Chapter Text
Chapter 1.
It was one of the worse days in Renfield’s life as Dracula’s assistant. There were plenty of days where the circumstances were much more horrid, but sometimes it felt like the entire world conspired to make Renfield’s existence as miserable as possible.
Presently, he was walking down the street, dressed in a simple, black hoodie, head turned towards the ground as he tried to protect his face, his hair matted and drenched in the rain that kept falling persistently down from the sky. The storm began shortly before sunset, and he was hoping it would stop before his master woke up, but of course, he wasn’t having that kind of luck on his side.
Part of him wanted to ask Dracula if perhaps he would wait until the rain ended, but he knew that kind of question would probably earn him a few beats with the cane at least, while the count would find a few creative ways to tell him how stupid he was, so he was left to go out, in the rain, to search for a possible victim.
He was out there for a while, when fortunately, the storm did lessen a bit and it looked like it might end soon, but by that time, he was wet and cold, and would probably feel really horrible the next morning if it wasn’t for Dracula’s powers making him more resilient than other mortals.
He was walking through a lone, quiet alleyway, when he looked up, only for a particularly large drop of water to hit his face, and he quietly cursed as he stopped under a nearby ledge, where he found a bit of solace from the rain. He mumbled to himself as he looked around, thinking who might possibly be even out in this weather. “How could I ever thought that serving Dracula was going to be good for me?” he spoke, knowing there was no one in the alleyway who could possibly overhear him. At least he thought there wasn’t.
“Excuse me?” he suddenly heard a voice behind him and whirled around in shock to see a young woman standing there. She was eighteen, maybe twenty years old, with blue eyes and dirty blond, almost brown hair that reached a little past her shoulders. She was wearing jeans and a blue sweatshirt and a black jacket that he really envied her at that time, and she was staring at him with an amused smile.
“Did I hear you say that you served count Dracula?” she asked, and he wondered at her tone, cause she didn’t sound like she considered the thought at all crazy, rather she seemed really interested in his answer as she patiently waited for him to speak.
He slowly shook his head then and gave her a small smile. “No, that was just a figure of speech, I guess. See, my boss is really demanding of me, so I sometimes call him Dracula. Not in front of him of course.” he chuckled nervously and the woman in front of him shrugged, a little disappointed. “Well, that’s a shame, that would be really cool.” she said, and then she raised her eyebrows at him. “Well, what are you doing here in the rain? You could catch your death out here dressed like that.” she asked, and she looked at him worriedly, watching as he shivered slightly in his wet clothes.
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about me, really.” he answered, and he was about to ask her what she was doing out so late in such a place, when he suddenly heard footsteps in the alley behind them. She looked towards the source of the sound at the same time as he did, and her eyes widened in fear as she saw the two male figures standing there, one of them smaller and really thin, the other one bigger and quite burly. Both them were holding knives.
“Alright, you two, not a very good time or place for an evening stroll.” the smaller one said as they advanced, and she was just about to run the other way, hoping the strange man would follow, when she saw that the other exit was blocked by another thug coming towards them.
“Listen ‘ere, no funny moves, or this might get ugly. Just empty your pockets and give us whatever money or valuables you have and fast, so we can get out of this blasted rain.” said the newcomer and she was about to do exactly as he said, when the man she just met and who was standing beside her suddenly did something very weird. As fast as he could, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box, from which, and for a minute she thought she was imagining it, he pulled a spider and proceeded to put it inside his mouth.
She watched with her mouth open, forgetting about the men surrounding them for a second as his eyes suddenly glowed bright yellow, and then he punched the closest man into the gut, which caused the criminal to fly back a few metres as if he weighed nothing. What followed, from what she could see as she hid behind a nearby dumpster, was a record short fight that resulted in the three men lying crumpled on the ground, with the other guy standing over them, shaking his head in distress as he checked their pulse.
Very slowly, she emerged from behind the dumpster and approached him and he looked up at her, seeing her expression, which was of pure, utter amazement. “So…” she began, and he cowered a little under the intensity of her stare. “I am going to ask again. Did I hear you say that you served count Dracula?” she let out the words slowly to let him know she wasn’t making fun this time and Renfield really wanted to tell her that what she just witnessed was just the adrenaline working, that he was working out in his free time, even that he was taking steroids or something, but from the look she was giving him, he knew she wasn’t going to buy any of this.
“Maybe.” he said instead, and she gasped slightly, before she looked at the bodies on the ground. “Ok, you are gonna have to tell me EVERYTHING, but first, we should probably get out of here, before someone else comes along. Come on, let’s hide them.” she said, and Renfield, a little stunned, joined her as she began dragging one of the smaller men behind the large dumpster she was hiding behind a minute ago. He finished the job himself, still boosted up from the spider he ate before, so it took him little effort.
The young woman then dragged him to a small diner not far from the alley that was still open, so they could talk while they both warmed and dried up a bit. It was a lovely, colourful little place that he’s never been to before and she bought them both a coffee and some waffles before she sat them down in a corner booth. Then, she looked at him eagerly, sticking out her hand towards him.
“So, now that we have a bit of peace, hi, I’m Ellie. Ellen Baker, really, but everyone just calls me Ellie. I work in a little video store just down the road. That's why I was in the alley you know, I was just going home.” she smiled, and he shook her hand gently as he introduced himself back. “Robert Montaque Renfield.”
Her eyes widened when he said that and the smile on her face was positively delighted now. “Well it is very nice to meet you, mr. Renfield…” she began, but he stopped her with a raised hand. “Please, just Robert. I think what we’ve just been through together warrants a first name basis.”
She nodded and watched as he nervously poked at his waffles. “Yeah, and I really thank you for saving me, Robert.” she said earnestly, before she continued. “So… I’m just going to ask.” she spoke slowly, getting his attention. He looked clearly uncomfortable talking about this with her, but there was so much she wanted to know. “Are you like the descendant of the original Renfield, or…”
“No, I am the original. My master gave me some of his powers, which gives me strength to do stuff like what you saw back there and also keeps me alive for as long as he wants me around.” With every word he said, the young woman’s eyes grew larger with awe. He wasn’t sure when this was going to go, but right now, he was feeling quite comfortable sitting in this warm place after being in the rain for hours, and he didn’t feel like moving just yet, so he supposed he could sate her curiosity a little. Until she asked her next question.
“What’s he like? Dracula?” she said, leaning closer and he could see she was quite eager to hear the answer to this one.
“Well,” he began. He wasn’t sure what to tell her. No one has ever asked him that question before and he was hoping that the count wasn’t listening in on his thoughts right now. “he is very… intense. He is... probably the most powerful creature in the world and he knows it, so he is very proud. And he has a very short temper. Sometimes it’s so easy to anger him that I don’t even know why he’s angry with me in the first place. It has never been easy, doing this job, and with how quickly the world is changing, it’s been getting progressively more difficult over the years.”
Ellie was listening to him intently and her brow furrowed as she observed how tired and solemn he seemed when he spoke those words. “But if you are the original, like in the book, than you must have been with him for almost a hundred years. Surely you must know him better than anyone else. To have that kind of confidence of someone like that… that must be quite exhilarating.”
“It used to be that way,” he nodded. “When I first began as his servant, he was such a marvel to me that it was easy to forget the horrible things I had to do for him, and I told myself the rewards were going to be worth it. But I’ve been getting tired of it over the years. He is content with the things being as they always were, but the world is different now and there is so much for me to do out here…” he stopped himself before he got too passionate about the whole thing.
He looked at the young woman as she sat there, holding her cup of coffee, watching him patiently. “You seem really troubled.” she said after a while, her voice quiet, prompting him to continue.
“I’ve been thinking lately.” he picked up reluctantly. “About quitting. I’ve been coming to this support group for a while now, there’s a lot of people there with similar situations like mine and their stories really helped me put things into perspective. So I thought that maybe I could…” he spouted out, before her voice interrupted him.
“Robert… you really think any of these people can possibly relate to what kind of situation you’re in?” she said with disbelief. “That your story is in any way similar to theirs? I mean we’re talking about Dracula here, it’s not like you can just walk away from this and hope he will never find you.”
She was right of course, he knew, but after years of near resignation it was hard to let go of the hope these meetings were giving him that maybe he could actually do this. But Ellie was right, Mark and the others, they didn’t know what he was going through, how could they give him any proper advice when they didn’t know the truth, truth that he didn’t want to tell them lest they thought of him badly for everything he has done in the count’s service.
“So what can I do?” he asked, and the tremor in his voice prompted his companion to silently walk around the table and sit next to him on the seat. She gently put her hand on his back to support him. “I don’t know if I can still do this. The guilt’s been killing me and he’s as demanding as ever, every night I have to go out there and search for someone he could suck the life out of, but I don’t think he realises just how dangerous this can be these days and it’s just been getting too much lately.” he said, putting his face into his hands.
Ellie rubbed soothing circles over his back to calm him down. This was certainly not the direction she was expecting this conversation to go. She always loved vampires, stories about them, no matter how frightening, always made her happy, and of all those she always loved hearing about Dracula, and the thought that he might be actually real made her really excited, so she was surprised at the way he spoke about the vampire. Although, she supposed that it was understandable after ninety or so years of such a difficult job that the man must have been pretty burned out.
“Hey…” she spoke quietly after letting him breathe a little. “I get it, I really do. But if it makes you feel any better, I don’t think you’re at fault here. I mean maybe at the beginning, but now you’re telling me you don’t want to do this. He must know that too. But if you stopped doing what he tells you, what would happen?”
“Well, he would probably kill me,” he said, thinking about it. “or rather, he would kill other people, a lot of innocent people, until I came back to him.”
“Exactly, so, since you clearly don’t have any choice in the matter, than he is the only one who is to be blamed. You are just doing what you must. Besides, by getting his prey for him, you have the option to choose who dies, rather then him just going on a killing spree.”
“Yes, but…” he turned his head to look at her as he weighed her words. “I am still an accomplice. To murder.”
Ellie shook her head this time, trying not to sound frustrated. “Yeah, maybe, but then again I can call my uncle a murderer for the way he treated his pigs. He had a little farm while he was still alive. I was there only once, he… he was not a very good man.” she shuddered at the memory slightly before looking at him. “What I want to say is, you can’t really call it a murder because he’s not human, Robert. To him humans are food. And yet,” she paused for a second to let the message sink in. “he likes to have you around. I mean, he’s clever, he could figure out a way to take care of things without needing you, or he could simply find someone else. So, if he hasn’t done that already it means you are important to him.”
Renfield thought about it for a bit. “I guess so,” he said finally and Ellie gently nudged his side. “You are the caretaker of the most powerful being in the world. That makes you very important whether he acknowledges it or not. I’m sure a lot of people would be green with envy if they knew. Now,” she added, as she shoved the last piece of her waffle into her mouth. She looked outside through the darkened window with narrowed eyes and smiled. “I suppose you were out in the rain to hunt for his dinner? The storm finally stopped. Now it’s as good a time as any.”
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“Ehm…” came a short, uncertain sound, followed by a cry of disgust as Ellie realised what he meant when he took her back to the alley where they’ve taken the bodies. He was quite relieved when she finally stopped interrogating him and when she suggested they should go out to resume his search, he told her that he already had what he needed. That he meant the bunch of crooks that he accidentally killed in the fight was not what she expected, and she could suddenly understand why the count may not be so happy with his servant lately. “Please tell me you aren’t gonna feed him one of these…” she looked at him incredulously, her brows raised as he nervously shrugged.
“Well I know it’s not the best, but he’s been waiting long enough… and these are big guys, there’s a lot of blood in those.” he tried, but it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself rather then her.”
“Oh no, no, no, no.” she said, a little forcefully, shaking her head. “You can’t feed him with these.”
“Why?”
“Because…” she said as she carefully neared one of the bodies, looking at the dead man’s face. Her nose cringed when she came too close and she quickly turned away. “this is… trash, Robert. That’s the first word that comes to mind, but I can do worse. This man stinks, not like a corpse, I mean properly stinks. I’ve never had blood before obviously, but I’m sure whatever is wrong with these pitiful excuses for human beings, he’ll be able to taste it.” she gave a short laugh. “And if I am making an entrance to all this, I am certainly not letting you feed him with whatever disgusting swill flows through their veins. You can’t bring this to him, he’s gonna vomit for days if he tries to drink from them.”
“Besides…” she looked at him sideways from where she was standing. “You don’t feed vampires with dead people, everyone knows that.”
“He’s never complained before.” Renfield shrugged.
“Well then he’s certainly a better boss than you think.” Ellie rolled her eyes, turning to him. “No, look, I am gonna help you get him something proper to eat…” she said as she glanced at her watch. Almost 10 P.M. now. “preferably before he decides to go out and do it himself, so we should hurry. Where exactly were you headed with these?”
“You know the old closed down hospital? We’ve been holed up there for a while. But what are we going to do then?” her new friend asked, his voice getting a bit desperate. “Catching criminals is one thing, nobody misses them, but how do you get someone killed these days without getting caught eventually? Master is not strong enough to move yet and if we just drag someone to the hospital, someone is going to find out.”
“Then we need to be very careful.” she said, looking around as she thought about their options. “Hmm, I have an idea.” she said after a minute, and nodded towards a lone taxi standing not far from them at the corner of the street. They walked towards the car and looked inside to find a man in his forties sitting there, drinking a late night coffee. It didn’t seem to be helping him much, he seemed really tired and eager to go home, but Ellie quickly approached from the driver’s side and lightly tapped the window to get his attention.
“Sorry to bother you so late, sir, but could you please take us to the old hospital building on Lafayette Street? We would be really grateful.”
“Are you sure?” the taxi driver looked at them as he pulled down his window. “That’s not a very nice neighbourhood to be out at this time.”
“Yeah, I know, but we’re just meeting someone there, and we’re kind of running late.” she said with a reassuring smile and the man grumbled something under his breath before he nodded towards the back of his car, motioning for them to get in.”
Ellie turned back and winked at Renfield, before she hopped in the car and Renfield followed without a word, being certain that he was not going to like what was going to happen next. The driver clearly wasn’t keen on small talk as he silently drove them to their destination and Ellie felt excitement welling up in her as she caught sight of the tall building.
“So... “ she turned to Renfield and whispered quietly. “I suppose you can talk to your master, you know, like this?” she looked at him, lightly tapping the side of her head with her finger, and he nodded, making her smile in triumph. “Ok, then tell him he’s got a delivery coming in about five minutes.” she said and watched as he looked out of the window. She observed him closely, watching for any signs that he was communicating with the vampire, but he didn’t seem to even have to concentrate on it. She was quite amazed actually.
She directed the driver to park them a few blocks from the hospital, making sure it was in the view of the building and then she turned to Renfield. “Alright, Robert, please pay the man while I’m going to call our friend to let him know we’re here.” she turned to the driver then and smiled gratefully. “Thank you very much for bringing us, sir, I know you probably wanted to be on your way home by now. We’ll give you a nice tip.”
She nodded to Renfield, before quickly exiting the car, pulling out her phone to pretend she was having a phone call, while she quickly made her way away from the scene. It was barely two minutes later as she was hiding in the shadow of some of the surrounding buildings that she thought she heard a strangled scream, way too short to catch anyone’s attention and her heartbeat got a little faster thinking about what was happening back there.
After what felt to her like the right amount of time, she returned to the scene to find that it was empty. There was no car, no Renfield, no driver and certainly no vampires. The only thing she did find there was a few drops of blood on the pavement that were going to be gone with the next rain.
But as she looked up, staring at the hospital building, she through she saw something flying through the air towards it, and when the moon came out from behind the clouds, she was thrilled to realise that it was a swarm of unusually large bats.