Dracula's Secret Keeper [Part Five]

"Grave robber... among other things."
It wasn't as if Ileana didn't enjoy the Count's company. It would be a downright lie to say that he continued to irk her as much as he had when they were first introduced. There was just something... different about him now. Perhaps it was going too far to say that he had softened, but she had gotten used to his snippy comments and the occasional rolling of the eyes that happened when Victor got overly excited about something. Which happened a lot. It seemed that the glamour in working in a ritzy castle for a man who was willing to simply pay for everything still hadn't worn off yet. Science was exciting to him, and it was as simple as that. Ileana, on the other hand, was a student of science. She found some of it fascinating, while there was a good deal of it that she only remembered while her tutor taught it to her several years ago, and since then it has been forgotten. Igor was like her. He had a keen eye for details, though he rarely voiced his opinion when the Count was around. The man could often be seen huddled over a textbook of some variety, then impressing Victor the next day with his newly gained knowledge.

The Count, on the other hand, did not have much of a taste for science. Her uncle would try to engage him in conversation whenever he could, but he seemed to merely agree with whatever the Englishman said rather than produce new ideas. But when Ileana asked him about anything to do with history or religion, the man was rather vocal. He was a nationalist at heart, one that did not believe in worshipping God, though he acknowledged that both He and the Devil existed. The man had complex ideals, ones that Ileana didn't quite understand, but she could guess that she was the same way. Victor was a man of science... Ileana, being his niece, was also a follower of science, but she could never quite figure out how to separate that from her belief in God. Was she supposed to believe that all was created in seven days, or should she search for some other reason? Something based in science and ground out from a textbook? The Count was opinionated on the subject, but she could never quite come up with an idea herself.

They had been in the castle for almost three months. The design of the experiment was moving ahead smoothly, and the entire structure of the person they would be creating from scratch had been finalized. He was to be a very burly man; nearly seven feet in stature, and wider than Victor and the Count at the shoulders. It was necessary to make him so large, as his skeletal structure and internal organs were all going to be made from wires, gadgets and other pieces of metal that would conduct electricity, get his brain working, and in essence keep him alive. When the drawings were completed - it was only two weeks ago that they had managed such a task - all three of the scientists buried themselves deep within texts of the human anatomy and the workings of modern electricity. The frequent storms that rocked the village hidden in the mountain valley range would be the spark of life that Victor's creation needed, and Dracula assured everyone that by the time the creature was created, the storms would be bigger and better than ever. How he knew this was beyond her comprehension, but lately Ileana had stopped questioning the Count's oddities.

It had only occurred to them recently that they would need to find body parts to make up the Creation's appendages. Eyes. Ears. Teeth. Skin. Fingernails. All of them had to be found, and Ileana was mortified when the Count suggested grave robbery to find what they needed. There was a fairly large cemetery in the village near the outskirts, one that apparently traveled back into the forest. The tombs in there were the oldest, from a time when the people were not afraid of what the woodlands held.

At first, Ileana objected to the idea, but there was no other way around it. Something bothered her about digging up the bodies of dead people... It wasn't right. Once they had died, they were supposed to stay in the ground. But once again, this was all in the name of science. The Count promised that once they had taken what they needed, the bodies were to be respectfully buried once more, and no one would notice the difference. While she agreed to the process, she refused to be a part of it. Ileana promised that she would help manipulate the body parts when they were brought back to the castle, but she refused to go out in the dead of night and dig them up. Firstly, the night terrified her here. There were horrible sounds from every direction once the sun set, and the only way to drown them out was by getting engrossed in reading, having a conversation with her uncle or the Count, or working until she was so tired that she knew she would fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

It was that night that Victor and Igor had crept out of the castle at nearly midnight, bags and shovels intact for a night of robbing graves. They had saws with him, and Ileana figured that they were going to take the bodies apart on site, which would have simply been too gruesome for her to handle. For now, she was tidying up the lab, ensuring that there would be ample table room to spread out the body parts once Victor and Igor brought them back. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, though she could feel it already coming loose only moments after she retied it. It had been getting longer and longer over the three months that they had been in Transylvania, and there was really no hope in her seeing someone to cut it for her. The maid used to do it back home... Now she figured that she would probably have to do it herself. She had been wearing a work dress, seeing as they had been working on cleaning the lab that afternoon, and she hadn't changed into her night clothes... What was the point? She would be working and getting disgusting... stuff on her soon, so may as well stay. The dress was a dull brown colour, lighter than her hair, and she had a creamy coloured apron wrapped around her waist, though it had progressively turned a gray as the day wore on. Her feet were bare, but only because the laboratory had a strange amount of warmth to it... There were countless little fireplaces everywhere, with one large central one near the windows.

"They should be home soon."

Ileana inhaled sharply at the sudden intrusion of the Count's voice, and she whipped around, her eyes searching the dimly lit room until they landed on the Count's figure. He was standing up on one of the iron girders that crossed the rather tall tower-like room. She wasn't quite sure why there were these bridge ... things hanging around everywhere, but they were there. Apparently for good use, but who knows, really.

"Count," she breathed, running a hand over her grubby dress. "How long have you been there? I thought I was all alone."

"Not long, I promise," he insisted, leaning over the side of the metal railing lazily, his hands hanging limply in front of him. "You seemed so intent on your work... I didn't really have the heart to disrupt you."

"It would have been a justified distraction," she mused with good-nature, now planting her hands on her hips as she looked around the lab. "I suppose there is enough space for ... whatever my Uncle and Igor bring back. What do you think?"

The shadows under his eyes shifted as he studied the large room in silence, and for a few moments she merely watched him, taking in his overall demeanor silently. He had gotten so... relaxed with her. To be honest, it was nice to finally have a work environment that wasn't riddled with the hostility that was there at the beginning. It was strange to think that in three rather long months the dynamic between the two had changed, but she wasn't too sure who to blame for that. The Count had kept his mouth shut more often, that was for sure, but Ileana had stopped giving him a hard time... If she thought about it logically, she assumed that she was upset with him so much because he had taken the spotlight for Victor's attention. For the longest time, she was her uncle's one and only, and with someone suddenly in the picture, a someone who Victor idolized from the first encounter it seemed, Ileana must have felt waves of jealousy, or something. Bah. But how was she to know? She wasn't one to study the mind and its functions... That was for those head-doctors. Ileana was all about the science, but there were still things that remained a mystery to her.

"I think it looks very nice, you have done well, Ileana," the Count complimented gently, his large hands sliding upward suddenly and gripping the railing of the balcony. She cocked her head to the side, puzzled, then released a shrill gasp as he used that as a base to propel himself over the side of the little girder, landing gracefully on the stone floor nearby.

"Calm down, my dear," he chuckled as she stumbled forward to check if he had broken anything. "I go hunting with my men all the time... We jump from greater distances when we're in hot pursuit of an... animal."

"But... But that seemed so unnecessary," Ileana stammered as she closed in on him, her eyes running down to his legs and ankles to see if something had been damaged and he was merely good at hiding it. "I mean... You... You could have taken the stairs!"

"This was faster-"

"And more dangerous, to be sure-"

"Ileana," he hissed delicately, as though scolding an overly protective wife. "I'm fine. Don't worry about such trivial things."

"Nonsense," Ileana asserted, grasping his arm and leading him over to a nearby stool. "Sit down and just let me have a look."

"I wasn't aware you were a medical student too, Ileana," he commented briskly as he sat down with a huff. "I can assure you-"

"You men are always so ... hesitant to admit you're feeling pain," she snapped, kneeling down in front of him and rubbing her hands down the front of his legs, trying to feel so a fracture in the bone, or a bump, or... something that would have indicated the jump! Instead, she felt sturdy shin bones beneath her hands, and she paused when she felt the top of his boots, knowing that even if she ventured further down, she wouldn't be able to feel anything without taking them off.

"I promise it isn't an ego thing," the Count muttered, leaning his arms back on the table behind him. "And, after all, it's not like I would purposefully tell you not to touch me."

Ileana glanced up quickly, disbelief in her eyes, "W-What?"

"What?" the Count mimicked coolly, his eyebrows raised. "Something wrong, Ileana? I didn't hurt anything, did I?"

She blinked twice, her mind trying to process exactly what he meant about her touching him. The young woman slumped down slightly, a frown on her face, "N-No... Not that I can feel."

"I told you."

"Ileana! What... What are you doing?!"

Her uncle's shocked voice suddenly jarred her from her thoughts, and her head whipped toward the door, eyes widening when she spotted Victor standing like a statue in the doorway. It was only at that moment that she realized her positioning was... suggestive, to say the least. Ileana on her knees in front of a seated Count, who looked a little too relaxed in his current position.

"Oh, uncle, I... It's... We were just..." Ileana stammered, pushing herself to her feet and taking a good five steps away from the Count while the man straightened up on the metal stool. "I thought the Count had hurt his ankle, and I wanted to examine it myself. That's all."

The Count released something of a snort, then went to join Igor at a nearby table, his eyes dancing as they traveled over the body parts that the man was pulling out of the bag. Her uncle made his way over to her and she swallowed thickly, "Uncle, that's all I was doing, I promise."

"I trust you," Victor murmured softly, then flung his own bag up on the table. His load was much smaller than Igor's, and Ileana watched from behind his shoulder as he tenderly started to remove the contents. An arm. A foot. Two eyes of different colours. As she watched both grave-robbers show off their spoils, she couldn't help but feel sick. Placing a hand on her stomach, the smell soon getting inside her brain, she could feel her stomach churning.

"Ileana?" the Count called hesitantly, "Perhaps you should stand by the window?"

Victor turned around, a skeptical eye running over her paled face, and he let out a sigh, "Really, Ileana, you have to get used to things like this as a scientist... They deal with the human anatomy all the time. Come closer and have a real look, child."

Ileana gagged, the stench becoming too much for her, and she turned on her heel, dashing out of the room before vomiting noisily in the hallway.