Through the Veil
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
STEFIE AND FRANCIS
Stefie blinked, and then pointed her thumb to the right. "Maybe the kitchen was in that direction," She said.
Francis snorted. "Do you even know the direction we came from?" He asked.
"Well do you?" Stefie replied. Then she flopped down on the flooring, her legs spread out and her arms laying uselessly between then, resembling a rag doll. She looked up at Francis. "Aren't there supposed to be people here?"
"Didn't you watch the movie?" Francis grumbled, reaching out and pulling her back up.
"Well yeah," Stefie said cynically. "But you know as well as I do that they rarely showed the manor. For all we knew, there could have been a ton of servants … just off in different rooms of the house. I can see the whole 'don't stay there at night, the vampires want the gypsies'. But in the day!"
"In case you didn't catch on, Stefie, Dracula doesn't exist anymore," Francis pointed out.
"Exactly! So obviously there should be more servants out and about," Stefie said, smiling widely at her friend before her stomach gave a loud grumble. She frowned, looking down. "I need a bagel. A nice, toasted bagel with cream cheese, and … and … ooh, what about coffee? Hey, do you think we could get a toasted bagel with cream cheese and coffee to go?" She asked.
Francis burst out laughing, looking at Stefie happily. "I don't think they have toasters here," He said.
"Well, you don't know that," Stefie countered. "This is an alternate universe."
"And how come you and the others are so sure we're in an alternate universe?" Francis asked.
"Because women – especially women of Anna's stature – wouldn't exactly be welcomed wearing pants. Or fighting. Or running a small scary town full of people bent on killing you. In fact, if you want to explain it technically, there weren't monsters back in the 1800's, either," Stefie said in one breath.
Francis laid his head against the wall. "Yeah. We couldn't have traveled through time."
"Don't think on it. Let's just have fun. Hey, do you think they have half moons in the kitchen?" Stefie asked.
"Here's a question, do you think we'll ever find the kitchen?" Francis countered.
"Oh shoo. Come on Mr. Smarty Pants," Stefie hoisted herself up, and then bent down to grasp Francis' hand as well. He grinned and allowed the shorter of the two to pull him up. She grinned back, and then quickly started skipping down the hall. "Onward, we charge! To the kitchen, we renew our search!"
Francis looked down at his feet, hiding his amused expression as he fiddled with his shirt, pretending to wipe something off. When he looked back up, his face was his usual dull and serious look. "You're going the wrong way!" He called down to her.
"Shows how much you know!" Stefie called back, disappearing around the corner up ahead. She poked her head back out. "I can smell the food from here."
Francis jogged to catch up. When he arrived, he sniffed the air hesitantly. Then his face recoiled in disgust. "You must be crazy if you think that's food."
"Oh, it's food alright," Stefie said with a sly smile, sniffing the air joyously. "It's limburger cheese. I could recognize that smell in an instant. Once, Mike brought some home from work so that Debbie and I could try it. It stunk up the kitchen for ages afterwards." Debbie and Mike were her older siblings, Stefie being the youngest in her family.
"Is that what that smell was?" Francis teased. "I thought it was just Mike."
Stefie playfully shoved him. Then she looked thoughtful. "If there's limburger cheese, it must mean there's a kitchen nearby."
"Either that or it means Mike somehow found a way to transport himself here," Francis said mockingly.
Stefie nudged him again, not bothering to hide her happy beam.
"Alright," Francis surrendered as the two stumbled down the long corridor. "If you could travel to Van Helsing's world, what would you do?"
"I'm already here!" Stefie exclaimed.
"Fine. But if you could meet any of the characters – besides VH – who would it be?"
"Well what about Carl?"
"No Carl or Van Helsing."
"Well that leaves a limited slew of characters," Stefie objected.
"Stef," Francis said with a groan.
"I guess it would be Dracula."
"Really?"
"Well yeah. I mean, the guy is a classical book genius! And he's a vampire. How can you pass up the chance to meet him?" Stefie asked.
"But Darey says Mike is a vampire," Francis said. Mike may be Stefie's older brother, but he was also Darey's unusual (and a little eccentric) boyfriend. Darey and Mike were very close, and nothing could come between the two. It had been simply a joke that Mike was a vampire, after a 'senior's only' Halloween party the gang had attended where he'd dressed as one, and pretended to suck Darey's blood, but Francis had missed out on the fun that night, and always thought Darey was serious in her teasing.
Stefie sighed. "Francis," She said, "You can be such an idiot sometimes."
"Alright, I'll grant you that one, but could you be more specific. Why Dracula? He was evil!"
"You're evil."
Francis frowned. "I'm not evil. I just plan to take over the world."
"And what did you think Dracula was doing? Besides … he could actually do it."
"Are you saying my weapons of mass destruction won't aid in my taking over the world?" Francis demanded.
"You mean your drawings of guns and spaceships? Ooh, that would be fun to see! You holding up the piece of paper to the president, and commanding him to turn all of New York over to you!" Stefie began to giggle.
"Okay, first thing – I wouldn't ask for New York. Taxes are ridiculously high. Second, why go to the president, when I can go to the Queen of England and demand she hand it over to me! Third, one day they won't be just drawings," Francis told her.
Stefie looked at him, and then blinked. "Sure." She said.
"You know, sometimes, I get the feeling you and Darey don't like me," Francis grumbled.
"Oh, come on Francis! You know we love ya!" Stefie exclaimed. "It's just a love-hate relationship. One minute we want you around, the next we wanna tear you … apart!"
Hearing her voice seem to disappear and then a scream quickly follow it, Francis turned to see Stefie falling through a secret door in the floor. He stared in surprise, and then rushed to where the latch of the secret door had just closed. "Stefie?" He called in a panic.
"Oomph!" Came the reply.
"Stef? Where are you?" Francis asked, kneeling on the floor.
"Eh, in the floor," Stefie replied. She looked up at the ceiling, rubbing her behind in irritation.
"Well what happened?" Francis asked.
"Um, I walked on the floor, and we were talking about … hmm, I don remember."
"Stefie," Francis groaned.
"I just told you. I fell through the floor. I must have activated a trapdoor," Stefie replied. She turned her eyes away and took in her surroundings. She was in a small room, seemingly made of concrete. The room appeared to simply be a closet, and Stefie couldn't help but wonder if there was any real purpose for the room at all.
"Well what do you see?" Francis asked.
"Nothing. It's just a little room."
"Is it dark in there?"
"No. Actually, there's some light coming in," Stefie replied.
Frowning, Francis pressed his ear to the floor. "Well where's the light coming from?"
"Uh …" Stefie shielded her eyes and moved over to the iron bits where the light was carefully coming in from. It appeared to be an old vent for the room before her. Stefie blinked. "Francis, I think this room was used for spying," She whispered, turning back to the ceiling.
"Spying?" Francis repeated. "Well can you get out of there?"
Stefie looked back at the vent thoughtfully. "I think so," She said slowly. She reached out, and pressed her fingers against the paneling.
"Anything?" Francis asked.
"I'm still looking," Stefie replied, rolling her eyes. Above her, Francis did the same. Suddenly, Stefie's fingers wrapped around what appeared to be a little handle.
"Success!" She whispered to herself happily. She took the handle greedily, and turned back to tell Francis she found a way out.
"Did you hear me?"
Stefie frowned, and then turned back to the vent. Finally, realization sunk in that this whole time, there had been people in the room next to her, and they had been carrying on a conversation. How had she not heard that?
"Yes, I heard you," The other voice replied angrily, a woman, most likely.
Stefie peered through the holes in the vent, and saw Ian turned sideways, facing the opposite wall, where the other voice had come from. Stefie leaned over trying to catch a glimpse of whoever he was talking to, and caught a glimpse of dark hair, before the person stepped out of view altogether. Stefie thought carefully, running through all the people she knew who had dark hair, but realized none of them had the same tone as the mysterious woman in the room next to her.
"Stef?" Francis asked.
"Shh!" Stefie hissed, before turning her attention back to the scene before her. Francis sat up with irritation and leaned against the wall, waiting for Stefie to begin speaking to him.
"So what are you going to do?" Ian demanded.
"I'm going to stay out of sight until further notice," The woman said spitefully.
"If you do anything to jeopardize this mission -."
"I got it!"
"Don't get that tone with me."
"And don't you begin to think you're any better than I am. You may have this town wrapped around your little finger, but you and I both know it won't be long before -." She stopped, and Stefie took in a nervous breath.
"I know," Ian grumbled, turning away with his arms crossed over his chest. He sighed, running his hand through his hair. "I know. We both have too much riding on all this to risk it now. You better know what you're doing."
"Don't you worry about that," The woman replied. "Leave the kids to me."
"Fine … fine. You're dismissed." A few moments later a door slammed shut. Ian stared after it for a moment, and then walked across the room to pull back a bit of wall paper and slip away.
Stefie waited, holding her breath. Ian's up to something, was the first thing that popped into her head. She stumbled away from the vent and looked up to the ceiling.
"Francis!" She called in a whisper.
Francis pushed away from the wall and stumbled over to the floor where Stefie had disappeared, accidentally tripping over a small switch lying in the floor. Surprisingly, the floor opened before him, and he fell through, the latch quickly closing behind him.
"Francis?" The mentioned looked up to see Stefie staring at him.
"Stefie," Francis replied dully.
"Francis?"
"Stefie," Now there was a hint of annoyance.
"Francis!" Stefie pulled him into a hug, and then looked back towards the vent. "Francis, Ian's the enemy."