The Spiders' Tale

1. Spying on Doctor Todd Winston: Bryant's Account

September 28th 1866, 8:30 pm

As far as Todd knew he was asleep in a bed, wrapped up in its intricately decorative bedding. On the nightstand were two books of science stacked beneath his thick round glasses. In the morning he would wake up to the sun peeking through the hotel's great wide windows.

None of this was so.

There was a tickling on his cheek. Through his closed eyelids he could tell the sun was not yet up, so he turned his face and went back to sleep. Mere seconds later he awoke again to the same sensation. It wouldn’t cease. Frustrated, the scientist finally opened his  great brown eyes. He only had a moment to register a creature on the side of his broad, pointed nose before he swatted it off. There squirming on the ground was a maggot.

“Goodness!” he hissed, bolting upright and habitually reaching for the nightstand. His fingers met the cool, moist earth of a dirt wall. Startled and confused, he took a moment to look around and notice there were no windows. The space was narrow and hardly bigger than a bed, and the ground was a cold, wet soil. With every passing second, his necked warmed, hotter and hotter. Beads of cold sweat collected on his brow. His breaths grew hoarse as his throat tightened. Heart hammering against his chest, Todd whimpered when he realized he was not in his hotel room.

He was in a grave.

“Good evening, Doctor,” taunted a rich, chilling voice from above. 

Todd’s head snapped skyward. With the moon emitting the only light, his gaze rose to the silhouette of a man in a tailcoat. While he could not distinguish his features, he knew very well to whom he was speaking. “Good evening?” he croaked. Dumbfounded, he gave his surroundings one last once-over and rasped, “What game are you playing at, Marius? What...” He gulped. With a new strength to his voice he cried, “What bloody game are you playing at?”

The other chuckled. “Yes, good evening indeed.”

After uttering a wordless exclamation, the scientist stood and commenced pacing. “I - I made you your monster, I did everything you asked of me.” The shadowed figure did not move or show any gesture of having heard him. After a moment’s thought the scientist added, “I risked my life for that thing!”

“All in a valiant effort to assuage me,” confirmed the man, “but you are wrong. You made me a monster. You did not do everything I asked of you. While you worked very hard on your failure, it was a failure nonetheless.”

“Failure? How can you say that? It had everything for which you asked and more!”

Marius was silent for a moment, after which he retreated from the grave’s edge.

“Wait! Come back!” Todd hurried to the earth wall, clawing at the dirt in a futile attempt to climb. Everything he grasped crumbled and fell, rolling down his brown, shoulder-length hair and the knit fabric of his striped pajamas. “Marius!”

The silhouette appeared above him once more, now with a shovel. Turning it over, the man watched as its contents fell upon the scientist’s head. Todd coughed, choking on the loose particles. All the while Marius casually replied, “Remember your place, doctor. You’ve already dug your grave. With your every outburst you bury yourself one shovel-full at a time.”

When all the scientist could do was carry on coughing, Marius continued. “Your last monster failed. You gave him horns and tried to make it seem as though you did it on purpose - tried to convince me it was an extra gift you thought I’d like, but it was not what I asked of you.”

Todd finally eased the discomfort in his throat. When he next gazed up at Marius, he found him much closer than expected. 

Sticking his nose in the mortal’s face, Marius growled, “You will make for me what I asked. Do you remember?” Before the doctor could get over the initial shock of his closeness, the other carried on. “I’ll jog your memory. He will be born - not made. He will walk, talk, and appear just as dashing a humanoid as I am.”

“I know, but -”

“His heart will never beat while he shall live, his muscles will overwhelm the strength of twenty men and he will run faster than any living or assembled thing -”

“But how -”

“You will use my blood,” he answered, “and figure out the rest on your own.”

“Why me?” Todd yelled. Seeing how he finally had the man listening, he lowered his voice and asked, “If I have failed so miserably, why call on me again?”

Marius was silent for a moment, standing under the moonlight in a way that highlighted his sharp, bony features. “You know very well why,” he hissed. “After all we have endured together, you cannot pretend you don’t.”

The man was right.

Uneasy, Todd turned his face and took a minute to think. Injecting Marius' blood into a woman's veins would be the least of his problems. The difficulties would arise when she reacted to it. Even with all the necessary equipment and resources at hand, would Marius' plan ever work?

When he knew what he wanted to say next, he hesitated. “Did...did you ever consider that perhaps it is not meant to be done? That maybe it is impossible to succeed in such a task?”

The scientist could only glimpse a red-eyed glare when the immortal disappeared from view. Before Todd could ponder where he went, heaps of rocks and dirt fell atop his head. Shovel-fulls of earth flew down from every side of the grave.

“Marius!” yelped the doctor, “Stop! Please, stop!” His feet were already buried.

“Man of science, I said!” The shrill voice seemed to be coming from every angle. “Since when were you one for religion?”

“If you bury me alive, I can’t help you!” Todd cried. “Marius!” He couldn’t move - his calves were already completely under.

The dirt stopped flying and Marius reappeared before him. “Was it of fate you inquired? Tell me, what logic is there in guessing one’s destiny?”

Spitting out the dust in his mouth and trying to catch his breath, Todd rasped, “I’m not a simpleton. I know - I know what you’re trying to make, and that is the Domglory - a creature of myth and prophesy. You may as well ask me to - to birth a unicorn from a horse.”

“If you refuse, I will leave you in here until you change your mind.”

The scientist’s eyebrows went up in despair. “You realize you’re asking me to commit suicide. If I help you, the creature will surely kill me - I’ve seen the strength of bloodlust. Why are you asking me to choose, anyway? Why not hypnotize me and have it done with?” He coughed more.

Marius emitted a mirthful sigh. “Oh, foolish doctor. You think I don’t know you’ve found a way around that. After all, all it takes is unquenchable hysteria. If you cannot be calmed, you cannot be reasoned with. I’ve seen you work yourself into a stable frenzy for the sole purpose of avoiding hypnosis.”

Todd’s heart sank. His secret weapon - what he hoped would be his secret weapon - was unearthed and made useless. He could’ve cried. “Fine. I’ll - I’ll do it. After this, though, you must promise never to come to me again.”

“I’ll cease visiting you when you give me what I want. Until you succeed, I will not let you be.”

The scientist’s eyebrows came together in a pained expression again before another maggot on the ground caught his eye. While Marius’ terms weren’t promising, agreeing to them would mean seeing the light of day again. “It’s a deal then,” he grumbled, insides cringing on every word.

The vampire grinned. Mostly due to the lack of light, all the doctor could see clearly were his sharp, lustrous teeth.