The folk group Faun and their song of the fic name inspired me for this piece for Halloween. Lyrics of the song are shown in English translation, originally in German. I even had help from a reliable source on the Pagan holiday which celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of spring. :D Enjoy this, because I have nothing much to say. This is an AU as well.
Of course, nothing in here is mine, and Happy Halloween to Lovecraft himself, to director Stuart Gordon, and the wonderful cast of Jeff Combs, Barbara Crampton, Bruce Abbott and even the late David Gale (Dr. Hill).
You'd think Herbert West would love the holiday Halloween, but it turned out the answer was no, and he would have loved the idea of spending it looking for fresh new corpses for their work, but West specifically said no, and that it was nothing but a bad memory for him. Dan Cain tried to talk more out of him only to get the death glare - and the glare of the glasses under the light.
"We have work to do tonight, Daniel."
"West, it's Halloween. Meg, her father and the others are all going into the forest for the bonfire at the end of the party -"
An agitated sigh escaped thin, pale lips. The shorter man reached to take off his glasses and rubbed his eyes to ward off a headache. "For the last time, it's a waste of time. There is too much to focus on." West, all you care about is the work this, the work that - the work, the work, the work. Honestly, don't you ever think of other things? With that, he sat down on the sofa with his notebook opened for the next results. Well, what could he say? The man was too stubborn to see reason. He would very much be on his own tonight if Daniel had anything to say about it. He was going out with the woman he was marrying after graduation this year, with his future father-in-law who was dean, and his friends and colleagues. He had a life unlike his roommate who he did consider a great friend despite this morbid second life. His fiancée knew of their activities, but if her father found out, it was expulsion and their future in ruins.
Herbert wouldn't care as long as he saw their dream becoming reality through illegal means. That still didn't fail to worry Dan Cain. They had so far managed to revive a whole person to conscious reason, but the joy would be short-lived, and the person would succumb back into death. A constant change in the formula until the right one came along. But West went on and on about how something was still missing, and it would require a travel out of the country at their next opportunity...
Dan wasn't sure if that was such a good idea with school and Dean Halsey questioning - as with Dr. Hill breathing down West's neck as well as his own. And speaking of Dr. Carl Hill, he was not looking forward to seeing the man at the celebration tonight. He didn't like the way the guy who taught his class looked at Meg, who also was equally creeped out by him, but she kept her tongue behind her teeth because he and her daddy were longtime colleagues and friends. If Dan could, he would find some form of proof to blackmail him into staying the hell away from his woman.
And speaking of which, the doorbell rang on time. He left West alone and went to answer it - and his jaw literally dropped. "Oh, God!"
Meg gave a suggestive twirl, one hand atop her head and the other on her hip. "Like what you see?" She was in a corset of ruby red, covered with dimensional flowers, and the skirt was darker and cascading with lace, pearls and crystals. Crowning her head were gold and red gems.
"I'm sure that you're going to break many men's hearts besides this one's," Herbert called from his position on the sofa, not bothering to look up and not in the mood for awkward tension. Dan sighed; sometimes he wished these two could get along for a moment. They were both important in his life.
"Well, thank you, West," Meg told him with a forced smile. "And I see you're busy. You think you can survive a night without Dan?"
"One night certainly won't kill. It's not like I have anything better to do."
Meg's face softened then as if an epiphany came over. "Oh..." She must have decided at the last minute that he couldn't be cooped up in this house on Halloween and miss out on the fun. Then a grin flashed over her face which made Dan nearly double over with laughter at the look on his spectacled friend's face.
It wasn't long before they got Herbert's costume at last minute - a gentleman from the eighteenth century - and his own was a male sprite to join his lady in red. All three made their way to Miskatonic University Medical by the time the sun was setting.
He and Meg greeted and kissed her father - well, she did - but then showed the man that creeped them both out. "Dr. Hill," Dan forced himself to say, managing his smile. His fiancée nodded her head without a word, and Dr. Halsey didn't seem bothered in the slightest.
"You two - a lovely couple," Carl Hill answered back, thin lips pulled back to bare his teeth in a slight leer which then transformed into a scowl when the man who clashed with him day and night about the theory of brain death and survival chose to appear. "West."
"Dr. Hill," Herbert answered coolly, ignoring him altogether and nodded once to the dean, who appeared slightly confused that the asocial student would make himself known on Halloween as he'd never known West to enjoy these things.
"I had to drag him out with Dan's help, Daddy," Meg said lightly, earning laughs from all of them.
Hill huffed. "Perhaps tonight can give him something to think about instead of other things..." The constant complaints to Dean Halsey, and West is so lucky to not have been kicked out by now. But we both know what kind of man Hill is. He exhaled sharply to himself; his friend needed to learn to draw his lines somewhere instead of a daily basis clashing with others, but that passionate streak had no limits. Just like his own. Except he had more control over himself.
Tonight was very fun when he dipped and twirled his girl, which even made her father laugh whenever he looked their way. Her hand in his gave him a glimpse of the ring he'd given her a month ago. The ring he knew was perfect and within the budget he could afford. The solitaire was pure and golden, the round yellow diamond placed on a band of twinkling white. It was Megan, the woman he fell in love with the first year of school.
Her father's eyes had sparkled with pride, while Hill simply schooled his face into a brief smile and then a blank stare. West was indifferent, but he still said congratulations. Dan knew beneath the exterior that he was worried he would lose his lab assistant. Being married meant Dan would have to sacrifice and make his woman happy. Where would Herbert find someone else to help him with the research?
Dead bodies...an abnormal glowing green serum...yeah, normal every day.
The man in his thoughts got his and Megan's attention when he was spotted standing off to the side with punch in hand, getting offers by some giggling girls, but he'd coolly turn them down, disappointing them and sending them away. He and Meg looked at each other. What were they going to do to make Herbert West have some more fun?
~o~
Herbert West had personal reasons to hate Halloween. His parents had been killed on the holiday, and he'd been only a boy about to become a teenager. He'd been living in Switzerland when Mum and Dad brought him to live with none other than Dr. Hans Gruber, the man who would become his mentor in medicine and surgery; the old professor had even taught his parents while they were in Europe for their own studies. He had been like a father to them both, so in a sense he was Herbert's grandfather.
But what gave him a personal reason to loathe the holiday besides the loss of his parents on Halloween was the fact that Dr. Gruber died shortly before the day known as "Witches' Night" as soon as night fell and the bonfires were lit for the witches and other wicked things to come out. Six months before Hallow's Eve. On both that night and this one, death surrounded as it did Herbert West, Re-Animator. He could have been back at the house, settling on experimenting with a recently died animal on the road or something. Anything to make improvements.
But no, Daniel and Miss Halsey HAD to pull him from his comfort and amongst these fools. And to have to be forced to momentarily speak with the plagiarist himself.
He'd stood off to the side for the duration of the festivities, watching other couples, some females in rather scandalous costumes, but he did confess that Meg's was a little more...tasteful than most. That was as far as he would go. Observing the crowd was the best he could do. To watch the couple made him smile a little, but when this year was over and they graduated, Dan and Meg would marry, and Herbert worried losing his best friend and assistant. Marriage meant major change, which he himself couldn't afford. Who would help him with the work?
He half-expected Hill to approach him, but it seemed the man had the same thing in mind in avoiding him altogether to prevent another verbal clash. Now everyone was outside in time for the bonfire - and a certain song burst to life that he hadn't heard since he left Switzerland following Gruber's death and failed re-animation by his hand.
In the night-sky tonight
The witches rise
Wild folk and Lilith's kind
Lurking, secretly ride the winds.
He thought it ironic that a song telling of the "second Halloween" would be sung tonight of all nights, but what did it matter? They were so similar and so different at the same time. Both celebrated in Ireland and northern Europe, both dividing into summer to winter, Beltane being the beginning of summer and Samhain the end, into darkness. In medieval times, the line between life and death was at its thinnest. Ghosts, faeries and other fiends would come with the most powerful of spellcasters into this world.
But Herbert West refused to believe in such nonsense. The world was about science, not supernatural rubbish.
Let us wander to the fires
Whispering, reach for the stars
Both the good and the bad word
Take us (further) on and on tonight.
He glimpsed a couple of witches in black even, shaking his head. Walpurgisnacht - all about the witches primarily in comparison to Halloween having it all.
In the meadows our dreams will ring
And the winds will sing our songs.
Let us leap over the fires with the sparks
On Walpurgis Night!
Herbert was now sitting on a fallen tree trunk by this time when Meg ran over to him, leaving Dan where he was standing - and he did not like the smirk his partner was giving him. Said partner's woman flashed red and halted in front of him, pulling him forward. "Come on, you're not going to sit out this song!" she yelled over the pick up of the rhythm.
He protested, but she ignored him altogether and helped him pull off his jacket. This was going to get heated with the fire roaring and the young people leaping about without a real direction, but knowing better than to jump through the murderous gold and amber flames.
Hear the fiddles, hear the fiddles,
The fires are kindled!
Follow the round dance, follow the round dance
On Walpurgis Night.
The memory of his parents, Dr. Gruber and himself at a Halloween party in his childhood made him momentarily lose himself, no longer paying attention to Dan and Meg as they twirled against each other and sometimes released to let the lady's skirts swirl around her fine legs. The first time he did this was when he was eight and innocent of the horrors of the world that would one day corrupt his vision, mind, soul and heart.
Unruly in the fiddles' play
Our nightly round dance spins
And we join, wild and free,
This old magic.
On the night of the witches, greenery was collected to decorate the homes by children, who were in turn paid with eggs. These bonfires were created to ward off the evil lurking about. He'd done that for the fun of it, and his mother and father called it precious that he'd taken old traditions more seriously than anyone did these days. But when they died, he'd continued only because Gruber assured him that it would honor their memory this way - until he, too, died, and he was alone. He buried himself in the research they did together while he was at the Swiss Medical University. Celebrating meant nothing to him...
Only once in great circles
We dance in that way
Until the first light of morning
Breaks our dream-web.
...but now that his best friend and his friend's fiancée pulled him out for this one night he hated for the longest time of his life, the pain slowly subsided to let in the freedom he'd forgotten. It brought a peace of mind he never felt during work.
The rest of the party passed in a daze, but when it was over, he found himself on his knees, gasping for air, and his glasses sliding down his nose. His skin was sweating from the wild flailing and yells that he never knew he was releasing with the others. The couple noticed him and limped his way, presumably from the fun. His body felt like it had come down from cloud nine, the highest point. "Herbert, are you okay?" Dan asked, voice hoarse as if he'd just had sex, but in a public place where Megan's father or even Hill could catch them? It was laughable, and one did escape Herbert's mouth that it made Meg smile broadly. Her hair was frizzy from tossing it around so much, and a faint shine over the plump curves of her chest.
"Reveling in an old memory. I thank you both for bringing me here."
April 30th is the day mentioned: "Walpurgis Night was when, according to the belief of millions of people, the devil was abroad - when the graves were opened and the dead came forth and walked. When all evil things of earth and air and water held revel."
Reviews please!