Disclaimer: 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' movie is copyright of 20th Century Fox. No infringement is intended.
PICKING UP THE PIECES
By Etcetera Kit
Chapter Fifteen: Will You Be There?
Mina sat down in one of the armchairs in the hotel room later that evening, not sure what to think or do. It would seem that they had found Dracula's crypt and that it would be a simple matter of sealing his tomb or killing him when he slept during the day. And the scent of blood had been driving her mad ever since they returned from the castle. She had made a vow to herself to only drink the blood of the evil riffraff of the world. How long had it been since she had any blood? A very long time- longer than it had ever been before. Henry opened the door and came into the room. She was immediately plagued by the scent of his blood- warm, sweet and coursing through his veins.
She took in a deep, shaky breath, trying to breathe through her mouth and ignore the scent of his blood. Trying to concentrate on anything else, her mind kept wandering to the blood. She should go out and hunt- it would help the monstrous headache she had. Henry gave her a concerned look as she felt a spasm in her stomach. God, she was going to die if she did not get any blood.
"Mina, are you all right?" He gently touched her arm. She swatted his hand away, vaguely registering the hurt and confused look on his face. "What's wrong?" he asked with much more force in his voice.
"Get out of here," she whispered.
"Do you need blood?"
"Get out of here," she growled.
"Mina?"
She took a deep breath and looked up at him. He was standing over her, the worry that filled those cobalt eyes drove her almost mad. Jonathan… his expressions were so much like Jonathan's… he was so much like Jonathan… but he was not Jonathan.
"Henry, listen to me," she said softly in an extremely controlled voice. "I have to have blood and if you do not get out here now, I will end up draining you to the point of death and that is the last thing I want on my conscience." Mina closed her eyes so he would not see the way that they almost rolled up in her head at that moment. Every vampire sense was telling her to drink from him and every human sense was telling her to leave the room that moment. He loved her… and look what happened to all the other men that loved her.
He sighed and gently moved her face so she was looking at him. "Then go hunt," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Her preternatural eyes could see the faint beating of the artery in his neck. She wanted nothing more than to sink her fangs into his throat and feel the blood rush into her mouth, sweeter than life itself.
"You don't understand," she hissed. "I can barely walk, let alone go outside and find some poor person who has no clue what is going to happen to them."
He did not say anything, but he did not move either. Did he have no idea what was about to happen? The vampire in her was about to come out much in the same way that Hyde came out of him. She would end up feeding on him whether she wanted to or not. He had to get out of here! Did he not understand what she was telling him? Thank God that Jonathan had died before he could see her like this, this raving lunatic who wanted blood.
And she did the only thing she could to make him understand. She hit him. She hit the only man to ever truly love her since Jonathan. She hit him squarely across the face. He staggered backwards just as the preternatural strength within her was unleashed and she jumped off the balcony of the hotel room with a flutter of bat wings and disappeared into the night, looking for an unknowing victim. And she did not register his reaction to any of it, did not see the crushing pain through his eyes and the hurt rejection over his face.
"Do you understand now, you worm? Do you understand that she would have fed on you? Did you not see the danger in any of this? Let me out. I'll take care of that bitch when she returns. I'll use her own tools on her. I'd love to see her head roll and her blood spill across this room."
Henry didn't reply. The hard wooden floor of the room seemed like an inviting coffin as he curled in a fetal position. He understood now. Oh, he understood now. He knew what he saw and it was the vampire- not Mina. When she had asked him to 'love her and not the vampire', he had thought he knew what it meant. He knew nothing. A tear slipped down his cheek. He should have known when he had that dream that Hyde was coming back. And here the monster was.
"Monster am I? That's what your little fiancée is!"
He could not fathom why he was so upset over what had happened. He knew that it could happen at any moment… to Mina… No, he knew why he was really so upset. He had been at peace these past few weeks and had not given Hyde a thought except to think about the reintegration process. Now, he knew what freedom he had then. He could not go back to having Hyde's voice in his head at all times. He would go mad. He could not do this. He could not live that life again.
"Well, get used to it. You are living that life again! You thought you could shut me out forever. Drink the elixir! You want it. You want to get even."
"You know nothing," Henry whispered, pushing himself up so he was sitting with his back against a leg of the bed. With shaking fingers, he pulled at the knot of his tie and threw the thing off himself. He then shed his collar in the same quaking fashion and pulled at the top buttons of his shirt until they gave way, not even caring if they remained intact. What evil had he truly unleashed on himself? It was like a huge black void that he could never know the full extent or power of. He thought of going to church with his father as a child… he remembered the mandatory worship attendance during medical school… the rosary that he always took with him for no apparent reason… he belonged in hell. No one else in his class during medical school would have thought to tamper with the good and evil in man. He belonged in hell- there was no other place that would accept him.
"Get up and quit crying! Or I will force myself out!"
"No," Henry replied. And then he felt a crushing pain running from the roots of his hair to the tips of his toes. It was the pain he felt when he took the formula and transformed into Hyde. Edward was trying to force a transformation. He focused all his energy on preventing the unwanted change. It was a raging battle in his head between himself and Hyde. His eyes began to water continually and his head felt like it would split in half if this did soon stop. Hyde was growling to be let out and cursing Henry to hell. Throughout all the pain, he managed to crack a smile. "We belong in hell," he choked out.
And as suddenly as the pain had started, it ended. Henry picked himself up from where he had sprawled on the floor and studied his hands… normal. He almost wanted to cry for joy- he had never been able to stop Hyde from forcing the transformation before. It was a small triumph over his devil.
"Oh you think you're rid of me? We will see about that! You will never be rid of me!"
"We'll see about that claim," Henry whispered, feeling the quiet exhaustion creep into all of his limbs.
"I will get you when you sleep!"
"You don't understand. I've won this battle. There will be no unexpected transformations."
He lay down on the bed, full clothed. He used to fear sleep and never wanted it to come- only sleeping as long as he had to. But now he felt properly tired and ready to sleep. He felt like he would be safe sleeping- that Hyde would not come out while he slept and the days of going to sleep as himself and waking as Hyde would be over. At least that is what he fervently hoped was true as he closed his eyes and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
This pub had to be the filthiest place, a cesspool for lowlifes and criminals, he had ever been to in his entire life and that was putting it mildly, Sawyer thought as he thoughtfully sipped the rather putrid beer he had just been served. For once in his life, he was glad that he didn't smoke, because the room was so full of smoke, it was impossible to see anything. Some scantily clad dancers graced the stage with their cacophonous singing and the hardened hooligans actually cheered them on for their lack of talent. Skinner certainly picked a good one this time. The gentleman thief was sitting next to him, fully clothed and head fully painted with greasepaint.
Sawyer did not see the point of this exercise since they had not seen hide nor hair of this Abigail character since they had come to this pub two hours ago. He was ready to just pay for the disgusting drinks they had been served, go back to the Nautilus and go to bed. He did not normally have a headache unless he had a hangover, but all the smoke and noise was getting to him. His temples were pounding.
"Seen her yet?" he asked Skinner in a voice that clearly said 'if you haven't seen her by now, then we are bloody leaving!'
Skinner looked nonplussed. "Perhaps she don't work here anymore."
"Trust that luck," Sawyer muttered to himself. Only with Skinner could he have gotten dragged into sitting a cesspool of a pub for hours on end looking for a girl that would not recognize Skinner who probably did not work at the cesspool of a pub anymore. He could not imagine that any girl would want an invisible man following her. The League had not been too shocked to find out he was invisible but the things a normal person not used to the extraordinary would think were various and none of them good. Even Skinner himself had said that she had thought he died and was a spirit. Charming….
"Best beer, eh mate?" Skinner elbowed him in the ribs. Sawyer smiled wanly. He would rather have been drinking moonshine in his uncle's barn at this point in his life. One glass of that stuff and one was completely gone.
He envied Nemo for staying on the ship to wait for some contacts- at least he would not have to put up with this pub. Then again, he could not particularly imagine Nemo coming along on an exploit like this. He wondered what sort of contacts Nemo needed to meet here. Perhaps it had something to do with supplies or maintenance of the ship- he didn't know. And knowing Nemo and his humanitarian ways it did not have anything to do with actual piracy.
Loud raucous laughter grated Sawyer's very brain and he turned to see the source of the noise- several large seafarers were laughing over a table full of empty mugs of beer. Somehow Sawyer subscribed to his aunt's idea of 'do your drinking at home where it's proper!' The pubs that he and Huck had gone to were nowhere near this awful. But, as he had told himself many times, this was Skinner and Skinner was a thief.
Somebody quite suddenly roared. Sawyer swung around and ducked quickly to avoid being hit by a flying mug. The mug crashed behind the bar, dripping beer down the wall and breaking more of the bottles on the wall. Sawyer stood up briefly trying to find the source of the sudden violence and was pulled back down on the floor by a barmaid he had not seen before.
"Eh mate, better get down or you'll lose your head!" She spoke with a pronounced Cockney accent. Sawyer looked up to find Skinner and his heart sank into his stomach when he saw Skinner in the thick of the fight.
"You're here with Skinner, then eh?" the barmaid continued as though the huge fight was nothing more than a nightly occurrence that would die down soon.
Sawyer nodded. "That's right," he called over the din. "Who're you?"
"Abby McCourtney, at your service governor!"
He thought for a moment. Hadn't Skinner said that his ex-girlfriend's name was- "Abby?" he asked. When she nodded, he continued. "We've been sitting here for hours! All you had to do was appear and then we could have left."
"Well, I didn't make an appearance because he was here!" she retorted huffily. Her face was heavily made up so it was impossible to tell what she really looked like. Her dark red hair fell down her face in lanky curls and her blue eyes were bloodshot. If Sawyer didn't know better, he'd say she almost looked like- "A prostitute?"
He nodded mutely. "How did you know I was thinking that?"
She shrugged. "Was written all over your face. I'll give you a whole night for half price just because you're a friend of Skinner's."
"No. You don't understand. I'm not looking for a whore. Skinner was looking for you."
"He does all the time. However, I am not looking for him." She paused and gave him a once over. Sawyer felt his cheeks color and his forehead grow hot. "What's your name?"
"Tom," he replied merely. "Look, I don't want a whore. I have a fiancée back in America who would kill me if she ever found out." That was a lie. He did not have a fiancée, but, even if only for a moment, he could pretend to himself that he was engaged to Becky, it was well worth it. Abby just snorted.
"What she don't know ain't going to hurt her." She took his face in her hands and gave him to roughest kiss he had ever had in his life. He wrenched her away from him, knowing that he would never feel like he did with Becky or Mina with a whore.
"Does Skinner know you're a whore?"
"I wasn't a whore until he died."
Sawyer shook his head. "He's not dead. He's just invisible. He stole the process from a scientist."
Abby looked unimpressed. "If he was invisible, he would have reappeared."
"It's not that easy. It's permanent."
"Look, Tom, Skinner is dead and you just need to get used to the fact that, for however long it is that you have known him, he is a ghost."
"He's not dead!"
Abby shook her head sadly. "You need help little man." She stood up and went towards the side door of the pub. "If you ever need my particular brand of services, you know exactly where to find me, governor."
Sawyer watched her retreating figure and knew that this adventure in the pub would be two hours of his life he would never regain. He doubted that Skinner had seen her. He stood up and observed the diminishing fight or more… the fight had ended and he had been too busy trying to talk sense into Abby to realize it. He looked around for Skinner and felt a fluttering sense of panic in his chest. The gentleman thief was nowhere to be seen.
But he probably got rid of the clothes and make-up, Sawyer told himself. That is what he did every time the League went into battle and there was no reason that he would have forgotten it in the middle of a common pub.
"Skinner?" he hissed, trying not to draw attention to himself by talking to a person who did not seem to be anywhere in sight.
The clanging of a fire engine came from out on the street. Sawyer ran outside the pub and took a moment to register what the large vehicle was outside. It was not a common fire engine like he had thought- it was a police wagon. The feeling of panic came back exponentially as he watched the retreating wagon. A familiar voice called out from the bars on the back, "Sawyer! They're taking us to the local jail!"
Skinner had managed to get himself arrested in a common bar fight. M did not exist- there was no amnesty anymore. The invisible man would need to be bailed out and Sawyer did not have enough money on him at the particular moment in time to do it. He turned and ran in the direction of the place where the Nautilus was in port. A roaring had started in his ears as a sense of complete urgency took him over and it prevented him from knowing just how loudly he was screaming Nemo's name. The captain came out onto the deck looking worried.
"There's no time to explain," Sawyer gasped. "We have to go help Skinner!"To Be Continued...
