Felix could not tell what the enemy's game was. It was fine and dandy to
make the victim doubt themselves, go against their instinct, but it was
strange to encourage your own ally to go mad. It just didn't make sense.
Which made its own sense, considering the stage performer was indeed
crazy, no matter his claims of high alchemical lineage. It was all
false, it was all fabricated, even if the precise details of it were the
most difficult ones in the world to trace, even for his family.
That was the main reason Felix would not use the gate accidentally open
to him by the enemy. The gate had a characteristic secret society
hieroglyph, a hint at his grandmother's secret identity, and she would
be allies with the likes of this rotten bunch, to be sure. But he did
not and would not take the bait. Although it would feel so very
satisfying to strike at her, for the sake of his mom and uncle both.
Only now, the big bad C finally left the so called Victor to his own
devices. C was gone, his characteristic signature was utterly gone, but
this scientist, so very inspired to be driven beyond his natural limits,
was doing it all to himself. That was pathetic. But it was also ironic.
The kind of irony he liked, and his own team could use.
"Vamps, Underworld, really, like really?" Felix wondered to himself, his
incredulous smile a carbon copy of his uncle's. "Do you miss the chains
then? Do you want to go back, somewhere deep inside, to the safety of
knowing, that your liver will always be used at a certain hour? It does
feel safe to you somewhere, doesn't it? All the talks of avoiding death,
running away from it...Well, maybe you get lucky, as they say, three
strikes, and you're out..." Felix considered, though of course it was
still too early to talk directly to the enemy. He did not and would not
risk exposing himself. The big one was untouchable until that time when
the Great One accepted his greatness, Felix reasoned with a sardonic
smile. Victor was a different ball game though. While the other was a
fortress of a temple, this one held no protective idols at all.
And the thing about the subconscious mind was that it readily accepted
suggestions. Ideas always came to regular humans seemingly out of
nowhere, except Felix of course knew where they could come from. That
was the nature of the beast, after all. "That could be a fun game,"
Felix considered and began whispering into Van Hoff's mind. Most waking
minds were rather asleep after all. If only other matters were just as
easy, the war would be all but won.
"Mary Beth, progress?" Van Hoff wondered, "I am ready to start a
regiment of supplements to our patient, if the salve is working" the
doctor spoke confidently, entertaining a new hope in his heart.
"Well said Heidi, Amen," Elizabeth concluded, not sure if that was
enough for the prayer, not being able to recall more, nor to come up
with some plausible improvisation that would only betray the lie of her
pretense.
Previous Message in the Thread:
"Yes indeed, Doctor, we do have some of that salve, Mary Beth replied,
and I shall apply it liberally, three times a day as you have said. She
took out a small vial of the salve, and began rubbing it on Victor’s
throat, and on other places where she could see various marks from
Burns, from the time he had spent briefly in the underworld.
Yes mistress, Heidi replied with a nod, bowing her head to begin the
prayer. Father of all grace, and all glory, we come to you now to
intercede for her husband, and my master, Victor. Please free him from
the traps set by the evil one, free him from the snares of his soul,
whether he has fashioned the snares himself, or whether the evil one has
fashioned them to catch him.? She then reached into her pocket, and
produced a small rosary which she carried with her. As her fingers
delicately touched the beads, she began softly murmuring, hail Mary,
mother of all grace, Hail Mary, mother of endless comfort and mercy,
please grant grace and mercy to Victor, bring him back from whatever
dark doings he has done, or have been done to him. Restore him safely to
his beloved Elizabeth, hail Mary, mother of endless blessings…,
Blessings upon Victor, upon the mistress, and upon this household.
Please restore him to his household, and to all who love him, and to all
that he loves.? She gently passed the rosary to Elizabeth and said, here
mistress.
Victor had awakened only enough to flinch at the pain produced when
Marybeth rubbed the salve on his throat. He was still very much in
between the dreamworld, and the real waking world.? The sweet, floral
fragrance of the perfume she had used earlier that day before coming to
work, was intoxicating to him, almost overpowering. He thought to
himself that he had never smelled perfume that strong before, to him, it
smelled much like flowers that were growing beside that river he thought
he heard. He turned his head to one side, and discovered a problem. As
far as he could tell, the river which he believed he heard was, inside,
Mary Beth. Because he was not yet seeing as clearly as he would later
on, he truly believed she must be an angel; that had to be it, God had
sent an angel down from where he had been in the heaven scene, someone
to comfort him, perhaps to reverse whatever had been done to him in the
dream world.
His eyes had only partially opened, just enough to see her dimly, and to
register that strange, piercing light, which probably came from a lamp
somewhere in the room. The light was already seeming almost unmercifully
bright to him, he thought to himself that, he must still be in the scene
of heaven, she had to be an angel.
Angel, with the river of life, he murmured, his eyes quickly closing,
and sleep once more reaching, and claiming him, as he murmured while
drifting off, please give me this living water, that I may never thirst
again.
Before the sickness, and before anything had happened in the dream,
Victor had indulged in daily enhancement potions, which he had
formulated. These had already done much work to enhance his strength,
stamina, and senses.? The work of these, coupled with his new, quickly
developing vampiric senses, was already beginning to bring about the
changes in him. For after his brief encounter in the heavens, an actual
vampire had entered his dreams, and had made him. In the dream, without
fully realizing it, his actual physical lips had sipped, and had
partaken of the Crimson flow offered by the one performing the deed. It
would be sometime before Victor would completely accept what happened to
him, for as yet in the real world, he did not believe in vampires.
What an elating disappointment it would be when he fully awakened,
enough to think with clarity, enough for his emerging senses to begin to
operate.? He would recall that he had worked with bodies before, with
human hearts, although those hearts were stilled, no longer providing
the endless rhythmic drumming which seemed to accompany the flow of his,
River of life. He would remember and realize that the sound he heard was
probably nothing more than Marybeth‘s heartbeat.? It would be
disappointing, because even he, with all his life enhancement potions,
had never caused himself to actually hear the inner workings of a
persons body, and he would know that something was dreadfully wrong,
something which should never have been, and which should not be. It
would be elating, because of his newly found senses, and because Of how
he would later learn to use those senses. Yet, how disappointing it
would be when he realized that this same, River of life, was actually
found in all living animals, and that the River of life within his,
Angel, had a telltale crimson color. Yet this too, would be a strange
joy for him, for it would be the very thing to satisfy the growing
primal hunger within, the very appetite? for blessed life.
God loves you."
Ishamael Moridin