Nature or Nurture

Knowing Sembene as very stable and dedicated to her father's well-being, and more importantly, aware of the world of magic and its influence on people, she decides to risk the former. Something bad must have happened at her father's, probably involving Vanessa, this may be their chance.

She opens the door, and sees Sembene recognize her, then pull a knife in less than a second. He's going to kill her, she realizes.

'No, Sembene, I'm no longer controlled by the enemy, see for yourself! I know you can see evil!' Stopped in his tracks, her father's friend takes a good long look at her and puts away the knife.

'So you are, I can see no more evil in you. What is this miracle, what happened?' he says in a voice thick with emotion. Instead of killing her, he embraces her like her father would his daughter. She leads him to the kitchen, sits him down at the table, and explains what happened in a few short sentences.

'Father shot me twice, the last shot nearly killed me. The creature of my master took me away from them, but it ran into doctor Frankenstein's clean-up party. It went for Vincent, whom my master had ordered killed a year ago, when he was still a completely different person.

But Vincent killed it instead, with a stake. I lay dying, not able to do anything. Miss Adison touched my face and said some sort of formula over me, and I came back to myself just before I passed out, near true-death. I asked her not to let my father know, because of Vanessa.'

Here she can see a strong reaction from Sembene. So his visit has to do with her. All the better.

'Just one moment more, Sembene, then I'll wake up the doctor to accompany you. They took me with them, never afraid I'd turn on them. Of course, I wasn't in any state to harm anyone.

Victor, the doctor, operated on me, got the bullets out so I could heal myself. The lethal wound wouldn't close, the bullets had poisoned me and taken too much out of me. He cut his wrist en fed me his own blood.

It revived me, we slept the rest of the night and the whole day, then we talked. Now I watch over them at night.'

Sembene touches her in sympathy.

'So you're not entirely cured then?' he asks.

She replies, 'No one can cure vampirism, Sembene. But I have my own free will back, and I've found love here. Will you please not tell father about me until Vanessa is free of her possession? The enemy might try to get at me, at us, through her.

Adison can free her too, I'm sure of that.'

Looking at her knowingly he says, 'I believe you, she gave me my power to see evil. If she could free you, I'm certain she can help Miss Yves. Miss Vanessa is indeed suffering from a possession, though she is still fighting it, we cannot help her. Your father sent for the doctor. We shall bring him Miss Adison instead, so she can cure Miss Vanessa. I will assist her.'

Quietly, she enters her room and gently wakes Victor.

'Wake up my love, your help is needed,' she tells him.

As he sits up, she kisses him and tells him to get dressed.

'I'm waking up Adison and Vincent as well, Vanessa is having an episode and we need Adison to banish whatever is possessing her for good.'

She leaves him to dress, and goes towards Adison and Vincent's room. She knocks on the door solidly, thinking it will take something loud to wake the two up. But Adison is already at the door, opening it up.

'Is it Miss Yves this time?'

Mina nods.

'I think this may be your chance, Adison, but she can be violent so we have to be careful.'

'We'll be with you in a minute,' Adison says, 'we're already getting dressed.'

Within ten minutes they are all dressed and ready to go. They take a little time to form a strategy, this will be a dangerous undertaking for all of them.

'Most probably, things will be up to me,' Adison says, 'though your help would be invaluable, Sembene, you know her so much better than I do.'

'I'll be glad to help you, Miss Adison,' he says.

'Just Adison, please Sembene, we're partners in this. But who will come besides me?'

Sembene says, 'Well, the doctor should come, he's your spokesperson.'

They acknowledge that.

'And I'm not letting my love anywhere near danger without me to protect her,' Vincent says.

Adison takes a good, hard look at him. He is still not at his best, and waking up in the middle of the night hasn't helped. But she knows he is right, she will be helpless against a physical threat for a few moments, and even in this state, he is a fighting force on his own.

There is something to keep in mind though: 'The enemy really hates you, Vincent, that creature went straight for you. You may be in more danger from Miss Yves than I will be.'

Victor intercedes, 'There is only one of her, and at least four of us, so I think Vincent will be safe enough. Mina, do you want to come?'

She is clearly in doubt.

'I was planning to stay clear of her, but it would spread the enemy's focus to have me present. He may hate me even more than he hates Vincent or Adison. I can defend myself against Vanessa, and he cannot get dominion over me again. Not with your love and blood running through me, Victor.' Sembene observes, 'But your presence will greatly disturb your father, he may even try to kill you again. You can come, but you have to let me prepare him before you enter the house. Do you agree to that?'

They are all glad he has thought of that, and they set off together, armed discreetly, to end this battle in the endless war against evil.

At Sir Malcolm's house, they wait in the carriage for ten minutes, whilst Sembene prepares his friend for the appearance of his daughter, turned vampire but freed from the enemy's touch.

'I hope we're not playing right into the enemy's hands, showing up as a group,' Vincent observes, 'but there is no way I could let you face this on your own, my dear.'

Adison stays calm, nothing new there, of course, and states, 'If we have, he'll find he's bit off more than he can chew. We're not exactly helpless, and without vessels the enemy is limited in his actions. He can seduce and subvert, but he cannot attack us directly.'

She has changed since that night on the ship, and the long talk with Mina. She seems aware of her change of status from junior doctor to priestess, though her manners are still as mild as ever and she can still fade into the background easily.

Soon, Sembene returns to the carriage, with Sir Malcolm. He is greatly affected, tears streak his severe features, his expression one of great guilt, overlain with joy. Mina, seeing what her return has done with her father, jumps out of the carriage into his arms. They hug for what seems to be a long time.

Then he faces her.

'Had I known you could be saved, I would have shot myself first!'

She wipes away a tear from his strong face with a sleeve of her borrowed shirt, and says feelingly, 'How could you have known, father? When I didn't even know myself, until I found myself dying, but free of will? We will talk later, first we have to try to save dear Vanessa.'

Her father addresses Adison directly.

'Miss Adison, thank you so much for saving my daughter from a fate worse than death. Can you help Miss Yves as well?'

Adison replies, 'With Sembene's help it should be possible. But she will slide back immediately if her spirit is not recognized for what it is.'

Sir Malcom clearly does not understand, and Adison explains.

'Miss Yves has a very restless spirit, much like you. She needs to be active, travel a lot, see new things, do physically challenging things. Keeping her inactive as your class does its ladies has driven her to extreme boredom and depression, opening her to temptation.

You have to take her along with your next expedition, not as a burdensome lady, but as an active member of your team, able to cook, prepare a camp, communicate with the natives and if necessary fight, eager to explore and document discoveries.

In short, as one of the men. If you don't, you'll lose her again and again, until she is damned forever.'

Sir Malcolm clearly needs some time to digest that information, and he tells her he will consider it, and they follow him inside. They decide to all go into her room together, and see if she lets Adison and Sembene touch her.

Miss Yves is a mess. Her hair is unkempt, she has dark circles below her eyes, and her nightgown reveals she's as skinny as a teenage girl in a growth spurt. She raves in a dark voice, and she cannot seem to sit still for just one second. Adison feels almost ashamed to witness her like this, such a beautiful proud woman brought so low.

She approaches her, Sembene at her side, Vincent right behind her. Miss Yves coos at her with a different voice, a girl's voice, calling obscenities, until she beholds Vincent. She seems struck by the sight of him, as if she only now sees the truth about him. And of course, this may very well be so. The childish voice addresses him, 'Look there, it's Heathcliff, my husband to be. But what have they done to him, his teeth pulled, his fire quenched? He looks like a big baby, but he's been a bad baby. Killing, and beating, and torturing, he loved that. Now he's caught by a witch, caught in her net. Poor baby, never grow up to be the boss, always underfoot now.'

Vincent shows no reaction to her talk, he's the actor being mocked in a play, it's not real to him.

Miss Yves moves on, finds Mina. Now she switches to the dark voice.

'And my bad, bad sister. How lovely she is, but she's done horrible things you know. She ate mothers, with the babies still in them. She's seen a lot of men, a lot of them. Of course they're all dead now, eaten screaming for their mothers.'

Then turning to Victor. ' She'll eat you too. Lovely, sweet, innocent, smells good.'

Adison feels this has gone on long enough. She bars her way, calls out, 'Miss Yves, I know you're in there, please talk to me.'

Vanessa hardly sees her.

'Girls, girls, girls, not interesting. Go fornicate your baby, go away.'

Now Sembene touches Vanessa, and in her, a struggle becomes clear. This is the moment that Adison takes her face in both hands, and speaks the formula.

But Miss Yves may be emaciated, she is not without strength. Screaming, she hits first Adison, then Sembene. The latter is not affected, but Adison reels under the impact. As Vincent steadies Adison, Sembene touches Miss Yves again. She screams again, in agony.

Adison does not let up. As soon as she is on her feet again, she is back, catching Miss Yves' face again. And again, Miss Yves uses violence to escape from Adison's touch. Adison cannot defend herself when she is exercising her priestly skills, so she gets the full load once again.

This time, she falls down.

Vincent has had enough.

'Can I hold her for you?' he asks.

Stunned for a moment, she needs to get her breath back before she can answer.

'I don't know, but I cannot hold her myself, so we'll have to try.'

Within a second, Vincent has Miss Yves in his grip, arms pinned to her sides.

She coos at him, 'Oh dear, finally I've got myself where I wanted to be, in your arms. So nice and strong, yes, squeeze me, do. Oh, do me, do me, you know you want to. I'm so much more interesting than the little mouse over there.'

Suddenly she tries violence on him too, her possessed strength nearly enough to free herself. Vincent gets a nasty hit on his injured chest, leaving him gasping for breath.

Shutting the pain out, it is after all only on the outside, nothing life-threatening, he manages to hold on.

Adison suddenly understands.

'Sembene', she calls, 'talk to her, you know her.'

And he touches her once again, whispering to her, stroking her as if she is his little daughter. Slowly she quiets down, and Adison can again take hold of her face.

'Mummy!' says the girl's voice lovingly.

Adison manages to speak the formula, and kisses Vanessa on her forehead. Then she lets go. Vincent feels Miss Yves slackening, and carries her now limp form to the bed, gently laying her on it.

Sembene sits down on the bed, and strokes her hair tenderly.

Adison is not feeling very well, she's taken a few hard hits straight to her face, and her head hurts a lot. It doesn't seem to get better, she's getting dizzy and nauseous as well.

Moving towards Vincent for some support, she can see leaning on him would be unwise, he has been hit pretty hard himself, his chest is bleeding again through his shirt and he looks like he's in pain.