Part VI:
24 December 1974
He's held Schnelppvort here for months. Henry promised to him that he'd let him free, but I didn't expect him to remain among the living through that first night. That was of course before Henry found out who he was. He was indeed the blood of Albert Schnelppvort, a random mortal Henry had killed only to find out was very important to the Mummy Kharis. Henry couldn't fully understand why but he knew enough to keep the second Schnelppvort around.
Christmas Eve. I had forgotten such a holiday existed. Awakening in this body is strange. Sometimes it feels like a memory I lost long ago. Having Otto around reminds me more of mortal life. He told us about a dream he had once. I have never dreamed or I don't believe I have. He described his dream as like a thought he couldn't control while he slept. Frankensteins do not dream, but I think it is like a memory. Christmas with Otto was like a memory of something long ago though I know I have never had one.
Otto was a good sport, I guess. He was never comfortable our prisoner, but he could find fun in his terrible circumstances. He told us this was time for family. Henry always said we were all family together but everyone had attachments to particular people. I personally was attached to Elizabeth who I held near the electric lamps. We forbade Otto to make fire tho he insisted. If he were to master it he could surely intimidate us all into escaping. Henry never had a true bride like I was with Elizabeth. As sorrowful as I could be, she put up with me. I knew Elsa liked him, I mean, she was attracted to the power, she was the kind of girl who really played into his scheming. He shunned her though. He almost preferred to be in the dark alone.
Christmas morning Henry drilled Otto. He already knew his family was important but was through catering to the prisoner's wishes for a nice holiday. He locked Otto in the Cellar with him and myself and tried to find out everything he could.
"Did you know I knew your grandfather, Otto?" He began slowly.
"I know my grandfather used to live in Bran. That he hunted your kind," said Otto.
"Where do you live now? Where has your family been hiding?"
"I won't tell you that."
"We will learn now or later. Keep in mind that we have eternity here. Is this really the place you'd like to die? Not tomorrow, not next month but decades from now? Tell us where you've been hiding."
"Listen pal, my grandpa died while on a hunt of you guys when my dad was a kid. He has never told me more than that. I'm not trusting you assholes."
"Are you aware that your grandfather also hunted Mummies?"
"What is it with you and Mummies? This is bullshit, what the hell does that have to do with anything?"
"More than you could know," I chimed in.
"Quiet, Victor!" Henry screamed and slapped Otto. "Lest you forget we ask the questions!"
"Calm down, Henry," I set his hand down. He glared at me, I turned to him: "I know what you're getting at, let me help."
"Since when are you a help? Go wail at the wind and coddle your whore."
"I will get what you want from him. If not I'll leave and you can continue your way." Henry turned his back on me and paced in the corner. "Otto-" He looked up at me.
"What's up, chief? You're not going to suddenly let me out, are you?"
"I must decline your command. You have never met a Mummy, have you?"
"No."
"There is a Mummy by the name of Kharis who has on numerous interactions with us taken greater and greater interest in your family's name. We want to know where you lived so we can stop him in case he ever made it there and tried to hurt your family."
"I don't have a family. Wife divorced. Daughter is...no longer here. My father's the only one left, he's stuck in a retirement home, barely breathing. Whatever your Mummy wants is not with them, it's me. So give it to me straight. What'd he do with my grandpa?"
I looked at Henry who paused to stare at Otto, then myself. "Kharis murdered your grandfather, Otto."
"Right," He looked down with a kind of swarthy anger. "So you're saying we have the same enemy. You got a plan?"
"We find out where you live, that's where they want to be, we can get them on that turf and rid the world of their evil forever. Until that moment, it is in our best interest to keep you alive."
"As a bargaining chip only," Henry said.
"Smelterville," said Otto. "Smelterville, Idaho. Small town in the Northwest U.S. Let's jump the bastards there." Henry left. I followed him up to his room. Elsa was waiting there.
"Rrraagghh..." she said.
"Shut up, Elsa," said Henry. He began pursing through some documents and old books. "Victor, we have some research to do." He was slugging around like a man possessed. "I want to find out everything about Mummies. We are making a trip to Egypt as soon as we are able."
07 November 1975
We made it down to Kharis' tomb in Egypt after extensive research, probing many ancient local libraries under cover of darkness. Henry rarely slept that year, staying up late reading all he could about the Egyptian Undead. He even managed to acquire this wooden Ankh that he would often fondle while reading these ancient manuscripts. He wouldn't let anyone near him. He even missed the ceremony we made up for Elizabeth and I's wedding in July.
Keeping Otto in the care of Hans and Margaret, it turned that we need not find the tomb to find Kharis. His guards found us and brought us to him before we arrived close. He had built his forces up since last we saw him, there were maybe a dozen of them huddled around the Sarcophaguses.
"I would curse you, but you are already dead, Frankenstein," mocked Kharis. "Now, it is time to send you to your oblivion." Kharis approached as the walls shuddered.
"Schnelppvort!" Henry said calmly. Kharis froze. "OTTO Schnelppvort. You ever hear of him?"
"How do you know that name?" said Kharis.
"He lies in my Castle as we speak." Kharis glared. "Alive. For the moment if all goes well today."
"What do you want for him?"
"You've been following Tut around my lands - get the hell out."
"That will no longer be a problem. Deliver Schnelppvort."
"Done. I will tell you where he will be. Smelterville, Idaho. In America."
"When he will be? When will he be there?" Kharis did not enjoy playing around. Henry clearly did. All of Kharis' immortal power meant nothing now. Perhaps, I think, that Henry finally saw himself in an advantageous position in this war.
"That depends on how fast you and your little brigade here can make it there. I'll give you Schnelppvort, I have no attachment to the mortal, but you're not getting off the Earth without a fight from us."
"What do you know of leaving this World? You do not know the Curses of the Old Religion!"
"That's your problem, Kharis, you never think anyone else knows as much as you do! A Mummy's curse is unbreakable is it not? Bound to both the Cursed and Cursor? You have not fulfilled your duty."
"We do not move fast but we have our means, Frankenstein. You will know when we arrive in your Idaho."
"How?"
"You will know when you know. Now I grow weary of your sight. Be gone of this place." With that Kharis blew us away in a sandstorm and the tomb shut behind us.
"What a miserable place," said Henry.
"Are we keeping Otto until that moment comes?" I asked him. "It could be years. Why not let him go now?"
"I am not letting those Mummies get the jump on him without us being prepared. No, we shall mount the assault on Idaho, not be taken with our pants down."
25 December 1978
Otto has escaped. He lured us into a sense of complacency during Christmas. Henry will never let us celebrate again. While Otto is now fending for himself among our woods and wolves, Henry is furious, worried that he die before his true nature is revealed to us.
A month ago we suffered a swarm of locusts. The insects travel fast. They spelled a message on our wall, the Mummy Prem had reached Smelterville and the rest were gathering. Over the next years as they all made their journeys, Henry's final fight would commence. His plan was to protect Otto, now it is out of our hands but he won't accept that. Schnelppvort will be on his own fighting back to his home.
I wish I had a God to pray to, but there is no God I have yet found in Lowcountry.
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