Chapter 9 - The Chemist's Compound

At the sound of Sebastian’s voice Madeline spun in her chair, and when she saw the now all too familiar hooded figure standing not two feet by her side she recoiled in fright. Standing quickly, the book falling to the floor, Madeline almost tripped over herself as she tried to make good her escape. She prayed he would not follow her as she barrelled out through the curtain, hitting Zeb and falling backwards in her panic.

‘Woah there,’ said the shop owner, helping Madeline to her feet. ‘Where’s the fire?’

‘Let me go,’ stammered Madeline, still dizzy with fear. ‘He’s down there!’

‘Who, Sebastian? Yeah, I know.’

‘Sebastian? You know him?’ said Madeline, calming down somewhat.

‘Yeah, me and him go way back.’ Zeb smiled as Madeline gave him a questioning look.

‘Well, not that far back, I ain’t a vampire if that’s what you’re thinking.’

‘But how can he…?’

‘Why not ask him?’ said Zeb, nodding towards the backroom curtain. Madeline looked back towards where she had just hurtled out of and started to feel a little bit embarrassed. The hooded figure, who she now knew to be called Sebastian, may have scared her half to death on several occasions but he had never once laid a finger on her, and considering he seemed to have been in the room with her the whole time she was reading the book he had ample opportunity to hurt her, but he didn’t. Collecting her thoughts she looked around the shop and realised that Mike was no longer there, and Zeb, noticing this smiled once again.

‘Don’t worry about Mike,’ he said as he walked over to the shop door. ‘I told him you’d be a while and he had a class to get to. I told him I’d walk you back to campus.’ Kneeling down at the foot of his front door he began sliding the locks in place, and standing up he saw Madeline’s concerned expression.

‘Look, Sebastian’s harmless,’ he said, returning to his counter. ‘He hangs out here sometimes because I know what he is, and he asked for my help in getting you down here.’

‘He did? How?’ asked Madeline.

‘He gave me his book. You see, I didn’t actually have it before be brought it to me, but he figured it could tell you what you needed to know better than him trying to get you to listen to him.’

‘He wrote it?’ asked Madeline.

‘Sure did,’ said Zeb.

‘So you’re saying it’s all true?’ asked Madeline, the disbelief rising in her voice.

‘Every word,’ said Sebastian, who had appeared in the backroom doorway. Madeline gasped in shock as she took in the sight of Sebastian, his hood pulled back, revealing a haggard and weathered face. His dark eyes sat heavy in his skull, sunken and weary, his cheeks pinched and angular, while the dishevelled mop of grey-flecked brown hair framed his haunted face like a washed out flame. As Madeline stared at him her fear began to be replaced by pity and sadness, his wretchedness obliterating any threat she thought he posed to her, and in a moment of what she hoped was not rash bravery she approached the broken man cautiously.

‘I’m sorry I ran from you,’ she said in a small voice.

‘It’s quite alright,’ said Sebastian, much clearer than Madeline had ever heard him speak before. ‘We have much to discuss.’ Sebastian looked to Zeb who was counting up his takings for the day.

‘Hey, feel free man,’ he said with a smile. ‘The backroom’s all yours.’

‘Shall we then?’ said Sebastian, holding the curtain for Madeline. Tentatively, she stepped once again into the backroom and sat down as Sebastian closed the curtain behind him.

‘First, let me apologise for the clandestine manner in which I have been keeping tabs on you of late,’ he said as he seated himself a respectful distance from Madeline. ‘I had to be sure you could keep a cool head in the face of, shall we say, extraordinary circumstances.’

‘But how am I supposed to believe all this?’ asked Madeline, taking care not to exasperate the man who could still turn out to be dangerous. ‘How can vampires

possibly exist?’

‘Believe me, I wish they didn’t,’ said Sebastian, his forlorn gaze dropping for a second.

‘The things I have seen…the things I have done.’ He broke off and a heavy pause settled on the small, dusty room. ‘But regardless of what the logical mind tells us cannot be, I assure you, vampires are sadly very real.’

‘So what exactly do you want with me?’ asked Madeline, deciding to be blunt.

‘It’s as I said before, he has chosen you; and unless you listen to me you are going to die and there will be nothing that you can do about it.’ At these words a sudden fear and anger rose inside Madeline and before she knew what she was doing she was responding with perhaps more vigour than she would normally deem wise.

‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’ she said, standing up. ‘Look, you follow me about campus and scare the crap out of me, somehow break into my room, and lead me on a wild goose chase to read some damn book about how you claim to be a vampire. And now you tell me I’m going to die unless I listen to you? What the hell is this crap? How do I know you’re not some kind of junkie psycho who’s out to do God knows what to me? How do I even know I’m safe here?’ The more she spoke the more worried Madeline became; as she realised she was stuck inside a locked store with a potential maniac and his accomplice only a few feet away. As this thought took hold so did the fear, her breath started to quicken and her skin prickled with the imminence of a cold sweat. She looked about her quickly, her eyes darting from Sebastian to any available escape route, but after the bedraggled stranger remained seated throughout her diatribe Madeline began to calm down somewhat. Feeling her cheeks flush with embarrassment she collected herself and sat down once again. ‘Look, I’m sorry,’ she said.

‘It’s fine, really,’ said Sebastian. ‘You’re taking this better than some of the others.’

‘Others?’ asked Madeline, her curiosity instantly piqued.

‘Yes, I am afraid to say that you are not the first, but by God I hope that you are the last.’

‘Not the first what though?’ she asked, desperate to find out what this was all about.

‘The one that made me is an old vampire, how old I cannot say, but he was well versed in his evil ways long before he met me, and you cannot imagine the kind of time we are talking about. Think about how tedious an afternoon can be if you have nothing to do, now try and imagine decades and decades of it.’

‘What’s that got to do with anything?’ asked Madeline, worried she had missed something. ‘And who exactly is the man in the book supposed to be?’

‘He has had many names, but you know him as Mason.’

‘Mason? Jonathan Mason? My History Professor?’

Sebastian nodded.

Madeline sat in stunned silence for a moment or two as she attempted to absorb what she had just been told. Could her History Professor really be a vampire? It all sounded so crazy, she thought, how could any of this possibly be true?

‘You can’t be serious,’ she said, once her powers of speech had returned to her.

‘I am deadly serious,’ said Sebastian. ‘He is the one who made me and it is of the utmost importance that you listen to what I have to say. I know how unbelievable it sounds, but there really is no time to ponder on the veracity of my tale. Everything I have told you is the truth; he is a vampire, I am a vampire, and unless we work together there may be no stopping him.’

‘I’m sorry but this is all so crazy,’ said Madeline, standing up. ‘How can I believe any of this?’ She began to move towards the curtained doorway once again but stopped when she heard Sebastian speak.

‘You are right,’ he said in a quiet, defeated voice. ‘You need proof before we can continue.’ Standing up himself, Sebastian walked to the back of the room and turned to face Madeline.

‘What are you doing?’ she asked, one hand on the curtain, ready to make final her exit.

‘Giving you proof,’ said Sebastian before reaching up and taking hold of the corner of a thick looking piece of fabric that was attached to the wall and tugging at it hard. The fabric fell away to reveal a somewhat grimy window, and as soon as the daylight poured into the room Sebastian shrieked in pain, wisps of acrid smelling smoke emanating from all about his exposed head and hands. Madeline screamed at the sight of this poor creature writhing in agony in front of her, and before she knew what to do the curtain was thrown aside and Zeb came hurtling into the room.

‘What the hell’s going on in here?’ he shouted as he picked up the thick fabric and wrapped Sebastian in it, covering his now blistered face and hands and leading him to a shaded corner. Shooting Madeline a brief but angered look, Zeb retrieved another length of the same thick fabric from a nearby shelf and quickly covered the window, once again blocking out the daylight. ‘You’ve got some nerve, lady,’ he said, walking up to Madeline and staring into her intensely. ‘What the hell were trying to do?’

‘But I didn’t…’ began Madeline a little shakily.

‘It’s alright Zeb, I did it,’ said Sebastian in a strained, hoarse voice from the corner of the room.

‘What? Why would you do that?’ Zeb walked over to where Sebastian sat huddled and knelt down beside him.

‘She needed to believe,’ was all he could say.

‘Well, do you now?’ asked Zeb scornfully as he stood up to face Madeline.

‘I…I…’ Madeline could not get her words out, they remained stuck and jumbled in her throat, her eyes still wide from the shock of witnessing Sebastian’s self inflicted torture. Seeing how shaken she was, Zeb’s expression softened and before he could speak Madeline rushed forward and hugged the store owner, the tears erupting from her eyes as she buried her face into his chest.

‘Hey now, it’s alright,’ said Zeb soothingly. ‘I’m sorry I was so hard on you, I guess I didn’t expect Sebastian to pull such a crazy stunt.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ she sobbed. ‘Will he be alright?’

‘He’ll be fine, I think he only got a couple of seconds’ blast, but he won’t be in any shape to talk for a few days. If you give me your number I’ll call you when he’s all patched up.’

‘Okay,’ sniffed Madeline, feeling somewhat ashamed for her emotional outburst. She recited her phone number for Zeb and took one last look at the crumpled heap that was Sebastian before being walked back to campus.

Madeline didn’t say much on the walk back to the university, but neither did Zeb, and she appreciated the lull in the conversation. It gave her time to try and sort through the numerous and jumbled thoughts that cascaded inside her head. Words failed her as to what she had just gone through but the possibility of it being true kept nagging at her mind. The ramifications of the tale Sebastian had told her, both in print and in conversation, were mind boggling, and if any of it were to be believed then the most pressing matter was the supposed immediate danger facing her, allegedly at the hands of her own History Professor. It was all too much to take in.

When the two of them arrived at her dorm building Madeline turned to Zeb.

‘Thanks for walking me back, she said appreciatively.

‘Not a problem,’ he said, smiling warmly. ‘I’ll let you know as soon as Sebastian’s ready to talk.’

‘That’s great, thanks. Have a safe walk back.’

‘Okay, see you around.’ Zeb smiled again and began the walk back to his store, leaving Madeline to think some more on everything that had happened. She didn’t know when she would get to talk to Sebastian again but she hoped it would not be long, if nothing more than to get some answers.

The next couple of days were particularly trying for Madeline, attempting to go about as normal, while she waited for the call from Zeb. The worst part were the History lectures she had to attend with Professor Mason, the man Sebastian named as supposedly being a ruthless vampire and the man who hand singled her out for some unknown but terrible fate. She still could not allow the premise fully into her head, the notion that anyone, let alone someone she knew and trusted, could be a vampire was so unbelievable, but she could not explain what she saw Sebastian do, so she was left torn between what she, and everyone else, thought to be true and what was now vying for her attention.

Trying not to let these extremely distracting thoughts completely overwhelm her took all of Madeline’s concentration, and every time her phone went off her heart leapt at the possibility that it might be Zeb, but it never was. It was getting close to a week since she left Sebastian a smoking, huddled mess in the backroom of Shelob’s Lair and she had tried everything she could think of to keep herself occupied. She immersed herself in her studies, visited with friends, and even went to see Mike to make sure there were no hard feelings after he had to leave her to get back to class.

‘No, it’s okay,’ he said, as they took a casual walk through the campus grounds one morning. ‘I had to get to class, and Zeb said you’d found the book you were looking for.’ He pushed his glasses back in place on his nose before continuing, wincing a little as he was still slightly sore. ‘Did your cousin like it?’

‘Hmm?’

‘The book, for your cousin.’ Madeline quickly remembered what Mike was talking about and managed to get her thoughts back on track.

‘Oh, yeah, I haven’t given it to her yet, but I’m sure she’ll find it very interesting.’

‘She should,’ smiled Mike. ‘I talked to Zeb the other day and he said you stayed and read a good chunk of it yourself. What’s it about anyway?’

‘Err… old folklore,’ said Madeline, not wanting to get Mike involved anymore than he already had been. He had already been sent to the hospital courtesy of the anonymous attacker, and if anything Sebastian had told her were true then she didn’t want to put anyone else at risk. Luckily, he didn’t press the matter any further.

‘Cool,’ was all he said. They continued on in an awkward silence for a moment or two, not knowing what to say to one another; and just as Madeline was scrambling for something to say her phone started to ring. Remaining outwardly calm, Madeline’s nerves bunched tightly as she pulled her phone out of her bag, and as if some kind of weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, she saw with no small amount of relief that the caller was Zeb.

‘Sorry Mike, I have to take this,’ she said, giving what she hoped was her best apologetic look.

‘No worries, I should be going anyway.’ Mike smiled and nodded his goodbye and as soon as he was out of earshot Madeline quickly flipped open her phone.

‘Hello? Zeb?’ she said eagerly.

‘Yeah, hi,’ came the mellow response. ‘He’s ready when you are.’

‘I’ll be right over.’

‘Okay, cool.’ Madeline closed her phone and slid it back inside her bag, turning in the direction of the main campus gate, but as soon as she exited the university grounds a sleek black car made a quick stop after passing her and she turned to look as it reversed back towards her.

‘Miss Jameson,’ said the voice of Professor Mason, as the tinted back window slid noiselessly down into the car door. ‘You certainly appear to be in a hurry.’ The unexpected meeting with Professor Mason completely threw Madeline and for a second or two she couldn’t seem to form any words. She quickly recovered and engaged her professor as politely as she could.

‘Yes, I’m sorry, I’m late for an appointment.’

‘Then by all means do not let me keep you,’ smiled Mason, sending a chill down Madeline’s spine. ‘I look forward to seeing you in class.’

‘Me too,’ lied Madeline as she started off on her way again. There was a time when she thoroughly enjoyed her lectures with Professor Mason but the events over the past few weeks had changed the way she saw him, and the thought that it could only get worse was no comfort at all. She continued hurriedly on her way as Mason’s car window slid back in place.

‘Do you want me to follow her?’ asked Andreas, looking into the back of the car through the rear view mirror.

‘No it’s quite alright,’ said Mason, as he watched Madeline disappear around a corner. ‘I know where she’s going.’

‘Very good, sir.’ The slick Mercedes continued on into the university grounds as Madeline made her way through the streets of Armitage towards Shelob’s Lair.

 

*          *          *

 

‘Good to see you again,’ smiled Zeb as the bell on his shop door indicated Madeline’s arrival. He walked around from the counter and locked his shop once again; giving Madeline and Sebastian the privacy he knew they needed.

‘Is he alright?’ asked Madeline, as she watched Zeb throw locks into place.

‘He’ll live, if you know what I mean,’ grinned the shop owner. ‘He’s waiting for you in the back.’

‘Thanks.’ Madeline crossed the store and pulled back the curtain to reveal the small backroom that had played scene to one of the most extraordinary events of her life, and sitting in the same place as before was Sebastian.

‘Thank you for coming,’ he said quietly.

‘It’s okay,’ said Madeline as she took a seat. ‘I hope you’re alright.’

‘I am sorry you had to witness that, but it was the only way to dispel the obvious doubts that were clouding your mind.’ Madeline was about to apologise for not believing Sebastian but she stopped herself, realising that no sane person could have fully believed a story like his without proof. ‘Are you ready to continue?’

‘I guess so.’

‘Good, as I said before the one you know as Mason is a vampire, the one who made me, and I am afraid to say that he has set his sights on you.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Madeline, with a definite sense that she was not going to like the answer.

‘It gives me no pleasure to tell you this but he’s hunting you, for sport, and it’s not the first time he’s done it.’

‘Hunting me?’

‘I am afraid so,’ nodded Sebastian solemnly.

‘But why?’ Madeline knew the world could be a harsh and evil place, but the concept of someone hunting her for the sheer pleasure of it filled her with a cold dread that seemed to seep into her very bones.

‘When one has the kind of time that he does it is a constant chore to keep the mind occupied, and…’

‘Occupied?’ interrupted Madeline. ‘Occupied? We’re talking about someone who’s hunting me for the sick enjoyment of it and it’s all to keep his mind occupied?’

‘I do not pretend the news I bring is pleasant, far from it, but you have to know what is at stake, otherwise I will have failed again and he will be free to continue his legacy of despicable evil for God knows how long.’

‘What do you mean you’ll have failed again?’

‘As I said before, there have been others, and every time he sets his gaze on a new trophy…please do not be offended,’ said Sebastian, anticipating Madeline’s protests at being described in such a way. ‘I have tried, unsuccessfully, to help the poor girls before it was too late.’

‘Girls? Does he not hunt men?’ Madeline felt the instant prickling of her indignation at the thought of some monster hunting only women, but she didn’t feel this was the time to get into an argument over gender politics.

‘He hunts both men and women, but for different reasons,’ said Sebastian, the bitterness clearly etched into his voice.

‘Such as?’ asked Madeline. Sebastian sighed deeply before continuing, visibly reluctant to go on.

‘This is always the hardest part,’ he said, not meeting Madeline’s gaze. ‘He only hunts men in order to sire them, he hunts women for sustenance.’

‘For what?’

‘I know, believe me I know, this is one of the main reasons why I have taken so long to make my move, I simply did not know how to tell you all of this, even though I knew I must.’

‘Are you trying to tell me that he’s going to eat me?’

‘Believe me, I wish it were any other way than this, but I have seen too many fine young women succumb to his murderous appetite without being able to do anything about it.’

‘Why? Why can’t you do anything about it?’

‘I am unable to harm the one that sired me; it is the same for all vampires. We can wreak death and destruction to all around us but our sire might as well be made of solid stone. Were it any different I would have removed this vile beast from the earth the moment I realised what he was.’

‘But I thought all vampires were supposed to be evil creatures, why aren’t you?’

‘When a person is made a vampire they are reduced to the level of a primitive beast, all essence of their humanity and civility are violently stripped away. You read about the poor creatures in those cages?’

‘Yes,’ nodded Madeline, remembering all too well the scene in Sebastian’s book.

‘Well that happened to me, I could not remember anything, not my name, not my wife and daughter, nothing, but over time a fledgling vampire can be schooled to remember who they once were.’

‘Mason did this for you?’

‘Yes, he does not make vampires carelessly. If he sires a man he has already committed himself to the long and arduous process of rebuilding that vampires sense of humanity, as twisted as it may be.’

‘You said in your book he made a mistake with you, how do you mean?’

‘When a vampire is brought back from the brink of total savagery they are faced with the knowledge of not only the terrible acts they no doubt committed on their way back to self awareness, but also that they can continue to do these things for all eternity, without the fear of retribution. It is little wonder that such freedom corrupted so many.’

‘But if there was a chance that you wouldn’t turn out like the rest why did he sire you at all?’

‘Because of what I was when I was alive.’

‘What was that?’ asked Madeline.

‘A chemist.’

‘What use would a chemist be to him?’

‘To ensure that his drones always chose the path of evil, Mason made sure to only sire those who were already corrupted, or those who he could easily turn, but with me he needed someone to carry out some important research for him.’

‘What kind of research?’

‘Mason is old, perhaps one of the oldest vampires around, and in his travels he heard rumour of a method with which to kill vampires, a method reported to be so sure that not even the oldest and strongest vampire could fight against it.’

‘What is it?’ asked Madeline, eagerly seizing this thin ray of hope.

‘A compound,’ replied Sebastian. ‘A very rare and intricate chemical compound that takes great precision and knowledge to prepare. He believed enough in its existence to employ the services of a student of chemistry but knew that it could be a long and frustrating road, and so he decided to sire a chemist, me.’

‘What happened?’ asked Madeline, hoping feverishly that this compound actually existed.

‘Well of course I was no use to him when I was first sired so he had to bring me back from the jaws of barbarism in order for me to begin researching this alleged compound.’

‘What did you find?’ The heavy lines that ran their course across Sebastian’s face creased as he smiled. He reached inside his tattered robes and pulled out a small glass vial containing a clear liquid that looked suspiciously like water.

‘He was right,’ he said.