A Clockwork Victim

by Quinn Langston

  Mouthpieces and breathing apparatuses had been snatched as if in a frenzy from their hangers on the wall. The leather hosed masks were soaked in blood. The stains were such that they could not be removed, not from this fine leather. Hannah even had a mask strapped roughly to her face when they uncovered her body. It must have a meaning. But what?

  Theo began to scrub the wall behind the workbench, reaching across the flat surface. Soap and water could only do so much. The walls would have to be freshly whitewashed. She scrubbed harder with the rough brush, leaving scratches in the old plaster.

  A tiny sound made her start away from the table, dropping her rag and brush. She looked up in fright. It was little Moggy, her cat, on the highest of shelves above the table. She was crouched in the corner, as high as she could climb, her eyes still big in fear.

  “Come down, Moggy. It’s me. Come here, dear.” Theo reached for the small tabby. “It’s me. Don’t be afraid.” She held the trembling cat close to her chest and buried her face in the warm fur. “How will I ever make sense of this?”

  Back from burying Hannah in less than an hour, Marcus entered through the back door of Theo’s shop. His arrival snapped her back to focus. She wiped at her eyes and shook her head as if to clear her mind.

  “Marcus! I’m glad you are back.” Theo looked him over in his dirty clothes.

  “I buried her quickly, but properly, in St. Mary’s graveyard, near a beautiful oak.” Marcus gave her a sympathetic look. He dusted his coat sleeves and down his shirt.

  “Thank you.” Theo nodded.

  “I found a fresh grave deep into the graveyard. Toward the back corner, near the iron fence. If you would like to visit her, the name plate on the casket was Air Marshall Thaddeus Brumby.” Marcus spoke softly.

  “That’s very thoughtful of you.” Theo attempted a smile. She still held Moggy closely.

  Sebastian remained standing in front of the shop door while the last of the curious made their way down the now quiet street. When the last street urchin had rounded the corner, he reentered the shop.

  “Have the police come round again? Have they asked about the velocipede? Do they know it’s yours?” Marcus tried to change the subject.

  “They weren’t very interested. I doubt they will return. They know the velocipede was Theo’s.” Sebastian answered for her. “Unfortunately, this means Hannah’s death will go uncounted. She was an orphan, so no one will enquire after her.”

  “Yes, Marcus. I informed them the velocipede was mine. They were sympathetic that I had lost my invention but they did not assume any foul play. We assured them it was most likely a mechanical malfunction. Something must have clogged in the outflow valve…steam builds up in the main cylinder and it will explode. Very common.” She spoke calmly as if reading from a manual on how to build the contraption.

  “It could even have been a buildup of oil mist due to a ‘hotspot’ being undetected. Possible result: ignition of oil mist causing crankcase explosion,” Theo continued to ramble.

  Sebastian stepped forward and grasped her shoulders. “Theo, I think we should leave now. Gather your clothes and your little pet. I can send my man to get your things and complete the restoration of your shop to its norm. At least for a time, you should be safe at Blackmoor. I know you have refused to move before, but this is a different situation. I insist.

  “This killer is becoming quite specific in his targets, and it seems as if he was hunting you. If you are no longer in the vicinity, he will believe that Hannah was indeed you, and perhaps will trouble you no more. Let us find out. It could give us time to decide what his motive is.” He turned to look at Marcus. “And you, Marcus. I think you should join us. Come to Blackmoor, strengthen our band and let us seek this killer. We are the best suited for this hunt, are we not?”

  Chapter Seven

  That evening after showing Theo to her suite and turning her over to the care of a sympathetic maid, the men settled by the fire in the library. It was time to speak frankly and decide if they were allies or enemies. “I know why I am here. Why are you?” Sebastian took his moment to assess if this time in their acquaintance, they would be more amenable or if they would still be rivals. Since they now had far more at stake, he was curious to hear what Marcus had to tell him. He sat back and listened.

  “I know we have not always regarded each other with the most respect or supported each other’s ideology in the past. I have been following these murders and they are not, shall we say, ‘natural’,” Marcus began.

  “Pray, continue.” Sebastian nodded in agreement.

  “I feel it will behoove you to consider joining arms with me in capturing this changeling creature who is threatening our existence.”

  “I have been following these same murders with a keen eye to their origins, as well.” Sebastian spoke cautiously. “I agree that they are not of a human nature.”

  “I must be candid with you, Hawthorne. I have put not only other vampires at risk of exposure, I have placed you and your friend Miss Ambrose in jeopardy as well.”

  Marcus took a deep breath and looked squarely at Sebastian. “I am fairly certain that they have all come at the hands of my former…companion. My protégée. She is my changeling.”

  “What? You created this wild creature and then cast her aside?” Almost snarling, Sebastian sprang to his feet and began to pace. “Irresponsible! Unforgivable!”

  “Please. Please. Let me explain.” Marcus rubbed his forehead with his fingers and thumb, as if searching his mind for a place to start. “It’s true that I was turned during the Battle of Plassey in India and have spent many years since alone. Lonely. I have learned, over the years, to be able to control my impulses when I am around humans. As long as I feed before I might be near them or surrounded by them.

  “In the last year, I had begun to test this theory out with whores at the brothels as they do know how to keep secrets. I also realized that female company was pleasant now and then. I’m sure you know how desperately isolated this life is.”

  “Indeed,” Sebastian agreed through gritted teeth.

  Marcus had no fear of Sebastian. They were on equal footing and there was no reason or need for Sebastian to kill him. If he hadn’t tried already, chances were he wasn’t going to. Marcus gambled that it was worth the chance to share the events with him, if Sebastian was to agree to engage him with his help.

  “I know this was a reckless move and I can see the consequences plainly now more than ever…but, please, hear me out.” Marcus hung his head in his hands.

  Sebastian flopped into a wing-back chair in front of the fire and eyed Marcus. “Continue.”

  “I am ashamed now to admit that I sought out this establishment because of its secrecy and its reputation for depravity. These clubs were rumored to be the meeting places of persons of high quality who wished to partake in immoral acts. Many of these members were prominent politicians, members of parliament and even the chancellor of the exchequer. While I was not seeking the depravity of the club, and knowing I would be considered depraved for my simple state of being undead, I was seeking the utmost of secrecy. Madame Payne’s was where I found it.” Marcus began to relate every sordid detail of his time spent at the brothel, including the very conversations he shared with its occupants.

  It was a house like any other high street address on the outside, a tall granite and marble structure with symmetrical windows, heavily curtained. As I stepped inside, I knew that this was much more than your average brothel. This was a place where all your fantasies could and would come true for the price. This was a place where secrets were kept. Secrets of the most aristocratic patrons, of twisted, decadent desire and of even my simple need for companionship.

  “Welcome, Dr.…Frost. So nice to see you on such a cold night.” The madam, Camilla Payne, received me on December 24, 1851 into her establishment, the same as she had been doing for the past thre
e months. “I am sure that your favorite lovely can warm your blood tonight, my lord. Or…if you like, I would happily spare a moment alone to share an auparavant rendezvous.” She batted her gray lashes at me. Her attempt at flirtation was grotesque and repulsed me as she was well past her prime of life.

  “Good evening, Madame Payne.” I removed my hat and settled it in the crook of my elbow for a moment.

  “Camilla, darling. Please call me Camilla.” She took my hands, one by one and tugged at each finger of my gloves then flopped them into my hat. She looked up at me through her thin lashes and attempted a coquettish demeanor. Getting past her elderly sexual gauntlet was sometimes the most difficult thing about patronizing her establishment.

  I handed her my coat, cane and gloves in top hat. She had no idea how her words pierced my stillborn heart. As I knew I had literally died and was reborn dead, my blood would never be warm again. She was referencing my favorite girl by the name of Josephine. Or at least that is what she went by in the moments that I knew her.

  “Would you like an escort up those treacherous stairs?” She winked at me and hooked her crepe-fleshed arm through mine. Madame Payne seemed to want as much attention as her clients wanted from her whores. Each time I came to her address, she tried to seduce me. Upon my first visit to her establishment, she attempted a quick intimate moment alone with me in her room. Gratis. I declined.

  “Thank you, Madame. I can find my own way.” I extricated myself from her grasp, brought her hand to my lips and kissed her fingers. She blushed through the heavy rouge and appeared satisfied for the moment. Turning on my heels, I disappeared, slipping, through the clientele and whores in the parlor.

  The house was opulent and decadence was indulged at every corner. Some men seemed to find pleasure in starting their activities downstairs in the presence of others. As men in evening dress groped at women they would not envisage setting eyes on in public, I pressed past them and up the sweeping, intricately carved staircase and past the cherub finial. Always mindful of my movements, I checked my pace was that of a human and moved down the hall to the familiar room at the end. I lifted the brass knocker on the outside of Josephine’s room and rapped twice.

  The door swung open wide and my beautiful Josephine stood with welcoming arms. She was truly lovely with long, loose chestnut hair to her waist, sparkling blue eyes and a bright smile that made me feel I was her one and only true love.

  “My darling Josephine.” I encircled her in my arms and lifted her out of the doorway, stepping in and kicking the door shut behind. “I have missed you dreadfully.” I kissed her neck. She threw back her head and laughed at me playfully as I twirled her around until we both fell onto her bed.

  “It’s only been hours since we were having high tea at the Ritz.” She giggled as she teased me.

  I had been monopolizing her time both in the Payne house and with steady frequency, started to take her out into public with me. I did not care if any patrons of the brothel were to see us together. Naive and foolish though it was, I was truly falling in love with her, growing closer and closer to her every day. I did not want her apart from me for a moment. I paid for her time for the moment, in which, I shared with her my past, telling her of the war, my victories and my triumphs and my desires to be a better surgeon. Telling her all things except the one most important facet of my existence, the main aspect that encompassed my total being.

  She told me of how tragedy in her family had brought her to this place, of her dreams and worst of all to her, was how she despised working as a whore, no matter how elite the clientele were. They were men with fetishes so abominable, so abhorrent even a vampire like myself was revolted. She told me of the horrid degradation, pain and abuse she had suffered under the hands of gentlemen.

  Many of her patrons requested that she wear the necessary gas masks and even goggles or glassicals. They had no use for her face. To them she was only a machine to do as commanded. Day to day life on the normal street could sting at eyes and clog one’s lungs with the billows of belched soot and smoke in the air. Yet some of the masks were outrageous. Hoses and tubes for breathing. For control. A few well-placed fingertips over valves, or the twist of a gear and she would die. Power and control, that’s why the men came to the Payne house. Josephine hid these from me, but I knew they were there amongst other bizarre gadgets of vile sexual deviance.

  She may as well have been an automaton. Even more reason for her to feel so dehumanized and demeaned, to want out. She was a pretty plaything to be used and discarded at their will, a thing of little value, and she knew it. Her one dream was to escape this life. I vowed to make that dream come true. Within those short months I devised a plan to free her from the world she loathed and to bring her into my life as my forever companion. It seemed like the perfect plan.

  She knew the harsh accoutrements of the day did not appeal to me. No leather corsets or studded gauntlets. She dressed in the soft silk fabrics of a time where there were no worries of atmosphere. She wore gowns and robes from Paris from a time when there was no need to protect one’s self from the coal-fueled world. For me, she was lovely, pure and gentle, and about to be mine forever. If she accepted my proposal…

  “Josephine, my darling. You know by now that I am hopelessly in love with you. I want to know if you feel the same.” We lay face to face on the silk bedding. I coiled a ringlet of her hair around my finger and searched deep in her eyes for sincerity in her answer.

  “I must confess that I do, Marcus.” Josephine touched my face softly.

  “If I told you there was a way to leave the life you have and to spend eternity with me, would you consider it?”

  “Eternity?” She sounded puzzled.

  “Yes, beloved. Eternity.” I took her hand in mine and pressed it to my mouth. “Eternity.”

  “But how can this be? I don’t understand.”

  “First, I must tell you my darkest secret. I am not a man as you know men. And whatever your decision, you must continue to keep my secret, whether you accept to come with me for life or not. On pain of death, you must keep my secret.”

  “Oh Marcus, that sounds too good to be true. To be free of this life. Free. How can this be so? My answer to you is yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! I need no details. I agree. I will always protect you and would never harm you in any way. Pray continue, Marcus. There is nothing you could say to me to diminish my love for you.” She sat up and held my hand tightly.

  “Are you sure you want to spend the rest of your life with me, no matter how long that life may be?” I wanted to make the decision as clear as possible.

  “Yes. Please, make this so.” She began to undress me and kiss each point where she released a button. Her kisses seemed to sear my flesh at each point her lips touched.

  My heart swelled with the thought of having a companion in the darkness of my journey. She would be my light. I would teach her and we could enjoy all that the world had to offer us. My passion for her swelled. I guided her face up to mine with both hands and kissed her deeply, fully on the mouth, a most abandoned kiss.

  The natural change began to stir in my body followed immediately by the supernatural. My fangs burst through my flesh at full erection. No longer would I have to restrain the intensity of ardor I felt for her. Her youth and innocence of the world charmed me and clashed with her repugnant experiences in her profession. She had seen such perversions in her short life. I prayed she would not see me as such.

  In this very moment my hopes hung in the balance of her judgment. I pulled my mouth away from hers. In doing so, one fang pricked her lip. A droplet of blood welled at the cut on her mouth. I steeled my urges, lest I take her without her permission and spoke the words that have brought us to this point.

  “I am a vampire.” I opened my mouth and touched the tip of one fang with my tongue to taste her blood and wait for her response. Josephine licked her blood from her lips. Her pupi
ls dilated to a darkness that I could see was more than arousal.

  “Make me like you. I want to be a vampire. Give me that power.” She begged her answer in a deep, throaty whisper. I heard no fear in her words. Rather, jubilance. Her entire demeanor changed and I had only spoken the words. I knew she was sincere in her answer.

  I could restrain my heart and nature both as a man and a vampire no more. I rose above her like a great lion pinning her with my gaze and stance. She was captured, willing prey. The smell of her pulse was intoxicating. The blue vein at her neck seemed to grow darker, larger and thicker with every beat. I lunged at her neck and bit deep. She cried out, a cry that seemed like satisfactory pain of transformation. It was victory over her past. I filled my mouth with her blood and pulled away from her neck. She opened her lips to receive me. Her own hot blood spilled into her waiting mouth as I hung over her face and smiled. She swallowed and tore at my clothes to nip at my chest. She saw a portal to another life in my offer and she took the key.

  Marcus stood near the fire, looking pensive. “Well, what does it matter how it happened, but she’s out there and I’ve abandoned her. I need your help finding her before it’s too late.

  “So you can see the reason that the woman on the examining table is Madame Payne.” Marcus paused. “There can be no other killer than Josephine. She is seeking her revenge on all who have wronged her. First, the men who used her so cruelly. Now the gadgeteers who made the devices they used are her targets. The pattern is clear to me. I must stop her or her carelessness will reveal us all.”

  “Agreed. She is still wild and reckless.” Sebastian nodded.

  “Sadly, she must be completely destroyed. Her madness has taken over any shred of her former gentle self. Will you lend me your assistance in this task?”

  “I’ve faulted you for many things in the past, Dwyer. This, I cannot. I understand the need for companionship. I didn’t until recently. Theo has brought me that.” Sebastian offered his hand. “Come on, man. We must protect not only ourselves, our race, but also Theo.