The Unholy Night

Chapter XIV

"I see the bad moon rising, I see trouble on the way, I see earthquakes and lightning, I see bad times today"

- Bad Moon Rising by Credence Clearwater Revival

It was the twenty-seventh of September when the infernal creatures referred to as doctors once again returned to plague us. 

Perhaps you think I'm being melodramatic, but I'm really not. Trust me, they sucked ass. 

It was once again Addy's turn to watch Lucy. She insisted that she couldn't reside in town on the off chance someone would recognize her, which meant we were all alternately forced to stay a night with her in her crypt. 

It was my shift over, so Bess and I were walking home, when we found the insufferable doctors in the drive. 

"Where have you been?" Van Helsing demanded. 

"Out for an early morning walk," I replied. "Sorry to keep you waiting. Have you been here very long?"

"Not very," Seward answered in a clipped tone. "We have little reason to be here anyway." He glared at Van Helsing. What was the issue there? I was surprised by the insubordination. 

"How did your dress get like that?" Van Helsing asked, jabbing a finger towards the hem of my skirts, which was covered with dirt from running through the Heath all night. 

"I fell," I answered dumbly. It was a truly terrible excuse, and Bess and I both cringed a bit as the words stumbled out of my mouth in mangled shapes. 

Bess cleared her throat. "Why have you fine gentlemen come?"

"We have a -" Van Helsing began, but Seward cut him off. 

"The professor has some ideas surrounding Lucy's demise." He dropped his voice as if Van Helsing wouldn't be able to hear him, although he was standing only a few feet away. It was also quite clear that Seward expected eavesdropping. "The ideas are so nonsensical, and quite macabre as well, and I'm sorry, ladies, but I couldn't deter him."

"May I ask what these ideas are, sir?" 

"Never you mind that," Van Helsing snapped. 

"You really don't want to know." 

"You, stop!" Van Helsing snarled. 

I continued to be surprised by Van Helsing's ability to release so much anger from inside the body of a small man, and especially his confidence in directing it towards a big, bear-like man such as Seward. Although Seward's temperament seemed to be meek and nervous in general, physically, he was quite intimidating. 

"Now," Van Helsing continued, "I think we ought to go to the cemetery at two, the noon funeral should be over by then, shouldn't it?" He then strode through the doors of the house, with Seward trailing behind him. 

"I can make it back here long before two," I told Bess. She nodded. 

I found Lucy and Addy lazing about the cemetery. 

"Hello, Mary!" Lucy exclaimed, springing up from where she was resting against a gravestone. "That is a surprise! Is Bess coming as well?"

"No, the Insufferables are here, Van Helsing suspects you're still alive," I said as quickly as I could. 

"I should've seen this coming," Addy hissed, jumping up next to her. "I should have been prepared for it. I was prepared, but clearly not prepared enough, was I?"

Sensing the fact that she would be rendered useless as soon as she dissolved into mutters, I snapped my fingers. "Attention, Addy! We'll tell them you're homesick and have gone back to Transylvania. You'll have to hide somewhere, and Lucy will have to go to her tomb and pretend to look dead."