Season 2, Episode 11
Patron of the Outcast
Content Warnings:
-Past intention of infanticide
[Christine’s car, evening]
HENRY
...Wanna tell us where we’re going?
CHRISTINE
[Dark. She clearly has a bad feeling about this]
We’re almost there.
HENRY
Ah yes. That definitely answers my question. Thank you.
CHRISTINE
Look, just trust me, okay?
VICTOR
You know we trust you, we just want to know what we’re getting into.
CHRISTINE
...I still haven’t been able to find anything on Vordenberg. But I did manage to track down someone else who moved back into town recently.
HENRY
Who?
VICTOR
...No. Stop the car.
CHRISTINE
Do you want answers or not?
VICTOR
Yes, but I’m not exactly keen on the idea of getting them from the vampire that tried to kill my mom!
CHRISTINE
Victor, I hate to break it to you, but the way things are looking, I’ve got a pretty good feeling that a lot of vampires tried killing your mom.
VICTOR
Thatdoesnotmakethissituationanymorecomfortingthankyou.
HENRY
So what, we’re just supposed to knock on his door and start interrogating him?
CHRISTINE
Basically, yeah.
VICTOR
Christine, love you to death, but this is a terrible idea, and you can say I’m just being paranoid--
CHRISTINE
You’re just being paranoid.
VICTOR
--But you do realize that he could kill us, right?
CHRISTINE
He could try. Anyway, [She shifts the car into park] We’re here. So are you guys coming, or am I going by myself?
[Before they can answer, she gets out and closes the car door]
HENRY
Christine, wait!
[He follows behind her]
VICTOR
Guys-- Hello?? Are we-- [He groans] I never want to hear either of you say I make rash decisions again!
[Victor finally exits the car, and the three approach the house’s doorstep]
HENRY
How do we even know he’s home?
CHRISTINE
He’s home.
VICTOR
Ominous.
[One of them knocks on the door, and within a second, it opens]
RUTHVEN
Hello, can I help y--
[He cuts himself off, then drops a bit of the pleasant facade]
Ah, I’d recognize that face anywhere. You’re Caroline’s boy, aren’t you?
VICTOR
I--
RUTHVEN
Well, come in, you three. We don’t have all night. And I’m sure you have a few burning questions.
CHRISTINE
C’mon.
VICTOR
[Half whispering]
Hold on, are-- We’re actually doing this? Is no one else getting wicked bad vibes with all this?
HENRY
I’ve been getting bad vibes pretty much constantly around you lately, dude.
VICTOR
You know what I mean.
HENRY
Look at me. Obviously this whole thing is sketchy as hell. But she’s right, we’re running out of options. Everything will be fine, okay?
VICTOR
No, everything will not be fine if he murders us! We have no plan! And as the king of doing stuff without a plan, I know that it generally doesn’t end well! And I have recently decided that I do not wanna die in this town, and I sure as heck don’t like the idea of my gravestone saying, “Here lies Victor Frankenstein, he died being a gullible idiot”!
CHRISTINE
Guys. Come on.
VICTOR
Fine. Fine, but when this all goes down the toilet, I am never shutting up about it.
HENRY
[Half under his breath]
Now that I believe.
VICTOR
Shut up, Clerval.
RUTHVEN
Apologies for the state of things, I wasn’t expecting guests. Have a seat, won’t you?
[Everyone sits. The tension in the air is thick]
So. Who wants to start? Victor? Christine? ...Whomever you are? [Henry scoffs] I’m an open book.
VICTOR
You knew my mother.
RUTHVEN
Not very well, but yes. She stabbed me once. Quite uncalled for, if you ask me. But you’re not here to know about me, are you?
HENRY
How do you know Laura Ianthe?
RUTHVEN
There we are, getting to the good part. I met Laura not long after I arrived in Marksbury for the first time. Quite by chance, mind you. Funny how things work out like that, don’t you think? Would I be correct in assuming that you three know what I am?
CHRISTINE
[Venomous]
Yes.
RUTHVEN
Excellent. Then I imagine I don’t need to explain to you what I was doing out that night. It was 1993. Mid February, that's always a difficult time for folks like me. Seasonal depression and the cold keep people inside, hard to find someone wandering the streets alone. I was frustrated, near starving, and I'd misplaced my favorite coat the night before, I think that's why I didn't notice her at first.
RUTHVEN (Cont.)
She looked tired. Cold. Frightened. A simple target. I was quite nearly about to strike when she spoke. "You're a vampire." Not a question. Somehow, she knew. And as I looked at her, as I felt her, I understood.
RUTHVEN (Cont.)
You see, years prior, Laura had met someone-- A young woman who had appeared to be her age-- Only for her to be murdered a short time later. But not before giving Laura a fascinating gift.
CHRISTINE
Who was the woman?
RUTHVEN
"Who" is a difficult question, isn't it? When you've been around as long as she has, I imagine you start to lose a sense of real identity.
CHRISTINE
Cool. Now answer the question.
RUTHVEN
She's gone by many names in her time. But Laura knew her as Carmilla. And last I heard, that one's stuck.
HENRY
And Carmilla was another vampire.
RUTHVEN
Close, but not quite. Carmilla was not anything. She is something very similar to us, though. I still remember the first time I saw her. April of 1919, moonlight illuminating her form as she sat upon a horse dark as the night itself, looking like something from myth. Which, in a way, I suppose she is. She was the first, you see. The root of our entire species, though not completely one of us herself. But… we'll get back to that.
RUTHVEN (Cont.)
Carmilla and I had visited one another while she was in Tulprice, and slowly the stories she'd told began to come back to me.
She'd fed off of Laura several times, and the two had become… [He clears his throat] very close. I won't pretend to completely understand her abilities, but somehow, this had caused Laura to be able to sense us. And for us to sense her. She explained to me what had happened to Carmilla, and asked if I would help her. What could I do, I asked her. What did she want from me? Just one thing, she explained. Vengeance. And behind those big, sweet young eyes, I saw what she surely had been holding back all her life. The fire, the lust for power.
RUTHVEN (Cont.)
But, of course, no favor comes without a trade-off. I wasn't about to face off against Caroline Beaufort without some sort of payment. I happen to prefer my head attached to my body, thank you very much.
As I'm sure you're all aware, there is one significant downfall that my kind faces: We are physically unable to enter a home without being verbally invited to do so. But, of course, there is a work-around. It's quite common for us to choose… an assistant, of sorts. Patrons, we call them. A human with whom we bond, but don't turn. Someone who can get into a home and invite us in themselves.
VICTOR
So you force people to help you murder.
RUTHVEN
Oh, no, nothing like that. I mean, it can be done, but it's seen as a bit barbaric these days. Much easier to convince someone to agree of their own accord. Safer, too. You know, an involuntary patron is seventy-five percent more likely to go mad than one who knows exactly what they are signing up for. They help us, they get all sorts of fun little abilities in return.
HENRY
What kind of abilities?
RUTHVEN
Well, slower aging, the occasional--
CHRISTINE
[A little too quickly]
We're getting off topic. I take it you made Laura your patron.
RUTHVEN
Much more than that. While she was my patron, yes, I also acted as a mentor for her. I've been dabbling in magic for… oh, probably a hundred years now? A hundred ten? I agreed to teach her. A quick splash of blood in her bedroom, and she and I were free to work uninterrupted while the world wondered, and eventually stopped caring about what had happened to her.
VICTOR
So lemme guess. Now since she can't get her revenge on my mom, she figures I'm the next best thing.
RUTHVEN
That's certainly part of it, yes.
VICTOR
And what about the rest of it?
RUTHVEN
Now that, that's certainly a story.
[He leans in, the last of the artificial charm dripping away]
I am going to tell you the same thing I told your mother. You think that you have this world figured out. But there is so much more right under your nose that would break the last remaining shards of your mind if you so much as glimpsed them. You are just as arrogant as she was, and infinitely more useless. Believe me when I say that I know all about you, boy. You think you've conquered Death? Death is far closer than you could ever imagine.
HENRY
That's enough. C'mon guys, we're leaving.
RUTHVEN
Oh, I don't think so.
[There are some creepy magic sounds followed by heavy door locking]
VICTOR
I told you. I told you this was a bad idea.
HENRY
Not now.
RUTHVEN
Now, if you two would just kindly stand over there,
[There are more magic sounds, and Victor lets out a scared, muffled noise as Ruthven grabs him and holds a hand over his mouth]
This shouldn't take long.
CHRISTINE
Let him go!
RUTHVEN
[He laughs, almost baffled]
No?
CHRISTINE
This wasn't part of--
RUTHVEN
I don't think you're in a position to make demands, do you? And this, this is a beautifully executed "Fuck you" to Caroline. Always so protective of you. I saw you once, you know. Hardly three months old, fast asleep in your cot. Laura let me in, thought it would be fun to see her reaction to finding you drained and torn limb from limb. Better late than never, I suppose. Funny, really, how she went through all the trouble to--
[There are heavy kicks against the door]
RUTHVEN
Damn. That's unfortunate.
[Victor gasps as Ruthven lets him go]
Afraid we'll have to reschedule. Nice chat.
[There's one last Magic Sound and he vanishes just as the door is kicked in]
SCORNED
Shit! Where is he?
HENRY
He just-- Who the hell are--
SCORNED
Goddamn it!
ENLIGHTENED
We'll find him.
VICTOR
Wait, you--
SCORNED
I've been on this guy's ass for almost thirty years, I don't need the fake positivity right now. And who the hell are--
[A beat as she really looks at them, and her voice softens just a little]
Ah. Makes sense you three would be here, I guess. Sit down. Let's talk.