STREGOIKA
1564 Words
That night in the Renfield Mansion from my prior investigations in the happenings of the Sheffield serial murders, I would uncover that Dr Abbott Renfield entertained another guest that night.
Yes, the lovely dowager from the photograph Miss Rebecca Manson his lover.
Now in this particular unfolding of these events, the dowager brought not new of glad tidings but of her intention to no longer continue her relationship with the good doctor.
Hence it was their final night together.
And as this tragic story goes it was alas her last.
The night was dark, black as The Earl's waistcoat with only a crescent moon in the sky to light the world
But all was yet to unfold in this dreich tale.
The narrative was just beginning. this case, above many solved by Arthur Caine, was the only one to leave a huge scar in his soul.
Arthur feeling pure done in, so decided to walk around the mansion to occupy his mind as he grew restless.
The house was poorly lit and Cecil his companion was fast asleep.
while Arthur Caine wandered the castle that night he heard Dr Abbott's voice and the voice of a woman, there were having a conversation, it was a bit of a row, he heard the feminine voice
'you can't keep doing this,' she exclaimed bitterly
'you have to stop' she continued.
'I will" Dr Abbott replied 'i will for you, so please don't leave me"
my mind is made up Abbott, I can't be with you" she said softly.
"Is there nothing I could do to sway you.' he asked but she remained silent.
'If that's is what you wish my dear...' Dr Abbott replied
Arthur wandered off, as he lit his pipe aching for a smoke,
he realised he had just witnessed the end of the good doctor's affair.
Two hours later he was still wide awake
he had been in his Tempus Castrum. sorting through past events and details he had found fascinating.
Memories and moments spent with Eileen, he had remembered every word she had spoken down to every mispronunciation, her french accent still lingered and echoed loudly sometimes pleasant and sometimes haunting.
Her conjured up spectral often made appeared at certain critical moments.
"Arthur." She whispered
"I must be awfully tired for you to show up" Arthur Caine responded
"Yes you are, it's three in the morning Arthur" Eileen replied
"Have noticed that there's something off in this house, don't you think" ghost Eileen added.
"What do you mean," Arthur asked.
"The photos from the room you saw earlier, the woman from the photograph bears remarkable similarity to the other three previous victims of the vampire, that isn't a coincidence is it." ghost Eileen inferred astutely.
"That is so, you are right Eileen, if we can find a more substantial connection today I believe we can make more progress on this case"
"or," ghost Eileen proposed "we could go up to her quarters and if she's awake we can question her."
"Eileen! that would be ungentlemanly, I couldn't" Arthur reacted.
"Come on now, Mr Caine, you are cavalier a rebel a cosmopolitan.
saving a life is more important than sitting idly by"
"It's Dr Caine, but Alright," Arthur Caine said. "I suppose a little curiosity wouldn't hurt."
And so persuaded by the conjured ghost of his amour, Arthur Caine preceded to the quarters of the dowager of whom at the time he was not acquainted with. and never would be.
He knocked on the door, but there was no response.
"I suppose she's asleep," Arthur said.
"She's too troubled to sleep Arthur, she just ended her relationship" ghost Eileen said
Arthur Caine knocked again but there was no response.
So he decided to open the door.
On entering the room he was shocked to find the dowager on the floor her body still a bit warm.
He took up her arm to check for any pulse but felt none she was dead.
She was dead, but how.
Arthur Caine stood up took a lit candle and brought it closer to the body to examine it properly.
There were punctures on her neck she had on a necklace with a ring on it, but no blood flowed from the wound.
Her face was beautiful albeit lifeless.
Arthur imagined how beautiful her smile would have been, but she was now dead.
'Cecil' Arthur thought 'I have to tell Cecil."
He turned to leave the room on his way out headed for Cecil he saw a shadowy figure in the living room and he followed it.
The figure exited the living room and went outside and Arthur Caine kept following it.
When it got to the withered garden the figure stopped and turned around to face Arthur Caine.
It was Dr Abbott Renfield.
"Oh it's, you, good doctor," Arthur said.
"I'll be happy to share with you my newest findings.
Yester y when I arrived here I found a photograph of your Paramore
She's was indeed an exquisite beauty, my mind at first was troubled, I noticed something that was not at first glance apparent.
But now are as clear as day.
There are two crucial similarities that all these victims possess.
Firstly they all had the same physical similarities.
The same eye colour, the same hair colour, the same height and age range.
"And Secondly" Arthur Caine continued "while based purely on ratiocination I believe you met these women.
What would a dowager have in common with a retired psychiatrist doctor, I believe she turned to you in grief after the death of her husband.
I believe her husband died recently
because she had a wedding ring on her necklace.
Such would imply sentiment because a proud married lady wouldn't wear her wedding ring on her neck especially one as distinguished as your dead lover.
"Which leads me to my conclusion.
You are the culprit Dr Abbott.
It's over, the jig is up.
"You Arthur, are more clever than I gave you credit for." Dr Abbott admitted.
"None of it was beautiful," he said "not the blood
not the bones,
Or her arms twisted underneath the light of that broken crescent moon.
"Then why did you do it?" Arthur Caine asked.
"I just wanted all of her," He continued" everything she could ever give.
In some ways, I was only chemically inclined to her.
And that was my greatest sin, you see I loved her
and she ruined me.
She wanted no more of me but I wanted all of her" he said ruefully.
"Oh you fool, look upon her,
that was your becoming, not her's
It was you who ruined her," Arthur responded
"There are a lot of things you are yet to see Arthur, if you have been as I, you would know that love itself is fleeting."
"Dr Abbott You need help," Arthur Caine pleaded "I can help you if you just turn yourself in."
"I am beyond it.
In every man Arthur, there's a darkness I can see through it, their minds and all of yours Arthur is a little more than most, you hide behind this façade off intellect.
But you don't actually save lives, you just enjoy your clever rattling at the end of the epilogue.
There's a part of you that perceives what I am,
but yet you refuse to believe."
"I know you're deluded, sick and in need of help," Arthur replied.
"You've lived your life by the rules of logic," continued Dr Abbott "and you rejected whatever falls away from its spectrum, but this here is the truth.
Know it and it shall set you free.
My gift to you will be the very thing you reject"
"I want you Arthur to know me, for I am Stregoika," he said.
At that moment Stregoika's eyes turned a glowing green, his cuspid grew into fang, and that was the revelation.
Arthur Caine realised had met the fabled Stregoika.
From the case of 1774.
Before Arthur Caine turn around to run Stregoika vanished.
and as Arthur Caine turned around he was there.
He grabbed Arthur Caine and sank his fang into Arthur's neck.
Right then Arthur Caine felt the life draining from him.
He opened his mouth to scream but no sound was produced.
In life, everyone remembers where they went wrong, for most it takes a lifetime to figure, but for someone as smart as Arthur Caine, reality sets in a whole lot quicker.
There was no time to reflect on the things he couldn't do or the love he never had either, life is just short.
And what you get to do with it is irreversible
In his mind, he could only recall Eileen and the things he wished he had told her before she vanished.
My dearest Eileen
There are many things one could experience before returning to the wretched dust nature solemnly expects of us.
And if I could, I would spend each and every single one of them,
clinging to your side like a lost outcast a rebel of the unknown.
But for now, I could say in all my travels, I was rejected by the land and the waters of the seas,
Your heart remains the only home I could go to and perhaps I do not deserve it but alas I have nowhere else to go
Your dearest lowly creature.
A.C
- Writer
