The Elixir

by George Willson

  Gently, he laid her down on the bench where she had set herself and bit into her neck. He had barely begun when another young woman called out what he presumed was her name. He looked up and to his surprise, he spotted the face of the woman from the photograph that David had taken from him back in Transylvania. He was so astonished by this that he barely moved until the lightning brought him out of his trance, and he realized that the rain was coming. He could not finish the first woman, much less deal with the second. He ran as fast as he could for the nearby structure that he had gathered was called “Whitby Abbey” based on the number of times he had heard the reference around its walls.

  He watched them walk through the rain as long as he could and knew of only a few houses that they could have come from that were close enough for a woman to have been willing to emerge clothed only in her nightdress. Add to this that the woman was the one whose picture he had seen before meaning that she was a link to the person David and Voivode knew in Transylvania, and David, himself, had shown a special interest in her. He would track them once the rain stopped and watch them carefully. He had not taken much of the woman’s blood, so she would recover without any adverse effects, and if he were patient, they would lead him to his targets.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The day after Mina helped Lucy out of the rain during her sleepwalking episode, Lucy appeared to have no memory of anything that had transpired the night before. She noticed the wounds on Lucy’s neck that looked just like she had pinched Lucy’s skin and stuck her safety pin right through it.

  “Oh, Lucy, I am so sorry,” Mina had said when she saw Lucy that morning. “I had no idea.”

  “What are you talking about?” Lucy asked.

  “Your neck,” Mina said pointing at the wounds. Lucy felt of her neck and then shrugged.

  “Oh that,” Lucy replied. “I saw it this morning, and I wondered what happened.”

  “You got outside,” Mina explained.

  “I did?” Lucy asked.

  “I found you over in St. Mary’s Graveyard,” Mina continued. “I had a shawl with me and put it around your neck, but I must have stuck the pin through your neck. I really did not mean to.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Lucy assured. “It’s barely noticeable. Won’t even leave a scar.”

  “What would Arthur say if he sees it?” Mina asked, concerned that her fiancée might think less of her after harming Lucy.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Lucy said. “I’ll wear high collars for a few days if he comes by. After that, it won’t even be there.”

  Lucy did not say much more of it, and Mina was eager to let it go. The day passed much like any other. They had lunch in Mulgrave Woods, and while Lucy prattled on about Arthur, Mina’s mind went to Jonathan. It had been forever since she had heard from him, and she was constantly worried about him. She had left forwarding instructions in case any messages were to come for her, but after so long with no word at all, she was considering heading back to her flat in London to make sure she did not have anything waiting from him.

  That evening, Mina slept uneasily, her mind drifting to the events of the previous night. Her mind still saw the face of the old man that had bent over Lucy’s body, and she wondered if he had really been there since he had disappeared so quickly. Could she have conjured him somehow? Over and over she saw herself run to the fence that separated the cemetery from the rest of the world and look to her friend lying on the bench and the mysterious stranger who leaned over her. She had made an effort to remember and take note of the things she had seen during her day, and she had done the same with this incident, though part of her wondered if she had remembered it correctly. After all, once she had returned to the house with Lucy, she was soaked to the bone and exhausted. She had to change her friend on her own, and by the time she was able to sleep, she did not awaken for the better part of the following day. How could she be certain that the man was nothing more than a hallucination brought on by a mad search through the dark or shadows cast by the moon?

  A harsh pounding broke her unrestful sleep. She sat up in bed and wondered if the sound were real or just another figment of her imagination. Her room was dark and quiet, and only the faintest trickle of moonlight cast through her closed window. Then the sound came again. It was something slamming against a glass door somewhere in the house.

  She shook off the throes of sleep and swung her feet off her bed to the floor. She listened intently for the source of the sound and wondered if anyone else in the house had heard it. She opened the door to her room and put her head into the darkened hall. The sound echoed once more, and she was able to pinpoint the source of the sound as coming from Lucy’s room. She ran to Lucy’s door and threw it open.

  She surveyed the room quickly and found Lucy’s bed to be empty. She looked to the door and found that Lucy had walked to the exterior door of her room and was intermittently pounding on it to try and get it open. Mina was grateful that she had barred the door to prevent Lucy from wandering out once again.

  Lucy pounded the door once more, and Mina crossed the room to her. She took her friend by the waist and steered her back to her bed where Lucy willingly lay back down and slept. Mina looked at her friend and then at the outside door to her room. Lucy had had sleepwalking episodes the majority of her life, and rarely had she caused harm to herself. Yet, these seemed to be more severe, and Mina wondered what could be making her so restless.

  She decided to stay in Lucy’s room with her to try and make sure that her friend remained safe and did not wander off again. She considered that perhaps the engagement to Arthur Holmwood had made her excited for the inevitable wedding, and might be affecting her sleep in that way. Whatever it was, she was grateful that the door had stopped her this time, but reflected that she might not be so lucky going forward.

  Lucy was the first to awake the next morning and the first thing Mina heard was her friend’s voice beside her.

  “Well bless me, Mina, what are you doing here?”

  Mina turned to find Lucy smiling at her. She was not in the least upset, but merely curious as to Mina’s presence.

  “You were sleepwalking again last night,” Mina explained. “You seemed desperate to go outside. Made quite a racket.”

  “Did I?” Lucy asked in a combination of surprise and amusement. “Well, I am certainly sorry. What do you think I was intent on finding out there?”

  “Do you remember anything from the night when I brought you back in?” Mina asked.

  “I remember Arthur leading me by the hand to our honeymoon chamber,” Lucy said with a smile, her mind clearly wandering to the notion.

  “Do you recall a man out there?” Mina asked.

  “No,” Lucy said simply. “I promise you that I don’t remember anything that happened then, nor do I remember last night either. I dreamed, but I don’t remember what I dreamed.”

  “You should try writing it down,” Mina said.

  “I should do what?” Lucy asked.

  “Write it down,” Mina repeated. “When I was talking to Jonathan once about dreams and such, he said he was told once that he should write his dreams down as soon as he woke up so that he would be able to remember the most details. Even if you wake up in the middle of the night, you should write it down immediately, or you will forget it even if you should go back to sleep.”

  “How very bizarre,” Lucy said.

  “I’ve been writing things down,” Mina said. “I try to keep notes on everything that happens while Jonathan is away so I can tell him all about it when he returns. I even wrote it in a sort of shorthand so that I might be of use to him to take notes if he should need me to.”

  Lucy nodded and looked troubled. Mina had rarely seen her so serious.

  “Mina, can I ask you to stay with me again tonight?” Lucy asked.

  “Of course,” Mina agreed. “Part of me had considered doing it anyway.”

  “It’s just that something didn’t feel right yesterday after whateve
r happened in the graveyard,” Lucy explained. “I’m feeling better today, and maybe I was just tired after what you said I had gone through yesterday. Still, I like to trust my feelings at times, and I don’t want to accidentally wander out there again.”

  “I will be here,” Mina promised.

  Later that day, word finally came to Mina about Jonathan from a Sister Agatha at the Hospital of St. Joseph and St. Mary in Budapest:

  Dear Madam.

  I write by desire of Mr. Jonathan Harker, who is himself not strong enough to write, though progressing well, thanks to God and St. Joseph and St. Mary. He has been under our care for nearly six weeks, suffering from a violent brain fever. He wishes me to convey his love, and to say that by this post I write for him to Mr. Peter Hawkins, Exeter, to say, with his dutiful respects, that he is sorry for his delay, and that all of his work is completed. He will require some few weeks' rest in our sanatorium in the hills, but will then return. He wishes me to say that he has not sufficient money with him, and that he would like to pay for his staying here, so that others who need shall not be wanting for help.

  Believe me,

  Yours, with sympathy and all blessings.

  Sister Agatha

  P. S.--My patient being asleep, I open this to let you know something more. He has told me all about you, and that you are shortly to be his wife. All blessings to you both! He has had some fearful shock, so says our doctor, and in his delirium his ravings have been dreadful, of wolves and poison and blood, of ghosts and demons, and I fear to say of what. Be careful of him always that there may be nothing to excite him of this kind for a long time to come. The traces of such an illness as his do not lightly die away. We should have written long ago, but we knew nothing of his friends, and there was nothing on him, nothing that anyone could understand. He came in the train from Klausenburg, and the guard was told by the station master there that he rushed into the station shouting for a ticket for home. Seeing from his violent demeanor that he was English, they gave him a ticket for the furthest station on the way thither that the train reached.

  Be assured that he is well cared for. He has won all hearts by his sweetness and gentleness. He is truly getting on well, and I have no doubt will in a few weeks be all himself. But be careful of him for safety's sake. There are, I pray God and St. Joseph and St. Mary, many, many, happy years for you both.

  The words of the letter haunted Mina for the rest of the day so that when Lucy finally lay down to sleep that evening, Mina hardly noticed that she had lain down beside her to make sure she did not wander off again. “Wolves, ghosts, and demons,” she thought, her mind reflecting on the man she thought she had seen when she found Lucy in the cemetery. He had disappeared so suddenly, and his appearance had come so soon after the tragic crash of the foreign ship on their shores. She shook her head, noting it as little more than an odd coincidence.

  Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep but was awakened again when Lucy sat up in bed. Mina looked into Lucy’s face but saw no expression though she appeared to stare intently at her exterior door. Mina sat up, glanced at the door, and gasped in surprise.

  The shadow of a man in the moonlight stood at the window. She could not be certain that he was the one she had seen before, but part of her believed he was. She looked at Lucy whose gaze did not waver until Mina put her hands on Lucy’s shoulders. At her touch, Lucy relaxed and lay back down in the bed. Mina looked back to the window, and the figure was gone. Again, she wondered if he were really there.

  The following day, she and Lucy had decided to take a walk on the East Cliff, and as they were returning to the Westenra house, they passed by the cemetery. Mina glanced over the gravestones toward the bench where they always sat, and she noticed a man sitting on their bench, watching them walk. She was momentarily uncomfortable, but her reasonable mind indicated that he was simply watching them because they had passed into his view, not because he meant them any harm. She felt like her imagination was starting to run away with her on this matter by considering that some old man in a cemetery might be up to anything more than visiting a dear, departed loved one.

  Lucy continued to look pale, and she desired to go to bed earlier than usual. Mina helped her into bed, and then she went out once more to stroll the grounds of the house, not intending to go beyond its borders. She watched as the light of the sun washed across the land as it set and wondered when she might be able to share these with Jonathan once more. Her mind dwelled on the letter from Sister Agatha on his state of mind, and her thoughts kept turning to the man in the cemetery both on this evening and on the night that Lucy wandered there as well as the shadow at the window last night.

  She shook her head with a chuckle. None of these things were related in the least, and she was certain that some of them were her own invention.

  She watched the sunset for a short while before turning back to the house and walking around to where Lucy’s room exited into the yard. She stopped in surprise at seeing Lucy standing on the porch outside her room, her eyes closed in a walking slumber. Concerned for her friend’s health standing in the cooling night in her night gown, Mina guided her back into her room and laid her back down on her bed. Lucy settled in without any problems, but she looked paler than ever, and the marks on her neck did not appear to be getting any better.

  Mina double-checked the lock on Lucy’s door and wondered if she should remain in her room once more. After all, Lucy had managed to get outside again, but Mina was not certain as to whether she had locked the door after putting Lucy to bed. She resolved to make a habit of ensuring that lock was drawn at night, and she would check on Lucy once more this night before retiring.

  * * * * * * * * * *

  Karian had hidden as soon as he had guided the young woman back to her room just before her friend walked around the side of the house. He had remained close to them after the incident in the cemetery hoping against hope that something would happen to lead him to David or Voivode, but so far, they had remained close to the house. He had figured out the names of the two women were Lucy and Mina and gathered based on their actions that Mina was actually a visitor while Lucy was the resident. His hope was that Mina would eventually return to the place from whence she had come and at that time, he would follow.

  On this particular evening, he had been close to the house when he saw Lucy exit her room and walk across the grounds toward him. The girl was sleepwalking just as she had been the first night he had seen them, so he had taken the opportunity to drink from her once more. He desired to change her so that he might have children again, but he felt that doing so would endanger his higher purpose of tracking Mina. To that end, he guided her back to her porch so that she would return to bed. He was grateful he had left her when he did for it was mere seconds before Mina showed up to walk Lucy back inside.

  He knew that Mina had seen him on several occasions, and he was certain her mind was turning as to who he might be. At the same time, he could see the confusion and uncertainty in her face, and he wondered what else might be going through her head. Karian did not know the fate of the young man who had visited Voivode’s castle or his relationship to her. Brother? Husband? Fiancée? He had no way of knowing, but a mystery surrounding his fate could be adding to her state of confusion or disturbance.

  He was certain that David had come to this place to investigate the crash of the Demeter, and as much as he had wanted to stay close to the ship to watch for him, he still feared the water, regardless of the knowledge that the spray while they sailed did not hurt him. He was not certain of the implications of this, but did not wish to risk being too close.

  He wanted to learn more about where he had landed and where his prey might be, but the language of this island was completely foreign to him, and he was struggling to understand it. He recognized some of the words as Anglican, but the majority of them made little sense to him. When he was not watching the women, he played the part of a lost foreigner in the cemetery learning words and phrases here
and there as people took pity on him and taught him pieces of the language that he had learned was called English.

  He walked toward Lucy’s door but ducked back when he spotted Mina checking the door to ensure it was well closed. She cared much for her friend and had no idea what was really going on. He wondered what she thought of the marks on Lucy’s neck. He knew she had to have noticed them, but would she think something of them or just make their existence logical in her own mind. He was not sure.

  He approached the door again, just as he had door a couple of nights earlier when he had looked in on them only to find Mina sitting up in bed staring right back at him. He had hidden on that occasion as well and wondered if Mina was still remaining in Lucy’s room, or if she had decided to return to her own room for now. He peeked through the window and saw Lucy resting safely alone in her bed.

  He wondered how long he could feed on her before he would have to decide what to do with her. He could leave her alone for a few days to feed on others, but something about her drew him back beyond the desire to watch Mina’s movements. He wanted to keep her safe. He felt certain that he would make her one of his own in time, but he had to keep watch to ensure that he waited until the time was absolutely right before acting. Too soon, and he would lose Mina’s trail. Too late, and he might lose Lucy to whatever her short future held.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Seward sat in his apartment above his asylum considering his most recent confrontation with his most interesting patient, Mr. Renfield. Little had changed with Renfield until he started staring out of the small window in his cell across the expansive yard to the old Carfax Abbey and commenting about a master having come. It began simply with reports of a few glances out his window with a look best described as confusion.