(no subject)
Title: The Sigh that Blew Me Forward
Pairing: Helen Magnus/Nikola Tesla
Rating: M-ish
Word Count: 7800ish words
Author’s Note: Written for scifichick2012 for the Sanctuary Ficathon 2010. I really liked all of your prompts, so it was very hard to choose! I ended up going with your first one, which was:
“Helen/Nikola at some point during Tesla’s life in the US (the more historically accurate the better) Would be awesome to see Edison involved in the abnormal world too, but that’s optional. Extra points for including a rivalry between Katharine Johnson and Helen.”
While, because of the time period in which I chose to write, I couldn’t work in things about Katharine Johnson, I know Helen Magnus would make snide remarks about aging better than she did. I did my best with the historical things - there were some issues that I had to use the internet to answer to the best of my ability, so please forgive (and feel free to correct) any factual errors. And I very much hope you enjoy this, as I enjoyed writing it! (Title from the song “Between Two Lungs”)
“What issss thisss? A man who issss half-walrussss? Issss thisss really the bessst you can do?” The sibilant hiss cut through the silence of the dingy room as a thin twitchy man stood holding a thick length of rope, tied around the neck of a person of stocky build with two tusks protruding from under his upper lip. “What happened to the promisssesss of men who could fit into the sssmallesst of ssspacesss? Or the giant beasts that could become invissssible at will?” A forked tongue slipped between dry lips, wetting them slightly as the man with the serpentine voice folded his hands calculatingly, the paleness of his limbs in stark contrast to the black of his suit. “Put him with the ressst. But I expect more, on your next visssit.”
The thin man ducked his head in a nervous half-nod as he pulled on the rope. The half-walrus docilely followed, his dull, glassy eyes trained on the floor in front of him, but in the brief instant before he was pulled through the door, his eyes met the thin slits of the dark-suited man in a flash of clarity, before he blinked and turned back to the dirty floor. As the door closed behind him, the man in the dark suit let out a low self-satisfied hiss.
- - -
Helen Magnus was a woman who aged at the pace of a snail. Wrinkles and frown lines meant nothing to her. And yet she did not like to linger and she did not like to worry. Her forehead remained free of creases unless she was immersed in some unsolvable mystery, and her thoughts were only on the problems of the abnormal world and far from her personal life. And when she learned of her fiancé’s habit of cornering prostitutes in dark alleys, she looked upon it as an opportunity to study the negative side effects of injecting oneself with vampire blood, rather than as a chance to take a well-deserved vacation far from the streets of London.
But as time passed and she showed no signs of surfacing from her studies, it was a tersely worded letter from Nikola Tesla, admonishing her for plunging headfirst into her dusty and dank tomes rather than into the supportive arms of her university compatriots, that awoke her from her shock-induced scholarly pursuits, and she clutched the letter as she read and reread the post-script: “Come to America, and I’ll prove to you once and for all that John was never good enough for you.”
She knew that Nikola was always bitter about her choice in partner, even more so after she began wearing the ring John had procured for her, with the promise of eternity. “What is eternity when you all you have to show for it is an unstable, volatile teleporter?” he’d asked when she’d told him, hesitantly, of course, of her engagement, not wanting to upset him more than was absolutely necessary. And he’d gotten angry. And he’d moved to America, far away from her and her unstable, volatile love. And now he wanted to offer his new life as an escape for her.
It was with a surprisingly light heart that Helen purchased three boat tickets on the next ship out of London, Nigel Griffin and James Watson at her side. After days on board of a rocking vessel, trying to ignore Nigel’s subtle comments about how he never did have sea legs, and he really needed to excuse himself to the loo, and Watson’s infernal cataloging of every single person on board, Helen was never so glad to set foot in a foreign country, and never so happy to see the wry, smirking face of Nikola Tesla.
But his welcoming face did not last long, his hand clamping around her upper arm tightly as he whispered urgently in her ear, “It was not only because I longed to see your lovely face that I invited you here, Helen, and as I say this, do not react. There’s been a problem with the abnormals.” His voice became a hiss as Helen’s face belied the startling news he’d just murmured in her ear. In a moment, she composed her features and placed a warm kiss on his cheek.
“It’s good to see you, Nikola,” she smiled. “Nigel and James are here too, just coming with the luggage. Why don’t we all go to the hotel, and we can exchange stories there. I’m sure you’re more than anxious to hear about Nigel’s difficulties with ocean travel.” Her hand grasped his tightly for a moment before she turned to wave to her fellow travelers, beckoning them forwards.
- - -
Cages lined the walls of the dark, dank hallway. Nothing rattled the bars, there was no movement, just the occasional sigh, the occasional flickering gaze before everything became deadened and silent. The man with the walrus tusks traced a line in the floor, hazarded a gaze toward the ceiling, wishing for some semblance of natural light to filter in through a crack. A door banged open, echoing loudly in the still space. A beam of light shot through the darkness before the door slammed shut again.
“Feeding time, boys,” a jovial voice boomed, accompanied by the sound of a heavy bag being dragged. Banging down empty bowls, the sound of feed being poured out filled the hall. The noise awoke the abnromals trapped in cages; they began moving towards the bars, stirring and rustling. One by one, bowls were shoved into the enclosures and tied hands reached for the meager portions.
“See you this time tomorrow.” The door clanged shut and with that, only the sounds of eating were left.
- - -
“- and then, after only three hours at sea, I felt queasy and had t-”
“I did not actually invite you into my home to have you share with me the inconveniences of transatlantic sailing, surprising as that may be,” Nikola said blandly, interrupting Nigel’s tale of woe. “No, there are more pressing matters at work here.”
Watson immediately sat at attention, his posture erect and his awareness palpable. “Yes, Nikola, I am eager for you to expand on this. Helen mentioned something as we were unloading our luggage.”
“As you know from my occasional correspondence I have become acquainted with a man by the name of Thomas Edison. We worked well together for some time, before he cheated me out of my rightful salary. But up until that point, he expressed an interest in the abnormal community. You see, Watson, he is like you, only naturally so, not having a store of ancient vampire blood at his disposal. He is acutely aware of the world around him, to an abnormal degree, if you’ll forgive the pun. And so I told him of the Magnuses and their commitment to building a community for those that are different from the rest of society. And he offered his laboratory as an extension of the Sanctuary Network, here in America. After I left his company, we fell out of touch. He was unwilling to compromise on my wages, and I was unwilling to forgive his lies.” Here Nikola paused to delicately take a sip of water.
“For Chrissake, Tesla, spit it out. You never did just say anything straight out, did you?” Nigel exploded, sitting impatiently across the vampire.
“If you don’t have the patience for this, perhaps you should go invisible yourself away and let the grown-ups talk about the important things,” Nikola offered condescendingly. When Nigel failed to move, he nodded congenially. “As I was saying, Edison began to use his laboratory as a sanctuary. Word spread around, and he was able to reach a great number of suffering creatures. But recently, he’s noticed a disappearance of some of those abnormals he had grown accustomed to seeing in their various haunts. Normally he wouldn’t think much of this, but these were the loners, the abnormals who had no family or friends to accompany them, those - ”
“Whose appearance wouldn’t be missed,” Helen whispered, her voice choked. “Someone is kidnapping abnormals? To what end?”
“That is what we have yet to figure out, my dear Magnus. But as soon as I was alerted to the matter, I berated Edison into giving me a list of possible candidates for kidnapping, and it arrived only yesterday. I thought you’d want to investigate further.”
“So much for a vacation,” she murmured ruefully. “I suppose I should meet this Edison fellow.”
“So long as I don’t have to accompany you. It would be less painful to poke my eyes out with a blunt object. I have sworn never to be in that man’s presence again.” Nikola stood haughtily and stalked to his desk to pull a thick envelope from the top drawer. “Here is the list his partner brought over. Another abnormal, with a skill set similar to my own, but not nearly as impressive, of course.” Nikola finished the statement with a small burst of electricity and a smirk. Helen almost sagged with relief - there was the devil-may-care man she had sailed across the ocean to see, and even amidst all this upsetting news, she couldn’t help but wish she had the time to just spend with him.
- - -
The hallway felt dark and clinical, void of emotion and feeling. Only the scraping of a fingernail on a cage bar made any noise in the thick silence. The half-walrus scraped his dingy, long fingernail back and forth, back and forth. Across from him, a woman, with unmistakably snake-like hair, answered with her own scraping, back and forth, back and forth. The vipers that mixed with the strands of her hair lay flat and dormant, with not even the energy to hiss at the man who brought the food.
- - -
Helen carefully unpacked her suitcase, hanging things in the closet, smoothing wrinkles. Two hat boxes were stacked on the floor under her dresses. A set of hairpins sat on the bureau, next to an ornate mirror. She always strived to make anywhere she stayed feel like home, and this was as close as she could get in a New York hotel.
She sat heavily on the bed, feeling the weight of exhaustion and pressure. Opening the envelope, Helen pulled out the contents, sheaves of handwritten pages. There were small drawings accompanying names of missing abnormals, there were lists of suspects with additional information on them, their occupations and known whereabouts. There was a knock at her door and she started, dropping the pages on the bed. “Come in,” she called, quickly stuffing Edison’s notes back into the envelope.
Nikola entered, shutting the door firmly behind him. “Watson and Griffin are insufferable. You should know better than to leave me alone with them.” He sat next to her on the bed and leaned back casually on his elbows, watching her with attentive eyes. She smiled nervously and one hand went to a loose curl, putting it behind her ear.
“You like James well enough, you’ve just never had the patience for Nigel’s chatter.” She felt suddenly nervous, and felt foolish for feeling nerves. She and Nikola had been alone together before, just never when she was so sure of his intent to seduce her. And she wasn’t entirely sure she could say no.
“The invisible man would be the one who can never shut his mouth long enough for anyone to forget his presence.” Nikola’s comment was met with an appreciative chuckle from Helen. “At any rate, I was tiring of his stories of your ocean excursion. Please find an alternative route home, or you’ll never hear the end of his abdominal difficulties.”
“We’ll see about that. Maybe we’ll stay here.” Helen shrugged her shoulders and reached again for the envelope. “Nikola, I know you’re against it, but I think I need to meet with Edison, find out more about this whole situation. This just isn’t enough,” she said, waving Edison’s notes vaguely.
“You’ll have to go to New Jersey, then,” Nikola replied with a shudder. “That’s where Menlo Park is. Better bring Watson or Griffin with you. You’ll want protection from the smell alone.”
- - -
Helen decided to bring both James and Nigel with her to Menlo Park, if only to keep Nikola from maiming Nigel. The outside of the laboratory was unassuming and simple, and Helen had a difficult time imagining a successful sanctuary behind those walls; it looked far too much like a residential home. She rapped on the door sharply, James and Nigel flanking her like intellectual bodyguards. Nikola had asked if Nigel would consent to traveling invisibly and perhaps steal the money Edison owed him, but Helen, smiling indulgently, vetoed that idea.
A slender man in a dark suit answered the door and looked curiously at them. “Yes? May I help you?”
“Mr. Edison? I’m Helen Magnus, a -“
“Friend of Nikola’s, yes. And please, call me Thomas. He spoke so much of you that I feel we are already acquainted. Come in, come in.” He opened the door more widely, allowing them entrance. The three stepped inside, and Helen let out a small gasp at the grandeur of the inside, the smooth wooden floors and the bookshelves lining the hallway.
“This is marvelous, Thomas. What a beautiful place to work.” She turned to face him, finding it hard to hate this man that Nikola had vilified. “So many books.” A wistful sigh escaped her lips as she longed to touch the volumes that filled the shelves.
“I do try to expand my collection whenever possible. Feel free to take a look. After we’ve discussed the reason you’re here, of course.” His eyes darted around, and Helen felt as though she was being dissected, not unlike the feeling that James often evoked when he gazed at her.
“Of course,” Helen confirmed with a smile. “Nikola has said that you offer your laboratory as a sanctuary, but that you have encountered…problems recently?” She looked around, wondering where the abnormals were housed.
“Come and sit down, and we can discuss this in private. By all means, feel free to explore the facility while Helen and I talk, gentlemen,” he said to James and Nigel, who looked surprised that they were not to be included in the conversation. “I prefer to tell Helen only. She may have a more keen grasp of the situation, and then we will not have to bandy about with idle questions of no relevance.”
“I can see why you and Nikola became such great friends initially,” Helen commented wryly, nodding to Nigel and James as she followed Thomas.
“A shame he could not develop his American sense of humor,” he replied. “It is also a shame he could not move past it, as I have. However, he seems to be doing well for himself, with the advent of the Columbian Exposition, yes. He is rather proud of that achievement. I think beating me out for the contract was half the allure of it.”
Helen felt uncomfortable discussing Nikola’s work with his nemesis and was anxious to change the subject. “Tell me about your sanctuary - how does it function?”
“I understand your reticence to talk about your friend with me,” Edison noted with a smile and Helen ruefully thought that it was as pointless to keep anything secret from this man as it was from James Watson. “As it is, we have a small sanctuary here - I doubt it is as large as anything you have worked on. I am hesitant to bring dangerous creatures here, as it may disrupt my work, but I also do not wish to neutralize them, nor leave them to terrorize the general public. I have a contact, a Mr. Sol Bloom, in Chicago, who has a larger facility where he is willing to take care of the more menacing abnormals.”
“And you trust this Mr. Bloom?” Helen was cautious with letting anyone into the world of the sanctuary, especially one that Nikola hadn’t mentioned.
“I do. He has shown me his space, and understands the needs of abnormals - he is one himself, you see. He has snake-like qualities, and exists in this world as an entertainer, which allows him to possess a more atypical appearance without question. At any rate, the abnormals that reside here are generally humanoids, and are simply looking for a safe place to stay. Occasionally they help as assistants in my lab, or work in the yard surrounding the area, cultivating it. They simply want to contribute any way they can, and find that this is one of the few places where they are able to.” Thomas opened the door at the end of the hall to reveal a sitting room, lined, as the hallway was, with bookshelves. These were of a less intellectual nature, and Helen couldn’t help but feel a stab of jealousy at the titles that occupied the shelves, but smirked at the presence of a volume of Sherlock Holmes, wondering what Thomas would say if he knew the inspiration for those stories was currently poking around his laboratory.
She seated herself and looked to Thomas, who was carefully pouring two tumblers of water. He offered one to her, then seated himself across the table. “The time has now come to discuss the recent disappearances of abnormals. There are a few men and women who have occasionally used this laboratory as halfway house, a place to rest. They correspond regularly, allowing me to know their whereabouts, however, all correspondence has stopped. Wilfred Odoberon, for one, would send me a letter every week. A month ago, it stopped completely, without warning. He was traveling, but mentioned in his last letter coming to stay for a few days, but I have not seen him in all this time.”
“What sort of abnormal was he? I mean, did he possess any…valuable characteristics? Psychic or empathic powers, for example?” Helen drummed her fingers on the table, her brain already working to think of any possible explanation for disappearing abnormals, besides the obvious prejudices that many members of the general public possessed.
“He was half-walrus, but a complete gentleman. I don’t know who would wish to harm him. Madeline was another one - she was a Medusa. The last we heard from her, she was heading to the north, looking for a solitary place to live. Perhaps she found it, but it seems unlikely that she wouldn’t have informed me of the fact.”
“And I assume there have been others.” Helen twisted her mouth unhappily. “I do not know enough about America to understand the intricacies of this state of affairs. I think, perhaps, if you could give me the letters Wilfred sent you, and maybe Madeline as well, and I can try to identify any clues.” Thomas nodded. “I think I need to return to New York, discuss this with Nikola. He may have more insight into this situation, and his presence is required in Chicago shortly, as it is, which will give us the opportunity to meet Mr. Bloom and talk with him about this.”
“Your plan is very shrewd, Helen. I commend your forethought. If you like, you may rejoin your friends in the hall, and I will obtain the letters for you.” They both stood, and he once more opened the door for her, gently guiding her back out into the foyer.
- - -
A larger door opened at the end of the dark hallway, and stayed open, allowing the light from the outdoors in to temporarily blind the caged inhabitants. Eyes closed in the face of the intrusion, faces shied away.
“Load ‘em up,” the familiarly jovial voice boomed and a group of strong-armed men filtered into the hallway and began removing the stones from the wheels of the cages and rolling the creaky prisons towards the doors. Wilfred used one webbed hand to guard his face from the onslaught of sun and noise that the outside world afforded. He spared a look behind him to see similarly positioned abnormals. But even the influx of sunlight could not enliven the deadened senses of people imprisoned for so long.
- - -
Helen, Nikola, James and Nigel boarded the train, Helen looking back just once at the busy streets of New York City. It wasn’t that she felt attached to the city, but she felt curious. There was a wealth of knowledge in those streets, she was sure of it. Nikola gently gave her elbow a squeeze, pulling her from lofty thoughts to the firm floor of the train.
The whistle sounded, shrill and sharp, as they found their seats, and shut the door to their compartment. Helen watched the blurring sights, her head propped on her hand. She felt Nikola’s fingers trace patterns on her arm, occasionally falling lower, to her leg, and her mouth turned in a smile. She turned from the window to look at him.
“Yes, dear?” he asked, his voice dripping with saccharine sarcasm. She only smiled more widely and reached out to touch his cheek lightly.
“Thank you,” she said simply, never having been one for effusiveness. She meant to say thank you for bringing her on this journey, for giving her a mystery to solve, for showing her affection in a way that didn’t terrify her, for sitting next to her, for all the little things he did, whether on purpose or by accident. He cocked his head, unsure of her intent, and she merely offered another small smile and turned back to the window, her hand dropping from his face to his hand, her thumb now tracing small circles on his palm.
If Nigel or James noticed anything strange about their behavior (and it was almost certain that James did), they did not comment, leaving the two of them to their ways while James began an enthusiastic discussion of the inner workings of a steam engine. Nigel didn’t quiet manage to keep the boredom from his face, leaving James to trail off and join Helen in her inspection of the scenery whipping past the train.
Once they arrived in Chicago, a portly man stood at the platform waiting for them, waving wildly at the sight of Nikola.
“He’s got a mustache to rival yours,” Helen muttered out of the corner of her mouth with a mischievous smirk.
“Yes, well, he’s clearly compensating for something,” Nikola replied with a light smack to her ribs. She laughed, her arm hooked in his, and felt almost carefree, for the first time in years.
“George Westinghouse, at your service, ma’am, gentlemen,” the mustachioed man said, tipping his hat to them. “Tesla, good to see you again.” He had a jovial, booming voice that set them at ease. He and Nikola shook hands firmly and Helen could see the affection the two men held for each other.
They dropped their luggage at the hotel, then followed George to the location of the World’s Fair while George expounded the virtues of the Columbian Exposition and the erecting of the White City. Helen listened with half an ear, taking in the sights around her. Construction was going on all around them, and above it all was a towering wheel, with what looked like tram cars hanging from the spokes. Nikola followed her gaze and smiled. “We’ll have a look at it once George has shown me how our alternating current system is faring in the construction process.”
While Helen considered herself inquisitive and intelligent, she didn’t find much interest in the intricacies of wiring and alternating current power. She did, however, overhear much self-congratulatory crowing over besting Thomas Edison in the bid for wiring the Exposition with electricity, despite Edison’s best efforts to impede them. When Nikola was finally up to speed on the goings on, he returned to Helen, who had been wandering around the grounds nearby, admiring the architecture of the fabled White City.
“I’ve asked George about the giant wheel. Says it was designed by a man named Ferris, and that it’s part of some sort of carnival at the Midway Plaisance. Coincidentally enough, that’s where a man by the name of Sol Bloom has been working on some sort of sideshow.” He raised an eyebrow significantly, and Helen took his meaning at once. She looped his arm through his as they set off for the giant Ferris wheel to meet the snake-like Sol Bloom.
- - -
When Helen heard the word “sideshow,” she was immediately on her guard. Her father had shared many a story of rescuing an abnormal from the clutches of some money-hungry lout who had imprisoned the strange looking creatures in order to obtain profit. Usually these abnormals were caged, and horribly mistreated, offered nothing in return for being paraded around as freaks and entertainment.
“If this man is exploiting abnormals, does this implicate Edison?” Helen wondered, whispering softly to Nikola.
“I highly doubt it. The man may have cheated me out of a good amount of money, but he’s no crook. He’s a reasonable sort, underneath all of his miserly tendencies and oddities.” Helen took Nikola at his word, and said nothing more of Thomas Edison.
Before long, they had reached the midway, and saw a tall man in a dark suit ordering around a crew of heavily muscled men, who were pushing wheeled carts covered in cloths to hide the contents from the outside world. “Not over there, you imbesssile. Can’t you sssee? I told you, to the left more!” The man shook his head in mock despair. “Idiotssss, the lot of you.”
Without hesitation, Nikola strode up to the man and held out his hand. “Nikola Tesla. My acquaintance, Thomas Edison, told me I might meet with you here.” Helen had to admire the way Nikola let on nothing about their suspicions or worries, only coincidence and fortunate happenstance bringing two people together. “I’m in town as I’m -”
“Exhibiting your electrical prowesssss, yessss, Edisssson mentioned ssssomething about you. Called you a mad sssscientissst. Jealousss man, wouldn’t you ssssay?” Nikola only smirked, but Helen felt shivers crawl up her spine at the hiss that enveloped every s from the man’s mouth. “Sssol Bloom, at your ssservice. What can I do for you?”
“Thomas mentioned something about disappearing abnormals. We thought you might know something,” Helen said, coming forward to stand next to Nikola. “I’m Helen Magnus.”
“Helen Magnussss.” Sol Bloom repeated, with a glint in his eye, and she felt the shivers once more, sure he knew who she was and why she was here. She shifted slightly and felt Nikola’s hand, a warning, at her elbow. “I’m not ssssure what Edisssson led you to believe. I know very little about abnormalssss.”
“He led us to believe nothing, only that you take care of the, shall we say, more dangerous abnormals? We just wanted to speak to someone else in America with ties to the Sanctuary Network.” Nikola’s grasp on her elbow tightened slightly.
“I’m ssssorry to sssay, I don’t know much. I haven’t had a visit from any abnormalssss in ssssome time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work. It wasss nice to meet both you. Good day.” He tipped his hat congenially, but his eyes still held a steely glint that spoke of enmity.
“He is quite snake-like. He slithered out of our questioning quite adroitly.” Helen shuddered involuntarily. “Let’s find James and Nigel and go back to the hotel. I’ve had enough of meeting people today, I think.”
- - -
The four travelers ate a leisurely meal in the hotel dining room, lingering over glasses of wine and decadent desserts. Nikola eyed Helen over his glass, waggling his eyebrows in such a ridiculous manner that Helen couldn’t help but laugh, once more grateful for this man who was so able to set her at ease in a time when she felt so unstable. This man who had kept her so occupied since her arrival in America that she hadn’t had the time to think about what she was leaving behind.
And so, looking to the future, Helen let Nikola lead her to his hotel room, let him open the door for her, and let him close it behind them and lock it. She took a breath and let him take control.
Helen closed her eyes at the feel of Nikola’s hands gently unbuttoning her dress, his long fingers loosening the laces on her corset, her body expanding at the freedom she felt. He gently nuzzled her neck, eliciting a small laugh from her; as a vampire, he did always have a proclivity for that particular body part. She turned in his arms, loosening the cravat from his shirt and allowing her fingers to drift towards his pants.
“You’re awfully forward,” he smirked, his hands joining hers, helping her free him from his clothing. She only smiled, enjoying the tactile sensations, the gentle thrum of excitement in the pit of her stomach, and the obvious craving that Nikola felt for her.
Helen was no prude, but when it came to sex, John Druitt had been the only man to usher her into the ways of carnal pleasure. The feeling of Nikola’s hands on her naked skin, leaving the imprints of his fingertips as he explored the new terrain of her flesh, left her breathless and thrilled. It felt dangerous and new, and like she was learning all over again.
She couldn’t help but make comparisons between her lovers: John was tall and smooth, and felt illicit and dangerous; Nikola was closer to her in height, and while his affections were clearly evident, she felt safer with him than she ever had with John. When his arms encircled her, she felt comfortable in a way she hadn’t since her first time with John, before he changed.
Helen, normally a paragon of neatness and order, left her dress in a crumpled mess on the floor, Nikola’s suit a mere memory as it lay hidden under the voluminous skirts and sleeves. “I do always love a corset,” he murmured against her shoulder, once more behind her, enjoying the smooth expanse of her back, as she finally shed the garment. “But I think I prefer you without.”
Helen laughed deeply at that, and Nikola rested his head against her spine, feeling the vibrations. She leaned her head back gently rubbing against his hair until he raised his head so he could capture her lips in a tender kiss and pull her backwards onto the bed.
She lay, facing him, one hand fingering his hair, enjoying the thickness, the other dancing along his side, moving lower and lower with each pass. He caught her hand before it came to rest in the place he was most anxious to feel it and raised it to his mouth, softly caressing it with his lips, pulling each digit one by one into his mouth. She moaned quietly, gripping his hair more tightly. He bit gently on her pinky and released her hand, which immediately returned to its dance along his body.
He let his hands move from her hair, one gently cupping a full breast, rubbing gently, the other moving lower, lightly massaging. Helen’s tapping fingers became more erratic as Nikola developed his own rhythm. She felt small beads of sweat forming on her brow and she reciprocated Nikola’s movements by grasping his girth and gently providing her own ministrations, to which he responded with a groan.
Helen felt her nerves buzzing, felt the tell-tale tingle, and stilled Nikola’s hand, moving it back into her masses of hair, and guided him into her, enjoying the shock of fulfillment, the inticmacy of their closeness. She moaned again, then, louder and Nikola kissed her forehead, her nose, her mouth, swallowing her moans as he moved against her.
She came, swiftly, shuddering, moving her hips slowly in circles until Nikola followed her over the edge. Helen lay in silence, and Nikola pulled himself from her slowly, reluctantly. For once, he kept still, letting the moment stay as it was, a bubble of calm that he was unwilling to break. His fingers grasped hers, their hands becoming entwined as they lay, staring at the ceiling in quiet.
- - -
Wilfred was unaware of the passage of time, kept as he was in the dark, unaware of the comings and goings of the outside world. Only the banging of dingy bowls and the pouring of food alerted him to a new day, but he had long since lost count of how many days he had endured. He no longer had even the energy to communicate with his fellow prisoners through the scraping of his fingernail on the cage bars. He felt only the ever-looming presence of an eternity in a cage, with no possibility of freedom.
- - -
May 1st, 1983, was a tense and nerve-wracking day. Nikola spent much of the preceding weeks shouting at anyone who moved, and Helen found it best to keep him preoccupied in the bedroom, rather than to allow him to unleash his wrath on the unsuspecting public. Helen had kept an eye on Sol’s activities, with the help of Nigel’s disappearing skills and James’ particular talents, but they never once caught him doing anything out of the ordinary, and Helen was sure he knew he was being followed. Nikola had not offered much assistance in trailing the erstwhile entertainer, busy as he was with giving light to the entire fairgrounds, and being particularly hard to deal with as he did so, but the day of his triumph arrived, when the public eagerly flooded into the White City of the Columbian Exposition, and oohed and aahed over the miracle of alternating current electricity.
Nikola spent the morning exhibiting the power of electricity, at one point shooting electricity from his fingertips. While the gathered audience watched in awe, Helen found it hard to control her laughter from her post at the back of his exhibit. She caught Nikola’s eye, and he merely smirked and allowed another spark of lightning to fly carelessly from his fingers.
As arranged, an invisible Nigel spent the morning skulking around the Midway, observing Sol Bloom’s carnival. He told Helen of the signs advertising a sideshow the likes of which had never been seen, set to be displayed in two day’s time. “The signs said there’d be some half-human, half-animal creatures - Helen, I think -”
“Yes, it’s very clear what this man is up to.” Helen signaled to Nikola, who ended his demonstration with another flourish of lightning and a flash of neon lights.
“We need to get to the Midway today - the abnormals Sol has caged up must be nearby, if they’re being paraded around in two days. If you need to stay here, I can take James and Nigel with me.” Helen’s tone was loaded with urgency and understanding.
Nikola nodded knowingly, finishing her unspoken thought.“But if it come down to a brawl, and these things usually do, neither of them will be of much use to you. I assume you’re prepared to do battle?”
“I hardly think battle is the right term for this situation, but I have a knife in my garter and a pistol in my corset, if that’s what you mean.” She gestured to each location with a look that told Nikola he never should have doubted her.
“I did always like a woman who was prepared.” Helen only rolled her eyes and headed towards the large Ferris wheel, with Nikola at her heels and Nigel and Griffin not far behind.
When they arrived at the Midway, they saw a large throng gathered around a podium, where Sol Bloom stood, orating to his audience. His hiss was noticeably lessened, no doubt to protect his own abnormality. Helen watched the man, could understand why people listened to him. He was a salesman, and he made his entertainments sound so exciting, so exotic that Helen could almost convince herself that they were things the like of which she’d never seen.
“What a fraud,” James muttered. “How can he stand there, an abnormal himself, and exploit his brethren?” His eyes darted around, noticing the muscled men that were strategically placed nearby, the padlock on a door not far behind Sol’s podium, the way Sol’s forked tongue kept surreptitiously flicking out to wet dry, nervous lips. “He’s anxious. The abnormals must be near, or else he wouldn’t require such tight security.”
Helen watched Sol, and caught his eye. He stuttered in his speech, wrecking the flow of his speech, before picking up his thread once more. “We don’t have any proof yet, James, but I do think you’re right. I want to speak with him again, however. Perhaps he can be reasoned with.”
“Always the optimist.” Nikola glanced around the Midway as though he were merely a casual observer and not planning a rescue mission.
“Only when it comes to things such as this.” She had to be optimistic; Nikola knew this. Allowing her fears to consume her was something Helen never allowed.
Sol finished his spiel and let the crowd disperse before making his way to Helen and her companions. “I would have thought from our conversssation the other day, you might have kept your dissstance.”
“Not likely. We merely wanted to revisit our topic of discussion. There’s been no resurfacing of the missing abnormals. Perhaps you’ve heard something since the last time we spoke.” Nikola’s polite tone didn’t seem to fool Sol, who offered a smirk that rivaled one of Nikola’s.
“I have heard nothing. I do hope you’ll come to my show in a few day’ssss time. I think you will be mosssst…enlightened.” With a tip of his hat, he whisked away, pulling keys from his pocket with which to open the padlocked door. Though Helen craned her neck to see anything of the inside, it was completely dark.
“Nigel,” she said, turning to the man behind her, “that may be a job for you.” He gave a mock bow before vanishing before their eyes. Helen knew that if anyone could get into the locked building, it would Nigel Griffin.
“We’ll come back tomorrow night. He’s too suspicious to leave things unguarded tonight, but perhaps we can offer him a surprise tomorrow that will be enlightening for him.”
“Nigel will be able to get us some sort of intelligence about the building, I’m certain. For now, it seems best that we rejoin the thousands of other fairgoers, before Mr. Bloom sends his goons after us,” James suggested, a hand at Helen’s back to guide her away from the Midway.
- - -
Evening fell and Nigel reappeared with a ring of keys and a bit of information. He told Helen of the cages, of the abnormals locked away from the world, of the jovially-voiced man feeding them sedatives in bowls, like they were dogs, of them being starved so they’d be alert and angry for opening day.
Helen did not rage or seethe. Her resolve formed into a steel rod at her back, her anger just a cold glint in her eye. “Tomorrow, then, we’ll put an end to this,” she said, her voice unwavering, giving no option of failure. That night she lay awake for many hours, her mind racing, the impossibility of the situation seemingly hard to fathom. It was not so much releasing the abnormals from their prison, but what to do with them once they had been freed. Where would they go? Who would distract Sol from his escaping prisoners? Would it work? Morning came too quickly, and it was over a hastily-eaten breakfast that Helen presented the plan to her companions.
Nikola arrived early at the Exposition, using his fame and connections to persuade the guards into detaining Sol at the gates, keeping him from entering the Midway at his usual time. With Sol unexpectedly held up, Nigel was able to slide undetected into the building where the abnormals were being kept. James, meanwhile, had taken the time to set up his own entertainment stand, shouting to passers-by that he could guess their age, weight, or birthday if they gave him just the first letter of their surname. His distraction afforded Nigel a curtain of distraction, through which he snuck abnormals into the gathered crowd.
Helen bought tickets for the Ferris wheel, offering the abnormals a place to sit and recuperate before leaving the grounds, as well as a place to be kept safe from Sol Bloom while she and her friends dealt with him. Nigel led the abnormals to their car, and the wheel began to slowly spin above the fairgrounds. Nikola allowed a spark of electricity to flow from his finger to the Ferris wheel, halting its progress, stalling for the time when the abnormals would have to move quickly away from the Exposition.
When Sol Bloom was finally allowed into the Midway, he was greeted by Helen Magnus, her stance firm, her face grim. “I have very little to say to you, except this: I am in this country now, and I intend to stay here for quite some time, and if you think for one moment that you will be able to pull a stunt like this again, you are sorely mistaken. I suggest you turn your sideshow into a musical revue or some equally banal entertainment and refrain from exploiting your own kind.”
Sol merely sneered, disdain dripping from every syllable as he said, “You will not alwayssss be here to ssstop me. I am jussst one man, but many more are poisssed to take up my mantle. You may have won the battle here, but you are far from winning the war. I’m ssssure we will meet again, Helen Magnussss.”
“Count on it,” she replied resolutely, and staked away from the serpentine man. On her signal, the Ferris wheel began turning once more, and after its two rotations, Helen and her companions escorted the now-disguised abnormals to the train station.
James and Nigel had decided to take the train back to New York, and from there continue back to England. “Too much excitement for me,” James said with a smile. “Trouble does seem to follow you, Helen Magnus.” Bestowing a kiss on her cheek, he added, “Make Nikola behave. And…be happy.”
Nigel’s good-bye had been less sentimental, but bittersweet all the same. “Save James from all your tales of sea-sickness. He has a delicate constitution, as you well know,” she’d said, clasping his hands in hers.
“That’s half the fun, innit?” He gave her a cheeky grin and boarded the train in an elegant leap, tipping his hat to her and vanishing from sight in one fluid movement. Her eyes wet, she waved at the two men, one visible, one not, from the platform as the train drew away from the station.
- - -
Wilfred gazed out the window, the blur of the trees that passed him by, bewildered by the life he felt around him, having been cooped up for so long. He’d forgotten the world had moved around him while he lay dormant in a cold, dark hallway. He was startled to see that things had not remained stagnant, that when he looked in the mirror, he had aged from his trials. Bu when the train shuddered to a halt at a station two hours from Chicago, Wilfred felt suddenly young and alive again, and seized his opportunity. He said his thanks to his rescuers and loped off the train, in search of a new beginning, a new life. He saw a lake, the gently lapping waters calming his over-stimulated senses, and knew that here, if anywhere, he could find peace.
- - -
“You’re a success, by the way,” Helen said, that evening, raising a glass of champagne to Nikola. After everything was done, the adrenaline from the rescue at the fair worn off, the feeling of accomplishment hanging around her shoulders like a mantle, she felt she could finally, fully enjoy his company. “I don’t think Edison’s booth had many visitors at all - you far outshone him.” She smiled, enjoying the feeling of pride that fairly emanated from Nikola, who could hardly contain his smugness.
“That was hardly the point, Helen. I merely wanted to show the world all I had to offer. Well, not all. I still do have to keep an air of mystery about me.” His smile showed the hint of a pointed fang and Helen had to laugh.
“You know this is my last night here,” she said abruptly, changing the subject and the tone of conversation. “I’m leaving tomorrow. Heading west. And north.”
“Searching for gold, perhaps?” he responded, an eyebrow raised in mock disbelief.
“Hardly. I think I’m just finally ready for some peace and quiet. I can’t save people all the time.” She drained her glass and set it on the table delicately, letting her fingers rest on the stem.
“I don’t believe that for a second,” he scoffed. “Before you know it, you’ll have a sanctuary up and running wherever you let your feet fall to rest. You have a bit of a hero complex, my dear Helen, and I wouldn’t have you any other way.” He grinned wickedly, the slight suggestion of fangs belying his double meaning and Helen laughed. It felt good, this desire, from this man.
“I would invite you to come, but I imagine you’ll just be too busy to take off gallivanting on a vacation in these coming days.” She filled her glass once more, enjoying the freedom to drink champagne and not worry about what would happen if she drank too much.
“All this talk of having you and coming is making me rethink any dinner plans we may have had for the evening. Perhaps we’d better retire early tonight.”
Helen laughed again. “Lead on, good sir.” She might not know where she was going next, or what her future held, but with her hand in Nikola’s, their fingers entwined, she was certain of tonight, and for the moment, she was content with that. And so, Helen Magnus, who aged at the pace of a snail, lingered over Nikola’s skin, took her time exploring his mouth, let her body take residence underneath him, and allowed herself the time to enjoy.
“Thank you,” she murmured, much later, when she was sure he was asleep, the early pre-dawn light filtering into the room, muting everything, making it all soft and new. His breath lightly blew the strands of her hair, her cheek pressed to his shoulder. Lying in this half-light, with only a sheet to clothe her, she felt the old Helen Magnus, the woman who should have stayed in England, drift away, and she smiled.
The new Helen Magnus arose from the bed, the steel rod at her back, the glint in her eye, and adventure on her mind. She left without waking Nikola, and boarded the train, speeding away from the sunrise and into the unknown of tomorrow.
FIN
Pairing: Helen Magnus/Nikola Tesla
Rating: M-ish
Word Count: 7800ish words
Author’s Note: Written for scifichick2012 for the Sanctuary Ficathon 2010. I really liked all of your prompts, so it was very hard to choose! I ended up going with your first one, which was:
“Helen/Nikola at some point during Tesla’s life in the US (the more historically accurate the better) Would be awesome to see Edison involved in the abnormal world too, but that’s optional. Extra points for including a rivalry between Katharine Johnson and Helen.”
While, because of the time period in which I chose to write, I couldn’t work in things about Katharine Johnson, I know Helen Magnus would make snide remarks about aging better than she did. I did my best with the historical things - there were some issues that I had to use the internet to answer to the best of my ability, so please forgive (and feel free to correct) any factual errors. And I very much hope you enjoy this, as I enjoyed writing it! (Title from the song “Between Two Lungs”)
“What issss thisss? A man who issss half-walrussss? Issss thisss really the bessst you can do?” The sibilant hiss cut through the silence of the dingy room as a thin twitchy man stood holding a thick length of rope, tied around the neck of a person of stocky build with two tusks protruding from under his upper lip. “What happened to the promisssesss of men who could fit into the sssmallesst of ssspacesss? Or the giant beasts that could become invissssible at will?” A forked tongue slipped between dry lips, wetting them slightly as the man with the serpentine voice folded his hands calculatingly, the paleness of his limbs in stark contrast to the black of his suit. “Put him with the ressst. But I expect more, on your next visssit.”
The thin man ducked his head in a nervous half-nod as he pulled on the rope. The half-walrus docilely followed, his dull, glassy eyes trained on the floor in front of him, but in the brief instant before he was pulled through the door, his eyes met the thin slits of the dark-suited man in a flash of clarity, before he blinked and turned back to the dirty floor. As the door closed behind him, the man in the dark suit let out a low self-satisfied hiss.
- - -
Helen Magnus was a woman who aged at the pace of a snail. Wrinkles and frown lines meant nothing to her. And yet she did not like to linger and she did not like to worry. Her forehead remained free of creases unless she was immersed in some unsolvable mystery, and her thoughts were only on the problems of the abnormal world and far from her personal life. And when she learned of her fiancé’s habit of cornering prostitutes in dark alleys, she looked upon it as an opportunity to study the negative side effects of injecting oneself with vampire blood, rather than as a chance to take a well-deserved vacation far from the streets of London.
But as time passed and she showed no signs of surfacing from her studies, it was a tersely worded letter from Nikola Tesla, admonishing her for plunging headfirst into her dusty and dank tomes rather than into the supportive arms of her university compatriots, that awoke her from her shock-induced scholarly pursuits, and she clutched the letter as she read and reread the post-script: “Come to America, and I’ll prove to you once and for all that John was never good enough for you.”
She knew that Nikola was always bitter about her choice in partner, even more so after she began wearing the ring John had procured for her, with the promise of eternity. “What is eternity when you all you have to show for it is an unstable, volatile teleporter?” he’d asked when she’d told him, hesitantly, of course, of her engagement, not wanting to upset him more than was absolutely necessary. And he’d gotten angry. And he’d moved to America, far away from her and her unstable, volatile love. And now he wanted to offer his new life as an escape for her.
It was with a surprisingly light heart that Helen purchased three boat tickets on the next ship out of London, Nigel Griffin and James Watson at her side. After days on board of a rocking vessel, trying to ignore Nigel’s subtle comments about how he never did have sea legs, and he really needed to excuse himself to the loo, and Watson’s infernal cataloging of every single person on board, Helen was never so glad to set foot in a foreign country, and never so happy to see the wry, smirking face of Nikola Tesla.
But his welcoming face did not last long, his hand clamping around her upper arm tightly as he whispered urgently in her ear, “It was not only because I longed to see your lovely face that I invited you here, Helen, and as I say this, do not react. There’s been a problem with the abnormals.” His voice became a hiss as Helen’s face belied the startling news he’d just murmured in her ear. In a moment, she composed her features and placed a warm kiss on his cheek.
“It’s good to see you, Nikola,” she smiled. “Nigel and James are here too, just coming with the luggage. Why don’t we all go to the hotel, and we can exchange stories there. I’m sure you’re more than anxious to hear about Nigel’s difficulties with ocean travel.” Her hand grasped his tightly for a moment before she turned to wave to her fellow travelers, beckoning them forwards.
- - -
Cages lined the walls of the dark, dank hallway. Nothing rattled the bars, there was no movement, just the occasional sigh, the occasional flickering gaze before everything became deadened and silent. The man with the walrus tusks traced a line in the floor, hazarded a gaze toward the ceiling, wishing for some semblance of natural light to filter in through a crack. A door banged open, echoing loudly in the still space. A beam of light shot through the darkness before the door slammed shut again.
“Feeding time, boys,” a jovial voice boomed, accompanied by the sound of a heavy bag being dragged. Banging down empty bowls, the sound of feed being poured out filled the hall. The noise awoke the abnromals trapped in cages; they began moving towards the bars, stirring and rustling. One by one, bowls were shoved into the enclosures and tied hands reached for the meager portions.
“See you this time tomorrow.” The door clanged shut and with that, only the sounds of eating were left.
- - -
“- and then, after only three hours at sea, I felt queasy and had t-”
“I did not actually invite you into my home to have you share with me the inconveniences of transatlantic sailing, surprising as that may be,” Nikola said blandly, interrupting Nigel’s tale of woe. “No, there are more pressing matters at work here.”
Watson immediately sat at attention, his posture erect and his awareness palpable. “Yes, Nikola, I am eager for you to expand on this. Helen mentioned something as we were unloading our luggage.”
“As you know from my occasional correspondence I have become acquainted with a man by the name of Thomas Edison. We worked well together for some time, before he cheated me out of my rightful salary. But up until that point, he expressed an interest in the abnormal community. You see, Watson, he is like you, only naturally so, not having a store of ancient vampire blood at his disposal. He is acutely aware of the world around him, to an abnormal degree, if you’ll forgive the pun. And so I told him of the Magnuses and their commitment to building a community for those that are different from the rest of society. And he offered his laboratory as an extension of the Sanctuary Network, here in America. After I left his company, we fell out of touch. He was unwilling to compromise on my wages, and I was unwilling to forgive his lies.” Here Nikola paused to delicately take a sip of water.
“For Chrissake, Tesla, spit it out. You never did just say anything straight out, did you?” Nigel exploded, sitting impatiently across the vampire.
“If you don’t have the patience for this, perhaps you should go invisible yourself away and let the grown-ups talk about the important things,” Nikola offered condescendingly. When Nigel failed to move, he nodded congenially. “As I was saying, Edison began to use his laboratory as a sanctuary. Word spread around, and he was able to reach a great number of suffering creatures. But recently, he’s noticed a disappearance of some of those abnormals he had grown accustomed to seeing in their various haunts. Normally he wouldn’t think much of this, but these were the loners, the abnormals who had no family or friends to accompany them, those - ”
“Whose appearance wouldn’t be missed,” Helen whispered, her voice choked. “Someone is kidnapping abnormals? To what end?”
“That is what we have yet to figure out, my dear Magnus. But as soon as I was alerted to the matter, I berated Edison into giving me a list of possible candidates for kidnapping, and it arrived only yesterday. I thought you’d want to investigate further.”
“So much for a vacation,” she murmured ruefully. “I suppose I should meet this Edison fellow.”
“So long as I don’t have to accompany you. It would be less painful to poke my eyes out with a blunt object. I have sworn never to be in that man’s presence again.” Nikola stood haughtily and stalked to his desk to pull a thick envelope from the top drawer. “Here is the list his partner brought over. Another abnormal, with a skill set similar to my own, but not nearly as impressive, of course.” Nikola finished the statement with a small burst of electricity and a smirk. Helen almost sagged with relief - there was the devil-may-care man she had sailed across the ocean to see, and even amidst all this upsetting news, she couldn’t help but wish she had the time to just spend with him.
- - -
The hallway felt dark and clinical, void of emotion and feeling. Only the scraping of a fingernail on a cage bar made any noise in the thick silence. The half-walrus scraped his dingy, long fingernail back and forth, back and forth. Across from him, a woman, with unmistakably snake-like hair, answered with her own scraping, back and forth, back and forth. The vipers that mixed with the strands of her hair lay flat and dormant, with not even the energy to hiss at the man who brought the food.
- - -
Helen carefully unpacked her suitcase, hanging things in the closet, smoothing wrinkles. Two hat boxes were stacked on the floor under her dresses. A set of hairpins sat on the bureau, next to an ornate mirror. She always strived to make anywhere she stayed feel like home, and this was as close as she could get in a New York hotel.
She sat heavily on the bed, feeling the weight of exhaustion and pressure. Opening the envelope, Helen pulled out the contents, sheaves of handwritten pages. There were small drawings accompanying names of missing abnormals, there were lists of suspects with additional information on them, their occupations and known whereabouts. There was a knock at her door and she started, dropping the pages on the bed. “Come in,” she called, quickly stuffing Edison’s notes back into the envelope.
Nikola entered, shutting the door firmly behind him. “Watson and Griffin are insufferable. You should know better than to leave me alone with them.” He sat next to her on the bed and leaned back casually on his elbows, watching her with attentive eyes. She smiled nervously and one hand went to a loose curl, putting it behind her ear.
“You like James well enough, you’ve just never had the patience for Nigel’s chatter.” She felt suddenly nervous, and felt foolish for feeling nerves. She and Nikola had been alone together before, just never when she was so sure of his intent to seduce her. And she wasn’t entirely sure she could say no.
“The invisible man would be the one who can never shut his mouth long enough for anyone to forget his presence.” Nikola’s comment was met with an appreciative chuckle from Helen. “At any rate, I was tiring of his stories of your ocean excursion. Please find an alternative route home, or you’ll never hear the end of his abdominal difficulties.”
“We’ll see about that. Maybe we’ll stay here.” Helen shrugged her shoulders and reached again for the envelope. “Nikola, I know you’re against it, but I think I need to meet with Edison, find out more about this whole situation. This just isn’t enough,” she said, waving Edison’s notes vaguely.
“You’ll have to go to New Jersey, then,” Nikola replied with a shudder. “That’s where Menlo Park is. Better bring Watson or Griffin with you. You’ll want protection from the smell alone.”
- - -
Helen decided to bring both James and Nigel with her to Menlo Park, if only to keep Nikola from maiming Nigel. The outside of the laboratory was unassuming and simple, and Helen had a difficult time imagining a successful sanctuary behind those walls; it looked far too much like a residential home. She rapped on the door sharply, James and Nigel flanking her like intellectual bodyguards. Nikola had asked if Nigel would consent to traveling invisibly and perhaps steal the money Edison owed him, but Helen, smiling indulgently, vetoed that idea.
A slender man in a dark suit answered the door and looked curiously at them. “Yes? May I help you?”
“Mr. Edison? I’m Helen Magnus, a -“
“Friend of Nikola’s, yes. And please, call me Thomas. He spoke so much of you that I feel we are already acquainted. Come in, come in.” He opened the door more widely, allowing them entrance. The three stepped inside, and Helen let out a small gasp at the grandeur of the inside, the smooth wooden floors and the bookshelves lining the hallway.
“This is marvelous, Thomas. What a beautiful place to work.” She turned to face him, finding it hard to hate this man that Nikola had vilified. “So many books.” A wistful sigh escaped her lips as she longed to touch the volumes that filled the shelves.
“I do try to expand my collection whenever possible. Feel free to take a look. After we’ve discussed the reason you’re here, of course.” His eyes darted around, and Helen felt as though she was being dissected, not unlike the feeling that James often evoked when he gazed at her.
“Of course,” Helen confirmed with a smile. “Nikola has said that you offer your laboratory as a sanctuary, but that you have encountered…problems recently?” She looked around, wondering where the abnormals were housed.
“Come and sit down, and we can discuss this in private. By all means, feel free to explore the facility while Helen and I talk, gentlemen,” he said to James and Nigel, who looked surprised that they were not to be included in the conversation. “I prefer to tell Helen only. She may have a more keen grasp of the situation, and then we will not have to bandy about with idle questions of no relevance.”
“I can see why you and Nikola became such great friends initially,” Helen commented wryly, nodding to Nigel and James as she followed Thomas.
“A shame he could not develop his American sense of humor,” he replied. “It is also a shame he could not move past it, as I have. However, he seems to be doing well for himself, with the advent of the Columbian Exposition, yes. He is rather proud of that achievement. I think beating me out for the contract was half the allure of it.”
Helen felt uncomfortable discussing Nikola’s work with his nemesis and was anxious to change the subject. “Tell me about your sanctuary - how does it function?”
“I understand your reticence to talk about your friend with me,” Edison noted with a smile and Helen ruefully thought that it was as pointless to keep anything secret from this man as it was from James Watson. “As it is, we have a small sanctuary here - I doubt it is as large as anything you have worked on. I am hesitant to bring dangerous creatures here, as it may disrupt my work, but I also do not wish to neutralize them, nor leave them to terrorize the general public. I have a contact, a Mr. Sol Bloom, in Chicago, who has a larger facility where he is willing to take care of the more menacing abnormals.”
“And you trust this Mr. Bloom?” Helen was cautious with letting anyone into the world of the sanctuary, especially one that Nikola hadn’t mentioned.
“I do. He has shown me his space, and understands the needs of abnormals - he is one himself, you see. He has snake-like qualities, and exists in this world as an entertainer, which allows him to possess a more atypical appearance without question. At any rate, the abnormals that reside here are generally humanoids, and are simply looking for a safe place to stay. Occasionally they help as assistants in my lab, or work in the yard surrounding the area, cultivating it. They simply want to contribute any way they can, and find that this is one of the few places where they are able to.” Thomas opened the door at the end of the hall to reveal a sitting room, lined, as the hallway was, with bookshelves. These were of a less intellectual nature, and Helen couldn’t help but feel a stab of jealousy at the titles that occupied the shelves, but smirked at the presence of a volume of Sherlock Holmes, wondering what Thomas would say if he knew the inspiration for those stories was currently poking around his laboratory.
She seated herself and looked to Thomas, who was carefully pouring two tumblers of water. He offered one to her, then seated himself across the table. “The time has now come to discuss the recent disappearances of abnormals. There are a few men and women who have occasionally used this laboratory as halfway house, a place to rest. They correspond regularly, allowing me to know their whereabouts, however, all correspondence has stopped. Wilfred Odoberon, for one, would send me a letter every week. A month ago, it stopped completely, without warning. He was traveling, but mentioned in his last letter coming to stay for a few days, but I have not seen him in all this time.”
“What sort of abnormal was he? I mean, did he possess any…valuable characteristics? Psychic or empathic powers, for example?” Helen drummed her fingers on the table, her brain already working to think of any possible explanation for disappearing abnormals, besides the obvious prejudices that many members of the general public possessed.
“He was half-walrus, but a complete gentleman. I don’t know who would wish to harm him. Madeline was another one - she was a Medusa. The last we heard from her, she was heading to the north, looking for a solitary place to live. Perhaps she found it, but it seems unlikely that she wouldn’t have informed me of the fact.”
“And I assume there have been others.” Helen twisted her mouth unhappily. “I do not know enough about America to understand the intricacies of this state of affairs. I think, perhaps, if you could give me the letters Wilfred sent you, and maybe Madeline as well, and I can try to identify any clues.” Thomas nodded. “I think I need to return to New York, discuss this with Nikola. He may have more insight into this situation, and his presence is required in Chicago shortly, as it is, which will give us the opportunity to meet Mr. Bloom and talk with him about this.”
“Your plan is very shrewd, Helen. I commend your forethought. If you like, you may rejoin your friends in the hall, and I will obtain the letters for you.” They both stood, and he once more opened the door for her, gently guiding her back out into the foyer.
- - -
A larger door opened at the end of the dark hallway, and stayed open, allowing the light from the outdoors in to temporarily blind the caged inhabitants. Eyes closed in the face of the intrusion, faces shied away.
“Load ‘em up,” the familiarly jovial voice boomed and a group of strong-armed men filtered into the hallway and began removing the stones from the wheels of the cages and rolling the creaky prisons towards the doors. Wilfred used one webbed hand to guard his face from the onslaught of sun and noise that the outside world afforded. He spared a look behind him to see similarly positioned abnormals. But even the influx of sunlight could not enliven the deadened senses of people imprisoned for so long.
- - -
Helen, Nikola, James and Nigel boarded the train, Helen looking back just once at the busy streets of New York City. It wasn’t that she felt attached to the city, but she felt curious. There was a wealth of knowledge in those streets, she was sure of it. Nikola gently gave her elbow a squeeze, pulling her from lofty thoughts to the firm floor of the train.
The whistle sounded, shrill and sharp, as they found their seats, and shut the door to their compartment. Helen watched the blurring sights, her head propped on her hand. She felt Nikola’s fingers trace patterns on her arm, occasionally falling lower, to her leg, and her mouth turned in a smile. She turned from the window to look at him.
“Yes, dear?” he asked, his voice dripping with saccharine sarcasm. She only smiled more widely and reached out to touch his cheek lightly.
“Thank you,” she said simply, never having been one for effusiveness. She meant to say thank you for bringing her on this journey, for giving her a mystery to solve, for showing her affection in a way that didn’t terrify her, for sitting next to her, for all the little things he did, whether on purpose or by accident. He cocked his head, unsure of her intent, and she merely offered another small smile and turned back to the window, her hand dropping from his face to his hand, her thumb now tracing small circles on his palm.
If Nigel or James noticed anything strange about their behavior (and it was almost certain that James did), they did not comment, leaving the two of them to their ways while James began an enthusiastic discussion of the inner workings of a steam engine. Nigel didn’t quiet manage to keep the boredom from his face, leaving James to trail off and join Helen in her inspection of the scenery whipping past the train.
Once they arrived in Chicago, a portly man stood at the platform waiting for them, waving wildly at the sight of Nikola.
“He’s got a mustache to rival yours,” Helen muttered out of the corner of her mouth with a mischievous smirk.
“Yes, well, he’s clearly compensating for something,” Nikola replied with a light smack to her ribs. She laughed, her arm hooked in his, and felt almost carefree, for the first time in years.
“George Westinghouse, at your service, ma’am, gentlemen,” the mustachioed man said, tipping his hat to them. “Tesla, good to see you again.” He had a jovial, booming voice that set them at ease. He and Nikola shook hands firmly and Helen could see the affection the two men held for each other.
They dropped their luggage at the hotel, then followed George to the location of the World’s Fair while George expounded the virtues of the Columbian Exposition and the erecting of the White City. Helen listened with half an ear, taking in the sights around her. Construction was going on all around them, and above it all was a towering wheel, with what looked like tram cars hanging from the spokes. Nikola followed her gaze and smiled. “We’ll have a look at it once George has shown me how our alternating current system is faring in the construction process.”
While Helen considered herself inquisitive and intelligent, she didn’t find much interest in the intricacies of wiring and alternating current power. She did, however, overhear much self-congratulatory crowing over besting Thomas Edison in the bid for wiring the Exposition with electricity, despite Edison’s best efforts to impede them. When Nikola was finally up to speed on the goings on, he returned to Helen, who had been wandering around the grounds nearby, admiring the architecture of the fabled White City.
“I’ve asked George about the giant wheel. Says it was designed by a man named Ferris, and that it’s part of some sort of carnival at the Midway Plaisance. Coincidentally enough, that’s where a man by the name of Sol Bloom has been working on some sort of sideshow.” He raised an eyebrow significantly, and Helen took his meaning at once. She looped his arm through his as they set off for the giant Ferris wheel to meet the snake-like Sol Bloom.
- - -
When Helen heard the word “sideshow,” she was immediately on her guard. Her father had shared many a story of rescuing an abnormal from the clutches of some money-hungry lout who had imprisoned the strange looking creatures in order to obtain profit. Usually these abnormals were caged, and horribly mistreated, offered nothing in return for being paraded around as freaks and entertainment.
“If this man is exploiting abnormals, does this implicate Edison?” Helen wondered, whispering softly to Nikola.
“I highly doubt it. The man may have cheated me out of a good amount of money, but he’s no crook. He’s a reasonable sort, underneath all of his miserly tendencies and oddities.” Helen took Nikola at his word, and said nothing more of Thomas Edison.
Before long, they had reached the midway, and saw a tall man in a dark suit ordering around a crew of heavily muscled men, who were pushing wheeled carts covered in cloths to hide the contents from the outside world. “Not over there, you imbesssile. Can’t you sssee? I told you, to the left more!” The man shook his head in mock despair. “Idiotssss, the lot of you.”
Without hesitation, Nikola strode up to the man and held out his hand. “Nikola Tesla. My acquaintance, Thomas Edison, told me I might meet with you here.” Helen had to admire the way Nikola let on nothing about their suspicions or worries, only coincidence and fortunate happenstance bringing two people together. “I’m in town as I’m -”
“Exhibiting your electrical prowesssss, yessss, Edisssson mentioned ssssomething about you. Called you a mad sssscientissst. Jealousss man, wouldn’t you ssssay?” Nikola only smirked, but Helen felt shivers crawl up her spine at the hiss that enveloped every s from the man’s mouth. “Sssol Bloom, at your ssservice. What can I do for you?”
“Thomas mentioned something about disappearing abnormals. We thought you might know something,” Helen said, coming forward to stand next to Nikola. “I’m Helen Magnus.”
“Helen Magnussss.” Sol Bloom repeated, with a glint in his eye, and she felt the shivers once more, sure he knew who she was and why she was here. She shifted slightly and felt Nikola’s hand, a warning, at her elbow. “I’m not ssssure what Edisssson led you to believe. I know very little about abnormalssss.”
“He led us to believe nothing, only that you take care of the, shall we say, more dangerous abnormals? We just wanted to speak to someone else in America with ties to the Sanctuary Network.” Nikola’s grasp on her elbow tightened slightly.
“I’m ssssorry to sssay, I don’t know much. I haven’t had a visit from any abnormalssss in ssssome time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work. It wasss nice to meet both you. Good day.” He tipped his hat congenially, but his eyes still held a steely glint that spoke of enmity.
“He is quite snake-like. He slithered out of our questioning quite adroitly.” Helen shuddered involuntarily. “Let’s find James and Nigel and go back to the hotel. I’ve had enough of meeting people today, I think.”
- - -
The four travelers ate a leisurely meal in the hotel dining room, lingering over glasses of wine and decadent desserts. Nikola eyed Helen over his glass, waggling his eyebrows in such a ridiculous manner that Helen couldn’t help but laugh, once more grateful for this man who was so able to set her at ease in a time when she felt so unstable. This man who had kept her so occupied since her arrival in America that she hadn’t had the time to think about what she was leaving behind.
And so, looking to the future, Helen let Nikola lead her to his hotel room, let him open the door for her, and let him close it behind them and lock it. She took a breath and let him take control.
Helen closed her eyes at the feel of Nikola’s hands gently unbuttoning her dress, his long fingers loosening the laces on her corset, her body expanding at the freedom she felt. He gently nuzzled her neck, eliciting a small laugh from her; as a vampire, he did always have a proclivity for that particular body part. She turned in his arms, loosening the cravat from his shirt and allowing her fingers to drift towards his pants.
“You’re awfully forward,” he smirked, his hands joining hers, helping her free him from his clothing. She only smiled, enjoying the tactile sensations, the gentle thrum of excitement in the pit of her stomach, and the obvious craving that Nikola felt for her.
Helen was no prude, but when it came to sex, John Druitt had been the only man to usher her into the ways of carnal pleasure. The feeling of Nikola’s hands on her naked skin, leaving the imprints of his fingertips as he explored the new terrain of her flesh, left her breathless and thrilled. It felt dangerous and new, and like she was learning all over again.
She couldn’t help but make comparisons between her lovers: John was tall and smooth, and felt illicit and dangerous; Nikola was closer to her in height, and while his affections were clearly evident, she felt safer with him than she ever had with John. When his arms encircled her, she felt comfortable in a way she hadn’t since her first time with John, before he changed.
Helen, normally a paragon of neatness and order, left her dress in a crumpled mess on the floor, Nikola’s suit a mere memory as it lay hidden under the voluminous skirts and sleeves. “I do always love a corset,” he murmured against her shoulder, once more behind her, enjoying the smooth expanse of her back, as she finally shed the garment. “But I think I prefer you without.”
Helen laughed deeply at that, and Nikola rested his head against her spine, feeling the vibrations. She leaned her head back gently rubbing against his hair until he raised his head so he could capture her lips in a tender kiss and pull her backwards onto the bed.
She lay, facing him, one hand fingering his hair, enjoying the thickness, the other dancing along his side, moving lower and lower with each pass. He caught her hand before it came to rest in the place he was most anxious to feel it and raised it to his mouth, softly caressing it with his lips, pulling each digit one by one into his mouth. She moaned quietly, gripping his hair more tightly. He bit gently on her pinky and released her hand, which immediately returned to its dance along his body.
He let his hands move from her hair, one gently cupping a full breast, rubbing gently, the other moving lower, lightly massaging. Helen’s tapping fingers became more erratic as Nikola developed his own rhythm. She felt small beads of sweat forming on her brow and she reciprocated Nikola’s movements by grasping his girth and gently providing her own ministrations, to which he responded with a groan.
Helen felt her nerves buzzing, felt the tell-tale tingle, and stilled Nikola’s hand, moving it back into her masses of hair, and guided him into her, enjoying the shock of fulfillment, the inticmacy of their closeness. She moaned again, then, louder and Nikola kissed her forehead, her nose, her mouth, swallowing her moans as he moved against her.
She came, swiftly, shuddering, moving her hips slowly in circles until Nikola followed her over the edge. Helen lay in silence, and Nikola pulled himself from her slowly, reluctantly. For once, he kept still, letting the moment stay as it was, a bubble of calm that he was unwilling to break. His fingers grasped hers, their hands becoming entwined as they lay, staring at the ceiling in quiet.
- - -
Wilfred was unaware of the passage of time, kept as he was in the dark, unaware of the comings and goings of the outside world. Only the banging of dingy bowls and the pouring of food alerted him to a new day, but he had long since lost count of how many days he had endured. He no longer had even the energy to communicate with his fellow prisoners through the scraping of his fingernail on the cage bars. He felt only the ever-looming presence of an eternity in a cage, with no possibility of freedom.
- - -
May 1st, 1983, was a tense and nerve-wracking day. Nikola spent much of the preceding weeks shouting at anyone who moved, and Helen found it best to keep him preoccupied in the bedroom, rather than to allow him to unleash his wrath on the unsuspecting public. Helen had kept an eye on Sol’s activities, with the help of Nigel’s disappearing skills and James’ particular talents, but they never once caught him doing anything out of the ordinary, and Helen was sure he knew he was being followed. Nikola had not offered much assistance in trailing the erstwhile entertainer, busy as he was with giving light to the entire fairgrounds, and being particularly hard to deal with as he did so, but the day of his triumph arrived, when the public eagerly flooded into the White City of the Columbian Exposition, and oohed and aahed over the miracle of alternating current electricity.
Nikola spent the morning exhibiting the power of electricity, at one point shooting electricity from his fingertips. While the gathered audience watched in awe, Helen found it hard to control her laughter from her post at the back of his exhibit. She caught Nikola’s eye, and he merely smirked and allowed another spark of lightning to fly carelessly from his fingers.
As arranged, an invisible Nigel spent the morning skulking around the Midway, observing Sol Bloom’s carnival. He told Helen of the signs advertising a sideshow the likes of which had never been seen, set to be displayed in two day’s time. “The signs said there’d be some half-human, half-animal creatures - Helen, I think -”
“Yes, it’s very clear what this man is up to.” Helen signaled to Nikola, who ended his demonstration with another flourish of lightning and a flash of neon lights.
“We need to get to the Midway today - the abnormals Sol has caged up must be nearby, if they’re being paraded around in two days. If you need to stay here, I can take James and Nigel with me.” Helen’s tone was loaded with urgency and understanding.
Nikola nodded knowingly, finishing her unspoken thought.“But if it come down to a brawl, and these things usually do, neither of them will be of much use to you. I assume you’re prepared to do battle?”
“I hardly think battle is the right term for this situation, but I have a knife in my garter and a pistol in my corset, if that’s what you mean.” She gestured to each location with a look that told Nikola he never should have doubted her.
“I did always like a woman who was prepared.” Helen only rolled her eyes and headed towards the large Ferris wheel, with Nikola at her heels and Nigel and Griffin not far behind.
When they arrived at the Midway, they saw a large throng gathered around a podium, where Sol Bloom stood, orating to his audience. His hiss was noticeably lessened, no doubt to protect his own abnormality. Helen watched the man, could understand why people listened to him. He was a salesman, and he made his entertainments sound so exciting, so exotic that Helen could almost convince herself that they were things the like of which she’d never seen.
“What a fraud,” James muttered. “How can he stand there, an abnormal himself, and exploit his brethren?” His eyes darted around, noticing the muscled men that were strategically placed nearby, the padlock on a door not far behind Sol’s podium, the way Sol’s forked tongue kept surreptitiously flicking out to wet dry, nervous lips. “He’s anxious. The abnormals must be near, or else he wouldn’t require such tight security.”
Helen watched Sol, and caught his eye. He stuttered in his speech, wrecking the flow of his speech, before picking up his thread once more. “We don’t have any proof yet, James, but I do think you’re right. I want to speak with him again, however. Perhaps he can be reasoned with.”
“Always the optimist.” Nikola glanced around the Midway as though he were merely a casual observer and not planning a rescue mission.
“Only when it comes to things such as this.” She had to be optimistic; Nikola knew this. Allowing her fears to consume her was something Helen never allowed.
Sol finished his spiel and let the crowd disperse before making his way to Helen and her companions. “I would have thought from our conversssation the other day, you might have kept your dissstance.”
“Not likely. We merely wanted to revisit our topic of discussion. There’s been no resurfacing of the missing abnormals. Perhaps you’ve heard something since the last time we spoke.” Nikola’s polite tone didn’t seem to fool Sol, who offered a smirk that rivaled one of Nikola’s.
“I have heard nothing. I do hope you’ll come to my show in a few day’ssss time. I think you will be mosssst…enlightened.” With a tip of his hat, he whisked away, pulling keys from his pocket with which to open the padlocked door. Though Helen craned her neck to see anything of the inside, it was completely dark.
“Nigel,” she said, turning to the man behind her, “that may be a job for you.” He gave a mock bow before vanishing before their eyes. Helen knew that if anyone could get into the locked building, it would Nigel Griffin.
“We’ll come back tomorrow night. He’s too suspicious to leave things unguarded tonight, but perhaps we can offer him a surprise tomorrow that will be enlightening for him.”
“Nigel will be able to get us some sort of intelligence about the building, I’m certain. For now, it seems best that we rejoin the thousands of other fairgoers, before Mr. Bloom sends his goons after us,” James suggested, a hand at Helen’s back to guide her away from the Midway.
- - -
Evening fell and Nigel reappeared with a ring of keys and a bit of information. He told Helen of the cages, of the abnormals locked away from the world, of the jovially-voiced man feeding them sedatives in bowls, like they were dogs, of them being starved so they’d be alert and angry for opening day.
Helen did not rage or seethe. Her resolve formed into a steel rod at her back, her anger just a cold glint in her eye. “Tomorrow, then, we’ll put an end to this,” she said, her voice unwavering, giving no option of failure. That night she lay awake for many hours, her mind racing, the impossibility of the situation seemingly hard to fathom. It was not so much releasing the abnormals from their prison, but what to do with them once they had been freed. Where would they go? Who would distract Sol from his escaping prisoners? Would it work? Morning came too quickly, and it was over a hastily-eaten breakfast that Helen presented the plan to her companions.
Nikola arrived early at the Exposition, using his fame and connections to persuade the guards into detaining Sol at the gates, keeping him from entering the Midway at his usual time. With Sol unexpectedly held up, Nigel was able to slide undetected into the building where the abnormals were being kept. James, meanwhile, had taken the time to set up his own entertainment stand, shouting to passers-by that he could guess their age, weight, or birthday if they gave him just the first letter of their surname. His distraction afforded Nigel a curtain of distraction, through which he snuck abnormals into the gathered crowd.
Helen bought tickets for the Ferris wheel, offering the abnormals a place to sit and recuperate before leaving the grounds, as well as a place to be kept safe from Sol Bloom while she and her friends dealt with him. Nigel led the abnormals to their car, and the wheel began to slowly spin above the fairgrounds. Nikola allowed a spark of electricity to flow from his finger to the Ferris wheel, halting its progress, stalling for the time when the abnormals would have to move quickly away from the Exposition.
When Sol Bloom was finally allowed into the Midway, he was greeted by Helen Magnus, her stance firm, her face grim. “I have very little to say to you, except this: I am in this country now, and I intend to stay here for quite some time, and if you think for one moment that you will be able to pull a stunt like this again, you are sorely mistaken. I suggest you turn your sideshow into a musical revue or some equally banal entertainment and refrain from exploiting your own kind.”
Sol merely sneered, disdain dripping from every syllable as he said, “You will not alwayssss be here to ssstop me. I am jussst one man, but many more are poisssed to take up my mantle. You may have won the battle here, but you are far from winning the war. I’m ssssure we will meet again, Helen Magnussss.”
“Count on it,” she replied resolutely, and staked away from the serpentine man. On her signal, the Ferris wheel began turning once more, and after its two rotations, Helen and her companions escorted the now-disguised abnormals to the train station.
James and Nigel had decided to take the train back to New York, and from there continue back to England. “Too much excitement for me,” James said with a smile. “Trouble does seem to follow you, Helen Magnus.” Bestowing a kiss on her cheek, he added, “Make Nikola behave. And…be happy.”
Nigel’s good-bye had been less sentimental, but bittersweet all the same. “Save James from all your tales of sea-sickness. He has a delicate constitution, as you well know,” she’d said, clasping his hands in hers.
“That’s half the fun, innit?” He gave her a cheeky grin and boarded the train in an elegant leap, tipping his hat to her and vanishing from sight in one fluid movement. Her eyes wet, she waved at the two men, one visible, one not, from the platform as the train drew away from the station.
- - -
Wilfred gazed out the window, the blur of the trees that passed him by, bewildered by the life he felt around him, having been cooped up for so long. He’d forgotten the world had moved around him while he lay dormant in a cold, dark hallway. He was startled to see that things had not remained stagnant, that when he looked in the mirror, he had aged from his trials. Bu when the train shuddered to a halt at a station two hours from Chicago, Wilfred felt suddenly young and alive again, and seized his opportunity. He said his thanks to his rescuers and loped off the train, in search of a new beginning, a new life. He saw a lake, the gently lapping waters calming his over-stimulated senses, and knew that here, if anywhere, he could find peace.
- - -
“You’re a success, by the way,” Helen said, that evening, raising a glass of champagne to Nikola. After everything was done, the adrenaline from the rescue at the fair worn off, the feeling of accomplishment hanging around her shoulders like a mantle, she felt she could finally, fully enjoy his company. “I don’t think Edison’s booth had many visitors at all - you far outshone him.” She smiled, enjoying the feeling of pride that fairly emanated from Nikola, who could hardly contain his smugness.
“That was hardly the point, Helen. I merely wanted to show the world all I had to offer. Well, not all. I still do have to keep an air of mystery about me.” His smile showed the hint of a pointed fang and Helen had to laugh.
“You know this is my last night here,” she said abruptly, changing the subject and the tone of conversation. “I’m leaving tomorrow. Heading west. And north.”
“Searching for gold, perhaps?” he responded, an eyebrow raised in mock disbelief.
“Hardly. I think I’m just finally ready for some peace and quiet. I can’t save people all the time.” She drained her glass and set it on the table delicately, letting her fingers rest on the stem.
“I don’t believe that for a second,” he scoffed. “Before you know it, you’ll have a sanctuary up and running wherever you let your feet fall to rest. You have a bit of a hero complex, my dear Helen, and I wouldn’t have you any other way.” He grinned wickedly, the slight suggestion of fangs belying his double meaning and Helen laughed. It felt good, this desire, from this man.
“I would invite you to come, but I imagine you’ll just be too busy to take off gallivanting on a vacation in these coming days.” She filled her glass once more, enjoying the freedom to drink champagne and not worry about what would happen if she drank too much.
“All this talk of having you and coming is making me rethink any dinner plans we may have had for the evening. Perhaps we’d better retire early tonight.”
Helen laughed again. “Lead on, good sir.” She might not know where she was going next, or what her future held, but with her hand in Nikola’s, their fingers entwined, she was certain of tonight, and for the moment, she was content with that. And so, Helen Magnus, who aged at the pace of a snail, lingered over Nikola’s skin, took her time exploring his mouth, let her body take residence underneath him, and allowed herself the time to enjoy.
“Thank you,” she murmured, much later, when she was sure he was asleep, the early pre-dawn light filtering into the room, muting everything, making it all soft and new. His breath lightly blew the strands of her hair, her cheek pressed to his shoulder. Lying in this half-light, with only a sheet to clothe her, she felt the old Helen Magnus, the woman who should have stayed in England, drift away, and she smiled.
The new Helen Magnus arose from the bed, the steel rod at her back, the glint in her eye, and adventure on her mind. She left without waking Nikola, and boarded the train, speeding away from the sunrise and into the unknown of tomorrow.
FIN