[Begin Transcript]

[Dr. Luminita Stoica, wearing an N95 mask and labcoat, taps her foot in the corner of the room. Dr. Harold Geisbert is examining the readout on the computer in the other corner.]

[Julie Miyashita, a receptionist at DIC, enters the room, carrying a clipboard]

Dr. Stoica: [Flatly] …Er, hello. Is something wrong?

Julie: Nothing at all! The nurses were all just busy.

Dr. Stoica: I see. Well then, the clipboard, please.

Julie: Of course!

[Julie hands Dr. Stoica the clipboard]

[Dr. Stoica reads from the clipboard, flipping through pages. She fixes on one of them for a moment.]

Dr. Stoica: [Muttering] Katie… Handler…

Julia: Yes, she's here for her followup!

[Dr. Stoica looks at Dr. Geisbert. Dr. Geisbert looks at Dr. Stoica, avoiding her eyes.]

Dr. Stoica: Well then, you’d better let her in and get back to your desk. I wouldn’t want to keep you.

Julie: R-right. Of course.

[Julie leaves the room]

[Dr. Stoica sniffs at the air, and after a moment, scowls. She pulls a small remote from her pocket and gestures at Dr. Geisbert to leave.]

[The door opens again. Someone else steps in.]

Dr. Stoica: [Strained] Ah, yes, hello, ‘Ms. Handler’.

[Dr. Geisbert leaves the room, closing the door behind him. Only Dr. Stoica remains to face the skinny woman with long black hair and a short black dress who has just entered.]

Evelyn: And hello to you as well, Mistress Stoica.

[Dr. Stoica presses a button on the remote and tucks it away]

[The Dickerson Imaging Center’s Silent Response System is triggered]

[Dr. Stoica sighs]

Dr. Stoica: Right to it, then? I had imagined you’d keep up this ridiculous charade at least a bit longer.

Evelyn: Ah, but the charade is by no means ridiculous. It is precisely what this sort of pathetic human affair warrants. Tell me, what greater effort had you expected?

Dr. Stoica: Perhaps you could have attempted to pass as ‘your’ Katie next Wednesday, when her followup is actually scheduled? Or indeed, not attempted this trick in a study involving vampires. Even if you hadn’t obviously hypnotized our receptionist, I can tell there is no blood inside you.

[Evelyn giggles]

Evelyn: So barbed, Mistress Stoica… and yet, it would seem we are here, alone, and free to coordinate. An unmitigated success.

Dr. Stoica: [Growling] Indeed, it would be… If that were a proposition which filled me with anything but disgust.

Evelyn: Oh, Mistress Stoica, please. There is no need to put on such a show for cameras which cannot even—

Dr. Stoica: Wonderful, more of this. And here I had hoped that repeating myself in person might yet get through to you.

Evelyn: You have come through just fine, my fellow defiler. I only wish you would cease this needless caution.

Dr. Stoica: Ah, yes, of course. And what is it that has ‘come through’, exactly? Evidently it is not the content of any single word of anything I’ve said, so I suppose I have yet to learn.

[Evelyn draws closer to Dr. Stoica]

Evelyn: Oh, my dear, don’t make me say it…

[Dr. Stoica gets in Evelyn’s face]

Dr. Stoica: I’ll make you act as I like. Tell me.

[Evelyn smirks, then spins and walks away from Dr. Stoica]

Evelyn: It’s truly a clever trick you’ve concocted here. Even my thrall was fooled, even I was fooled— until I had her read your last few ‘blogs’ for me, that is. Now, Mistress Stoica, your trickery is as clear to me as the night sky. Invoking the myth of the everlasting thrall as a cover for your vampiric infiltration of Academia all those decades ago, using your influence to form studies which contribute to your dark cause, falsifying the results such that you may spread disinformation and discourage the bothersome invocation of the Christ… It is a beautiful package of deception and debauchery.

[Dr. Stoica takes a few breaths]

Evelyn: I know, my capacity for deduction is one of my many qualities.

Dr. Stoica: You… You…

[Dr. Stoica bursts into laughter, baring her fangs]

[Evelyn joins her with more reserved laughter]

Evelyn: Oh? To see you in such humor… What was it, exactly? Something about my deductions?

Dr. Stoica: Ha… They’re not deductions.

Evelyn: Don’t be ridiculous! As I said, my capacity for deduction is one of my many qualities.

Dr. Stoica: You just said that.

Evelyn: As I said!

Dr. Stoica: And as my old research predicts. Pathetic.

Evelyn: Pathetic? My dear, you’re overselling this. If only you would be honest, this would be much easier.

Dr. Stoica: [Growling] Honest…

Evelyn: Yes, I—

[Dr. Stoica grabs Evelyn]

Evelyn: Ah!

Dr. Stoica: You incorrigible little—

Evelyn: Get off—

[Dr. Stoica forces Evelyn against the nearest wall]

[Evelyn grunts]

Dr. Stoica: [Growling] Such a dullness to your eyes… Is this truly all that remains? After 500 years of sycophancy, have you simply forgotten that it is even possible for anything to not be as you imagine?

Evelyn: [Strained] It is no forgetfulness! A G-goddess does not err, especially not one who seeks only to spread—

Dr. Stoica: Indeed. And when was the last time you verified your ‘deductions’ with anyone besides a thrall?

Evelyn: I fail to see the relevance of—

Dr. Stoica: Of course.

[Dr. Stoica pulls back, shoving Evelyn away from her. Evelyn whips around to face her.]

Evelyn: …Strong. Impressive.

Dr. Stoica: I was turned recently, and I refuse to wallow in atrophy. Foreign to you, I’m sure.

[Evelyn scoffs]

Evelyn: I understand such notions, Mistress Stoica, but I do not see your point. Besides, this pretense that you are a fledgling is—

Dr. Stoica: I was turned recently. There is still garlic hanging in my old office, and all throughout the paranormal studies wing at my university, along with silvered doors and the like. It is only due to that new pandemic that I was so easily able to continue my human research in my own home. Infiltrating as a vampire some fifty years ago is such a ridiculous premise as to be entirely laughable. Only someone as deluded as you, or as some of my commenters, could even begin to believe it.

Evelyn: I…

[Evelyn groans]

Evelyn: Very well, Mistress Stoica. I’ll presume that absurdity for a moment… And yet, still, I fail to see your point. I am hardly deluded. If anyone would be deluded, it would be you.

Dr. Stoica: Ah, yes, this pathetic reversal. And what, exactly, would I be deluded about?

Evelyn: To enlighten our natural prey…or, perhaps, to fail in your incomplete efforts…it is a delusional mission. And then, what is this? You truly sit here all day, moderating, tempering, weakening yourself? All in their service?

Dr. Stoica: Yes. But it is the opposite of delusion. It is the first complete attempt at truth-seeking our kind has ever seen.

Evelyn: Such a thing is futile. Our kind is best misunderstood.

Dr. Stoica: And yet, I will stop at nothing to understand it. A dying wish, I suppose.

Evelyn: Hm…

[Evelyn’s face scrunches slightly]

Dr. Stoica: Hm?

Evelyn: Oh, it’s nothing. Just a curious choice of words…

Dr. Stoica: A dying wish?

Evelyn: Yes… I suppose it’s something I had, once.

Dr. Stoica: Evidently still resonant enough to shake you out of the blood-and-debauchery routine for a moment.

[Evelyn giggles]

Evelyn: Absurd claims aside… I can barely recall. I must have feared hurting someone, or perhaps I already had. I was still wracked by that pestilent human emotion of guilt, after all, fledgling that I was.

Dr. Stoica: Something difficult to think about?

Evelyn: Nothing is difficult for me. I simply prefer to banish such tedium from my mind.

Dr. Stoica: …Of course. Well then, to what ‘tedium’ do you refer?

Evelyn: Oh, I suppose it must have been that impulse of those days to hide from the world. To look fearfully upon the debauched sluts I left in my wake, and to seek some more righteous regard with which to carry myself. I did not keep thralls, ridiculous as the concept may seem now… I did not keep anyone.

[Evelyn groans]

Evelyn: Oh, but what point is there in this memory? It was but a preamble to my understanding of the truth, of my role as a natural predator and an agent of Satan. In the face of that, a dying wish is better left dead.

Dr. Stoica: I…

Evelyn: Hm?

Dr. Stoica: [Strained] Then your wish was disingenuous.

Evelyn: That would seem to be the case.

Dr. Stoica: You were not committed. Deep down, you wanted to change yourself to fit some debauched persona, but you needed an excuse. You were simply waiting until you found one. I am not the same.

Evelyn: I never claimed you were.

Dr. Stoica: I… I am not.

Evelyn: So you say. I am still waiting for you to drop the pretense, Mistress Stoica.

Dr. Stoica: The… pretense…?

Evelyn: Yes, this imagining is tedious. You have already done such wonderful work to infiltrate this establishment over the years, so I am being quite patient, but my patience has limits. Let us connive, now.

Dr. Stoica: Connive…

[Dr. Stoica laughs grimly, glaring at Evelyn. After a moment, she pulls out her remote again.]

Dr. Stoica: The silent alarm has been active for several minutes, Evelyn. By now, contingencies are in place, and the building is empty. Even you can smell that.

Evelyn: Of course… and we will pick off those pathetic humans in short time, just as soon as you stop holding back.

Dr. Stoica: Holding back…?

Evelyn: Yes, yes, it is time! You must be so weary after so many days of this, but it is over now. Let us do what we were meant to do!

Dr. Stoica: I… I am not your ally.

Evelyn: Don't be ridiculous. Of course you are. Mistress Russel-Gray was.

[5 seconds of silence]

Dr. Stoica: You… you…

[Dr. Stoica grabs a silver knife from the counter in the room. The handle is not silvered.]

Dr. Stoica: [Growling] I told you what would happen…

Evelyn: Yes, of course, though not so much in your words… That knife is hardly necessary for maiming them, you know. Perhaps—

[Dr. Stoica tackles Evelyn to the ground, brandishing the knife]

Evelyn: AAH!

Dr. Stoica: I told you! I told you so many times!

Evelyn: [Strained] T-This performance is going a bit overboard, don’t—

Dr. Stoica: And even still, you don’t listen. What of value would I remove from this world?

[Evelyn starts squirming under Dr. Stoica’s weight]

Evelyn: You… Get off of me!

[Dr. Stoica growls and starts tearing up]

Dr. Stoica: You're right! It's time!

Evelyn: Y-you couldn’t! This is a trick… O-or, you would be too gentle-hearted! Too weak!

Dr. Stoica: [Growling] You are the weakest I have ever known.

Evelyn: [Growling] Such foolishness! I offer my help and you regard me with this… this horrible viciousness!

[Dr. Stoica giggles]

Dr. Stoica: You do not understand the viciousness I’ve endured.

[Dr. Stoica grips the knife tighter]

Dr. Stoica: You are of no value to me or anyone else.

[Dr. Stoica looks into Evelyn’s eyes]

Dr. Stoica: And you never… never…

[8 seconds pass]

[Dr. Stoica growls and throws the knife. It goes flying across the room.]

Dr. Stoica: No. No, perhaps you can be of some use to me.

[Dr. Stoica rips off her mask. It goes flying as well.]

Evelyn: I… I…

Dr. Stoica: Hold still. 

[Dr. Stoica grabs Evelyn’s shoulders and bites into her neck]

Evelyn: AH! No, I…

[Evelyn pushes ineffectually against Dr. Stoica]

Evelyn: Why does…

[Evelyn’s movements weaken]

Evelyn: D-disgusting— Ah, ah, AH…

[Evelyn puts a hand on Dr. Stoica’s shoulder, gripping tightly]

[10 further seconds pass]

[Dr. Stoica pulls away, choking quietly]

Dr. Stoica: Ah… Fascinating.

Evelyn: M-my… Ichor is—

Dr. Stoica: Disgusting, yes. But there’s a technique to swallowing it, and I’ve started to acquire the taste… as much as anyone can, anyway.

Evelyn: H-how is—

Dr. Stoica: I was the one who tasted your Katie, you know. So bright, so vivid, but so suppressed, as if something masks her.

Evelyn: I would not use their names so recklessl— AH!

[Dr. Stoica runs a finger over the rapidly healing bite mark, pulling out a bit of remaining miasma and then tasting it]

Dr. Stoica: Mm… Indeed, there is the mask. So now I have a bit more data. Very helpful, Evelyn.

[Dr. Stoica stands up]

Dr. Stoica: Now, leave. Before I make good on my promise.

Evelyn: Y-y-y…

[Evelyn stands up and glares at Dr. Stoica, brushing herself off]

Evelyn: V-very well, Mistress Stoica. May we meet again some day, hopefully in more corrupted circumstances.

[Evelyn leaves the room]

[Dr. Stoica sighs]

Dr. Stoica: …May such a day never come.

[End Transcript]