, his body was given up to the dissecting table of Doctor Monro and his skeleton put on display at the Anatomical Museum of Edinburgh Medical School.”

  “It’s just what that scumbag deserves!” Victor blurted, his features tight with anger.

  “Just wait until you hear this,” Jonathan said. “While most people were outraged by these despicable acts, with an unprecedented 30,000 people showing up to witness the hanging of William Burke, it also led to what was referred to as the London Burkers. They were a group of body snatchers, led by John Bishop and Thomas Williams, operating here in London, who modeled their activities after those of Burke and Hare. They came to prominence in 1831 and would murder their victims by luring and drugging them with a concoction of rum and laudanum, at their dwelling in the northern end of Bethal Green. They would then drown them by tying their feet together and hanging them headfirst inside a well. Then they sold their victims to St. Thomas Hospital or King’s College for eight guineas. There are said to be at least sixty victims of those unscrupulous carpetbaggers.”

  Victor’s eyes widened at this. So many!

  “The murders raised public awareness of the need for bodies for medical research and contributed to the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832, just before we started school at Ingolstadt. This largely put an end to Resurrectionists by allowing access to the workhouse dead and the bodies of paupers or orphans.”

  Victor was having a hard time wrapping his head around this information. His desire to learn human anatomy suddenly seemed like taking part in a crime. Would he essentially be another accomplice in this long list of atrocities by deeming it necessary for himself to learn about the human body? For it was only by the crimes committed by others that made it possible.

  Jonathan laughed softly at the expression on Victor’s face. “Don’t look so worried, Victor, this is all largely in the past; has been for years now. Jack himself spent time in medical school and I don’t think any less of him.”

  This cheered Victor up considerably, for he would be hard-pressed to find a more ethical and moral man than Jack Seward.

  Chapter Five

  The next fortnight proved to be two of the best weeks Victor had spent in quite some time. He enjoyed, as always, the company of his friends Jack and Jonathan, but what’s more, he found the company of Mina and Lucy equally enjoyable. Mina was quick of wit and mind and Lucy was lovely, if a bit coquettish and simple. He enjoyed talking to them immensely. Mrs. Westenra herself was good company and could best Victor at most card
games and croquet.

  “Do you know that I had received two other marriage proposals before Jack asked me?” Lucy asked one day.

  “Truly?” said Victor.

  “Yes. Quincy Morris, an American adventurer, asked me first. He was a lad from Texas. Absolutely worshipped the ground I walked on. He was well-educated and amiable, to be sure, but I couldn’t abide marrying a Yankee, no matter how tolerable and well-mannered. I did so love to hear him talk in American slang. I feel certain that he used more slang when we were alone for my general amusement.”

  Mrs. Westenra frowned at this, no doubt concerned that her daughter managed to be alone in a man’s presence without a chaperone.

  “He was a jolly sort of person,” continued Lucy, “but I just couldn’t marry him. Why is it so hard to turn down a gentleman? If a true rake had asked me, it would be a cinch, but to have to turn down a well-meaning man of quality is truly a feat to rival those tasks performed by Hercules. I nearly wept for the horridness of it!

  “A week later, Arthur Holmwood, a proper Englishman, asked me. He was exceptionally tall, of good breeding, and set to inherit the estate of his father, who was in failing health. Mother had a special soft spot for the boy and was sorely disappointed by my dismissal of him.” Lucy lowered her voice and stage whispered, “but what mother didn’t know is that my heart already belonged to another.” She glanced over at Jack, while Mrs. Westenra scowled good-naturedly.

  Jack, who up until now had seemed less than pleased by the turn of topic, puffed out his chest and would have preened like a peacock if he were able.

  There was a sudden knock on the door. “Whoever could that be?” Ms. Westenra asked no one in particular as she stood up and walked from the room. A moment later she reentered in the company of a tall fellow with sandy blonde hair.