Chapter 6 – Corpse Cases

Frankenstein's words echoed behind them as Vinny and William made their way down the dark staircase. William spared one glance over his shoulder before deciding that was a bad idea. The sight of Vinny's headless form was still too creepy, especially given the circumstances. He preferred to keep his eyes forward for whatever might be lurking in the shadows below.

"I hate this," he muttered under his breath. "I hate doing stuff like this. I hate being stuck in this freaking castle. And I swear to god, if there really is someone hiding down here, I'm going to wet my pants."

"Has anyone ever told you that you inspire confidence in others?"

"Shut up, Vinny."

"I'm just saying, maybe we should do something about your outlook on life. You're kind of a downer."

"I said shut up."

"Or what? You're not going to start crying like you were last night, are you?"

William stopped dead in his tracks, almost sending both himself and Vinny tumbling down the last few steps as Vinny collided with his back.

"Hey, bro! Watch it! I was just kidding about that whole crying thing."

"Vinny…"

"No seriously. I'm not going to tell anyone. But you shouldn't feel embarrassed about it. Everybody cries sometimes."

"Damn it, Vinny! Will you just look?"

"Look at what?" Vinny started to ask, but then he must have seen what it was that had William frozen in place. His next words were swallowed and replaced with a quiet, "Oh… shit."

The staircase led to a small wine cellar. There didn't seem to be any other doorways or staircases from which a person could escape. The wine racks were nearly empty, but for a few dusty bottles scattered here and there. About the only interesting fixture in the room came in the form of two long boxes sitting side by side in the middle of the floor.

"Don't tell me that's what I think it is."

"You mean a coffin?"

"That's exactly what I didn't want you to say, Vinny."

"But it looks like a coffin."

"Right, but I don't think I can deal with this right now."

"Well, it's not really something you have to deal with. A coffin's just a coffin."

"Stop saying coffin!"

William felt the pressure of Vinny's hands on his shoulders as he gave him a light shove. "Just move already!" said the invisible man. "We can't stand here all day! Besides, our mystery host could be hiding in one of those… cadaver crates."

"Cadaver crates?"

"You're the one who said to stop saying coffin."

"Well maybe you're right. Maybe there is someone in there. Maybe, that's exactly what I'm afraid of."

William wasn't joking when he said he was afraid. He was truly terrified. But even as his fear kept him rooted to the spot, his eyes unable to turn away from the sight of the coffins, he began to notice obvious distinctions between the two.

One was exactly what a person would expect, having seen them in the movies - a long, narrow wooden box, darkened with age but bearing the lacquer of a modern coffin. But the vessel lying next to it was of older make. To William, it looked just like something he would have seen in his history books when studying ancient Egypt.

"Is that… a sarcophagus?"

"It's too dark down here… I can't tell."

"I think it is… Look at the shape of it. And I think there's an effigy on the lid."

William's curiosity got the better of his fear, and he slowly started to creep toward the two boxes. However, he had only managed a couple of steps in the direction of the second box before the first opened with a loud creak.

William jumped back with a squeal of terror, reaching out for Vinny and grasping onto his shirt. He continued to scream for some time, all of his fear and the overwhelming emotions he had experienced over the last few months finding release in one long wail. The sound reverberated off the walls and finally faded away. From the top of the stairs, Frankenstein's voice called out to them anxiously.

"We're fine!" Vinny yelled. He grasped William's hands, still clawing at the front of his shirt. "Dude. What the hell are you screaming about? It's just Dracula."

It was true that as William had been screaming, Dracula slowly swung open the lid of his coffin, attached by hinges to the base. He was sitting up now, surrounded by the black silk interior of his bed, staring at Vinny and William wordlessly, his eyes wide with an inexplicable emotion.

"You do realize that in any other situation that's still completely terrifying. He's Dracula. He's still evil."

"Yeah, but at least he's someone we know. I mean, what if some guy we'd never even met was rising out of that thing?"

William jerked his head in the direction of the still unopened sarcophagus. "Well, speaking of people we don't know…"

"Maybe it's one of Drac's brides?"

"Look at the effigy, stupid. It's clearly a man."

Vinny's form shifted in the direction of the vampire, as if reaching out to him for some sort of insight. "Partner…?" he suggested slowly, his voice questioning.

William looked again at Dracula to see what sort of reaction he would have to Vinny's implication. Dracula continued to stare wide-eyed at the both of them, his expression inscrutable. He still didn't make a sound. He neither sneered nor spat threats at either of them. For once, William thought, he didn't even seem angry. Instead, he just looked shocked, as if he couldn't even comprehend how he had found himself in such a situation, among such company as he now found himself in. William almost laughed. He could understand the feeling.

Dracula shifted his attention to the sarcophagus, his expression of shock quickly melting away. A look of quiet rage replaced it as he slowly turned back toward William and Vinny. With one long, pale finger pointed toward the sarcophagus, he asked, "Did you put that there?"

William didn't like the accusatory tone in his voice. "Us?" he said with irritation, "We just got here."

"Did you put that there?" Dracula repeated, as if he hadn't heard William speak at all. The sound of fury in his tone was rapidly increasing.

Vinny intervened, saying, "You mean it wasn't there before?"

"Of course not. Why would I keep an Egyptian sarcophagus in my cellar?"

"I dunno. Why do you keep a coffin down here?"

"Because I am a vampire, you pissant. And there was nothing down here but my coffin before I laid to rest. So it had to be one of you. Tell me, who am I murdering this evening?"

"Afternoon."

"What?"

"It's still afternoon. You'll be murdering one of us this afternoon, not this evening."

"Vinny, shut up!"

William swallowed nervously and took a deep breath before speaking to Dracula again. "Actually, we think there's someone else in the house. We've been looking everywhere since breakfast…"

Dracula did not seem interested in his story. He quickly jumped up from his coffin in one fluid motion and was at the side of the sarcophagus in the same instant. William was taken aback by his speed, and hardly had time to register what he was about to do before Dracula had already done it. Without hesitation, he threw the heavy stone lid of the sarcophagus to the floor.

The stone cracked in two large pieces as it collided with the clay floor. William nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound, but he managed to bite back a second scream before he could embarrass himself again. A sort of morbid curiosity overcame him as he watched Dracula rest his hands against the edge of the open sarcophagus. William tried to peer over the edge from where he was standing, but the light was too dim in the cellar to make out anything distinct, even for his eyes.

"There are candles and matches behind you." Dracula said, as if he could read William's thoughts. William tried to remember what he'd heard of Dracula's powers from movies. Maybe Dracula really was reading his mind?

Feeling even more creeped out, he turned to find a tarnished silver candelabrum on a short wooden table. The matches were there just as Dracula said, and soon the bright light of several taper candles illuminated the cellar.

Dracula motioned impatiently when William hesitated, hoisting the candelabrum to shoulder height. William was still curious to see what figure lay in the box, but he didn't like the idea of getting too close to Dracula. The candelabrum was passed to Vinny, who was only too pleased to get closer to the vampire.

"A mummy! Cool! Will, you have to see this."

William crept closer at his summons, taking a place across from Dracula and Vinny. The gold light of the candle shined down on the yellowed wrappings of the dead man. William was both relieved and somewhat disappointed to see that the man had been wrapped tightly in his bindings, and didn't seem to have been disturbed for a very long time. He wasn't quite what William had expected from a real mummy. His bandages were not slipping from a shrunken, emaciated form, revealing bone and rotting flesh beneath. On the contrary, he looked quite snug.

The three of them were still. Each man stared down at the form for several long minutes, examining the mummified man.

Dracula crouched over the figure and lowered his head toward its face. Without warning, he gave a wordless shout directly into the mummy's ear. William jumped and reflexively moved to cover his ears, but the echoes of Dracula's yell were already dissipating. Dracula frowned at the resting form. The mummy, unsurprisingly, had shown no reaction to the vampire's provocation.

"What was that?" Frankenstein called from the top of the stairs.

"Come on down!" Vinnie shouted back, mimicking a game show host. "See for yourself what prizes we have in store!"

"It's only Dracula!" William said, surprising even himself. He never imagined he would say those words together in a sentence. "And we've found a mummy!"

They heard the sound of heavy footfalls racing quickly down the stairs. In the next instant, Frankenstein was with them, looking elated.

"A mummy! Have you really? Is he dead?"

Jekyll and Beth followed soon after Frankenstein, each moving a more leisurely pace. Jekyll frowned at Frankenstein as he helped Beth down the stairs. He barely glanced in the direction of the two caskets. "Of course he's dead, Frankenstein. It's a damn mummy."

"I meant is he dead or undead? I don't think it's such a ridiculous question given our present company. He could be under one of those ancient Egyptian curses you hear so much about."

"Oh yes," Jekyll said dryly, "I hear those have been going around."

Frankenstein ignored him and turned to inspect the new specimen. He seemed slightly disappointed to see the figure lying so still. "No reaction?"

Dracula grunted, then disrespectfully pushed the corpse to the side, rolling it over so its bandaged face was pressed to the side of the clay coffin.

Frankenstein gasped, "What are you doing?"

"Looking for clues, obviously." Dracula said, not looking up from his task.

"Like, zoinks Velma! Do you really think there will be a clue next to that old mummy?"

Dracula lifted his head and stared at Vinny with the same wide-eyed expression he had when he first rose from his coffin. To William, it seemed as if his anger towards them all was lost in wonder over how idiotic Vinny truly seemed.

He wasn't entirely alone. Frankenstein and Jekyll were staring at Vinny with expressions of mixed perplexity and amazement at his foolishness. William was just impressed that Vinny could still make such lame jokes at a time like this.

The awkward silence carried on until Vinny finally shrugged his shoulders. "Nobody else watches Scooby. That's fine. Your loss, not mine. But I still say we take off those bandages. It could be old man Jenkins under that disguise."

Dracula looked at William. "Explain," he demanded.

"He's talking about an old cartoon. There are these people who solve mysteries, and there are always monsters who turn out to be people…" William stopped when he saw Dracula's brow cloud over with his usual frown. "And it's not important," he finished quickly.

Dracula nodded, satisfied with this answer, and turned back to his task.

"Anything there?" asked Jekyll, moving closer to get a better look.

Dracula only shook his head, "Only what you would expect. Loose linens… Salt…"

"Anubis," Vinny added. The others looked to where his seemingly empty sleeve pointed. Near the base of the mummy sat four clay jars neatly packed in the same linen that wrapped the mummy.

William saw that each jar was topped with the head of an Egyptian god. One looked like a person. Another, a falcon. The third was more difficult to determine, though it looked to William like a weasel. The last had the head of a jackal.

It was this last that Dracula lifted from the sarcophagus to better inspect. "Actually, I believe this is Duamutef."

William and the others stared at Dracula in astonishment. He glared at them. "What? Am I not allowed to be knowledgeable? Do I not have books that I am capable of reading?"

"Forgive our amazement," said Frankenstein, "I just didn't expect you to be an expert on ancient Egyptian gods."

"I am not. But I do remember a few things. For example, these are canopic jars. They were used to hold a person's internal organs once they were mummified. If I am remembering correctly, then Duamutef usually held a man's stomach."

Vinny grabbed the jar from Dracula's hand and held it closer to the light. "Cool! Which one has his brains?"

Dracula stood from his crouching position and snatched the jar back out of Vinny's hands. "They did not store the brain. It was removed, but not kept."

"They didn't keep the brain?" Frankenstein asked, "But that's preposterous. What is a man without his brain?"

"I do not think it matters to the mummy either way. He will not be using it."

"Very funny."

"Then I don't think we have anything to learn from this fellow," Jekyll said. "Mummy's curse or no, I don't think he'd be able to manage rising from his grave without a brain."

"Why not? Vinny seems to get around just fine."

"Hey! Why you gotta play me that way, Vlad?"

"Because you are an idiot, and I hate you."

"Did you guys hear that? Dracula hates me! Man, I am so glad I went on this vacation."

"I think we've lost sight of the main problem here," Jekyll said.

Frankenstein nodded in agreement, then paused. Sheepishly, he asked, "And that would be…?"

"Why is there a mummy in the cellar?"

"One of you must have put it here while I slept."

"Yeah right!" said William, "As if one person could carry that thing downstairs by themselves. It must weigh over 300 pounds!"

"I could do it."

"Yeah, well we're not all freaky vampires like you."

"Fine. Then perhaps it was two of you working together." He looked pointedly toward Frankenstein and Jekyll.

Frankenstein grew red in the face. "I resent your implication, Dracula! Do you mean to accuse me in this?"

"I suspect all of you of having a hand in this. And I will continue to do so until we have discovered who is responsible, you have managed to find a way out of my castle, or until I kill you all. Whichever comes first."

Frankenstein opened his mouth to object again, but Jekyll laid a firm hand on his arm. "Dracula makes a good point. We have to start considering the possibility that this is a two-man job. And if that's the case, one of us could be working with Y."

"Or one of us could be Y and have an accomplice on the outside," Vinny suggested.

"But someone on the outside must have a way in," said Dracula.

"That's why we were down here in the first place!" William said, starting to feel panicky again. "We were looking for whoever it was that left the food upstairs! And now I guess that person left a mummy down here in the cellar for god knows what reason! But we've searched all over the house, and we haven't found anyone, and all the doors are still locked!"

Dracula sighed, "That would not have done you any good. Someone with the knowledge of how to get in would obviously know how to get out again. They would not just leave a door open and make it easy for us to follow."

"Fine. So we're back to square one."

"Not quite. We have a mummy now."

"Fan-freaking-tastic."

Dracula seemed to shake himself out of a reverie, he stretched, which seemed an odd behavior for a vampire, though William wasn't sure why he thought so at the time. Perhaps because the casual action seemed so human, it didn't quite seem to fit the attitude of the vampire. But when he stared at William and said, "Wolf-boy. Tell me the time," his directive seemed entirely in character.

William bristled at being addressed thusly, "Do I look like I have a watch?"

Dracula raised his eyebrows at William's brazen attitude, but was spared having to respond by Frankenstein, who inspected an expensive looking silver watch strapped to his wrist.

"It's just past two in the afternoon," he said.

Dracula nodded, then pointed to William, "Wolf-boy. Go upstairs and fetch my book on ancient Egyptian culture."

"Excuse me?"

"Book. Egypt. Mummies. Fetch."

"I don't take orders from you! And I have a name, you know!"

Dracula glared at him, his patience long gone. "Frankenstein," he spat through clenched teeth, his eyes never leaving William, "Explain to the wolf-boy that so long as he is under my roof he will make himself useful or I will find my own use for him."

Frankenstein looked startled. "What exactly do you mean?"

"It sounds like you all had your breakfast delivered to you. Surely you've realized that I had no such honor bestowed on me? I shall have to shift for myself for nourishment."

"Oh oh!" Vinny said cheerfully, "Maybe that's what the mummy is for!" When the others stared at him blankly, he continued, "you know… Maybe the mummy is Vlad's breakfast."

Dracula looked the picture of insulted. "That mummy is thousands of years old!"

"Yeah and this is a wine cellar. Maybe mummies age like a fine wine."

Dracula clenched his fists and took three deep breaths. "Let me make myself perfectly clear. The only reason I haven't made good on my word to kill all of you is because I may need at least one of you to get the hell out of here. Furthermore, if I discover one of you is our secret captor, or is working for him, I will not hesitate to murder you with my bare hands and feast on your blood. That said, it is in your best interests to do as I say, when I say it, lest I lose my patience and forget my resolve to forbear killing you. I am not your friend. We are not allies. Do you understand me?"

When the others failed to respond and even Vinny was silent, Dracula continued. "Good. Now let this be the last time I repeat myself. Wolf-boy, fetch the book. It should be in the den. Vinny, leave the candles on the table. The rest of you are dismissed."

William took a deep breath and shouted, "My name is William!" before he dashed up the stairs to comply with Dracula's wishes. He didn't want to give the vampire the chance to have the last word.

Maybe it was childish of him to abandon the others like that, and he hated that he was doing as the vampire commanded, but he was past the point of caring. He could hear the others pass through the hall, Frankenstein and his wife talking in hurried whispers, Jekyll lecturing Vinny on some inappropriate comment that he made. None of it mattered to William. Never in his life had anyone spoken to him the way that Dracula had. He was beyond insulted.

"Hey, Willster. How ya holdin' up?"

"Go away Vinny."

"Need any help finding that book?"

"I said go away!"

"You're not about to cry again, are you?"

"No, I'm not!"

In truth, William could feel his eyes sting with building tears, and he turned away from Vinny on the pretext of inspecting one of the bookshelves. He knew it was only his anger that made his eyes burn, but he still felt ashamed for being so weak.

"How can the rest of you just put up with that? Didn't you hear how he talks to us? We're insects to him!"

"Hey, now. Cool your jets, bruv. You know he's only like that because he's as frustrated as the rest of us. Everybody's a little on edge."

"You're not. You seem perfectly happy to be here. In fact, I'd say if any of us is an accomplice of Y, it's probably you."

"Really? I'm flattered. Personally, I think it's Dracula who's behind all of this."

"Are you serious? He hates that we're here."

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much."

"Huh?"

"He's so eager to let us know just how much this little sleepover wasn't his idea. But do you honestly think he can't find a way out of his own castle? The guy can turn into mist, for Christ's sake! I think he's puttin' on an act. Think about it, who's to say that sarcophagus wasn't there the whole time? None of us even knew about the creepy basement."

William wasn't a hundred percent convinced, but part of Vinny's argument was starting to make sense. It was strange that such a large coffin should be moved into the cellar without anyone hearing it, especially if Dracula was sleeping right next to where they sat it. And it seemed strange to him suddenly that Dracula should send him to find a book on ancient Egyptian customs, as if people usually kept those lying around.

"He did seem fairly knowledgeable about the whole mummy burial thing." William acknowledged.

"That's what I'm saying," Vinny said. He pulled a book off the shelf right in front of William's face. "And dude, you've been staring at this for five minutes and haven't even noticed."

William grabbed the book from where it seemed to be floating in midair, and read the title. "Nile Mysticism. A guide to the religious structure and burial customs in ancient Egypt," he read aloud. He looked toward the place where Vinny's head should be, just above the shoulders of his shirt, "I suppose I'd better take this to him…"

"Better you than me! He may hate all of us, but I think he loathes me."

William nodded, "If he does decide to go on a killing spree, either you or I will be the first to go."

"Well, good luck taking that book to him in the creepy basement!"

"… Gee, thanks."

William tucked the book under one arm and began trudging down the hall. He was seriously considering hurling the book down the cellar steps and spending the rest of the afternoon hiding in his room while daylight lasted. He was just making up his mind whether this action would extend or shorten his life expectancy when he saw Jekyll standing near the hidden cellar entrance.

His expression was grave as he slowly approached William. He nodded toward the book under William's arm. "Is that the one?"

"It must be. How many books on Egypt can one guy have?"

"Right, well let's take it down to him quickly. I want to get this over with."

"… You're coming with me?"

"For the time being, I don't trust Dracula alone with any of us. Best if we see him in pairs."

William stared down at his feet. He was grateful for the company, but embarrassed to admit that being around Dracula terrified him more than it angered him.

"Thanks," he said, and the two headed down the staircase together.