Chapter XX

Father Timothy had the distinct impression his guests were all a little touched in the head. Two days had passed since their arrival, and there were still no signs that he would ever be able to understand their strange behavior. Little Sophie seemed to be a mute, because she wouldn't answer to any of his innocent inquiries, and would simply start crying and flee the room as soon as she saw him approaching. Cervenka was a serious business altogether. He also was not speaking but, fortunately for the Father, there was no crying involved, and he would only marauder each night the perimeter of his house with a terrifying look on his face. The good Father was simply scared of him, and had opted to flee himself from whichever room he was in, whenever he saw him approaching.

But the most pitiful case was represented by the lady with them. She had told him upon their arrival that she was Mr. Grayson's wife, and that had been more or less the extent of the information he could extract from her. He was very worried for her mental wellbeing: she had a sad and lost smile, perennially plastered on her face, and she seemed to have gone crazy from some recent calamity. Maybe to be married to a cursed individual had taken its toll on her mind, the Father thought despairingly.

He had tried to make conversation with her, even to the extent of inviting her to partake of his beloved walks in the garden, but her answers hadn't made a lot whole of sense, and they were becoming more nonsensical with the passing hours.

"Come, my Lady," he exhorted her on their second morning together, "come inside with me." He patted her on the hand. "It's too chilly to be outside. We shall sit by the fire, yes?" He looked at her expectantly.

"My husband is still not here."

"But I'm sure he will arrive soon."

"I cannot live without him." Her pale face was almost expressionless.

Father Timothy was at a loss as to properly comfort the woman in front of him. "Don't worry, he will be with us." He threw her a hesitant smile for good measure.

"When I was a child, Father told me my mother would be with us forever."

Father Timothy looked at her impassible face without daring uttering a word.

"But she never came back from the hospital."

"But surely this is not the case…, " he hazarded to say at last, frowning in preoccupation.

"I will not have a moment of comfort until my Alexander is not reunited with me," she staed with a categorical, definite, tone.

"Not even a little bit of cake and tea?" the man courageously offered, looking up at her in mild discomfort.

"I will freeze in this deserted land, until my beloved is with me."

Father Timothy fleetingly took offence at the disparagement directed at this beloved garden, but decided to forgive the distraught woman.

He sighed in aggravation, and entered the house alone, to wait fervently for Mr. Grayson's return in a more comfortable, and warmer, accommodation. He had sent notice he would be there between today and the day after, and the Father had already everything ready for the ritual in his basement. The woman in the garden kept talking to herself for the better part of the morning, shaking frequently her head in distress, until little Sophie went to convince her to get inside and have supper with them. Mina gratefully smiled at her and obeyed, while humming to herself a little childhood tune, that seemed to comfort her somehow.

That same night, when everybody had already gone to bed, and Josef was busying himself with his highly secretive surveillance occupations, two carriages stationing in the patio were finally heard in short succession. The first ones to descend were Renfield and Van Helsing, and then, after ten minutes, Grayson arrived to meet the two people waiting for him in the hall. His clothes disheveled and his hair in disarray, he entered in haste, a wild look patent in his eyes.

"Go wake the Father up. We don't have a moment to waste," Alexander ordered his lawyer. "And give him this," he added, placing carefully a small chest in his hands. "That's the final ingredient for the spell."

He turned to the doctor and said with a sigh, "In this briefcase are the names of all the members of the Order. If something goes wrong with me, you'll know what to do." Van Helsing slowly nodded. "I trust you will unleash all the London vampires against them, for starters," he finished with a hateful glare at the content of the case.

The doctor solemnly nodded again. "I wish you all the luck in this world," he proffered, a strangely caring tone in his voice.

Grayson grinned at him. "I know, my friend. It has been a wild adventure, hasn't it?"

"It certainly has." The doctor extended a hand, and Alexander took it in both of his, with a keen expression in his eyes.

"I know we have had our scuffles, eh, Doctor?" he chuckled at last. "But I thank you for always sticking with me."

Van Helsing lowered his stare, overwhelmed by emotion. "I did kidnap those children," he confessed at last.

"I know."

"But I returned them safe and sound."

"I know."He tightened the grasp on his hand. "That must have been difficult for you."

Van Helsing sighed. "I sometimes think I was not cut out for revenge."

Alexander smiled at him. "You are a good man, Abraham. " He abruptly relinquished the hand and turned. "Much better than me," he added as an afterthought.

The doctor eyed him in sympathy. "If everything works tonight, you'll be a new man."

"Will I?" he asked pensively.

"Yes, yes, you will, I'm sure of it."

"I wonder what Mina will think of me."

"You'll both have a whole new life ahead of you. You'll have time to make amends."

"I did it all for her good."

"I know."

"But I shouldn't have killed her Harker."

"Maybe not."

He paused for long instants. "And I should have been tenderer to her. I was just afraid for her to discover what I really am."

Van Helsing gazed at his distraught, childish expression. "You'll start afresh," he encouraged him with a confident look, even if he was not himself sure of how that could ever be accomplished.

Alexander chuckled a little, mournful laugh. "There will be a lot of groveling involved, right?"

"I imagine so." Van Helsing softly sneered at him.

Alexander nodded to the Professor. "Thank you, Doctor. For giving me my life back."

"No need to mention it," he gruffly responded with a dismissive gesture of his hands.

"Well, I should go looking for that wife of mine. It's time to begin this new life we were talking about," Alexander at last said with a shrug of his shoulders. "When everything is ready, come and look for us," he added, while climbing in a hurry the stairs towards the main bedchamber, where he presumed his Ilona had been accommodated during her stay.

Upon hearing voices downstairs, the woman had gotten up and had started dressing, only to be stopped by a forceful push of her door and a grumble by her ear, "Don't, Ilona, I want to see you as you are."

Mina turned in her nightgown and flew to embrace her beloved. "Alexander! You are here!" She took one of his hands in hers and started kissing it fervently. "Is this blood?" she inquired after a while.

"Lady Jayne didn't make it," Grayson informed matter-of-factly, a sneer visible on his face.

"I'm sorry," was the woman's response. Deaths were seeming to pile around her, like a dreadful omen. "Now we are truly alone," she stated, with an intense glance at her beloved.

Alexander obscenely grinned at her. "And what did you plan to do to me, now that we are all alone?" He took a curl of her hair within his fingers to play with.

Mina moved closer to remove his jacket and then started unbuttoning his vest with slow, precise movements. Pushing a hand inside his shirt, the woman caressed his chest, while another hand descended to unbutton his trousers.

Once Alexander was naked, she pushed him towards the bed and mounted him, a possessed look about her eyes. She started rhythmically undulating her body above him, until they both cried in pleasure.

Two hours later, they were all reunited in Father Timothy's basement. Little Sophie had found her place at the farthest corner, unwilling to be too active a participant in the diabolical dealings that were about to be performed. Cervenka, Van Helsing and Renfield watched with preoccupied expressions the picture the last two participants were making in the center of the cellar. Strange signs had been drawn all around them by the Father, in some substance that was presumably blood. Grayson was naked and bound to a wooden table, and Mina was beside him, unwilling to let him go.

"Please, Ilona, take a few steps back. We don't know what will happen, if this damn thing even works," Alexander advised.

"I will never leave you, my love" she responded, squeezing his hand with almost maniacal force.

The good Father started reciting in Latin some gibberish that evidently was part of the ritual, according to the parchment. With a cloth imbibed in some red substance inside the bowl he was holding with one hand, he proceeded to slosh the exposed body. Alexander's legs, arms, torso and face were becoming redder and redder, and almost fizzling under the reaction the concoction was provoking. At last, the pain had become unbearable even for him, and he had let go a terrible howl. Mina's body shook all over, and she leaned over him to kiss him passionately.

"Courage, my love. It will be over soon," she uttered into his ear.

"Yes, Ilona, you will always be my strength." Alexander shot a loving look at her, and then gritted his teeth in renewed agony.

Father Timothy went on with the ritual. Taking another bowl in his hands, he neared the two figures, and brought the improvised cup to Grayson's lips. "Drink, now," he urged in a decisive tone. Alexander nodded and obeyed. He started shaking uncontrollably a few moments after, and gave a heart-wrenching scream, while the floor seemed to quake under the feet of the horrified spectators. An ear-shattering rumble could be heard rising from the bowels of the Earth, and then everything quietened: Alexander and Mina had disappeared.

Renfield, Van Helsing and the Father were aghast. Sophie started quietly crying in her corner. Cervenka gave a bellowing roar and threw himself on the poor Father.

～·～·～·～·～·～·～

Vlad Tepes woke up with an inhuman growl. He looked around him, slowly recognizing the surroundings. He was in his old castle, and beside him and sleeping peacefully, was his Ilona. The reversion spell had worked unpredictably, he surmised with a wild shake of his head.

He had been brought back to the past, he realized in raising panic. He shook awake his wife, and Ilona extended a hand to caress his face. "You are here, my Prince," she said with a wide smile. "I had the strangest dream," she sleepily informed, "everybody kept calling me Mina, and you were most odious with me," she finished with a playful reproach.

Vlad's mind was reeling. He took Ilona in his arms, "I swear I'll always protect you," he whispered assuredly, with a dreadful, somber voice.

"Of course you will!" she giggled into his chest.

It was at this moment that Vlad solemnly promised himself to do everything in his power to change this past he had been evidently condemned to relive. He kissed his Ilona with passion. They would go away, where nobody could find them. Yes, everything would be different and they would be safe at last, in this lifetime. He tenderly smiled at the love of his life.

In the corridors, heavy soldier steps could be heard ominously approaching.

THE END

Author's Notes:

And there you have it, guys! It's finished! I want to thank all the wonderful people who have read and commented: you are the best :)

I hope you liked my final surprise: YES, THIS IS A PREQUEL TO THE FIRST SEASON OF THE SERIES! What did you think of it? I had much fun writing it and now by comparison with this demented concoction, the 'official version' has suddenly become much brighter to me. It's like watching a reassuring fairy tale, after being released from a mental asylum or from a prisoners' camp!

Sorry if it has been a little too lugubrious at times, but I think most of you had already guessed that a story opening with an abduction and a rape couldn't possibly have a traditional romantic ending, eheh! But hope is not lost: thanks to a providentially placed 'supernatural' time travel, this story ends where episode 1 commences, and all characters' lives are open for a second chance. Well, not Van Helsing, evidently…he behaves in the series much worse than in the prequel, but that's because he has very different interactions with Alexander and Mina this second time around...

I know mine is a little too deterministic universe, since Grayson ends up more or less in the same place he was before (and cannot avoid his transformation, nor Ilona's death), but I think the slight changes he could bring about during his 'second staying in London', are fundamental for a very different story. I'm convinced that, no matter how many times we could go back, the major part of our choices will be the same, because our personalities will not change, nor our power to control external events. In Grayson's case, however, he has been blessed (cursed?) with the memory of his first time around, so in the series he will try his best not to repeat his former errors, at least where Mina is concerned.

I also don't have any training at all in psychology, so I just pray that Mina's portrayal of her slow descent into madness (with modern terminology, we would call it a textbook case of Stockholm Syndrome), has rung true for you guys. It's rooted in our nature that we seek affection, human contact, acceptance, approval, and in situations of extreme isolation, people can be easily manipulated by the person who can give or withdraw love at will. Mina is 'sold out' by her father, and Van Helsing and Renfield only contribute for her to sink further into Alexander's little mind games; she has Lucy as her only friend, but it's already too late by the time she tries to help her…

Lastly, I've tried not to depict too black-and-white characters. Absolute evil makes for a dull story (I'm not even sure radical evil does exist, although I can attest to the existence of radical stupidity, or, as Hannah Arendt would say, of radical banality), and with Grayson I had fun showing his almost childlike attitude, when he's not bent on the destruction of Mina's mental stability, that is! You can say he has generally good intentions, which in the end amount to nothing, because, as always, what counts are the results of our actions… Most of his behavior with Mina is despicable, but at times, you cannot but feel bad for his plight. I like my readers to be confused as for which person to root, with every different chapter, ahah!

So, now that you have reached the end of the story, I hope you will approve of my efforts to offer a possible, reasonable explanation for many of the plot points left undeveloped on TV (of course, I understand that the series tried to reconnect with the original material, but fortunately, I didn't have any such preoccupations, lol!). Specifically:

1.- We now understand Alexander's seemingly too gentle behavior towards Mina. He had already gone the 'crazy' way, and it hadn't paid up in the end. For such a violent person, his attitude towards the love of his life has always struck me wrong, but now you have a sort of explanation for it! I wanted to end the story with a flicker of hope for us all, as maybe people can change: I generally don't believe that at all, but Grayson is living very special circumstances, so we will give him the benefit of the doubt.

2.- Mina's visions in the series receive also an explanation with this story. It seems it's not the first time she visits London, after all, and her brief inhabitation of Ilona's body accounts for her mysterious connection to her.

3.- Grayson also spares Harker's life this second time, and probably it' is just leftover guilt over the first time he disposed of him so cruelly. Lucy is not so lucky in the series, probably because Alexander remembers she's Mina's best friend and a potentially dangerous confidant: if she just could have intervened sooner, things may have turned up very differently for our couple... I've tried to give Jonathan, Lucy and Van Helsing a better treatment in this prequel, since I cannot shake the feeling that their characters have just been horrendously manipulated on TV, just for the purpose of reuniting Alexander and Mina, or in order to 'fit' the original novel.

4.- For a person who was turned by a ritual, it seems kind of strange that Grayson never investigates in the series how to reverse the curse in the first place: now you know why. His past life's misadventures also explain the blind faith he puts now in his magnetic machine, although we already know that history will not be on his side.

5.- When Mina is attacked by Davenport's men in the series, Grayson goes berserk, but never for a moment strangely thinks of protecting the woman; according to my prequel, now we realize why: he already knows she is not in danger from the Order. This story also explains how he could have known in the first place when and where she would be attacked.

6.-…And most of all, have you seen his 'lunatic' expression for most part of the series? Grayson practically begged me to do justice to his character, and push it to the extremes, lol!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this story, as much as I have had writing it, and now we'll have just to wait with bated breath for a second season :) And remember, I may not believe in eternal love, but I'm a firm believer in eternal obsession!