Written by David de Sola
DAY 7
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
-William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5
Recalling last night’s dreams, Gabriel stumbled over to the bathroom and reached for the medicine cabinet. He took some aspirin to relieve the headache, and went back to the living room. Grace and Mosely were long gone, only leaving a note on the coffee machine, since they knew that would be Gabriel’s first urge in the morning. It read:
Gabriel:
Mosely and I went out bright and early. He’s at the police station and I’m at the library doing research. Gerde should call or fax sometime this morning, so you can look forward to that. We’ll be back for lunch. See you later.
-Grace
Gabriel opened the cabinet and automatically reached for the can of Starbucks’ Java coffee beans, and began making breakfast, when the phone rang.
"Hello?" he said, as he picked up the receiver.
"Hi Gabriel, it’s Gerde. I have all the information that you and Grace requested. I’ve scanned and printed everything that you didn’t want sent over. The book was in the library, and was sent via priority mail with DHL, so you should get it later today. The fax is just short of about one hundred and fifty pages, so don’t expect any calls for a while. Give me a tone and I’ll start sending them over." She replied.
"Hang on…"Gabriel said, studying all the buttons on the fax machine. He pressed the big green button that read "SEND/RECEIVE". A high-pitched shriek followed it, then paper began oozing out of the feeder. Receiving the entire fax took just shy of two hours. Gabriel figured he might as well start to do the nasty.
" The Claws of the Dragon is a medieval Christian society that can trace its origins back to the ninth century AD, but some claim the lineage goes back even further, to the days of the decline of Ancient Rome. It was run by the Grigurescu Family, an upper-class family that made its fortune by acting as intermediaries between caravans from the East and the traders from Western Europe. Why they were chosen to run the society is a mystery lost to time. The positions in the society were exclusively for members of the family, probably to keep the power and wealth in the family. The family thrived for several centuries, after which its profits and prestige began to decline after the twelfth century for reasons unknown. The family began to gradually fade away from the prominent political, social, and military scene of Eastern Europe. The last public mentioning of the family as a society was in the sixteenth century at a function for the Eastern Orthodox Church in Byzantium. The family and the society virtually disappeared after that, reasons unknown. More likely than not, they probably dispersed across Europe, their heritage and tradition lost."
Gabriel shuddered. The Ritters were headed in that general direction, before Gabriel miraculously appeared. He wandered if there was some lost heirs or family members like in his case, and if they might know anything else about it. He kept reading the fax. The next section was on vampires, and was taken from a demonology book in the Schattenjager Library.
"Vampires were once thought to be indiscriminate killers, but recent evidence from documented cases have shown that they are very methodical and preferential killers. Only in the event that no other option is available will they kill, out of necessity rather than desire (like any predatorial animal in the wild). With the recent invention of the microscope and the increasing scientific study of blood, many new ideas can be developed to explain vampirism. An emerging theory in the paranormal community is that vampires are attracted to certain blood types more than others, similar to humans preferring beef over chicken. How they distinguish between one and the other is unknown, but it is generally accepted that vampires have heightened senses of vision, hearing, and smell, and may use these to perform the task. Another theory is that because brain cells are circulated in the blood, vampires may acquire the memories and even the knowledge of their victims when the vampire tastes the blood."
"Creepy…" Gabriel said as he continued to skim through the rest of the fax. The next segment was an excerpt from a biography of Vlad Tepes. Most of it was meticulous historical detail which would drive Grace up the wall with information, but he read a specifically marked paragraph.
" Vlad Tepes’ bloodlust grew from his battles against the Ottoman Turks to defend the Orthodox Church from their invasion into Eastern Europe. He was a devout religious man, always going to confession after each battle. Legend has it that an Ottoman spy was placed in Vlad’s inner circle of advisors and spiritual consultants. The spy was supposed to relay the information he learned back to his superiors and pass on false information to Vlad. The rumor is that while Vlad was in battle, the spy decided to throw Vlad’s entire cabinet and followers into disarray by sending a false message to the castle claiming he had been killed. The end result was that one of Vlad’s deputies took command while Vlad was in battle, but his distraught wife killed herself. Naturally, everyone was in shock when Vlad quietly walked into the palace, unaware of what had happened. Vlad, originally a devout servant of God, turned his back on his faith because he openly blamed God for taking his wife. The spy was never found, in spite of Vlad’s massive purge to find the culprit, and the numerous falsely accused victims tortured and killed in the purge. The spy, whose name has been lost to time, ironically is rumored to have been the one who killed Vlad."
He finally came upon a piece on the Voynich Manuscript. It didn’t have a formal name to it, but it was matched by the drawings that Grace had faxed earlier. In this passage, it was called the Alpha-Omega Parchment.
"The Alpha-Omega Parchment is as old as mankind itself. Its origins are lost to legend and lore. Within its confounding pages lies the secret to trigger the Omega as written in the Revelation and to tilt the odds in favor of either side. Also hidden in the pages is the means to banish a demon from any sphere of hell back to its point of origin. It is to be guarded by the Church to prevent an agent of Satan from ever gaining possession of it."
"Oh, shit!" Gabriel said to himself. He had finally gotten most of the pieces of the puzzle together. It was time to go see the dean.
A while later, Gabriel stormed into Dean Jennings’ office, in spite of her secretary’s futile protests attempting to prevent him from going in.
"Solved your damn case." He said, walking through the door. He didn’t notice that Thornton was in there with her.
"Mr. Knight, your efforts are very much appreciated…" the dean began.
"Wait a minute! What the hell are you saying?" he asked.
"…but they are no longer necessary nor welcome. I will have to ask you to leave and stay off any university property. Lieutenant Thornton will handle the investigation from here." She finished.
"But…"
"Gabriel Knight, I am placing you under arrest for interfering with a police investigation. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney…"
"This is bullshit!" Gabriel protested, while being handcuffed.
"ANYTHING you say CAN and WILL be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand these rights?" Thornton recited. Gabriel reluctantly and quietly nodded. Thornton escorted Gabriel to the police car and took him to the station and where he was taken for questioning.
"So why are you investigating this case? And don’t give me that researching another book crap, because I know there’s something more behind this." Thornton began.
"You wouldn’t believe me." Gabriel responded.
"Try me."
"Look, Wrenfeld’s in danger. He’s not the quiet harmless little geek he seems to be. He’s a basket case just waiting to blow."
"Start talking."
"I can’t explain it, just keep him under surveillance, because something’s going to happen.
"Way ahead of you. We’re keeping him under suicide watch right now. You’re out of excuses."
"Look…" Gabriel began. "I’ll make you a deal, but I need you to question the guy. I have the questions and if I could watch from that room in the back."
"What’s in it for me?" Thornton asked.
"I’ll explain everything."
He thought about it for a minute. "Sure." He said.
Gabriel wrote the questions on a sheet of paper and handed them over to Thornton. He read the questions, and looked at Gabriel like he was nuts. "What the hell is this?"
"Just ask him the damn questions?"
"Stay here." Thornton said, stepping out of the observation room and locking the door from the outside, before Wrenfeld was brought in. He read the questions again and shook his head skeptically.
"Alright, Doctor. I just have a few routine questions for you, and then you can go back to your cell."
"Go ahead." The doctor whimpered.
"Have you ever heard the name Vlad Tepes, Vlad Dracul, or Vlad the Impaler?"
Gabriel and Thornton noticed that the doctor turned pale at the mere mention of the names.
"No…." the doctor answered very unconvincingly.
"What is the alpha treatment?"
The doctor twitched again. "I…. Don’t know."
Gabriel noticed that Wrenfeld was becoming agitated. The camera monitoring the cell and the TV it was transmitting to went dead. The cell was suddenly becoming very foggy.
"Master! I did not betray you!" Wrenfeld screamed, begging to the air itself for mercy.
"Calm down!" Thornton yelled. Gabriel began to feel uneasy. Suddenly, the talisman began to glow. He turned around and saw a dark silhouette beginning to form in the fog. Then he heard Wrenfeld pleading for his life. The fog moved, and revealed the ghastly, pale, and imposing figure of Vlad Tepes, holding Wrenfeld by the throat with one hand and drinking from his carotid artery. Gabriel reached for his talisman.
"Put him down, whoever the hell you are!" Thornton yelled, drawing his gun.
"Gladly." Vlad responded, in the same deep, dark voice from Gabriel’s dreams. He flicked a finger from his free hand, and Gabriel suddenly felt a mild rumbling on the floor, as a seven-foot stake shot out of the ground, its tip razor sharp. He threw Wrenfled with minimal effort onto the stake, and he screamed all the way, until the stake through his torso was too much for him and died.
Gabriel and Thornton stared in horror at the violent death of Wrenfeld, then Thornton regained his concentration and fired a shot at Vlad. He simply laughed.
"You think your pathetic little toy is going to save you?" Vlad asked, before he picked up Wrenfeld and disposed of him the same way he had Wrenfeld. Gabriel was saying his prayers.
Then he noticed that Vlad was looking directly at him as if he could see him through the one-way mirror. Then Vlad shattered the mirror simply by fixating his hypnotic demonic stare on it.
Gabriel reflexively held up his talisman, a habit he had picked up after his first two encounters with the supernatural. Vlad looked at it and laughed. He then punched Gabriel out of the observation room into the main room. Gabriel felt something connect with his stomach and then a feeling of weightlessness. He thought Vlad had impaled him like in his nightmares.
The next thing Gabriel felt was something repeatedly batting at his face. His eyelids flickered open, and he saw Mosely, slapping his face to get him to wake up.
"Gabe! GABE! WAKE UP!" he yelled.
"Keep it down, I just got my ass kicked by somebody who makes Mike Tyson look like a fifth grade bully." He groaned.
"What the hell happened here?" Mosely asked.
Gabriel looked around. Wrenfeld and Thornton’s mangled bodies were still on the stakes, but there was no sign of Vlad. "He was here." He explained.
"Who?"
"Vlad the Impaler. He killed Wrenfeld and knocked me out cold."
"You and the entire station! Everybody’s dead in here! How am I supposed to believe that?" he asked.
"Don’t argue with me! We have to get out of here." Gabriel said.
"Forget it! You’d be a damn fugitive, and there ain’t no one-armed man out there!"
"Yes there is." Gabriel said, standing up. He headed over to the office where the guard on duty was stationed. Vlad had done his grisly handiwork to him as well. Gabriel twitched, and walked out of the station, with Mosely tagging along. They got in Mosely’ car and drove off.
"How did you find me?" Gabriel asked.
"I had tapped the dean’s phone line. She told Thornton that you had broken into her office and were obstructing the investigation and used the evidence you had gotten from her computer as proof. Not the most constitutional way to arrest somebody, but Thornton somehow managed to find the loophole and make the charges stick. The dean wants this whole thing swept under the rug, because if word leaks out about Wrenfeld, chances are that several people are going to go down with him, and she’s trying to protect the spotless reputation of the school. She managed to conveniently keep that fact from Thornton." Mosely explained.
"Shit! That bitch is going down… I have the tapes and documents, I’ll send them over to the papers when this whole mess is over."
"Never mind that… What do you do now?" Mosely asked.
"Give me your phone." He demanded. He dialed Grace’s phone number at the apartment.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Gracie, it’s me… I don’t have time to explain, but just tell me, were you able to find out anything at the library?"
"Yeah, Gabriel. I have everything we need to know about Vlad the person and Vlad the undead demon, from that book Gerde sent yesterday. In fact I was able to find how to crack the manuscript! Now, it’s just the actual deciphering process that’s going to take forever… The answer’s in all these books and the fax…" she said, before the phone went dead.
"SHIT!" Gabriel yelled. He looked at the power meter on the phone screen, and saw that the battery had run out. "Damn it! Mosely, go to the apartment, now!"
"Sure fearless leader. I’ll just go to the apartment without questioning the slightest reason why the hell we’re doing it! That does it! I’m not going anywhere till you tell me what the hell’s going on!"
"I’ll explain on the way, just go, as fast as you can." Gabriel replied.
Gabriel and Mosely stormed into the apartment. Mosely began calling for Grace. They split up and looked around. Gabriel saw all her notes and the faxes marked, and a started attempt at the translation. He began to skim over the notes, when he heard Mosely yell "GABE! GET IN HERE!"
Gabriel ran to where he had heard the scream come from. On the wall was written. "I HAVE HER. YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT KNIGHT."
"SHIT!" Gabriel yelled, kicking over a chair in frustration.
"Wait a minute…" Mosely began. "He needs her and US alive."
"What are you saying?"
"Well, you said that he killed those people to get their knowledge of that manuscript thing right?"
"Yeah."
"Well maybe he hasn’t quite figured it out yet, and that is why we are still alive, and he left that warning, instead of a dead body. He needs us to solve it, and he knows we’re close."
"Maybe, but what the hell do we do now?" he asked.
"I don’t know." Mosely answered.
Gabriel looked to the next room, where all the notes were lying. "Start reading. Grace said everything we needed to figure out the manuscript was in those pages." He said. They sat down, and each took a pile, and began to read. Gabriel began reading the book that Wrenfeld had used to summon Vlad Tepes, Demons of the Dark and Middle Ages.
" Vlad Tepes is an almost pure demon, deriving his dark powers from all the spheres of Hell. Vlad is only responsible to Satan himself, and holds little contempt for anything or anyone else. His purpose as a minion of Satan is to claim as many souls for hell as he possibly can. Vlad was so angry after the death of his wife, he turned on everything and everyone he had struggled to defend. Vlad gave the devil his soul, and his blackest heart for eternity in exchange for the power second only to Satan himself, to do evil in this world. However, any demon short of the devil himself requires a source of power on earth as well as the limited infernal powers he is granted. Vlad’s source is believed to be the medallion of the dragon he wore while he was still alive. The origin and whereabouts of this medallion are unknown, but general mortuary practice in those days indicates it was probably buried with him. Vlad requires human blood for nourishment, and accounts show he is not above enticing a mortal with the gift or curse of eternal life to do his bidding with humans. To summon him, you must name the incantation of the curse that was cast upon him. Based on accounts from medieval witchcraft books, the incantation is ‘I summon thee, darkest of darknesses, to offer myself to you, for the gift which you offer, to be your servant, your slave, in your quest to triumph over good and all associated with it.’ The secret to banish him is hidden within Alpha-Omega Parchment"
"OK, we got something new… I think Vlad gets his power from the old Grigurescu medallion. We have to find that thing to get rid of him."
"How do you know that?’
"That’s how it was with Malia and the Voodoo Cartel, remember?"
"All too well. What about Grace?" Mosely asked.
"No clue." Gabriel replied. "Any luck with that pile?"
"Just all this metaphysical historical crap. No clue what any of it means."
"Well, he obviously wants us to figure out the manuscript. I say we go to the library and finish this shit up." He said, reaching into his bag and getting his dagger.
"I’m with you." Mosely said, grabbing his coat and heading out the door. Gabriel quickly followed.
It was just past 2 a.m. when they walked into the library. The librarian wasn’t in, it was only the work-study students who are trying very hard to study, stay awake, and get paid at the same time. "All right, Gabe. Where’s this thing you’re looking for?"
Gabriel looked around, trying to remember where he had been earlier. He was soon lost in the maze of bookshelves, trying to figure out where he was going and where he had started. Then, he saw a flash in the corner of his eye over the books and behind the shelf. It looked like Grace, walking in a daze. He turned the corner and saw nothing. He kept walking, and kept seeing more and more glimpses of what he thought was Grace. Finally, he found it.
"Mosely, back here in the archives!" he yelled.
Mosely quickly followed, his out-of-breath squeals acting like a herald announcing his impending arrival.
"Glad you could make it, twinkletoes. Now let’s get to work." Gabriel said.
"Don’t push me, Knight…"
Let’s have a look at this thing, see if we can compare it to some of Gracie’s notes." Gabriel said, unfolding the sheet of paper containing some random words and scribblings that Grace had left with the other books at the apartment. The scribblings read "Saint….swords (?) …knight…vow (?)" The words struck a chord within Gabriel. They sounded so familiar. Then it hit him.
"I’ve figured it out. Let’s call him."
Mosely pulled out the notes. "I hope you know what you’re doing," he said, handing over the sheet with the incantation. "I’ll be back there with the three fifty-seven, although I doubt that will help."
"Whatever… Get ready." Gabriel said. He began the incantation. " I summon thee…darkest of darknesses… to offer myself to you, for the gift which you offer… to be your servant… your slave… in your quest to triumph over good and all associated with it."
Nothing happened.
Gabriel read it aloud again. Still nothing. Then, something knocked him over.
Vlad Tepes suddenly appeared, completely unannounced. "Yes…you have the knowledge. Give it to me."
"Hold that thought." Gabriel said, sticking the knife to his throat. "You let her go, or I kill myself and you lose EVERYTHING."
"You wouldn’t…"
"I would…because I know that you can’t drink spilled blood." Gabriel replied. "Now let her go."
A small fog developed, and Grace materialized from it. She looked unharmed, but appeared totally disoriented. She stumbled off into the corridors of the library’s bookshelves. Gabriel made a subtle movement of his pupils, indicating Mosely to go help her.
"Now the power is mine!" Vlad said, disappearing and suddenly reappearing behind Gabriel. He locked Gabriel’s right arm behind his back and pulled him back. He prepared to go for the jugular.
"Not today." Gabriel replied. "St. George, patron of the light who hunts the shadows of the night...upon my blood, I call Thee now…purify me, for I avow...to set my feet upon Thy road…Thy sword I take up for mine own."
Gabriel’s talisman began to glow, and an he sensed an energy pulsating from the hidden dagger he had in his coat. Maneuvering with his free left hand while he recited, Gabriel unsheathed the dagger, and wrapped his arm behind him, and stuck the blade into Vlad’s back. It cut through him like butter.
Vlad suddenly went numb. A blinding electrical energy emanated from the wound, and soon grew larger and larger. Gabriel was in a daze, hypnotized by the light. He grabbed the manuscript and the dagger, and got out of there. A painful scream pierced the air, and the light grew brighter. Suddenly, there was a bright, blinding flash, like a nuclear warhead had been set off in the library. The fire alarms were beginning to sound, and people were making their way out calmly, like they had been tought since they were toddlers. Mosely guided the dazed Grace and the recovering Gabriel out of the library as fast as he could. He put them in the backseat of his car, and as he looked back, he noticed that every window in the library was brightly illuminated by this flash. Then, a silent rumble came from the quaking ground. The library began trembling and soon afterwards, the building was a pile of rubble. The flash and Vlad were nowhere to be seen.
On the ride back, the recovered Gabriel was sitting and observing at race, who was slowly coming out of her trance. She could recognize him and Mosely but seemed very tired. Gabriel and Grace locked eyes and they reflexively kissed, gently. They stopped, stared, and looked straight ahead. They didn’t say another word the rest of the night.
NOTE: The Voynich Manuscript IS an authentic historical document currently in the possession of Yale University. All attempts to translate it over the centuries have failed.
Some elements of this story are my imagination. Otherwise, everything about the manuscript is true historical fact. (Source: The Unexplained , by Dr. Karl P.N. Shuker;p. 51; JG Press, 1996; North Dighton, Massachusetts) I also searched on several websites, but the one that had the most reliable and detailed information was http://marlowe.wimsey.com/~rshand/streams/scripts/voynich.html.
Other sources of information are http://members.xoom.com/rosval/
and
http://www.opa.com/vampire/Dracula.html
The book Demons of the Dark and Middle Ages is a figment of my imagination. To my knowledge, no such book exists in real life. The accounts of the sack of Constantinople are based on a passage from Anne Rice’s Memnoch the Devil.
If you have any comments, you can email David de Sola at ddesola@emerald.tufts.edu.
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