Spike Thesis: Chapter 4. Appearance and Habitat

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CHAPTER FOUR: Appearance and Habitat

The Psychology of "Spike"

Introduction

In the course of my studies, I have been able to observe one distinct pattern about William the Bloody, namely, that his appearance varies according to the environments he inhabits and the self-image he wishes to project. This is not altogether surprising. Survival through the ages depends on adaptation. Times change and vampires must evolve with them, if for no other reason than as a survival mechanism. However, over the course of an unnaturally long lifetime, this kind of evolution can be embraced conservatively, with reservations, or with joie de vivre and gusto. In the case of William the Bloody, it is the latter option that pertains.

William the Bloody's evolving appearance is tied closely into the ever-developing mythos of his personality. Moreover, as I shall show below, it is this evolving personality that is one of the "secrets" of his longevity and his success as a notorious slayer of Slayers. William uses his very appearance to fixate attention on his fame as a vampire who has bested Slayers, thus the deliberateness of his dress at this time. No wonder then that his appearance now is quite similar to the way he looked at the time he murdered his last Slayer, Nikki Wood. He believes it is his reputation as a slayer of Slayers that instills respect for him in other vampires and fear in the hearts of his enemies. For him, the clothes or outward appearance symbolize the man.

To show how his presentation of himself has evolved, I plan to present an account of William the Bloody's changing appearances and habitats in a unit organized historically. In this way, we can see how this notorious vampire's appearance and his reputation developed self-consciously over time.

For much of my information, I will rely on accounts of Watchers who have spotted him from time to time in various cities across the globe and demon hunters who have hunted him over the years - always unsuccessfully.

Section I: Two Sharp Points of Origin

There is some dispute in the literature over William's true age, although several mainstream sources place his genesis in the late 1700s. (1) Edwin Marsh, a highly influential scholar and Watcher, describes William thus in his Compendium of Vampiric lives (Marsh, 1977):

Spike: Known as William the Bloody. He earned his nickname by torturing his victims with railroad spikes. He is barely two hundred years old. Spike has fought two Slayers in the last century and killed them both. Do NOT allow his cherubic appearance to mislead you as to his deadly nature. This vampire is known to be particularly manipulative and he fights ruthlessly with no quarter given or taken, often combining his considerable skill with the latest available technology. He enjoys fighting most when the odds weigh heavily against him. He relishes boasting about his deeds to others. Above all, he is willing to do anything to please his consort, the raving Drusilla. (2)

Curiously, however, Marsh musters no evidence to support his conclusion that William is "barely 200 years old". The absence of evidence leads inevitably to the consideration that Marsh is relying on older authorities on this point, not on any first hand knowledge.

After extensive reviewing of the literature, I found a partial answer to this puzzle in a description that Aubrey Gareth provides of "William the Bloody" in the VIIth Volume of his Diary of a Watcher (Gareth, vol.7, 1932).

The vampire is attractive of countenance, with high cheekbones, light brown hair, and a thin and noble face. Yet his face belies his true nature, for he is known to be particularly manipulative and he fights ruthlessly with no quarter given or taken. Indeed, he appears to enjoy the fight most when the odds are entirely against him. He rarely loses an encounter. (3)

The use of the phrase, "[he] is known to be particularly manipulative and he fights ruthlessly with no quarter given or taken," in Gareth is the exact wording that later reappears, unattributed, in Marsh's Compendium of Vampiric Lives (Marsh, 1977 (4)). The repetition of this precise language, and then his paraphrase of the next line, surely no accident, confirms that Gareth is Marsh's main source on this point.

However, it is clear from Gareth's biographical dates, from 1890-1941, that he, himself, could have only encountered William sometime within the twentieth century. Marsh's description of William the Bloody in the 18th century bespeaks an earlier, more authoritative encounter. And so it is, after much research in dusty libraries and the scouring of filthy attics seeking manuscripts hidden in ancient trunks, I believe I have finally tracked down the original source for Aubrey Gareth's description of William the Bloody. And this, in turn, is the source of Marsh's "authoritative" dating of William the Bloody's siring by Angelus in the late 1700s.

Amongst the Annals of the Society of Demon Hunters (Anonymous , vol.11), I found the rumor of a fierce hunter named Holtz, prominent in the late 18th century throughout Europe and Britain. His hunting aide, Bertrand Childe, tells the tragic circumstances of Holtz's life, how Angelus and Darla slaughtered his wife and children, and turned his youngest daughter into a vampire (5). This is what fueled Holtz's personal hatred of Angelus and Darla, so that it became the ruling obsession of his life. Holtz himself writes as follows:

With the world around me now shrunken so that it was entirely dark and cold and joyless, I lived for one purpose alone. Daily and nightly, for months on end, I sought Angelus and Darla, a cat and mouse game of betrayal and flight. And, in Marseilles, in the year of our Lord 1767, by whose eternal grace I still toil, I tracked down the unholy pair through the excesses of their ill deeds and drew near to them once more. And then, at last, I snared them in my net. Yet, once again, through devilish machinations and their joyful betrayal of each other, they wriggled free, like two snakes slithering in the grass before escaping down some dank hole that no one else can discover. Nor did the Gendarmes who accompanied me, provided locally in the name of King Louis XVth, aid me in their recovery. They were ill trained, though much afraid of what we faced that night, I have no doubt.

Angelus and Darla were not alone that night in Marseilles. Angelus had by his side a young man of attractive countenance, high cheekbones, light brown hair, a thin and noble face, such that it was a tragedy, indeed, the man had been deformed to the vampiric state. Angelus taunted the man for loving his lady passionately, for she, too, like Darla, was fair. I make no doubt that these were recently turned vampires, mortal lovers fledged to their unholy state by Angelus and Darla as fodder to amuse and torture. Indeed, in the love and concern they still showed each other, traces of their mortal love lingered on, proving their extreme youth in vampire years. For it is against the nature of a vampire to love profoundly. Love is the sign of Our Lord, never of the devil's works. Amongst demons, love cannot be sustained, only eroded. (6)

It is the second paragraph that is of interest here. We see that Holtz's description of this male vampire in company with Angelus is paraphrased in Gareth's language. It is obvious that Gareth understood Holtz to be referring to William the Bloody and Drusilla. Note further that this is the first mention of a vampire couple sired by Angelus and Darla and in company with them. Can this be the first historical mention of William the Bloody and Drusilla? If it is, then Gareth and Marsh are proven correct in their assumption that William the Bloody is near two hundred years old.

To this, I answer a resounding no, as I now have access to two pieces of evidence that lead me to dispute Gareth and Marsh's conclusion in its entirety. In October 1997, Dr. Fliesning and I traveled to Yorkshire to visit the Reading estate. At Holtz's death, his young sister who had married into the Reading family inherited all of his affects. There, at the Reading estate, Dr. Fliesning persuaded the family to give us exclusive access to a trunk of Holtz's private papers. (7) By the merest good fortune, this contained private correspondence from Bertrand Childe to Holtz. Bertrand Childe was for a period of a few years, from 1766-1772, one of Holtz' adjutant demon hunters. 1772 is the year that Holtz disappeared, presumed slain by vampires and his body disposed of in some unsavory way. Holtz received some of Childe's letters and presumably answered them although we do not possess his responses. The latest letters in the series, however, were never opened, apparently because by the time they arrived, Holtz had already disappeared, his fate unknown. These last letters were preserved among his effects, their seal left intact, unopened until recently. They were sent back to England with the rest of Holtz' possessions in a leather bound trunk, which sat for 228 years in the Reading attic, covered by accumulating dust and debris.(8)

Childe writes from Naples in January 1772, where he pursued Darla after her escape from Rome with Angelus in 1771. To weaken their pursuers' forces, Darla and Angelus chose different roads, Darla went South while Angelus traveled North to Lake Como where he left a trail of carnage through the Italian Alps.(9) Their pursuers were forced to split their small troop in half, which weakened their effectiveness. Childe voyaged south where his small band soon lost Darla's trail. On a hunch, he ended up alone in Naples. And then, long after he had given up hope for his mission and was about to take ship for Dover, he ran into Darla by chance. In the interim, she made rendezvous with the young vampire couple she and Angelus had traveled with in Marseilles.

By the merest good fortune, I spotted my prey carousing through the market place one dark winter's day when the sun stayed hidden and the vampires had emerged early to wreak havoc in the city. She was with two others I recognized--a vampire couple I had seen five years ago, with you, my friend, in Marseilles. I followed carefully behind them until I saw the three of them enter a three-story house with curtains drawn. I spied on the house for hours from late afternoon to evening to night, but no one emerged. The next evening and the next, I tracked them on foot with the utmost care towards my own safety, changing my appearance both day and night so that they would not recognize me and applying various oils and fragrances to my person to disguise even my scent so they could not identify it on the air. Several times, I sat near by them in an inn as they imbibed alcohol and heard them call each other by name, Darla, James and Elizabeth.

Once I witnessed the trio commit murder, a horrible sight. But I was alone at that time and did not care to risk myself at those odds on a deserted lane. It would have meant my own certain death against all three. The police, when I contacted them both before and after the deed, proved both suspicious and superstitious, providing me with no help at all. I have attempted to locate Gibson and Smythe but they have not yet ridden to my aid. My only hope is to find the vampires venturing out on their own and so one by one, pick them off.

In a later letter, Childe adds:

I found a young artist here who draws a credible likeness. His straits are desperate, so he was easily persuaded to accompany me one evening as I tracked the vampires. Also, he did not realize his full danger. He made several good likenesses of them once they settled into a tavern. I include one of the sketches he made of the couple for your records to show you they match your recollection of the couple we first sighted five years ago. The artist seemed much impressed by Darla's looks. I worry for the poor man, as he seemed disinclined to believe what I told him of her doings. I believe he took it into his head that I was a scorned and jealous lover who would not leave the poor woman alone. (10) A romantic. I only hope his foolish notions do not cost him his life. (11)

It is evident from the text of these letters that its subject is not William the Bloody, but rather a young vampire called James. The man in the sketch is handsome with light brown hair and chiseled cheekbones, but it is not William's remarkable face in the charcoal drawing. (12) The look of the woman, too, is entirely different from Drusilla. Elizabeth is fair-haired where Drusilla is dark. Furthermore, there is no report that this vampire is mad or a seer.

Accordingly, this new evidence conclusively disproves Marsh and Gareth's theory that William is over 200 years old. Indeed, there is no confirmed sighting of William the Bloody until 108 years later, in 1880.(13) This is the notorious murder of an American entrepreneur, Mr. Bryan Ganning, and his British mistress, Mrs. Jenny Winston, that so rattled society of its time that it was discussed for weeks in the London newspapers.(14) William earned his moniker "Spike" at this time by driving railroad spikes through the brains of Ganning and Winston and leaving their corpses neatly arranged on the steps of Mrs. Winston's mansion, in plain sight of passersby, or for Mrs. Winston's husband to discover. From then on, we hear of the deeds of William the Bloody, or a vampire it seems reasonable to suppose is him, at fairly regular intervals. There is never a long hiatus between his deeds. Thus, in vampire years, his true age is most likely in the range of 118-140 years.

Section 2: Appearance and Habitat in 1880:

1. LONDON

As far as I can determine, then, 1880 is our first confirmed sighting of William the Bloody. He first comes to our attention from the accounts of his murders in London. It was only at this point that the Council was alerted to his presence. For the initial description of William, hazy as it is, we must rely on an eyewitness account from the Pall Mall Gazette.

"It was a queer thing" the one eyewitness to the murder told me. 'Mr. Ganning kept repeating, "But you are dead William. You're dead. Your funeral was last month. You cannot hurt me," to his assailant. The witness heard the assailant reply, "I am dead, you nit, but you'll find that won't stop me,' before he plunged the railroad stake he was brandishing into the head of Mr. Ganning. At this point, our witness leveled his revolver and attempted to shoot the assailant. Our witness has the reputation of an excellent marksman amongst veterans of 70th Foot, to which company he belonged for 10 years in India before resigning his commission. He himself believed he had struck the assailant in the heart or close to it. Yet despite this, the criminal left the scene of his crime, walking upright with only a slight blood trail behind him. Inexplicably, the trail ceased abruptly, and the dogs sent to track him were unable to do so after 30 paces or so. When questioned further about the appearance of the criminal, the witness replied that it was a dark night, moonless, and the street was only dimly lit by gaslight, so his impression was imprecise. To the best of his recollection, the assailant was of a slight figure, dressed in a dark, conservative suit of funereal appearance, possessed middle-length hair, a large head somewhat out of proportion to his body, and a long, angular face. Our witness further spotted two accomplices whom he believed were posted as lookouts. After the two murders were accomplished, they cheered riotously. Shockingly, he recognized one of the voices as feminine, undoubtedly belonging to a depraved and corrupted member of the fairer sex. (15)

It was only at this point that the Council was alerted to the possibility of a dangerous, new vampire operating in London. As the Slayer, then of Russian origins, was busy operating in the Ural Mountains, the Council dispatched a team of three trained Field Watchers to investigate the situation. The members of this team were Edmund Berke, Nigel Robertson and Jerome O'Connor.

Several nights later at the burial ground of Mr. Ganning, they were able to pick up William's trail when he proved careless, seemingly unaware he was being pursued. From this cemetery at London's outskirts, they were able to track him back to his "lair," which turned out to be a three story private residence in Berkeley Square.

At this moment, the three trackers realized that the vampire they were following was a heretofore undocumented member of Angelus' gang. Indeed, this was the first notice they had that Angelus' band was once again operating in London. At this point, the three Council men declined to continue acting without reinforcements, as they found themselves outnumbered both in strength and in number. When their reinforcements arrived hours later, not during the daylight as they had requested, but at night (16), they prepared an ambush to destroy the gang. In this goal, they failed utterly, but they did succeed in driving the vampires out of London, an action that won them some praise and later censure as Angelus' gang blazed a trail of torture, gore and murder across England.

One of the Field Watchers, Edmund Berke, left us his account of the affair.

The six of us broke into the house in Berkeley Square early that evening, just at twilight. We found Angelus' crew holed up together, this time in luxury at a private three-story house. We later learned that the house's proper residents, the Westmarch's, a young couple, the man only recently graduated from Oxford and a member of the literary set there, had only left London the previous week to travel abroad for several months. The Westmarch's had not alerted their neighbors to their proposed absence and no one had yet noticed the irregularity of the vampires trespassing at their home. It was a question to our minds how the vampires had learned the house was empty so quickly.

The residence, a fine house in the Georgian style with large windows and late Regency furniture and pre-Raphaelite art displayed upon the walls, was slowly being ruined by the vampires' proclivities. At the very least, we were able to arrest that heedless destruction of exquisite property.

When we entered the house, we came immediately upon a corpse of a housemaid, drained of blood, lying on the floor of the salon, her throat and other, more private parts of her body viciously mauled with various bite marks. Upstairs, the vampires were but stirring for their "day" so we were able to surprise them. But they were quick and fought well together.

We were astonished to hear the one named William speak in an Oxford accent, although one laced with gutter profanity. His attire was disheveled due to his haste at dressing, but as reported in the Pall Mall story, he wore a black suit and waistcoat and a white shirt all of which appeared to belong to him, as they looked as though they had been made to fit his slim figure. It may very well have been his funeral attire. So, too, the vampire seemed young. He was more than willing to fight, indeed he gloried in combat, but he did not yet possess martial skill anywhere near to equal Angelus, for which I thank God, as he held me once in his grip, yet I was able to escape.

By the grace of God, we did succeed in driving them ignominiously from the house without any of their possessions, which fact displeased Angelus exceedingly, to judge by the words he directed at his new accomplice William. And thence we drove them from London. Yet, we were unable to vanquish them, for which fact we received much censure from the Council the following day, despite our exhausted and depleted state, as Nigel Robertson perished during our ambush, a fact we will rue in the days ahead. May God have Mercy on his Soul. (17)

Unfortunately, Berke, a typical Victorian male, seemed to care more for the property belonging to the Westmarch's than for providing a physical description of his prey, William the Bloody. In fact, we learn more from the "ill-observed" viewing by gaslight of our eyewitness than from our Watcher. Perhaps he simply had the house in his sights longer than he did William. Yet it is a shame that he did not furnish more detail, as the description of William the Bloody departs from this point onward as his 'myth of self' begins its genesis.

2. YORKSHIRE

In London, we have two descriptions of William the Bloody dressing and speaking as befit a man of the upper classes. In Yorkshire, we have a report of a male vampire in Angelus' cohort named Spike dressing and speaking in quite a different manner. When and how did this transition occur?

In fact, little enough is known about William the Bloody's time in Yorkshire, but the story of his depredations from London to Yorkshire, as I have worked it out, is telling.

There are three reports of a male vampire operating alone or with members of Angelus' crew. In all cases, his activities move constantly north from London in March to Yorkshire in June. The physical descriptions are scanty but the behavior, when analyzed, indicates a character in transition in a constant trajectory. The following three descriptions were collected from newspaper accounts and police reports.

1) On April 1st in Gloucester, Gloucestershire: At the Men at Arms Pub a brawl broke out last night leading to loss of life. The assailants, two men, finely dressed, one speaking in an Irish accent, the other an educated English accent, provoked a fight. As the Irishman, the taller and stouter of the two, slunk down an alley, the other man, younger and shorter, with light brown hair continued to fight at great odds. The body of Mr. Kent Allard, seemingly on his way to the pub as per his nightly routine, was later found grievously murdered, his throat mauled. The Irish man is suspected of the murder. (18)

2) On April 14th in Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire: Two murders occurred last night in a house in Stratford upon Avon. Mrs. Cotton, 37 and her son, James, 12, were slain. Her daughter, Mary, 10 years old, disappeared and is believed kidnapped for nefarious purposes by the assailant. The woman's body was slashed and bitten. The son's neck was broken and there were curious marks on his neck as well. A mile from the scene, one Mrs. Edwards reported seeing a slight man in dark clothes dragging a girl south, cursing loudly at the girl in terrible language in a working class accent. She recognized neither of them. And, as she was alone at the time, she did not pursue the matter then but sat awake and shivering all the night. The next morning, after her milkman arrived at her house, he accompanied her with two small barking dogs in tow, to report on the matter promptly. As this was the first murder in a decade, the police immediately sent out a squadron of men to scour the neighborhood.(19)

3) May 13th, the village of Froggatt, Derbyshire: A stranger caused a near riot yesterday at the village pub. The stranger possessed an aggressive tongue, ill-kempt light brown hair, jutting cheekbones and a hungry look. Twisting his face until it was deformed, he bit one man who came at him deeply in the neck and drew blood that he appeared to drink. Only then did he flee the district on horseback before the police mustered a force to capture him. Those who witnessed the event think him insane. The man he bit later died from loss of blood.(20)

All of this fits the data describing the behavior of a new fledged vampire first learning the hunt. He goes out first in company with his sire or other members of his family, and then he is sent to hunt on his own. Here, William was sent out in relatively easy territory, where it was easy for him to succeed.

Our second confirmed viewing of William the Bloody in 1880 takes place in Yorkshire, when Angelus' gang was still in retreat from their forced exit from London. Here, hiding from mild pursuit across the heart of England and hard on their luck, they inhabited not a fine mansion in a beautiful square, but the clammy depths of a despoiled mineshaft. It is unclear how long they resided there, though time constraints suggest at most a period of three weeks. Insofar as it is known, this is consistent with Angelus' modus operandi. Daily travel while being pursued, and when the pressure eases off, he and his family live for a period of days or months in the best residence that will house them with impunity. In Yorkshire, this proved to be a mineshaft.

Reports reached the Council by telegraph from Danny Blythe, our man in Edinburgh, that there was heightened vampire activity in Yorkshire. He traveled south to Newcastle to set a hunting party in motion for our arrival. . . It took us some days to figure out the identity of the vampires. It was not until we came across a scene of such sickening depredation and artful sadism that we knew it was a question of Angelus and Darla. They had fled north and not to the continent as we had hoped. Still, there were differences here from Angelus' normal style. He liked his villainous ways kept quiet, to leave him to wreak his havoc undisturbed for as long as possible. Yet in this case, one of his party seemed intent on trumpeting their evil doings loudly as a provocation, to arouse the ire of the townsfolk against them. It was then that we understood there was a new member in Angelus' party, not a mere minion, as per his wont, but a male vampire set on challenging him, hoping perhaps, like a young lion, to vanquish his sire and gain ascendancy.

It was not until several days later that we caught sight of our new prey in a pub that Blythe led us to in a working class district of York. Physically, he was more slightly built than Angelus, with honey brown hair that fell forward into his face, slovenly and unkempt. His working man's gear was dirty and ripped. His speech was rough. Yet even so, his looks and presence radiated great energy, enough so that many eyes in the pub, both female and male were riveted on him. As he tossed off beers one after another, he attempted to seduce to his side a young woman, likely a prostitute, introducing himself as Spike. The man she came in with, who had treated her poorly, soon took great offense. By then we had the place surrounded with our men but before we intervened in a competition over a whore--we thought it not worth our lives--a fight began in the bar. We then rushed forward, but he still managed to escape by jumping through a window, knocking one guard posted outside ten feet into the air and rendering him unconscious and snapping the neck of another who came at him, laughing in glee. He dragged the woman with him through the glass. By then she was cut and bleeding and began to scream in fright. Yet he tossed her up on a horse and carried her before him on horseback, his hand across her mouth enforcing her silence.

He grew weary of her noise and her struggles, evidently, for some miles from town, we came across her discarded body on the road. Though it was clear enough he had wanted her originally for other work and she had looked willing to comply, her neck was snapped and he had fed right before or after he killed her. We tracked him further and discovered the proximate location where he and Angelus' gang were hiding in the mines. We made entry the next morning with a larger retinue of men. But as we had feared by then the four had fled the area, leaving behind much of their goods stolen from victims during their time in Yorkshire. I pray God they took ship from Newcastle or Whitley Bay to Calais. Let the French deal with them for a little while. We have been cursed by their presence long enough. (21)

We can detect even in these brief descriptions that the year 1880 was pivotal for William the Bloody as he began to devolve into the persona of Spike. He traded in the dandified accomplishments and innate self-restraint of certain segments of Victorian "gentility" for the more immediate masculinity, intrinsic sexuality and rough and tumble power associated in his mind with men of the working class. He evidently felt freer or more comfortable unleashing his vampiric fighting strength and sexual competitiveness while miming the accents of the working class. Yet he held on to vestiges of his cultured persona as well which surfaced at odd moments. Many years later, Spike still spoke German with Oxford trained inflexions. (22)

To my mind this suggests that William was sired in 1880 and working class "Spike" was the first personality he cultivated. Spike, with his working class proclivities, was a way to empower himself to cross lines which belonged to the morality of his own class, but which (unconsciously, to his mind) did not concern the working class. I recognize this remains speculative on my part, although much of the evidence from the journals supports this hypothesis as well. I have not yet succeeded in proving this conclusively.

After 1880, there are scattered reports here and there of Spike's activities, but they are always brief with scanty descriptions. Indeed, William the Bloody appeared to be working towards a goal--greater and greater confidence and fighting ability--and it was not until he killed the Chinese Slayer, when this goal was attained, that once again we can note a marked change in his appearance and his proclivities.

3. 1900: SHAANXI PROVINCE, CHINA

It has long been known among Watchers that there were several causes for the Boxer Rebellion. The conventional cause is political, that the West was forcing its hegemony on to China and that China rebelled, calling the foreigners devils not for religious reasons, as they protested, but for understandable political and economic ones. Another explanation is known only to the Watchers and those historians and mystics with access to the secret files of the "The Righteous and Harmonious Fists," known in the West as "the Boxers."

In the years 1897-1900, there was a documented exodus of vampires from Europe and the American continents to China for the purposes of fomenting an apocalypse.(23) Consider the fact that in those years the Slayer, Chen Ma, was herself Chinese, chosen in that place in the world that faced the greatest threat from the forces of darkness. So, too, was her successor, T'su Tan who survived only a few months, but long enough to vanquish the threat faced by her generation.

One first hand account of this threat is still extant written by a member of the secret society of the Righteous Fist named Ch'i-Hao Pang. He survived the European repercussions that started in late 1900 by securing himself for a time in a Buddhist monastery and becoming a Zen master.

They say now we called the foreigners devils to oust them from this land, that we were wrong to kill them like the vermin and miscreants they are, that we are ignorant peasants who know nothing of the world. What do they know, these brave men who speak to us across the span of the world to force their barbarian laws upon us? These foreigners wear two faces to hide their evil nature from the world. I have seen these devils in the flesh, cavorting in the moonlight after a fresh kill, their mouths dripping with the red blood of my family and friends, their faces twisted and deformed, their eyes in the dark like unto that of the animals, glinting and alight with fire. I know these devils exist. The foreign rulers extort money from us only to hide their shame from the world. We have stopped their evil plans now at the cost of many lives. But one day, one hundred years hence, when they are stronger and more confidant, they will make the sun cease to shine so that it is entirely night. Then they will bare these faces to the world. They will make all the world to die. This I know is true, I have seen it in a vision. (24)

There were few Watchers on the scene during the Boxer Rebellion. As foreigners, they made obvious targets. Moreover, the Watchers' accounts are scanty due to the destruction wrought during the Rebellion and its aftermath, wholesale pillaging of property, fires set throughout Shaanxi province and the death of two Slayers. However, it is well known that Spike killed Chen Ma during the middle of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.(25) Sir Nicholas Brisby has documented this for us in elegiac fashion, as his last service to his Slayer, Chen Ma. To his sorrow, he was not present with her at her last, fateful encounter, but he did witness one earlier skirmish. It is from him we learn of William the Bloody's appearance at that time.

Tuesday, May 11th, 1900:

On Friday last, Chen Ma informed me that she had spotted a vampire surveying her. She had not seen him clearly, but sensed his presence throughout the night following her, observing her movements. And she herself was too preoccupied in retrieving the Hu Mosh amulet (26) needed for the ritual to bring about the apocalypse to track him then. She sensed him again the next night, watching as she fought and killed three other vampires who ambushed her in a dark alleyway. Surprisingly, he called out, "Well done, pet," before sauntering away. Chen Ma did not feel at full strength just then, after her fight, and with a deep wound on her arm, so she let the matter lie once again. Finally, tonight, Tuesday, May 10th, with me accompanying on her patrol, battle was joined between the two. From her brief account on previous nights, I had assumed that this was merely one of the many vampires here for the apocalypse. But now I wonder. His mindset seemed distinct, far too much of an individualist to be a member of the Nerovian line who are the main force here hoping to foment the apocalypse. Yet for a vampire to seek out and challenge a Slayer mano a mano for his own thrill is unheard of. How else to account for it though, I do not know? Perhaps he is a mercenary hired by the Nerovian line, who are intent on bringing this apocalypse? I must research further.

In fighting technique, I thought him a poor match for Chen Ma who is perhaps the supreme weapon's master among Slayers of all times. His punches, throws and other moves were often quite sloppy, coming wide off the mark and wild on several occasions, though he landed them well. It was clear he had never been trained to fight before being turned into a vampire; else his technique would be more sophisticated now. In fighting style, he is an opportunist with street fighting skills. He cannot wield either blade or stake with her artistry, force or precision. It relieves me much to know this. She'll dispose of this minor annoyance soon, I hope. His lack of fighting finesse provides her great opportunity.

In manner, he was provocative, speaking several times during the fight to unsettle her, lacing his words with sexual badinage. She stayed stony faced and did not reply for the most part. Although once or twice I, who know her well, could see he seared a nerve. And through his spying on her, he seems to have discovered her secret shame, the one thing that overbalances her mind when she has the entire weight of the world resting on her shoulders right now. That is, her mother's casting her off and vilifying her character, since she will not conform to her mother's desire that she give up her "frivolous games" as her mother terms her calling to marry a man of similar high birth to her own. Chen Ma knows her own destiny is unique and profound, but tradition weighs much with her and she has not been able to escape the mental confines of her background entirely. I sense so much resignation from her lately. It worries me.

In looks, I found the vampire hideous. He fought the entire time in game face, with his feral eyes lit like those of a man-eating tiger or a rabid dog. He was dressed as a worker, not in clothes of the aristocracy or the moneyed classes as so many vampires effect. His hair was light brown and ill kempt. His frame is light, though he is still taller than Chen Ma. Except for his foolhardiness in pursuing the Slayer and in his perseverance in learning her secrets to unman her during the fight, both of which are noteworthy, he seems unremarkable.

He spoke in a dreadful North London cant. I could place it exactly myself only because we once had some servants who spoke thus.

He managed to escape this night only because she threw him across the alleyway and before she could move in for the kill, a horrible sound of people screaming and in pain arose. We thought it best to aid those still living and in distress rather than to take more time to finish off this one annoying vampire.

. . . Saturday May 14th: Last night my poor Chen Ma died. I found her body this morning heaped on the floor, two incisor marks deep in her neck. The wound was bloodless. He has done her to death and consumed her essence. My mind is overturned, I feel such shock and grief. I advised her so ill.

. . . Sunday, May 15th: We buried her today. I have not the words.

. . . Monday, May 16th: Who is chosen now I cannot bear to think. My poor daughter Chen Ma with all her nobility of soul is gone.

. . . Tuesday, May 17th: I failed her. I did not recognize the threat this vampire represented. It must have been he.

. . . Wednesday May 18th: Quite by chance, I have learned something of the vampire who hounded poor Chen Ma to her death. I spotted him last night accompanying two vampiresses, one of whom I recognized from a photo as the notorious Darla. The other one was a dark haired female with long tresses. I made to follow and heard them refer to him familiarly as Spike, laughing aloud that he had done in a Slayer. As I suspected, it was he. He openly fondled the breast of the dark haired vampiress as they strolled and whispered and laughed--turning her head to kiss her, holding her tight by the waist. She was greedy to respond to his advances. And, in a mad parody of Victorian manners, he was over solicitous of everything she craved, a knight to his lady.

I must discover her name. I do remember reading of an Aurelian couple in company with Darla and Angelus 100 years ago, both sired I believe, by Angelus. Were they still together it would be unique among vampires, but not impossible. I note for instance that Angelus is nowhere in evidence near Darla. Let us pray God he is dead and dusted.

I followed the three of them until they entered their abode. They are staying all together in an unremarkable Chinese style house. Darla was dressed tonight in traditional Chinese garments, as though she had gone native, well as native as a vampiress can be.

Spike looked quite different when not in game face. Young and I daresay handsome were it not for his accent and the wreckage of his clothing. He had an eager look about his eyes and a newfound confidence that I knew came from killing Chen Ma. He radiated power from drinking her blood. How I loathe him. He deserves death if ever an unnatural creature on this earth does.

Astonishingly, I heard him address a young lad in Chinese, in which language he sounded utterly different than in English, far more cultivated. The voice unsettled me, taking me back to a distant memory of Oxford, although why I cannot say.(27) I wish I had used my stake on him, even had it meant my own death at the hands of the other two. I would have gone to my rest in peace, justice served for my girl.

. . . Thursday, May 19th: I have laid an ambush with monks of the Shaolin monastery to exterminate the vampires. If only this accursed uprising by the I-Ho Chuan did not make my movements throughout Tientsin so much more difficult. Thank God, I have the ability to disguise myself as well as any actor and to speak perfect Chinese

. . . Saturday, May 21st: It is done. That is, they are routed, not dusted or burned or beheaded or tortured as I wished. But at least this place is free of them.

. . . Sunday, May 22nd: I learned today of the identity of the new Slayer. T'su Tan. She, too, is Chinese, this time from Peking. I will be her Watcher until the Council can send someone else. I do not think I can bear to watch another warrior of the people die so young and alone and unloved, with the accumulated evil of the world darkening her bright spirit until she succumbs. (28)

What do we learn here about the history of William the Bloody? Spike still spoke in a dreadful North London accent, but in a non-combatant and non-aggressive situation, when speaking in foreign languages unknown to his companions; he did not feel compelled to project his persona in a lower class accent. He did continue to affect dressing in workmen's clothing, particularly for his fights. It is this constructed personality, which allowed him to attain one goal he sought; to reach the peak of vampiric ambition, as he saw it, to become the slayer of a Slayer. Moreover, it is in his first combat with a Slayer that we see him aware that her own grinding despair could be used as a weapon against her. Spike's enthusiasm for a fight at difficult odds remains constant and his fighting technique, though no doubt it had improved over the years, was still very far from master level.

At some point between 1880 and 1900, Spike's liaison with Drusilla was consummated. Drusilla's attentions required a different touch, so he acted a different role for her. To suit her, he played the lover in a vampiric parody of a knight from Tennyson treating with his queenly lover. This demonstrates a certain literary education. But this role also demanded the enactment of a virility from him that he seems most comfortable projecting as part of his "lower class" mythos.

Once Spike attained these two goals, he did not return to some core self, but cloaked himself more fully within the mantel of his constructed persona, suggesting that as a vampire he viewed his human self with distaste. This mantel served him well. Elsewhere I discuss some of William the Bloody's activities from 1900 through 1970, the next key year in the evolution of his personality. Through all his time, he lived well, and in 1977 he achieved his next "great" ambition, the death of the New York Slayer, Nikki Wood.

4. 1977: NEW YORK CITY

As I mention in the section on William the Bloody's musical tastes, in 1970, he and Drusilla surfaced in New York, specifically in the East Village, where there was a plethora of decaying housing occupied by squatters. This neighborhood provided two assets not to be overlooked, easy digs and easy victims. Beyond the fact that he inhabited this neighborhood, William the Bloody's personal habitat was never known in his East Village period, but there is a presumption that together he and Drusilla took over some squalid space. They did have a glut of minions at this time, so it is feasible they employed the minions in decorating their living quarters to please Drusilla's fickle tastes. I am reliably informed that Spike was far less particular about the places he inhabited. (29) In any case, he and Drusilla appeared in Paris some weeks after he slaughtered Nikki Wood. (30)

1977 was pivotal to the evolution of Spike's appearance because in it he changed two features that have since become his recognizable trademarks. The first was he acquired the Billy Idol look, with platinum blond hair. (31) The second was his trademark black attire, complete with black leather duster snatched from the back of Nikki Wood. In my chapter on "Known Information," I discuss the series of events that led to Nikki Wood's precipitate death. In particular, Mr. Bernard Crowley reports that having recently suffered the death of a boyfriend, Nikki felt quite upset, was not herself and was less amenable to his advice than usual. He has attested in his diary that he believed William the Bloody may have sensed this in his time tailing her on the subway and throughout the city before he came to her attention.

He chose to attack her at a vulnerable point in her life. He must have realized it. Her sadness was quite evident. She wore it like a glove, out in the open for all to see. That's why I urged her not to fight him at this time, with his reputation for danger. The fact that she did not listen to me, when normally she was so judicious in taking advice, proves to me she felt particularly depressed and overly reckless. Death may have beckoned to her that night as a solace. (32)

Nikki's body was found in an empty subway car, stripped of the duster she always wore. Only weeks afterward Spike was observed in Paris by Bernard Crowley sporting this duster with his hair cut short and dyed peroxide blond. Since this is the "costume" Spike wore when he reached the pinnacle of his success, the one vampire known to history to have slain two formidable Slayers, (33), he has chosen to freeze his self-presentation at this moment, so those who see him can read his reputation plainly in his external garb. He has chosen to present to the world a narrative of self and he wears it upon his back for all to see. In this gesture is embodied much about the duality of William the Bloody/Spike. His external appearance is his calling card to the world, embodying the reputation he has built over the years. The presentation is so dramatic that it takes time to realize he wears it literally to mantel the inner self, the core personality that his life as a vampire aims to annihilate.

And therein we sense the disjunction between the two selves. He loves the self he has constructed for himself, and despises his human self, suggesting that a great deal of the grandiosity of his life as a vampire is an attempt to eradicate the poor self esteem and unrealized ambitions that belonged to his human self. This dichotomy, by the way, is unique to Spike. The personalities of Angelus, Darla and Drusilla each show far more continuity with their human selves than does William. But because he has not corrupted his own core personality, but instead built a new one from stolen cloth, this provides us some insight into the reason that Spike's humanity is more persistent at surfacing at odd moments than that of his family or of vampires in general.

NOTES

(1) See Aubrey Gareth, Diary of a Watcher, Vol. 7, pps. 153-159, CoW, London 1932; Sir Nicholas Brisby, A Watcher's Diary. Unpublished, 1874-1902, Vol. 5, pps. 347-359; Emile de Mariposa, The Family of Aurelius, Volumes 1-3 "The Master-Ness" and Volume 6 "Darla and Angelus", Stoker Press, London: Council of Watchers internal monographs, 1902-1923, pps. 666-669; unpublished. John Wyndham, A Watcher's Diary, Unpublished, 1898-1914; Edwin Marsh, A Compendium of Vampiric Lives, p. 315, Stoker Press, London 1977.

(2) Marsh, Vampiric Lives, p. 315.

(3) Gareth, Diary of a Watcher, p. 156.

(4) It is well known among scholars that unattributed quotations from earlier works often appear in Marsh's work. One "explanation" for this breach of scholarly etiquette is that the man was killed by vampires before he had time to complete the final edition.

(5) As a young man, Childe was a first hand witness to the fact that Holtz comforted his young daughter all night long at the death of her mother even after he discovered she was a vampire. And then, the next morning, he himself drove his young daughter out in the sunlight to be dusted. From that point on, Childe tells us, Holtz was a changed man, near driven mad by grief and lust for revenge. Bertrand Childe, The Devils' Executioner, Sightings and Slayings, University Press, Cambridge 1822, p. 13

(6) Holtz, "Private Papers" in Annals of the Society of Demon Hunters, XVIIIth Century, Vol. 11, p. 115- 137, CoW.

(7) Dr. Fliesning succeeded in persuading the family despite the hefty financial incentive provided by a team of American lawyers from Los Angeles whose librarian wanted the papers to complete their collection of esoterica on Angelus.

(8) By permission, Dr. Fliesning is currently preparing a monograph of these papers for publication within the Council.

(9) In his journal, Holtz mentions that after reading in the newspaper an account of these deaths, he offered his services to the local police only to be informed in return that these were revenge killings, made with a special double bladed stiletto, unique to the region.

(10) Childe seems to have been correct in his assessment of the artist whose name he never mentions, for he writes in a letter dated to February that he found the man murdered in his own garret, his throat mauled by vampire fangs, his corpse drained of blood.

(11) Bertrand Childe, Letters to Holtz, Unpublished.

(12) A copy of this sketch has been appended at the end of this thesis.

(13) Smith-Cato's claim that the other case of death by "railroad spike" in 1850s Marseilles was William the Bloody's first appearance has long been discredited. See Smith-Cato, Bryce. A Watcher's Diary. Unpublished, 1849-1889, p. 433, and the rebuttal to this in Marsh, Vampiric Lives, p. 315. Marsh proves that it was a vampire named Harvey who was responsible for that gruesome death.

(14) See the London Times and the Pall Mall Gazette from March 15- May 2. Both feature an extraordinary run of articles on the vicious criminal classes in London inspired by the railroad spike murder.

(15) Pall Mall Gazette, p. 2, March 20th, 1880.

(16) Berke relates elsewhere that the Council had some trouble putting together an adequate fighting party to combat Angelus' gang. This information only came out later, and he used it to achieve his full reinstatement within the Council after several months of demotion and disgrace for his failure to destroy Angelus' band.

(17) Edmund Berke, Accounts from the Field, 1878-1881, CoW, London 1882, p. 117.

(18) Jerome O'Connor, Vampire Case Files throughout Great Britain, 1875-1885, CoW Publishing, London 1888, p. 147.

(19) Vampire Case Files, p. 153. In his notes, O'Connor notes that Mary's body was recovered a week later at some remove from Stratford-upon-Avon, raped and murdered.

(20) Police files, Village of Froggatt, May 1880.

(21) Edward Gates, Water's Council Correspondence, Unpublished, 1880-1881, p. 132.

(22) The Letters of Louise Brooks, p. See page ???.above or below of my thesis.

(23) Hermione Questor, Centarian and Millennial Apocalyptic Movements, CoW Publishing, London 1955, CoW, p. 356.

(24) Ch'i-Hao Pang, A Monograph from the Secret Order of the Righteous Fists, trans. John Wyndham-Price, Unpublished, 1902, p. 13.

(25) Sir Nicholas Brisby, "The Death of Chen Ma," in Slayer Death Reports, CoW,London 1914, p. 211.

(26) Questor, Centarian and Millennial Apocalyptic Movements, p. 370. Questor provides a description of the Hu Mosh amulet, a bronze amulet in the shape of a scroll, which looks of little value from the outside. It can only be opened by a magical incantation, � Br�h Ke' Dab R�h. Inside, the text is written in 3rd century R�-sh� script and describes the ritual to bring on the apocalypse.

(27) If my speculative date of 1880 for the turning of William the Bloody is correct which I discuss above, this would make Sir Nicholas and Spike near contemporaries. Sir Nicholas turned 48 in 1900. I estimate that Spike was in his mid to late 20s at the time of his death. It is quite possible they knew each other at Oxford.

(28) Sir Nicholas Brisby, Personal Diary of Sir Nicholas Brisby, 1900, CoW, p. 68.

(29) From a personal conversation with Mr. Rupert Giles, who is the Watcher in Sunnydale where Spike currently resides.

(30) Martha Landau, Drusilla, the Dark Queen, CoW Publishing, London 1983, p. 115.

(31) Actually there are several reputable scholars who insist that Billy Idol acquired the look from Spike. This is does make more sense when one considers the dates. Billy Idol was only born in 1955, in 1977 he was barely 22. It is quite possible that he may at some point, in England or later, have come across Wicked Wills and borrowed the look.

(32) Bernard Crowley, A Watcher's Diary, CoW, 1970-1981.

(33) Vampires discriminate between those who kill relatively recent and unknown Slayers, such as Drusilla's slaying of Kendra, thought of as an easy kill, and those who have done in Slayers who have reached the pinnacles of their careers and are universally feared by the demon underworld. See Landau, "Drusilla, the Dark Queen, p. 143ff for more discussion of this theme.