Wainwrights and Wrongs: Chapter 5

Wainwrights and Wrongs

Chapter 5

Susan did her best to put the encounter with Vladislaus out of her mind as she tackled her workload for the day.  Blair had finished her egg hunting and was happily playing with her blocks in her room, and there was a report that she needed to finish and submit for approval by the end of the week.  It provided a much-needed distraction for a while at least.

“Mommy, when Flower Bunny come?”

Susan looked up from the computer and saw an eager Blair awaiting an answer.  “I don’t know, sweetie.  He runs on his own schedule and doesn’t tell me.  Hopefully soon.”  Even if she did have work to do, a knock on the door from a giant magical rabbit sounded a lot better than one from a creepy vampire.  Though if Vladislaus actually was one, there would not be any knocks from him at this hour, she supposed. 

“Oh.”  Blair pouted a bit.  “I go outside and watch?”

“No, that’s not a good idea.  It’s raining, see?”  She pointed to the window.  She was glad in a way.  She would not get much work done out there watching her when she had to finish what she was doing on the computer.  “Maybe he’ll come after lunch.”

“Okay.”  It was obvious Blair was disappointed, but she took it well enough, and toddled back to her room.

She must have found something to entertain herself, because Susan did not hear from her again for a while.  In fact, she got on a roll and finished her report earlier than expected and submitted it to her boss feeling quite accomplished.  “Phew!  Glad that’s off my to-do list.” 

It was raining even harder now, so humoring Blair by letting her play outside while waiting for the Flower Bunny was out of the question.  She decided to go and check on her to see what she was up to.

She found her rummaging through her toy box, and unfortunately, a horrific mess on the floor where she had attempted to use the training potty herself.  That was a good thing, but she had apparently been poorly positioned and missed with a massive overflow, which was not so great.

“Oh, Blair.”  Susan tried not to let on just how annoyed she was since Blair had tried.  She was mostly potty trained, but occasional accidents still happened, and she did not want to discourage further progress.  “You know if you’re having trouble on the potty, you should come get me.”

Her face rumpled.  “I’m sorry.”

“All right.  Just please remember next time,” Susan said with a sigh as she started cleaning, while Blair started crying. 

“Is the Flower Bunny still coming?  I didn’t mean to be bad!”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Susan reassured her.  “I’m sure he’ll still come.  Accidents happen.  Just try to remember to ask if you need help.”

“Okay,” Blair said through her sniffles.

Once the mess was clean, Susan realized that it was about half an hour past Blair’s usual nap time, and that combined with the crash from the extra sugar she had that morning probably explained her both her poorer than usual coordination and sensitive mood.  She got her changed and took her to bed, although Blair was not happy about it.

“But I don’t want to miss the Flower Bunny!”

“I promise I’ll wake you up if he comes.”

“Promise?”  She emphasized it hard.

“I promise.  Now let’s read a story and get some sleep.”

Blair snuggled under the covers, and Susan barely got to the third page of the book before Blair conked out.

Now that the house was quiet again, Susan realized how tired she was, which in turn reminded her of her creepy midnight visitor.  That made it hard to think about tackling a new assignment just yet, so after she double-checked her work messages to make sure no new urgent tasks had come through, she took a break from that to do some internet sleuthing on her unwanted admirer.

It seemed that he was not embellishing about being from some prominent family in Forgotten Hollow.  Vladislaus Straud, or rather, Count Vladislaus Straud IV as his profile read, was indeed his real name from what she could tell from available public records.  A satellite search of an address that came up showed a mansion in Forgotten Hollow, a rather spooky looking one surrounded by a graveyard. 

“This guy just keeps getting creepier.”  Susan wondered if those graves were his family members or his victims.  She hoped that a mass murderer could not be living right out in the open under everyone’s noses like that, but one never knew.  Vladislaus did not appear to be married or have any children, and there were no public records under that name with a birth date anywhere near 25, or even 30 years older than that.  The closest she found were a few publicly shared genealogy database records for Count Vladislaus Straud II, his grandfather, she supposed.  There was one picture of that Vladislaus from back in the day, and he bore a remarkable resemblance to his grandson.

There was also a Simpedia entry on Forgotten Hollow that mentioned the town’s chief founder was Vladislaus Straud the first, and a picture of the statue in the town’s park commemorating him.  He looked a lot like the Vladislaus she was dealing with, too.  “Ugh.  Just how inbred is this family?  No wonder they’re so weird.”

Then an unsettling thought occurred to her.  What if Vladislaus really was a vampire, and this Straud “family” was an nothing more than elaborate alias for the same individual?  He had money, and money could buy a lot of identity fudging, especially if vampiric persuasion powers were a thing.

She swallowed back a sick feeling.  No, if he had vampiric persuasion powers, surely he would have used them on her last night to get in the house or bite her or lure her away or something, right?  Or he would have attacked her then and there outside when he had her alone?  Unless he gets his jollies trying to befriend his victims first, or something. 

Regardless of whether he was a vampire, serial killer, or just a run of the mill weirdo, she knew one thing for certain.  She wanted nothing to do with him and she hoped he never showed his creepy face anywhere near her ever again.

At the lab, Boyd did not get a chance to flex his internet muscles finding out what he could about Vladislaus until later in the day.  It was a busy morning, and there were multiple projects ongoing.  One was an important analysis that he was assigned to complete. 

“You’re a little quiet today, Boyd,” his co-worker Eleanor remarked.  “You all right over there?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.  Just got a few things on my mind.”

“One of those days, huh?”

“Pretty much.”  He sighed and stirred his test tube.  “You ever run into one of those people that just doesn’t seem quite… right?”

“Work here long enough, kid, and you’ll run into all types.  But what kind of not-quite-right are you talking, specifically?  Alien?  Mermaid?  Mage?”

He paused, not wanting to give out too much information about it.  One never knew who might know someone else or be spying.  “Just someone I ran into at the gas station,” he lied.  “They had a real weird sense about them.  Something off.  At first my mind thought ‘vampire,’ but then I thought maybe I’ve just been watching too many horror movies lately.”

“Never met a vampire myself,” Eleanor replied.  “Was it near Forgotten Hollow?  People say that a bunch of them live there.  And I’ve heard they’re more common in cities because of the night clubs and other night life.  A while back, I remember someone asked our paranormal team to check out the historic Windenburg area for them, too, but I don’t know if they found anything or not.  Jaron might.  He logs a lot of that stuff.  Was it after dark when you saw them?  Though I’ve heard there are some powerful enough to move around during the day.  Not many, but a few.  The elder types, supposedly.”

That gave Boyd some food for thought until his analysis was done.  Afterward, his boss asked him and another co-worker, Kalamainu’u, to test the prototype freeze ray Boyd had been working on.  Kalamainu’u volunteered to be the test subject for some bonus pay, but when the time came to go through with it, she was nervous.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have signed that waiver for long-term liability.”

“Remember, our preliminary studies all showed it should be safe.”  That was a relative term around the lab, meaning they were confident it would not do a subject fatal or lasting harm, but guaranteed little beyond that.

“Yeah, but that was preliminary.”  She cast it a wary eye, but resigned herself.  “Darn my insatiably curious nature.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

She took a deep breath and braced herself.  “Okay, Boyd.  Arctic blast me.”

“One… two… three!  For science!”  Boyd pulled the trigger, and a pulsing icy beam shot forth from the device, immobilizing Kalamainu’u instantly and coating her in ice.

He guided the beam so that it evenly covered most of her body, but he was careful not to cover her face.  Although its cryostasis feature was not supposed to damage cellular tissue, in the event that their calculations were at all off, he did not want to risk her asphyxiating under excess ice.  Once she was well-coated, he observed his handiwork and began taking notes.

“Wow!  Can you hear me?”  He thought he heard a squeak.  “Sounds like a yes,” he said as he noted it down and began making measurements.  “I’m guessing you can’t move.  If you can, do it.  Oh, and if you can’t breathe, squeak again.  I’ll bust your head out.”

Kalamainu’u did not make a noise, but Boyd could swear by the look in her eyes she wanted him to hurry up and do it anyway.  “Okay, good.  Able to breathe, but not really talk.  I’ll start breaking you out once I’m done with the measurements.  Then we can go over the after-effects.”

Although uncomfortable, which she emphasized afterward, those turned out to be relatively harmless as far as any kind of injury or damage.  She was “cold as plum,” as she succinctly put it, and felt a chill down to the very bone, but she could move as well as anyone who had been out in very cold weather.  Slow, but able to, and she recovered quickly as she warmed up.  There was no frostbite or anything else.  All in all, the data indicated the freeze ray was an effective means of stopping someone dead in their tracks without doing them any real harm. 

Like maybe a creepy possibly-vampire weirdo stalking my wife, Boyd thought as his gaze fell on the prototype while finishing up his notes.  Vampires might be immortal, but it sure would be hard to bite under a thick coat of ice that made it impossible to move.  Technically, icing the llama might be considered assault, but only if a case could not be made for self-defense.  And he was pretty sure that if Vladislaus ever had the nerve to try something, and ended up iced for his trouble, Jonathan could hook them up with some top-notch defense lawyers.  Whatever sibling squabbles he and Susan had, he loved his sister and Boyd knew that he would agree that anyone threatening her deserved what came to them.

While Kalamainu’u got the rest of the day off with pay as part of her compensation for her willingness to be a test subject, Boyd was struck with inspiration as to how he might legitimately borrow that freeze ray for a while.  He caught up with his boss, Shigeru Nishidake, at an opportune moment.  “Hey, I had a thought about the freeze ray I wanted to run by you.”

“Sure.”

“Today’s test was successful, and we got some good data, but I was thinking that I’d like to field test it in some more mundane settings.  I know we’ve run some outdoors here outside of the climate-controlled environment, but I had some ideas about other targets and areas we don’t have ready access to here at the lab.  What do you think?  Over in Brindleton Bay, I’m right on the shore.  I’m curious how it might react with sea water and all its natural organic micro-components compared to the saline vats we tested here, especially in the different ambient humidity of the area.  I could also see how it reacts on some of the native flora and shellfish or if it works submerged.”

“Hmm.  That data would be useful to compare against our projections.”  He paused.  “You angling to work from home for a day or two, or are you asking to sign it out and do it after hours for comp time?”

“Either works.  Whichever is more convenient.  Or less paperwork.”

He chuckled.  “You know how much I hate that.  If I didn’t know better, I’d wonder if you were buttering me up.”

“Nah.  I’m just enthused to play around with my new toy,” he joked, patting it.  “So, it’s a go?”

“All right.  I’ll approve that.  You worked on every stage of the design and assembly on that prototype, so if it breaks, you’d be the one called to fix it, anyway.  Go ahead.”

“Great!  Thanks!”

“You’re welcome.  Just make sure you fill out all the appropriate forms and bring it back in good shape and with enough notes that this sign-out won’t get me chewed out by management.  Oh, and for the love of plumbobs, don’t lose or irreparably damage it.”

“Oh, no.  Of course not!  I’ll take excellent care of it,” he assured him with a confident smile.

“Good.  Oh, and Boyd?”

“Yeah?”

“No lawsuits.”  He waved his finger.  “There are two departments I would just as soon never interact with.  Legal and accounting.  Anything you do that brings them pounding down my office door would be very bad for your performance review.”

“Understood.”

“All right, then.  Have fun and keep me up to date on what you find.”

Boyd was excited at the prospect of taking his freeze ray home.  Not only because it could put a nice freeze on Vladislaus if he came creeping around his house again, although that was a big part of it, but he was legitimately curious how it would work in other environments.  He would be cautious, of course, considering he hated the thought of a lawsuit and the government poking around in his business even more than his boss did.  Nice as the fantasy of icing Vladislaus was, it would take something rather dire and cut and dried to push him into actually using it on anyone outside of a consenting experiment.  Boyd was no goody-goody sim scout, but he was not mean-spirited, either.  He did not want to hurt anyone, even a llama like Vladislaus.  Unless he came after Susan, Blair, or him personally, he would never ice him, and even that would just be to send the message to get lost. 

It did leave him pondering, however, if it turned out Vladislaus was a vampire, and he was to hypothetically get frozen for being a creepy trespasser, how the ray would work on that unique physiology.  He had no doubt it would immobilize him, but would he have unforeseen powers in breaking out of it?  Vampires allegedly had a bat form, and bats had unique abilities with sound waves.  Did bats that were actually vampires have those abilities as well?  Of course, odds were that Vladislaus wasn’t a vampire, he reassured himself. 

Real vampires were clannish and kept to themselves, and there were enough vampire wanna-be types and idolizers out there who would voluntarily give themselves over to be turned or snacked on by one out of excitement or fetish that a real one would not have to try hard to find a meal or companion.  He certainly would not need to stalk married women on the internet with an almost laughable profile lying about his age and who blocked him and told him in person that she was not interested.  And if he was that much of a creepy loser, he probably would have bitten Susan when he had the chance last night.  So he probably was just a mortal creep instead of an immortal one.

Still, it never hurt to research just in case.  Boyd sat down on the lab’s research archive to see what they had on vampires, just out of curiosity.  If anyone asked, he would just say he was compiling data for the off chance he met some occult willing to participate in his field test.  His paperwork offered him the authority to present an offer of a payment to a qualifying subject that the lab would fund, after all.

He learned a fair bit of information about vampires, including an interesting tidbit that there was apparently a potion that allowed vampires to temporarily move around in the daylight.  That was unsettling, as now it could not rule out Vladislaus being a vampire if they happened to see him hanging around before dark.  Hopefully it would all be moot anyway, and he would just leave Susan alone now, like she seemed to think he would.  But his instincts told him not to be that optimistic.

After that, Boyd returned to his own desk and did a little internet stalking on Vladislaus Straud IV himself between tinkering with work documents.  There was only so much he could reasonably do at work, given the rules and knowing that IT had the potential to monitor everything that happened on a work computer, but he knew enough about how that all worked to stay under the radar and just do a bit of sleuthing.  He found much of the same information that Susan did, although he read a little more of the history of Forgotten Hollow than she had. 

Eleanor’s earlier remark that it was a town that attracted vampires seemed accurate, and what he learned about it did little to reassure him that it was impossible for Vladislaus to be a vampire.  If anything, it whetted his curiosity about the odd town.  He wondered if he should go there and check it out himself, but at the same time, he did not think Susan should go anywhere near it.  Vladislaus would certainly take her turning up in his neighborhood as encouragement, and that was the last thing either of them wanted.

He was going to search another link when he got a call from reception.

It was Jaron, the receptionist, asking if he could help him with his computer that was acting up.  Although they had an IT department, Jaron and Boyd were work friends and often had lunch together.  Jaron knew that Boyd had a way with computers and if he was not busy, it would be a lot faster than putting in a call to IT.

“Ah, it’s that stupid update they pushed through yesterday,” Boyd groused as he tinkered with the finicky spreadsheet that was giving Jaron random save errors.  “In the interests of making it more secure, it also changed a bunch of the default settings and screwed up a bunch of stuff on some machines.  An easy fix that they should’ve foreseen but were too lazy to bother with.  I had to fix mine, too.”  A few clicks and a minute later, it was done.  “There.  It should work now.”

“Thanks, man.  I appreciate it.  Those guys in IT take forever to get back to you.”

“No problem.”

“As a token of my appreciation, I’ll give you a little tip to go stop by the greenhouse.  The boss wouldn’t let me make a major announcement because they didn’t want lab staff stampeding in there to go chat with him, but the Flower Bunny showed up here a little while ago to check out our greenery.  I’ve checked in all types, but he’s a new one.  I wonder what inspired him to turn up here this year.  According to the visitor logs, it’s the first time in like a decade.”

“Whoa, seriously?  I thought he only came to children’s areas and homes.  I’ve heard of him in schools, but not science labs.”

“He must like those rare specimens from the seeds that allegedly came from Sixam.”

“We haven’t even verified that for certain yet.”  Boyd chortled.  “Wonder if he can do it for us, expert that he is.”

When Boyd got to the lab’s greenhouse, he found the Flower Bunny alone in there among the specimens.  “Wow!  You really are here!  I wasn’t sure that Jaron wasn’t pranking me,” he greeted the mythical incarnation of spring in amazement.  “It’s cool and unexpected to see you here.”

“Hello, Boyd.”  The Flower Bunny somehow knew everyone’s name, much like Father Winter.  Nobody knew how, exactly, it was just one of those magical and unexplained supernatural phenomena that happened in their world.  “It’s nice to see you again.  My floral friends in here seem well cared for.”  He paused.  “They like you, too.  The ones who were here then remember when you had a project in here a few months ago.”

“Oh, yeah, the fertilizer study.  We got great results with that.  Thanks.”  He gave him a curious look.  “I figured if I saw you this year, it’d be when you visited Blair.  She’s been very eager to see you.”

“Little Blair is so delightful.  Such a pure and kind heart.”  He handed Boyd a daisy.  “One just like I gave her, the flower of innocence.”

“Ah, so you saw her already.”

“This afternoon.  She was napping, but Susan woke her up to see me.  It was a great joy to see her face light up when I said hello to her.  Susan seemed like she could use some cheering up herself, so I gave her a chrysanthemum before I left.”

“It’s a shame I missed that, but I’m glad they got to see you.  Susan had a rough night.”

“Yes.  The dark eye she caught,” the Flower Bunny mused on a wistful note.  “It troubles you, too.  Here.”  He handed Boyd a snapdragon.  “Enjoy the beauty of spring and try not to fall prey to the dark.  Embrace the light and warmth of spring.”

“Thank you.”  He eyed the snapdragon.  “It’s a very nice specimen.”

“Perhaps I will see their seeds in your garden the next time I visit.  You have a lovely new home.  Flowers would brighten it even more.”

“Susan and I don’t really have time to maintain much of a garden, but we’ll think about doing it when we can.”

The Flower Bunny nodded and took a step toward the door.  “Have a delightful spring and year, Boyd.  Sorry to hop along so soon, but some of your co-workers can really use some spring cheer and flowers in those rooms with no windows.  Goodbye!”

“Bye!”  He waved as he left, cheered up by his visit and filled with renewed vigor and zest and like he could take on anything.  He glanced at the clock.  He had to check on a few more experiments before the workday was over, but after that, he could spend what was left of the holiday with Susan and Blair.