Phantoms of Amity Park

Chapter 7

Vlad had picked her up, intending to take her back up to her room, but a faint dripping sound stopped him. Looking down, he saw the blood dripping from shallow cuts on her feet.

Reckless, he thought, but the annoyance in it was halfhearted as he took her into the main part of his lab.

He laid her on an empty exam table and bandaged her feet, wrapping them in gauze and medical tape and giving her a shot for the pain he knew she would have when she next woke up. When he was done, he picked her up again, one arm under her knees and the other arm supporting her back. Her head lolled against his shoulder, making his heart flip again as she unconsciously nuzzled her face into his neck.

He was careful on the way back up to the room, not even bothering to close the entrance to his lab, lest the noise wake her.

As he entered the room, Vlad let out an annoyed sigh at the sight of a box taking up half the space on the bed. He laid her down on the empty half for a moment to move it, setting it next to the chair that Daniel must have sat in earlier that afternoon. Once moved, he tucked her in, pulling the sheets up to her shoulders then sat down.

"You are going to be a lot of trouble."

His eyes went down at the box next to his chair. That wasn't there when he had brought her breakfast that morning, so he concluded that Daniel must have brought it to her. Vlad glanced up at Anna, insuring that she was still asleep before putting one arm down and flipping the lid off the top of the box.

His eyebrow rose at the contents, a bunch of old leather bound books and the frame of a picture.

What is this? Vlad thought, reaching in and pulling out the picture, turning it over to look at it.

He stopped his eye widening. He looked between Anna, who still slept peacefully on the bed and the picture in his hands. This must be Victor; it had to be because it looked just like him! He looked back down at the box, reaching down and picking up one of the books. This one was not as worn as the others and tied shut with a worn piece of cotton string, frayed and discolored over time.

Vlad set the picture down on the mattress next to Anna's legs before carefully untying the string. The binding on the book creaked unnervingly as he opened it. Halfway through reading the first page, he stopped, realizing it was Victor's diary. The words were so familiar, as if could recall writing them himself back in some faraway dream.

He reread the first entry with more interest.

January 4th, 1776

At last! I've finally have the attention of Anna Marie's father. I had asked him for her hand in marriage eight years ago and he denied me. Not anymore! After I finish my invention, he will see me as worthy enough for his daughter. I will have Anna Marie! I love her. We are meant to be together.

The two years' worth of entries documented his progress with his invention; experiments using the steam engine in conjunction with raw cotton material and pulling devices. Finally the entries reached the spring of 1778. The entry that caught his eye was frantic, as if written in a hurry.

April 15th, 1778

Today is finally the day I have waited for, for ten years. Anna Marie's father has seen my design plans and has given me permission to purpose to her. I feel as if my heart is in my throat. I must have spent hours at the jeweler choosing the proper ring. I clutch the box in my other hand as I write. My fear is unwarranted. There is no way she would say no.

It was months before the next entry was written and even then an exact date wasn't written, as if Victor had not bothered to keep track of the time. The penmanship of this entry was not like the others, unrefined, as if there was no longer any care given.

June 1778

I still cannot believe she is gone. Anna, my Anna is gone and I did nothing to save her. I should have run in the mansion after her. Following her into death would be better than now having to spend the rest of my life without her.

Vlad almost turned the page when he noticed a line of text written at the bottom of the page, as if as an afterthought.

I will not live without her. We will be together. I will bring her back or I will end my own life.

Vlad stopped, setting the book down in his lap to look up at the still sleeping Anna. Victor was really going to try and bring back the dead to be with her. Not really surprising, he would have done the same thing for Maddie.

His eyes narrowed in confusion, placing a hand over his chest. Usually his heart jumped at every little thought of his old college friend and her face swam through his mind. But none of that happened, why? Vlad recalled the feelings he had down in the lab; his attraction to her beauty, no not just to her beauty, to her. Something inside him was changing and he didn't like it, at least he didn't like the thought of it.

Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he went back to the diary, turning the page. Vlad's brow furrowed when he found that the next entry had been years later, twenty years after the events that sent Victor into his depression. There was no exact date with the entry, only the year that held the hint as to when in had been written.

1798

I have seen the truth, had it shown to me; a vision of the future. Just when I had given up, had the pistol to my head, ready to give up and finally join my love in death, a man came to me, wearing strange robes, holding a staff; Clockwork, he had called himself. He had told me that if I wished to be with her, I needed to live, to die of old age and not commit suicide.

I had called him crazy, had told him that he knew nothing of us, to leave me to my pain. But he did not. He instead pressed his staff and suddenly I was no longer in my apartment. I was in a bedroom; Anna was there on the bed asleep, alive and unchanged. Joy had risen in my heart and I reached out to her, but the man stopped me, telling me that we were merely ghosts in this time period; that this was the future. Then I noticed him in the chair next to her reading a worn leather bound book, he looked just me before I had allowed my despair to overtake me; it hit me then, he was me. This man with the white hair was to be my reincarnated self if I allowed myself to live and die a natural death.

Clockwork returned me to my time with new hope. As lonely and painful as my final years were to be, I would bare them, I had to; to become that man I saw and finally be reunited with my soul mate.

Vlad closed the book and retied the cotton string around it. He carefully placed the book and the picture back in the box, closing the lid over it. He stood, intending to leave, but his feet wouldn't move and his head pounded dully, trying to process the words he had read on that page.

He looked to the other side of the bed. It was empty, no one stood there, but apparently Clockwork had taken Victor to this exact moment in time. Vlad put his hand to his head, pressing hard against the growing pain in his temple. If Clockwork hadn't done that, would he even be here? Would Victor's death at his own hand have changed everything? Would there even be a Vlad now if Victor had killed himself? Would Anna have had a reason to continue to live and fight if there was no reincarnation of Victor for her to live for?

Vlad shook his head, only causing the pain there to sharpen and him to lose his balance slightly. What was he thinking? He was starting to believe this? How could he not? The evidence was undisputable and reading that last page, had set something off in his own head. He had to go lay down, before he collapsed.

Vlad left the room slowly. He clung to the doorframe and looked back at the woman asleep on the bed. The sight of her calmed his head some, but he shut his eyes tight and closed the door quickly.

ooooo

Anna was surprised by Vlad's behavior over the next couple days. She had expected him to be as upset with her as she was with him over the laboratory incident, but he wasn't. Instead, he spoke to her in soft tones, avoiding eye contact with her as much as possible. Anna's distaste for his actions was muffled by her concern. Had her own words cut him deeper then she had originally thought?

She apologized, but he merely shook his head as he changed the bandage on her feet again. Her feet were healing quickly and would be okay to walk on again in the next couple of days. Danny had visited the night before to check on how she was feeling. Anna had kept her feet covered; hiding her injury from him and lied, telling him that she still wasn't feeling well. Danny had said that she would feel differently about Vlad Master's if she knew some of the things that he had done, but she didn't. Danny was too young to understand the draw her soul had to his.

Anna looked up at Vlad as he secured the final bandage around her foot. Danny and she were planning to head to her old mansion in Georgia as soon as she was better to search for clues. Vlad still had no idea. Should she offer him to come along?

Vlad had chanced a glance up at her and noticed her looking at him just in time to see her bite at her bottom lip. He felt his face heat up and looked away.

"Something wrong?" He asked as he packed up the medical supplies, keeping his hands busy.

"Well, Danny and I, we're planning to go to Georgia when I'm fit to travel." She wiggled her bare toes, flinching at the sting of pain that shot up her legs. She sighed, "We're going to find out who, or what, is coming after him and his family. What did my family leave behind in such a rage that it would want to finish what it started? What did we do to it? You know? Maybe then we can fight it."

"What if it's there waiting for you?" Vlad raised a brow. "Not to be incredulous, but what if it's something not even you can handle?"

Anna giggled, "Then you'll just have to come with me to protect me, won't you?"

Vlad sighed, closing the box of medical supplies, "Suppose I will."

His own answer seemed to surprise him and he looked up at Anna in panic, rushing to come up with a reason for his answer, "Uh… ah! You're… so reckless. If I don't go, you're likely to get yourself killed… again."

Anna smiled. Something had changed in him, but she didn't say anything about noticing. Vlad set the lunch that had been prepared for her down in front of her and left the room. She started eating as she watched him leave. Yes, something had definitely changed. Had he reached some decision in his mind about the whole situation and just wasn't sharing? If so, what was it?

As planned, a couple days later Danny, Vlad, and Anna left for Georgia and the ruins of the old Van Ratten homestead.