by Kim Newman
CHINESE GIRL
Father, the death is sought of the vampire elder Geneviève Dieudonné. Shall it be arranged?
GIRL’S FATHER claps. MR YEE steps into the light. His face is ancient, mummified with wrinkles, but his green eyes glow and his fangs are fearsome. He has a snake tongue. Even VARDALEK is disturbed. Green smoke puffs and the room is filled with light. VARDALEK finds himself alone.*
* * *
COMMERCIAL ROAD, WHITECHAPEL. EXT. NEAR DAWN. The fog is thinning. OLIVER* walks quickly across the road, and hurries along. He passes an alley-opening and is chilled. Not wanting to, he finds himself turning round and stepping into the alley.
ALLEY, WHITECHAPEL. EXT. NEAR DAWN.
OLIVER sees a shadowy figure at the end of the alley. Red eyes glow. The fog is pooled at knee-height. OLIVER, mesmerised, is drawn on step by step. VARDALEK, more hideous than when last we saw him, bends forward, fangs extended, licking his lips.
VARDALEK
Pretty lad, come hither...
OLIVER stands by VARDALEK, who picks him up. OLIVER doesn’t struggle. VARDALEK kisses the boy’s cheek and opens his mouth to bite...
In a blur, someone fast interrupts, knocking VARDALEK down. OLIVER sprawls and backs out of the alley. VARDALEK looks up and sees HENTZAU and KOSTAKI, faces grim.
VARDALEK
Comrades...
COMMERCIAL ROAD, WHITECHAEL. EXT. NEAR DAWN. OLIVER is in a panic. People gather. JAGO and his Crusaders are around. DIARMID and KATE appear on the street. A lone police CONSTABLE toots his whistle, but no more official help comes.
OLIVER
He attacked me.
VARDALEK crawls out of the alley. HENTZAU and KOSTAKI follow.
JAGO
Jack the Ripper! He’s Jack the Ripper! The Carpathian is Jack the Ripper!
VARDALEK, afraid, scurries back and cringes by KOSTAKI’s boots. The mob gets angry and closes around, repeating the accusation, spitting, cursing. OLIVER runs to KATE, who hugs him. KOSTAKI faces JAGO.
HENTZAU (reading aloud from a proclamation)
By the order of Prince Dracula, Lord Protector of These Isles, Count Vardalek is condemned for degeneracy.
VARDALEK (lost)
Degeneracy? The Prince?
HENTZAU
I am sorry, Excellency. But you’re a disgrace.
VARDALEK
Dracula would never...
HENTZAU
You don’t really know him, Count.
VARDALEK scrambles upright. He has lost his wig and looks like a pathetic nosferatu. His rouge runs. He tries to escape from HENTZAU but the mob are a wall. DIARMID takes notes.
HENTZAU (reading)
As an example to those who would misuse their position, Count Vardalek shall be hung in chains and exposed to the purifying light of the Sun.
VARDALEK (screeching)
Noooooo!
KOSTAKI takes hold of VARDALEK. A couple of CARPATHIAN soldiers carry an iron lattice-work cage in the shape of a man. KOSTAKI presses the struggling, screaming VARDALEK into the cage, which is locked shut. It is like a see-through sarcophagus. A heavy chain is slung through a hook on a gibbet-like arm that swings out over the street, and the cage is hoisted up above the crowd. VARDALEK rattles. JAGO, unsure how to react, is stunned.
VARDALEK
Comrades, my friends... there is a mistake, Prince Dracula could not...
The dawn breaks. KOSTAKI, HENTZAU and the CARPATHIANS step back into the shadows. Sunlight falls on VARDALEK, and his face begins to smoulder and bubble. He screeches and hangs limply in the cage. He shrivels and blackens, screams fading to whimpers. Chunks of sloughed skin fall to the cobbles and sputter in the sunlight like cooking bacon. From the mouth of the alley, KOSTAKI and HENTZAU look up at VARDALEK. The crowd has backed away. HENTZAU rolls up the proclamation.
HENTZAU (sub-titled Romanian)
A job well done, lads.
KOSTAKI (sub-titles)
It is a mistake to let them know we can suffer and die. The Prince has made a mistake.
HENTZAU (sub-titles)
Vardalek was a fucking monster, Kostaki. Out of control. Ravening. There’s only room for one such.
They look up at VARDALEK. We follow their gaze, passing the faces of OLIVER, KATE, DIARMID, JAGO, CATHY, MARY, the CHINESE GIRL§. LESTRADE hurries up and is shown HENTZAU’s warrant. VARDALEK, still feebly struggling, is not truly dead. He is in despair. We climb up, to look down on VARDALEK. Everyone looks up at the rising sun. A shadow falls on them all, huge and batwinged. JAGO crosses himself. HENTZAU salutes.#
* * *
ABOVE LONDON. EXT. DAWN.
We fly over the city on huge batwings.
GYMNASIUM. INT. DAY.
The Victorian equivalent of a squash club. Young men in pairs fence, heavily masked and padded. Servants bear refreshments on trays. ARTHUR, in white fencing clothes, waits, hefting a foil, piercing imaginary opponents. CHARLES arrives, similarly dressed, late.
CHARLES
My apologies, Art. I didn’t make it to bed until nearly dawn.
ARTHUR
Vampire hours, old man. Penny tells me you’re quite the rake, mysteriously absent at all hours.
CHARLES
Duty, I’m afraid.
ARTHUR
Duty. Can’t be doing with it.
They face each other on a mat. A few of the others break off to watch this bout. CHARLES swishes his foil and reaches for a face-mask.
ARTHUR
Mind if we have a bash without the masks, Charles? They get infernally in the way.
CHARLES (not sure)
If you insist.
ARTHUR
I do. Now, defend your lady’s honour...
Before CHARLES is quite ready, ARTHUR slashes at him. CHARLES parries, awkwardly but effectively.
ARTHUR
Very neat, Charles.
ARTHUR tries another attack. CHARLES strains to fend him off. The match continues. ARTHUR is all effortless moves and confidence, making comments. CHARLES is stretched, silent, concentrating: outclassed by the vampire, but determined to give a good account of himself.
ARTHUR
I hear tell you’re involving yourself in this Ripper business. (CHARLES grunts.) Nasty affair. No credit in it. Do you have any ideas?
CHARLES (warding off an especially underhand thrust)
Not as yet.
ARTHUR
Pity. The PM would be grateful for a speedy conclusion.
CHARLES
So would some other scoundrels I met with last night.
ARTHUR
You are seen too much with scoundrels. Penny is beginning to tire of it. (He deliberately scrapes CHARLES’s face.) Sorry, old man. Very careless of me.
With cold determination, CHARLES does not lose his temper. He out-fences ARTHUR and touches him with sword-point several times on the torso.
ARTHUR
I say, you’re ahead, aren’t you.
ARTHUR moves inhumanly fast, pinning CHARLES to the wall, foil-edge at his throat. His fangs are extruded. CHARLES’s sword arm is held, gripped at the wrist.
ARTHUR
That about settles it, though.
ARTHUR licks the trickle of blood from CHARLES’s cheek, and lets him go. Servants arrive with drinks. ARTHUR has a goblet of blood, CHARLES orange juice.
ARTHUR
You’re still a better fencer than I, Charles. But you can’t hope to match a vampire for speed. You seem to move like a snail. I can see what you’re going to do before you’ve decided to do it.
CHARLES
Penny wants us to turn.
ARTHUR
Clever girl. You should look after her. Well, cheerio, old man. The sun will be down soon, and I’ve a thirst in me that this pig-stuff won’t slake.
CHARLES watches ARTHUR breeze out. He is breathing heavily, sweating. He touches his cut cheek.*
* * *
ALLEY, WHITECHAPEL. EXT. DUSK.
We are near DRA
VOT’s bolt-hole. ARTHUR and HENTZAU, dressed down a bit, loiter. The fog is thickening again.
ARTHUR
We’re a lot alike, Rupert. We depend on the patronage of our elders. You serve Dracula and I’m Ruthven’s man. In the old days, ambitious men in our position could console themselves with the thought that their superiors wouldn’t live forever, but...
HENTZAU
That’s a dangerous line of thought, Arthur.
ARTHUR
Ruthven’s sharp, but a dilettante. He gets bored with power. That thing with Tennyson. It was petty, childish. And Dracula...
HENTZAU
Is mad. How could he not be mad? The course he has charted. They say he disguises himself and passes among his subjects, bat-ears a-tremble for treachery.
ARTHUR
The years must weigh heavily.
HENTZAU
Elders aren’t all like that. This Dieudonné snip, who caused so much grief for the late Count Vardalek.
ARTHUR
The girl with Charles Beauregard?
HENTZAU
She bears watching.
DRAVOT’s door opens. DRAVOT emerges.
ARTHUR
And so, evidently, does this gentleman. The Diogenes Club is in this to the elbows. (DRAVOT looks around, senses them, and retreats inside.) Damn, I should have remembered. Mycroft teaches his men well.
HENTZAU
He has to come out again.
ARTHUR
There’ll be a dozen back ways out. We’ve shown our hand. We might as well follow through...
ARTHUR and HENTZAU climb to DRAVOT’s door. ARTHUR pushes it open.
DRAVOT’S FLAT, WHITECHAPEL. INT. DUSK.
ARTHUR
It’s not even locked.
HENTZAU finds the same paper on the desk.
HENTZAU
Ho, what’s this?
ARTHUR (looking at the scrawl)
We have him, Rupert. And them, the Diogenes Club. It’s a plot. Mycroft’s calculating brain invented the whole thing. There’s no mad vampire killer, rallying the warm to revolt. Just clever men, warm and un-dead, undermining the rule of Dracula. We must catch Dravot and expose this conspiracy. There’ll be credit in it for us all.*
* * *
MILLER’S COURT, WHITECHAPEL. EXT. NIGHT.
CHARLES and GENEVIEVE step into the courtyard. GENEVIEVE senses but does not see DRAVOT, who stands red-eyed in a corner. A window glows with candle-light, and we hear wet sounds. CHARLES and GENEVIEVE fix their attention on the door of MARY’s room. CHARLES pushes it open.
MARY’S ROOM, WHITECHAPEL. INT. NIGHT.
CHARLES and GENEVIEVE are shocked silent. SEWARD kneels on the bed, in the middle of a ruin barely recognisable as MARY. He is still working, apron and shirtsleeves dyed red. His silver scalpel flickers in firelight. Blood and other substances are spread across the bed and the floor, around the walls up to the height of three feet.
SEWARD
Nearly done. I have to be sure Lucy is dead.
SEWARD stands up and futilely wipes his hands on his apron. CHARLES points a revolver.
CHARLES
Dr Seward, put down the knife and step away from her.
SEWARD keeps the scalpel but steps away. CHARLES, eyes on SEWARD, steps near MARY and looks down, holding his horror rigidly in check.
SEWARD
Van Helsing says her soul will not rest until she is truly dead.
GENEVIEVE
Oh, Jack, Jack...
CHARLES cocks his revolver and aims at SEWARD’s heart.
CHARLES
It’ll be a mercy.
As his finger tightens on the trigger, MARY surges up from the bed – her insides open and red – and takes hold of CHARLES from behind, fangs near his throat.
MARY
No, you mustn’t hurt my Jack, my doctor...
GENEVIEVE dashes to help CHARLES, and SEWARD comes for her with the scalpel.
SEWARD
You’re Lucy. You’re Lucy too. I have to keep... helping Lucy...
SEWARD’s scalpel nears GENEVIEVE’s throat. CHARLES fights off the sorely wounded MARY, and hauls SEWARD off GENEVIEVE. SEWARD raises the scalpel to stab, and CHARLES shoots him in the heart.
SEWARD falls on to the bed, into MARY’s bloody embrace. MARY smiles sadly, madly, at him, and expires.
SEWARD
There. She is delivered. God is merciful. See, she is at peace. Sleep well, Lucy my love. It’s over. We’ve beaten him. We’ve defeated the Count. The contagion cannot spread.
SEWARD dies. GENEVIEVE and CHARLES, shaken, stand over the bed.
GENEVIEVE
You’ve killed him. Poor Jack.
CHARLES
Poor Jack. Poor Mary. Poor Lucy. Poor Everybody.
DRAVOT steps in, a bundle on his shoulder.
DRAVOT
Well done, sir. You’ve put an end to Jack the Ripper.
CHARLES
Dravot.
DRAVOT
All along, sir, there were two murderers, working together. It should have been obvious.
DRAVOT opens his bundle. A dead white face stared up, lips drawn back in a last snarl. ARTHUR.
CHARLES
It’s Godalming.
DRAVOT
Lord Godalming, sir. He was in it with Dr Seward. They fell out last night.
CHARLES
How long have you known this, Dravot? How long has the Diogenes Club known but not seen fit to tell me?
DRAVOT
You caught the Rippers, sir. I’ve just been looking out for you. Your guardian angel.
CHARLES
And Jago? Was that you?
DRAVOT
Another matter, sir.
CHARLES
There’ll be a fearful scandal. Godalming was well-thought-of. He had a reputation as a coming man.
DRAVOT
His name will be entirely blackened.
CHARLES
And he was a vampire. That will cause a stir. The assumption was that the Ripper was warm. There will be repercussions. Careers will be smashed, reputations overturned. The Prime Minister will look foolish.
GENEVIEVE (to DRAVOT)
And what of me? Am I a ‘loose end’? Like Jack, like Godalming? Like that poor girl? You let him butcher her, didn’t you? You or Jack killed Godalming. Then, knowing what he was, you stood back in the shadows and let him account for her. It was tidier that way. You didn’t even dirty your hands. Can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, eh? What about us eggs?
MILLER’S COURT, WHITECHAPEL. EXT. NIGHT.
CHARLES and GENEVIEVE emerge, following DRAVOT. Police whistles sound. DRAVOT slips into the fog, leaving CHARLES and GENEVIEVE.
GENEVIEVE
What happened here, what truly happened?
CHARLES
I don’t yet know.
GENEVIEVE
You’ll be the hero.
CHARLES
Why?
GENEVIEVE
You’ve no choice.
LESTRADE and a couple of CONSTABLES, augmented by HENTZAU and some CARPATHIANS arrive.
CHARLES
There’s a dead woman in that court. And a pair of murderers, also dead. Jack the Ripper is finished.
LESTRADE and HENTZAU look into MARY’s room. LESTRADE is appalled by the scene.
LESTRADE
That’s Hell in there.
CHARLES
It’s Hell out here.
KATE and DIARMID arrive, followed by OLIVER. More rubber-neckers crowd in.
GENEVIEVE
It was Jack Seward.
KATE
Dr Seward?
GENEVIEVE
He was mad, and not responsible.
KATE
Then who was responsible?
GENEVIEVE
The thing who drove him mad.
They look up through thinning fog at the moon. A bat-shape soars across its face.*
* * *
CARRIAGE
. INT. NIGHT.
GENEVIEVE
Look, there’s Van Helsing’s head. It’s a mistake to leave it there. It’s not an example to would-be revolutionaries, it’s a rallying point. Insurrections need martyrs.
OUTSIDE THE PALACE. EXT. NIGHT.
The main gates have barbed wire wrapped around the uprights. CARPATHIANS haul the huge ironwork frames aside as if they were silk curtains and the carriage slides through. The Palace is illuminated. Black smoke pours into the sky.
CARRIAGE. INT. NIGHT.
The carriage stops outside the palace doors.
CHARLES (gets up)
You can stay in the carriage. Safe. I’ll be all right. This will not take long. (She shakes her head.) Gené, I beg you.
GENEVIEVE
Charles, why are you so worried? We’re heroes, we have nothing to fear from the Prince. I am his elder.
The door is opened by a FOOTMAN.
OUTSIDE THE PALACE. EXT. NIGHT.
GENEVIEVE steps down first. CHARLES follows. She takes his arm and nuzzles against him, but he will not be comforted.
Beyond the Palace fences stand crowds. Sullen sightseers peer through bars. GENEVIEVE looks and sees the CHINESE GIRL and a bundled-up MR YEE among the many faces.
The FOOTMAN, a vampire youth with a gold-painted face, leads them up the broad stairs and strikes the doors with his stick. They open, disclosing the marbled length of a vaulted reception hall.
RECEPTION HALL, BUCKINGHAM PALACE. INT. NIGHT. It’s like the Wizard of Oz’s antechamber. Thirty-foot diaphanous silk curtains part in the draught as CHARLES and GENEVIEVE step into the hall. SERVANTS appear and relieve the visitors of their cloaks. GENEVIEVE expects her dress to be admired but CHARLES glumly has to hand over his cane to a CARPATHIAN.
CHARLES (suddenly grasping her)
Whatever happens, this you must know. Gené, I love you.
GENEVIEVE
And I you, Charles. I you.
CHARLES
I you what?
GENEVIEVE
Love, Charles. I love you.
He kisses her, and they are drawn along the hallway, towards more tall doors, which open for them.
ANTECHAMBER, BUCKINGHAM PALACE. INT. NIGHT.
CARMILLA, a vampire lady-in-waiting, waits for CHARLES and GENEVIEVE. This hallway is like the last but far more battered. An armadillo wriggles past GENEVIEVE’s feet. The carpets are dirty. CARMILLA guides them to inner doors, which open in noisy lurches. The doorman is JOHN MERRICK, grotesque malformations emphasised by a tailored parti-coloured suit.
