A/N (3 Oct. 2021) I got a couple nice reviews on AO3 for this so I'm trying again here and will try to share over there again soon-ish. (It was a long day and I'm beat, but I couldn't resist, of course.) Listening the Danny Elfman's soundtrack and some other tunes to get me going here…
Chapter 14: Explaining Doctor Hoffman
As Buzz gobbled his breakfast, he noticed many eyes staring at him. "I thought I might finish what I'd started."
Carolyn smiled, "And we were patiently waiting."
Buzz put down his fork, "Felt more like impatiently wondering."
"Not at all," Barnabas smiled, "We need all the help we can get and I was hoping for yours in particular."
"I see," Buzz nodded and went to join them from the dining room and into the main hall.
"We'll need to find David again," Elizabeth proclaimed, "in the meantime I'm wondering where Doctor Hoffman might have gone…"
Josette cleared her throat and Barnabas stepped forward, "Elizabeth, may I speak with you about the front door?"
Elizabeth gestured toward said front door and the two ventured outside.
Birds tweeted in the early morning. Elizabeth and Barnabas stood facing each other. Elizabeth folded her arms and asked, "I presume you aren't concerned over the hinges?"
"No. What I really wanted to explain was Doctor Hoffman's departure more recently."
"I see. Go on," Elizabeth encouraged.
Barnabas did his best to be as honest as possible without providing too much blame upon himself, "You see, Cousin Elizabeth, Doctor Hoffman was attempting to cure my vampirism, all very laudable in the beginning, though I felt she drained more of my blood to test for her experiments than necessary. Before I recognized that Miss Winters was our Josette duPres, I knew she cared for me and wished to rush the procedure of my mortality. When I went to Doctor Hoffman to continue her experiments, I discovered she'd been attempted to inject my own blood into her system, the better to create immortality and eternal youth for herself."
Elizabeth gaped, dropped her hands and then snorted, "I'd say I never thought she had it in her, but considering she spent a lot of time squatting in our home, barely helping David, and taking liberty with our drinks, it stands to reason." Next Elizabeth refolded her arms and raised one eyebrow, "What happened when you found her at this unspeakable turn of events?"
Barnabas looked down in an uncertain mixture of shame and delight. Then he looked up at his cousin and admitted, "I drank all of her blood back into my system."
The tweeting birds in the forests went silent, likely from wanting to hear the rest of this tale themselves.
"Did you kill her, Cousin Barnabas?" Elizabeth wondered, with gravity.
Barnabas stalled and then raised his chin in acceptance of a lack of pride, "I may have done, Cousin Elizabeth. She wasn't breathing. I sought aid in removing her body to drop into the Atlantic Ocean, far out from our shores, did so and returned to Collinwood."
Elizabeth took a deep breath, "This doesn't bode well, of course…"
"I didn't expect it would," her cousin admitted.
Elizabeth turned away and considered the circumstances, "The difficulty here is in wondering if Julia could survive such an outcome. She's injected vampire blood into her system. Just because you believe you removed it all doesn't mean you succeeded."
"That is a fine detail for which we can never be sure." Barnabas concurred.
"So now," Elizabeth continued, "not only do we need to concern ourselves with Angelique's left over spells, we might have to face Doctor Hoffman returning from the depths of the ocean."
"For which I must deeply apologize!" Barnabas begged.
Elizabeth turned around to face him, inhaling, "Well, I'd ask you to spare me your apologies… but… I know how much you enjoy being contrite, Cousin Barnabas."
He almost glowered at her. His sense of guilt could be so automatic that it escaped even his own very notice. (Such is the life of Barnabas Collins, as most of us know.) "I am not sure what you mean, Elizabeth."
She smiled, at last, "That's alright, Cousin. You've told me what happened and I will take that into account. I can't say I'm disappointed to lose such an unreliable consultant, but I am disappointed to lose her company as much as my brothers'. You see what I mean?"
Barnabas only smirked as much as he could not hide he was smirking, "I believe I do see what you mean."
"So?" Elizabeth wondered, "I can only speculate who helped you in the endeavour to dispense with her body…"
"I have sworn the man to secrecy, of course," Barnabas told her.
"And I won't ask who it was," Elizabeth assured him, "But I am confident I know what he said when you told him never to reveal his part in all of this."
"Oh?" Barnabas asked, "What do you believe he said?"
Elizabeth grinned, "I sincerely believe he admitted to you, 'Don't worry…. I never liked the bitch anyway."
A/N: If you can explain what you liked that would be great. However, I realize you might require some reminding/help. The way to discuss narrative goes back to something I learned in my (not so great) schools called SQRRR. The basics are summarizing what you read. I ask this of a few people in my grassroots team for "The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows" when I send them a single scene of it; to simply describe what they heard, what happened, what was going on.
The reason for this is to maintain an understanding of what is happening in the narrative itself. It helps with starting to uncork the story and then going from there to express what was enjoyed in the story.
I have found that often one will inadvertently express what they enjoyed in the story by simply summarizing what happened. Anyway, that's where you start, and I encourage you to return to the first part of this particular tale, look at the story part, the narrative, describe it in summary (preferably in these review boxes) and do the same in the following chapters from there. I hope this helps! (And I still would love a list of 1972 tunes if anyone can do it!) Thanks.
P.S. Yes, I was listening to Ratt (Out Of The Cellar) today, and if Tony is reading this: shut-up! I wanted to listen to shitty 80's music today… and you don't even want to KNOW what 80's FREESTYLE I was listening to AFTER Ratt! :P