The Elixir

by George Willson

  “What can you tell me?” she pleaded.

  “So many things went on,” he said. “I remember her from the house in Whitby. I asked her to marry me once, but she had already decided on Arthur.”

  “I remember,” Mina smiled. “It seems like ages ago.”

  “She was the loveliest person I knew,” he recounted. “I do not know that anyone else will ever come along to take the place that she left in my heart. I know that she promised herself to Arthur, but I never stopped loving her.” He chuckled. “This is something I would never have said if she were still with us.”

  He stopped, saddened by the reality of her passing which was only made worse by the manner in how she was finally laid to rest. He looked at Mina who only smiled gently at him.

  “I apologize,” he said. “You certainly knew her for far longer than I.”

  “We grew up together,” she said. “We had our childhood behind us, and we were supposed to have our futures ahead of us. We were going to outlive our husbands and finish our lives together. We were certain of it.” Her smiled faded. “So certain.”

  The silence that followed was only a few seconds, but it seemed like an eternity. Finally, she spoke again, “Please tell me what happened.”

  “I can’t,” he said. “It is too terrible to speak of.”

  “Perhaps your machine could do the talking for you,” she suggested.

  “I,” he began and then faltered. “To tell you the truth, I have all of those cylinders, but I don’t know how to retrieve specific entries from them. We would end up listening to most of them to find even a scrap of information.”

  She seemed to accept this as she looked around the room, and he tried to think of anything other topic just for change of subject. It turned out that she was searching for anything she could use to convince him to allow her to hear the diary because he noted her expression change and she turned back to him. “I see you have the type-written manuscripts of mine and Jonathan’s diaries,” she said. “I could type yours up as well.”

  “Oh no,” he said in surprise. “I could never. It is all too terrible for you.”

  “You must not know me very well,” she said. “When you finish reading those pages, you will know me better, and if you allow me to transcribe yours, then I will have a better understanding of you as well.”

  He was hesitant, but finally relented to her logic. What he had spoken was relevant to their situation, and it would be helpful to have a transcript of it. He removed the current cylinder and set it apart from the completed ones, before he showed her how to go through the others. She understood, and he left her alone in the study to work while he went to his sitting room with her manuscript.

  He spent the day pouring over page after page of Jonathan’s diary, and then through hers. Had he not just endured what he had, he might have thought Jonathan a lunatic for believing and writing of such things, but times had changed for him. Truly, the man had gone through the most horrible of ordeals, and moving through Mina’s, he learned what happened prior to his own involvement with Lucy along with her interactions with Jonathan and Van Helsing upon their return to England.

  Dinner time came and went, and he informed his housekeeper that Mrs. Harker was not to be disturbed. He assumed she would come down when she was ready, and the idea of walking in on her while she was listening to his voice also did not appeal to him.

  Finally, she descended the stairs, and he could see a look of anguish across her face. He watched her as she crossed the room.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, concerned that the experience might have been too much for her.

  “Yes,” she said, choking back a tear. “I am truly touched by your compassion and kindness. Your patients are lucky that someone like you was chosen to care for them. Your machine is remarkable to have captured your every emotion. I have typed every word, but words can hardly convey what you did in your voice.”

  “I thank you for your time, Mrs. Harker,” he said. “I thank you also that no one else will need to hear such distress.”

  “Oh, but they must,” she insisted. “What you have here is merely information, but your voice said so much more. However, the last cylinder you provided ended on September 7. May I listen to the most recent?”

  He had intended to finish the final cylinder later, but he had no idea she would work through all of his other entries so quickly. It was a simple matter of hardening the wax so that the act of listening to it on the device did not damage the delicate grooves that held the information.

  “I will set it up for you after lunch,” he assured her. “For now, let us eat. I have no doubt that we’ll need our strength.”

  She agreed, and following their lunch, he prepared the final cylinder for her transcription. He was the most concerned over this final entry as it told the story of what happened following Lucy’s mortal death, and it was certainly the most unbelievable of them all.

  * * * * * * * * * *

  Mina started the remarkable machine as Seward left, and as with the other entries, she listened to it prior to typing the words so she knew what to expect. His voice was more worried this time as he relayed the events which grew more terrible as the days passed. His last words were of her arrival at his study only a few short hours ago, but it was too much.

  She stopped the machine and let the story sink in. Her head spun and she thought about what the men had done only last night. Lucy was dead, and yet, she was not. It was impossible.

  She did not remember when she had stood up and backed away from the machine, part of her refusing to believe any of it, despite what she had read of Jonathan’s experience. Some of it began to make sense whether she could understand it or not.

  The room spun as the full story filled her mind, and the implications really hit her. She was never the fainting type, but that did not matter as the room went black around her.

  The next thing she remembered was the smelling salts and Dr. Seward talking gently to her.

  “Mrs. Harker, are you all right,” he asked.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I listened to your entry, and it was a lot to take in.”

  “Perhaps, you should take a break,” he suggested.

  “No,” she said. “Of everything to date, this entry is the most important. I have to finish this no matter how horrible it is.”

  “I have received word that Dr. Van Helsing is on his way,” Seward said. “In addition, Arthur Holmwood and Mr. Bram Stoker will also be arriving later.”

  “Would you send for Jonathan as well?” she asked. “He knows I came to London, but I had not relayed the change of plans with Dr. Van Helsing.”

  “Of course,” he said and left her at the typewriter where she started his entry over and painstakingly copied every word.

  When she had finished, she thought about everything she had typed today from Dr. Seward and recalled that Jonathan had mentioned Dr. Van Helsing being concerned over a newspaper article when he had visited. She looked over the things Seward had on his table where he had previously placed the diaries of her and Jonathan, and found the article about the bloofer lady.

  She read through the clipping and knew from Seward’s diary that the lady in the article was her dear Lucy, and she wondered if the men had done the right thing.

  Of course they had, she thought. Lucy had acted much like an animal based on Seward’s descriptions. She was no longer the friend Mina had known. She glanced over to other newspapers stacked on the table and wondered if Seward had been keeping them on purpose, or if he just had not had a chance to dispose of them.

  She had just started looking through the most recent paper when Jonathan arrived. They embraced, and then she explained to both of them what she was doing.

  “Were there any other articles that you found that are related to this?” she asked Seward after she finished her explanation.

  “Everything I had clipped from the newspapers was in that pile there,” Seward explained, “but as you can see, I’ve
not had the time to dispose of the old ones, and I’ve told my housekeepers never to throw any away. Even if they find a scrap on the floor, they know to place it on the nearest table.”

  “We need to put everything together for the others to look over when they arrive,” she said. “What else do we have other than the diaries and the clippings you know of?”

  “We have the correspondence between you and Lucy as well as some writings that Lucy, herself, had done before she was unable to,” Seward said.

  “The Demeter,” Mina said. “I kept a clipping of it and what followed with the hearings. Not sure why. I think it was because I saw the ship coming in, and I wanted to remember it as something I did with Lucy. I also have some correspondence with Lucy that might or might not be helpful in all of this. It is at my home in Exeter.”

  “I was going to head home to pick up the papers for the sale of the Abbey so I can pick up your letters as well,” Jonathan said.

  “You need to start by reading Dr. Seward’s diary, which I have on his desk there,” Mina said. Jonathan looked at Seward who nodded, and Jonathan agreed to read it first.

  “Wasn’t the captain’s log made public during the hearing?” Seward asked. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”

  “I do remember reading about that,” Mina said. “Another thing to check on later.”

  “I will confess that I am surprised that this count lives next door to me,” Seward said. “I knew someone had moved in there, but I never thought to ask whom. I wonder if we could have saved poor Lucy had we known.”

  “I was under the impression that Dr. Van Helsing was going to visit him,” Jonathan said. “Do you know if he ever did?”

  “He never mentioned it,” Seward said in surprise. “Why would he not have mentioned this to me?”

  “Perhaps the count is not the one at fault here,” Mina suggested.

  “I find that difficult to believe,” Jonathan said.

  “I’m certainly going to ask him about it when he arrives,” Seward said.

  While Jonathan read, Mina and Seward placed the clippings they had in order with the rest of the diaries and Lucy’s writings. They also marked some of the pages for the clippings of the Demeter accident as well as where Mina said her letters would likely fit in.

  She was grateful she had listened to Van Helsing when he had insisted that Jonathan would be strong enough to handle all of this. He was right. Jonathan had grown stronger and more resolute over the situation after learning that he had not lost his mind. Nothing would change the strangeness of the situation, but knowing that he was not crazy helped Jonathan gather his strength and become more than the man she had known before his trip to Transylvania.

  Shortly after Jonathan had finished reading, he departed for Exeter to retrieve the information from there, promising to return in a few hours. Likewise, Dr. Seward had to leave on some business but mentioned that he would see about acquiring a copy of the Captain’s log from the Demeter while he was out, leaving her alone for a time in Seward’s asylum apartment to await the arrival of Stoker and Holmwood.

  She was not sure what to make of everything. Having these narratives in her mind, she could see a bigger picture here that she never could have dreamed, and yet, something still seemed to be missing. Jonathan’s diary felt supernatural in nature, but was it complete? Dr. Seward told of his experiences, and Lucy’s writings seemed to tie into those things as well as hers, but there still seemed to be some kind of disjointed quality or missing element that might help to fit the experiences together more coherently.

  Was the old man at the castle the same person she had seen the night Lucy had been sleepwalking? Was that the same person who had taken Jonathan to the castle, and how much about this creature did Dr. Van Helsing really know? And how did Mr. Richard Renfield, Jonathan’s predecessor to Transylvania and inmate of Seward’s, fit into this? He seemed to be reacting to the count’s arrival next door, but was that all? She hoped that once Dr. Van Helsing arrived and read Seward’s portion of the events along with the additional pieces Jonathan and Seward were acquiring, he might make some sense of this based on his investigations.

  Too many questions and not enough answers. She prayed that the pieces would soon fall into place.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  It was late in the afternoon when both Arthur Holmwood and Bram Stoker arrived at the asylum, but before either Jonathan or Dr. Seward had returned from their respective errands. Mina had spent her afternoon typing additional copies of the diaries for everyone to look over, so she was able to give these to the men to pass the time as they waited.

  All three of them knew of each other through Lucy, though Mina had been aware of Mr. Stoker’s position at the Lyceum before Lucy revealed him to be a family friend as well. While Stoker seemed calm about everything, and read through the material quietly, her encounter with Arthur was more bittersweet. After staring at a few of the pages, Arthur sighed and looked at Stoker who looked up at him. Stoker caught his gaze for only a moment before excusing himself to read elsewhere leaving the two of them alone.

  Arthur placed the pages on the table next to him and leaned over with his elbows on his knees, staring at the floor. Mina waited patiently for him.

  “Lucy spoke of you often, Mrs. Harker,” Arthur said finally. “You were a good friend to her. I can’t thank you enough for that.”

  “Please call me Mina,” Mina said, “and I want to thank you as well for the happiness you gave her. She loved you more than I’d ever seen from her before. More than I honestly thought she was capable of.”

  Arthur sighed, and she could tell he was not looking at her because he was either on the verge of tears, or had been crying already.

  “You probably already know I was there,” Arthur said.

  “Yes,” Mina confirmed.

  “As a man, you accept certain things as something you must do,” he continued. “You accept that there are decisions that must be made, and you make them confidently so that you can live with yourself. This…”

  He paused to gather himself. She moved to sit next to him on the couch and touched his arm. He turned to her, showing the tears staining his face.

  “This was not a decision anyone should ever have to make,” he said. “I looked into her eyes, and saw my Lucy, but it wasn’t her. She pleaded with me with her voice, but it wasn’t her voice. She told me to kiss her, but in the next instant, she tried to attack me. What does that to a person? Who was she in the end?”

  “I’d known Lucy since we were little children,” Mina said. “We shared everything. Lived through every experience girls have growing up. We were like sisters in all we did. To that end, as you were to marry her, you may always think of me as a sister since you certainly would have gained one had you married.”

  Arthur stared at her for a long moment before he finally broke down and cried over the loss of Lucy. She held him as he wept, and she was not sure how much time passed. Eventually, he stopped crying and composed himself.

  “Thank you for enduring me,” he said. “Ever since this happened, I had no woman to speak to of these things. You know I could not speak this way to another man for social reasons, and as you have pledged yourself to me as a sister, I would pledge the same to you, Mrs. Mina Harker, to always be as a brother to you. My door is always open to you and your family as it is open to my own.”

  He picked up the manuscript without another word and started reading. She decided to see where Mr. Stoker had gone to let him know it was all right to return, and she found him at a window looking toward the Carfax Abbey, holding the manuscript. He glanced at her on her approach.

  “I see you have been comforting Arthur,” he said.

  “If you find you need someone to talk to as you look over it, I will be here for some time, I’m sure,” she said.

  “You and Lucy must have been close,” he smiled. “Having known you only a short time here, I can see part of her in you as I can see part of you in her as
I remember her.” He took her hand and kissed it. “I thank you for your attention, but I believe I shall see to Arthur.”

  She watched him go and then turned back to the window overlooking the expanse between them and the Abbey whose sale seemed to start it all. She wondered if the man was still behind those walls, or if he were roaming the city looking for someone else at this time. They were so close to him, but they did not dare to do anything without Van Helsing.

  * * * * * * * * * *

  Prior to leaving the asylum, Seward had checked on Renfield, who was back in his first floor room and in a state of uncommon sanity. His window sill was, again, covered in spiders and flies, but when Seward arrived, Renfield was giving no attention to them but sitting on his bed with his legs crossed.

  “Hello Dr. Seward,” Renfield said. “I trust your visitors are well.”

  “They are,” Seward said, not bothering to ask anymore how Renfield seemed to know when there were other people in the building. He had intended to leave without speaking to the man, but the address by his patient obligated him. “How are you feeling?”

  “I was just thinking about my house,” Renfield said. “I’ve been here for nearly four months now. I wonder if my wife is still waiting for me at home. I wonder if she misses me. You knew I was married, yes?”

  “Yes, I knew,” Seward said. “It was part of your file. You’ve just never mentioned her before.”

  “I miss her,” Renfield said. “I miss my old life. I know that I’ve been a bit unstable at times, but I’ve had a moment of clarity where I’ve found my center. I may be ready to go home. I never thought about home before, so that must be significant, right?”

  “It could be,” Seward agreed, but he was not necessarily sure about letting Renfield go. “There is a process for this, however. I will need to look into your paperwork, and I will get back with you later. As long as this attitude continues, you can be assured of your release.”