Author's Note:
Hello, all! I decided to take a few minutes to officially announce that I'm taking a brief hiatus during the month of November in order to participate in the NaNoWriMo challenge. Some of you may be thinking, "but jinxauthor, how will this hiatus be any different than all of those times you failed to update for months on end?" Good question. I guess it won't be much different for all of you. But this time, I plan to dedicate my NaNoWriMo project to adding 50,000 words to this story, rather than beginning a whole new tale. Now, I don't know if 50,000 words will finish the story, but it should give me a few chapters to edit and upload starting in December. I thank all of you who have continued to read this story so far. Bear with me a little longer, and I promise, there will be more to come. Happy reading. jinxauthor
Chapter 10 – Questions without Answers
This sounds like an interrogation, William thought to himself. Sure, they were using Beth to ask the questions, no doubt thinking it would make William and Vinny more comfortable. But Frankenstein and Jekyll were hovering just behind her, watching intently.
William was saved from having to respond right away by Vinny's interjection.
"So, what kind of questions did you have in mind? Hoping to hear more about my great grand-dad's invisible legacy? Er, uh… His legacy of invisibility? No that's not right either… That thing he passed down so's I can be invisible."
William thought Vinny was lucky to be invisible so he could dodge the look of scorn the older men were sending his way. Beth smiled patiently, though her gaze remained fixed on William. She had the clearest blue eyes. And her hair, it looked so soft. If she wasn't a married woman…
William quickly shook the thought from his mind. Beth was speaking to him again, and he knew he'd have to stay sharp and focused for whatever they were asking of him.
"William, we were hoping you could tell us more about… Well, about before you came here."
"My great grand-dad didn't leave me any legacy." William blurted stupidly. Well, so much for staying sharp.
"No, not about your family. We just wondered if you could tell us about the time you were bitten?"
They think I'm lying. "What is it you want to know?"
"You said you became a werewolf two months ago, after being bitten by what you thought was a bear. Where exactly did that happen?"
"Germany."
"Can you be more precise?"
"Um… I don't really know. Somewhere in the Black Forest?"
"What were you all doing in there?" Jekyll asked in amazement, though William didn't understand why he should look so shocked.
"Well, there's trails and stuff, right? People go on hikes and ride bikes and that sort of thing. We were sightseeing."
"Bit different from our day, eh Dr. Jekyll?" Frankenstein said laughingly. Dr. Jekyll did not look amused.
"I really don't know what you're talking about, Frankenstein. I've never been to the Black Forest. I'm just not sure what a bunch of American boys like William and his friends were doing in a place like a German fairy forest to begin with."
"OK – first of all," said William haughtily, "You guys need to stop it with this 'boy' stuff. I'm twenty-two. Secondly, what do you mean 'fairy forest?' Are there actual fairies in there? Like with wings and everything?"
"He means like fairytales," Frankenstein said, still with a grin on his face. He was looking more like his usual self than he had since the mummy was first unwrapped. "Everyone knows that the Black Forest served as inspiration for a lot of the Grimm brother's fairytales."
"And I am one hundred and eighty years old," Jekyll said, "I'm guessing Frankenstein's age is about the same. If we say you're a boy, then you're a boy. The same goes for Vinny, so don't take it personally."
"Hey! I'm invisible! There's no way you can know how told I am!"
"Are you one hundred and eighty?"
"No."
"Then shut up."
"Gentlemen, please. I think we've drifted a little off topic," Beth said pleadingly. William was surprised to see Jekyll and Frankenstein both look property chastised. Even Vinny refrained from providing a retort. Beth glanced at the others to be sure that they had no intention of producing further interruptions, then she fixed William with her cool blue gaze once again.
"William, did you meet anyone while you were traveling through the forest?"
"We met lots of people."
"Sightseers, like yourself?"
"Yeah, mostly. Some locals."
"You spoke with them?"
"Sure. Lots of people speak English, which is great, because none of us speak any languages… Well, I mean we speak English, but that's…" he glanced up at Beth. She was still watching him patiently, smiling slightly. But the smile seemed frozen in place, as if she was forcing it to stay there. He cleared his throat and continued, "Anyway, yeah, we talked to a lot of people, but that was all before I was attacked."
"Did any of the people who spoke to you stand out at all?"
Vinny suddenly groaned. William jumped in surprise. He had been so intent on speaking to Beth that he nearly forgot about the invisible man.
"Is there a point to this line of questioning?!" Vinny cried.
It was Frankenstein who said, "We're just trying to figure out if there's some common link between us all. Maybe it's someone we all have met before or some information that was passed along. William has had his condition for a much shorter time than all of us, and yet someone knew to invite him here. We thought that if there was any clue as to who Y is and how he knows about us, William here might have it."
"So… you guys really believe me when I said that I'm a werewolf?"
This time it was Jekyll's turn to speak. "Yes of course, William. Why should we have any reason to doubt you?"
"Well… It's just that none of you have seen me transform or anything… And I'm the only one here who's not very useful…"
"Don't be ridiculous, Will," Jekyll said, closing the distance between them and resting a hand on William's shoulder. He looked down at him fondly. "Vinny is every bit as useless as you are."
"… Thanks… I guess."
"Why am I getting so much flak from you, Jekky?"
"Because you annoy me."
Frankenstein interrupted them with a sigh. He rolled his eyes. "Perhaps we can get back to the matter at hand? William… Will, if I may?"
"Sure, go ahead."
"Will, did anyone stand out to you? Maybe someone who followed you and your friends into the forest?"
"Well, there was this one guy. British, I think. He had an accent like Dr. Jekyll's, but less… refined? We met him at a bar in this little town before we went to the Black Forest. We all got pretty drunk that night, honestly. We talked about our plans with him, but he didn't follow us or say anything strange that I can remember."
"Can you describe him?"
"Um… Short. With black hair and tan skin. About my age, I guess. But he was alright. I don't think he has anything to do with me getting bit by a werewolf."
Frankenstein glanced at Jekyll, "It doesn't sound like anyone I know. You?"
"No. And I'm practically a recluse these days. That doesn't sound like any one of few my acquaintances. Vinny?"
"Uh, it's kind of a vague description actually. Did this guy have a name?"
William shook his head. He couldn't remember.
Victor sighed, "It's alright. That's probably not our lead."
"Um… What about Beth?" asked William.
"She knows who I know," he said dismissively. William thought this was rude, but Beth didn't correct him.
Instead, she just continued with her questioning, "What about when you were in the forest, Will? What happened after you were attacked by the wolf?"
William tried to ignore the fluttering of his heart when he heard Beth adopt Frankenstein's familiar way of addressing him, but he could feel the blood rising to his face. He coughed to hide his embarrassment. "Um, well… It happened kind of fast. Like I said, my friends sort of scared it off. I didn't see where it went. We left the woods right away and I patched myself up as best as I could back at the hostel. It healed pretty fast, which was surprising. Then about a month later, when we had moved on to Austria, I changed."
"Was anyone with you at the time?"
"No… I had started to feel… I don't know, kind of sick, I guess. Just… Not right. I felt like I needed to get away from the guys for a while, so I told them I felt like a walk. They must have known something was up with me, because they didn't argue when I said I wanted to be alone. It was the night just before the full moon… Luckily, no one was around, otherwise…"
He trailed off, thinking of the memory of that first horrid transformation. The next two nights had not been any easier.
He wasn't given long to dwell on these thoughts. The feeling of Beth's cool hand resting on his own snapped him back to the present. He looked up into her eyes once again, and this time her smile seemed warm and genuine.
"Will, when did you get the letter?"
"Huh?"
"The letter from Y. The one that promised to cure your lycanthropy."
"Oh… That was about a week ago."
"A week?" Frankenstein and Jekyll hissed in unison.
"Yeah. I had been pretty lost until that point. I didn't know who I could go to for answers, and I was constantly worried in case someone found out, or worse, thought I was crazy. Then I found the letter. It had been folded and placed in one of the pockets of my backpack. I don't even know how long it had been there."
Frankenstein and Jekyll both let out heavy sighs. William found himself lamenting that he couldn't tell them more. We wracked his brains, trying to figure out who, if anyone, could have witnessed his transformation, followed him, and left that letter without him ever noticing. But he couldn't think of anything. To him, it all still seemed impossible.
"Well, doctor," Frankenstein said, finally taking a seat on one of the old sofas, "What do you think?"
Jekyll did not immediately reply. When he did speak, he had seemed to come to some sort of resolution. "We cannot rule out the possibly that Hyde is somehow involved in this," he said in steady, decisive tones.
William was surprised. He hadn't expected Jekyll to implicate himself – or at least his alter-ego – as the culprit behind their imprisonment. But one glance at Frankenstein showed him that the other doctor had expected this statement from Jekyll. He was nodding his head in agreement.
Jekyll seemed to notice William's look of surprise, and started to explain, "I… Don't always remember what happens when I become Hyde. Actually, I stopped remembering anything that happened while Hyde was active years ago. You could say that he and I are completely different people now. We share a brain and a body, but our motivations, our thoughts… It's impossible for me to know what drives Hyde now when I can't remember anything about him. I only know what I've seen from the havoc he leaves behind."
"So if you can't remember… Then you're saying Hyde could have planned all of this without your knowledge?"
"I'm saying it's possible. After all, I was brought here by a letter left by Hyde, and I can't fathom what would have tempted him here in the first place, unless it was his own idea. But then, I also don't know how he could have found all of you without my finding out. This sort of planning would take time. I may not remember what he does but I am aware of the gaps in my memory. I know when I have been Hyde by the days, weeks that I have lost. But there haven't been significant lapses of time like that recently. In fact, I have been myself for a fairly lengthy period, the morning I woke in the car being one exception."
"Perhaps that was part of his plan as well," Frankenstein suggested, "To lull you into a false sense of control."
Jekyll shrugged, but to William he looked unconvinced. "There is another problem with the theory that Hyde is Y. In the beginning I could change into Hyde for a few brief hours at a time, and return to myself. But over the years the length of time between transformations has increased, as if Hyde became reluctant to let me take over while he was having so much fun. Now when Hyde takes over, he typically remains for several days at a time before I regain consciousness. If he is the person delivering the materials that arrive during the day, then he would need to change back and forth during a very brief period of time. I myself can't control the transformations with any sort of precision."
"You're saying he's not capable of it?" asked Beth.
But Jekyll shook his head. "I'm saying he wouldn't want to. I don't think he would want to give up his turn with our body so easily. And I know his tricks. Imprisoning people like this is not one of them."
There was a pause as everyone processed this new information. This was the most Jekyll had revealed to the others about Hyde. William got the impression that he didn't like to talk about his alter-ego, and that explaining this all to them now was taking a huge amount of willpower.
Frankenstein broke the silence. "You said we couldn't rule him out."
It was a statement, not a question. His tone bordered somewhere between observation and accusation. William looked to see how Jekyll would respond.
"… I know. It all comes down to what I can… or rather what I can't remember. It could be that… Well, it's like this. If I were asleep during a transformation, then Hyde could spend the hours in which all of us are sleeping to do… Whatever it is that he does. Now let's assume that he can change back at will. Then he changes back to me, and I wake up. Of course, I have no knowledge of his actions."
"And so you would have no idea that you'd even become Hyde." Frankenstein concluded. "You would have thought you just slept through the night."
"Correct. I've tried staying awake to see if it makes a difference, but I couldn't do it. I feel asleep. But like I said, there are a lot of reasons to doubt that Hyde could pull this off on his own. For example, how can he be doing all of this without knowing the area?"
"A two man job?" William asked.
"Yes, Will. If we assume that Hyde is involved, we can definitely state that he is not acting alone."
"Alright. So is it Hyde for sure, then?" Vinny asked. He seemed impatient. William wondered if he was getting anxious having not had his share in the conversation for so long. He always seemed to want to be the center of attention.
"I don't think Hyde is Y," Jekyll stated, "But there's a good chance he's involved. Maybe taking orders from someone."
"But is Hyde the sort of person who's good at following orders?"
Jekyll looked irritated, though for once, not because of Vinny. He glared at the fire, perhaps recalling some memory from his past. "Not in my experience," he said.
William lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. The castle was completely silent. He could tell the others had gone to bed ages ago. He was tired, too. Exhausted actually. But his thoughts were still racing.
He couldn't get what Frankenstein had said out of his mind. It was true that out of all of them, his condition was the most recent. And still, Y had found him. So it had to be someone he met in the last two – no three months. Three months since he'd been bitten. Could he really have the key to Y's identity? If only he could remember!
William sighed heavily, emitting a sound that was more of a grunt as he rolled over onto his side. He knew he should try to sleep, but he kept thinking about their conversation over and over again. There had to be some clue hidden in his memories. Could it have been the guy in the bar? The English man. What had his name been? Will was almost too drunk to remember his own name when they had met. He thought it has started with a G. Graham… Griffin… Griffith?
His door swung open without a sound. William didn't see anyone moving into the room from the dim light of the hall, but he could hear footsteps creeping toward his bed.
"Psst!" he heard a voice hiss close by him, "Willy! Are you still awake?"
"What do you want, Vinny?" He didn't even bother to ask about his lack of clothing this time.
"Oh good. I wanted to tell you something. They don't think it's you."
"They don't think what's me?"
"They don't think you're Y."
"Oh… Well that's good, I guess. Because I'm not."
He knew that he sounded bored, but in truth he did feel slightly relieved. After all, if some stranger had approached him a few months ago claiming to be a werewolf needing assistance, he definitely would have thought that person was lying or crazy. And given their current situation, it would be easy for the others to doubt him. And he couldn't even prove he was really a werewolf. They had never seen him transform.
But then he remembered Jekyll's reassurance, and Beth's warm smile. Could it be that they really didn't suspect him?
"Aren't you going to ask who they do suspect?"
"Vinny, we've been talking about this for hours. It's Hyde."
"No, Will! The second man! Hyde's partner in crime! Will, they think it's Vlad!"
In spite of his fatigue, William sat up in bed. He couldn't tell where Vinny was standing, but his astonished gaze swept around the room, all the same.
"Dracula! But how to do you know?"
"That's what they were talking about when I went to spy on them earlier. Remember how they kicked Dracula out of the dissection room? It was just an excuse so they could talk about their suspicions. They think he might be Y! So I was right! Remember, Will? I told you something was fishy about him! I mean, if you really think about it, it makes total sense. It's his castle, and we're all trapped inside it. And the mummy's coffin being found right next to his. Are we really supposed to believe he has no idea how it got there? And just look how excited he was to have Frankenstein do this whole dissection thing! Everything is going according to his plan!"
"But… Why? I mean, why bring us all here to dissect a mummy? If that's all he wants, then why invite me here? Why invite you?"
"Oh well, I haven't figured that part out yet. But I will."
William flopped back down onto the narrow bed. "I can't think about this anymore, Vinny! I need to get some sleep."
"Oh, well. OK."
William resolutely shut his eyes, determined to put all thoughts of Y and vampires and invisible men from his mind. He listened for the sound of Vinny leaving the room and heard the tell-tale footsteps retreating back to the door. They paused at the threshold.
"Oh, and I think I've got Beth figured out."
William checked himself before opening his eyes again. He didn't want to appear too interested in things concerning Beth. Still, he had to ask. "What are you talking about?"
"She's a witch. She's gotta be. It's the only way that being married to Frankenstein makes sense. She's like, a voodoo priestess or something and so they have a common interest in, like, zombies or whatever. Definitely a witch."
"She's not a witch, Vinny."
"But we've already got a werewolf, a vampire, two mad scientists – well three if you count myself – and even a mummy! A witch is the only thing that's missing."
"What about the swamp monster?"
"Will! That is no way to talk about Beth."
"I wasn't –!" William started to yell, but he stopped himself. He didn't want to wake any of the others. If they were fortunate enough to be asleep, he didn't want to disturb them.
"Vinny," he said more quietly, "I'm going to sleep now."
"Alright, fine. I get it. It's beddy-bye time. I'm going."
William grunted and rolled onto the other side, his face toward the wall and his back to the door. Vinny really did leave, it seemed, but just before he heard the door swing shut, he could have sworn he heard Vinny mutter, "If she's not a witch, then how has she managed to bewitch all of you?"