Missing Ingredient
Barnabas sat beside Willie's bed, tapping his cane on the ground, each tap getting louder than the next, and getting no response from the sleeping young man. The cane then crept its way to the bed, and began to push against the mattress. Barnabas squirmed uncomfortably in the chair and looked around the room nervously, and then he poked the cane into the back of Willie's leg. Several times he prodded the boy, and when Willie moaned and turned, Barnabas quickly pulled the cane away and hid it out of site.
"Willie, good, you're awake."
Willie looked around the room with clouded eyes, grasping for some level of consciousness, and trying to pry himself from a drug induced sleep.
"Willie, I need you to wake up. You've been lying here long enough."
Willie shifted slightly on the bed, trying to untangle from the sheets to find comfortable position, and once settled, his eyes closed and he drifted.
"Willie! You mustn't fall back asleep!" Barnabas' voice was forceful, and Willie opened his eyes again and turned his head slightly to look at the beast beside him.
"You did a real good job reminding me that my life tends to fall apart when I'm awake." Willie couldn't keep his eyes open, even if he wanted to, and the fog and darkness swept over him like a warm tide and took him under.
Barnabas sighed and sat for several minutes in the silence of the room; he flinched when he heard her speak.
"So is this your new hobby? Sitting here, watching him sleep?" Angelique leaned in the doorway of Willie's bedroom and looked at Barnabas, who had taken vigil in the chair beside Willie's bed every night for nearly two weeks.
"He sleeps too much. There are things I require him to do." Barnabas tried to hide the fact that he was concerned, and Angelique walked into the room and sat down on the bed beside Willie.
"I don't understand you with this boy." The witch reached out her hand and gently ran her fingers through Willie's hair. "You tear him to pieces and force him into the depths of hell, and then you are remorseful and concerned about his well being. After what you did to him, what reason does he have to wake up? Besides, your Julia keeps him quite sedated."
"She is not my Julia." Barnabas snapped at Angelique, and then turned and looked back down at Willie, who was mumbling in his sleep.
Angelique chuckled, "True, it's more like you belong to her. She treats you like you are her pet." They both stared at Willie as the mumbling got louder. "Does he do this often?"
"Much of it I cannot understand, but he keeps repeating 'I'm sorry'." Barnabas shook his head and stared at the ground for a moment, frowning at the memory of Julia scolding him for what he did to the young man. Deep down he feared she was right, and Willie wouldn't recover from it.
"You traumatized him, I'm quite surprised at how wicked you were. You took his horrific childhood, and things that were out of his control, and made him think it was his fault. You panicked, you think you can control your impulses, clearly you cannot."
"Angelique, I assume your presence here has a purpose beyond irritating me and petting the boy."
Angelique removed her hand from Willie's hair, and then she began to pick at one of the holes in the bedding. "Yes, um…your snack in the basement is having…issues."
"My snack? You are referring to the detective, I assume? And what would his issues be?"
"Breathing mainly…and the fact that he has stopped doing it."
"What!? You killed him?"
"Why must you always jump to the conclusion that I did something. " Angelique stood and then sat down on Barnabas lap, much to his displeasure. "Believe me, I have wanted to kill him since the day he came into this house, but he seems to have taken the task on himself. I found him dead in the cell when I went down there."
"Are you positive that he is dead?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure. That cell is vile and I didn't go in all the way. But it is my educated guess. He was slumped over and unresponsive."
"Get up, we'll find the doctor and have her take a look."
"Rat poison and alcohol… why on earth would he have rat poison?" Julia left the cell, stepping over the empty bottles, and pulling the rubber gloves from her hands.
"Willie must have provided it to him."
"Well, you are going to need to deal with the mess." Julia walked past the coffins and then paused. "Can we move these? I need more space and would like to use this area for my research."
"You overstep your bounds doctor. These are not to be moved. They are not just boxes in storage."
"Barnabas, please, don't be so petulant. We can move them over there on the other side, there is plenty of room." Julia headed up the stairs and Barnabas followed her closely.
"Julia, you need to stop drugging Willie. I need him to do things around here. Disposing of the detective for starters."
Julia turned on her heal and faced him, nearly causing him to lose his balance and tip backward down the stairs. "You will clean it, or have Angelique do it, but that poor boy will remain upstairs, resting, until he is fit to do otherwise. When he isn't sedated, he thrashes in his sleep, screams and cries, and claws at the air. I don't know what memories torment him, but if he twists in the wrong way, his cracked rib could puncture his lung. He needs to be calm and able to take deep breaths, or he risks pneumonia. He needs to survive, without him we cannot complete your transformation."
Barnabas cocked his head and then walked around the doctor, standing in the middle of the foyer, a grin creeping over his face. "You don't really care about that boy. You care about your experiment."
"Preposterous."
"You need him healthy so that you can move on with your work. It isn't the young man you care about, he is simply an ingredient in your equation."
"Do you want to see daylight? Or would you prefer darkness for the rest of eternity? Leave the boy alone!"
"What do you get out of all of this? What is your motivation in this experiment, considering it is one you will never be able to publish, or share? You'll never get credit for it, and it will never find its way into a medical journal. What is it then?"
"Power…that's what she gets. Power and control. Really, Barnabas, you can be so blind. She is smitten with you." Angelique had a way of walking into a room and shredding a conversation to pieces. "She gets to control you, you are beholden to her. Ironic really."
"Angelique that simply is not tru—"
"Oh, Julia, stop with your act. You have made more ridiculous excuses to enter this house. You use writing that ridiculous book as an excuse to stay. Who on earth is going to read that drivel anyway? But, a book about a Vampire, and the heroine that allowed him to see the light of day, well now that is the stuff romance novels are made of, don't you think?"
"Angelique, enough. You need to take care of our mess in the basement."
"Oh, I don't think so. Stop drugging our little sleeping beauty up stairs, he can clean it."
"Angelique, it is not a request. You will go take care of it and you will do it NOW!"
Angelique walked out angry, but a small piece of her was pleased with herself, leaving the doctor and the vampire awkwardly staring at each other in silence.
The days were passing by painstakingly slow, and Barnabas grew more and more impatient with his present situation. His home had been invaded by a potentially mad woman, and his confidence in her was wavering. She spent every minute with her head buried in a microscope or a book, and he was tiring of giving her blood sample after blood sample. Oddly, however, he grew accustom to her standing over him as he woke each evening, and he was surprised that he felt disappointed when she wasn't there this particular night.
As he tried to sort out his thoughts he headed for the kitchen, where he was startled to find Willie standing at the counter.
"Willie… you're up… "
Willie walked to the cupboard and reached up slowly to grab a mug. "Seems so."
"I'm pleased to see you moving around." Barnabas watched as Willie moved slowly to the fireplace and pulled a ladle of hot water from the pot, he walked over to the mug and poured it in, spilling half of it on the counter and on the ground where the hot liquid hit his naked feet.
"Shit."
"Here, let me help you." Barnabas walked towards Willie and Willie turned his back to him.
"I'm fine. Don't need your help."
Barnabas backed off and watched the young man struggle to open the tea packet, his broken arm securely fastened in a sling and his left hand not nearly as coordinated.
"Very well." Barnabas took several careful steps back and studied his servant.
Willie tore the teabag open with his teeth and then dropped it into the mug.
"So, Willie, how are you feeling?"
"Feel fine...can't sit in that room anymore. Can't take any more drugs."
"Did Julia stop giving them to you?"
"No. I hid them under my tongue and spit them out, been doing that for a couple of days."
"I see." Barnabas cautiously studied Willie, like an animal in a lab.
Willie sat down at the table and Barnabas decided to sit across from him. Willie stared at the wood in the table and saw red stains deep in the grain. He wondered if anyone ever noticed it, and he knew no one would ever think it was from him.
"The detective is dead."
Willie didn't even flinch at the news. He just continued to bob the tea bag up and down in the mug.
"Rat poison, apparently. Why on earth would you give the man rat poison?"
"There are a lot of rats down there. Thought he could use it, I guess I was right." Willie shrugged, he didn't really care one way or another about the detective. He didn't care about anything anymore, with one exception.
"Well, it is good to see you up and mobile. Julia has been doing her research here…"
Barnabas' voice fell somewhere in the distance as Willie looked at the monstrous being that sat before him. He would never again forget what It was. While this thing was known to the human world as Barnabas Collins, Willie knew that there were no kind words from his mouth, or concerned looks from his eyes, that would ever trick him into thinking that the man across the table was anything other than a living horror.
"…she thinks she may have found some kind of a connection, something about DNA and how we could – Willie…are you listening to me?"
"Barnabas, can I ask you something?"
Barnabas swallowed the anger that spiked, due to his servants lack of interest in what he was saying, and allowed him to continue with the nod of his head.
"When I die, ya know…naturally from old age or if I get sick...please... let me go. Don't bring me back. Promise me that you will just… you'll let me be free. I'll do what is asked of me. To live here day to day, I won't leave, I won't fight. I won't ask to see Abigail again."
"Well, I don't see that you have much of a choice in the matter, with or without my promise."
Barnabas' response stripped the last thread of humanity away from Willie. He hoped that he could at least look forward to dying, but without the promised word of his master, even death was not a guarantee to his freedom. Willie stood up, and without a second glance or word, he started to leave the kitchen.
"Willie, I did not dismiss you."
Willie froze, and anger bubbled up, but he shut his eyes and took a deep breath, and buried his anger deep inside, along with all of his other emotions. "May I be excused…Sir."
"Yes, but not to sleep. Get showered and dressed, I require you to join me in the great room this evening. And Willie, for future reference, I expect that you will be dressed in more than you boxer shorts when you leave your room from now on."
Willie grimaced, and headed up the back stairs, thinking that perhaps it would have been better to stay in his drug induced stupor rather than stepping back into this horrific reality.
Willie fought with his shirt for almost ten minutes trying to get it on with the sling fastened tightly on his arm.
"Willie, let me help you." Angelique walked in and approached Willie. "May I?"
Hesitantly, Willie nodded, and allowed her to help.
"Let's get this off of you." Angelique un-clipped the sling, allowing his arm to swing down. It was painful, but once the initial shock was over, it felt great to be able to rotate his shoulder and have his arm free. She pulled the thin, short sleeved shirt over his shoulder and guided his bad arm into it.
"I can get it from here. Th-thanks." Willie kept his eyes focused on the buttons, not wanting to look up at the witch. He didn't trust anyone in that house, and any kindness expressed would only be received by him now with suspicion.
"Willie, I want to get rid of the doctor. I don't like her here. I don't trust her. I want you to help me."
"No." There it was, the motive for her kindness.
Angelique laughed and stared at him. "No! No? You can't say no."
"I- I can't help ya. You're gonna need to take care of her yourself. I only do what Barnabas asks. I need to get downstairs, he's expecting me."
"Willie, we need to get rid of her! This house isn't big enough for both her and I."
"Angelique, the doctor is not my problem. I'm nothing more than a living ghost in this house. You don't want her here, take it up with Barnabas."
Willie left her and headed down the stairs, he could hear Barnabas talking with Julia as he made his way to the great room. Instead of announcing himself, he coughed, making his presence known.
"Ahh…Willie, come, sit. You look much better." Barnabas motioned for him to sit and Julia approached him and placed her palm over his forehead.
"No fever, good. It is good to see you moving around, I know you stopped taking the pills, but I don't want you to exert yourself. How is your side?"
"B-better. Fine."
"Well, I have good news. I have been working on finding the key to allow Barnabas to walk in the daylight, and I believe I have found it. Willie, I'll need to take more blood from you."
"M-more?" Willie was confused, he didn't remember her taking any at all.
"Yes, Willie. While you were resting the good doctor took a great deal of your blood." Angelique joined the threesome and sat at the window seat, glaring at the doctor. "She takes whatever she wants around here."
"Angelique, enough."
"You can join me in the lab, downstairs. I'll take it from you there."
"H-how much?"
"You'll be fine. I'm nearly complete with the serum, in another week we will be ready to begin."
Julia headed towards the basement and Barnabas followed. Willie knew he was to make up the end of their parade, and he rose. As he started to walk, Angelique tugged at his hand. "She must go, Willie. Taking your blood is just the beginning of what she is going to take from you." Willie pulled his hand away and headed down the stairs.
It took longer than a week for Julia to get to a testing point. Her first attempt at the serum went up in flames, literally. When she brought it outside in the sunlight, it exploded into a ball of fire, and Willie was surprised that he got enjoyment watching her stomp around the front yard, swearing into the hot summer air.
Her second attempt was an equal failure, except this time it was not flames, but dust. The contents of the entire bottle crystallized and then crumbled.
The experiments went on for what seemed like forever, one marvelous failure after the next, and Willie spent his days attempting to cross off everything on a never-ending list of chores, and at night Julia would come in and request that he donate more blood for the unholy cause, and each time he donated, she took more.
He didn't care about what she was doing, or if the experiment even worked, but he did long for the ability to go outside, and he wanted to feel the sun hit his face, or the rain. When it would storm he would go into the attic and sit beneath a hole in the roof. He knew he was supposed to fix it, but he decided instead to make it bigger, letting the rain fall through and land on his face. And every once in a while, if the wind was blowing hard enough, he could smell the sea air. When he went there, it was the only time he allowed himself to think about Abigail. This is where he was when he heard Julia pull into the driveway and come running into the house yelling Barnabas' name. He knew his name would be called next, and reluctantly he left his hiding spot and joined them in the great room.
"I've got it. I finally got it worked out. Willie, good, you're here."
"Where else would I be, Julia." Willie response dripped with annoyance, but he didn't care, and she didn't notice, she was frothing at the mouth with excitement.
"We begin tonight. Barnabas come, sit." Julia pulled out a large syringe from her purse and Willie nearly gasped at it the size of it.
"Dr. Hoffman, really, is this large needle required?" Barnabas nervously approached her and took the giant device from her hand.
"Barnabas, don't be so squeamish. Sit, I am going to inject this into you." Julia grabbed the syringe back and she reached for Barnabas' arm.
"Wait a minute, Doctor, what makes you think that this time you have it? Willie has kept me informed of your previous attempts, I'm not impressed with the results."
"Barnabas, I would like to test the treatments when the sun comes up this morning. You will be fine. I'm positive of it. Hurry, the sun will be coming up any minute, and it is a perfect time to try, the storms are keeping the sun from shining brightly."
Barnabas looked at Willie nervously and Willie simply shrugged. He didn't know what to think of the madness playing out before him.
"And what if your wrong, Julia?"
"I'm not wrong." Julia then stuck the needle into Barnabas' naked arm, and Barnabas didn't even flinch. She injected the entire contents into his flesh and then pulled the needle out and set it on the table.
"Come, come to the Window."
Willie stood behind the pair, his stomach knotting up and the familiar sour feeling approaching him. He stared at the two of them and nervously checked his watch. The sun would come up any minute.
"It has been so long since I have seen the sun." Barnabas exhaled as the first light of day made its appearance. Barnabas felt a swell of energy course though his body, causing him to gasp. He felt invigorated, he felt like his entire body was buzzing, he felt … alive.
"It's working! Julia, you may have done it!"
The two of them watched the sun rise, as cloudy as it was, and Julia was grinning from ear to ear.
"Willie! Do you see!?" Just as Julia turned around, Willie collapsed to the floor. "Willie!" She rushed to him, "are you okay?"
"Th-the room… it- it won't stop spinning …my legs… feel like jello." Willie tried to stand, and Barnabas and Julia reached under his arms and placed him into the chair.
"What's wrong with him?"
"Well, I'm not sure. Perhaps he is a bit dehydrated. I'll take a look at him." Julia turned and looked at Barnabas. "It worked. I am so pleased."
Barnabas walked over to the window and looked out. "It is brilliant!"
"It won't last long."
"What?"
"It is temporary. I needed to test it on you, based on my calculations you only have about five more minutes before you need to return to your, well get downstairs."
"It is a coffin Julia, you can say it. And it is only temporary?! I require it to be permanent Dr. Hoffman. You could have shared that information with me prior to shoving that needle into my arm!"
"I will have another version prepared for you when you wake. The next one will last longer. Eventually it will last the entire day. You must hurry, the time is running out."
Barnabas took one last glance out the front window and then disappeared down the stairs.
"Willie just sit here, let me get you some water."
Willie sat in the chair and slowly the room settled. By the time Julia returned, Willie felt significantly better.
"Here, drink this."
Willie took the cup in his hands and she continued to fuss around him, checking his pulse and looking into his eyes.
"Julia, I'm fine."
"You weren't fine a few minutes ago."
"But I'm fine now. Just stop…" Willie pushed her arm from his face and stood up. "I have stuff to do, so if you don't need me, I'll get started."
Julia watched Willie leave the room and head up the stairs, and if her suspicions were correct, Barnabas' cure came with an unfortunate side effect, and there was one more ingredient she needed to make things complete.
Calem was startled awake when he heard a knock at the door. He looked at his watch, who the hell visits at six in the morning? He glanced quickly around the room, and saw Abigail asleep on the couch. She had a terrible night, her nightmares getting worse, and he sat with her until she fell asleep. When he heard the second knock he jumped from the chair to ensure the knocking wouldn't repeat and wake her up. It was rare that she slept quietly and she would only get an hour or two more before she needed to wake up for work.
Calem looked through the peep hole before opening it. "Shit."
Opening the door, he held his finger up to his lips, shushing the visitor, and joining them on the front porch. "What are you doing here?"
"I need to speak with Abby."
Calem put his arm around her and walked her away from the door and towards the beach.
"Dr. Hoffman, she doesn't want to see you. You upset her pretty bad the last time you talked to her."
Julia pulled out a pack of cigarettes from her purse and tapped them against her palm. She then pulled one out and offered it to Calem. "A little early for that don't you think? What are you doing here so early anyway?"
"Calem, I need Abigail's help."
"Look, I know you saved her life, and I am sure she is thankful, but you need to just leave her be. I'm really worried about her. She just can't seem to move on."
Julia took a long, deep drag of her cigarette before she spoke. "I need a sample of her blood, Calem."
"What!? Why? … No. We are done with all that shit. No more testing, no more prodding."
"I know, Calem. I know everything. I know about the bridge, the village. I know about Vernon and Rose. I know what happened to you, and to Abigail."
Calem stood on the beach and suddenly felt as though the clothes had been ripped from his naked body, leaving him totally exposed. "I- I don't know what you're talking about."
"I know everything. I know you fell in the water and when you came up you were in a different time, I know about the vanishing. I know what Barnabas is, and Angelique. I know they tried to kill Abigail and Willie."
"I – I'll take that cigarette now."
"Of course." Julia held out the cigarette and Calem lit it from hers.
"So what are ya gonna do? No one will believe you. H-How the hell did you find out? There's no way he told you."
"I broke into his house, found his father's diary." Julia flicked her cigarette into the sand and then lit another one without hesitation.
"Does he know? When he finds out…he'll kill you."
"He knows… Calem I need her blood."
"No. NO! Dr. Hoffman, stay the hell away from her, do you understand me? Just leave her the hell alone."
"I think I can alter his body chemistry so that he can walk among the living during the day. But I need her blood. She is a direct descendant, she carries his DNA…his untainted DNA. I need it to see how –"
Calem interrupted her and grabbed her beneath her elbow, walking her back to her car. "You need to leave, that's what you need to do. Don't come back, do you understand? We aren't interested in helping. Find some other way…or don't. We don't care."
"Calem, just one sample, one small vile is all I need."
"The answer is no! Have a good day Dr. Hoffman." Calem turned and started to walk back to the cabin.
"It could help her find Willie."
Calem stopped, anger starting to take over.
"It could bring him back to her."
Calem turned and aggressively approached Julia, practically leaning on top of her as she leaned back against her car.
"What do you know about Willie? Do you know where he is? What do you know about him?"
Julia shifted nervously, "I don't know anything about him. I don't know where he is, but if Barnabas ca—"
"Don't you dare… don't you even think about lying and using Willie to get what you want."
"Calem please, be reasonable, just talk to her…"
"Julia, so help me, if you go near her, if you even whisper Willie's name near her, I'll make it so you wish you hadn't. That girl dies a little bit each day that she isn't with him. She has horrific nightmares about him. If you know something about what happened to him and you aren't telling us, so help me I will make you pay for it."
Calem turned and left the doctor standing alone by her car. He ran up the stairs and back into the house, pausing to get himself together before he joined Abigail in the living room. He was relieved to find her still sleeping.
A/N : I just wanted to thank everyone for their continued support and reading. I have a few more chapters with this installment of Willie's story, and I admit that the ending is still in the works. If there are any readers out there interested in discussing fanfiction... or fiction in general... I have created a facebook page where we can all share. You can find me at Mina Fiction. Thank you again for all your support!