Months earlier, Aaron Nightingale had also discovered this. Aaron, man of learning, man of order, calculating being who planned for years, who exerted such masterful control on others, and on how those others saw him – Aaron did not like being humbled. He did not like losing. He must have been furious. He rotated Aristotle’s bust, for he could no longer face the Greek philosopher. Aristotle had been wrong all along. Wrong beyond imagining. Oh, the trick played upon him! For Ovee was a clever creature. More so than the Greek philosopher could have guessed.
For hours, Maurice stared through the glass, holding Ovee’s gaze, never averting his eyes. And in that time, which felt to Maurice like he had been reborn, the life drifted out of Ovee.
There was a flurry of sounds from above. Then excited murmurs reached the chamber through the opened cellar door. Rapid footsteps began their frantic descent. Animated voices, those belonging to Madeleine, Alfred and Gerard, filled the staircase. Then at last, a blinding light was shone into the underground, laying bare all its terrible secrets.
Chapter 15
Aaron’s Plan
August 1848
“πάντα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει” – Ἡράκλειτος
“Everything flows, and nothing abides.” – Heraclitus
WITH his back facing the Power cage, Aaron could sense its vindictive gaze behind him, the lidless eyes drilling into him.
Shortly after Calista’s death, he had lost all desire to carry out further experiments. Even if she still lived, it would have been too dangerous – what with Ovee having shown yet more signs of aggression. He was resigned to the idea of abandoning the quest he had embarked on for so many years. He had no choice but to end it all.
He had prepared a poison. Enough to kill an animal the size of Ovee. The vial he’d filled weeks ago lay on the corner of his work table, taunting him daily. And though it occasionally caught his eye, he had not yet decided on the date. For to administer poison spelt failure, and it wounded Aaron to end it so abruptly.
So instead of reaching for the poison, he would spend idle hours in the underground, sitting silently at the large table, revisiting the journey of many years as recorded through his journals. At intervals he would pine for a substance to dull his mind, and he’d reach for a little glass vial which he’d filled with laudanum and whiskey, ever since she had died.
That loyal bottle was sensibly within reach and when he sipped at it, it brought a delicious foggy mist not devoid of pleasure. It always calmed him, even though it stirred another kind of monster. For Ovee seemed to know exactly when he had descended into his drugged state, and then it would watch him avidly, sensing that Aaron might be vulnerable.
No one else was with him in the cellar that afternoon, yet Aaron spoke out loud, irritated by the eyes that were forever watching him. He spoke to Ovee and by some profound mystery of nature, the creature seemed to understand all he had to say. As it often did, Ovee had left the Power cage and now it sat there, turned to a virulent reddish tone, and eyed Aaron from its sinister vantage point.
How it had grown. Ovee was now fully adult, not the tiny being found and packed by Greek divers and who’d eaten its siblings during the journey to England, surviving against all odds. Aaron knew it could rise and leap at him if it wished and he’d be no match for its strength and shapeshifting body. He’d had his fair share of surprises in the past when he’d cut off one of Ovee’s limbs only to see it regrow. But that was in the early days before the rage had settled in. Now the threat was real. There was enough hate in it to murder the entire house if it wished. It would want to start with Aaron, no doubt. If that were the case, then Aaron would only have to reach into his top drawer and find the revolver and while he might be under the effect of laudanum, he would surely not miss.
Those were the thoughts coursing in Aaron’s mind daily. But after two hours of seething tension between them, Aaron could no longer stand it. His voice rose in the underground chamber.
“You do not know the half of it, so don’t judge me,” he barked. “I’ve seen your kind before. You think I’ll let you live? That I’ll not deal with you the way I did the others?”
He turned his head, slowly, to confront the creature behind him. Beside the Power Cage, Ovee was resplendent. It looked almost regal, while the rageful colour on its body only gave it a more threatening appearance. In contrast, Aaron’s haggard chin lay buried in an unkempt grey beard that had reached his chest since his wife’s passing. Deep furrows lined his eyes and forehead, laying bare the twisted preoccupations of a lifetime.
“Years of planning, and it has come to this,” he muttered. “Don’t you look at me!” he thundered at the creature. Undeterred, the black and blue eyes followed his every move; attentive, predatory...knowing.
Aaron flinched. He grew attuned to a burning ache in his insides and as he stood to face Ovee, the pain intensified. He gripped the back of his chair and took a deep breath, passing a hand over his stomach.
“Damn.”
He reached for the familiar vial of laudanum and gulped the last of it, determined to drown whatever ailed him. Ovee still watched. It was almost fascinating to observe this creature’s will. Aaron was amused, but as he emptied the small bottle, he was instantly aware of an uncanny movement in Ovee.
