Chapter 9
The Horror in the Basement
NOTE: I don't own Jane Eyre. This is out of love for the novel.
Jane awoke one morning feeling lethargic due to lack of sleep; she had just fallen asleep a mere three hours prior and managed to carry herself, six months' pregnant stomach and all, to the breakfast table where her husband, Edward, and son Henry were waiting for her. Jane desperately wanted to crawl back into her nightgown and into the comforts of her bed but there was work to be done. A couple of clients have complained of zombie sightings near their homes and it was up to her and Edward to take care of the problem.
"Good morning, Darling," said Edward as he rose from the table to greet his wife with a kiss.
"Good morning, my love." Jane returned his affections with a kiss on the cheek.
"Good morning Mama," said Henry who embraced her expectant mid-section carefully. "How are you today?"
"I'm very tired. I had hardly a wink of sleep last night." She hugged her son, kissed his forehead, and sat down at the table. "Tea please, Mrs. Fairfax," she said to their ever faithful housekeeper, who in turn, brought her some.
"My dear, you look quite lethargic," said Edward, sipping his coffee and noticing that his wife was rubbing her tired eyes.
"What does that mean?" asked Henry.
"Son, 'lethargic' means to be very tired or sleepy. And in your mother's case, it appears that she can barely keep her eyes open." Edward then turned to Jane. "Dear, I think that you should stay home today. The workload today is light and I can make the rounds myself; I feel that your health would benefit from some extra sleep, especially in your fragile condition. You spent the majority of the previous evening tossing and turning."
"Thank you Edward," Jane said, much relieved. "Later on today, I might go for a walk with Henry. Henry's face beamed with delight.
"Can I still play with my friends today, Mama?" Henry asked. It was previously arranged for a servant's grandchildren to come to visit Master Henry that day.
"Of course, Henry. They can come walk with us."
Henry squealed in delight, clapping his hands. His nanny, Miss Rebecca Walsh, then came over to fetch him and get him bathed and clean for the day. In the meantime, Jane and Edward finished eating and the latter gave his wife a kiss before he left to his daily rounds. Jane then trudged upstairs to their bedroom for a much-needed nap. Upon falling asleep, Jane started to dream.
She found herself inside a basement, dark, dank, and frightening. Holding a lamp, she continued through what seemed like a maze; there were twists and turns and dead ends. She was in pursuit of someone or something that emitted high pitched screams. Despite being horrified, Jane pressed on to find the source of the highly audible cries by following the sounds, hoping that the louder they got, the closer she was. After what seemed like an eternity, she came upon something similar to a jail cell. In it was a young girl, about twenty years old, with pale skin, pure white hair, and black eyes, screeching at the top of her lungs, one hand gripping one of the iron bars and the other reaching out between them. Jane dropped the lantern and ran only to run head on into the screaming creature. "What are you doing here?" it hissed as it grabbed Jane by the face. It lowered its mouth closer to Jane's neck as she struggled to break free.
Jane immediately rose from her nap and looked around her. She was still in the safety of the bedchamber. She shook her head and rose to open the bedroom door to find Mrs. Fairfax standing in front of it, startling her.
"Jane, how was your nap?" she asked.
"I feel better now that I had one but I just had the strangest nightmare."
"The children are downstairs ready for a lovely afternoon stroll. I thought I'd come up here to see if you were still sleeping."
"Not anymore, Mrs. Fairfax. Tell the children and Henry's nanny that I will be ready in a few minutes."
Jane, Mrs. Fairfax, Henry, Miss Walsh (his nanny), and Henry's friends, twin siblings Martin and Matilda, who were the grandchildren of one of Edward's servants went out for a walk, bringing lunch with them. The three women would talk amongst themselves while keeping a sharp eye on the children, making sure they stayed away from the pond and didn't run off by themselves. They then walked back toward the house and sat under the old chestnut tree that had sprouted new leaves after being struck by lightning many years ago and lunched. They talked about Jane's dream and while it was frightening, they concluded that it didn't amount to anything. As they came back to the house, Edward had arrived back home from his rounds. One of his servants arrived to collect his grandchildren and take them home. Miss Walsh took Master Henry to give him his bath and get him ready for supper. Edward appeared to have a sour disposition as he grumbled under his breath while hanging his hat and frock coat. Jane happily approached her grumpy husband with an embrace, hoping to ease his mind.
"How was your day, my love?" she asked.
"Horrible. How was yours? Do you feel better?"
"Much better, but why was your day horrible?" She put her arm around her husband's waist and walked him to the parlor where they sat down on the sofa and had some tea.
"Jane my dear, be absolutely thankful you stayed home instead of working with me today,"said Edward in a grave tone of voice. "All the zombie calls today were quite effortless except for the last call of the day." He cleared his throat. "My last call of the day was from a woman, Mrs. Piper. Apparently, she and her husband spotted a zombie in their barn so they had locked it to keep it in; at least their animals were outside grazing instead of being feasted upon by the un-dead. Anyway, instead of keeping it trapped and waiting for me to arrive, Mr. Piper took it upon himself to remedy the situation." He paused and took a sip of tea.
"How can anyone be so stupid?" exclaimed Jane, putting her hand to her face. "Zombies are brainless but they are deadly creatures! Why would anyone untrained in creature killing take upon such a task?"
"My sentiments exactly, my dear. Well, he unlocked the barn doors and tried to shoot the zombie with his rifle but he missed with the only bullet in the chamber. While swinging wildly at the creature at a poor attempt to knock it senseless, the zombie bit him in the neck and turned Mr. Piper into a member of the un-dead community. I had no choice but to shoot both of them."
"What about his wife?"
"His wife is now a widow with three children and one on the way," replied Edward. "Thankfully, she has connections with relatives in Liverpool and will be selling the home and moving there shortly. According to her, her husband wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed and her parents were hesitant to let her marry him. And now I can see why." He took his last sip of tea and then poured himself a glass of claret. "Jane, when you are ill, do you not call upon a physician to attend to your needs?"
"Of course I do, Edward. I wouldn't have known about being with child if I didn't."
"This is why folks should leave the creature killing to us," Edward sighed as he took a sip of claret. "So how was your nap?"
Jane felt compelled to tell Edward about her dream but felt that his experience was far more worse than a silly nightmare. "It was fine. I woke up feeling energetic and took Henry and his friends, Miss Walsh, and Mrs. Fairfax on a walk and we had lunch underneath the old chestnut tree."
"Splendid," said Edward. "Glad to know you're feeling better." He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'm going to go get cleaned up. I'll meet you in the dining room for supper." He got up and left the room. The more Jane thought about it, the less she thought about the bad dream and brushed it off as a mere reverie that happened to be frighteningly realistic.
That night, Jane lay in bed while Edward was pleasantly snoring next to her. She took one look at the ceiling and then turned onto her side and fell into a deep sleep.
She came down to a set of stairs leading to a basement. From that point, she heard an ear-piercing shriek coming from somewhere nearby. With a lantern in hand, Jane walked toward the sound of the shrieking voice. As she crept closer to the source of the sound through a maze of passageways, she felt someone walk up behind her, grab her shoulders, knocking the lantern out of her hand. "What are you doing here!" it hissed loudly. "Leave me be!" The creature then pulled Jane close and was about to bite the back of her neck.
Jane awoke, breathing heavily and in a cold sweat. She caught her breath and by her waking up, she accidentally aroused her husband from his sleep.
"Huh, what's going on?" mumbled Edward, rubbing his eyes.
"Edward, I just had a nightmare," Jane said. "I had a dream that a creature was trying to get me. It was awful, Edward. It had this horrible scream like it was dying or in trouble or something like that."
Edward rubbed his wife's shoulders. "It's just a dream, my little fairy." He kissed her cheek. "Let's go back to sleep, shall we?" He pulled her close to him with her head on his chest and the two of them fell asleep with no more nightmares.
The next morning, both Jane and Edward woke up feeling refreshed and energetic. The two got dressed and made their way to the breakfast table with a letter waiting for them. While eating, Edward opened the letter and read its contents.
"What does it say, Edward?" asked Jane.
"Apparently, an expatriated Scotsman by the name of Angus MacFadden has some sort of demon-like creature running rampant in his basement. He's planning to get married sometime soon and, apparently, would like us to dispose of the demon before he unites in holy matrimony."
Jane nearly spit out her tea. The previous nightmares she had matched the situation almost perfectly. Still, she did not bring up the subject with her husband for fear of exacerbating the problem. "That sounds horrible!" exclaimed Jane.
"Well, I would think so. Demons aren't particularly pleasant beings to deal with. We must finish our meal and head on over to Mr. MacFadden's estate. It's not too far from here."
Jane nodded in agreement and continued to eat her breakfast while wondering about the creature in question. Could it possibly resemble the ghost-like demon that haunted her dreams? Or could it be just another zombie stuck in someone's basement just like most of their clientele? Before they left, Jane made sure to take along a copy of Nasty Creatures and their Habits, given to her by Edward for their third anniversary. As they rode the carriage up to Mr. MacFadden's estate, Jane poured over the book, looking for any signs of what the creature might be, relying on only the lucid hallucinations of her nightmares. Sitting next to her, Edward peered over to his side to see his wife reading.
"My dear, that's an excellent book," he said. "Did you know that there are several types of vampires and not just one?"
Looking up from her book, Jane replied, "I did not know that."
"It's a useful book, Jane. I'm glad you brought it along because I haven't the faintest idea of what kind of undesirable being is inhabiting Mr. MacFadden's basement."
"That's what I'm trying to find out," said Jane. "Mr. MacFadden's description of this thing is incredibly vague."
Jane continued to read the book searching for answers when the coachman eventually pulled up to Mr. MacFadden's estate. After getting out of the carriage, Jane's eyes and mouth widened in awe; the home was more of a palace than a mansion. It was much bigger than Thornfield. With her book about nasty creatures tucked into her arm, Jane followed Edward inside, led by a servant. Inside the home were two massive staircases that led directly into the main room. A young man of one and thirty appeared, his auburn red hair combed back, impeccably dressed and with all the signs of significant wealth, much like the Rochesters, but with a little more money.
"Hello and welcome to my humble home," said the young man with a slight Scottish brogue. "I am Angus MacFadden; how do you do?"
"Edward Rochester, pleased to meet you." The two men shook hands.
"Jane Rochester, pleased to meet you." Jane dropped a curtsey.
"Mrs. Rochester, I see that you are expecting."
"I am about six months along. This is our second child," she said with a smile.
"Wonderful. I send my congratulations to you and your family. Well, enough with the formalities, come into my office where we can talk about this matter." He led them up one of the two giant staircases into a small room on the left hand side. There was nothing humble about this home, Jane thought. It had all the makings of Versailles or even the Royal Palace in London. Huge paintings adorned the walls along with Chinese vases on almost every table, even in Mr. MacFadden's office where they were instructed to sit down.
"Welcome again to my humble abode," Mr. MacFadden said with a smile. "Coffee or tea, anyone?"
"Tea please," said Edward.
"Me too. Tea please," said Jane.
"Very well, tea for all of us." Mr. MacFadden instructed his housekeeper to bring libations for his guests.
"This is a wonderful home, Mr. MacFadden," said Jane.
"It is, isn't it?" he said. "I inherited it from my late father who passed away from consumption ten years ago. He made his living in the sugar and tobacco industries. My grandfather gave him the bulk of his riches when he died."
"What is your occupation, if I may inquire?" asked Edward.
"I have inherited my father's businesses," replied Mr. MacFadden. "Although I do have enough money to retire from working completely. It's just that I need something to keep me busy." He chuckled a little bit. "I also have an equally rich cousin on my mother's side of the family; Mr. Hamish MacLellan. I believe that Mr. MacLellan has married a former acquaintance of yours, Mr. Rochester."
"Blanche Ingram?" said Edward, surprised.
"Exactly. That's how I found out about the both of you."
"And how are Mr. and Mrs. MacLellan doing?" asked Jane.
"They seem to be doing well. From what I hear, Mrs. MacLellan is also expecting," he said, glancing at Jane.
"I also imagined you might be wearing a kilt, somehow," said Jane with a childish smile.
Mr. MacFadden laughed. "You humor me, Mrs. Rochester. Well, no. I've worn one before but it feels quite strange as opposed to wearing trousers, which I wear all the time."
"Let's get down to business, Mr. MacFadden," said Edward. "Can you tell me a little bit about this thing in your basement?"
"Yes, I can. I've seen this creature and so have my servants and housekeepers. I can't afford to have this thing in my home when I am expected to be married in the next couple of weeks."
"That's understandable," said Edward, who could empathize with the young man's plight, considering that he had a similar situation when Jane first came to Thornfield.
"Who is your lovely bride-to-be, Mr. MacFadden?"asked Jane.
"Her name is Ruth Haversham. I met her and her family in church about a year ago. She's a beautiful woman. And she should be here sometime today for a visit."
Just as Mr. MacFadden mentioned his intended's name, a servant popped in with Miss Haversham in tow. She had dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes and only a mere twenty years old, she was considered a stunning beauty by many.
"Hello Angus," she said as she embraced him and kissed his cheek. "How are you today?"
"I'm quite well, Darling," he replied, his eyes fixated on hers in some sort of lovesick gaze. "Allow me to introduce some new friends. Miss Ruth Haversham, meet Mr. Edward and Mrs. Jane Rochester." He then pointed her in the Rochesters' general direction.
"Pleased to meet you, Miss Haversham," said Jane, shaking hands.
"Pleased to meet you as well, Miss Haversham," said Edward, bowing his head.
Miss Haversham giggled. "Your friends are quite friendly," she said with a smile.
"Well, I don't make friends to be mistreated, my dear," Mr. MacFadden said. "They're actually here to do away with that wretched creature in my basement."
"So you're the Creature Killers of Thornfield!" Miss Haversham exclaimed. "I've heard so much about you!"
"It's nice to know that we've gained some notoriety," said Edward with a smile.
With the formalities out of the way, Mr. MacFadden led Miss Haversham and the Rochesters toward the basement via an entrance near the back. Outside of Mr. MacFadden's glorious estate lay what seemed like acres of gardens, fountains, shaped hedges, and flowers outlining every edge. While Jane was in awe of everything around her, Edward felt slightly envious as his home was only half the size of Mr. MacFadden's. Once into the basement, Mr. MacFadden gave everyone a lantern and described the creature in detail.
"This thing looks like a young woman of sorts," he said. "But with white hair, white skin, and her clothes look somewhat torn."
What Mr. MacFadden had described fit the creature haunting Jane's dreams. She continued to flip through her Nasty Creatures book until she remembered what Edward said earlier about being several types of vampires. She continued to flip through until she found what she was looking for.
"I believe I found the type of creature that has been haunting your basement," said Jane.
"Really? That's wonderful," said Mr. MacFadden.
"How do you know, Jane, when you haven't even seen it before?" asked Edward.
Jane gulped. "Well, I have seen it before, in my dreams."
"In your dreams?" asked a very puzzled Edward, his eyebrows lowered in confusion.
"Yes. Yesterday, when I stayed home from our usual rounds, I had a nightmare about that same creature. And when we went to bed last night, I had the exact same dream."
"And you never told me?" said Edward.
"I thought you'd brush it off as some silly nonsense."
"It's not silly and it's not nonsense, Jane. It's important."
"But what is it, exactly?" asked Miss Haversham.
"From my book Nasty Creatures and their Habits," said Jane, holding up the book. "The creature is a zombie-vampire hybrid. Apparently, this young woman was a vampire that was bitten by a zombie and thus, wanders about mindlessly but still has some brain activity and the ability to bite people, thus making more zombie-vampire hybrids."
"Good work Jane, now we need to find this thing," said Edward. "I think it will be much safer if you two went back inside," he said, pointing to Mr. MacFadden and his fiancee. Both complied and exited the basement, with Mr. MacFadden leaving the gate to the basement open as an escape route. With torches in hand, both Jane and Edward traversed the basement. While not too long or too big as depicted in Jane's dreams, it was full to the brim with wine casks, trunks, armor, mounted rifles, old furniture, and even wild game that had been stuffed and preserved.
"This man seems to have everything under the damned sun!" muttered Edward. "Look at these things! Elephant tusks, vases, rugs! This is obscene! And that man is a good ten years younger than me."
"Jealous, Edward?" asked Jane with a smile.
"Jealous? Me? Oh no," Edward lied. "I'm just, well, in awe of this man's many earthly possessions."
The creature killers didn't have to go far when they saw a white, frail young woman thrashing about in what seemed to be a closet of some sort. Looking through a hole in the closet, Jane perfectly identified the creature. She wore a ragged, dirty frock dress. Her hair was white as snow, her skin was nearly the same color.
"What are you doing here!" hissed the creature.
"We've come to, um, help," replied Edward.
"I don't need your help!" the creature hissed in reply. She started running into the door of the closet as if to break the door down itself.
"Jane, I'm going to pick the lock of this door," instructed Edward, carrying a set of instruments he used for situations like these. "Once I open this door, aim your pistol straight for either the heart or the brain."
"Yes Edward." She pulled out her trusty pistol and loaded it. She then took several steps back and faced the door should the woman come straight toward her, her gun pointed directly at the closet.
Edward managed to successfully pick the lock and need only to get out of the way before the creature burst out, running toward Jane, screaming loudly. Jane had only enough time to fire one bullet or otherwise she would be doomed to share the same fate as the young woman. She leveled her pistol and fired one shot. It pierced the creature's heart and stopped her cold in her tracks. For good measure, Jane fired another shot into the creature's head. The zombie-vampire hybrid stumbled a bit and then fell backward, cold and dead.
"Good work Jane," said Edward. "Now let's get Mr. MacFadden in here so he can..."
"I'm right here, Mr. Rochester," Mr. MacFadden said, standing behind Jane and holding his own pistol. "I was the one who shot her in the head."
"I thought I told you to go inside so you wouldn't get yourself killed!" cried Edward.
"Miss Haversham went inside, but I had to come back here. I had to make sure she didn't find out who this person really was."
"What do you mean?" asked Edward.
"That woman," he said, pointing to the dead zombie-vampire woman. "Was my wife."
"Deja vu all over again," mumbled Edward to himself, putting his hand to his face.
"You see, we were only married a year," said Mr. MacFadden. "I thought Eloise MacFadden died after she was bitten by a vampire so we put her in our family mausoleum. Little did we know that she emerged from the mausoleum and was promptly bitten by a wayward zombie. Two years had passed since I saw her until I found that she was trying to get back inside our home through the basement and that is when I sent for you."
"Jane, you drive the stake in her heart," said Edward, taking in all of Mr. MacFadden's story. "This is far too familiar to me." He took out a wooden stake from his frock coat and handed it to Jane who, in turn, drove the thing straight into the creature's heart, turning it into a skeleton with a dirty frock dress.
"Please don't tell Miss Haversham about this," Mr. MacFadden said. "All she knows is that it's just some random creature that wandered into my basement."
"Then let's leave it at that," Edward said. "We won't tell her and she doesn't need to know."
"We promise," said Jane. "Though I would highly suggest that you be a little more honest in your upcoming marriage."
"Oh I will, trust me."
Weeks later, both Jane and Edward were invited to attend the wedding of Mr. Angus MacFadden and Miss Ruth Haversham. Unlike Thorvald and Ragnhilde's wedding several months earlier, this ceremony of holy matrimony was so lavish that one might think it was a wedding between royals. While sitting inside the massive church, Jane and Edward could still spot the former Blanche Ingram, now Mrs. Hamish MacLellan. She sat next to her husband covered in jewelry with a small baby bump hidden underneath her dress. Mr. MacFadden was right, Jane thought, she was expecting. During the reception, the Rochesters and Blanche made eye contact but then saw that she turned her attention elsewhere to another couple who were congratulating her on the newest member of the MacLellan family. In fact, there were so many people in attendance that Jane and Edward were surprised to see her. After the reception winded down, the two of them decided to take their leave until someone spotted them walking toward the door.
"Mr. and Mrs. Rochester," Mr. MacFadden called out, following them along with his new bride.
"Well, congratulations," said Edward shaking the young man's hand. "I'm sure Mrs. Ruth MacFadden will turn out to be a wonderful wife."
"Thank you kind sir," said Mrs. MacFadden, dropping a curtsey.
"I wish you and your wife the best of luck and God be with you," said Jane with a smile.
"No, thank you," said Mr. MacFadden. "You have done a great service for me. In fact, I shall recommend you to all my friends and associates who are in dire need of your services."
"Thank you very much, Mr. MacFadden," said Jane. "We feel quite honored."
The two creature killers then left the party and headed home in their carriage. They were exhausted, especially for Jane in her expectant condition. Jane leaned her head against Edward's shoulder as he draped his arm around his wife.
"I'm incredibly exhausted," said Jane. "All I want to do is go home and sleep. I'm too tired to eat dinner."
"Are you sure you want to skip your meal? I really think you should have something in your stomach before you go to sleep, my dear."
"Well, perhaps I shall eat something. But I will go straight to bed afterward. I've never been to a wedding so big. So much food, dancing, music, and talking to people we don't know. I'm glad we had our wedding done and over with. It was so nice and simple and there weren't a great deal of people there."
"And we didn't even have a reception," added Edward. "We just took the carriage straight from the church back to Ferndean and packed our belongings to go to Paris and Rome."
"You know what Edward?"
"Yes my little elf?"
"I love you."
"I love you too, Jane." The two of them shared a kiss.
"I'm so glad to be headed home," Jane said as she placed her head back on Edward's shoulders.
THE END